Natalia López Moya – Page 2

A New Card and the Same Trick: Cuban Doctors in Angola Still Can’t Collect Their Pay in Dollars

The authorities advance a new payment mechanism to settle complaints, but the doctors still demand payment in dollars

Cuban doctors in Angola say the authorities have held onto their dollars for years / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana. Natalia López Moya, October 28, 2025 — “We are somewhat resigned, but not at all in agreement,” said Héctor, a Cuban doctor in Angola who participated in the meeting on October 23 between health workers and representatives of Antex, the Cuban company that manages the missions in the African country. The meeting, held in Luanda, served to announce a new payment mechanism through the Classic card, which maintains restrictions on access to dollars and thwarts the hopes of health workers to be able to recover their money in that currency.

The meeting took place in a tense atmosphere, albeit with fewer complaints than on previous occasions. “It’s not that we have given up, but people have now realized that these officials aren’t going to do anything; it’s like talking to a wall,”explains the doctor, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. According to his statement, the document read during the meeting had already been leaked days before, so the attendees arrived “more than informed.”

The official text stated that, beginning October 20, Cuban professionals in Angola and Algeria can transfer the savings accumulated in their accounts in freely convertible currency (MLC) to a Classic card, with which they will be able to buy in dollar stores, acquire a car and pay for fuel at foreign currency gas stations.

The change does not solve the main problem: the impossibility of withdrawing dollars in cash from Cuba

However, the change does not solve the main problem: the impossibility of withdrawing dollars in cash from Cuba. “This has changed nothing,” says Hector. The availability of dollars still depends on the bank, and the answer is always the same: we don’t have any.” continue reading

The measure was to be implemented in January 2026, but it was brought forward by growing unrest among the health workers, tired of collecting pay in a devalued currency. “All this prevents us from making plans for housing, investment or migration,” laments Héctor, who is about to finish his mission after more than three years. “The MLC is worth much less than the dollar, and the balance in a Classic card is also below. In the end we lose money on every transaction.”

The currency gap is confirmed by the informal market: while the dollar is quoted this Tuesday at 485 Cuban pesos, the MLC barely reaches 200, and the money in a Classic card equals 446. “We can forget about a part of our savings; that money evaporates in the many deals we have to do to get the cash,” he concludes.

For months, a number of health workers had been confident that the authorities would allow direct payment in dollars or kwanzas (Angolan currency), to later buy dollars in the local market. But the decision of the Cuban government, advanced this week, fell like “a bucket of cold water” on these expectations.

In September, the professionals received only half their monthly payment in kwanzas, about $200

The discomfort is aggravated by other failures. In September, professionals received only half their monthly payment in kwanzas -about $200- and in October the disbursement was further delayed. Some doctors have not yet been paid. ” People are demoralized, but also scared,” says another health worker in Luanda. “They have tried to divide us and scare us so that no one protests.”

The clearest warning came a few days ago from Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health, which officially called the doctors who criticize the system or report irregularities “ingrates and traitors.” It was like a direct message, says the doctor. Anyone who complains risks being sent back to Cuba and losing their savings.”

The discontent had reached such a point that a group of collaborators drafted a letter to the Cuban Public Prosecutor’s Office, on behalf of all, demanding payment in foreign currency and better working conditions. At the center of their complaints is Antex, a subsidiary of the military conglomerate Gaesa, sanctioned by the US Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Antex manages a wide range of businesses in Angola, from road construction, airfield repairs and travel agencies to managing medical missions.

The discontent had reached such a point that a group of collaborators wrote a letter to the Cuban Public Prosecutor’s Office

In July, the professionals also sent a letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel, denouncing “non-compliance with the form of payment established in the contract” and demanding access to their funds in dollars deposited on the island. There was no response. Instead of rectifying, says another doctor, “what they have done is give us another plastic card but no cash dollars, nothing.”

Most of them have lost hope of a change. “They don’t want to give up the money, says Héctor. They have kept our currency for years and will not return it, even if that costs them more complaints in the meetings.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Shovels Make Little Headway Against the Monstrous Piles of Garbage in Havana

With each movement, the flies return, and the stench sneaks through the shutters of a nearby building

A few meters away, the door of a warehouse where food for the rationed market is stored remains open. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Natalia López Moya, October, 23, 2025 — It was Wednesday, and at the corner of Factor and Conill, two workers from Communal Services are facing an enemy that already seems mythological: one of the many mountains of garbage in Havana, this time in Nuevo Vedado. Armed with shovels, they try to reduce what the blue containers can no longer contain: bursting bags, wet cartons, food scraps and even an old flip-flop poking through the blanket of flies.

The truck, which is older than the employees themselves, waits with its door open like a tired mouth. One of the men sighs before throwing in another shovelful, but the mass of waste is barely reduced on the asphalt. “This is hard,” he says, while the other one tries to scare away the flies buzzing around the debris. A few meters away, the door of a warehouse, where food for the rationed market is stored, remains open.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Scavengers Feast on the Ruins of the Café Boulevard in Havana

The collapse of a state cafeteria leaves an extensive reservoir of building materials for the scavengers

In less than two months the usable fragments have been disappearing from the structure. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Natalia López Moya, October 14, 2025 — Matter is neither created nor destroyed, it only changes hands. What until recently was a state cafeteria, which was left in ruins after a tragic collapse, is now the main reservoir of steel bars, gravel and pieces of wood from a neighborhood with serious construction problems. At the corner of Galiano and San Rafael, in Centro Habana, scavengers carry everything they can pull from the rubble of Café Boulevard. Anything can be used to repair another house or sell on the black market.

“They have been carrying away everything like ants,” the employee of a nearby parking lot for motorcycles and tricycles tells 14ymedio. He has seen the remains of the property parading past in the hands of the most needy. The collapse of the ceiling of the state business, in mid-August, claimed the life of an employee working on the ground floor. On that day, the exterior of the Café Boulevard and the cracked upper part still exhibited doors, windows and even clothes laid out on the balconies.

Like their peers in nature, these scroungers are guided by noise and smell. / 14ymedio

However, in less than two months the pieces that can be used to prop up a barbacoa (loft) or as a hot plate for cooking have been disappearing from the structure. “Some things were taken by the owners before they left, but others have been cannibalized at night and in the early hours, the same people who live here,” explains the employee.” I have seen toilet seats, complete blinds, electric cables and many planks of wood.”

If in nature scavengers remove cadavers from the environment and recycle them, in the Cuban capital the scavengers sweep through any ruin, empty the wide rooms that once had walls, grab the bidet from the old bathroom of the stately house that fell with the last rains and skillfully remove the bricks from a facade. Like their peers in nature, they are guided by noise and smell: the shouting that comes after the collapse of some pillars and the stench of moisture that spreads through the debris of a collapsed building.

In a couple of months, it is very likely that, on the corner of Galiano and San Rafael, there will remain only some unadorned pillars and the memory of shared laughter, conversation and beer.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“My Mother Hasn’t Received a Centavo Since May,” Says a Cuban Doctor Stationed in Angola

With delays in payments and vacations postponed, the situation of the Cuban personnel has worsened since the protests against Antex

Stock photo of Cuban doctors together with the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, in Angola / Minrex

14ymedio, Havana, Natalia López Moya, September 27, 2025 — Discontent continues to grow among Cuban doctors in Angola. To the discomfort caused by the official decision to transfer part of their savings to a Classic card [a prepaid card for payments in foreign currency], instead of paying them in dollars, is added the delay in payments to their families in Cuba and the postponement of vacations on the Island. “My mother hasn’t received a penny since May,” a specialist reports to 14ymedio.

In addition to the payment in kwanzas, equivalent to about 200 dollars, which she collects each month in Angola to cover her daily expenses, she accumulates the rest of the money, about 1,200 dollars, in Cuba, waiting to be able to collect it when the mission ends; this is a way to prevent her from fleeing. In addition, her family should receive a small monthly amount during that time, but the arrears in these payments complicate the livelihoods of her mother and her teenage son.

These irregularities caused a group of employees to prepare, “on behalf of all, a letter to the Public Prosecutor’s Office demanding payment in foreign currency and the improvement of the economic conditions in which we work,” explains the doctor who has been working for almost three years in a clinic in Luanda. The letter was prepared after a meeting held by the employees with the managers of Antex (Corporación Antillana Exportadora S.A.), owned by the military conglomerate Gaesa, which manages the stay of the specialists in Angola.

At that meeting, the employees expressed their discomfort and demanded direct receipt of the dollars that the Angolan government pays to Antex for each Cuban hired through them. In addition to doctors, there are also continue reading

builders, sports coaches and a wide range of health personnel, all under similar conditions.

Cuban professionals have been demanding for years that they be given the money accumulated on the Island in foreign currency

Cuban professionals have been demanding for years that they be given the money accumulated on the Island in foreign currency, but the government’s recent response has been to announce that from next January they will have a Classic card to use, although they will still not receive cash. After the tense meeting last August, the managers of Antex tried to calm tempers by assuring that they would the start payment with the Classic card sooner, as of this September.

The commitment has not been fulfilled and now adds instability in the schedule of payments to relatives. Also, Antex has not bought tickets for the specialists to spend their vacations on the Island. “They give us a runaround, which is a breach of contract because we are supposed to be able to return to our country when we have a break from work. Last August I had to stay here for my vacation,” she says with regret.

“Several commercial flights of the airline TAAG left but Antex did not buy tickets, except for exceptional cases, so many who planned to take vacations couldn’t do it,” says the specialist. These trips are used by Cuban workers to bring goods to the Island, which they then resell, one of the few material incentives they have in the midst of their strained economic situation.

Emilio, a Cuban doctor whose name has been changed for this report and who works at the Hospital Materno Infantil do Camama Dr. Manuel Pedro Azancot de Menezes in Luanda, feels like he is “about to explode.” In his opinion, since the recent announcement of the use of the Classic card, “nothing has improved, and the attention we receive from Antex has gotten worse.”

“They have not reversed the decision to pay us with the Classic card, and to top it off we suffer months of delay in bank deposits that they should be making to our relatives in Cuba,” he says. “Nor have they received payment in freely convertible currency (MLC),” increasingly devalued on the informal exchange market and currently traded at 205 pesos per dollar.

Last July, the professionals sent a letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel in which they denounced the “breach of payment form established in the contract”

Last July, the professionals sent a letter to Miguel Díaz-Canel in which they denounced the “breach of payment form established in the contract” and demanded that they be allowed to collect in dollars the amount accumulated during years of stay in Angola in their bank accounts on the Island. The president has not yet replied to that letter.

Emilio also complains that “now without warning or explanation here in Angola they started paying us monthly the equivalent of only 100 dollars, instead of the 200 agreed.” He shows this newspaper the report of a transfer to his bank account in the amount of 93,000 kwanzas, equivalent to 100 dollars. “No one has told us why they made this cut.”

On other occasions, Cuban professionals have suffered this type of monetary hardship that complicates their lives in the African country. “Sometimes I have to borrow a mobile phone from my Angolan colleagues to make a call or browse the Internet because I don’t earn enough to buy a data package, cover fuel and eat.” Emilio considers Cuban doctors to be “the fifth wheel of the car for Antex.”

Similar opinions had already been heard at the tense meeting in Luanda. “I do not want to buy food, I do not want to buy appliances, I want to buy a home,” insisted a doctor who objected to receiving pay for service in MLC or the Classic card. “Are they going to force us to commit crimes, to resort to the black market in order to have real dollars? These are the plans of entire lives, of whole families that you are destroying,” he told he Antex representative.

The Antex Corporation, sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, manages a wide range of businesses in Angola

The Antex Corporation, sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), manages a wide range of businesses in Angola, ranging from road construction and airport repair to the management of travel agencies. Between 2013 and 2017 alone, Antex received more than $1 billion from that country, according to El Toque. Through Antex and other companies, Cuba participated — financed by the USSR — in the Angolan civil war (1975-1991) with more than 300,000 soldiers. In 2015, the Portuguese press reported that 70% of health workers in Angola were of Cuban origin.

Now, Emilio concludes that the denunciations and complaints at meetings are of little use. “What we should do is refuse to work under these conditions but, of course, they know that they can always hire some naive person in Cuba who is willing to accept these humiliating conditions just to get out of there.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Is Experiencing Its Third Day of General Blackout, With Sporadic Moments of Light

Authorities deny rumors about an imminent declaration of an “energy emergency” to address an out-of-control situation.

Cubans prepare for another night without power. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 12 September 2025 — As of midday on the third day of the failure of Cuba’s national electricity system (SEN), it is clear that authorities were too quick to celebrate the country’s “recovery.” Many Cubans are still experiencing power outages or unreliable service, and they anticipate another night in the dark.

In Havana, authorities from the Electric Union reported that four of the city’s six power blocks are without service, including Nuevo Vedado and San Miguel del Padrón as 14ymedio was able to confirm. This newsroom also received reports of outages in Sancti Spíritus, Holguín, and Villa Clara that have lasted several hours and are accompanied by a drop in internet connection.

As if that weren’t enough, official media reported the shutdown of Unit 3 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos. “This incident complicates the operation of the SEN and increases the impact of the country’s generation capacity deficit,” officials admitted.

Block 5 of Renté, in Santiago de Cuba, which contributed 70 megawatts to the SEN (National Energy Service) this Friday, also went “unexpectedly off the system due to an automatic operation related to a boiler feed valve.” Authorities assured that they are working to ensure it can be brought back online this afternoon.

Block 5 of Renté, in Santiago de Cuba, which contributed 70 megawatts to the SEN this Friday, also “unexpectedly” went offline.

Ricardo is 72 years old and at his house they avoid opening the freezer so that the little bit of cold that protects the food stored in the refrigerator doesn’t escape. “My daughter had sent me a box of chicken a few days back, and now I could lose all of that if the power doesn’t come back on by tomorrow, Saturday at the latest,” this resident of the La Timba neighborhood, near the Plaza de la Revolución, told 14ymedio.

The Havana resident has taken extreme measures. “My grandchildren haven’t been to school for three days. On Wednesday, when the national blackout began, they had just entered their classrooms, and my son went and got them, brought them home, and they haven’t left the house since.” In the family home, continue reading

“you can count the hours of light” we’ve had, he laments.

The impact also directly affects the wallet. Ricardo’s son earns his living with an electric tricycle that moves goods that customers buy at a central Havana hardware store. “He has no way to charge it, and the sales of materials aren’t working because the hardware store doesn’t have a power plant,” explains the head of the family, who admits he hasn’t showered for three days due to the lack of water.

In the buildings with more than 12 stories that abound in the Nuevo Vedado area, near La Timba, residents who live on higher floors avoid going down because they’ll then have to use the stairs to return to their homes. “There are a lot of elderly people here, and they’re not up to navigating all those steps up and down,” commented a resident of the Los Pilotos building on Factor Street this Friday.

The lack of water is particularly acute at these heights because, even if the cistern has some reserves, the water pump lacks electricity to operate and fill the tanks located at the top of the building. Carrying full buckets or jugs up the stairs is also unfeasible for many of the residents on the upper floors.

This Friday, clinics at the 19 de Abril Polyclinic in the area were also suspended again. “That generator has been broken for years, but no one has reported it yet,” an employee responded to a frustrated patient who, for the second day in a row, was trying to be seen for an eye problem. The woman questioned the health center’s lack of power backup, despite the fact that a huge power plant is visible on one side of its facade. Fuel is needed to operate it, and there isn’t any.

The lack of water is especially striking at these altitudes because, even if the cistern has some reserves, the water pump does not have electricity to operate.

The critical situation has even prompted rumors circulating on social media that UNE will implement a controlled 72-hour power outage. The electric company denied that the government intended to declare an “energy emergency” and denounced a disinformation campaign.

In response to the article, reproduced by Cubadebate, the first four comments from readers of the official outlet harshly criticized the authorities. “Is there any information that correlates with the reality Cubans are experiencing today? What official reports say is one thing, but the reality Cubans are experiencing is quite another.”

Another commenter quipped: “Great, it was fake news… But we’re still without power for over 20 hours.”

The comments also reflected readers’ resignation and weariness, with phrases such as, “In short, massive blackouts across the country have already occurred five times, and not to mention that half the country is shut down every day.” It’s clear that Cubans know that the “stability” of the SEN lasts only until “it breaks down again.”

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The Ground Floor of Havana’s Focsa Building Becomes Dollar Territory

The new CIMEX-GAESA supermarket is operated in partnership with the Spanish-owned Panamanian company IPSA.
On Tuesday, cashiers were only accepting cash because card readers lost their internet connection.

The newly opened market is jointly managed by Cimex, a subsidiary of the military-run conglomerate Gaesa, and Inversiones Pucara S.A. (IPSA), a Panamanian company founded by Spanish shareholders. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 20 August 2025 — Dollars in hand, Marcial entered the newly opened dollar store on the ground floor of Havana’s Focsa Building on Tuesday. The store is part of a government effort to dollarize the Cuban economy, which began in earnest in January. Even with U.S. greenbacks, however, customers still face obstacles. With no coins to give customers their change, and with internet bank connections often disrupted, retail stores like this one are operating at half speed.

“We are handing out pieces of candy as change,” explains a uniformed cashier at Supermix Market, a recognizable brand name in Havana since the opening of another such store on 20th Street between Third and Fifth streets. In this new location in Focsa, the name is now on the walls, the shopping carts are brand new and the shelves are packed with merchandise, all signaling to anyone who might not have noticed that this is U.S. dollar territory.

“I haven’t been here in awhile so I was surprised to see that everything was painted and the entrance was clean. But if you walk a few yards from the front door, the spell is broken,” said a local resident who stopped in to buy some ground chicken. To reach the market, the woman had to dodge a man sleeping on the sidewalk right in front of the entrance to the Focsa Building, a structure considered one of the Cuban capital’s architectural marvels since the 1950s.

“I haven’t been here in awhile so I was surprised to see that everything was painted and the entrance was clean. But if you walk a few yards from the front door, the spell is broken”

The newly opened store is jointly managed by CIMEX, a subsidiary of the military conglomerate GAESA, and Inversiones Pucara S.A. (IPSA), a Panamanian company founded by Spanish shareholders which as been operating in Cuba since 1997. The company boasts on its social media platform of being “one of the most respected and prominent importers of quality food and beverages on the island.” A quick glance at the shelves reveals that it imports everything from wines to basic foodstuffs to pet food.

“It’s well stocked and prices are on the moderate to high side,” notes an elderly woman who has come here with her partner to buy yoghurt and powdered milk. Her tab comes to $9.65, which she pays with a ten-dollar bill. Instead of change, the cashier hands her a chocolate candy. “There’s not a lot of it,” the cashier says, an explanation that does not entirely satisfy the customer though it comes as no surprise. continue reading

“I’ve been told that the store at 3rd and 70th streets is also like this but hearing is one thing and seeing is another,” says the woman before leaving. Right behind her in the checkout line, a Cuban man from Miami is paying for his items with a hundred-dollar bill, which slows down the line. On a multi-column form, the cashier writes down his full name, passport number and the address where he will be “staying for the next few days.”

The recently opened supermarket is operated by CIMEX, a subsidiary of the military-run business conglomerate GAESA, in partnership with Inversiones Pucara S.A. / Facebook

“There’s lots of products on display but no machine that can do a quick scan for counterfeit bills,” the man complains. He had previously asked if he could pay with a Visa card issued by a Spanish bank. “No, the POS (electronic point of sale) hasn’t been connected to the bank since yesterday,” the employee explained. “We don’t know what’s going on. We are only accepting cash for now.”

The supermarket offers products from brands such as El Pozo, Pascual and La Menorquina from Spain, Parmalat and Ferrero Rocher from Italy, and Pringles from the United States. IPSA is also one of the main distributors of the Spanish beer Belgastar, a major rival to Cuba’s own Bucanero and Cristal brands, whose operations have been greatly curtailed.

IPSA’s Spanish general director in Cuba is Fernando Rovira Murillo, who has become a darling of state media both for his work at Pucara as well as for his participation in the 2023 International Wine Festival. He is described in official press reports as a “reliable partner” and “highly professional.” The company, which employs more than 100 people, also has agreements with local private businesses, to which it provides wholesale services.

” I just came in for a little fresh air from the air conditioning and was amazed by all the lights”

Faced with a 1,820-megawatt power shortage, the entire country can be plunged into darkness for hours at a time on any given day. In contrast, all the light fixtures at the Vedado store lend a certain surreal quality to a business located in an area plagued by ongoing blackouts. “I just came in for a little fresh air from the air conditioning and was amazed by all the lights,” a customer comments ironically to one of the employees. “You can tell it’s a dollar store because you don’t see this in peso stores anymore,” he concludes before leaving.

Others are carefully inspecting every shelf, mulling over future consumer choices. “There’s lots of options but I also see things that are very exclusive while some basic foods aren’t even available,” says one customer near the meat section. “There don’t seem to be many meat options. I also thought they would have a wider variety of cured meats.” A young employee explains to her, “This is just the beginning. There’s more merchandise on the way.”

The location of the new dollar store could not be more telling. The Focsa Building was one of the symbols of the Cuba’s once thriving bourgeoisie. With Fidel Castro’s rise to power, however, many of its luxurious apartments were nationalized and reallocated to trusted officials, government ministers and people close to the supreme leader. Soviet technicians, Latin American guerrilla fighters, and foreign artists committed to the revolution all lived here.

Now, however, the supermarket on the ground floor of the architectural colossus only accepts dollars, the currency many of those former inhabitants once said they hated.

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On the Island of Piracy, It Doesn’t Matter if the Logo is Fake

En la Isla, la demanda se dispara por el deseo de los jóvenes de lucir logos famosos a un precio acorde con su bajo poder adquisitivo. / Facebook

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, August 10, 2025 — “These sneakers aren’t even original,” Liuba openly admits as she stands in front of a wide variety of sneakers laid out on her table. The fact that they are all fakes does not seem to bother the freelance vendor. “They might not be authentic but I only sell G5 copies,” she says with a tinge of pride. She is referring to high-quality replicas that accurately mimic the design — and sometimes even the materials — of popular brands such as Nike.

Liuba travels twice a month to Panama to stock up. She brings back some of the merchandise in her own luggage. She ships the rest or has it carried back by third-parties who make up part of this retail network. “What I sell are high-end imitations. They look very similar to the original but the cost what people here can afford,” she explains.

The prices speak for themselves. A G5 copy of a Nike Air Max X Supreme is priced at 27,000 Cuban pesos —four times what her mother makes in month at her job in a medical lab. A pair of Adidas Campus shoes costs around 15,000 while and a pair of fake Converses goes for as much as 20,000. “It’s not dishonest,”she asserts. “Buyers know what they’re getting.”

“It’s not dishonest. Buyers know what they’re getting”

This phenomenon is not unique to Cuba. Counterfeiting — whether it be clothing, jewelry or toys — has become so sophisticated that even experts can be fooled. Despite laws prohibiting their sale, the global market for continue reading

fakes continues to grow, especially among online shoppers and young consumers, who want well-known brands at lower prices.

In Cuba, demand is skyrocketing due to young people’s desire to brandish famous logos at prices commensurate with their limited purchasing power. According to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the value of counterfeit and pirated goods worldwide was $467 billion in 2021. China and Hong Kong lead the production.

There was a time when private-sector vendors in Cuba swore they were not selling fake goods even though everyone knew that a lot of merchandise was not original. They now openly admit it and their customers automatically assume it.

Loly, a 19-year-old Havana resident, has become a counterfeit influencer. She poses on Instagram with Prada sunglasses, a Saint Laurent bag and Adidas Samba sneakers. Her photos show her carrying shopping bags as if she were coming out of a boutique. In reality, the items are purchased on the black market, some of which she resells to her followers. “Sometimes I post a photo with a bag and in five minutes I have ten orders. There’s even a waiting list for some items,” she says.

The rise of fast-fashion platforms such as Shein and Temu has also had an impact. Many Cubans order low-cost items through intermediaries, relatives in the U.S. or frequent travelers. The merchandise comes from places popular with Cuban travelers such as Miami, Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. The factories, however, are much farther away, in places such as China, Turkey and Thailand.

“My daughter regularly shows up with a blouse whose color has faded after one use or pair of sneakers that has lost a sole”

Loly manages several Telegram groups with thousands of members. There, she posts photos and prices for knockoffs of things such as $5,000 handbags, sneakers, jeans, glasses and even clothes recently seen on runways or concert stages.

But there is a downside. “My daughter regularly shows up with a blouse whose color has faded after one use or pair of sneakers that has lost a sole,” complains Marilín, the mother of a teenager addicted to these shopping sites.

It is no longer taboo to be seen in knockoffs of famous brands. “A few years ago it was a sign that you were poor but now people proudly show them off,” she notes.

This is largely due to social media and influencers. TikTok is one of the island’s hubs of knockoff promotions. The state, which has never cared about the rights of copyright holders, is not concerned about this phenomenon. It is common to find counterfeit goods even in government-run stores. “I have been fined for not adding a QR code but never for selling copies,” confesses Liuba, the owner of a store in Havana’s Vedado district, whose shelves are filled with luxury caps and handbags, all fake.

In some cases the ads do not even bother to point out that the merchandise is fake because nobody expects to find anything but copies on the Island of Piracy

Only when counterfeit goods pose a threat to public health does someone sound the alarm. In 2022, the Center for State Drug Control (CECMED) warned that counterfeit drugs such as Amitriptyline and Diazepam were being sold outside of pharmacies. Beyond that, the issue has seldom come up in state media.

In sports, the market for counterfeit soccer jerseys is overwhelming. Prices range from 10,000 to 35,000 pesos, with quality ranging from flimsy to almost authentic. In some cases the ads do not even bother to point out that the merchandise is fake because nobody expects to find anything but copies on the Island of Piracy.

The logic behind this is the same. For many, a replica is a way to “belong” without having to empty their wallets. Twenty-two-year-old Kara offers a humorous take on the phenomenon. She says of her Skechers “S” sneakers, “They’re faker than a selfie with filters but I like them and my friends recognize them from social media. Nobody cares that they’re not the real thing.”

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Five-Month-Old Baby Dies in Havana’s Flooding Due to Rain

The child, identified as Neimar Francisco Valdés Pérez, drowned after the water burst into his home.

Furniture destroyed by floods this Monday in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, August 12, 2025 — A five-month-old baby lost his life on Monday in the El Cerro neighborhood of Havana during heavy rains that hit the capital. The little one, identified as Neymar, drowned after the water burst with force in his house when a wall came down.

The news was confirmed to 14ymedio via telephone from La Nacional funeral home, where the body of the baby was being held. According to one of the employees, the funeral procession left at 8:20 on Tuesday.

In an interview with Florida-based Cuban journalist Mario J. Pentón, Karen Rodriguez, the baby’s aunt, said in tears that everything happened “in fractions of a second and gave us no time for anything.” The wall that divided the house from the family’s workshop came down with the rain, and the water entered in a torrent.

“He was given first aid and arrived at the hospital breathing, but died.”

At the time of the incident, she recounted, “we were all in the house with the boys.” She had enough time to get her baby out, but her sister-in-law did not. Neymar was dragged behind a door, where rescuers found him. ” He was given first aid and was still breathing when they arrived at the hospital, but died,” the woman said.

Her account matches that of several people on social networks. “Fly high little one. We got you out alive, but you did not manage to survive. You don’t know how we firefighters who got you out feel,” wrote young rescuer Enmanuel Díaz Rodríguez. His message was commented on by dozens of users, many of whom sent condolences to the family and expressed outrage at the conditions that led to the fatal outcome.

On the Patria y Vida Facebook page, where reference was also made to the unfortunate event, a comment from Zulema Fuentes, neighbor of the victims, also offered an account of what happened. The little boy’s mother, she recounted, was picking up the house because everything was getting wet, while holding the baby in her arms. The wall collapsed suddenly, letting in a large amount of water whose force snatched the child from her hands. Neymar had turned five months old that same day. The current dragged away not only him but also the mother, who took a few moments to get up and realize that the child was no longer there. continue reading

Fuentes added that the moment was one of absolute despair: neighbors, friends and family began to look for him while screaming, until a neighbor found him trapped behind the door. He was immediately given first aid, and according to the story, the child opened his eyes. He was rushed to hospital, where he received medical care, but eventually died. This new account provides a more vivid picture of the chaos and helplessness experienced in the critical minutes after the collapse, and it highlights how quickly the tragedy unfolded.

The authorities have so far not provided any information on what happened.

Wall knocked down by rain near the Villanueva station./ 14ymedio

At dawn this Tuesday, the scene in some neighborhoods showed the virulence of the storm, with furniture destroyed and washed into the streets and walls demolished.

In any case, the fact again highlights the precarious conditions of many buildings in the capital, particularly in neighborhoods like El Cerro, where accumulated deterioration and lack of maintenance make each rainy season a period of extreme risk. On numerous occasions, neighbors have reported leaks, cracked walls and weakened structures without timely repairs.

Havana is a city where heavy rains often cause flash floods, especially in low-lying areas with poor drainage. The aging rain system, largely clogged by massive amounts of solid waste, is unable to evacuate water at the required speed, causing accumulations that can reach dangerous levels in a matter of minutes. In areas like El Cerro, this problem is aggravated by the proximity of some houses to streets that turn into real rivers during storms.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana: The Next Battle of Cuatro Caminos Market Will Be in Dollars or It Will Not Be

Havana’s largest and oldest market is closed and will no longer sell in freely convertible currency.

Cuatro Caminos Plaza in Central Havana is closed and about to be dollarized. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 24 July 2025 — A confluence of municipalities, a crossroads of avenues, Havana’s Cuatro Caminos is more than the colossal building that bears its name; it is also the name given to an area where commerce has traditionally been the reason for existence and the livelihood of its residents. Now, everyone who passes by notices that the market that gives life to the neighborhood has closed. “When it reopens, it will be in dollars,” a security guard tells 14ymedio.

With virtually all entrances blocked by metal doors, only one store on the upper floor, dedicated to the sale of household goods, remains operating at half capacity. The rest, including the supermarket, has already entered the racetrack that inevitably leads to dollarization, a path that several of Havana’s most important businesses have taken. The freely convertible currency (MLC), in which their merchandise was sold, failed to keep the spacious halls stocked with products.

The news was seen coming. A month ago, a butcher shop owned by Richmeat opened its doors in dollars, under the agreement signed with Cimex to manage an entire retail complex under the name La Favorita, as some of its products are called.

In recent years it was grim to wander through the shops located in the imposing building that occupies the entire block.

In recent years, it was grim to wander through the shops located in the imposing building that occupies the entire block and see the empty spaces, the deserted shelves, and the unlit lamps. The breath of the fula (US dollar) snorted in the neck of what was once the main market in the Cuban capital. With its two horns of plenty carved into the facade, the prosperous cornucopia was not reflected in its increasingly undersupplied interior. A commercial anemia that ended up affecting the entire area. continue reading

“Here we live off reselling and wheeling and dealing,” says a nearby lighter repairman who, between injecting gas into a lighter or changing the flint to create a good spark, hawks his tiny tubes of instant glue, a few packets of powdered soda, and “the little razors you can’t live without.” When the market supply dwindled, “people stopped coming from other neighborhoods to get hardware supplies, boxes of chicken, or paint for their homes,” he tells this newspaper. “Fewer customers, less business.”

The commercial weakness affected everyone. The elderly man who took advantage of the red light to clean the windshields of those arriving to buy a bathtub; the santera who read cards on the opposite sidewalk and received more customers when they stocked the butcher’s refrigerators; and the young man with a disability who, when turning the corner, set up a table with used plumbing parts to supply those looking for a sink or a drain, but the price in the store seemed too high. As word spread that the mall was “deprived,” everyone’s income also dried up.

Now, the hope is that the dollar will revive the so-called Single Market. “The next battle of Cuatro Caminos will be between people who have dollars,” quips the matchbox repairman. But it’s hard to believe that, as in November 2019, an angry mob will once again break down the doors, run up the stairs, ravage the shelves, and ravage the most prized merchandise. There aren’t that many Cubans with dollars, nor do they have that many ‘Lincolns’ in their pockets.

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Two Buildings Collapse Killing Four in Havana in Just a Few Hours

“This whole block needs to be knocked down and rebuilt again,” a neighbour in calle Monte told ’14ymedio’.

The authorities reported the death of two adults and a nine-year-old girl in calle Monte / Canal Habana.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 12 July 2025 — A house in multiple occupation collapsed this Saturday morning in La Habana Vieja, leaving three dead under the rubble. A few hours before that in the Diez de Octubre neighbourhood another building “under demolition” also collapsed with three people in it and one of them died. Both these events bear witness to the state of the buildings in the capital and the helplessness of the people of Havana in the face of the ever accelerating collapse of the city. The authorities have provided incomplete, unclear and late information on both cases.

The collapse of the first building, located at 722 calle Monte between Rastro and Carmen, happened Saturday morning and the Havana authorities reported that at least three people, including a little nine-year-old girl, died when they were trapped in the rubble. The deceased were confirmed by the Asamblea Municipal del Poder Popular de La Habana Vieja on Facebook.

In spite of that, other official media, reporting more recently, not only have not yet reported the deaths, but have given assurances that the rescue work – with firemen, rescue workers, police and dog teams – is continuing, even though 14ymedio confirmed that the rubble has already been cleared from the avenue, traffic has restarted and rescue teams have left the location.

Teresa, an 82-year-old who lives in the street told 14ymedio that, “This whole block needs to be knocked down and rebuilt again. Most of the houses here have been declared unsafe, but people still live here because they have nowhere else to go.” The part which collapsed was above a shop which sold furniture a long time ago, and after that was a state hardware business and now sells different kinds of things, and “has had lots of problems with a leaky roof, leading to it being closed for a long time.”

14ymedio confirmed that the rubble has already been cleared from the street /14ymedio

The Havana house is one of the ones in the block that is propped up on the outside and inside with wooden beams. She told us “When my youngest grandson was born they told him they would find him somewhere so he could leave here. The kid is now 26, and nothing.” continue reading

Teresa didn’t know about the collapse until this morning. “I didn’t feel anything because I had a headache and took some sleeping pills and so I found out about the collapse this morning” she told this publication. “When I looked I saw the yellow tape and the rubble in the street.”

Although she didn’t know the victims, she said many people in the area are worried by the news of the deaths, and various plainclothes state security agents* (agents of the Seguridad del Estado, often surveilling critics of the regime) are posted in the street, watching what happens.

For Teresa seeing the rubble and the ruins has been a déjà vu, because just a year ago the house in calle Monte on the corner with Rastro was partially demolished after also suffering a collapse. “We had weeks with the dust getting in everywhere.”

On social media, the neighbours and the authorities published photos of the collapsed building, and also showing the fire trucks and other state vehicles as well as a pile of rubble blocking the street.

In the second collapse – Friday afternoon – in a house being demolished in calle San Bernardino, between Serrano and Durege, in Diez de Octubre municipality, one person was killed. “After midnight, the Rescue Brigade managed to remove the body of someone trapped under the rubble. The deceased, Roberto Álvarez Castillo, 60 years old, was a resident of Cerro municipality. His family who were there were fully helped by health specialists and local authorities, stated Tribuna de La Habana.

The publication added that two other people were found under the rubble, although they were not injured. Having found the body, “they became aware of the presence of two other people there and called off the search” in the three storey building, which was “old” and “was propped up”.

“Four months ago, part of the building fell down and today at 2:00 pm another part fell, but this time it cost the life of one of the workers removing some bricks. One was able to escape, but the other couldn’t” said a local resident in a Facebook post agreeing with the official version.

According to the authorities, “the building was uninhabited and in the course of being demolished going on for more than three months, and the people were there in spite of several no entry warnings from the neighbours and the authorities.” The Havana Channel (Canal Habana) added that work to rescue “the trapped people” is still continuing.

Destroyed by the authorities’ neglect and lack of interest, Havana is full of deadly locations and calle Monte is one of them. In June 2024, number 425, between Ángeles and Águila, partially collapsed, leaving a young person injured. Next door, the house at 423 also cost a man’s life four years ago, when one of its side walls collapsed.

“We can’t even sleep here, all of us living in this bit of the street are in danger” a neighbour said to us.

At the end of that month, after several days of storms, at least 19 buildings had partial or total collapses. This Friday, however, nothing happened which could be used as an excuse for the collapses: not one drop of water fell in the capital.

*Translator’s note: Agents of the Seguridad del Estado, who often surveil critics of the regime.

Translated by GH

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In the Port of Havana, a U.S. Luxury Ship Provokes Stares and Questions

“Who came on that yacht? There’s a ticket there,” curious people comment.

This type of boat usually is seen in the Marina Hemingway, a much more discreet place than the bay of Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 June 2025 — Unreachable and glistening under the sun of Havana, the luxury yacht First Lady, with the flag of the Cayman Islands, arrived this Wednesday in the bay of the Cuban capital. While people inland face an energy deficit of more than 1,700 MW, the dark grey hull of the boat is just a preview of the comforts enjoyed by its passengers. Nearby, punished by the heat and wearing uniforms soaked in sweat, several policemen guard the ship from early morning.

This type of boat usually is seen in the Marina Hemingway, a much more discreet place than the bay of Havana. “Who’s going on that yacht?” asks a woman sheltering herself in the shade, sitting on a wooden ramp across the street from the Customs Building. “Someone here has a ticket”, says a young man who also scrutinizes the boat, trying to decipher the name of the client who has paid more than $200,000 a week for ploughing through the sea while sitting on a comfortable sofa, filled with cushions, in the main lounge, or for showering while the bow of the First Lady cuts through the waters in its path.

The price of the ’First Lady’ is around $200,000 a week for cruising the sea / 14ymedio

With air conditioning, coffee machine, jacuzzi and a powerful wifi signal for internet connection, the boat was built in 2023, at the Italian shipyard of Riva, and has a capacity of 11 people and 7 crew. Satellite tracking sites located it just a few days ago in Key West, Florida; until June 16 it had been in Miami, the capital of the Cuban exile in the United States.

The trip is surprising because it is no longer the time of the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana, when that voyage was more common. Now, with declining tourism on the Island and the tone of confrontational discourse rising between both countries, the First Lady has a ghostly presence, an apparition from another time or dimension. continue reading

From the wall of the Malecon you can read, on one side of the yacht, a small inscription that confirms the pleasures enjoyed by its guests. “Dolce vita”, boasts the poster. Fanning herself with a piece of cardboard, an old woman and her grandson, from the opposite sidewalk, follow every detail of the sumptuous “flying saucer” that has not fallen from the sky but has arrived by sea and from the North.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Despite an Investment of 90,000 Euros, the Casa Canaria in Havana Remains a Ruin

There is concern about the use of the Canary Islands government subsidy, which claims to have received supporting documents.

“Fernando Rojas has exterminated the Canarian community in Cuba; he has disarticulated the little autonomy we had left” / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, June 21, 2025 — The descendants of Canary Islanders (Canarians) in Cuba have been crossing the desert for more than three years. The accusations of corruption within the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Canary Island Association and the closure of its main headquarters in Havana adds to the despair of many elderly people, who now have more difficulty in receiving the direct aid offered by the government of that Spanish autonomous community.

“The closure of the Casa Canaria has dispersed a lot of people, and the elderly are the most vulnerable,” says José, a descendant of migrants from Tenerife. He believes that with the 2023 closure of the Association’s house at 258 Monserrate street in Old Havana, part of the glue that held the Canarians together in Cuba has been lost.

In 2022, the Cuban government intervened in the Association after numerous complaints of malpractice, and they created a management commission chaired by the then deputy minister of culture, Fernando Rojas, whose grandmother is from Arucas (Las Palmas). The group, which presented itself as a transitional entity, has ended up monopolizing internal decisions, appointed like-minded people to head several local associations and manages, without transparency, the renovation of the emblematic building on Monserrate Street.

“No progress has been made in the electrical system nor have hydraulic improvements been made”/ Courtesy

José Luis Perestelo Rodríguez, deputy councilor of Foreign Affairs for the Canary Islands, tells 14ymedio that the government of the Canary Islands “provided a grant of 90,000 euros for the restoration of the building that housed the Casa Canaria, a grant that, as of today, is currently executed and justified.” However, traces of that money are barely perceived in the interior of the building, according to statements collected by this newspaper.

“No progress has been made in the electrical system, nor have hydraulic reforms been made. So far, the only thing that has been achieved is to demolish some structures, built arbitrarily, and throw away garbage and rubble,” says a source close to the restoration process. “Restoration students linked to the Office of the City Historian helped to clear the rubble but were not paid even one peso,” he adds. continue reading

Walls corroded by moisture, damaged framework and wooden doors, roof leaks and deteriorating pipes, especially in bathroom areas, are still present. “From the outside you do not notice any change but inside is where you can see how little has been done. Three years and 90,000 euros later the place is a ruin, and the schedule of repair and reopening is a mystery. They tell us nothing,” he complains.

Even a musician has joined the complaint and, with the refrain of “return the Canary House,” has recorded and broadcast a theme about the current situation of the property. ” They tricked us with false meetings, empty promises, false choice,” he exclaims in his song. “They occupy our place as if it were their own,” says the young man who identifies himself as a “guanche* and mambí rapper.”

Even a musician has joined the complaint with the refrain of “return the Casa Canaria”

Perestelo Rodríguez, in reply to this newspaper, says that “the government of the Canary Islands at this moment is not interested in the recovery of the building. The priority is to meet the needs of the Canarians and their descendants in Cuba, for which we provide individualized assistance to people directly.” He claims to be “in dialogue with the current management of the Casa Canaria to proceed with the renovation by the governing bodies, in a process that must be open to all members”.

The delay in the renovation of the premises causes problems that go beyond not being able to count on the large rooms where meetings, dances and concerts were organized, and in which a restaurant also functioned.

“Not having a place to meet up has greatly weakened the bonds among the Canarians,” reflects José in reference to the 50,000 migrants or descendants of Canarians who in 2023 were estimated to live in Cuba, a figure that may be lower today due to the mass exodus experienced by the Island. For his part, “Fernando Rojas continues to pressure the government of the Canary Islands to convince them that he is the only one who can handle Canarian matters in Cuba”.

“Rojas is an official and responds to the Cuban government, not to us”

“We cannot meet, because without the Havana headquarters we have to depend on the management commission to provide a place, but they have done very little in all these years,” adds José. “Rojas has exterminated the Canarian community in Cuba, has disarticulated the little autonomy we had left and has turned it into his private estate because he is an official and responds to the Cuban government, not to us”.

In a WhatsApp group, to which this newspaper had access, Dayamí Blanco Jorrín, the right hand of Rojas, announced the celebration on May 30 of the Day of the Canary Islands. In her message she said that “the event will take place during a very difficult time for Cuba, marked by economic difficulties and a constant and escalating aggression that does not know justice”.

As a finale, Blanco wrote that the Canary Islands government had not delivered the funds in 2025 intended for the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Association Canaria, but on the official site of the entity appears an allocated grant of 20,000 euros for that period. José explains that it has not been possible to obtain this money, and the Association remains without a leader after postponing the electoral process in order to elect a government that Rojas has tried unsuccessfully to form with people sympathetic to his policy.

To elect a president, member meetings must first be held, followed by convening an extraordinary general meeting and forming the electoral board. Only that entity can update the membership register. However, the sequence has not been followed, and the association remains without a leader since May 2022, when Lázaro Rivero was removed from the presidency by the management committee due to financial irregularities.

Those who have taken the brunt of the paralysis of the Association, the closure of the Casa and the loss of social activities have been the elderly. Not only do they not now have some of the cultural and recreational events that added some diversion to their lives, but they also don’t receive advice from the institution and other younger Canarians who helped them on important issues, like knowing about announcements and filling out forms for receiving financial aid distributed by the Canary Islands government.

“Most of those who need the aid couldn’t even fill out the application”

The Vice Councilor of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Canary Islands awarded this year “a grant to 149 Canarians resident in Cuba, for a total of 29,800 euros, 200 euros per person, in order to alleviate the precarious health and socio-economic situation in which they are living,” explains the entity. But the number of beneficiaries seems like a drop in an ocean. “Most of those who need the aid couldn’t even fill out the application,” says José. “When the Casa was functioning, the younger people helped the elderly, but now the only ones who can get help are those who have a son or grandson to help them with the paperwork,” says the descendant of Canarians.

“There is very little information on aid, and, with the problems of connecting to the internet, an elderly person who lives here has a lot of difficulty in completing the paperwork for receiving aid,” says a daughter of 72-year-old Canarians living in the town of Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus. “Here, in addition, there are many who managed to get Spanish citizenship and left. There are only a few of us who stayed.”

The woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, obtained a Spanish passport through the Democratic Memory Act but has not left the Island because she takes care of an older sister, who is bed-ridden and in need of constant care. “Most old people cannot fill out the forms and send them in on time, and they don’t want to be kept hanging wondering if they’ll get the money or not.”

“The only thing that has been achieved so far is to demolish some structures, built in an arbitrary way, and to throw away garbage and rubble” / Courtesy]

The problem, however, does not end when the person is approved for financial aid. “The bank gives us the money in national currency, at an exchange rate of 1 euro for 120 pesos, but on the street the euro is worth three times more”, she says, referring to this Tuesday’s informal exchange rate, which is 1 euro for 410 pesos.”You’re supposed to be able to withdraw that money in foreign currency, but in my branch they always tell me that they don’t have it”.

The Canarian descendant lists the process of being attentive to new calls, filling out the forms, printing them for signature, re-digitizing the documents and finally sending them by e-mail. ” Before, the grassroots organizations provided the forms already printed and helped the elderly to fill them in, but now everything is in chaos: the management commission is not fulfilling any role; it does not inform us, does not manage and does not keep the community organized and united”.

“Only four of the basic organizations are functioning, and badly; the rest are deactivated,” says the woman. “Many of those who ran them have gone to the Canary Islands and from there do nothing for us here”, she says. ” The Association has become the private business of some, no longer fulfilling the function of representing all of us”.

* Genre of music in the Canary Islands.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Ruins up for Auction: The Cuban State Offers the Private Sector the Opportunity to Revive Run-down Spaces

“Anyone who ventures into this space is going to have to spend a lot of money.”

The space located on *Aguacate* and O’Reilly streets in Old Havana seems light years away from being able to be converted into a business. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya/José Lassa, Havana, 5 June 2025 — Where a building once stood, now only an empty lot facing the sea remains. The land at the corner of Perseverancia and Malecón streets in Central Havana is part of the public bidding process open in the Cuban capital seeking a private entrepreneur to convert it into a cafe, a restaurant, a craft stand, or a vehicle repair shop.

The task of attracting the private sector is beyond complicated, given the current state of these plots and buildings, since most of them are empty and dilapidated. The plot on Perseverancia Street is simply a vacant lot, where, in the past, stood one of those many buildings on the Havana coastline that eventually collapsed after decades of salt damage and neglect. Later, a small park replaced the brick mass, and finally, the perimeter became a makeshift garbage dump and a place for graffiti.

The corner of Perseverancia and Malecón streets in Central Havana is part of the public bidding process open in the capital. / 14ymedio

The Heritage Management Company, part of the City Historian’s Office, included the esplanade among the six locations available for lease until June 30th. The list also includes a plot in the city’s historic center and a stand in the former Almacenes San José. The activities that can be carried out at these sites range from gastronomy and retail to recreation and cultural events.

But paper is one thing, reality is another. One of the other plots being sought by a private developer is at the corner of Malecón and Crespo Streets, where, unlike its neighbor on Perseverancia Street, hasn’t even had all the rubble removed from the building that collapsed years ago. When it fell down, a man was seriously injured and it left images that starkly portrayed Havana’s ruins.

Neighbors still remember the dust that arose when the walls of the building, now uninhabited and undergoing demolition, collapsed. After clearing away the largest pieces of the wreckage, the authorities placed a metal fence around it to prevent the property from becoming a landfill or public restroom. The area, which looks like it’s located in a city in the midst of war, is one of those now being put up for bid.

The scene is repeated, more or less unchanged, on the plots of land at the corner of Malecón and Escobar. / 14ymedio

“Any private individual who gets involved in this is going to have to spend a lot of money to clean up that land,” says a resident of the nearby Lealtad Street, which has seen both the splendor and the ruin of Havana’s shoreline. “The State can’t get this ready to set up a business, since it doesn’t have the money, but it doesn’t make much sense for an individual because of the high costs of remediating it,” he explains to 14ymedio.

Crespo’s lot is large because it extends to the neighboring San Lázaro Street, where the adjacent building also collapsed years ago. An area is one that continue reading

many countries would strongly bid for, given its oceanfront location, its good connections to other parts of the city, and its history. But in Havana these days, the land scares away pockets more than it attracts them.

Another of the plots sought by a private developer is at the corner of Malecón and Crespo. / 14ymedio

The scene is repeated, more or less unchanged, on the plots at the corner of Malecón and Escobar and also on the one located on Avenida del Litoral and Calle Genios. Spaces without any construction, empty squares, lots where families once leaned out on their balconies, children ran down the stairs, and the elderly enjoyed the sea breeze sitting on their doorsteps, but where, in a second, everything collapsed, giving way to yet another gaping hole in the smile of the Havana coast. A mouth that’s increasingly toothless.

Also competing in disrepair, the space located on Aguacate and O’Reilly Streets in Old Havana seems light years away from being able to accommodate a business. Two royal palm trees vigorously resist the land, which, despite the fence surrounding it, has become a dumping ground that passersby avoid and “the divers” dig through. “This could be “the land of plenty”, but you’d need a lot of money to improve it”, considers a resident of one of the buildings nearby.

Located in the heart of Havana’s tourist scene, a few years ago, When the winds of economic and democratic openness gave Cubans hope, “this would have had a lot of eyes on it”, the Havana native ventures. But now, it’s hard to believe anyone could be interested in it “getting stuck in a project like this, to make something out of nothing.” The recently announced tenders seem like an attempt to revive spaces in clear decline.

In the list of offers from the Historian’s Office, the one with the best conditions is the option to obtain a stand in Almacenes San José. / 14ymedio

The state-owned monopoly Cupet hasn’t been left behind either, and it has published an advertisement seeking to lease the auto repair shop located at the corner of Justicia and Municipio streets in Luyanó, Diez de Octubre, to a private party. Interested parties can apply until June 11 to “use the shop area, as well as its equipment.” But according to the shop’s employees, the entrepreneurs who have come to inspect the premises’ infrastructure have not been very satisfied. “The roof is a light covering, the equipment is very worn, and a lot of money would have to be invested to get this up and running,” one of the remaining state workers at the site, which currently barely provides any service, told this newspaper. “All the supplies needed to repair and do the bodywork on cars are expensive, many in foreign currency,” he explains. “An investor who wants to incur this headache will have to be very patient and have lots of bucks.”

Meanwhile, on the list of offers from the Historian’s Office, the one with the best conditions is the option to obtain a stand at the Antiguos Almacenes San José Cultural Center, near the Bay of Havana. The market, where artisans sell seed necklaces or paintings with the facade of the Bodeguita del Medio, has also suffered the migratory exodus and there are numerous empty spaces. With a roof, solid walls, and a yellow-painted facade, it is the crown jewel among so many ruins up for bid.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Cuban Government Cheats Doctors Returning From Mission in Angola and Gives Them MLC Instead of Dollars

Two doctors told ‘14ymedio‘ that the bank told them it did not have the foreign currency to pay them what they were owed under the contract upon their return to the island.

The contract states that Antex, “provided there is cash available for this purpose, will credit the Worker (…) one hundred percent of the amount in USD from his monthly salary” // Embassy of Cuba in Angola

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, June 12, 2025 — After years of being on a medical mission in Angola, the Cuban doctors, when they return, are meeting with a very unpleasant surprise. The banks do not have hard currency for them to withdraw the dollar amount accumulated in their accounts. The only legal alternative left is to use their savings in freely convertible currency (MLC), an option they consider “armed robbery.”

Ana Isabel, a Cuban doctor whose name has been changed for this report, spent two years at the Hospital Materno Infantil do Camama Dr. Manuel Pedro Azancot de Menezes in Luanda. Separated from her family, the specialist placed all her hopes on the money that, while she worked on the African continent, was accumulating in her account at the Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA) on the island.

“We were supposed to receive a total of $1,200 dollars per month. There they had to give us $200 in kuanzas [the official currency of Angola] and the other $1,000 would be deposited in Cuba,” the doctor tells 14ymedio. ” But in Angola, they never gave us the $200; something always happened and we were given only $100 (82,500 kuanzas), with the option that the family in Cuba could withdraw another $50 from the bank depending on the availability of hard currency at that time.” continue reading

“There they never gave us the $200; something always happened and they gave us only $100 (82,500 kuanzas), with the option that the family here could withdraw another $50 from the bank depending on the availability of hard currency at that time.”

Cuban professionals in Angola had to tighten their belts, because, although they have free accommodation, food and other expenses paid, “Sometimes I couldn’t even recharge my phone. But I thought that all this sacrifice was worth it if I had my dollars guaranteed when I returned, as the contract with Antex [Corporación Antillana Exportadora S.A] promised,” explains Ana Isabel.

The Antex Corporation, an entity included on the black list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Treasury Department (OFAC), belongs to the Cuban military conglomerate Gaesa. The entity manages businesses on Angolan territory ranging from the construction of motorways, through the repair of aerodromes to travel agencies. Between 2013 and 2017 alone, Angola paid more than $1 billion to Antex, according to research published by El Toque.

The contract of Antex, Corporación Antillana Exportadora S.A. / 14ymedio

Cuba has more than taken advantage of the participation, financed by the former USSR, of its more than 300,000 soldiers in the civil war in Angola between 1975 and 1991. It has done this precisely through Antex. According to the Portuguese press, in 2015, 70% of the health personnel in that country were Cuban.

In the document signed by all Cubans on official mission to Angola – more than 2,000 now among doctors, nurses, health technicians, builders, drivers and higher education teachers – it is stated that Antex, “provided that cash is available for this purpose, shall credit the Worker during the month preceding the date of his return to the Homeland, one hundred percent (100%) of the amount in USD from his monthly salary”. For most doctors, the cumulative amount is between $20,000 and $22,000.

“When we returned, we were told that the bank had no hard currency available and that we could only access money through our cards in MLC”

However, the contract has become a worthless piece of paper. ” When we returned, they told us that the bank had no hard currency available and that we could only access money through our MLC cards”, explains the doctor to this newspaper. She, however, feels lucky. ” On my vacation in Cuba, in the middle of the mission, I was able to withdraw $1,500, because at that time the bank had availability, but now it doesn’t and probably won’t in the short term.”

Last February, a group of doctors complained to Antex about the lack of hard currency. The official response then was that they were working to switch their magnetic cards to the Classic prepaid mode, so that they could buy in the dollar stores that began opening on the island since the beginning of this year. “It was not ideal, because most people want cash, but at least we could buy some products necessary for day-to-day.” But the promise has not yet been fulfilled. “We have been robbed of our money,” a doctor says bitterly.

“We have to sell our MLC in the street, under the risk of being caught by the police and convicted for the crime of illegal currency trafficking, and then buy the dollars we need on the black market,” says Maria Isabel, aware that the informal exchange rate is now 260 pesos per MLC and 375 for each dollar.” With the cards we have now we can’t go to any of those markets, like the 3rd and 70th in Miramar. The ones we can use are almost empty, dark stores that don’t even have detergent.”

Arnaldo, a doctor, experienced a similar situation. After working for two years in several hospitals, including the Comandante Raúl Díaz-Argüelles, in Cuanza Sur. The professional, also with his identity protected to avoid retaliation, tells this newspaper that he had to “pluck up courage” in the last year of his stay in Angola to not desert. “I did not miss the hospital because they treated us like garbage, but in Cuba I have my parents who are very old, and I can’t leave them alone.”

Arnaldo knows that for his work as a doctor, Angola pays Antex $5,000 per month. Of that, the doctor received only $100 each month, in kuanzas. “The bank account in Cuba was designed for my return, to use that currency to go to Brazil with my brother, to make my way there and be able to get my parents out soon after,” he says. But of the money in the BPA, he has not yet been able to touch a single dollar.

Arnaldo knows that for his work as a doctor, Angola pays Antex $5,000 per month. Of that, the doctor received only $100 each month, in kuanzas.

Unlike Ana Isabel, when Arnaldo was on vacation in Cuba in the middle of the medical mission, he could not access a single dollar from his account, although the contract ensures that he could draw up to 50% of the amount accumulated during that break. They told me that they had no availability at the bank even though I had made the withdrawal request a few months earlier from Angola,” he says. “Nor did it help that I was given a hard time about the crisis and told that the country does not have access to international currencies.”

“The contract says very clearly that the account that Antex opens to deposit part of our salary is in dollars,” explains Arnaldo. “We were told that they guaranteed the withdrawals once we returned without deserting the mission, but the truth is that I have not been able to get anything out of the bank”. The doctor feels cheated and regrets not having accepted some proposals to move to the private sector that he received in Angola.

Contract with Antex, Corporación Antillana Exportadora S.A. / 14ymedio

“I made good friends there, including Cubans who work on their own in clinics in Luanda, and they told me to stay, not to return to Cuba, that I was going to make money, but I thought Antex would fulfill the contract and so I returned.” On several occasions, when the meager $100 he received in Cuanza del Sur did not suffice to eat, he had to ask his brother in Brazil for help. “No one can believe this, but when I went on vacation to Cuba a friend had to loan me some dollars so that I could have some money there.”

“I received proposals to do some consulting on my own and earn a little money directly but that was very dangerous. Because if you did work outside and they caught you, they would send you back to Cuba with a penalty, and they could take all the money accumulated in your account, so I didn’t want to risk it,”,says Arnaldo. His restraint did not serve him very well.

“Now I’m like a criminal; I had to set up an account with another name on Facebook to see if someone wants to buy my MLC in pesos and then try to buy dollars.” His goal is to recover at least between 5,000 and 8,000 dollars to buy the plane ticket that will take him off the island and leave him with something for the journey to the Brazilian border.” I’m tired of talking to Antex and the bank; now all I want is to get out of here”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba’s State Communications Company Etecsa Restricts Phone Refills in Pesos To Disguise the Dollarization of Its Services

There will be mini refills of 360 pesos for 30 days and others that cost up to 11,760 CUP.

Young Cubans using cell phones in a park / X/Etecsa

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, 30 May 2025 — Friday started badly for customers of Etecsa, Cuba’s state telecommunications monopoly. Etecsa has implemented, beginning May 30, new commercial measures that limit the refills of minutes in Cuban pesos and increase the price of web browsing, while encouraging the purchase of mobile balances from abroad to attract foreign currency, in the midst of the deep crisis that the company is experiencing.

At a press conference, Lidia Esther Hidalgo Rodríguez, vice president of sales for Etecsa, explained that customers of the prepaid mobile service will be able to top up their main balance to reach a total amount of 360 Cuban pesos over the course of 30 days. This restriction contrasts with the possibility that Etecsa customers had, until this Thursday, of buying refills in national currency without restrictions.

With a refill of 360 pesos for 30 days, consumers will be able to purchase, at most, a package with 6 gigabytes (GB) of web browsing, 60 minutes for making calls and the possibility of sending 70 text-only messages (SMS). As an improvement, Hidalgo explained that data plans can be used from any continue reading

network, unlike before, when the packages divided the offer into 3G and 4G.

Below the package of higher price and capacity are those of 4.5 GB of Internet connection for 240 pesos; another of 2 GB + 15 min and 20 SMS for 120 pesos, and one of 4 GB + 35 min and 40 SMS for 240 pesos. “Current data-based plan offerings are improved, guaranteeing more resources for less,” the official added. Customers will keep the balance they have accumulated so far and can use it to “continue purchasing unlimited plans or make as many balance transfers as they wish.”

Hidalgo’s enthusiasm did not manage to disguise the increase in costs that this new adjustment means for Cuban pockets.

However, Hidalgo’s enthusiasm did not manage to disguise the increase in costs that this new adjustment means for Cuban pockets. Once the client has exhausted the 360 pesos of the monthly refill allowed, he will have to enter the field of the so-called “Extras” that are offered. Among those options, the prices increase significantly.

Beginning this Friday, to purchase an extra package of 3 GB of web browsing you need 3,360 pesos, while to obtain 7 GB you have to pay 6,720, a figure that exceeds the average monthly salary, which in 2024 stood at 5,839 pesos. The jewel in the crown, the 15 GB package of data to connect to the Internet, is 11,760 pesos, a price that has caused a flurry of indignant comments on the official pages of the company. The “Extras” are for data only and do not include voice or SMS.

The difference in costs is no small thing. Until yesterday, without a limit on refills or net purchases in national currency, Cubans could purchase packages for the 4G network to connect to the Internet with prices ranging from 1 GB for 100 pesos, 2.5 GB for 200 pesos, and the higher capacity, 16 GB for 950 pesos. With the new tariffs, the price of GB increases by 1,229% or, in other words, is multiplied by 13.

In Cuba the majority of Internet users access the network via mobile telephones, given the low penetration of cable connections

On the island, where most Internet users access the network via mobile telephones, given the low penetration of cable connections, the limit of 360 pesos per monthly refill and the high prices of extra packages augur a drop in the presence of Cubans in cyberspace. The complaints that from the early hours of the morning began to fill the official sites denounce, rightly, this situation.

“Did you know that there are many university students like me who need to access audiovisual materials on the Internet?” asked a young man in the comments of one of the many publications that spread Etecsa’s measures as if they were a benefit to customers. “This change forces Cubans to have someone buy a refill from abroad, but what about those who don’t have anyone out there?” another commentator complained.

The new prices have been presented as part of a strategy announced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz during the sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power in December. The official then commented that a series of measures had been adopted to stimulate Etecsa’s foreign currency earnings and complained that “since it gave us more business to pay for the packages in national currency,” the company had practically stopped earning foreign currency.

Hidalgo said this Friday that “all offers will keep the 300 MB of national navigation” and stressed that the three main ways to add balances remain in force: national refills in pesos, transfers of balances between individuals, and refills from abroad that are paid in foreign currency. The latter are the most important for the state monopoly, which is facing a deep crisis in its infrastructure due to low investment and lack of resources.

“There is only one extra plan with data, SMS and international minutes, although most customers make international calls through messaging platforms,” explained Hidalgo

“There is only one extra plan with data, SMS and international minutes, although most customers make international calls through messaging platforms,” explained Hidalgo. In addition, he also spread the appearance of a new menu, which is accessed by dialing *222*732# and which will allow users to know the amount of refill allowed and the date from which the customer must reload.

Etecsa’s move has not surprised anyone. In January, an employee of the state monopoly commented to 14ymedio that “What happens now is that a mobile phone customer sometimes has thousands of pesos in balance and can buy any navigation package he wants. He can even make transfers of that money to others so they can also buy a connection package, and this will be more limited.” The worker was categorical: “Etecsa can do almost nothing with those Cuban pesos. It’s a dead fund in the face of investments and for the purchase of infrastructure.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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