Mercedes García – Translating Cuba

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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The Soviet Machinery of Cuba’s Sancti Spíritus Asphalt Plant Surrendered

The low quality of the product has been the cause of friction between the plant and other related industries / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, March 22, 2025 — The asphalt plant of Sancti Spíritus has been closed for at least 15 days, as confirmed by a worker of the entity to this newspaper. From the outside, you can see that the enclosure is completely empty and that its machinery – pipes, cranes, towers and tank systems – is inactive.

Another source in the construction sector explained to 14ymedio that the problem has to do with the “lack of additives and raw material to prepare the substance that then becomes an asphalt mixture.”

The low quality of the product has been the cause of friction between the plant and other related industries, such as the Sergio Soto refinery, located in the neighboring municipality of Cabaiguán, which sometimes exported the asphalt produced in Sancti Spíritus and – according to the source of this newspaper – “has had to return the merchandise because, instead of asphalt, what they have sent has been full of bitumen,” of lower quality, whose application requires high temperatures.

A note published in Escambray this month gives an account of how unstable the situation of asphalt factories in the province is, for which the Government has set a plan of 25,862 tons of hot asphalt mixture throughout the year, plus 5,000 of cold asphalt. The managers claim that they “aren’t giving up” on that goal, but they see it as more and more distant.

The main municipality is not the only asphalt plant in Sancti Spíritus. There are also those of Trinidad and El Yigre, in Yaguajay. However, the factory that is closed today assumes the greatest production load. “When it produces at full capacity, the construction process is streamlined since its location in the center of the territory allows less fuel consumption,” adds Escambray.

The Sancti Spíritus factory assumes the highest production load / 14ymedio

The factory managers added two factors that prevent production: the lack of fuel and the blackouts. Three days after the newspaper published this complaint, the country plunged into its fourth total blackout in less than six months.

On the table of the provincial authorities is an asphalt plan that will require 19,000 tons of hot concrete. The extensive network of roads that need repair includes the two interprovincial connectors par excellence – the National Highway and the Central Highway – but also that of the South and North circuits, the La Sierpe road, and other roads affected by potholes and lack of maintenance.

The Yaguajay plant, for its part, was stopped for some time “for repair.” In mid-March, Granma announced that production was resuming “progressively” and promised a future “with quality.”

However, a specialist interviewed by the Communist Party newspaper reported that keeping the technology of these plants active “would be quite the feat.” With old equipment subjected to overexploitation, “structures such as those of Sancti Spíritus are among the oldest in the archipelago,” he said. Without “a certain level of investments,” the specialist added, they are doomed to failure.

Last December 24, the asphalt plant of Sancti Spíritus was also in the news, but for very different reasons. Alexey Díaz Salas, 48 years old and one of its workers, was the victim of a fire that left 60% of his body covered in burns. He was taken in serious condition to the hospital in the neighboring province, Cienfuegos, to be treated.

He suffered head trauma and injuries after the explosion of a highly volatile fuel tank, which he inspected without adequate protective equipment. Díaz Salas died shortly after.

The fire unleashed after the explosion, which was heard everywhere in the city, was described by eyewitnesses as “of great magnitude,” according to Escambray. The plant’s tanks stored a fast-curing liquid, a mixture of asphalt cement and a very volatile petroleum distillate, which must be preserved at high temperature to be applied on the road before pouring the asphalt.

The asphalt factory of Sancti Spíritus, founded in 1948 – the oldest in Cuba – is equipped with an old machine, model DK-117, of Ukrainian manufacture, which arrived on the Island during the years of the Soviet subsidy. Over the years, the deterioration and scarcity of parts have taken their toll on the installation.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘In Cuba, if the Police Catch You With a Backpack of Coffee, Even a Small One, They’ll Take It Away From You’

A coffee grower from Sancti Spíritus lost everything by selling the beans on his own, without going through the State agency Acopio

In Sancti Spíritus, the price of unroasted Criollo coffee is between 200 and 240 pesos. / Escambray

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 March 2025 — The story of Isidro, a guajiro — as he will be known to protect his identity—is spreading in Sancti Spíritus, after authorities confiscated 465 sacks of coffee he was saving to sell. In his eyes, he has done nothing wrong, but in Cuba, what he did is illegal.

The farmer decided one day to invest in his business and expand it beyond the coffee plantations he cultivated himself. So, he sold his motorcycle to use the money to buy beans from other producers. “This is now a small business that’s making money, because of the price of coffee,” a resident who also requested anonymity told 14ymedio. In the province, the price of the native product is between 200 and 240 pesos, unroasted (250-gram bags, already roasted and ground, cost between 1,350 and 1,500 pesos).

“The man was crazy. They had to bring him to Sancti Spíritus because he said he wanted to kill himself. He lost his money, his motorcycle, everything.”

The police, who accused him of “hoarding” and prohibited him from selling the coffee to any buyer other than the State agency Acopio, gave the confiscated product to the Cabaiguán roasting plant.

He usually goes to the fields to buy coffee from the producers, but now he has stopped this activity, “until the dust settles.”

The line for breaking the law is thin, the resident continues. He usually goes to the fields to buy coffee directly from the producers, to resell it in the city, but he’s stopped doing so now, “until the dust settles.” He adds: “If the police catch you with a backpack of coffee, even a small one, they’ll take it away.” continue reading

At the beginning of last September, the government issued a new resolution on the marketing of agricultural, forestry, and tobacco production that, de facto, penalized private farmers with more controls—reserving the monopoly on purchasing from these farmers, the campesinos, and setting prices for products destined for export, including coffee, despite their far more successful production than the state sector.

For example, private farmers produce more than 80% of fruit trees, almost 80% of beans, and three-quarters of vegetables, root vegetables, and corn, according to official data presented by economist Pedro Monreal, who harshly criticized the new regulation. As he posted on social media at the time, he believes the resolution “expresses the arrogant notion that centralized planning is more effective than the market in ensuring ‘economic calculation’ (rational distribution of resources).” Furthermore, he observed, it represented a “variant of ‘forced’ contracting,” like the one imposed on the guajiro Isidro.

The harshness of the raids has not increased the presence of coffee in the island’s bodegas (ration stores). Just a week ago, the official press argued that the disappearance of the product and the collapse of its production was due, above all, to the lack of workers to harvest the fruit.

In that unusual note, published by the official newspaper Granma, they didn’t hide the sector’s collapse. “In 2023, the situation with the coffee was tense, and resources for harvesting and transport were insufficient,” Felipe Martínez Suárez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station in the municipality of Tercer Frente, in Santiago de Cuba, told the Communist Party newspaper. He nevertheless emphasized that the company was able to develop “more resilient” plants thanks to aid from Vietnam.

According to the National Statistics and Information Office, production in the sector fell by 51% in the last five years.

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Ecotaxis, Cocotaxis and Ecomobiles Only Solve Transportation When They Can Get Fuel

Las Tunas and Sancti Spíritus develop new lines of electric vehicles, despite blackouts

Electric tricycles in Las Tunas. / Periódico 26

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus 10 March 2025 — The transportation disaster is a glaring reality for any Cuban and even the official press does not bother to hide it with euphemisms. A note published in Periódico26 this Monday reports it from the first paragraph : “A total of 11 routes must move through the main municipality of Las Tunas, but this reality is far from the truth because due to the high fuel deficit only three to four of them can be covered, a number that does not satisfy the transportation needs of the population.”

Although the brief text reports the availability of electric tricycles (or eco-taxis) and coco-taxis, it does not hide the fact that this solution is only palliative. The provincial delegate for Transport, Reynaldo Reyes Silva, told the official newspaper that there are about 22,000 people who have to move around Las Tunas every day and that the vehicles available for this, including the “alternative means” that he praises in the interview, are insufficient.

“These vehicles transport around 3,000 people throughout the city,” explains the official, who then details the “biggest limitation” related to “the allocation of fuel for internal combustion vehicles (cocotaxis), which reduces the number of journeys.” continue reading

“Even the design has been improved, because at first it was a bit rough”

The hope centers on “the 20 electric tricycles that are in operation and can move 1,800 to 2,000 inhabitants,” that is, less than a tenth of the population of Las Tunas.

And so, he says, they will combine the eco-taxis and coco-taxis routes in a new four-vehicle bus station that will leave from the Mártires de Las Tunas pediatric hospital and, although it will serve the entire population, “its priority will be to transport medical discharges from the health center.”

The perpetual fuel shortage is one of the reasons why the island has opted in recent years for the creation of electric transport, but wherever it has been implemented, at least for now, it is insufficient. Last January, in Sancti Spíritus they boasted of having launched new electric vehicles, manufactured in the same province, which “reported revenues of more than one million pesos and transported more than 70,000 passengers within the main city.”

However, of the 50 planned “ecomobiles” only 21 were finished, and of these, only 5 were working, precisely because of the lack of energy, since they depend on the electrical grid to recharge their batteries. For several months, the province has been among those with the most hours of blackouts.

The people of Sancti Spiritus celebrate the efficiency and price of these electric cars, which have been in service in the province for more than a year. “They have even improved the design, because at first it was a bit rough,” Miguel, a resident of the city, tells this newspaper. He knows from a reliable source that they are using Chinese parts “imported by the military at a very cheap price.”

Hope is centered on “the 20 electric tricycles that are in operation and can move 1,800 to 2,000 residents”

Miguel insists that, as the authorities say, “the service is working well: it only costs 10 pesos and you never have to wait at the stop for more than 15 minutes.”

Another expert explains his “but”: “The problem is the batteries and the method of charging the vans. Where they are being stored there are not enough charging ports.” And he predicts: “The 10 pesos that it costs are not enough to maintain the cost of the service. All of that comes from China and China has to be paid.”

It is not surprising, however, that officialdom is promoting new routes for this type of transport and it is rare to see the vehicles. In Havana, for example, on routes such as Playa, tricycles are “almost ghosts.”

The first Ecotaxis route was inaugurated in the capital in 2020, as a project funded primarily by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to “promote the empowerment of women,” which is why all the drivers hired for it then were women.

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Forced Landing of El Avión, Another Cuban Restaurant Closed Due to Lack of Food

Part of the old and useless fleet of the state-owned Cubana de Aviación, the ‘ship’ was equipped to serve 24 diners

It was inaugurated as a gastronomic restaurant at the beginning of 2013 / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 4 March 2025 — Two years after completing the interior of the Russian-operated Antonov (An-24), all that remains are a deserted esplanade and a custodian, which indicates that it is closed, without any reopening date set.

Inaugurated as a gastronomic restaurant in early 2013, El Avión began its journey by causing a real stir. Its arrival on the Central Highway to its final location caused great fright among the people of Sancti Spíritus, who believed that it had crashed. That beginning was an omen of the random path that it would take later.

Part of the old and useless fleet of the state-owned Cubana de Aviación, the small plane was renovated to serve 24 diners. To reinforce the idea of a flight, customers were received in a replica of an air terminal, a cubicle where the “captain” took their orders before they entered the “plane.” While waiting to board, they could have a cocktail and feel that they were future travelers in a waiting room.

Once inside the An-24, “passengers” could sample the main dishes and imagine that the plane, designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union, had taken off and was now lost among the clouds heading to a remote destination. For many of the customers who arrived it was the first time they had been on an aircraft, although it was still anchored to the ground. After dining, the continue reading

service staff announced that it was time to deplane to make way for the next customers.

“Like everything in this country, it started more or less well, but when it had been opened a few months, I came for my birthday and the food was already terrible,” said a man born in the province who, after visiting the nearby agricultural fair, decided to go see “the little plane,” as many called it. “I ordered a dish with shrimp, because they specialized in fish and seafood, but it was inedible. The tomato sauce they added didn’t taste good; it was full of chunks.”

However, the man recalls that “it was a different place and the children loved to come.” For many “it was a way to fulfill their dream of being on a plane. Here there are many people who have not even left this province, let alone flown from one place to another.” Nor do the nearby facilities that served to support the restaurant, such as the bathroom and the supposed terminal, provide service. A Cuban flag painted on the side of the Antonov has been fading with the rain, the sun and the passage of time, that same accumulation of years and neglect that once prevented it from leaving the ground and that now make it impossible to survive as a restaurant.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Faced with a Flour Shortage, Privately Run Bakeries Are Rationing Bread

Lines of customers outside a privately owned bakery on Cespedes Street in Sancti Spiritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spirítus, 11 February 2025 — The line of people extends along both sides of the street. It grows longer on one side of the street, with more people joining as the morning progresses. The scene is almost identical on the other side. Residents from different parts of the city crowd outside a privately run bakery on Céspedes street in downtown Sancti Spíritus. “Right now, they’re only selling bread,” says an elderly man who has traveled here from the city’s Kilo 12 neighborhood.

The flour shortage and rolling blackouts have impacted many private businesses who need it to produce cookies, breads, desserts and pizzas. Some have found it necessary to restrict how much any one person can buy. On Tuesday, the bakery was limiting each customer to five items. Some of those who knew of the restriction beforehand brought along several family members in order to fill their shopping bags.

Some of those who knew of the restriction beforehand brought along several family members in order to help fill their shopping bags

“I have never seen this. I thought this only happened in state-owned bakeries,” said one woman. “Resellers show up with their brothers, sisters, children and even grandchildren to stock up.” Despite the discomfort and the sun that was beginning to sting her skin, she remained in line. She complained that the state-run bakery in her neighborhood had put up a sign saying “tthere is no bread because there is no flour.” Not even the “low-quality government bread,” which she uses to feed her chickens. continue reading

While the state charges just 75 centavos for a small loaf of bread, a bag with four better quality rolls goes for 200 pesos at private businesses. Meanwhile, a medium-sized loaf with a hard crust at a small or medium-sized business (MSME) in Sancti Spíritus can be had for between 100 and 130 pesos, while a bag of breadsticks can go for as much as 250. Current prices reflect an increase of between 15% and 25% compared to December 2024, according to data compiled by 14ymedio.

A 25-kilogram sack of imported Turkish flour costs from 9,000 to 10,000 pesos on the open market but suppliers are only willing to sell it in bulk. Small bakeries are struggling and would rather not buy large quantities of a product without knowing if it will produce a nice, crusty loaf.

“I live in Olivos and for a while bakers would hawk their wares in the neighborhood. You you would buy directly from them, almost fresh out of the oven,” explains José Pascual, a retiree who also had to go to the privately owned bakery downtown on Tuesday due to a bread shortage in his area. “They say it’s very difficult to get flour but the power outages also impact them. The bread often spoils once it’s in the oven because the electricity goes out.”

Most of the province’s privately owned bakeries use electric ovens due to a shortage of liquified natural gas, which would be more reliable and easier to use than wood or coal. “In my neighborhood there’s an individual who, until recently, baked bread using an oven on the roof of his house. For 85 pesos you could get a decent-quality medium-sized loaf,” adds José Pascual.

The bakery has been closed for several weeks. “The bread was getting sour because of the blackouts.” The aroma of freshly baked bread no longer wafts through the retiree’s neighborhood. Instead, some local residents can be seen heading out early towards the city center to get in line in front of the bakery on Céspedes Street.

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The Coffee that Makes Coffee Pots Explode Is Back in Cuban Stores

The stress test for the these appliances is the coffee sold at ration stores / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 24 January 2025 — Like a fisherman in a rushing river, Suanny thrives in an environment that is frightening to others. He specializes in repairing Italian-style coffee makers — both electric or stovetop — that have exploded or become clogged.

“These days I’m constantly busy because the coffee sold at local stores is dangerous,” says the 32-year-old from Sancti Spiritus resident. “I clean them, change their filters, replace the tops and even add new wiring and bases.”

When he first opened his shop in the city’s Kilo 12 neighborhood, Suanny was repairing rice and pressure cookers. He later worked on rechargeable lamps, the kind used to provide some light during the country’s frequent power outages. Now he focuses on coffee makers.”I always have work to do because, for better or worse, a little bit of the stuff sneaks into every house in the city every day.” Some customers show up with models that are “more than 50 years old,” notes the repairman, who is skilled at figuring out when something can be fixed and when it is time to get rid of it altogether.

“I replace the handles, the knob on the lid and the rubber seals. I’ll even polish the outside if the owner wants that”

“I replace the handles, the knob on the lid and the rubber seals. I’ll even polish the outside if the owner wants that,” he says. “A lot of people who come in have heated the coffee maker over wood or charcoal, which melts the handle and turns the whole thing black.” continue reading

In recent years, however, electronic models have become popular. “They are very convenient. You don’t have to worry about whether the coffee has finished brewing or not because, when it’s is ready, the machine automatically shuts off. They also keep the coffee hot and are safer.”

The real test, however, is the coffee sold in ration stores. “They were out of it for months. Then it suddenly reappeared in January, in a white plastic envelope that doesn’t let you see what’s inside,” he says. Apparently, the mixture has a more compact texture, which expands as it’s heated and clogs the coffee maker’s filter. “Explosions happen all the time,” says Suanny. “It’s rare that I don’t get one or two coffee makers with this problem every day.”

Just this Wednesday, the handyman found himself helping a distraught customer. “I poured some coffee out of the package, but not very much because I had already been warned that it would clog the machine,” says the woman. “My son told me to leave the kitchen while he brewed it. We were in the living room when we heard the explosion. It was all over the kitchen. The ceiling was stained and the top of the coffee maker broke in half,” she explains. The machine — an electric model with a top made of heat-resistant plastic — did not survive the explosion, which occurred when the dark powder came into contact with the boiling water.

“What can I do? I have to drink it because be good coffee is 1,400 pesos for a tiny package”

“What can I do? I have to drink it because good coffee is 1,400 pesos for a tiny package,” the woman complains. Suanny explains to her the risks of these crudely made packages and their unpredictable contents. “Normally, they mix it with peas but now it seems that they have increased the proportion of grain. I have even seen pieces of toasted wheat inside,” he adds. “My advice is, if you are going to drink this, you have to make it using a strainer or a sock like the ones our grandparents used. Italian coffee makers are not designed to handle this stuff. Nobody really knows what’s in it.”

In a show of dexterity, Suanny quickly changes out the rubber gasket, swaps the top of the coffee maker for another one he has in his tiny workshop, replaces the cable damaged in the explosion and cleans the base of the device, which was covered in a sticky liquid that smelled like burnt peas. The final bill for the repairs comes to more than 3,000 Cuban pesos. In the choppy waters of Cuban coffee, there are always those who manage to make a catch.

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Bedbugs, the Plague That Takes Sleep Away From the People of Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

“I knew this was happening, I had heard many stories, but it’s another thing to experience it,” Yeandris explains to ’14ymedio’

The bed bug or chinch bug has become an unwelcome visitor in many Cuban homes. / Maine Department of Agriculture and Forest Conservation (USA)

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 18 January 2025 — The home of 29-year-old Yeandris has suffered tremendous losses, amounting to a quarter of a million pesos. The bed bugs rapidly infesting the city of Sancti Spíritus have not only drained his resources but also stolen countless hours of his time and sleep. “Just yesterday, I had to throw away three mattresses that were still in good condition. There was simply no way to control those bugs,” he confides to 14ymedio.

The ordeal of Yeandris and his family began in early December in the Jesús María neighborhood. “We started to notice something itching our legs while we watched television on the sofa in the living room,” recalls the man from Sancti Spiritus. “At first, we thought it was mosquitoes, but it happened most frequently when we sat there. When we examined the folds, wadding, and cushions, they were full of bedbugs.”

The bed bug, or chinch bug, an insect that feeds on the blood of humans and other animals, has become an unwelcome visitor in many Cuban homes. Overcrowding, lack of cleaning products, and poverty have significantly increased its presence in recent years. Outbreaks in provinces such as Santiago de Cuba and Havana have frequently made headlines in the island’s independent media.

“I knew that this was happening, I had heard many stories about, but experiencing it is a whole different thing.” explains Yeandris. Shortly after discovering that the insects were in the sofa, the family realized thad the bugs were invading the beds too. “My mother’s mattress, my baby’s crib mattress, and the one my wife and I share were all infested,” he laments. A computer engineer by profession, the man thought that, as with computer viruses, all that was needed was to find an antidote and apply it to the infected furniture. continue reading

“My mother’s mattress, my baby’s crib mattress, and the one my wife and I share were all infested”

“A neighbor who had gone through the same thing recommended that I go to the community health center in my area to ask for help, from there they sent me to the provincial Public Health office and I spent weeks bouncing back and forth,” he recalls. “During all that time, at my home nobody could even sleep. My son had an allergy outbreak due to the bedbug bites and some of them even got infected and caused sores on his skin.”

The last Christmas at Yeandris’s home was not for celebration. “That morning I couldn’t stand it any longer and I took apart the three beds.” A week earlier, a fumigator recommended by Public Health and paid out of the pocket of the insomniac espirituano, sprayed the entire house, especially the bedrooms. “We thought that was going to solve the problem, but those bugs just multiplied more.”

On December 24th Yeandris took the three mattresses out to the backyard, the family went on a thorough cleaning spree, and exhausted, they crashed that night on the floor with just some blankets. “I never thought it would come to this, but nothing was killing those bedbugs, and after almost a month of terrible sleep, all you want is for the nightmare to end.”

A few days later, with the help of another neighbor, he threw the three mattresses into a nearby dumpster. There, he encountered a scavenger who, despite the warnings, decided to pick up what Yeandris had discarded. ’I take them apart, put the stuffing in bags, and soak them in the river for days,’ the man explained his method to the astonished Sancti Spiritus resident, who advised him not to take such a bedbug-infested nest. ’Then I dry the stuffing in the sun and can rebuild the mattresses,’ he added resourcefully.

“Altogether, with the loss of the nearly new mattresses, the two visits from the exterminator, the sofa I had to throw away, and all the useless remedies I bought, it all costed me nearly 250,000 pesos,” calculates the affected person. “After going through this, I’ve become really paranoid. I don’t want to sit down anywhere anymore.”

“After going through this, I’ve become really paranoid. I don’t want to sit down anywhere anymore.”

Yeandris’s obsession isn’t a sign that he’s lost his mind. In Sancti Spíritus, residents warn each other about places infested by the plague. “You can’t go to the provincial library; the armchairs are full,” warns an internet user in a Facebook group for city residents. “In my neighborhood, a neighbor put her mattress out in the sun to get rid of the bedbugs, and now she’s spread them to all of us. The whole block is infested.”

In May 2023, a similar warning reached local media. Osvaldo Gómez Hernández, deputy director of surveillance and anti-vector control at the Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, acknowledged the extent of the problem in the province. “It’s hard to eliminate bedbugs, but it’s not impossible. This allows us to offer some home treatments without having to resort to chemical treatments,” the specialist stated in response to citizens’ calls for official intervention to fumigate the neighborhoods.

“I’ve been to the health center three times to get help with fumigation, even if I have to pay a hefty fee, but they never come,” complains another affected resident in the Sancti Spiritus Facebook group. “I had to burn two mattresses and an armchair. I’ve been battling an infestation at my mom’s house for a month, and nothing works because the problem is everywhere. You kill 100 bedbugs in the morning, and by night, 200 more come from the house next door.”

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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Without Water, the Main Hospital in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, Is ‘A High-Risk Place for the Sick’

The center is sinking into filth and services are closed while an unbearable stench spreads throughout the building

The hospital was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 19 January 2025 — “There is no water,” warns a sign in the cafeteria of the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital in Sancti Spíritus. The sign, which hangs at an angle from a blackboard, adds that only “products to take away” are being sold, and its presence is just a small sample of what is happening inside the medical center. Several operating rooms remain closed, specialist consultations are limited and the bathrooms are covered in excrement.

“We can’t even clean the floor because the water hasn’t come on for days,” an employee who works in the emergency room told 14ymedio. “This has affected everything, from the emergency services to the laboratory where the tests are done and the hemodialysis room, which is one of the rooms that has the most problems right now because there are patients in a very delicate state.” The worker believes that in these conditions “the hospital becomes a high-risk place for the sick.”

In the cafeteria a sign warns that there is no water in the center and products are only sold for take-away. / 14ymedio

In the Emergency Room, the smells coming from the bathrooms fill the waiting room. The doctors and nurses seem to have gotten used to the stench after days of it being present, but the patients who have just arrived feel it like a punch in the face. “I came with my husband who is having an asthma attack and as soon as we entered we were stunned. How can a health center be like this?” After waiting for half an hour, the couple decided to return home. “We’ll see how we resolve it, but this is unbearable.”

The hospital, which was recently the target of criticism for the lack of medical personnel at night, has been defended in the official press as a place that “despite the energy contingency” works 24 hours a day and provides excellent service. Last October, a photo report published in the local Escambray newspaper showed surgeons in an impeccable room performing a complex operation, maintenance technicians analyzing samples and a nephrology specialist calibrating modern dialysis equipment. If these images were repeated now, they would not be able to capture the main protagonist of these rooms and consultations: the stench that the lack of water has spread everywhere.

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