Unlike on other Sundays, Berta Soler was able to reach the church of Santa Rita.
The dissident was accompanied by Mike Hammer, head of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. / Ángel Moya
EFE (via 14ymedio) Havana, 14 April 2025 — Unlike on other Sundays, the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, was able to attend Mass, this time for Palm Sunday, at the Santa Rita Church in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The dissident was accompanied by Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. Embassy mission in Cuba, according to the opposition leader herself posting on social media.
However, seven members of the female group were detained for a few hours while attempting to attend the service, Soler reported, referring to the event as the “seventh repressive Sunday” against that group in 2025.
In addition, she reported the arrests of several Ladies in White in the towns of Cárdenas and Colón, in the province of Matanzas, and another in Havana.
They were all headed to mass, as is their usual practice, to pray for the release of political prisoners.
The Ladies in White movement emerged from the initiative of a group of women, relatives of the 75 dissidents and independent journalists arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms in March 2003 during the period of repression known as the Black Spring.
From then on, the wives, mothers, and other relatives of those prisoners were identified by always wearing white, and after attending mass at a Catholic church, they began holding Sunday marches to demand their relatives’ release, becoming a symbol of dissent.
In 2005, the Ladies in White received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament.
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The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba participated this Tuesday in a public hearing before the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights.
José Daniel Ferrer Ferrer said that Cuba “remains one of the nations where freedom of the press, expression and peaceful demonstration are least respected” / 14ymedio
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, Brussels, 8 April 2025 — “The European Union must analyze and rethink its relations with the Cuban regime,” opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer told 14ymedio after participating on Tuesday at a public hearing before the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights.
The event addressed the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba, and both Ferrer and activist Rosa María Payá, founder of Cuba Decide, spoke via telematics. The former political prisoner hopes that his message has been “clear, precise and forceful” and will help the European Union to revise the Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation that it maintains with the Cuban authorities.
“A stronger stance must be taken towards the main repressor of freedom in the Americas,” Ferrer told 14ymedio. ” We are talking about a regime that is the main violator of human rights on the American continent and the ally, precisely, of the main enemies of freedom and democracy on the planet.” Havana, the opponent recalled, is an ally “even of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, continue reading
which invaded Ukraine.”
“This regime cannot continue to be treated as it has been treated in recent years by the European Union,” the dissident insisted
“This regime cannot continue to be treated as it has been treated in recent years by the European Union,” the dissident insisted to this newspaper, on a day when his home was also subject to a strong police operation. Nevertheless, Ferrer warned of the ambivalences that mark the European position towards Havana.
“We have seen for years that the European Parliament ends up adopting resolutions of solidarity in favor of human rights in Cuba and in favor of the release of political prisoners. However, at the same time, we have seen the European Commission maintain the same relations and the same rather lukewarm, rather pallid stance in the face of serious human rights
violations in Cuba,” explained the leader of UNPACU, referring to the lack of powers of the European Parliament vis-à-vis the Commission, which is the executive body of the Union.
At the hearing, Ferrer indicated that Cuba “remains one of the nations where freedom of the press, expression and peaceful demonstration are least respected.” The opponent also argued that the country’s prisons “resemble the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.”
“We need stronger policies towards the greatest enemy of democracy and human rights on the American continent. We need solidarity with those who fight to make Cuba a prosperous nation, friend of the European Union and the West,” he concluded.
For more than a week, the headquarters of UNPACU, located in the neighborhood of Altamira, in Santiago de Cuba, has been besieged by State Security, to prevent Ferrer from distributing food among hundreds of vulnerable people who come to his home in search of something to eat and for medical care by his wife, Dr. Nelva Ortega.
For his part, the deputy director for the Americas of the Human Rights Watch initiative, Juan Pappier, considered that “the European Parliament and the European External Action Service have a fundamental role to play: they must lead. We call upon the Parliament to strongly condemn the violations of human rights in Cuba and to oppose comprehensive sanctions that harm the population.”
The leader of the project, which investigates and reports on the abuse of vulnerable people in the world, explained the limits to freedom of expression and press on the Island at the hearing
The leader of the project, which investigates and reports on the abuse of vulnerable people in the world, explained the limits to freedom of expression and press on the Island at the hearing.
“According to data for February, Cuba registered 1,150 political prisoners under house arrest or other forms of probation. In March, the release of 550 was negotiated after the intervention of the Vatican, but according to human rights groups, only 200 were political prisoners,” he said.
The first vice-president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Andrea Pochak, defined Cuba as a country with a “worrying context” that “continues to face structural human rights challenges that stem from the absence of essential rights in any representative democracy.”
He warned of the absence of political pluralism, the prohibition of association for political purposes, the criminalization of protests and “worrying” patterns of criminalization of social protest present in the country.
In her speech, Payá stated that Cuba is going through a “deep” human rights crisis. “Hunger is the main complaint of the citizenry. Health services have collapsed; cancer patients report not getting medicines, and medical care is increasingly poor,” she said .
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Interrogations, threats, arbitrary arrests, internet shutdowns and police repression were the price they paid for their criticism.
Escobar was warned that she could not return frequently, only if it was “very urgently needed.” / Luz Escobar
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 5 April 2025 — Carolina, Yanelys, Luz, Anamelys, and Katia are just five names on the list of Cuban women forced into exile in recent years for their dissent, from mere criticism to political activism to independent journalism.
“I didn’t leave Cuba of my own free will, they sent me out,” says art historian and activist Carolina Barrero, who tells EFE that “the repression intensified throughout 2021,” following the ’27N’ demonstration on November 27 of the previous year in front of the Ministry of Culture demanding freedom of expression and work.
“The surveillance was constant: I lived under constant suspicion, in a state of constant harassment. They charged me with criminal offenses for exercising fundamental rights,” recalls Barrero, who now heads the NGO Ciudadanía y Libertad.
“The surveillance was constant: I lived under constant suspicion, in a state of constant harassment.”
She insists she suffered “systematic persecution by State Security,” intelligence, and domestic counterintelligence. “I was detained multiple times, subjected to prolonged house arrest without a court order, and threatened with imprisonment if I continued my work of reporting and organizing peaceful demonstrations,” she says.
In February 2022, she says, she received the “ultimatum”: “Leave the country or face criminal prosecution, with the explicit threat of extending reprisals to third parties such as mothers of political prisoners, fellow activists…”
Another woman, curator Yanelys Núñez tells EFE that the “institutional violence” against her began in 2016, when she was expelled from her job for creating the work The Museum of Dissidence in Cuba with the artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, currently in prison for insulting the symbols of the homeland, contempt, and public disorder.
The situation worsened two years later, due to the promotion of the dissident artist group the San Isidro Movement, explains Núñez from continue reading
Madrid, where she arrived in 2019. She recalls “threats to family and friends, arbitrary arrests, police and telephone surveillance, the ban on cultural events,” as well as “physical, verbal, and psychological harassment and violence.”
“The experience of being politically persecuted simply for defending your right to exist, for defending human rights, is terrible,” laments Núñez, who currently coordinates the independent Observatory of Gender Alas Tensas.
“The motive for the persecution I suffered is that Cuba has been under a dictatorship for more than 60 years, and all defenders are criminalized.”
“The motive for the persecution I suffered is that Cuba has been under a dictatorship for more than 60 years, and all defenders are criminalized,” says Núñez, adding: “I am not the first to have suffered this political violence in the country for wanting to participate in public and political life.”
Journalist Luz Escobar decided to work outside the official media. Because she worked at 14ymedio, “State Security put all the pressure they could on me to leave journalism in Cuba. But when they implicated my daughters in the repressive scheme, I decided to go into exile,” she told EFE.
“At first, they summoned me to the police, where they interrogated me to stop working. They insisted, but when I told them no, they changed their tactics and the tone of their threats: ’You’re doing things wrong, and if you continue, you’ll go to jail.’ All because reporting is a crime in Cuba,” she explains.
“After November 27th (27N), they saw me as an activist, and the repression multiplied: interrogations, threats, arbitrary arrests, internet shutdowns—all of this happened weekly,” she says. Escobar, whose father is also a freelance journalist, adds that even the day she was at the airport about to leave for Spain, she was warned that she couldn’t return frequently, only if it was “very urgent.”
“I spent weeks without being able to leave the house because security and the police were always downstairs trying to arrest me.”
After the Island-wide July 11 protests, the largest anti-government demonstrations in decades, she left for Mexico to study for a doctorate in Anthropology. In February 2022, when she tried to return, the “biggest outrage” occurred. “They wouldn’t even let me board the American Airlines plane because Cuba sent a notification to the airline that I wouldn’t be admitted into the country. By not letting me return, I was left in legal limbo and without a home or job,” she laments.
“I’ve always been in the spotlight of State Security,” communicator Katia Sánchez tells EFE. More than five years ago, she created La Penúltima Casa, the country’s first digital communication blog to help people use online platforms professionally.
She then created the El Pitch podcast, for entrepreneurs, in a country where the communications sector is restricted for the self-employed. As the project grew, so did the harassment from State Security, she laments. At first, it was “friendly,” with questions about her contacts and sources of funding, but it ended with “interrogations and threats that led to the closure of the project in Cuba.”
This communicator spent years “looking for loopholes to break through” to keep her project going, but “all of that ends up being bigger than starting a business.” Moving to the United States was the solution she found to keep her project afloat.
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The event, which will be held from April 11 to 20, will be dedicated to Cuban ballet master Ramona de Saá.
Cuban National Ballet, in a file photo. / Cubadebate
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 1 April 2025 — Nearly 300 teachers, choreographers, critics, and students from dance schools in twelve countries will participate in the 30th International Meeting of Ballet Academies from April 11 to 20 in Havana, its organizers announced Tuesday.
The event, with few international equivalents, seeks to exchange experiences and methodologies among teachers and experts, as well as stimulate the creativity of dancers and choreographers.
The director of Cuba’s National Center for Art Schools, Elizabeth Castro, explained at a press conference that the event will be dedicated to Cuban maestro Ramona de Saá (1939-2024), one of the most notable figures in dance pedagogy in the country.
It will also pay tribute to Cuban filmmaker Alfredo Guevara (1925-2013), who founded and chaired the state-run Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industries (ICAIC) for several years. continue reading
“It will be an opportunity to view the film productions about ballet that are in the ICAIC film archives.”
Castro added that “it will be an opportunity to view the film productions about ballet that are in the ICAIC film archives.”
British choreographer Ben Stevenson is one of the international guests at the event, which aims to be “a continuation of the Cuban ballet school and has also allowed us to develop our school’s potential,” the Cuban official said.
“This will be an ambitious event with multiple venues and events such as workshops, conferences, and cultural galas,” commented Dani Hernández, director of the National Ballet School.
Hernandez, who is also the principal dancer of the Cuban National Ballet (BNC), announced that another goal is to become a “regional benchmark for other ballet academies, as well as to raise the technical and artistic quality of the international competition for ballet students that will also be held.”
The program includes classes, conferences, workshops, courses for teachers, and also competitions in the children’s, youth, and choreography categories, with judges including BNC dancer and director Viengsay Valdés and Lizt Alfonso, leader of the Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba company.
The Cuban ballet school, founded by legendary dancer Alicia Alonso (1920-2019) along with brothers Fernando and Alberto Alonso, has set a standard for style and mastery in ballet and has been internationally recognized for its defined personality and unique characteristics.
The BNC, the island’s most important classical dance company, was declared a National Cultural Heritage in 2018 for being the “highest expression of the Cuban school of ballet.” This status extends to the company’s repertoire, its image archive, and objects and documents related to the institution.
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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Jatibzadeh met in Havana.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Jatibzadeh met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on Tuesday / Islamic Republic of Iran
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 1 April 2025 — Cuba and Iran rallied this Tuesday against US sanctions on both countries and reiterated their willingness to continue promoting bilateral relations and cooperation in economic and commercial areas. The governments of these two allied countries presented their positions during a meeting in Havana between the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, and the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Saeed Jatibzadeh, according to a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“During the meeting, which took place in a cordial atmosphere, the brotherhood and solidarity between both peoples and the positive progress of bilateral ties were highlighted,” the article said.
In the meeting held at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Havana, both diplomats also addressed “the unilateral coercive measures and other aggressions that the government of the United States and its allies apply against various countries.” continue reading
“The brotherhood and solidarity between both peoples and the positive march of bilateral ties were highlighted”
They also spoke about “the situation in the Middle East, the escalation of attacks by Israel and the dangers to regional and international peace, stability and security.”
Iran is one of Cuba’s closest allies in the world. Both countries established relations in 1975, which were interrupted in 1976 and re-established in 1979, after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution.
Two years ago, during the visit to Cuba of then Iranian President Ebrahím Raisí (who died in 2024), the two countries signed a total of six agreements for comprehensive cooperation between governments, political consultations between Foreign Ministries and cooperation in telecommunications, information technology and computer services.
In addition, they signed two memoranda of understanding in customs matters and another between both Ministries of Justice.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Among those affected are the Spanish company Repsol, the American company Global Oil Terminals, the Italian company Eni, the French company Maurel & Prom and the Indian company Reliance Industries.
Pumpjack operating at an oil well in Maracaibo (Venezuela) /EFE/Henry Chirinos/Archive
14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/New York, 30 March 2025 — The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has notified partners of the state oil company PDVsa that their permits to export crude oil and derivatives from Venezuela were canceled, several US media reported this Saturday. Among the affected companies are the Spanish Repsol, the American Global Oil Terminals, the Italian Eni, the French Maurel & Prom and the Indian Reliance Industries.
Most of them had received a license from the Biden Administration (2021-2025) as an exception to the sanctions against Nicolás Maduro’s regime and had already suspended imports of Venezuelan oil after Trump ordered a 25% tariff this week on buyers of Venezuelan crude oil and gas.
Repsol and Reliance had requested authorization to operate in Venezuela and avoid incurring sanctions
However, in the cases of Repsol and Reliance, with a large presence in the United States, authorization had been requested to operate in Venezuela and avoid incurring sanctions. Now, the companies have until the end of May to liquidate operations in Venezuela.
They will thus join the American Chevron, which has until May 27 to close out transactions involving its operations in Venezuela. continue reading
The decision intensifies the Trump Administration’s campaign to isolate Venezuela, in the midst of a battle in which migration also plays a fundamental role: Maduro promptly opposed accepting Venezuelans deported from the United States.
In February, Venezuela exported 910,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and fuel, up from 867,000 in January. The main fuel destinations were China (503,000 bpd) and the United States (239,000 bpd, 19% less than the previous month).
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The US Secretary of State described Cuban medical missions as an “atrocious practice.”
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), San Juan, 26 March 2025 — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on Wednesday, called Cuban medical missions an “atrocious practice,” but said he will engage in dialogue with the Caribbean countries that benefit from them because “there are places with better labor standards.”
“In many other parts of the world, doctors aren’t paid. The Cuban government is paid. Their passports are taken away. They basically operate as forced labor in many places,” he denounced at a press conference in Jamaica with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
“Now, each country operates its program differently. And obviously, because of our relationship with Jamaica, we’re going to be engaging with them on this, digging deeper into the issue, and understanding it better. Perhaps none of this applies to the way it’s handled here,” he added.
“In many other parts of the world, doctors [on medical missions] aren’t paid. The Cuban government is.”
This month several leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Jamaica is a member, criticized the restrictions announced by Washington on Cuban medical missions and rejected the notion that benefiting from them could be considered a form of human trafficking.
On this issue, the Jamaican Prime Minister stated that his government is “very careful not to exploit Cuban doctors” working in his country. “We ensure they are treated in accordance with our labor laws and benefit like any other worker. We ensure continue reading
our program complies with all international laws and standards,” he said. Holness also acknowledged that Cuban doctors “have been of great help” since Jamaica has “a shortage of health personnel.”
In addition to Holness, Rubio is also addressing this issue in Jamaica during his meetings with the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, Stuart Young, and Barbados, Mia Mottley. The US Secretary of State will also meet with the president of Haiti’s Transitional Council, Fritz Jean, as the security crisis in that country is one of the topics on the agenda.
“We ensure that our program complies with all international laws and standards.”
Regarding Haiti, Holness expressed his hope for “continued collaboration with the United States” to address the crisis, alongside Haitian leaders and other stakeholders.
“The extraordinary humanitarian, civil, and national security challenges in Haiti pose a grave threat to Haitians, regional stability, and indeed to its close neighbors, including Jamaica,” he stated.
Therefore, Holness emphasized that he agreed with Rubio that “everything possible must be done to stabilize the security situation in Haiti,” advocating for providing more resources and personnel to the Haitian National Police in its fight against gangs.
A multinational mission is currently deployed in Haiti to support the Haitian police, led by Kenya and financially supported by the U.S.
Regarding Washington’s recent foreign aid measures, Rubio asserted that “it’s not about eliminating foreign aid, but rather restructuring how we deliver aid. We’re going to provide foreign assistance. The difference is that we want to provide foreign assistance in a way that’s strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities and the priorities of our host countries and the states with which we collaborate,” he explained.
“The extraordinary humanitarian, civil, and national security challenges in Haiti pose a grave threat to Haitians, regional stability, and indeed to its close neighbors, including Jamaica,” he added.
Rubio and Holness also reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation in the fight against transnational crime, ensuring the security of citizens and borders.
Holness also said they explored avenues to “further expand bilateral trade relations” and “attract greater U.S. investment to Jamaica’s emerging sectors.”
In this regard, Rubio said that the restructuring of trade alliances being carried out by his administration could be “a mutually beneficial opportunity. It makes perfect sense to see more productive capacity, more manufacturing, more industry relocated to our hemisphere.”
Following his stop in Jamaica, Rubio heads to Guyana and Suriname tomorrow, Thursday, where he will meet with Presidents Irfaan Ali and Chandrikapersad Santokhi, respectively.
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“It is absolutely reprehensible how agents of the murderous Castro regime have manipulated our immigration laws to infiltrate our country,” said Republican Carlos Giménez
Tomás Emilio Hernández Cruz, the former Cuban agent arrested on Wednesday by the US authorities /ICE
14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/Miami, 20 March 2025 — Carlos Giménez, a Republican congressman of Cuban origin, asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately investigate and deport more than 100 people who reside in the United States and have alleged links to the Castro regime.
In a letter sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the Republican said that these individuals represent “a threat to national security.”
Giménez provided a list with more than 100 names of people he considers “previously supported the brutal policies of the Castro dictatorship and have taken advantage of US immigration laws to enter our country,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
These agents of the Cuban regime must be identified, investigated and deported immediately, stressed the congressman, born in Cuba and one of the most recognized faces against the Castro regime in southern Florida in continue reading
recent years, as mayor of Miami-Dade County between 2011 and 2020.
“It is absolutely reprehensible how agents of the murderous Castro regime have manipulated our immigration laws to infiltrate our country,” he said.
Giménez said that he will continue to work closely with the DHS to identify agents of regimes from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua
Giménez, who represents a district with a large Cuban and Hispanic population in South Florida, highlighted the arrest of Tomás Emilio Hernández Cruz by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 14. He was identified as a “member of Cuban intelligence in several high-level positions abroad,” after an investigation carried out based on inconsistencies detected in his immigration application.
Giménez said he will continue to work closely with the DHS to identify agents of regimes from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The recent measures of the US Government to restrict the arrival of foreigners, and especially the draft that the New York Times made public six days ago – where Cuba appears on a “red list” of countries whose citizens cannot enter the United States – has concerned Cubans, even those who already reside in the country legally.
The fear is that, if it becomes an executive order, the measure will prevent Cubans with a residence permit from returning to US soil if they travel outside the country. The draft doesn’t mention this, however, and specialists are trying to calm the community.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Caribbean countries claim that they “do not exploit” Cuban doctors
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 March 2025 — Numerous leaders of countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have criticized the restrictions announced by the United States against Cuba’s medical missions, fundamental for the subsistence of the region’s health systems. As an important part of the staff of its health centers, Caricom members are loyal to Havana’s views on the Washington embargo and strongly thank Cuba for its medical “support.”
In recent days, leaders of Caricom, an organization made up of 15 countries, have denied that hiring Cuban doctors is an exploitation of labor, as Washington claims, and have warned that their health systems would collapse without these doctors. The United States announced at the end of February that it is extending the current visa restriction imposed on those who benefit from the “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad to apply also to foreign government officials who are believed to be responsible for or who are involved in this program.
Mia Mottley, President of Caricom, said that she is prepared to lose her US visa
The last to speak was the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, president of Caricom, who said that she is prepared, like other leaders in the region, to lose her US visa if “a sensible agreement” is not reached on this matter, since “principles matter.” In the same vein, her counterparts from Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves; and Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley, promised to protect their own sovereignty. continue reading
“I have just returned from California and, if I never return there in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is respected by all,” Rowley said this week. All Caricom leaders also agreed in rejecting that benefiting from Cuba’s medical missions is a form of human trafficking. “We pay them the same as the Barbadians.* We repudiate and reject the idea, spread not only by this US government but by the previous one, that we were involved in human trafficking,” Mottley stressed.
“Suddenly they are calling us human traffickers, and we are accused of participating in a program in which people are exploited,” Rowley replied. In this regard, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, said on Wednesday that the laws and the Constitution of the country prohibit involvement in human trafficking and that his government “will never use forced labor. It goes against our laws, and we are a country of law. We don’t think we did it; we’re not doing it, but we’ll review our situation,” he added.
“Suddenly they are calling us human traffickers, and we are accused of participating in a program in which people are exploited”
The controversial medical missions have been operating for more than 60 years. According to official data, more than 605,000 professionals have been sent to 165 countries, mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America. The criticisms of the missions, which Havana defends as a legitimate initiative of “internationalist solidarity,” focus on the commission that the Cuban government keeps from the salaries paid to doctors in host countries, as well as on the withdrawal of their passports during the missions and the lack of freedom and transparency, among others.
“We depend heavily on the health care specialists we have obtained mainly from Cuba over the decades,” acknowledged the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Likewise, Browne said that the US should treat the Caribbean with respect: “If they take punitive measures due to the presence of Cuban medical personnel in our health systems, they would practically dismantle these systems throughout the region.”
For her part, Mottley indicated that Barbados does not currently have Cuban medical personnel, but the country “could not have overcome the pandemic” without the help of these doctors. “I look forward to joining my Caricom brothers to make sure we explain that what Cubans have done for us, far from resembling human trafficking, has been to save the lives of many Caribbean people,” she said.
Caricom, composed of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, decided at its last summit to request a dialogue with US President Donald Trump to discuss the issue.
*Translator’s note: The payment for Cuban doctors goes to the Cuban government, not to the individual doctors. They receive a stipend to cover living costs, and the rest of their salary is kept in a bank account for them, which they can access when they return from the mission.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In the last four years, more than 860,000 Cuban migrants entered the United States, the largest migration in the Island’s recent history.
The increase in deportations from US territory occurs in a context of greater immigration controls / US Embassy in Cuba / Facebook
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 13 March 2025 — The Cuban government “is open to assimilating the return” of its citizens in the United States irregularly, but “within the agreed terms” in bilateral migration matters, official media reported on Thursday.
“It seems absurd and unfair to us that the United States threatens to massively deport this large number of Cubans, especially when there are migration agreements that have worked well in the past,” said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, in statements to state television collected by the state media Cubadebate.
Both countries maintain immigration agreements that include the commitment by the US to issue a minimum of 20,000 visas per year for Cubans and to return Cubans intercepted at sea.
In November 2023, they agreed to resume deportation flights for “inadmissible” Cuban migrants detained at the border with Mexico. continue reading
“It seems absurd and unfair to us that the United States threatens to massively deport this large number of Cubans”
The increase in deportations from US territory occurs in a context of greater migration controls and a stricter policy by Washington, in an attempt to stop the flow of migrants arriving at the southern border.
At the end of February, the United States Government resumed deportation flights to Cuba, in an operation that was the second of its kind since the arrival of Republican Donald Trump to the presidency this January. In total, 104 irregular migrants, 84 men, 19 women and a minor were repatriated.
According to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), during the fiscal year 2024, which ended on September 30, a total of 217,615 Cubans entered the United States.
In October 2024, the first month of fiscal year 2025, US border authorities registered the arrival of 8,261 Cubans. In the last four years, more than 860,000 Cuban migrants entered the United States, the largest migration in the Island’s recent history.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Navarro told the Spanish news agency EFE by phone that when he and his wife left their home to attend Sunday mass at the Catholic Church, they were arrested by State Security and taken to a police station in Perico, the municipality in the province of Matanzas where they live.
On this occasion they were held from 8:30 to 12:00 local time. They were again given a warning that they could not attend church on Sundays and, as before, they were not fined when they were released. continue reading
They were again given a warning that they could not attend church on Sundays and, as before, they were not fined when they were released.
The situation repeated what happened a week earlier, when at 8:30 in the morning Navarro and Álvarez were arrested by a State Security officer who told the former political prisoner that he was on parole and could not go to church. Both were taken to the police unit in the municipality, where they were held for almost three hours until they were released with a warning, which made what happened yesterday foreseeable.
“Félix managed to send me a message through another person and told me that since yesterday [Saturday] they have no connection on their cell phones and cannot make calls,” Annia Zamora told 14ymedio. Zamora is the mother of Sissi Abascal, a Lady in White convicted of participating in the Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’), who is currently in La Bellotex prison in Matanzas.
Last Tuesday, Félix Navarro and Sonia Álvarez had another run-in with the authorities, when the Lady in White was prohibited from wearing that color to see her daughter, Sayli, in the prison where, like Abascal, she is serving her sentence after ’11J’.
This Sunday in Perico, Lázara León and Norma Cabrera, members of the Ladies in White, were also arrested when they were heading to church, according to a complaint made on social media by the leader of that women’s group, Berta Soler.
Navarro, 71, who has a long history in the opposition, was part of the group of 75 opposition members, intellectuals and independent journalists jailed with long sentences in 2003 during the wave of repression known as Black Spring.
Navarro is currently vice president of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), and is on parole.
He is currently vice president of the Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), and is on parole after being released from prison as part of the process of releasing 553 people, initiated in mid-January by the Cuban government as a result of negotiations with the United States mediated by the Vatican during the administration of Democrat Joe Biden.
In his case, he was serving a nine-year prison sentence for the crimes of contempt, public disorder and attack, and was arrested along with his daughter following the anti-government protests on July 11, 2021.
This was their third conviction for political reasons, according to Amnesty International (AI), an organization that has recognized both men as prisoners of conscience.
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The decision extends a 2024 policy implemented by the then Biden administration
File image of migrants in front of the Costa Rican consulate in Managua, Nicaragua. / EFE/Jorge Torres
EFE/14ymedio, Washington/Madrid, 5 March 2025 — The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it will ban visas for officials from other countries who, in its opinion, facilitate irregular migration flows to the United States. “Countries along migration routes must do their part to prevent and deter the transit of aliens seeking to illegally enter the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
According to the head of US diplomacy, the visa restrictions will apply to foreign government officials, including immigration and customs officials, airport and port authorities and other individuals believed to be responsible for deliberately facilitating illegal immigration.
“These measures will remain in place until these officials assume responsibility for ensuring that policies are established and current laws are enforced to prevent the transit of these individuals,” he said. continue reading
“These measures will remain in place until these officials assume responsibility and the laws in force are applied to prevent the transit of these people.”
Rubio’s decision expands a 2022 policy implemented by the then-Biden administration restricting visas for officials of airlines and other private transportation companies that facilitate the movement of undocumented migrants seeking to reach the United States.
Following that announcement , several airlines that connected Cuba with Nicaragua, such as Air Century, Sky High or Aruba Airlines, suspended their charter flights, but others continued.
Under the measure, for example, visa restrictions were imposed last September on the owners of a European charter flight company for considering that it facilitated irregular migration through Nicaragua. At that time the sanctioned company was not identified, but the only two companies that fit the description were the Romanian Legend Airlines and the German Universal Sky Carrier, involved in previous scandals related to the transport of migrants.
Other companies operating charter flights to Nicaragua were the Dominican companies Sky High Aviation Services and Air Century; Aruba Airlines, with Venezuelan capital; the Egyptian company Alexandria and the Libyan company Ghadames Airlines, linked to Vladimir Putin and whose director was sanctioned in June by the US and later arrested in Libya for promoting illegal migration.
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“We know of many cases of people living in the country who are interested in accessing this possibility,” said the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Government has already given land in usufruct to foreign companies / ACN
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 4 March 2025 — The Cuban Government is considering granting land in usufruct to foreign companies and individuals with permanent residence on the Island, in a new measure to increase agricultural production, which is going through a deep crisis.
The Ministry of Agriculture advanced the step this Tuesday at a press conference, by presenting a draft law on ownership, possession and use of land. It explained that the regulation seeks to “increase agricultural production” and to “recognize all economic actors.”
The text, 60 pages, will enter a discussion phase until May 1 and will be presented to the National Assembly of People’s Power for approval in December.
The text will enter a discussion phase until May 1 and will be presented to the National Assembly of People’s Power for approval in December
Cuba has already delivered land in usufruct to foreign companies, although under a “legal vacuum,” Mayra Cruz, Legal Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, clarified at a press conference.
“The fundamental change comes from giving recognition. The current decree law on the delivery of land in usufruct does not speak of foreign legal entities in any way. How has the delivery of land to these subjects been resolved legally? From the Constitution, but there is a gap on this issue in continue reading
agrarian legislation,” she said .
Last January, the Cuban state press reported that a Vietnamese company became the first foreign firm since 1959 to receive land to cultivate on the Island.
The company, according to the official newspaper Granma, obtained 308 hectares to plant rice on a farm in the south of Pinar del Río province.
“We know many cases of foreigners who live in the country who are interested in the possibility of having land in usufruct. They have had to request it from their wives, a child, a Cuban relative. This proposal incorporates the possibility that, as with other goods – cars, homes -, they can acquire it in their name,” Cruz said.
“The current decree law on the delivery of land in usufruct does not talk about foreign legal entities in any way”
Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, had already said in May 2023 that the Island offered Russian businessmen the right to use land for a period of 30 years, an unprecedented concession from the regime.
“They are giving us preferential treatment; the path is paved,” said the Kremlin adviser during the inauguration of the bilateral business economic forum held in Havana, according to Reuters.
For Titov, the conditions proposed by the Cuban government affect ” the long-term lease of land, the tax-free import of agricultural machinery, the granting of the right to transfer profits in foreign currency and much more. Of course, we are also waiting for the reduction of bureaucratic barriers.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez regrets the advance of “conservative and neo-fascist platforms”
Bruno Rodriguez at the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday. / EFE
14ymedio/EFE, Geneva, 24 February 2025 / Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed alarm at the rise of “neo-fascism” globally and the retreat of policies supporting vulnerable groups in the West, speaking at the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
“We observe with great concern the advance of conservative and neo-fascist platforms, and how in developed countries we are experiencing a decades-long regression in fundamental rights, including women’s equality, sexual and reproductive rights, the rights of Afro-descendants, of ethnic minorities and of migrants,” he said.
“The right to life is in grave danger. The United Nations Charter, international law and multilateralism are being threatened, while attempts are being made to impose economic coercion and political subversion as methods of international relations,” warned Rodríguez.
“The United Nations Charter, international law and multilateralism are being threatened, while attempts are being made to impose economic coercion and political subversion as methods of international relations”
In this context, the minister called on the United Nations Security Council, which on Monday opened six weeks of debates on crises and conflicts in the world, to “advocate more strongly for a fair and democratic international order that guarantees peace and balance in the world.”
Cuba’s foreign minister also pointed to the United States, which withdrew from the Human Rights Council with the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, for being “an active accomplice to the Israeli genocide in Gaza” and for its decades of maximum pressure on Cuba through the blockade*. continue reading
Rodríguez also stated that recently “copious evidence has been released about the US practice of allocating millions of dollars from the federal budget through entities such as USAID to finance organizations, media outlets, artificial intelligence laboratories and technological platforms that use the protection of human rights as a facade.”
“In reality, they respond to the legitimate political objectives of that government. This is a serious and pertinent matter for this Council and its mandate, as it demonstrates the double standards and opportunism with which the issue of human rights has been used to subvert sovereign governments,” he said.
The opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council coincided on Monday with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was the focus of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ speech. “Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the war in Ukraine is a grave threat not only to the peace and security of Europe, but also to the very foundations and fundamental principles of the United Nations,” he said.
The opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council coincided on Monday with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Cuba has not commented on this matter, in which it has always sided with Russia, calling the invasion a “special operation.” As of 31 January 2025, there were a total of 1,150 political and prisoners of conscience on the island “suffering judicial sentences or restraining orders,” according to the organization Prisoner Defenders.
Like that organization, the human rights NGO Amnesty International has denounced that the Cuban regime, which committed itself in January to release 553 prisoners, and has incurred in a multitude of “irregularities” and “lack of transparency” in the process .
According to the NGO, 172 prisoners have been released and another nine have received some change in their legal status, with most of these being participants in the anti-government demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J). Prisoners Defenders, for its part, estimates the number of political prisoners released to be 200, and added that it has accredited some common prisoners who have also been released.
Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
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Venezuelan, Colombian, Haitian and Peruvian migrants deported to Mexico choose to return to their countries of origin or look for work in Costa Rica
A group of migrants in a shelter in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on the border with the United States. / EFE
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 12 February 2025 — Irregular crossings by Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Ecuadorians and Nicaraguans, in addition to Humanitarian Parole and the CBP One application promoted by the Joe Biden Administration, contributed to the increase of 3,000,000 “unauthorized immigrants” in the United States between 2019 and 2023. According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), in this last year a population of 13.7 million irregular migrants was registered. “The country had not seen such large annual increases since the early 2000s,” it emphasizes.
The document, prepared by an independent, nonpartisan group of experts based in Washington, notes that between 2010 and 2019, the number of irregular migrants remained stable. “Growing political repression in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela fueled new displacement” in 2021, which coincided with the recovery of the US economy after the pandemic.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there were 13.7 million irregular migrants in the US in 2023
“At the same time, there was the economic crisis and episodes of insecurity in Central and South America, and outbreaks of gang violence in the continue reading
Caribbean,” the report adds.
Among the 12.8 million migrants counted by the United States in 2023, 171,958 of them were Cubans . At the beginning of that year, “the Biden Administration created two new humanitarian parole processes: a program that allows Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with American sponsors to travel to the United States on their own and through the use of the CBP One application, which allows migrants to schedule an appointment at a port of entry,” notes the MPI.
The numbers began to decline last year, according to the document due to “higher levels of law enforcement by Mexico and a series of asylum restrictions” months before the end of Biden’s administration. In the last two months of 2024, no Cubans arrived in the United States through humanitarian parole. The program that went into effect in 2023 and authorized travel to 110,970 citizens ended with the arrival of Donald Trump.
Under the Republican administration, the US is prioritizing deportations of illegal immigrants and has tightened border surveillance. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard returned 16 rafters who were intercepted 15 miles southwest of Gun Cay (Bahamas) on the Raymond Evan vessel.
Coast Guard Officer Brodie MacDonald warned that “we will continue to faithfully execute our border security mission in the Straits of Florida and the Caribbean Sea” and will deport those who try to enter illegally. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2025, on October 1, authorities have returned 98 Cubans, compared to 749 in fiscal year 2024.
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard returned 16 rafters who were intercepted in the Bahamas on the ship ’Raymond Evan’
Meanwhile, dozens of Venezuelans, Colombians, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Peruvians who were deported from the United States to Mexico have begun crossing the Nicaraguan border on their way back to their countries of origin, or to Costa Rica or Colombia in search of work, they themselves reported to the local press on Tuesday.
The migrants have crossed the Las Manos border checkpoint, on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, following changes in immigration policy implemented by the Donald Trump administration, according to testimonies offered to Radio ABC Stereo, a radio station in the northern region of Nicaragua.
Venezuelan Gustavo Enrique Gallardo told the media that he entered the United States on 20 December 2024, but that when he attended the immigration appointment he was detained for 45 days and later deported to Mexico. “We are going to Venezuela. They say (in the US) that we are criminals, but we are parents,” said the Maracaibo native.
Joel Martinez said his story was similar to Gallardo’s, except that he was only detained for a month and then sent to Mexico.
Also on the return trip were Venezuelans Milagros Rodríguez, her husband and their three children, who, according to their statements, were denied immigration appointments and, once their original permit expired, were deported to Mexico.
Las Manos is one of three border checkpoints and an international route shared by Honduras and Nicaragua. In Nicaraguan territory, it is located in the municipality of Dipilto, department of Nueva Segovia, 255 kilometers north of Managua.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
EFE (via 14ymedio) Havana, 14 April 2025 — Unlike on other Sundays, the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, was able to attend Mass, this time for Palm Sunday, at the Santa Rita Church in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The dissident was accompanied by Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. Embassy mission in Cuba, according to the opposition leader herself posting on social media.
