Mercedes García – Translating Cuba

In Cuba the Dollar Reaches 500 Pesos on the Informal Market in Holguín and Sancti Spíritus

Economist Pedro Monreal points to the failure of the floating exchange rate created by the government a month ago in its latest attempt to revalue the national currency

At the La Cuevita market in San Miguel del Padrón (Havana), the dollar was being bought at 480 CUP. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Holguín/Sancti Spíritus, Havana, Miguel García, Mercedes García, and Darío Hernández, January 22, 2026 – Just over a month after the official floating exchange rate went into effect, promising to revalue the national currency, the dollar has soared to 500 pesos in some parts of Cuba, such as Holguín. That is 10 CUP more per USD than the rate reported this Thursday by the independent platform El Toque (490) in its daily tracking of informal-market currency trading.

This was confirmed by a resident of Holguín who owns the electric tricycle he uses for work, whose electronic control box burned out. When he asked about prices, a private seller told him it cost $190. “I asked him what that was in pesos, because I didn’t have USD and had no way to get them, and after insisting that he preferred dollars, he told me the dollar was at 500 pesos.”

At the same time, mipymes [‘MSMEs’ — micro, small and medium-sized private enterprises] in the eastern city have raised prices for basic goods such as cooking oil, spaghetti, and chicken. “Starting this week, it’s going to be huge,” a Holguín resident laments ironically. Some merchants argue that inflation is precisely due to the new price of the dollar. “Due to the rise of the USD, there may be some price changes in certain products, but it’s nothing serious; we’re making an effort to keep prices as fair as possible,” they promise in a WhatsApp group.

“It’s not at all fair. They say they made the last purchase at one price for the dollar, but the next one will more expensive, so they’ll have to raise prices”

“Can you imagine? It’s not at all fair. They say they made the last purchase at one price for the dollar, but the next one will be more expensive, so they’ll have to raise prices,” the same woman says. continue reading

In Sancti Spíritus, most informal stalls are offering the dollar at the rate reported by El Toque, 490 CUP, but according to a source in the city, “there’s a mipyme that’s taking it at 500.” Meanwhile, in Havana, in most neighborhoods the dollar can be found at 490 pesos, but two days ago, at the La Cuevita market in San Miguel del Padrón, it was being bought at 480.

That same Tuesday, Cuban economist Pedro Monreal documented the failure of the most recent exchange-rate measures, comparing them to preparations for the “war of the whole people,” announced after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the U. S. in Caracas and the death of 32 Cuban soldiers in the operation. “Exactly one month passed between the announcement of a new official floating exchange rate and the notification of the analysis and approval of plans and measures for the ‘transition to a State of War’ in Cuba,” tweeted the specialist, who lives in Spain. “So far, the floating rate is fighting a losing battle.”

For now, Monreal continued, the peso “has depreciated 3.9% against the USD under the floating rate, failing to meet the government’s expectation that the ‘new official foreign-exchange market’ would help restore the purchasing power of the national currency.”

In effect, when the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) launched without prior notice an official floating exchange rate on December 18, to be added to the other two operating in the country: one at 1×24 for centralized state allocations for goods and services deemed essential, and another at 1×120 for certain “entities with the capacity to generate foreign currency,” such as tourism. The government presented it as the start of a transformation of the foreign-exchange market aimed at “bringing order” to the economy and moving toward future monetary unification.

In practice, however, the Island entered an even more complex stage of exchange-rate segmentation amid the worst economic crisis in decades. It quickly became evident that the population was ignoring the official rate, which was paradoxically very close to El Toque’s, against which the government had waged a harsh propaganda campaign months earlier, and they continued exchanging dollars on the informal market.

The peso “has depreciated 3.9% against the USD under the floating rate, failing to meet the government’s expectations”

In the following weeks, it could be seen that at state-run currency exchange offices (Cadeca), where dollars are virtually nonexistent and where the dollar was theoretically selling this Thursday at 457.92 pesos, only elderly people came to collect their pensions.

On January 9, yet another policy was added to the already convoluted exchange-rate market. The BCC opened a banking channel allowing private mipymes to legally purchase foreign currency through banks, but under very strict rules.

Thus, purchases by these private entrepreneurs can only be made based on the new floating rate, only once a month, and without being able to choose the amount. The amount is calculated by the bank by taking the average of what the mipyme deposited into its tax account over the previous three months, using only half of that money and converting it at the floating exchange rate in effect at the time.

In practice, this means that if a mipyme has had low or irregular income, it will be able to buy very few dollars, even if it urgently needs them to import raw materials, pay for services, or fulfill contracts. And if the business is just starting and does not yet have an income history, it could simply be left out altogether.

The BCC also made it clear that the entire process would be “bankarized.” Cuban pesos must be debited from the tax account, and the purchased foreign currency can only be deposited into the economic actor’s own foreign-currency account. No cash, no informal transfers, and no room for maneuver. Before approving the transaction, the bank will review the client’s identity, accounts, and the origin of the funds, as part of the controls that currently weigh on any economic activity on the Island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: The Year Is Going Down In Flames

The burning of the effigy once again brings together satire, catharsis, and tradition in neighborhoods of Sancti Spíritus

The burning of the effigy of the old year is not exclusive to Sancti Spíritus or Cuba, but on the island it has acquired a very particular character. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, January 1, 2026 – As evening falls on December 31st, in some neighborhoods of Sancti Spíritus, it is already clear that the year won’t pass in silence. Among scraps of wood, old clothes, cardboard, and empty bottles, the effigies of the “old year” begin to take shape—those makeshift figures that traditionally serve to concentrate frustrations, jokes, and collective catharsis before being set ablaze. There is no manual or single design: all it takes is a human-shaped body and the certainty that, when it burns, something symbolic will also go with the flames

In one of the doorways of the neighborhood, a mannequin stands as if guarding the street. It wears worn boots, blue pants, and—a far from innocent detail—a white sweater with the phrase “I Love This Island” printed next to a Cuban flag. The irony is obvious. In a country marked by mass exodus and social weariness, that message seems less like a slogan and more like an open question. “We made it like that on purpose,” a neighbor confesses as he adjusts the wire around its neck. “Loving the country doesn’t mean you don’t want to burn away all the bad things that happened,” he clarifies, listing everything from the long blackouts of 2025 to the chikungunya that left him with a sore knee.

**In a country marked by mass exodus and social fatigue, that message seems less like a slogan and more like an open question / 14ymedio**

A few meters further on, two nearly identical mannequins share the sidewalk. Both have exaggeratedly inflated bellies, short arms, and a rigid posture reminiscent of government officials: all belly, no brains. No explanatory sign is needed. Passersby look at them, smile, and whisper. Political satire finds a rudimentary but effective outlet here, protected by the alibi of tradition.

The burning of the effigy of the old year is not exclusive to Sancti Spíritus or Cuba, but on the island it has taken on a very particular character. Here it is mixed with local humor and the need for catharsis. Burning the effigy is a way of saying goodbye to the bad: the shortages, the lines, the broken promises, the exorbitant prices, and also the accumulated fears.

As night falls, when the street darkens continue reading

and someone lights a match, the atmosphere changes. The fire catches quickly. Flames devour the clothes, the wood crackles, and the effigy, seated in an old metal chair, is enveloped in an orange light that illuminates the nearby facades. There is applause, nervous laughter, and the occasional sarcastic comment. It’s not a solemn bonfire; it’s more of a domestic ritual, improvised, but full of meaning.

Political satire finds a rudimentary but effective channel here, protected by the alibi of tradition. / 14ymedio

While the effigy burns, in other parts of Cuba others perform their own rituals. At midnight, many throw buckets of water from their front doors to “wash away the bad.” Others, more optimistic or desperate, walk around the block with an empty suitcase, convinced that this will attract a trip in the coming year. Every gesture, however small it may seem, is a gamble on hope.

When only ashes and a lingering smell of burnt fabric remain, the street regains its calm. The effigy is gone, but the gesture remains. In Sancti Spíritus, as in so many places across the country, burning the effigy of the old year doesn’t change reality overnight, but it allows for something equally necessary: to say, without speeches or slogans, that there was too much weight to carry and that at least tonight, the decision was made to release it into the fire.

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The Egg Breaks Another Record in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba

In a shop in Kilo 12, a carton now costs 3,400 pesos, putting it even further out of reach for many households.

Eggs for sale in a private shop in Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, November 27, 2025 — For months, in Sancti Spíritus, they said – with a mixture of resignation and hope – that the price of eggs “could not go any higher”. When a carton of 30 eggs climbed to 3,000 pesos, many Sancti Spíritus residents claimed that the product had reached its ceiling. “It won’t go any higher,” they repeated in farmers’ markets, improvised queues and WhatsApp groups. But this week, in a small private shop in the Kilo 12 neighbourhood, a handwritten sign shattered that illusion of a limit being reached: 3,400 pesos.

The scene in front of the shop seems routine, but something in the atmosphere suggests that it is not. Three people wait in line—a young woman in flip-flops, a woman in very short shorts, and a heavyset man carrying a bag slung across his back—none of them speaking. The stillness has a visible weight. Even the black and white cat prowling near the peeling wall moves with a certain caution, as if it understands that an invisible barrier has been crossed in that corner.

The rough granite counter holds several cartons of 30 eggs each. Each one is an expensive promise, a small privilege for those who can still afford it. In a country where the average monthly wage is less than 6,500 pesos, buying one of these cartons means spending more than half of one’s monthly income. A luxury for some, an urgent necessity for others.

Workers leaving their homes complain loudly, pensioners stop to stare incredulously at the sign, and motorcyclists drive slowly past.

>The seller, safely inside the shop, spends the day repeating the same phrase to those who approach: “Yes, they’re now 3,400.” In the neighbourhood, news of the new price spreads quickly: workers leaving their homes complain loudly, pensioners stop to stare incredulously at the sign, and motorcyclists drive by slowly, as if weighing up whether it is worth stopping. Some even clean their glasses for fear that dust has distorted the price.

In Cuba, eggs have always been a barometer of the crisis. Their price rose with inflation, with the lack of feed for poultry, with the decline in domestic production and with speculation by those who fill the gaps left by the state. But this jump of 400 pesos in a few weeks has another flavour: that of absolute vulnerability. “My pension is 3,000 pesos, which isn’t even enough for a carton,” says a man watching the scene from a safe distance.

In the city, residents make complex calculations, given that many shops only sell whole cartons, not individual eggs. “Do you want to buy half?” one neighbour shouts to another on the opposite pavement. Inflation forces people to resort to increasingly distressing arithmetic.

Translated by GH
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The Cuban Government Owes Beekeepers Approximately $20 Million for Honey Exports

In 2024, sales in foreign currency are estimated to have reached $45 million for more than 8,000 tonnes.

Producers point to Apicuba as the cause of the constant delays in their payments. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 25 July 2025 — “Climbing the walls” is how Normando, a beekeeper from the municipality of Manicaragua in Villa Clara, describes his situation. The state has not paid him for the honey he delivered in 2024, which was sold on the international market. With the non-payments from previous years, producers estimate the debt at around 20 million in one of the few exportable items that continues to yield juicy dividends.

“Not only do they owe me honey, I delivered wax and royal jelly, but they still haven’t paid me what they owe me in foreign currency” complains the man from Villaclara. “They owe money to all the beekeepers in this province and they keep putting us off every time we ask about it. We’ve been waiting for more than half a year and nothing.”

Over the last decade, Cuba has maintained a steady volume of honey exports, considered one of the island’s most valued agricultural products on the international market due to its low level of contaminants. However, the sector is facing a serious crisis of liquidity, fuel and supplies, which directly affects beekeepers. continue reading

“I have to buy wood to repair beehives, fuel to get around, not to mention that my family has to eat.”

I have to buy wood to repair some hives, fuel to get around, and I have to make other investments, not to mention that my family has to eat, clothe themselves, and buy shoes too,” Normando tells 14ymedio. “But my bees won’t wait.”

According to industry sources, the state charges around US$4,000 or more per tonne of honey exported and gives 20% to beekeepers: between 35,000 and 40,000 pesos, plus 600 MLC. The same sources estimate that in 2024 honey exports exceeded 8,000 tonnes and, given the rise in prices (an average of $5,500 per tonne), the state’s revenues reached $45 million.

Cuban honey, categorised as “organic” and with low residue levels, is particularly popular in Germany and other EU countries, where it fetches much higher prices than ordinary honey.

At the most recent session of the ANPP, it became clear that the beekeeping sector had declined in the first half of 2025.

However, at the most recent session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, it became clear that the beekeeping sector had declined in the first half of 2025. The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, acknowledged that exports of tobacco, lobster and fishery products “were not sufficient to offset the decline in volumes of nickel and other mining products, honey, coal, farmed and wild shrimp, and biopharmaceutical products”.

Producers point to the Cuban Beekeeping Company (Apicuba), the state monopoly that controls the sector, as responsible for the constant delays in their payments. Farmers can deliver their honey to the entity, but only when the entire shipment is sent abroad and sold do they receive their payment, at least in theory, because in reality it can take several months after that date before they are able to collect.

Many beekeepers also complain about the bureaucracy they have to deal with before they get their money. As well as the red tape is the fact that the banks dont have any cash, a problem that affects the entire country and is having a very negative impact on the Cuban countryside, where many services, labour and resources are still paid for directly with paper money.

They cannot even access loans to maintain their hives or repair equipment.

In the province of Sancti Spíritus, the situation is the same. Beekeepers complain that the authorities have failed to meet the agreed payment deadlines and that they cannot even access loans to maintain their hives or repair equipment. “Last year was the last time I fell into that trap. This year, I’m going to get out of the honey business, at least on paper. I’m going to keep a few hives to sell directly to private customers and nothing else,” a Sancti Spíritus producer owned up to this newspaper.

“We have to buy everything in foreign currency or at very high prices because Apicuba doesn’t guarantee anything. Boxes, centrifuges, spatulas, blades, buckets, gloves, veils, frames, wires, lids, bottoms, sheets and biological controllers, all of that has to be paid for in hard currency, but as our payments aren’t coming in we have to postpone those purchases and production suffers,” he explains.

There is still no public, specific timetable for settling debts with producers. Despite complaints, the authorities have not offered a clear public response regarding the non-payments, limiting themselves to acknowledging “delays in the payment chain” during recent meetings with the agricultural sector. The Ministry of Agriculture has promised to review the contracts, but there is still no public, specific timetable for settling debts with producers.

“The last time I asked, they told me that in the second half of this year they were going to pay for 2024, but I don’t believe them anymore,” says the producer. “My son, who is also a beekeeper but lives in Najasa, Camagüey, is in the same situation, so this is a national problem.”

Translated by GH
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Parish and Pharmacy: The Catholic Church Tries to Alleviate the Medication Shortage in Sancti Spíritus

“I don’t even go to state pharmacies because I know there’s nothing like that.”

Outside the Major Parish Church of the Holy Spirit, patients and family members of chronically ill people gather every Saturday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, September 7, 2025 — Some have gray hair while others are young, united by their need for some of the medications in short supply at government-run pharmacies. Outside Holy Spirit Church, patients and relatives of the chronically ill gather every Saturday looking for drugs to treat fevers, diabetes, or asthma. These medications are distributed free of charge here upon presentation of a medical prescription.

At the corner of Boulevard and Honorato del Castillo Park, Belkis is one of the more than 2.5 million Cubans with hypertension waiting in line. “I came to see if they have enalapril or some other medication that will help me control my blood pressure because right now I have good days and others with very dangerous spikes.” The 66-year-old Sancti Spiritus resident has been coming here for months in search of the pills she needs.

“I have a card but, since the beginning of this year, I haven’t been able to buy all the medicines I need at the pharmacy. Sometimes they have them and some times they don’t,” she says. Cuba’s drug shortage primarily continue reading

affects products manufactured on the island, which accounts for 80% of the basic supply. “To say that this situation will be resolved in the next few days would be irresponsible,” Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda admitted last year. The situation has only worsened since then.

Caption — Medical accessories and devices to alleviate the pain of bedridden patients are also distributed at the facility / 14ymedio

For Belkis, the service provided by the city’s Catholic Church has made the difference between “ending up in a hospital emergency room every week or leading a more or less normal life.” The facility also distributes medical supplies and devices for bedridden patients. “I came for some disposable diapers for my grandmother, who has been bedridden for over a year,” explains a young man who has received gauze, cotton and cream to alleviate the elderly woman’s bedsores. “I don’t even bother with the government’s pharmacies because I know they don’t have any of those things.”

Other religious communities, such as the growing number of evangelical groups, also offer medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements and supplies for hospital patients. While the black market offers a wide array of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, public health officials warn of the dangers of buying these items there. “I feel safer coming here than looking for them on the street,” admits Belkis as she waits her turn in line at the small parish dispensary. If she can get some enalapril this Saturday, she will have a few worry-free days ,” she claims.
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Outside Havana, Cubans Live an Existence Without Electricity, Exhausted and Sleepless

Many families cook on their porches with coal or firewood and the air becomes unbreathable due to the smoke.

A makeshift wood-burning stove on a street in Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 29 August 2025 — In the Cuban provinces, when the power returns after a daily blackout of about 20 hours, a frenetic flurry of activity begins, regardless of whether it is day or night. Residents don’t exactly know when that moment will come, but they know they have very little time to do all the things the regular power outages haven’t allowed them to do.

“We only find out when it comes, and we know we have two, three, or four hours ahead of us,” says Alicia, a resident of Sancti Spíritus who doesn’t quite understand the electricity rationing “schedule” the central province is under. “The only thing that’s certain is that we have to run and turn on the washing machine, or put some rice in the crockpot.”

On Monday, it happened at one in the morning: “At that time I started preparing breakfast for the family to have in the morning, because my husband had to go to work and the power would be out by then.”

Residents of Camagüey report a similar situation. In the 36 hours spent in the city by a Havana resident visiting relatives, “if there were six with electricity, it was a lot,” he told 14ymedio. “When the power comes on, it’s a race against time to try to use the appliances: running the washing machine, charging cell phones, freezing some meats, turning on the water pumps to store it in the tanks. continue reading

“People are already so mentally exhausted that they just say ’the power went out,’ and they already know that more heat is coming without a fan and they’ll have a hard time.”

The most surprising thing for him is how “they’ve adjusted their lives to an existence without electricity.” Inés, a native of Sancti Spiritus, shares the same sentiment: “People are so mentally exhausted that all they say is ’the power’s out,’ and they already know that even hotter weather is coming without a fan and they’ll have to struggle to cook, but they’ve found their own way of surviving; they no longer care whether there’s electricity or not.”

There are professionals who continue to work by candlelight, or by a rechargeable lamp. A few days ago, this is how a veterinarian in Ciego de Ávila treated patients, with a light bulb attached to a headband. Tired, he and an assistant shared the urgent cases that came into the office, while looking up at the ceiling and whispering, “Long live the Cuban Revolution!”

The survival instinct even makes people respond, “Everything is normal,” in a city like Holguín, where, according to the Electric Company’s latest schedule, they only have seven hours of electricity out of 24, and that every other day. The next day, they “enjoy” three more hours. However, according to the 14ymedio correspondent in the area, “in some places, electricity is leaving earlier than usual and arriving later.”

Those who can cook with wood or charcoal, so the streets in a country that prides itself on investing in clean energy are filled with unbreathable air. “At eight o’clock at night, you can’t go out because you suffocate,” Alicia confirms. “Everyone is cooking with wood in their doorways or patios. The smoke covers everything.”

But not even these primitive methods are affordable for everyone. “Those who can cook with firewood,” says a resident of Santiago de Cuba, “because a can of charcoal costs 300 pesos and a sack, 1,200.”

“If it’s in the morning, the workers go to the city to deal with things and come back, but if it’s after three in the afternoon, they all go home.”

In Santa Clara, the power is also constantly cut off, Roniel says. “If it’s in the morning, the workers go to the city to resolve issues and come back, but if it’s after 3:00 p.m., they all go home.” They know that in two hours, the time left until the end of the workday at 5:00 p.m., the power won’t be restored. The man laments, resigned: “Tell me how a country like this can be productive.”

The inconvenient hours also prevent people from getting rest, something already difficult with the summer heat and the mosquitoes that proliferate without fans. “You can’t sleep, because when the light comes on, you have to get up and get things done,” says Inés. Thus, disturbed, stressed, and deranged individuals wander the streets from lack of sleep. Many are visibly drunk; alcohol and drugs are their only escape.

For this Friday, the Cuban Electricity Union forecasts a deficit of 1,565 megawatts (MW) during peak hours—for a demand of 3,750 MW and an availability of 2,215 MW—which will result in an actual shortage of 1,635 MW. This is a “low” figure in a week in which a shortage of no less than 1,700 MW has predominated.

Inés has been suffering from nervousness for months, she says, without being able to see a doctor. “There’s no time to get sick here,” the haggard woman says. “I’m waiting for the doctor to come back from vacation and give me pills to feel better.”

The scene unfolds before the attentive eyes of the neighborhood’s residents. The lack of distractions—not to mention the lack of internet service almost all day long—means everyone is absorbed in other people’s conversations and arguments. Inés then lowers her voice: “I realize I live in an impossible place. When I think about it, what I want is to die, to disappear, because I don’t know what the future holds.”

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Due to a Lack of Reagents in Hospitals, Cubans Do Not Know if They Have Oropuuche or Dengue Fever

The spread of both viruses is advancing throughout most of the country amid a lack of diagnosis and the proliferation of mosquitoes.

Doctors used to visit the homes of dengue patients. Now that practice has been lost. / Archive/Granma

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 28 August 2025 — Oropouche or dengue? The question has been on Dayana’s mind for a week. For the a 35-year-old resident of Sancti Spíritus, the conclusion is always the same: “I’ll never know, because the clinic doesn’t have any reagents.” The young woman is just one of the many victims of the malaise caused by both viruses, which has spread throughout her neighborhood, among her acquaintances, and, according to the island’s authorities, throughout the country.

“That,” “the virus,” or “whatever’s going around” are the new names Dayana and many other Sancti Spiritus residents have given to the symptoms common to both illnesses—fever, malaise, joint pain—due to the lack of resources at health centers to determine which one they suffer from. In reality, she confesses to 14ymedio, the diagnosis doesn’t matter because “here, everyone already knows they should rest and use home remedies: lots of cherry or guava leaf decoctions, gelatin, chicken foot broth and water, lots of water.”

Both diseases have spread in recent weeks, especially oropouche, which, according to epidemiologist Francisco Durán’s report on Cuban Television on Wednesday, is now present in 11 provinces. Dengue has spread to seven, but presents a more complex “condition” than oropouche. Four patients are reported to be in intensive care, two diagnosed as seriously ill and two as critically ill. continue reading

The United States Embassy on the island published two alerts warning its citizens about the risks

The spread of the virus has even set off alarm bells at the U.S. Embassy on the island, which issued two alerts on Wednesday warning its citizens of “an increase in the number of cases of dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche virus throughout Cuba,” as well as hepatitis A, the latter primarily in Havana.

“Hepatitis A is primarily transmitted through contaminated food and water. Areas with inadequate water supply systems, ineffective garbage collection, and an abundance of flies pose a particularly high risk of transmission. These conditions persist in several areas of the city,” the statement said.

For Dayana, however, life goes on with or without the virus. “It’s been a week or so since I had ‘it,’ and so has my mom, and a lot of people in the neighborhood. Yesterday I went to work and my boss and the finance department were there, but everyone keeps working like this, everyone keeps doing their things despite the illness,” she says.

In hospitals, she says, it’s not given much importance either. “I went to the clinic myself when I started feeling ill, and after telling me there was no lab test, the doctor told me: ’That’s dengue or oropouche. Rest and drink plenty of water,’” she says.

In years past, she recalls, “when people had these symptoms, a doctor would come to see you and tell you that you had to stay home, that you couldn’t go out. The mosquito team [Epidemiology] would also come and check your yard to see how your water was. Now they don’t do anything; no one takes care of it,” she laments.

“There’s also the problem of garbage. There are many [formal and informal] dumps throughout the city that haven’t been collected in a long time.”

To make matters worse, she says with annoyance, viruses are transmitted by mosquitoes, and in Sancti Spíritus “they’re a daily occurrence.” “Here, water comes twice a day, and with the huge number of leaks, it spills and accumulates everywhere,” she complains.

When water starts to flood the pipes, she explains, “my own neighbors leave the tank open, and the water runs all over my yard. There’s also the problem of garbage. There are many dumps throughout the city, long uncollected, with basins where water accumulates every time it rains.”

The panorama and ditches make the city the perfect breeding ground for the proliferation of Aedes aegypti, Culex , and “a host of other pests” that transmit diseases. In Dayana’s opinion, it’s a miracle that her neighborhood doesn’t also have an outbreak of hepatitis, which is transmitted through contaminated water and food.

On Cuban Television, where the island portrayed is very different from the real one, Durán recommended always going to health centers to receive a diagnosis. “In Cuba, everyone is a doctor,” the epidemiologist joked, referring to those who self-diagnose, impose treatments on themselves and their families, or resort to home remedies, despite the fact that there is nothing health workers in hospitals can do for their patients.

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At the Calle Cuba Store in Camagüey, the Dollar Has Free Rein

“If that store is in dollars, I can’t enter,” complains an elderly Party activist.

Customers who lined up this Monday in different parts of the Calle Cuba store in Camagüey are “people with access to hard currency.”/ 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Camagüey, 26 August 2025 — Cubans who handle dollars are distinguished by certain outfits and attitudes. Many wear branded clothing, gold chains and use perfumes that remain in the air after they have already left. Shops in US currency also have an obvious stamp. Well lit, with shelves full of products and even shopping carts, the Calle Cuba market in the city of Camagüey fits perfectly into the new image that the green bills give the State shops.

On the outskirts of the premises, a custodian clarifies to the clueless customers that “this is no longer in MLC,” the freely convertible currency that is in free fall and worth only 195 pesos against the 405 dollars exchanged on the informal market. But the employee’s warning is not necessary. It is enough to look inside and see the shelves loaded with packaged sweets, grains, sauces and legumes to realize that in the Calle Cuba, the “fula” (US dollar) has a clear path with no brakes. Even the customers who lined up this Monday in the area of the butcher shop are “people with access to currency,” a curious man who only entered “to look into the future,” says sarcastically.

Façade of the Calle Cuba store, in Camagüey, where everything is sold in dollars / 14ymedio

Managed by the chain Tiendas Caribe, the central market is located right on the street that bears the name of the country. A coincidence that has not been overlooked by the most critical members of the Communist Party with the dollarization that advances on the island and that had its beginning in the inauguration, last January, of the 3rd and 70th Supermarket in Havana. “If that store is in dollars, I can’t enter,” says a dismayed elderly Party militant, paraphrasing a verse by Martí and wary of official explanations to boost trade with US currency.

“I don’t have dollars and I don’t want them,” she says. Her look also fits the stereotype of Cubans who only use the national currency: clothes bought in the rationed market of industrial products more than 30 years ago and a sneer of frustration. She has a cloth bag on her shoulder and is waiting to find something to buy with the Cuban pesos she receives as her pension.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Chinese Negotiate Shorter Power Cuts for Their Workers in Cuba

While Russia announces many projects without finalizing them, Beijing delivers solar parks without stopping.

Solar park under construction in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus. / Escambray

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 30 June 2025 — They complained about too-long power cuts and got a substantial reduction because Chinese engineers have installed a photovolcaic park in the key sector of Cabaiguán, Sancti Spiritus, the province worst affected by blackouts.

The Chinese, who have shown themselves able to install solar parks much faster than normal on the island, have received power cuts from their local electric supply where they live much shorter than the normal 14 continuous hours

“They complained about the cuts, and as a result they have sevice from 5 pm to 9 pm and 6 am to 10 am,” said a local woman who knows about the situation but wanted to remain anonymous. “They were not shouting about it.” she said. “They asked to meet the authorities and raised their concerns, it was a complaint along the lines of we don’t agree with being without service at a time when we need it.”

The Chinese, she said, are staying at the Rancho Hatuey hotel, within circuit 119 of Sancti Spíritus, which, according to the authorities’ schedule, was only planned to have one hour of power for 14 hours of blackout. This continue reading

circuit, she explained, called Los Laureles, “runs from the Rotonda to Chambelón and surrounding areas,” where the Rancho Hatuey and Los Laureles hotels are located, as well as the Communist Party of Cuba’s guest house, the Cupet asphalt plant, the poultry slaughterhouse and other important centres. “They don’t take any notice of us, but they do to the Chinese”, the neighbour concluded. “Since they are the ones bringing the panels.

With the Chinese equipment comes trucks and fuel to transport it overland to make sure it reaches its final destination.

On this subject, Reuters published on Monday that shipments to Cuba from China via Mariel increased in August last year. The British agency has sources in import data and several foreign businessmen, and reports that the ships brought solar panels, steel, tools and other parts from ports such as Shanghai or Tianjin for the photovoltaic parks that are being built on the island at an accelerated pace.

And it’s not just the equipment that arrives. Coming with them are trucks and fuel to transport them overland to ensure they reach their final destination. “The impact of the arrival of Chinese ships can be seen throughout the Cuban countryside, where trucks with Chinese lettering travel over bumpy roads to reach remote destinations such as Jatibonico,” Reuters explains in its report, naming the city in Espiritu.

One of the sources, Noel Gonzalez, a driver, is “amazed and grateful” to the agency “for the Chinese diligence”: “The Chinese come and periodically check every litre of oil, every route we take,” he said.

In its article, titled “China quietly replaces Russia as Cuba’s main benefactor,” Reuters also refers to the announced arrival of the Russians at the Uruguay sugar mill in Jatibonico, which has yet to materialise. “When are they coming? That’s all anyone is talking about,” Carlos Tirado Pino, one of the few remaining employees at the sugar mill, which remains inactive, told the British agency.

In October 2022, four months after this newspaper first reported the closure of the “colossus of Jatibonico”, the news was confirmed by the official newspaper Escambray. The article hinted that the hope for hundreds of workers who were left without jobs was in Moscow, as a Russian delegation had visited Uruguay and expressed its intention to create a joint venture that would save it.

Eddy Gil Pérez, director of Empresa Agroindustrial Azucarera Uruguay, showed his enthusiasm at the time for the possible Russian management: “We are among the nine sugar mills in the country chosen for this business”, he revealed. More than six months later, in February 2023, workers in the sector were informed that the agreement had been finalised with Moscow and that Uruguay was not to be counted on for the harvest because it was undergoing refurbishment work.

But since then, nothing has happened. A state worker sceptically told 14ymedio “They talk about coming here, and projects, but all in an idealistic tone, like back in Soviet times.”

According to Reuters, while China is getting on with building solar parks – with 55 programmed for this year – Russia’s plans for the island are just promises.

“Bogged down in the war in Ukraine and reluctant to invest more money in the Cuban crisis, it is now less of a historical partner,” the agency commented, quoting William LeoGrande, professor of Latin American politics at American University: “Russia’s words have always been bigger than its deeds. If China is stepping up its aid in the face of Cuba’s desperate situation, it could be a real lifesaver”.

Translated by GH

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Fidel Castro is Resurrected With Insulting Graffiti in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba

“Right now, it’s full of police officers, and there are 40 informants watching everything.”

New signs against the Cuban regime have appeared on the boulevard of Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 June 2025 — This Friday morning, new posters against the Cuban regime appeared on the boulevard of Sancti Spíritus. Near the shopping plaza, one of those spaces beautified with a brushstroke by the authorities to mask urban decay, two phrases appeared that were impossible to ignore: “Down with Fidel” and “Down with the Revolution.”

The scene, amid the morning shopping rush, sparked a wave of murmurs among the neighbors. And, as expected, it also provoked an immediate response: a spectacular surveillance operation. continue reading

“I thought it was a joke, until I saw what they were saying: ’Down with Fidel and Down with the Revolution.’” / 14ymedio

“I went to the plaza, as I do almost every day,” a witness who preferred not to give her name told 14ymedio. “I saw they were painting a wall and thought it was maintenance. But as I was leaving, I heard a woman say they had put up signs. I thought it was a joke, until I saw what they said: ‘Down with Fidel and Down with the Revolution’.”

The plaza where the slogans appeared sells agricultural products during the day and is padlocked at night, indicating that the author or authors acted early, when the gates are already open to the public. “If it had been nighttime, they wouldn’t have let the people see them,” the woman reflects. On the yellow-painted wall, the marks of the letters scraped with some tool can still be seen. If the original graffiti was precarious, the action of concealing it was more improvised.

Despite attempts to quickly delete the messages, several witnesses managed to read them and, most feared by those in power, comment on them. What followed was almost a caricature of policing: dozens of police officers, plainclothes officers who make no bones about it, and a swarm of cadres and community officials patrolling the area. “Right now, it’s packed with police, and there are 40 informers watching everything,” the source added. “I had to pretend, because they stared at me as if I were the culprit.”

“The funny thing is that they resurrected Fidel Castro… at least to insult him.”

What was scandalous wasn’t just the content of the graffiti—already a deadly taboo in official discourse—but its symbolic audacity. In a country where even mentioning Fidel Castro critically can still be considered heresy, reading his name after “down with” is a mortal sin. “The curious thing is that they’ve resurrected Fidel Castro… at least to insult him,” the witness notes sarcastically.

The appearance of these signs reflects growing popular discontent. It comes amid marathon blackouts, an acute economic crisis, and a clear rise in popular discontent. “A neighbor told me that it seemed incredibly strange to have electricity from six in the morning until ten. Until recently, they were barely given an hour and a half of electricity a day,” she adds.

Sancti Spíritus, traditionally seen as one of the country’s most peaceful provinces—at least on the surface—is no longer immune to the contagion of weariness. And this isn’t an isolated graffiti: just a few weeks ago, another subversive slogan appeared at the intersection of Carretera Central and Avenida de los Mártires. There, on a Jaimanita paving slab, someone wrote “Down with the dictatorship” near the inscription: “Sancti Spíritus continues the march.” It didn’t take long for the people to find the irony: “The stain continues.”

The problem is not a “situation”, as the official script repeats, but a chronically failed system.

Holguín was not far behind. Similar messages appeared in the Lenin neighborhood and on the wall of the Mayabe cemetery. In Guanabacoa, one was written on the wall of a medical post near a military neighborhood. And defiant signs have also been reported at several universities across the country—where protests against the Etecsa rate hike — the so-called ‘tarifazo’ — have been most intense.

But this Friday, the people of Sancti Spiritus didn’t target Díaz-Canel, who for many is merely a figurehead within Cuba’s power structures. They went straight to the ideological heart: to Fidel and the Revolution, as if they were crystal clear that the problem isn’t a “situation,” as the official script repeats, but rather a chronically failed system. A tired model that can’t even cover up the growing crack in the walls with a single stroke.

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Cuban Communist Party in Sancti Spíritus Suggests Residents Resolve Their Water Problems With the Private Sector

For more than two weeks now, the pump that serves several apartment blocks and that extracts water from the cistern and pumps it into the tanks stopped working.

Daily, dozens of residents, mostly women, elderly people, and children, gather in front of the broken reservoir with tanks and buckets. It’s not an unusual scene; it’s repeated daily. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 17 June 2025 — At Los Olivos 3, in Sancti Spíritus, the days begin and end with the same sound: the dull thud of buckets, the murmur of complaints, and the squeak of wheelbarrows. In buildings numbered 14 through 24, daily life has become an endurance race since the pump that draws water from the cistern and pumps it into the tanks stopped working more than two weeks ago.

The story is as old as the state’s lack of interest. “We went to the Aqueduct, to the Physical Planning Department, and then to the government,” says a resident who asked not to be identified, fearing retaliation. “At every office, every time, they gave us the same response: evasive answers, excuses, that they don’t have parts, that there’s no turbine.”

“At every office, they gave us the same response: evasive answers, excuses, that they don’t have parts, that there’s no turbine.”

The institutional apathy is evident in the proposal they finally received from the Party: that the residents meet and pay a private individual to repair the pump. “At the moment, they have no way to solve the problem,” they said. And so, with a terse phrase, they placed the weight of public responsibility on the weary shoulders of a community barely able to cope. continue reading

Multi-family buildings like those at Los Olivos were a testament to socialist urban planning: identical concrete blocks that promised dignity and community. But over time, like so many other pillars of the Cuban model, these buildings have crumbled not only physically but also in terms of institutional support. Pipes collapse, roofs leak, and water pumps break without anyone noticing.

The State is increasingly neglecting its affairs and responsibilities. On the one hand, they maintain control, prohibiting everything from the unauthorized installation of railings in hallways to the establishment of private businesses in common areas, but they no longer fulfill their obligations to public infrastructure: facades, water pumps, electrical outlets, elevators (the few that exist), and so on.

The Los Olivos case is not unique. It is repeated in different parts of the country, where residents must raise money, seek informal solutions, and hire makeshift mechanics to maintain what should be part of the basic functioning of a model that calls itself “socialist,” only for what suits it. The de facto privatization of public services in the hands of those affected has become the rule rather than the exception.

In Cuba, leftist solutions have been institutionalized under the shadow of an apparatus that claims to own the system but refuses to take responsibility for its failures. Residents organize, collect, and arrange for repairs, while officials manage rhetoric and excuses.

“What happens in homes where there are people who are bedridden, have limited mobility, or who depend on a neighbor to bring up a bucket of water for them?”

The water crisis also affects hygiene, nutrition, and health. “What happens to homes where there are people who are bedridden, have limited mobility, or depend on a neighbor to bring up a bucket of water for them?” another resident asks. And this, day after day, adds to the other problems: long lines, power outages, limited transportation, high prices, lack of medicine, as well as the increase in violence and drug use.

Others are still debating how to organize the collections, as not everyone can contribute. If there are people who don’t even have enough bread, how can you ask them for money for a pump that the state should be fixing? The photos show what the official reports don’t. They show a desperate community: men and women dragging buckets, clashes that create sparks between neighbors, children playing in stagnant puddles as if they don’t yet understand that what they’re experiencing isn’t normal, even though it has already become routine.

This is also the story of resignation disguised as “creative resistance,” of how the population has been educated to “figure things out,” to “fend for themselves,” to accept as natural what would otherwise lead to resignation.

Meanwhile, the residents of Los Olivos 3 continue to gather, buckets in hand, hoping that this time there will be pressure, even if only in the pipes. Because the other pressure, the social pressure, has long since dissipated among the broken hallways of the forgotten buildings.

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“We Were Summoned To Unload the Rice, but the Men on the Ship Won’t Deliver It Until They See the Money”

Coming from Canada, the ‘Santamaría’ arrived at the port of Cienfuegos on June 6 and is waiting at sea.

The grain arrives on the island imported from countries such as Brazil, the United States, Guyana, and Vietnam / 5 de Septiembre

14ymedio, Mercedes García, June 10, 2025 — The cargo ship Santamaría has not yet unloaded in the port of Cienfuegos because the Cuban authorities have not paid for the rice.

The grain, intended for the quota of the June basic family basket, has not reached the ration markets in Sancti Spíritus.

Ration store employees are forbidden to post “no rice” signs to prevent photos of the shortage ending up on Facebook

The stores and warehouses of the rationed market in Sancti Spíritus received the news this Monday like a jug of cold water poured over them. They will have to continue waiting for the rice that is in the hold of the Santamaría, the ship with the Panamanian flag that came from Canada and arrived in Cienfuegos on June 6. The lack of payment is keeping the cargo on board and consumers waiting without explanation.

“I was going to put up a sign saying there is no rice, but we are directed not to put up anything, because then people take a photo and post it on Facebook,” says the employee of a ration store (bodega) in the Kilo 12 neighborhood, where most of his colleagues have been delaying the issue for days. The bodega is, in fact, so empty that in the last few days, only “some sweets for children are left”. continue reading

The stevedores and other workers in the sector are becoming accustomed to this type of situation. “We were summoned to unload the rice, but the men on the ship won’t deliver it until they see the money,” an employee of the Ministry of Internal Trade tells 14ymedio.

“Before, this happened once in a while, but now every time we have to stop a distribution operation of some product, especially rice, because it has not been possible to pay for the cargo at the port,” he says. “The month is already moving forward, and if this takes a few more days, people here won’t have rice until the second half of June, if they are lucky, and if not, they are left without rice until July or August,” he regrets.

“You can see that the rice intended for the basic basket doesn’t arrive, but the product continues to come in,” says a woman

“You can see that the rice intended for the basic basket doesn’t arrive, but the product continues to come in,” says a woman. In the private stores of Sancti Spíritus, a pound of imported rice now ranges between 240 and 300 pesos, depending on the quality and whether it is sold in bulk or in one-kilo packages, far from the 155 pesos per pound that was imposed as a price cap on the whole country in March.

The grain, indispensable in the daily menu, which Cuba imports from Brazil, the US, Guyana and Vietnam, constitutes in many households an essential nutritional support, given the high prices of animal proteins, vegetables and produce.

The rice that ends up in private stores comes through state importers, which individuals are obliged to use. Even the stevedores, trucks and warehouses used for the goods channel the supply to the MSMEs. But while the products destined for the ration book do not reach the province, “the containers for the MSMEs do not stop.”

The cost to unload the Santamaría is not known, but the amount is part of the “more than 300 million dollars” that the Cuban government annually spends to import rice for subsidized sale, according to vice president Salvador Valdés Mesa in February. The figure may be even higher. According to the 2023 data, 343,305,000 dollars were invested that year, a record figure in the last five years (in 2019 it was 239,725,000 dollars), especially if one takes into account the decline in population.

“We need to increase national production so that this currency can be used to meet other needs,” said Valdés Mesa

“We need to increase national production so that this currency can be used to meet other needs,” said Valdés Mesa, amid the popular unrest that had caused the delay of several months, from the arrival of the rice quota corresponding to December 2024, that finally, in many provinces, Cubans only managed to consume in mid-February of this year.

The delay in unloading ships due to the Government’s inability to pay is becoming more frequent. In April of last year, up to eleven ships surrounded the island for several days loaded with food, as acknowledged by the first deputy minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, in the first podcast of Miguel Díaz-Canel. The situation has been admitted on many occasions by the authorities, who attribute it to the consequences of US economic sanctions that not only affect bulk carriers but, frequently, the electric power.

In September 2024, while the Cubans were suffering one of the largest waves of power outages that year, four tankers waited in Cuban ports for payment before being unloaded. Less than a month ago, there was a similar situation with liquefied gas, which according to the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, has not been supplied in Cuba for 117 of the 150 days of the year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Sancti Spíritus, the March for the Revolution Became a Stain on the Cuban Regime

They have rushed to erase the slogan “Down with the dictatorship,” painted next to a quote from Fidel Castro.

“Sancti Spíritus Continues the March” say the official letters. Removing the graffiti below has not been an easy task, given that the surface of the complex is covered with what are known as Jaimanita slabs, a rough and very irregular finish. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 4 June 2025 — A stain can say more than a message. A smudged wall reads as if the letters that once covered it were still there. The phrase “Down with the dictatorship,” which appeared this Tuesday at the intersection of Carretera Central and Avenida de los Mártires (Marcos García) in Sancti Spíritus, has already been painted over, but everyone who passes by the central corner looks at the mark on the wall and visualizes what it said.

The graffiti, painted in front of the provincial headquarters of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment and José Martí University, lasted only a few hours. It appeared in a context of intense unrest among Cubans, especially university students, over the rate hike by Etecsa, the State telecommunications company. As the first light of morning spread across the area, a cleanup operation arrived. The Cuban regime has not only had to oil its mechanisms of repression and surveillance as popular anger grows, but it has also become adept at scrubbing graffiti, covering anti-government signs, and turning slogans of indignation that appear on facades into official propaganda slogans.

Anti-government graffiti — “Down with the Dictatorship” — this Tuesday at the University of Sancti Spíritus. / Networks

In some cases, such as the three words that formed “Down with Communism” on a wall in Holguín, they placed crude brushstrokes of such poor quality that some letters are still legible. In others, such as the one scrawled this Tuesday on the monument to the independence fighter Serafín Sánchez on the corner of Sancti Spiritus, they have opted to clean the surface to banish every stroke, eliminating all traces of social anger. It has not been an easy task, given that the surface of the complex is covered with so-called Jaimanita tiles, a rough and very irregular finish.

The masters of erasing protest signs have been able to remove the inscription, drawn a few centimeters from a Fidel Castro quote and below a paraphrased Sánchez phrase, but they haven’t managed to eliminate its trace. Sometimes all it takes is a blur to imagine a whole story.

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Despair in Cuba’s Gas Lines After Five Months Without Supply

In Guanabacoa, propane had not been sold for five months / 14ymedio

14ymedio, José Lassa and Mercedes García, Havana / Sancti Spíritus, 2 June 2025 — The arrival of liquefied gas (propane) in the Cuban capital has brought anything but tranquility. It had been three months since many customers could get it, but they were not even concerned: the sale was for those who had been unable to buy since December; that is, for five months.

“There are huge lines, people are almost beating each other up, it’s hell,” said a resident from Boyeros on Sunday. “I got February 14; who knows when it’s my turn, because they are now selling it for December. I have a neighbor who had to leave the line because she says it was infernal. A real fight must have happened.”

In Guanabacoa, the despair was total. The managers were trying to organize a line in front of a population that was desperate for the 199 tanks they had to sell, making it clear that most would leave empty-handed. There, at the point of sale of Fuente and Obispo, chaos was the word that defined the situation.

The organizers read the names of the people who could come and buy and tried to coordinate so that no one would sneak in. The day was marked by discomfort, arguments, screams and an overwhelming heat from which some protected themselves with umbrellas while others tried to shelter from the sun by gluing themselves to nearby buildings.

The Cuban Petroleum Union (Cupet) had announced the start of the sale of propane in the western provinces for this Saturday, through all channels on social networks and the official press. Cupet stated that the process would begin on May 31 and would be carried out daily in an organized manner, delivering a single cylinder per customer to those who couldn’t buy in February.

But organization has been impossible in Havana, although almost half the population (more than 280,000 households) receive gas service through pipelines. These customers are supplied by natural gas coming from the continue reading

plants in Puerto Escondido, Varadero and Boca de Jaruco, all part of Energas, a joint venture managed by Canada’s Sherritt International and Cuba’s state-owned Cupet.

It was unfortunate that on the very same day that the chaotic sale of propane began, the plant at Boca de Jaruco went out of service due to a breakdown in one of the Energas outlet lines, disrupting the flow of the other two. This affected generation and “increased the impact,” according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines in a message on social networks calling for calm and assuring that four turbines had already been recovered.

Protests over the disorganization have multiplied in all the municipalities of the capital. Those who paid 10 pesos on Ticket to secure a digital place in line complain that it isn’t applied. They demand that priority be given to those who have not bought since 2024, something that is not always true, or they claim that corruption among organizers is taking place.

“I call on the managers to organize lines at the points of sale and not leave it in the hands of corrupt coleros* [people paid by others to wait in line for them] and delegates. I hope the police and the army will support me,” shouted one customer.

The sale is limited, for the moment, to one tank of propane / 14ymedio

The situation contrasts with the tranquility in Sancti Spíritus, where calm reigns thanks to a good functioning of the Ticket application. “There have been no lines or fighting, because it is organized by Facebook and other networks,” says a resident of the capital city, where the sale also began on December 31 for the physically disabled, vulnerable and those who had not received it since December. On Sunday, it was reserved for those who paid 10 pesos for the virtual line. “Here everyone knows when it’s their turn. I should get it next week because I have number 33 on Ticket.”

Of the 150 days in the year that they had the propane, on 117 there was none on the island, according to the minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, last Thursday on Miguel Díaz-Canel’s podcast “From the Presidency.” They both admitted that it happened when the ship carrying the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that is being sold now has arrived but had not been unloaded, because there was no money to pay for it. They stated that the conditions for doing so in advance and the banking problems arising from the US embargo also complicate the operation.

These same problems, they said, are being repeated with a second ship that was “hired and paid,” which makes it foreseeable that the gas shortage will be repeated, with repercussions for the population.

In addition, as Díaz-Canel and De la O Levy notes, the lack of LPG influences the electricity demand, which increases by 200 or 250 megawatts the daily power required. But this is not the only problem. Many people are likely to buy the gas ‘on the left’ (the informal market), either from outsiders or by underestimating the serious consequences that can occur; or they are forced to cook with fire, even having to sacrifice their furniture if they cannot afford the high price of coal.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Yayabo River in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba is Dying from Drought and Garbage

Water hyacinths thrive in contaminated spaces and in water where garbage is frequently dumped / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, May 22, 2025 — The Yayabo River, which suffers from 35 degrees of heat and a drought, has been reduced to a mere stream for weeks and is barely flowing. The undergrowth and garbage have blocked its course; the steam of summer in the tropics makes it impassable, and given the color of the water -a sickly yellow-, no one who wants to stay healthy would dare to bathe there or take his animals.

It doesn’t matter if you look at the Yayabo from the pedestrian bridge or from outside the city, the impression will be the same. Its poor vigor and the poor quality of its water affect the supply of a municipality that has always made its living -since colonial times- by making use of the river.

To clean the water, a powerful bulldozer would be needed to remove the heavy stalks

Now, a thick layer of water hyacinths (malangueta), an invasive and ecosystem-destroying species, covers the riverbed. Malangueta thrives in contaminated spaces and in waters frequently littered with garbage and waste of all kinds. In a country where little attention is paid to landfills, it is unlikely that the Yayabo will have the equipment to rid it of the persistent plague. To clean the water, a powerful bulldozer would be needed to remove the heavy stalks.

The water has not reached Sancti Spíritus for several weeks. The problem is common throughout the country and has to do not only with the drought but also with the blackouts. The lack of electricity prevents the pumping of continue reading

water from its various sources, including the river, and plunges entire neighborhoods into despair for not having the most basic resources or alternatives to obtain them.

El Tuinucú está también seco y con poco cauce. / 14ymedio

The Yayabo River feeds the aqueduct that sends water to the southern part of the city. The people in the north of the municipality have an easier time getting their water from the Tuinucú river, even when it is not at its best, while their neighbors depend on the condition of the Yayabo.

The power cuts and falling water levels prevent the residents from filling their tanks properly, and the authorities have warned that there are technical problems which have led to reduced pumping cycles in certain areas of the province, in particular the municipality of Cabaiguán.

Taking advantage of their proximity to the city’s water pipe, some neighbors get up at seven in the morning. If there is power, they extract some water for their tanks. It is a real privilege, governed by the chance of whether or not they live near the pipeline.

Many in Sancti Spíritus fear that the Yayabo will follow the same path as the Zaza reservoir

Many in Sancti Spíritus fear that the Yayabo will follow the same path as the Zaza reservoir, the largest in the country. It is affected not only by drought but also by frenetic fishing, invasive species and agricultural overexploitation of some areas that suck up the water and upset the balance of the reservoir.

But the flow of water or its availability is only one aspect of the problem. When it arrives at homes, it comes with a fishy smell and is very cloudy. It is the unmistakable aspect of stagnant water, and they have to think twice before collecting it and boil it many times before consumption.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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