EFE – Translating Cuba

Canada Allocates Another Four Million US Dollars in Humanitarian Aid to Cuba

Part of the resources will be used to support the healthcare network and food distribution.

Authorities added that they continue to closely monitor the situation on the island. / Facebook/Embassy of Canada in Cuba

EFE (via 14ymedio), Toronto, April 17, 2026 / Canada announced on Friday a new allocation of 5.5 million Canadian dollars – about four million US dollars – to address urgent needs in Cuba, especially for medicines, food and medical supplies.

According to a statement released by the Canadian government, five million Canadian dollars will be given to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to “protect the health and well-being of vulnerable populations in Cuba.”

The aid, according to Ottawa, seeks to improve the availability of and access to essential health services, critical medicines and other medical supplies, as well as strengthen supply chains and support both primary care and specialty care hospitals on the Island.

The Canadian government specified that these funds will also serve to support essential logistics and cover fuel needs.

The remaining 500,000 Canadian dollars will be allocated to the World Food Programme (WFP) for food assistance. The Canadian government specified that these funds will also support essential logistics and cover fuel needs related to the humanitarian response.

Authorities added that they continue to closely monitor the situation in Cuba to “assess and respond to evolving needs.”

The new contribution adds to another eight million Canadian dollars delivered at the end of February to the WFP and UNICEF for the purchase of food.

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Proposes a Declaration Against Military Intervention in Cuba

Speaking to progressive leaders gathered at the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy in Barcelona, the Mexican president reaffirmed her country’s diplomatic tradition.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. / EFE/Jorge Núñez

EFE (via 14ymedio), Barceona, April 18, 2026 / Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced this Saturday — in her opening speech at the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy being held in Barcelona — that she wants to propose a declaration against military intervention in Cuba.

“I want to propose a declaration against military intervention in Cuba. May dialogue and peace prevail,” said the Mexican president in her opening remarks at the summit in Barcelona, which was attended by progressive leaders from around the world.

The President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sánchez, and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, are bringing together a dozen progressive leaders in Barcelona to defend democracy. Among them, in addition to Sheinbaum, are the presidents of Colombia, South Africa and Uruguay, as well as representatives of other progressive governments.

Sheinbaum questioned a freedom that involves submitting to “external interests” or “turning nations into modern colonies.”

Sheinbaum asserted that Mexico “has been able to uphold its principles even in solitude” and “that it raised its voice against the blockade of Cuba in 1962 when others remained silent.”

“To this day, we believe, speaking of that small Caribbean island, that no people is small, but rather great and stoic when it defends its sovereignty and the right to a full life,” she added.

In a speech in which she proudly highlighted some milestones in Mexican history, including the 2024 election of the first female president, Sheinbaum emphasized that Mexico’s constitutional principles in foreign policy are “more alive than ever” on the world stage today.

Among them she cited respect for the self-determination of peoples, non-intervention, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the rejection of the use of force, the legal equality of states and the permanent struggle for peace.

The president questioned a freedom that implies submitting to “external interests” or “turning nations into modern colonies” and argued that freedom “is an empty word if it is not accompanied by social justice, sovereignty and the dignity of peoples.”

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A Cuban Man and Others Deported by the U.S. to Eswatini Will Have the Right to a Lawyer

Roberto Mosquera del Peral, who had served a sentence for homicide in Miami, was sent to that African country last summer

In October 2025, the Cuban’s lawyer said her client had begun a hunger strike to protest his detention. / DHS

EFE / 14ymedio, Nairobi / Madrid, April 11, 2026 – The Supreme Court of Eswatini, the former Swaziland, ruled in favor of four of the migrants deported by the United States to that small African kingdom and recognized their right to meet with a lawyer, after spending nine months without in-person access to legal assistance. Among them is the Cuban Roberto Mosquera del Peral, sent to the country last summer as part of the new policy of expulsions to third states promoted by the Trump administration.

The court’s decision confirms an earlier ruling by a lower court, which had been challenged by the Eswatini government. The case refers to the first group of deportees that Washington sent to Eswatini in July 2025: initially there were five men, although one of them was later repatriated.

The judicial resolution does not end the case nor immediately improve the underlying situation of the deportees, but it does represent a defeat for the Eswatini executive, which had argued that those men did not have the right to a defense because, formally, they were not detained nor had they been charged with any crime in the country. It also claimed that they did not wish to meet with the local lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, who acts on behalf of the attorneys representing them from the United States and who until now had only been able to speak with them by phone.

Amnesty International (AI) welcomed the ruling, although it warned that the main problem remains unchanged. “The Supreme Court’s ruling represents an important step in defending the right to access a lawyer for people who have been illegally transferred by the U.S. to Eswatini,” said Vongai Chikwanda, regional deputy director of the organization for East and Southern Africa.

“No one should be transferred to a country in violation of international law guarantees, only to then be secretly detained without a clear legal process”

The NGO, however, stressed that access to a lawyer does not correct the most serious violations reported for months. According to AI, these transfers are part of an abusive practice that leaves deportees trapped in continue reading

countries with which they have no connection, without a clear judicial process, and without guarantees against a new expulsion.

“No one should be transferred to a country in violation of international law guarantees, only to then be secretly detained without a clear legal process, without access to lawyers, and without protection against a subsequent illegal expulsion,” the organization insisted.

The case of Mosquera del Peral illustrates this policy. The Cuban man had served a sentence for homicide in Miami and was one of the individuals sent by Washington to Eswatini after his country of origin, like others, refused to accept him. He traveled with nationals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, and Yemen. Over the months, the number of deportees transferred to that African kingdom grew to at least fifteen people, although two of them have already been returned to their countries, Jamaica and Cambodia.

Last October, Mosquera’s lawyer, Alma David, reported that the Cuban had been held for more than three months without charges in the maximum-security prison of Matsapha, in Eswatini. The attorney said at the time that her client had begun a hunger strike to protest his detention and warned that his life was in danger, while demanding that he be allowed access to a lawyer in that African country.

Washington agreed to pay 5.1 million dollars to the Eswatini government, as acknowledged by the kingdom’s authorities

According to complaints filed in court and by human rights organizations, the deportees have remained detained without charges and in isolation in the maximum-security prison of Matsapha, near Mbabane, the capital of Eswatini. The local government denies that these are illegal detentions, but that has been precisely one of the central issues in the litigation.

As early as last February, Eswatini’s judiciary rejected an appeal that sought to halt the deportation of third-country nationals from the United States. That lawsuit had been filed in August, shortly after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the transfer of the first five foreigners to the African country.

The agreement was not free. Washington agreed to pay 5.1 million dollars to the Eswatini government, as the kingdom’s authorities acknowledged. That figure further fueled criticism from activists and legal experts, who see in these agreements an externalization of the U.S. migration system: those expelled leave American territory but do not necessarily return to their countries of origin, instead being sent to third states willing to receive them in exchange for financial compensation.

Nine months after their arrival at a maximum-security prison in a foreign country, they remain in a situation of legal limbo

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has hardened his migration policy and promoted rapid expulsions with the support of several countries. In addition to Eswatini, Washington has reached similar agreements with El Salvador, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Humanitarian organizations believe these agreements expose hundreds of people to a chain of abuses: arbitrary detention, mistreatment, isolation, and the risk of being sent to places where they may face persecution, torture, or degrading treatment. For this reason, they have called on several African governments to refuse to become destinations for migrants expelled from the United States.

In the case of Eswatini, the Supreme Court’s ruling opens a legal window for the deportees but does not clarify how long they will remain detained or what their final destination will be. Nor does it resolve the underlying issue: whether a country can accept people expelled from another state and keep them detained for months, without charges, without transparency, and without explaining what will happen to them.

For Mosquera del Peral and the other men, the ruling means at least a possibility of defense that had until now been denied to them. But nine months after their arrival at a maximum-security prison in a foreign country, they remain in a situation of legal limbo, turned into pawns of a migration policy that has moved the problem far from the U.S. border.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Vatican Has Secured the Release of 27 Political Prisoners, Separate From Common Inmates Pardoned by the Cuban Regime

Of the list of 51 agreed upon with the Holy See, 24 still remain to be released.

Released prisoners walk outside La Lima prison in Havana. / EFE/STR

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, April 5, 2026 – The NGO Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported this Saturday that the number of political prisoners released by the Cuban government has risen to 27 since the announcement, on March 12, of a process agreed upon with the Vatican that contemplates the release of 51 inmates.

“Of the 51 prisoners the regime said it would release in March, only 27 are political prisoners. To reach the announced 51, 24 political prisoners still remain to be released, since the rest would be common prisoners. In March, 14ymedio confirmed that more than 10 of that group were common inmates,” the NGO stated in a message on social media.

It also clarified that the figures published this Saturday regarding “the release under threats of 51 prisoners in March” should not be confused with “the release/pardon of the 2,010” that the Cuban government announced this Thursday.

The figure reported by Prisoners Defenders refers to the information provided by the Havana government on March 12, when it announced the release of 51 prisoners. These individuals, according to officials, had served “a significant part of their sentence and maintained good behavior in prison.”

These releases are not pardons, but rather a benefit that allows the prisoner to leave the penitentiary even though the sentence has not been completed.

At the time, Cuban authorities framed the decision as part of “a spirit of goodwill and the close, fluid relations between the Cuban State and the Vatican.” continue reading

These releases are not pardons, but a measure that allows inmates to leave prison before completing their sentence, subject to compliance with certain conditions during the remaining time.

Separately, on April 2, the Cuban government announced the pardon of 2,010 prisoners, describing it as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture of solidarity” in the context of Holy Week celebrations.

The regime has excluded in its statement those convicted of “crimes against authority,” a category that applies to 95% of political prisoners.

In its statement, the regime indicated that those included “feature young people, women, adults over 60, those nearing the end of early-release periods in the final semester and the coming year, as well as foreigners and Cuban citizens residing abroad.”

Cuba closed February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons, according to PD’s latest monthly report, the highest figure recorded since the organization began documenting prison conditions on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Calls the Friendship Between Moscow and Havana an “Enduring Value”

“It cannot be properly measured in kopeks, dollars, or pesos,” says Sergei Ryabkov.

The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin at the dock of the Supertanker Base in Matanzas. / Facebook / Oliver Zamora Oria

14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/Moscow, April 3, 2026 – The friendship between Russia and Cuba is enduring, declared Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, on Friday, stating that Moscow will continue supporting Havana despite U.S. pressure on the Island. “It cannot be properly measured in kopeks, dollars, or pesos. It is an enduring value. We value it highly,” the Russian diplomat emphasized in an interview with the TASS agency.

Both countries, he recalled, have interacted for decades “across the full spectrum of issues aimed at ensuring high human development, the development of science and education, cultural and human exchanges, and the development of the arts.”

“Not to mention our shared history and the solidarity, mutual support, which has always been felt and continues to be felt. And Russia maintains its commitment to this policy, especially at the current difficult stage,” he added. The senior Russian diplomat also reiterated the demand to end U.S. pressure on the Island.

“We insist that Cuba’s security be guaranteed. We demand an end to the blockade of the Island, which is absolutely illegal and illegitimate.”

“We insist that Cuba’s security be guaranteed. We demand an end to the blockade of the Island, which is absolutely illegal and illegitimate. And I am sure that the results Washington hopes to achieve with this blockade will continue to go unrealized,” he said. continue reading

The tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, sanctioned by the United States and the European Union and carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil, arrived Tuesday in Matanzas, marking the first oil shipment to reach the Island in three months, following the oil blockade imposed by the United States at the end of January. “This valuable assistance arrives amid the energy siege imposed by the United States, which seeks to suffocate the Cuban population,” Havana’s Foreign Ministry said on the social network X.

U.S. President Donald Trump had downplayed Moscow’s move to break the blockade imposed by Washington and dismissed the idea that the arrival of crude oil in Cuba would have any impact on the Island’s current situation. “It doesn’t bother me (…) they have a bad regime, they have bad and corrupt leadership, and whether a ship of oil arrives or not, it doesn’t matter,” the president said.

On Thursday, Russia’s Energy Minister, Sergei Tsiviliov, reported that after sending the Anatoly Kolodkin, his government is preparing a second shipment of crude oil to Cuba. “We will not abandon the Cubans,” Tsiviliov told local media at an energy forum held in the city of Kazan.

Cuba requires about 100,000 barrels per day to meet its energy needs, of which around 40,000 come from domestic production, mainly used to keep its outdated thermoelectric plants running. The inability to cover the remaining demand has resulted in long daily blackouts and the near-total paralysis of the economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Russia Detains and Massively Deports Illegal Cuban Migrants via Istanbul

The lack of direct flights is not preventing the return of detainees to the Island.

Russian authorities are deporting increasing numbers of migrants, including many Cubans, who entered the country due to visa exemptions. / La Tijera

14ymedio / EFE, Moscow, April 1, 2026 – Authorities in Moscow are detaining and massively deporting Cuban migrants who have not regularized their immigration status, despite the absence of direct flights between the Russian capital and Havana due to the Island’s energy crisis, according to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti on Wednesday.

According to relatives of those detained, police checks on Cuban citizens regarding their immigration status have intensified in recent months.

“Those with issues in their documents are sent to the Sakharovo deportation center (on the outskirts of Moscow), where they are held and kept incommunicado for weeks,” the outlet reported.

Because there are currently no direct flights between the two countries, due to Cuba’s alert over a lack of fuel to supply international flights, Cubans are being deported via the Turkish city of Istanbul.

“Those with issues in their documents are sent to the Sakharovo deportation center, where they are held and kept incommunicado for weeks.”

According to Ostorozhno, Novosti, relatives search for detainees through groups created on Facebook.

Because detainees are held incommunicado, and there is little precise information, since deportation cases are not processed through the courts but decided at the level of Russia’s Interior Ministry. Much of the information circulating on social media is false, the outlet said.

As an example, Ostorozhno, Novosti cited the case of a Cuban detainee who was rumored to have been deported but was actually arrested for drug trafficking, a crime severely punished in Russia.

Although the chances of legalizing immigration status in Russia are quite limited for Cubans, especially compared to nationals from former Soviet republics, who can obtain work permits, thousands of Cubans travel to Russia in search of jobs and better living conditions.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Europe Allocates 2 Million Euros More in Humanitarian Aid to Cuba Due to the Energy Crisis

The funds will be directed toward logistical support for humanitarian partners distributing urgent aid in the country, it states.

This funding is in addition to the 4 million euros approved at the beginning of this year / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Brussels, April 1, 2026 – The European Commission announced this Wednesday that it will send an additional 2 million euros in humanitarian aid to Cuba, in response to resource shortages and the worsening energy crisis, which leaves more than 60% of the Island without electricity.

This funding is in addition to the 4 million euros approved at the beginning of this year as a regional allocation for the Caribbean, which was also mainly aimed at addressing Cuba’s growing needs.

In a statement published this Wednesday, the EU executive said that this new 2 million euros in aid will be used to provide logistical support to humanitarian partners distributing urgent assistance in the country, given the difficulties in mobilizing food and drinking water on the island.

“In a country facing an energy crisis and growing shortages, this support will help ensure that vital aid continues to reach up to 2 million people in need,” said the Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib.

“This support will help ensure that vital aid continues to reach up to 2 million people in need”

Since mid-2024, Cuba has been experiencing a severe crisis that has deepened due to the oil pressure imposed by the U.S. government since January. According to data from the Electric Union (UNE), the Island is currently experiencing power outages that leave 62% of the country continue reading

without electricity at the same time.

The aid is part of a series of support measures that have come from governments such as Brazil and Mexico, which have sent 20,000 tons of rice, other food, and medicines. Spain has done the same, announcing the shipment of food and medical supplies to 5,000 people in Cuba, along with around twenty photovoltaic panels.

Additionally, aid has also arrived from social initiatives, such as the Nuestra América flotilla, which brought 14 tons of food and medicines, 73 solar panels, and ten bicycles to Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An FBI Team Is Now in Havana To Investigate the Shooting Involving the Florida Boat

The regime claims that the crew entered Cuban waters armed and opened fire, but Washington wants to verify its version with its own investigation

The arrival of the FBI had been announced by Miguel Díaz-Canel on March 13. / EFE

14ymedio / EFE, Havana, April 1, 2026 – A team from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived in Havana to take part in the investigation into the incident that occurred on February 25 in Cuban waters, in which five crew members of a boat coming from Florida were killed. “The FBI team arrived in Havana yesterday to conduct an independent and thorough investigation into the incident,” a U.S. government source told EFE on Wednesday.

According to the official Cuban version, the vessel was intercepted by border guard troops north of Villa Clara, near Cayo Falcones, with ten people on board, all residents of the United States. Havana maintains that shots were fired from the boat at the patrol and that its agents responded, in a confrontation that left four dead on the spot, six injured, and one Cuban officer wounded. Days later, one of the injured died, bringing the death toll to five.

The deceased were identified as Pável Alling Peña, Michel Ortega Casanova, Ledián Padrón Guevara, Héctor Duani Cruz Correa, and Roberto Álvarez Ávila. The latter died on March 4 while in custody of Cuban authorities. His name had also been omitted from the first official statement, which instead included a Cuban citizen who was in the United States.

The regime’s version has been questioned by relatives of the victims and by independent media.

The arrival of the FBI had been announced by Miguel Díaz-Canel on March 13. At that time, the Cuban leader said that Washington had expressed through diplomatic and consular channels its interest in cooperating to clarify what happened. On the U.S. side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said continue reading

after the incident that the Trump administration sought to contrast the Cuban version with “independent information.”

The case erupted amid escalating tensions between Havana and Washington, in the context of increased U.S. pressure on the Island, negotiations marked by tension, and openly confrontational statements from both governments. Weeks before the incident, 32 Cuban soldiers had died in Caracas during the U.S. operation in which Nicolás Maduro was captured. Since then, the regime has multiplied military exercises across Cuba and has strongly revived its “besieged plaza” rhetoric. In that climate, the limited cooperation with the FBI stands out as a rare exception within a relationship dominated by mutual distrust.

Even so, the episode remains surrounded by unanswered questions. The regime’s version has been challenged by victims’ relatives and independent media, who point to contradictions, changes in the identification of those involved, and the absence of conclusive public testimony and evidence about how the shooting actually occurred.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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France: It Is “Important” That Cuba “Make Gestures” of Economic Openness and Human Rights

Nicolas Forissier, Minister Delegate for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said that the dialogue between the U.S. and the Island “must be constructive, but it must also be demanding”

The central 23rd Street, in Havana’s El Vedado, empty of vehicles, this Tuesday / 14ymedio

14ymedio / EFE, Paris, March 31, 2026 – France welcomed the talks initiated between the United States and Cuba this Tuesday, intended to achieve a “stabilization” of the situation on the Island, and considered that it is “important that Cuba, especially in matters of human rights and economic openness, show signs of goodwill.”

“With regard to Cuba, since 1992 we have continuously requested from the United Nations that the embargo be lifted. We constantly call for dialogue in order to promote prospects for the stabilization of Cuba,” Nicolas Forissier, Minister Delegate for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said this Tuesday in the French National Assembly.

He was responding to a question from Macron-aligned deputy Frantz Gumbs about Paris’s position regarding the crisis on the Island, which in Forissier’s words is going through a situation of “economic suffocation” that affects “the entire Cuban population in a totally indiscriminate way” and that may have consequences for the stability of the Caribbean region, where France has continue reading

territories.

France is, within its means, “available for initiatives led by the UN in terms of emergency humanitarian aid”

Forissier indicated that his country supports talks to find a negotiated solution and insisted that the dialogue “must be constructive, but it must also be demanding.”

“And from this point of view, it is important that Cuba, especially in matters of human rights and economic openness, make gestures,” he stressed, while also recalling that the Island is very present within the framework of the French presidency of the G7, which is following the situation “very closely” with “initiatives and exchanges that are underway.”

Regarding the possibilities of humanitarian support for the inhabitants of the Latin American country from Paris, Forissier assured that France is, within its means, “available for initiatives led by the UN in terms of emergency humanitarian aid and in response to calls from the WHO.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Number of Cuba’s Political Prisoners Released Under the Agreement With the Vatican Has Reached 25

The NGO laments that the number is still only half of what they promised: “We are on top of the regime. We will not let them lie to the Church, nor, of course, to the people of Cuba

A group of relatives of those arrested on July 11, 2022 [’11J’], during a peaceful protest on the steps of the Havana Cathedral / Wilber Aguilar/Facebook

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, March 30, 2026 / The Cuban government has released two more political prisoners under the agreement announced by the Cuban regime with the Vatican for the release of 51 prisoners, according to an announcement by the NGO Prisoners Defenders this Sunday.

One of them is Evelio Luis Herrera Duvergel, 25, who was sentenced to seven years in prison – which he was serving in the Quivicán prison in Mayabeque – for participating in the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 [’11J’]. The other, Jarol Varona Agüero, 52, was in El Típico prison in Las Tunas, serving a 13-year sentence for “propaganda against the constitutional order” for calling for a protest on Facebook that never took place.

With these decisions, the number of political prisoners released has risen to 25, less than half. “We demand the release of all political prisoners in Cuba,” the NGO stated. “We are on top of the regime. We will not let them lie to the Church, nor, of course, to the Cuban people,” it added in a publication that included the updated list.

Most of those released so far participated in the Island-wide anti-government protests of 11 June 2021 and were serving sentences of between six and 18 years in prison for crimes such as public disorder, contempt, assault and sedition. continue reading

Most of those released so far participated in the anti-government protests of July 11 and were serving sentences of between six and 18 years in prison for crimes such as public disorder, contempt, assault and sedition

PD criticized, this week, on social media that only some of the 51 beneficiaries of the measure are political prisoners and stressed that something similar happened in the January 2025 process when “only 40%” (219) of the 553 released prisoners were political prisoners, while the rest “were common prisoners.”

He also reported that among the released common prisoners “there is at least one with a murder on his record,” as well as other people convicted of “robbery and other common crimes”.

The first releases in this process coincided with the announcement by the Cuban Executive that it had begun a dialogue with representatives of the US Administration, although Havana has never linked the two issues.

These releases are not pardons, but a benefit that allows the prisoner to leave the penitentiary even though the sentence has not been extinguished (a measure that is conditioned on compliance with certain requirements during the remaining time of the sentence).

Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons, according to PD’s latest monthly report, the highest number since the organization began documenting the prison situation on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nicaragua Withdraws Its Ambassador to Cuba After Barely 50 Days in the Post

Daysi Torres was dismissed as of Friday, March 27, without explanations from the Ortega and Murillo regime.

Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, co-rulers of Nicaragua’s regime / EFE/Rodrigo Sura

14ymedio (EFE), San José, March 28, 2026 – The Government of Nicaragua, led by spouses and co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, revoked this Friday the appointment of former Managua mayor Daysi Ivette Torres Bosques as Nicaragua’s ambassador to Cuba, a position she held for less than two months, the Official Gazette La Gaceta reported.

Through presidential agreement number 42-2026, the co-rulers annulled the appointment of Torres Bosques as extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the Government of the Republic of Cuba, to which she had been appointed on February 3, 2026.

Her move from Caracas to Havana took place four weeks after United States forces captured Nicolás Maduro

“This agreement takes effect as of March 27, 2026,” Ortega and Murillo indicated in the document, which does not explain the reasons for that decision.

Torres Bosques, who was mayor of Managua for two consecutive terms (2009–2018) and also vice mayor of the Nicaraguan capital (2008–2009), had been serving as ambassador to the Government of Venezuela since March 21, 2023, when she was transferred as Nicaragua’s representative in Cuba.

Her move from Caracas to Havana took place four weeks after United States forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation in Caracas and then transferred them to a prison in New York, where he faces drug trafficking charges.

The governments of Nicaragua and Cuba have been close political allies since the Sandinista Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Guantánamo Naval Base, a Point of Light on an Island in Darkness and in Crisis

The U.S. enclave in Cuba displays, in just 116 square kilometers, the extreme contrast between the island’s isolation and American abundance.

The Guantánamo naval base continues to be one of the strategic points of the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean. / EFE / Marta Garde

14ymedio/EFE, Yeni García, Guantánamo, March 28, 2026 – The century-old naval base that the U.S. occupies in southeastern Cuba, against the will of Havana, is separated from the rest of the Caribbean territory by more than just barbed wire and a strip of land that could still be mined.

The territorial, ideological, and economic gap between the two countries, estranged for nearly 70 years, becomes palpable when visiting the U.S. military enclave, established in 1903, one of the oldest that the U.S. maintains outside its borders and the only one in a communist nation.

On one side, a country immersed in a humanitarian crisis worsened by the recent crude oil blockade imposed by Washington, and on the other, a small portion of about 116 square kilometers with well-stocked markets, that never turns off the lights or stops its cars for lack of fuel.

While last weekend the rest of the Caribbean country experienced its second nationwide blackout in less than seven days, on the U.S. military base daily scenes could, if one ignores the signs prohibiting photography and the uniforms and military buildings, be the same as in any neighborhood in nearby Florida.

The connections between the two cultures are scarce, but the few that a keen eye manages to identify are evident

Despite the fact that the fences at the military base welcome visitors to “Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” it is very difficult for someone who has walked the streets of Cuba to reconcile images of old cars, smoking trash on street corners, and darkened neighborhoods with an Irish pub, a movie theater showing the latest Hollywood release, or a McDonald’s on island soil, which has been serving its famous hamburgers since 1986. continue reading

At first glance, the connections between the two cultures are scarce, but the few that a keen eye can identify are evident: an altar to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba’s patron saint, streets named after heroes of the independence wars, such as José Martí and Antonio Maceo, royal palms, and endemic iguanas and hutias.

At present, only a small number of Cubans remain on the base and chose to stay as special residents, now very elderly and in fragile health, out of the more than 300 who used to work here decades ago . Five years ago there was a community center with a cultural program to maintain Cuban traditions.

A small museum preserves part of the history of the controversial enclave, which has become an uncomfortable legacy for the Cuban government, which considers it “illegal” and demands its return, something the U.S. has refused, relying on a bilateral agreement from the 1930s that requires joint authorization for its return.

A mural in the gift shop shows one of the few Cuban flags that can be seen on the base, where it is also not common to hear music from the island or find a completa with congrí, roast pork, cassava with mojo, and fried plantains, but where you can get a Starbucks frappuccino or a protein smoothie after leaving the gym.

The base has been “completely self-sufficient” and has “its own sources of energy and water” that serve about 6,000 inhabitants of the base

Since Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, the once close relationship between the two countries cooled. The late Cuban former president cut relations with the U.S. in 1961, stopped cashing the roughly $4,000 rent checks that Washington still pays for the base, and cut off the supply of water and provisions in 1964.

From that moment on, “Gitmo,” as Americans call it, has been “completely self-sufficient” and has “its own sources of energy and water” that serve about 6,000 inhabitants of the base, according to the U.S. government’s military installations directory.

Shipments of fuel and supplies arrive at the enclave, which has its own hospital and airport, and although it is more recently known for housing the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it continues to be one of the strategic points of the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Prisoners Defenders Raises to 23 the Number of Political Prisoners Released in Cuba Following the Agreement With the Vatican

The NGO denounces that the regime is once again mixing common criminals with opposition members.

Those released receive a prison benefit that allows them to leave prison without their sentence being extinguished. / EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, March 27, 2026 / The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) raised to 23 this Friday the number of political prisoners released in Cuba since the regime announced, two weeks ago, a process agreed to with the Vatican to release 51 inmates.

According to the NGO, most of those released so far are protesters from 11 July 2021, ’11J’, the largest anti-government protest on the island. Many of them were serving sentences of between six and 18 years for charges commonly used by the Cuban repressive apparatus: public disorder, contempt, assault, and sedition.

PD also questioned the true scope of the measure. The day before, the organization denounced on social media that not all of the 51 released prisoners were political prisoners, a situation, it emphasized, that had already occurred in January 2025. At that time, of the 553 prisoners released, “only 40%” – 219 people – were imprisoned for political reasons, while the rest were common criminals.

The NGO went further, asserting that among the released common criminals was at least one person convicted of murder, in addition to others sentenced for robbery and other common crimes. The complaint points to a practice Havana has used before: inflating the figures for humanitarian gestures by including cases unrelated to political repression. continue reading

Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons

The first prison releases coincided with the Cuban government’s announcement that it had begun talks with representatives of the US administration, although authorities have not publicly linked the two moves.

In any case, these are not pardons. Those released receive a prison benefit that allows them to leave prison without their sentence being extinguished. That is, they remain under sanction and subject to compliance with certain requirements for the remainder of their sentence.

The data comes at a time of escalating repression on the island. Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons, according to the latest monthly report from Prisoners Defenders. This is the highest figure recorded by the organization since it began documenting the situation of Cuban political prisoners.

This number once again illustrates the scale of the repressive wave unleashed after 11 July 2021, when hundreds of Cubans were convicted in trials criticized by international organizations and marred by a lack of due process. While the regime presents these releases as a sign of openness, the data suggests otherwise: prison remains one of its primary tools of control.

Most of those who have benefited so far are protesters from 11 July 2021

The list of those released includes Ibrahín Ariel González Hodelin, 26, sentenced to nine years in Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba; Ariel Pérez Montesino, 52, sentenced to 10 years in Guanajay, Artemisa; Juan Pablo Martínez Monterrey, 32, with 11 years in Ceiba 5, Artemisa; Ronald García Sánchez, 33, sentenced to 14 years in Toledo 2, Marianao; Adael Jesús Leyva Díaz, 29, with 13 years in Zone 0 of Combinado del Este; Oscar Bárbaro Bravo Cruzata, 27, sentenced to 13 years in La Lima, Guanabacoa; José Luis Sánchez Tito, 34, with 16 years in Combinado del Este; Roberto Ferrer Gener, 52, sentenced to 15 years in that same prison; Deyvis Javier Torres Acosta, 33 years old, with 10 years in Valle Grande, and Yussuan Villalba Sierra, 35 years old, also sentenced to 10 years in a forced labor detachment of the Combinado del Este; Eduardo Álvarez Rigal, 36 years old, sentenced to 13 years in La Lima, and Wilmer Moreno Suárez, 37 years old, with one of the highest sentences on the list: 18 years in Zone 0.

Also listed are Frank Aldama Rodríguez, 33, sentenced to 16 years in Combinado del Este; Miguel Enrique Girón Velázquez, 29, with 11 years in La Aguada youth prison in Holguín; Hansel Felipe Arbolay Prim, 32, sentenced to 10 years in prison 1580 in San Miguel del Padrón; Jorge Vallejo Venegas, 39, with 15 years in La Lima; Luis Esteffani Hernández Valdés, 34, sentenced to six years in Ho Chi Minh, Bainoa, Jaruco; Franklin Reymundo Fernández Rodríguez, 25, with nine years in the Holguín provincial prison; Yunier Sánchez Rodríguez, 39, sentenced to 11 years in Valle Grande; Carlos Pérez Cosme, 38, with 10 years in Toledo 2; Felipe Almirall, 65, sentenced to nine years in La Lima; Lester Ayala Alarcón, 40 years old, with 10 years in Kilo 9, Camagüey, and Liván Hernández Lago, 51 years old, sentenced to seven years in Ceiba 5.

The list also confirms the weight of Havana and Artemisa in the repression after 11J, with several of the toughest prisons and forced labor camps in the country concentrating a good part of these cases.

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Cuba: Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Painting ‘How Long?’

The sentence considers that the posters made by Leonard Richard González Alfonso are “advertisements against the Government and the socialist system”

One of the posters for which Leonard Richard González Alfonso has been prosecuted. / 14ymedio

14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, March 26, 2026 – / The State Security Crimes Chamber of the Havana Provincial People’s Court has sentenced Leonard Richard González Alfonso to seven years in prison for propaganda against the constitutional order and threats for creating four graffiti messages. These messages, unlike similar ones for which dozens of people have been prosecuted previously, did not contain slogans such as “Down with the Revolution,” slogans recognized as symbols of rebellion such as “Homeland and Life,” or insults against the Cuban president such as “Díaz-Canel singao*,” but rather a question: “How long will this go on?”

According to the court ruling, the 33-year-old man carried out the graffiti out of frustration with the prolonged power outages and threatened a man who caught him in the act. The court found it proven that in the early morning of June 20, 2025, the convicted man, along with another unidentified person, painted four graffiti messages in Havana “in total disagreement with the country’s energy situation” and to “show their disagreement with the revolutionary process.”

The court considers writing “How long?” to be “announcements against the government and the socialist system.”

According to the ruling, he wrote: “How long?”, “How long? They are killing us,” “How long, Cuba?” and “How long? Justice Cuba,” phrases that the court considers continue reading

“announcements against the Government and the socialist system.”

According to the report, a citizen discovered the convicted man while he was making the graffiti, and the man threatened and insulted him. The situation did not escalate because the man left.

González’s relatives have reported to the NGO Prisoners Defenders that several irregularities have been committed in the process and that the young man, who has had problems with drug addiction and depression, is not being given the medication he needs in prison.

Last December, the same court sentenced a Cuban rapper to five years in prison for hanging four banners demanding “change now” and respect for “human rights” in Cuba.

Police recently arrested ten Panamanian citizens for creating various graffiti in the capital (with phrases such as “Down with tyranny,” “Communism: enemy of the community”) and also charged them with the crime of propaganda against the constitutional order.

Prisoners Defenders recorded a record number of political prisoners in Cuba at the end of February, a total of 1,214.

*’Singao’ is a common epithet generally translated as ‘son of a bitch’, ‘motherfucker’ or similar terms. Also, it happens to rhyme with ‘Diez-Canel’.

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Rosa María Payá Says That Cuba Doesn’t Need a ‘Delcy Rodríguez’ For a Transition

“I believe the conditions are right for the country to be liberated,” she says.

Rosa María Payá emphasized that a real process of change requires “that the Castro family and the group of generals who have held power for 67 years leave” / EFE

EFE, (via 14ymedio), March 17, 2026, Miami / Cuban opposition leader Rosa María Payá stated in an interview with EFE that a possible democratic transition in Cuba does not require a figure from the current power structure, as happened in Venezuela with Delcy Rodríguez, and asserted that civil society and the opposition inside and outside the island have prepared themselves to lead that process without the Castros or the ruling elite.

“Cuba doesn’t need a Delcy Rodríguez. In fact, the process we have been carrying out from civic and opposition organizations, both inside and outside the island, is precisely to have a transition team ready that can lead this provisional period and take the country from totalitarian barbarism toward fair elections,” Payá stated in Miami.

The daughter of the late Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá (1952-2012), who fought for the Varela Project to promote democratic changes in the country, emphasized that Cubans do not need a president like Rodríguez, who assumed interim power in Venezuela after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the US on January 3.

The opposition leader asked President Donald Trump to maintain “pressure” on the government continue reading

of Miguel Díaz-Canel, and is confident that contacts between the two countries would contribute to freedom in Cuba, amid the country’s precarious energy situation, aggravated by the US oil embargo.

The opposition leader asked President Donald Trump to maintain “pressure” on the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“I believe the conditions are right for the liberation of Cuba. And those conditions, first of all, are the widespread demand for change from the Cuban people,” she said.

However, Payá said that the regime “will not buy us off with old Castroist strategies, such as permitting its citizens abroad to invest in private businesses on the Island without political changes and without rights,” as it announced this week.

Cubans “don’t want a fraudulent change. They don’t want the Castro family, and the group of generals
in power, to keep buying time and lying to the world and to Cubans about the reality.”

According to The New York Times, the Trump Administration has raised the possibility of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s departure, although without necessarily demanding a complete overhaul of the system.

She believes that those in power will not make the transition to democracy on their own.

Payá, however, believes that those in power will not make the transition to democracy and the rule of law on their own. “We don’t understand a transitional process that ends in free elections with the Castro family still in power,” she reiterated.

“It is not true that the regime is going to change itself,” she added. In that sense, she emphasized that a real process of change requires “that the Castro family and the group of generals who have held power for 67 years and their representatives leave.”

On the other hand, she noted that she considers the pressure being exerted by the United States to be “decisive” and stated that it must be increased to stop the repression against the protesters in Cuba: “They must increase that pressure to stop the impunity with which the Cuban regime is carrying out repression to this day.”

She also called on the governments of the region to intercede for the Cuban people.

“We hope that the rest of the Western democracies will join this effort.”

“We hope that the rest of the Western democracies will join this effort. (…). The Cuban people expect it, as they are demanding in the streets at a very high cost, at the cost of their safety, of their very lives,” she said.

Payá asserted that “the rights and freedoms of all Cubans must be guaranteed; political prisoners must be released,” and that none of this “costs money; it can happen on the first day.”

“Cuban civic organizations, opposition organizations on the Island and in exile are united behind a transition plan and forming the transition team that will lead and can lead this provisional period,” she stated.

Payá stated that she understands that a transition process will have to work with some structures of the “bureaucracy” to avoid “chaos,” but that it will not be “negotiable” that “we Cubans recover our national sovereignty.”

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