Olea Gallardo – Translating Cuba

Spain’s Vima, With Business in Cuba, Doubles Its Revenue Despite the Crisis on the Island

The company sells low-quality products at high prices in the stores of the Cuban military conglomerate Gaesa

State store of Vima and Cimex at Infanta and Santa Marta, Centro Habana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, April 8, 2026 – The Vima Foods group, known in Cuba for its low quality food products, expects revenue of 250 million dollars (216 million euros) in 2026, a figure higher than last year and more than double what it reported in 2024. In a statement distributed to the media this Tuesday, the Spanish company also states that it plans to double those revenues in five years, thanks to the expansion of its businesses in the Americas and its “leap” into European and African markets.

Thus, by 2030 the firm, whose name comes from the combination of the initials of its founder, Víctor Moro Suárez, aims to reach 500 million dollars (432 million euros), driven by “its recent change in visual identity and its positioning as a trusted partner” in what the sector calls the “horeca channel”—an acronym for hotels, restaurants, and catering—and in retail sales “worldwide.”

This year they also plan to become a “comprehensive distribution solution” for Spanish and international brands “with expansion strategies in global markets.” This offer to serve as a “bridge between Spanish production and global demand” is considered by Vima as “a step forward,” supported by “its consolidated infrastructure, its knowledge of local markets, and its network of relationships with operators, supermarkets, and distributors in more than 30 countries.

The company boasts of operating “in more than 10,000 points of sale” and of being “in the main supermarket chains in the Americas”

The company boasts of operating “in more than 10,000 points of sale” and of having a presence “in the main supermarket chains in the Americas such as Walmart, Chedraui, Rey, Éxito, Soriana, and Carrefour.” Likewise, it notes that it supplies “the main hotel chains in the region.”

In its statement, it does not detail how business is distributed among the seven countries where it claims to have distribution centers: Spain, the United States, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, and China, listed in that order. However, according to last year’s figures, the Island is its main market, accounting for nearly half of its business continue reading

volume. At that time, they reported that of the nearly 106 million euros in business volume of the group’s Coruña-based subsidiary, Corporación Alimentaria Vima, 49 million euros corresponded to operations with Cuba, followed by the Dominican Republic with 33 million and Mexico with 15.4 million. This implies a very minor margin, about 9 million euros, for the rest of the world where it claims to operate.

In Cuba, Vima products, ranging from frozen vegetables to prepared foods, including canned vegetables, jams, and grains, are as ubiquitous in stores as they are criticized by buyers. To the poor reputation for quality is added, in the midst of the unprecedented crisis in the country, the high prices at which they are sold in Cimex’s dollarized stores, which belong to the Grupo de Administración Empresarial (Gaesa), the conglomerate of the Armed Forces.

A 1.5-liter bottle of water costs one dollar, double what it costs in a private shop, and rice is 1,000 pesos per kilogram, when it is 600 in small private businesses.

Vima bags have become a clever form of advertising paid for by users of state-run stores. / 14ymedio

Another thing that has proliferated in recent times, not only in Vima’s own establishments but also in other dollar stores, is reusable green bags with the Vima logo. Their price is 40¢ (US), and since there are almost never free plastic bags in these markets, the customer is forced to buy one, a clever form of advertising paid for by users of the state-run stores where the Spanish company sells its goods.

The products of this brand, moreover, are not found in Spanish supermarkets, nor in Mexico City, but one would not guess this from reading its corporate information, where the Island appears to occupy just another space, and not the pillar of the conglomerate.

Vima insists on describing itself as a “family business whose roots are linked to the Galician fishing sector,” despite being little known in that region, while emphasizing its renewed expansionist ambitions. “One of our crucial markets continues to be the Americas, where we already have a very consolidated presence from north to south. However, our vocation is global; we are preparing the ground for large-scale expansion into Europe and Africa,” Víctor Moro Morros-Sarda, vice president of the conglomerate and son of the president and founder, Víctor Moro Suárez, is quoted as saying in the text.

His statements continue, emphasizing the company’s future ambitions: “We want Spanish and international brands to see Vima Foods not only as a distributor, but as a strategic ally. We have the infrastructure, local knowledge in complex markets, and the logistics necessary to bring the quality of our products to any corner of the world.” And they conclude: “Our recent participation in the Alimentaria trade fair has been the turning point to showcase this new identity and our capacity to scale the business exponentially through 2030.”

“We have the infrastructure and logistics necessary to bring the quality of our products to any corner of the world”

Except in this statement, moreover, the Moro family has never hidden its ties to the Island. Moro Morros-Sarda held a lavish wedding in Havana in December 2023, and his father, the son of Víctor Moro Rodríguez, a politician of Spain’s Transition, who died in 2021 and also headed a frozen packaged goods conglomerate, lived for more than 25 years in Cuba, where he was president of the Association of Spanish Businesspeople in the country.

Last year, in a report published by the local press, they highlighted a “new subsidiary” created by the group on the Island, Vima Caribe, intended to channel “all commercial operations into a new branch, a company with 100% foreign capital, responsible for the import, storage, commercialization, and distribution of the group’s products in Cuba.”

It thus became clear that the “collaboration project” between Vima and Gaesa, signed in 2024, went beyond the management of several “dollarized” stores. It involved the legal creation of a new company, which has not been reported by the official Cuban press.

In the same report, Economía Digital provided other details about the ups and downs of Vima Foods’ subsidiaries, not for nothing referring to it as “a highly dispersed conglomerate.” For example, it said that Corporación Alimentaria Vima had “transferred” its corporate employees in Spain to a new company, CS Vima, based in Madrid. It is in the Spanish capital where the head of the conglomerate is registered, that until March 2023 was located in Panama.

That same year, as recorded in the Commercial Registry, the group moved its registered office to Spain and transformed from a public limited company to a limited liability company, something that, above all, further strengthens the family’s control over the company and external investors.

In 2001, its revenues had been, as detailed, 25 million euros. That is, in a quarter century, the business has multiplied nearly tenfold

Even more opaque is the origin and growth of its multimillion-dollar business. The Panama Papers, the publication of the Mossack Fonseca law firm database by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), revealed in 2016 that Vima World, whose name has changed several times since it was founded, appeared among companies registered in tax havens.

In the ICIJ database, it appears as founded in January 1994 in the British Virgin Islands. However, Moro Suárez himself admitted in an interview with the Galician press in 2006 that his empire began in Cuba. When asked by the journalist how he “learned” to manage “one hundred sixty employees who serve twenty million meals worldwide,” the businessman replied: “I found a niche in the Caribbean area, starting from Cuba, and that circumstance led me to organize this group of companies.”

Another earlier report, published in La Voz de Galicia, also confirmed this: “Vima was born in Havana in 1994, to take advantage of the opening of the Cuban market to tourism investment, and become the main distributor to hotels and restaurants.” In 2002, the report stated that Vima World, “a distributor based in Vigo and 100% owned by the Galician Moro family,” was the leader in the sector in Cuba, controlling 15% of food distribution and 25% of supply to hotels. In 2001, its revenues had been, as detailed, 25 million euros. That is, in a quarter century, the business had multiplied nearly tenfold.

How a company could be founded in Cuba, run by a foreigner in the mid-1990s, and reach those figures in just a few years is one of the questions raised about Vima, which began appearing in establishments on the Island precisely at that time, the era of dollarization and the desperation of the Special Period. The answer may lie in that 2006 interview, in which the journalist wrote that, according to what he had been told, Moro Suárez had connections with figures of the regime, including Fidel Castro himself.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Approaches the “Zero Option”: Surgeries Suspended in Hospitals, Tourist Hotels Closed

The fuel crisis is forcing bus routes to be reduced, the sugar harvest to be halted in Sancti Spíritus, and an international congress with 1,500 participants to be canceled.

Line to buy fuel at a gas station in Sancti Spíritus this Friday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Olea Gallardo, February 6, 2026 – A critical shortage of basic medicines, the cancelation of surgeries, and the suspension of transport for outpatient patients: This is, for now, the situation in many hospitals in Cuba in the face of an unprecedented fuel crisis, which the regime has not even named this time. “Contingency or emergency, I don’t know,” a provincial Public Health employee told 14ymedio, asking for anonymity. “Because the president talked and talked but said nothing. He was asked everything and dodged everything, and said that other people would be in charge of explaining the energy issue.”

She was referring to Miguel Díaz-Canel’s appearance this Thursday, when the president stated that the government has designed a plan to deal with the fuel shortage that has worsened since the U.S. intervention in Venezuela on January 3. But he did not specify any concrete measures beyond voluntarist promises and the usual victimizing slogans against the “imperial government” and the “enemy.” “We are going to live through difficult times,” he limited himself to saying, betting on overcoming obstacles with one of his favorite phrases, “creative resistance.”

Díaz-Canel did announce that “a group of ministers and vice ministers will gradually provide information” about the measures, approximately “in a week,” but in some institutions the restrictions are already being made known. This is the case in Health, as the worker detailed to this newspaper.

“They’re discharging a lot of inpatients,” she says, “and gathering all the information on available resources to see where savings can be made.”

“All surgeries and the transportation of patients from other municipalities are canceled due to a lack of fuel,” she reports, asking that the name of the hospital where she works be withheld, where a “contingency” has been in effect since yesterday. “They’re discharging many of the hospitalized patients,” she adds, “and compiling all the information on available resources to see where cuts can be made.”

The list lays out the panorama. “We have diesel for 160 hours, and the boilers are covered for two days. We have propane for 47 days, but the incinerator has almost no burning capacity, just enough for 1.8 days,” she recounts. The shortage of medicines is also striking: “There is no pethidine to relieve labor pains, no analgesics in general, no antihypertensives, no hydration serum, no catheters, no gauze: it’s all at zero.” continue reading

As for antibiotics, she continues, coverage is also “very low”: Encomed, the Medicines Marketing Company, promised a delivery, but “didn’t have fuel to bring it and nothing has arrived.” For patients undergoing hemodialysis, they have concentrate for three days, and hospital disinfectant for seven.

As for food, she says they have rice and grains for about 15 days, but “protein is almost gone. There’s ground meat for two days and chicken for three.” Although the employee trusts that “they’ll come up with something, because we’re not going to die,” there is still uncertainty about possible solutions.

In the absence of government statements, information passed by word of mouth is proliferating. A healthcare worker at a polyclinic in Ciego de Ávila told 14ymedio that they have been warned that only the emergency ward will be maintained and that doctors must bring “their rechargeable lamp to work.”

On social media, reports say that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments

The sugar harvest in Sancti Spíritus, already meager, has been halted, according to an employee at the Melanio Hernández mill. “They ordered state transportation and everything in general to stop,” the man says.

Likewise, on social media, it is reported that several hotels in the Keys have been closed and their guests relocated to other establishments.

“This was the message that guests at the Valentin Perla Blanca hotel in Cayo Santa María received this morning,” wrote Adelth Bonne Gamboa on social media this Thursday, illustrating the post with an image of the letter distributed by the customer service team. “Not even the employees themselves know the reason for the closure,” the activist explained; “they were simply informed this morning that the facilities would stop operating at 4:00 pm today.”

Officially, for now, very few agencies have published concrete measures. One of them is the Provincial Directorate of the Isle of Youth, which, among nearly twenty points, calls for leaving “only indispensable administrative personnel” at workplaces and decrees the “total shutdown” of electricity service in state buildings throughout the weekend, including Friday, as well as the closure of boarding schools and “recreational areas and bars.”

In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of investments in the territory are halted,” including those of the Electric Company, Agriculture, and Fisheries. This contrasts with Díaz-Canel’s words yesterday, when he explained that if there were areas with more blackouts, specifically in Havana and during the day, it was because resources were being prioritized for actions that would activate the economy.

As for the territory’s connection with the rest of the country, it remains up in the air: the statement indicates that the departure of the ferry Perseverancia is “being evaluated” “once or twice a week depending on fuel availability and the guarantee of transportation from Batabanó to Havana.”

In Las Tunas, as of this Friday, national bus departures to Camagüey, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba have been suspended “due to the worsening availability of fuel in the country.” Only one route to Havana remains, the 9:00 pm “express,” and the alternate route to Matanzas is also suspended. It will not be the only measure, reported Tiempo 21, but the next ones to be announced—“related primarily to national passenger transportation, especially rail service”—are being studied.

In addition, the authorities say, “one hundred percent of investments in the territory are halted,” including those of the Electric Company, Agriculture, and Fisheries

For its part, the University of Havana has decreed, among other resolutions, the “postponement” of the international congress that was to be held in just a few days, which was expected to bring together more than 1,500 delegates, 500 of them from 32 countries, and the extension of the “hybrid modality to all degree programs and Higher University Technician programs,” starting this Friday and for 30 days.

If one looks to the official press for information on the measures, only reporter Elsa Ramos of Escambray asks relevant questions: “How is priority established for distributing the little fuel that reaches service stations? Why are sales in dollars prioritized? Why are cards topped up and charges made if there is no backing in cash? To what extent is it true that the sale of gas, when it appears, will be in dollars?”

The official she interviews, Camilo Pérez Pérez, coordinator of Government Programs and Objectives in Sancti Spíritus, doesn’t fully answer everything, but he is forced to offer some details. For example, the order for the Dairy Company to transport milk “in different thermoses” to reduce vehicle mileage, or the rehabilitation of ovens at the Food Company to produce bread “with firewood.”

In Education, Pérez indicates, without details, that “alternatives are being applied” both for student transportation and food preparation, “mainly in boilers,” where “savings can be made.”

Likewise, the official acknowledged that “at this moment there is no guarantee for private carriers linked to passenger transportation, since only state vehicles are being prioritized due to restrictions.” He did, however, rule out the feared “zero option” that has been on everyone’s lips in Cuba in recent weeks: “We have never been at zero. It has been fairly responsible work, above all by all the consuming entities, and with good communication and alerts about the difficulties we may have in each place. Decisions have been made and services have been guaranteed.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With 0º Celsius, Cuba Experiences Its Lowest Temperature Ever Recorded on Tuesday

Without proper clothing to go outside and with freezing houses, Cubans are having a very hard time, especially those with joint problems from chikungunya.

People bundled up in warm clothing at the Delio Luna Echemendía market in Sancti Spíritus, on Sunday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, February 3, 2026 — If it doesn’t rain iguanas in Cuba , as it does in Florida, making the old winter saying a reality, it is because there aren’t that many, because the cold these days is similar to that of the U.S. peninsula and reaching historic lows. This Tuesday, specifically, the lowest temperature ever recorded on the island was 0° Celsius (32° F), according to data from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet). It occurred in Indio Hatuey, Matanzas, at seven in the morning.

As many as 32 weather stations reported temperatures of 10°C or lower, according to the report issued by the state agency at 10:00 a.m., which noted that the early morning was “very cold throughout the country and even noticeably cold in inland areas.” The thermometer registered an all-time record low temperature in Aguada de Pasajeros (Cienfuegos), at 3°C, and equaled the February record in the city of Pinar del Río, at 6.9°C.

The report indicates that it had never been so cold in February in several places, such as 6º in the city of Sancti Spíritus, 7.3º in Veguitas (Granma), 7.4º in Florida (Camagüey) or 8º in Palenque de Yateras (Guantánamo).

Over the past two days, hardly anyone has ventured out on the streets across the entire island, and those who do are participating in a unique “poor man’s carnival,” dressed in whatever clothing they can find to ward off the cold. Ignoring custom and the usual color combinations, their attire ranges from European football team sweaters to American university coats, French berets, and Russian hats with earflaps. continue reading

“It’s not the monkey whistling [esta chiflando el mono*], it’s the orangutan,” says a Havana resident with a touch of irony, having left his house in search of milk and chocolate to at least “warm himself up.” The chocolate, he says, “flew off the shelves at the small businesses,” despite being incredibly expensive: “more than a thousand pesos for a small package.” Powdered milk is no less than 2,000 CUP per kilogram. “People are scrambling to find something, but there are people who don’t even have enough to make soup or broth.”

From Holguín, a young man who works as a private driver with his electric tricycle says that yesterday he was only able to pick up one passenger. “The air cuts you, it feels like a knife, my eyes burn, my nose itches, I have runny noses, my hands go stiff,” he explains. During his commute, he saw doors and windows closed like never before in Cuba, where the weather usually keeps residents out in the street. “Last week, everyone was cooking with firewood outside, and now it’s like nobody’s home.”

“Even the animals are trembling,” says Sandy from Holguín, who has her six dogs wearing “little sweaters” and yet they still hide under the blankets.

“Even the animals are trembling,” says Sandy from Holguín, who has her six dogs wearing sweaters, and yet they still hide under the blankets. / 14ymedio

“Even the animals are trembling,” says Sandy, from Holguín, who has her six dogs wearing sweaters, and yet they still hide under the blankets. “I feel sorry for the stray dogs. I even made a little bed for one of them, the one I usually feed, out of old rags, because he seemed so weak. We also hear the kittens crying.”

In Sancti Spíritus, the situation is very similar. “Around five in the afternoon, everyone is gone from the streets, holed up in their homes,” says Ernesto, who asserts that the worst part is the wind, which “is really hitting hard” and makes you feel a cold “that chills you to the bone.” At 40 years old, and having never lived anywhere else, he doesn’t remember ever having felt anything like this before.

The houses, built for a year-round tropical climate and designed for airflow to keep them cool, are like iceboxes these days. “The cold is coming in from everywhere, a horrible cold that you can’t escape,” Ernesto laments.

“Last week, everyone was cooking with firewood outside, and now it’s like nobody’s around.” / 14ymedio

Having suffered from chikungunya a few months ago, Ernesto finds the pain intensifying with the current temperatures the worst part. A strong man in his prime, he reflects: “Older people, so vulnerable, living alone, with no one to offer them any help, must be going through hell, because they don’t have adequate shelter, proper clothing for this cold, or even enough food.”

Thousands of Cubans have been left with lasting effects from the arbovirus, especially joint problems, and these days they are suffering even more, if that were possible. “I’m locked in my room, covered with every rag I can find, in a lot of pain,” confesses María, a retiree from Luyanó (Havana), who also recently contracted the disease. This Tuesday, she refused to buy medicine from a street vendor who passed through the neighborhood. “I didn’t even want to ask the prices, because I know I can’t afford them.” And she sighs: “Everything we have to live through in Cuba is a disaster.”

To make matters worse, the energy crisis is adding to the problems. Without electricity for most of the day, the cold showers that Cubans are normally forced to take are unbearable, so many haven’t had one for days. “The little oil and coal that can be found is reserved for cooking,” explains Luis, another Havana resident, who has also seen his muscle pain worsen as a result of the arbovirus. “The pain and the cold keep me from sleeping.”

*The monkey whistling [esta chiflando el mono] – An expression meaning it’s very cold

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Cuba’s Oil Union ‘Cupet’ Labels as ‘False’ a Statement Announcing the Suspension of Fuel Sales to the Public

Reporters from 14ymedio and users confirm widespread shortages in Havana and Matanzas

Lines outside the Oro Negro gas station in Matanzas. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana / Matanzas, Olea Gallardo / Pablo Padilla Cruz, January 30, 2026 – “They’re all false, the capital is paralyzed.” Comments like this are how users in groups dedicated to gasoline sales in Havana responded to the this Thursday about a false official statement.

The spurious text, reproduced by the state company itself, bears Cupet’s letterhead and colors. “Given the serious fuel supply situation affecting the country, worsened by the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the Government of the United States and the external pressures exerted on our traditional suppliers,” reads the note in the usual government prose, “the Cuba-Petroleum Union (Cupet) and the Ministry of Tourism inform the population and the tourism sector as follows: It has been decided to temporarily halt the general supply of fuel at gas stations and state points of sale as of the date of issuance of this statement and until further notice.”

The measure, the supposedly fake document continued, was “inevitable due to the interruption of imported supplies, caused by hostile actions and foreign pressures that limit access to essential energy resources,” something consistent with the growing hostility from the United States, especially after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, to prevent fuel from reaching the island.

The statement was not implausible, as it doubled down on blaming “unilateral coercive measures imposed by foreign powers”

The statement was not implausible, as it doubled down on blaming “unilateral coercive measures imposed by foreign powers” and urged people to “avoid non-essential travel and coordinate continue reading

any priority needs with local authorities.” A “controlled and limited supply” would be allocated to “essential” sectors such as health care, public transportation, electricity generation, and tourism, the text also said, ending with a call for “unity, discipline, and solidarity among all Cuban men and women in these difficult times.”

In a brief tweet, Cupet rejected all of this information, asserting: “This note circulating on some digital media is false. Fuel supplies to the country’s network of gas stations have not been halted.”

However, reports published in recent days by 14ymedio and comments from customers at gas stations in the capital show just how closely reality resembles what the fake Cupet statement described. “There’s hardly any gasoline anywhere. I went by the ones in El Vedado and nothing; at the one at 5th and 120 they came out and said there was little left, not enough for everyone,” one person wrote, referring to stations that sell in pesos.

“At Línea and E people slept there, so the line is intact; nobody is leaving until they restock,” another complained. “Only Zapata and 4 have served regular gas today,” a third reported. A fourth tried to excuse the situation by mentioning stations that have switched to dollar sales: “This story doesn’t change; every day it’s the same stations selling in pesos. Today they already served Coyula, Corral Falso, Infanta, El Mar, Guanabo, Camilo Cienfuegos, Santa María del Rosario, and Hatuey.”

An empty gas station in Matanzas. / 14ymedio

Questions keep coming in the chats. “Does anyone know what’s going on with the Cupet station at G and 25, since the Ticket isn’t advancing?” asked a young man, referring to the app that acts as a “virtual line” to buy fuel. The reply was blunt: “None of them are moving; they’re only serving stations that operate in DOL-LARS, so we’re going to have to get used to paying for gasoline in the currency they wanted to eliminate with the economic restructuring and that now is stronger than ever.” The commenter didn’t stop there and, with emojis and capital letters, added ironically: “Before, 1 dollar was worth 25 CUP and now 1 dollar is worth… So down with the blockade or down with whoever needs to go down.”

The situation in Havana has worsened with the arrival of a cold front from the north. Due to possible storm surges, pumps have been removed from both the El Tángana gas station, located at the Malecón and 13th Avenue, and Riviera, also on the seafront.

Meanwhile, in the provinces, gasoline shortages are also a major source of tension. Added to this, customers complain, is the poor communication of Cimex, the commercial company in charge of gas stations and part of the military conglomerate Gaesa.

In recent weeks in Matanzas, the state company briefly announced fuel sales via the Ticket app, setting a limit of 100 slots for power generators and 50 for motor vehicles. The information, shared with almost no details and even reposted by company employees on social media, sparked a wave of indignation among citizens.

“It is shameful that an entity that forces its workers to post these notes isn’t capable of explaining where, how, and when fuel can be bought”

“It’s shameful that an entity that forces its workers to post these notes isn’t capable of explaining where, how, and when fuel can be bought,” complained Jean Michel, a resident of the Versalles neighborhood. “I wasted hours of my time because they didn’t specify that at the San Luis gas station they were only serving users with power generators.”

He wasn’t the only one confused. Residents of Peñas Altas say the new sales modality raises more questions than answers. “Who exactly is it aimed at—private individuals, state entities, public transport?” asks Ania, who lives in the neighborhood. “In what currency is it sold, CUP or MLC? What amount are we entitled to?” According to her, not even workers at the Oro Negro or Bellamar stations have been able to clarify matters. “Those people think we ordinary folks have time to figure everything out,” complained Marlene, another neighbor.

The confusion also affects Cimex employees themselves. A company worker, who asked not to be identified, told this newspaper that they often share information they themselves don’t know.

“I’m not a communications specialist. I never studied that, but they force me to post on my personal profile things I don’t even know where they come from,” she complained. In her view, at company headquarters “there’s either a lot of inexperience or they simply don’t care how decisions are communicated.” The priority, she says, is to announce that a station is opening, without explaining under what rules or conditions.

Not even workers at the Oro Negro or Bellamar stations have been able to clear up the doubts. / 14ymedio

This information vacuum has eroded public trust and multiplied wasted time and citizen frustration, especially when it comes to a vital resource. Although slots have been allocated for registered power generators and private vehicles, fear that fuel will run out persists. The turns in line advance extremely slowly and satisfy no one.

Raudel, a resident of the Iglesias neighborhood, has been waiting since last November for his turn—number 613—to buy diesel at the Bellamar station. “When they do have fuel, it’s 50 people at a time, maybe once a month if you’re lucky. If everything goes well, maybe in December I’ll be able to buy what I’m entitled to… and then wait again,” he says resignedly.

Among motorcyclists engaged in informal transport, the situation is even more critical. Darío, who works ferrying passengers, explains that the assigned gasoline doesn’t even come close to meeting his needs. “In USD we can get it at 1.10 or 1.20, but when there isn’t any, which is most of the time, you have to buy from hoarders at 650 or 700 pesos a liter. Do the math for a trip that uses half a liter and tell me if that’s profitable.”

Although the 50 liters sold through the Ticket app somewhat ease the economic burden, the process is riddled with technical and organizational obstacles. “Everything is a problem—the registration, the email, the turn… and when it’s time to distribute, nobody knows anything. Not Cimex, not Cupet, not the workers,” Darío says, adding a common complaint: “Meanwhile, government cars, the Minint [Ministry of the Interior], and the FAR [Armed Forces] fill up without lining up; they have their own station. There’s never a fuel shortage there.”

The deep energy crisis goes beyond national borders and threatens to deepen the collapse of tourism. In one of the Telegram groups for gas stations, a man identifying himself as Gustavo from Argentina asked for help this Thursday to see whether anyone could provide information about gas stations in Cienfuegos, Trinidad, and Ciego de Ávila for a car he had rented from Transtur for an upcoming trip to the island. Replies from some users, saying there are stations where one can pay with international cards, did not reassure him.

In another message, he says he has no guarantee that the vehicle will be delivered with a full tank or that he will be able to refuel in the provinces, and he complains that Transtur has not responded to emails or WhatsApp for three days. “I don’t know how I’m going to manage getting a refund for the car rental; it’s $700,” he says, concluding: “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cancel my trip to get to know Cuba.” Another commenter replies bluntly: “Cancel your trip! It’s the right decision.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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As the Cuban Economy Sinks, Spanish Group Vima Increases Its Revenue on the Island

The profits, which reached €10 million, “demonstrate the weight of the Moro family’s discreet food empire.”

Vima Caribe dollar store on Infanta and Santa Marta in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, July 30, 2025 (delayed translation) — The Vima Foods group increased its profits last year thanks to its buoyant business in Cuba. Specifically, according to a report on Tuesday by Economía Digital, the conglomerate’s purchasing center, which operates from La Coruña (Spain) under the name Corporación Alimentaria Vima, increased its profits by 16%, from €8.6 million in 2023 to €10 million in 2024, as well as its turnover, from €88 million to €105.8 million.

Of these nearly 106 million, 49 million correspond to its operations with the island, its main market, which is nevertheless suffering the worst food crisis in its history.

According to Economía Digital, based on the latest accounts submitted to the Spanish Commercial Registry by Corporación Alimentaria Vima, a conglomerate founded by Víctor Moro Suárez—son of Víctor Moro Rodríguez, who died in 2021, a politician during the Spanish Transition and also head of a frozen food packaging conglomerate— Cuba is followed in importance by the Dominican Republic (33 million) and Mexico (15.4 million). The data, according to the local media, “highlights the weight of the Moro family’s discreet food empire.”

The article does not mention Spain—although it does mention other countries where Vima Foods claims to have a presence, such as China, Panama, and the United States—and rightly refers to the Coruña-based company as “a firm as little known as it is profitable.” Vima’s products, which are as ubiquitous in Cuban stores as they are reviled by their buyers—and which range from frozen vegetables to pre-cooked foods, canned vegetables, jams, and grains—are not found in Spanish supermarkets. continue reading

As an explanation for its growth, the company’s administrators stated in their most recent report that it was due to increased activity across the group as a whole

As an explanation for its economic growth, the company’s administrators stated in their most recent report that it was due to increased activity across the group as a whole: “Throughout the 2024 financial year, the company has experienced growth in turnover as a result of the product rebranding strategy initiated in previous years and the consolidation of the group’s presence in the retail and food services channels, which has led to an increase in demand from Vima Group companies at its purchasing center.”

A notable element in the report is the “new subsidiary” created by the group on the island this year, Vima Caribe, “which channels all commercial operations to a new branch, a 100% foreign-owned company responsible for the import, storage, marketing, and distribution of the group’s products in Cuba.”

This makes it clear that the “collaboration project” between Vima and the military conglomerate Gaesa (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.) through its corporation Cimex, signed last January, goes beyond the mere management of several “dollarized” stores. It has involved the legal creation of a new company, which has not been reported in the official Cuban press.

This new branch,“ continues Economía Digital, ”will replace the previous one, and it is expected that its status as an importer will give it greater commercial capacity.”

The media outlet also clarifies the latest ups and downs of Vima Foods’ subsidiaries, which are not without reason referred to as “a highly dispersed conglomerate.”

The media outlet also clarifies the latest ups and downs of Vima Foods’ subsidiaries, which are not without reason referred to as “a highly dispersed conglomerate.” As a result, Corporación Alimentaria Vima “has transferred its corporate employees in Spain to a new company, CS Vima, based in Madrid, which will be responsible for centralizing all services related to leadership, operational support, and human resources provided to all companies within the group.””

The headquarters of the conglomerate, Vima World, is registered in the Spanish capital, having previously been based in Panama until March 2023. At that time, according to sources from the specialized outlet, “it completed the process of transferring its registered office to Spain and converting into a limited liability company, while retaining its legal identity.”

The group’s business prospects, according to Economía Digital, will continue to grow, focusing on “its consolidation in the food distribution segment in Central America” and “opening markets in countries where it did not previously have a presence.”

Vima continues to describe itself on its website as a “family-run company founded in 1994” and as a group “originally linked to the fishing industry in Galicia, Spain,” despite being relatively unknown in that region.

At the same time, the Moro family has never hidden its connection to the Island, and in fact, Moro Suárez’s son, Víctor Moro Morros-Sarda, held a lavish wedding in Havana in December 2023. The patriarch himself has lived in Cuba for over 25 years, where he served as president of the Association of Spanish Entrepreneurs in the country.

The Moro family has never hidden its connection to the Island, and in fact, Moro Suárez’s son, Víctor Moro Morros-Sarda, held a lavish wedding in Havana

The origins and growth of its multimillion-dollar business are more opaque. The Panama Papers, a publication of the Mossack Fonseca law firm’s database by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), revealed in 2016 that Vima World was listed among the companies registered in offshore tax havens.

According to the ICIJ database, it was founded in January 1994 in the British Virgin Islands. However, Moro Suárez himself acknowledged in a 2006 interview with the local Galician press that his business empire began in Cuba. When asked by the journalist how he had “learned” to manage “one hundred and sixty employees serving twenty million meals around the world,” the businessman replied: “I found a work niche in the Caribbean region, starting from Cuba, and that circumstance led me to organize this group of companies.”

A report published in La Voz de Galicia four years earlier confirmed this: “Vima was founded in Havana in 1994 to take advantage of the Cuban market’s opening to tourism investment and become the leading supplier to hotels and restaurants.” In 2002, the article stated that Vima World, “a distribution company based in Vigo and fully owned by the Galician Moro family,” was the market leader in Cuba, controlling 15% of food distribution and 25% of hotel supply. In 2001, its revenues reportedly reached 25 million euros. Over the course of a quarter century, the business has quadrupled, nearing 106 million last year.

How a company led by a foreigner could be founded in Cuba in the mid-1990s and reach such figures within just seven years remains one of the questions surrounding Vima, which began appearing in establishments across the Island during that very period — marked by dollarization and the desperation of the Special Period. The answer may lie in that 2006 interview, where the journalist wrote that, according to what he had been told, Moro Suárez held meetings with regime figures, including none other than Fidel Castro himself.

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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Unable To Compete With the Black Market, “International” Cuba’s Pharmacies Are Dollarizing

In these stores you can’t get aspirin or dipyrone, but vitamins or cough syrups are available at stratospheric prices.

Pharmacy on the ground floor of the Sevilla Hotel in Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, October 9, 2025 — “Payment in dollars, starting October 1st.” This information surprised the few customers of the Sevilla Hotel pharmacy on Tuesday, the employees heard. Until just a few days ago, it was an establishment where payments could be made in freely convertible currency (MLC), but now only fula [US dollars], foreign credit cards, or the Classic prepaid card are allowed.

According to the same workers, the same thing is happening in all the “international” pharmacies, like the one on the ground floor of the Habana Libre Hotel. Calling them pharmacies, in any case, is an exaggeration, as the selection is limited and mostly focuses on vitamin supplements.

Shoppers were even more surprised to learn that they didn’t have aspirin or dipyrone*, common medicines. As for the prices, the high prices are no longer surprising. Cough syrups range from $13 to $19, laxatives at $11, vitamins—even those manufactured in Mexico, like Troffin—at more than $20. As is often the case in other state-run continue reading

stores, the items fill the shelves even if they are of the same type.

“International” pharmacy on the ground floor of the Habana Libre Hotel. / 14ymedio

“Antibiotics, painkillers, and other necessary things like that are very easy to get ‘on the left’ . No one is going to buy those things from them,” explained a woman accustomed to this type of transaction. “They’ve come late to wanting to get dollars from selling medicines, and they know perfectly well that the black market has cornered them.”

Indeed, the list of medicines for sale on “specialized” Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups resembles a real pharmacy, at lower prices than the official ones. A young man who regularly buys his mother’s diabetes medication through these channels comments: “Those pharmacies are going to fail.”

*Note: [from the ‘web’] “Metamizole, also known as dipyrone, is a strong analgesic and antipyretic that is available in many countries but is not authorized for use in the United States. It is marketed under hundreds of brand names by numerous manufacturers globally. ‘

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“Yes, People Are Dying From This Virus” in Cuba

The official newspaper ‘Girón’ gives a shocking description of the situation in the province of Matanzas.

Olea Gallardo, Havana, October 6, 2024 — “This illness has made you lose track of time and even logic. You no longer know how many days you, your husband, or your mother-in-law have had the symptoms, or if this is dengue, oropharyngeal fever, or chikungunya, or when the after-effects will go away, or how many minutes ago you got out of bed, or where it all began, or when the authorities knew, or why it took them so long to act. Or maybe they acted quickly and well and you didn’t find out because you no longer watch the news because of the power outages, or don’t have internet access until the month is up so you can put a recharge on your next bill.” The text is not a complaint posted on Facebook by an anonymous source or a statement given to an independent media outlet, but an article published this Sunday in the Matanzas newspaper, Girón.

The province is under an unprecedented epidemiological alert since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that such words appear in a pro-government media outlet demonstrates the desperation of its inhabitants.

The note, signed by Raúl Navarro González, speaks not only of the symptoms (“you’ve lost your appetite, you’ve lost weight, you’ve lost strength in your hands and legs, and the terrible pain makes you not even want to get out of bed”) and the cost of medications on the black market (“the sheets no longer smell clean, but rather of the last fever you sweated out, the rancid stink of the paracetamol blister pack, mixed with the smell of the coil you burned and the $10 repellent spray you sprayed on your son’s body, hoping—for God’s sake!—that no mosquito would infect him”). And, it also speaks of the suspicion that the illness has nothing to do with Aedes aegypti , the transmitter of dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche: “Staying under the mosquito net sweating makes no sense because everyone in the house is already infected, and besides, it’s a luxury you can’t afford.”

“A wail, a curse word, escapes you when you manage to peel yourself off the mattress and put your feet on the floor.”

The description is graphic: “A wail, a curse word, escapes you when you manage to peel yourself off the mattress and place your feet on the floor. Then, when you take the first step, two tears fall. One, from the discomfort in your body. The other, larger one, falls from the pain in your soul, from the helplessness you feel as you walk down that hallway that feels narrow and dark, like this infected island you inhabit and love.” continue reading

The only praise in the text is for the residents, many of whom “have come by to learn how they can help.” One of them reported that “they were finally collecting the garbage in some neighborhoods and that they were also fumigating,” says the author, who concludes: “This disease we suffer from leaves an iron taste in our mouths that is too bitter.”

The testimony published in Girón is very similar to the one offered to 14ymedio by Annia Zamora, mother of political prisoner Sissi Abascal and a resident of the small town of Carlos Rojas, Matanzas. “The truth is, I can’t describe what we’ve been through here at home,” she said by telephone. “We couldn’t even get up to give each other a glass of water in the other bed. This has been very painful, very sad. It has affected us physically and psychologically. I myself can’t even walk because of the pain and swelling in my legs.”

The woman, who, like many other Cubans, has been suffering for two weeks from an illness they can’t name because they don’t know what it is, is certain of one thing: “The regime is lying shamelessly.” Her story paints an unmitigated picture of the health situation: “People are dying because of this virus.”

“It’s not the same. There are people who are having a much worse time. It’s something strange we’ve never seen before.”

As for the symptoms, she confirms: muscle pain that prevents even walking – “my hands and feet become stiff”; fever that reaches 40 degrees, vomiting, diarrhea… “It’s not the same; there are people who are having a much worse time, it’s something strange that we’ve never seen before.”

Zamora asserts that, far from being resolved, the situation continues to worsen. Hospitals and polyclinics are overwhelmed, and there are no medicines. “Right now, I have a relative admitted to the pediatric hospital in the city of Matanzas. They had him in the hallway on a stretcher because the hospital is completely overwhelmed,” she complains. “The only medication a patient can take is something they look for it on the black market or someone gives it to them, because there’s nothing in the pharmacies. Not even the hospitals have Duralgina to give to a child when they arrive with a fever of 39C [102F].”

For the activist, this is an “incredible” situation, but even more incredible is “the ease with which the regime lies”: “There’s no garbage collection, there’s no fumigation, it’s all a lie.”

Her words contradict the authorities’ announcement this Saturday, which claimed to have increased the “anti-vector fight,” meaning fumigation against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and that “all municipalities are more organized.” In a note published in Granma, the provincial director of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology of Matanzas, Andrés Lamas Acevedo, explains that dengue fever is being transmitted in 12 municipalities in the province—all except Ciénaga de Zapata—and that chikungunya transmission is also “certified.”

“It spreads from person to person, through the air, through the environment. Something happens and it’s on a different level.”
Likewise, he stated that the priority is “active surveillance and combating dengue,” which, unlike chikungunya, can be fatal, although he did not report any deaths in the country. The clinical picture of chikungunya, he said, “is very serious,” but “people do not become seriously ill or die from it.”

However, he did warn that chikungunya can be “concomitant” with dengue in the same person, so he encourages people to go to the health service “so that the doctor can evaluate the appropriate course of action,” because, he cautioned, “we cannot self-medicate.”

He made no mention of the testimonies that have been multiplying in recent days, many of them reported by 14ymedio, which allude to the impossibility of an accurate diagnosis due to the lack of reagents. From Matanzas itself, Miguel Alejandro Guerra Domínguez, a doctor and victim of the shortage at the Cárdenas Territorial Hospital, denounced on social media that he had not received the tests required for the progression and monitoring of his illness. “A hospital that does not guarantee the basics for the diagnosis and monitoring of dengue is seriously failing its population,” he said on his Facebook page.

The more than 700 comments left by Girón’s readers on social media reaffirm the seriousness of the situation and abound in widespread suspicion. One commenter is even surprised that a pro-government newspaper would publish such a comment: “The Girón newspaper has the odor of 14ymedio,” Yobanis Herrera says sarcastically.

“It started 21 days ago with pain in my hands and neck, then it spread and I developed a high fever, itching, and loss of appetite.”

Maritza Catalina Rodríguez, for her part, ventures: “In my humble opinion, I don’t think it’s a mosquito. I’m more inclined to believe it’s a disease like rubella, mumps, measles, contagious diseases that spread very quickly.” Many other commentators agree, such as Jeny Dacal: “I totally agree. It spreads from person to person, through the air, the environment. Something happens and it’s on another level. It’s something that attacks the entire nervous system and makes you feel like you’re almost dying. I had it, and I’m 34 years old, and I thought I was dying. I had difficulty speaking, I felt like my soul was leaving me. It’s extremely unpleasant. This isn’t because of the mosquito, I’m sure of that.”

The responses are not only from Matanzas residents, but also from residents of Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila, Villa Clara, Guantánamo, Havana, and other provinces. Several users suggest it could be scarlet fever, which according to journalist José Luis Tan Estrada is being reported in Camagüey.

Without knowing for sure what is attacking them, the sufferers can only describe the similar symptoms: “It started 21 days ago with pain in my hands and neck, then it spread, leading to a high fever, itching, and loss of appetite. Currently, I wake up early with a stiff neck, no grip. The leg pain is worsened by the circulatory problems. I don’t know for how long; I can’t continue taking paracetamol. Could it be chronic?” wonders Adelfa García, from Matanzas.

Some others allude to the severity with which the COVID-19 pandemic hit that same province more than four years ago. The situation reached its peak between June and July 2021, precisely in the days leading up to the 11 July Island-wide demonstrations, in which Matanzas residents participated massively and which were especially intense in the municipality of Cárdenas.

Hildolidia Martell summed up the state of affairs in her commentary: “On my block, we’ve all suffered and are still suffering from the virus. But what did you expect, given the unhealthiness and shortages we’re enduring? Well, if you can even call it surviving? Yesterday, as I was returning from the clinic, a man said to me, ‘Ma’am, we’re dead and we haven’t even realized it.’ No, we’re still breathing, I replied. He looked at me very seriously and replied, ‘We’re dead people who are breathing.’”

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Cuba’s Old Age Pension Increase Is ‘Nothing’ in the Face of the Hunger Experienced by the Elderly in Cuba

The measure was approved on Wednesday and will take effect on September 1.

The increase in the lowest pensions represents “one bag of milk or a bottle of oil” purchased from an MSME. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 8 August 2025 — A liter of oil, a kilogram of powdered milk, a pound and a half of pork… Cuban retirees don’t think about numbers when asked how much their pensions will increase , but rather what they will be able to buy with it in well-stocked private stores. This is a common sentiment among those interviewed for this report, along with something else: they all think the increase, announced last month by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and implemented with the resolution published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette, won’t do much good.

“Prices are so high that this increase isn’t significant for basic needs, especially food,” says Manuel, a 68-year-old retiree from a state-owned commerce company who will benefit from the measure. In his case, he earns 1,500 pesos, and starting September 1—with payment at the end of August—his pension will reach 3,000. “For me, that doesn’t mean much; maybe a bag of milk or a bottle of oil, and that’s it.”

Still, he considers himself lucky because he has a daughter who sends him money from abroad. “Pensioners who have no other option, who aren’t healthy enough to find work to supplement their income, or who don’t have remittances, are destined to suffer hardship.”

“Pensioners without remittances are destined to suffer hardship.”

This is the case for Dulce, a Ministry of Culture pensioner. Her skepticism and annoyance are immense, after months of waiting to receive the oil from the bodega (ration store), thanks to her ration book. “Small bottles for single-person households didn’t arrive, and now I have to wait for several shipments to fill a bottle so I can continue reading

buy it,” she laments, adding ironically: “So I’ll use the extra money to buy the oil from an MSME [small private business].”

As established by law, an increase of 1,528 pesos is established for pensions up to 2,472 pesos, as well as an increase to to 4,000 pesos for pensions between 2,473 and 3,999 pesos. As for pensions due to death—such as widowhood or orphanhood—which also increase, they will be “recalculated” based on the deceased’s updated pension based on the number of beneficiaries: 70% more if there is one, 85% if there are two, and 100% if there are three or more.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Benito Rey González, told the official press that citizens entitled to more than one Social Security pension “will receive the increase in the amount of their unified pension.”

“Not even if they raise it to 4,000 pesos, or 5,000, or 6,000, or 7,000,” exclaims Olivia, a retiree from the Ministry of Education. “None of that can solve a problem for someone who has worked for 30 or 40 years.” She is particularly bothered by the attempt to sell this as an achievement. “In every country in the world, that money comes out of your salary, monthly, that’s why they deduct it, and from taxes for other workers. It’s not the State that gives it away.”

“In every country in the world, that money comes out of your salary; it’s not the State that gives it away.”

Despite 37 years of uninterrupted work, she tells 14ymedio, Olivia was left with a minimal pension. “They raised my pension a little on the first go-round, and then they raised it a little bit more, to 1,500 pesos,” she says. And she adds, resigned: “Well, the law is the law. You have to accept it, because everything they tell you has to be accepted. What are you going to do? Where are you going to complain? But I really don’t think that’s going to solve anything, when a pound of milk costs 1,200 or 1,300 pesos. That’s a mouthful for all the hunger and misery experienced by the elderly in this country.”

María’s pension increase, which has so far been 1,400 pesos, will be paid to a friend of hers. A resident of the United States, she prefers it to be received in Havana, “where they face so many hardships.” This is quite common: retirees who no longer live in Cuba continue to receive their pensions through third parties.

In a climate of extreme poverty, solidarity among citizens is a last resort. In this regard, Tania, a resident of Central Havana, says she helps her 96-year-old neighbor, who earns 300 pesos less than her: 1,200. “I’m not one to go to church and give a tithe; I try to help the people who come to me because I know they use it and need it,” she explains. She adds: “When I found out about the increase, I was happier for her than for myself. She’s an elderly woman, very sweet, very polite, from a very good family, but she worked very little, in a kitchen, and they left her with the bare minimum.”

The elderly woman lives in her home with her two daughters, who are also pensioners on the bare minimum. This is not only evidence of the hardships suffered by those over 60 in Cuba, but also one of the island’s main problems: the aging population.

Leonardo, a former police officer, won’t get a raise, as he earns 4,000 pesos. “With 26 years of service and loss of sight.” Disappointed, he approached a colleague at the Ministry of the Interior, who assured him: “We’re looking into it to see if there’s a small raise for December.”

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Havana-Ciego de Ávila, a Trip in Apaguistan*

The Viazul bus travels through ghost towns, where passengers get on and off by the light of their cell phones.

Viazul station in Havana, without electricity or air conditioning. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana – Those without fans waved cardboard with their hands this Monday at the Viazul restaurant in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución while waiting for their buses to depart. “How cheeky! Of course we always had air conditioning before,” protested a woman with a ticket to Santiago de Cuba, fanning herself. “Now we have to make do with the air that comes in through the open windows.” One flimsy fan for the entire room was useless even though it was turned on.

The fact that the transportation company serving foreign tourists—or Cubans with families abroad who can afford the ticket in foreign currency—can’t even air-condition its facilities in the capital is just one of the many symptoms of the dire situation of the national electricity system (SEN) during this peak season. In the provinces, despair prevails.

Those traveling to the eastern part of the country experienced this in a radical way upon arriving in Santa Clara. “We only knew we had arrived because the bus made a left turn. Everything was blacked out!” a Havana resident spending a few days on vacation in Ciego de Ávila with her family told this newspaper. “It was just darkness everywhere: in the terminal, people were stumbling, we were almost scared. There was no light but the cell phones, even in the bathroom.”

“A woman got out in total darkness and a frightening silence, as if the town had been abandoned.”

The young woman wasn’t pleased to hear a joke from a Cuban who seemed to be visiting: “We’re in Apaguistan*, he said, as if expecting laughter, but I didn’t find it funny because the imagery is so powerful, it feels like you’re in the middle of a dystopian movie.”

The same scene was repeated in Cabaiguán: “A woman got off in total darkness and a frightening silence, as if the town had been abandoned.” At the next stop, she says, “All I could see were the silhouettes of buildings, so continue reading

much so that I got lost: I didn’t know where I was, whether I had already passed Guayo and was I in Sancti Spíritus or what.”

And worse was to come, with yesterday’s shutdown for maintenance of the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, the largest in the country.

Authorities estimate the work will last four days, although it was initially planned to last one less. According to official press reports , there will be three days of construction work and one day for the start-up and synchronization process. The first days will include repairing a leak in the boiler and a faulty feed pump, cleaning the regenerative air heaters, and repairing and replacing valves.

A precarious fan for the entire Viazul waiting room was displaying its uselessness despite being turned on. / 14ymedio

No fewer than 140 employees from the Cienfuegos, Felton, Santa Cruz, and Mariel thermoelectric plants (CTE) have been called in for maintenance at the Guiteras plant, which reflects the magnitude of the work. “At this time, all the workers and resources are scheduled,” boasted Román Pérez Castañeda, technical director of the Matanzas plant.

Along with Guiteras, five other units are out of service: two due to breakdowns—Felton Unit 2 and Renté Unit 3—and three for maintenance: Santa Cruz Unit 2, Cienfuegos Unit 4, and Renté Unit 5. This represents a deficit of 294 megawatts (MW) in energy generation.

Due to a lack of fuel, 75 distributed generation plants (662 MW) and 9 motors (150 MW) of the 12 of the Suheyla Sultan, the Melones patana [floating turkish power plant], are stopped, although the report this Tuesday from the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) predicts that 80 MW of the first plants as well as one hundred percent of the motors of the floating plant will come on during the hour of maximum demand, in the afternoon-evening.

According to the state-owned company’s report, during that peak period, an estimated 1,970 MW of available power is expected to meet a demand of 3,670 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,700 MW. The actual impact will be 1,770 MW, almost half of the country’s energy needs, a figure higher than yesterday’s 1,673 MW.

“We are on the path to independence from imported fossil fuels.”

Given this, the statement made by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, this Monday almost sounds like a joke. “We are on the path to independence from imported fossil fuels,” he said before Parliament’s Industry, Construction, and Energy Committee.

The minister was referring, of course, to the solar farms that have been proliferating on the island with the help of China, which are, he insisted, “a viable strategy to recover the national electricity system.” The 21 already operating, however, currently provide only 544 MW at most, and only during full sun hours.

Vicente de la O Levy welcomed the fact that “an average of five photovoltaic parks are being installed per month” and “with resources already in the country,” but acknowledged that “the security of fuels continues without a sustainable solution.”

He also referred to the Turkish floating power plants, whose final departure from the country due to nonpayment was expected last June and which are still holding on by the skin of their teeth. “We had up to eight barges in the country, and five have been removed,” the minister recalled. “With scarce financial resources, minimum payments have been made to keep the barges generating through July and August.”

“With scarce financial resources, minimum payments have been made to keep the trucks generating during July and August.”

Without a hint of self-criticism, but presenting a picture just as bleak as other committees, such as the Economy and Health committees, De la O Levy said that the main causes of the energy shortage are the increase in imported household appliances – 17 million in recent years, he indicated – the lack of liquefied gas and the low “electricity rates that do not encourage savings.”

In second place, he cited the decline in domestic crude oil production (from 3.6 million to 2.1 million tons) and the decrease in fuel oil and diesel imports due to a lack of foreign currency. Regarding generators, he stated that “there is no progress due to a lack of access to financing,” and regarding transformers, of which the country needs 12,000 annually, they are also at a critical point.

Regarding the crimes suffered by the SEN, he said they are primarily thefts of cables, fuel, transformer oil, and various accessories, as well as “misappropriations” at gas sales points.

“In the life of a country, 60 years are nothing, but in the life of a person, they are everything.”

Ordinary Cubans don’t need the minister’s dire statistics to know how things are. On the bus to Santiago de Cuba, like someone traveling in the depths of the night, the air conditioning is barely noticeable, there are seats that don’t recline, and the ticket numbers are repetitive.

A few tourists mingled with Cubans, most of them emigrants. A Cuban woman and her Belgian partner were talking about visiting her family, laden with gifts. They were the only ones not ranting about the country, along with another Cuban woman from the east. Their topic of conversation: the misinformation on social media about violence in Cuba, which only “spreads lies.” The eastern woman boasted about having “a floor plan for the whole house,” a house she made available to the couple she was talking to.

Another passenger, carrying all her luggage up to her seat, complained about not being able to leave it downstairs. “It was all full,” she said. “But I don’t understand: a little while ago, three people arrived with a pile of suitcases. They handed a dollar bill to one of the lounge employees, but they didn’t get on. Maybe that pile of suitcases was for shipping.”

A university professor spoke bluntly and directly against Fidel Castro. “In the life of a country, 60 years are nothing, but in the life of a person, they are everything,” he lamented. In his diatribe, he proposed, directly, “rebuilding the nation from scratch.” Cubans, he continued, are “people without values” and “deeply damaged” by a system for which the current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was now being blamed. The responsibility, he asserted, “comes from before: Fidel was a mentally ill person who tried to compete even with God and lost in every way.”

Already in Ciego de Ávila, the young Havana woman reported only two hours of daylight that night. “Everything seems so depressing to me, people are so sad, what we’re all experiencing in Cuba isn’t life.”

*A play on words: ‘Outage-stan’

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Alejandra, 7, Drew Her Dream House Before Being Crushed to Death by a Building Collapse in Havana

Thousands of Cubans risk their lives living in dilapidated houses.

Alejandra Cotilla Portales, in one of the images in her drawing studio in Havana. / Loyola Reina Center

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 14 July 2025 — A dark-skinned girl with enormous, lively eyes stares into the camera in the midst of drawing. On the blank page, an figure impossible in Cuba appears: a snowman, and two others that she could not have seen: giant houses with roofs. These are some of the images shared by the Loyola Reina Center in Havana in tribute to seven-year-old Alejandra Cotilla Portales, who died along with her parents, Alejandro and Yuslaidis, in the collapse on Monte Street on Saturday .

The words of the educational center, run by the Society of Jesus, not only give a name and a face to the tragedy, but also make it even more stark. “Alejandra, the youngest member of our Drawing Workshop, always stood out for her vocation, her grace, and her extraordinary talent for the visual arts. Her creativity, confidence, and joy filled every space she shared with us with light. Her short but brilliant career was recognized in every competition she entered, and her enthusiasm was an inspiration to her classmates and teachers,” the community expressed, with “pain and dismay.”

Alejandra as a younger girl in the arms of her father, Alejandro Cotilla. / Facebook

The text highlights Yuslaidis Portales’s maternal role: “Her mother, always present and attentive, was an example of kindness and commitment to her daughter’s upbringing.” Her funeral prayer includes a condemnation of the island’s precarious housing: “We pray to the Father to change the structures that force thousands of Cubans to risk their lives living in dilapidated homes.”

While the official press and authorities—the municipal People’s Power Assembly did confirm the news on the day of the collapse—they ignore the victims, friends and acquaintances who are helping to remember them through social media. For example, Mercedes Tabio, the orthopedist who treated little Alejandra, said: “They were excellent people. The mother was very concerned about her daughter, religiously taking her to all her appointments, and the girl was very polite.”

“Alejandra, such a loving girl, and her mother, so concerned, always carrying her little girl everywhere. I feel so much pain.”

Taimy Arébalo Guerrero shares a similar sentiment: “Alejandra, such a loving girl, and her mother, so concerned, always carrying her little girl everywhere. I feel so much pain.” The woman states in her post that she met Yuslaidis for nutritional consultations during her pregnancy and explains that their children attended preschool together and attended special English classes.

Although the comments emphasize the mother’s attention to the child, the family photos on Facebook also reveal a loving father in Alejandro Cotilla, a native of Guantánamo. There are many photos of Alejandra in his arms, both smiling, and others of him embracing his partner. Two exemplary adults and a beautiful, intelligent child who flourished despite Cuba’s poverty, are no longer with us.

Yuslaidis Portales and Alejandro Cotilla, Alejandra’s parents, in an image shared on social media. / Facebook

The collapse that killed the three, at 722 Monte Street in Old Havana, occurred while they were sleeping. Teresa, a resident of the same street, told 14ymedio about the area: “Most of the houses here have been declared uninhabitable, but people continue to live there because they have nowhere else to go.”

Just hours earlier, also in Havana, but in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, another building “under demolition” collapsed on three people, one of whom died. Both events demonstrate the state of the capital’s construction and the helplessness of Havana residents against the city’s ever-accelerating collapse.

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Richmeat Brings Dollarization to the Plaza de Cuatro Caminos in Havana

The mysterious company, falsely Mexican, opened a La Favorita butcher shop in the central market

New butcher shop sells in dollars at La Favorita by Richmeat on Cuatro Caminos / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez / Olea Gallardo, Havana, June 20, 2025 — A new business has just joined the fever of dollarization in Havana. And not just anywhere, but in the largest and oldest market of the capital, Cuatro Caminos, in Centro Habana. This is a butcher shop of the firm Richmeat, which three months ago signed an agreement with Cimex to manage a whole complex of shops under the name of La Favorita, as some of its products are called.

Just a few days after opening, the place looks pristine, clean and perfectly air conditioned. A blue and yellow balloon decoration shows that the opening is recent. All of the employees address anyone who enters with the same question: “Can I help you with something?”

The variety of the offers – pork, boneless or seasoned chicken, house brand picadillo (El Cocinerito), sausages, burgers… – contrast with the freely convertible currency (MLC) part of the Plaza, only a few years ago well stocked and now languishing.

While the store was previously accessed through a door in front of the MLC products, it is now accessed through the main facade on Cuatro Caminos. / 14ymedio

As if to separate the new venue from the old, which is gradually being abandoned, they changed the entrance. Previously accessed through a door in front of the products in MLC, clients now enter through the main facade of Cuatro Caminos. “The hard currency gets the red carpet,” an old man mocked in front of the new butcher shop.

“Here there is almost nothing, but look there, girl, in dollars,” indicated a custodian of the place to a client. Nothing was said about the poor quality of continue reading

Richmeat’s products, which does not prevent the company from becoming increasingly prosperous.

La Favorita will soon open a branch in a privileged enclave, the Náutico de La Habana, a shopping center close to the exclusive club of the same name, in the municipality of Playa. That was going to be the first of the shops according to the agreement between Richmeat and Tiendas Caribe, announced by the authorities, but the one of Cuatro Caminos has advanced without explanations.

An employee confirmed to this newspaper that the plan to open that butcher shop in the western part of the city is still ongoing, predictably also in dollars.

The poor quality of the products of the Richmeat factory does not prevent the company from becoming more and more prosperous

The official press indicated last March that in a “first stage” of the agreement with Cimex they would have not only the Playa store, but three more. As “the project progresses,” said Cubadebate, “its expansion to other territories of the country will be planned.” They did not say at that time, however, that the sale of products would be in dollars.

This agreement was the second of its kind by the state corporation belonging to the Group of Business Administration (Gaesa), after the one signed with Vima for the store at Infanta and Santa Marta, in Centro Habana, inaugurated last January.

This is not the only similarity between the two brands. Like the one founded by the Spaniard Víctor Moro Suárez, Richmeat products are little appreciated by Cubans, although they often represent the only protein option in the basket amid perpetual scarcity. “No one wants to eat the picadillo” is the comment of many consumers when they receive those tubes of 400 and 800 grams, which are marketed under the brand of El Cocinerito and La Favorita, respectively.

Another coincidence with Vima is that both companies are registered abroad, in Mexico in the case of Richmeat, but neither is known in their respective countries. In Cuba they have preeminence and receive all kinds of hospitality.

There is no indication that Richmeat is a truly Mexican company and not a Cuban firm “disguised” as foreign

Beyond its legal registration, effectively in Mexico, and the nationality of both its president, Luis Alberto González Hernández, and its vice president, Alejandra Chapela Díaz – both present at the signing of the recent agreement with Tiendas Caribe – there is no indication that Richmeat is a truly Mexican company and not a Cuban firm “disguised” as foreign.

As 14ymedio found, the most important Mexican meat industry agencies do not have this company registered: neither the National Agri-Food Certification and Verification Agency, nor the National Association of Establishments Type Federal Inspection (ANETIF) or the Mexican Meat Council.

Even more significant is that the National Service of Health, Safety and Agri-food Quality (Senasica), the Mexican authority responsible for issuing animal health certificates for exporting meat and products derived from it, has no news of Richmeat. “This must be because it operates directly in Cuba, and its products do not come from Mexico,” an official of that agency who asked for anonymity told this newspaper.

According to a knowledgeable source, Richmeat sources its meat on the island, not in Mexico. / 14ymedio

According to a knowledgeable source, Richmeat purchases the meat in Cuba, not in Mexico. This would explain the poor quality of the products. Meat in Mexico has an established reputation, and it’s no wonder the country is one of the world’s leading exporters of beef. According to this source, Richmeat buys the meat on the island, and one of the sites where they buy is the Rigoberto Corcho Credit and Service Cooperative (CCS), in Artemisa.

That it is truly Cuban and not Mexican would explain the “constant presence” of Richmeat “for more than eight years,” which the official press often emphasizes, “even in the most critical periods during the covid-19 pandemic”.

What is clear are the privileges received by the firm. It is often praised by the authorities and now has a location in Havana’s main market. This suggests that it is most likely a company controlled by the Cuban leadership, and the view is that it is expanding.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘After Difficult Negotiations.’ Bahamas Cancels Medical Contracts With Havana

Cuban health workers interested in staying will sign a new employment contract with the country’s Ministry of Health.

Bahamas Health Minister Michael Darville speaking to Parliament on Monday / Screen capture

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, June 17, 2025 — As announced, the Bahamas will directly hire Cuban doctors who are serving on the islands and cancel its agreements with the regime. This was announced by the Bahamian Minister of Health, Michael Darville, in a speech to Parliament on Monday about the government budget for 2025.

Darville said he was in Havana two weeks ago to “review the hiring protocols” of health workers with Cuban recruitment agencies. “After difficult negotiations, we are ready to announce the cancelation of all existing contracts with the Government of Havana and the signing of direct contracts with Cuban health workers,” he said.

Health workers who agree with the new terms, said the minister, will “sign a new employment contract with my ministry” and be able to stay in the country, deployed on the Family Islands (the myriad of islands that are not Grand Bahama and New Providence, whose capital is Nassau). “Those who are not interested in this new agreement will have time to settle their affairs and return to Cuba,” he emphasized.

The Cuban health staff currently consists of 35 persons: 3 ophthalmologists, 3 nurses, 10 biomedical engineers, 8 laboratory technicians and 11 x-ray technicians

As specified by the minister, the Cuban health staff currently consists of 35 people: 3 ophthalmologists, 3 nurses, 10 biomedical engineers, 8 laboratory technicians and 11 x-ray technicians, who, he said, “have recently completed a new training program at Princess Margaret Hospital” in Nassau. Most of them, he said, are willing to serve on the Family Islands.

Darville emphasized that all Cuban workers “receive the same benefits” as local workers. “They are well treated, they are respected in our country, we are grateful for their service,” he declared, while assuring that the contracts between both countries were articulating the changes.

In his address to Parliament, the Minister highlighted the shortage of health professionals in the country, including doctors and nurses from Ghana. At the same time, he promised that they will train and hire Bahamians to “fill in the gaps.” continue reading

He also said that the recruitment of Cuban teachers and health workers is suspended pending the outcome of talks with the US, which last February threatened to restrict visas for officials from foreign countries involved in what it called “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad, including health workers.

“They are well treated, they are respected in our country, we are grateful their service”

Two days after the Bahamian Prime Minister, Philip Davis, held a meeting with US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on May 6, Davis told the press that he would renegotiate the labor agreements with Havana and that, from then on, he would pay all the Cuban health workers directly.

At the meeting, according to Davis, he explained the situation to US officials and denied that the Cuban doctors were being exploited for their labor. “We were able to communicate this to them, and I think they were satisfied that we are not involved in any forced labor that we know of,” he said.

“If forced labor is occurring in our country with the Cubans, we have no record of it,” he added, while indicating that an exhaustive analysis was being carried out to determine whether there was any “element” of this type present in the employment relationship. “If we discover something like this, it will be corrected,” he said.

Davis argued, with relevance, that the method of payment through the Cuban government was not extraordinary. The Prime Minister resorted to recalling how the US paid part of the wages of Bahamian seasonal workers to the UK before the islands became independent. “That is not an unknown concept or construct. But it is now considered an ingredient of forced labor. So we will address that and say to anyone we hire, ’Look, we’ll pay you directly into your account’.”

Archivo Cuba, at the end of April, published an investigation showing that the professionals on mission to the Bahamas receive only between 8% and 16% of what the Bahamian government pays to Havana or them – between 5,000 and 12,000 dollars a month. It added that the Bahamian statements were mainly for the US State Department, and it urged Nassau to hire the Cubans directly.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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From a Prison in Cuba, the Owner of the Havana ‘Costco’ Denounces Deception and Torture

Cuban-American Frank Cuspinera accuses his lawyer of colluding with State Security to “keep me in prison, defenseless.”

Frank Cuspinera was arrested on June 20, 2024, and his Diplomarket was closed / Facebook

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 28 May 2025 — Almost a year after his arrest and lack of information about his whereabouts, Frank Cuspinera, owner of the Diplomarket, the “Cuban Costco” of Havana, has reappeared. He did so through a handwritten letter from prison signed on May 21, whose authenticity was confirmed by a family member this Wednesday, hours after it was broadcast by the ‘influencer’ Alexander Otaola.

In it, he makes “an appeal to the international community, to international and human rights organizations,” as well as to the United States Department of State, “to intervene with Cuban institutions for the constant violations of my rights and the denial of legal guarantees for my defense by Cuban state institutions and their representatives.”

Cuspinera says that he was manipulated by Cuban State Security (DSE) and the Cuban judicial apparatus, “which were cruelly activated against me” and which managed, with “multiple falsehoods,” to accuse me” without the right to a defense. “They have limited my access to justice. I was denied my rights to communication and legal defense from the start,” he claims in the letter. continue reading

Cuspinera announces he will go on a hunger strike on June 1

Therefore, he announces that he will go on a hunger strike -“to plantarme [stand firm]” he specifies, using the term of political prisoners – on June 1. “I will be willing to go to extreme consequences,” he says, until his rights to prompt defense and bail are guaranteed, “to be able to prove the injustice.” The Cuban-American businessman says that there was “premeditation by the DSE in conspiracy with the DTI [Technical Directorate of Investigations] and other institutions, including my defense attorney, who has worked against me.”

“Everything was planned even before my arrest, on June 20, 2024, almost a year ago,” he continues, confirming the date spread on social networks and never mentioned by the government. In those days, the La Tijera Facebook page said that a State Security operative arrived at the supermarket – located at kilometer 8 1⁄2 of the Carretera Monumenta, in the neighborhood of Berroa, more than 10 kilometers east of the center of the capital – along with two buses carrying auditors from Gaesa (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), the conglomerate of the Armed Forces and owner of the land where the establishment was located.

A day earlier, in the WhatsApp group managed by Diplomarket, a message announced that they were “closed until further notice,” explaining: “We are having problems operating because our commercial license has to be renewed.” The app could still be visited and had a caption: “We are offline. Send us an email.”

“The Frank Cuspinera and Diplomarket case was premeditated and planned because it developed the private sector and was registered as a company in the United States”

The La Tijera post pondered, referring to Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, son of the late Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja and Déborah Castro Espín, and bodyguard of his grandfather, Raúl: “It seems that now El Cangrejo [The Crab, a nickname for López-Calleja], grandson of the dictator Raúl Castro, no longer needs his Miami figurehead Frank Cuspinera Medina.” The brief text also recalled that Cuspinera Medina was vice president of Las Americas TCC Corporation, based in Pompano Beach (Florida), and that for years he had been residing in El Vedado, where he had bought “a mansion thanks to his relationship with the dictatorial elite.”

The next day, La Tijera disclosed more details of the case from an email received. According to this anonymous source, the “Cuban military forces” intervened in the business of the Cuban-American, and both he and his wife have been “incommunicado” since that day, accused of “tax evasion, currency trafficking and money laundering.” These accusations, the email claimed, were “nothing more than a pretext for the regime to appropriate their assets.”

“The authorities waited until the closing of the day to break into the company and take everything, a sale that the owners had previously authorized themselves,” continued the text. On the day after these events, “they began to confiscate all the assets of his company and distribute them among the members of the Castro elite.”

La Tijera’s source framed the operation within a “repetitive pattern” in which “the Castro regime attacks those who try to create opportunities and prosperity outside of State control.” However, this was not the case of Cuspinera, well established on both sides of the straits of Florida for years.

In his letter from prison, Cuspinera does not mention any of these names, but he states: “The Frank Cuspinera and Diplomarket case was premeditated and planned because it developed the private sector, and as a company registered in the United States with approval and federal licenses that competed with Cuban State enterprises, it brought into question the reach of the blockade.” In this regard, he also does not specify what type of license he has from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), without which it is impossible to trade with Cuba under the laws of the embargo.

Las Americas TCC, among other activities, was in charge of supplying Diplomarket, inaugurated at the end of 2022

Las Américas TCC, among other activities, was responsible for supplying Diplomarket, inaugurated at the end of 2022. The supermarket, which before opening was already functioning physically for online shopping, started operating discreetly until a tweet by CNN correspondent Patrick Oppmann, who did not mention its name, focused on it almost a year later.

On that occasion, this newspaper visited the business and could see the strong surveillance to which it was subjected. In a first booth, they were taking the data of vehicles at the time of entry, and later there was another guard booth, before entering the store. At the door, two individuals looked everyone up and down, and a large screen showed the movement of the security cameras, placed everywhere. A regular customer called it a “military unit.”

Not even 12 months had passed when Cuspinera fell into disgrace, in a case that recalled the former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil Fernández, arrested in March 2024, weeks after being dismissed for “mistakes made in the exercise of his office,” and about whom nothing has been known since.

When Diplomarket came to light it was not easy to find out who owned it, as the firm was not on the list of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, and the name of Cuspinera did not appear on the supermarket’s website.

“Of the crimes they charge me with, they have manipulated contradictory statements of workers, without their knowledge and contact”

On the other hand, he was listed as vice president of Las Americas TCC. Consulting specialized pages, this newspaper verified that he had been domiciled in the United States and in El Vedado (Havana). In 2021 he appeared as a “specialist” at a meeting between self-employed workers and the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.

That same year, his name also appeared in a letter sent by several Cuban entrepreneurs to US President Joe Biden asking him to lift the sanctions against the island’s government, which were damaging to their businesses. In the letter he was not listed as a member of Las Américas TCC but rather as part of Iderod Servicios Constructivos.

This last firm was not on the list of MSMEs of the regime, although a company with its name, Cuspinera SURL LVI, is listed as dedicated to “providing services of electronic commerce platform,” as a branch of Las Americas TCC.

The businessman does not name in his letter either Las Americas or Iderod but does present himself as a “citizen, lawyer, Cuban-American entrepreneur” of Cuspinera SURL [Unipersonal Limited Liability Company], both in Florida and in Havana, “under the Diplomarket brand, known as the Cuban Costco.”

Cuspinera also states that he will not try to “evade the action of justice, but only ask that I can defend myself”

The text does not detail the charges against Cuspinera, but he claims: “Of the crimes I am accused of, they have manipulated contradictory statements of workers, outside their knowledge and contact.” The employer claims that he was accused of crimes by workers who “may have been able to leave the country.”

He says that, among other vicissitudes, “they have confiscated millions of dollars in goods, equipment, money from purchases and bank accounts,” without giving him a copy of those seizures. And he claims that the authorities “do not show evidence of alleged fraudulent goods, evasions or amounts, misrepresenting and manipulating information” which, he says, would prove his innocence. In addition, he accuses the prosecutors: “They have taken my statements by deception, trickery and torture.”

“They have denied all possibility based on an absurd social injury, without proof (there is no such danger from me to society), and by manipulating my statements and those of my employees.”

The appeal by his defense attorney to Court Complaints and Petitions was “riddled with errors, lacking in available evidence and all with the purpose of keeping me in prison, defenseless. He did not allow me access to my file and prevented other defense attorneys from being able to act.”

Giving names, he points to “instructor Yisset Oliva Betancourt,” the provincial director of the National Office of Tax Administration (ONAT), Yoandra Cruz Dovales, and his official lawyer, Luis Alberto Martínez Suárez, for having “taken unlawful actions to hold me in provisional detention unlawfully, without defense.”

Cuspinera also states that he will not try to “evade the action of justice but ask that I can defend myself through a bond so that the truth about my responsibility and that of the institutions comes out.”

Before finishing his letter, in which he also says that his mother is ill with cancer, the entrepreneur reaffirms his intention to stand firm. “I am ready to go to extreme consequences with my hunger strike to prove my innocence,” he concludes, after having warned that “the organs of the DSE” cut off “any possibility of defense.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Neighbors of the Saratoga Hotel in Limbo Three Years after an Accident that killed 47 People

“We remain unsheltered, homeless, and seeing no real progress in the reconstruction of our building.”

El hueco que ocupaba Prado 609, entre el hotel Saratoga y el edificio Yoruba, en La Habana, este martes. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, May 6, 2025 — A massive police presence could be observed around the former Saratoga Hotel and an adjacent building on Tuesday, three years after an explosion destroyed both structures and left forty-seven people dead. The resources employed by authorities to monitor the site on the anniversary of the accident were inversely proportional to the attention given to the demands of the evacuated residents, who took advantage of the opportunity to publicly express their grievances.

“As a resident of 609 Prado Street, I am posting this message to denounce the complete neglect of the victims by authorities,” writes Bárbara del Carmen Tenreyro Pérez on her Facebook page, summing up the situation of the building’s former residents. “We have been unsheltered and homeless for the last three years, and have seen no real progress in the reconstruction of our building.” In fact, residents say, work has been at a standstill for the last six months.

What remained of the building after the explosion was demolished in May 2023. A few months later, the government assured residents they would be able to return to their homes in 2025, claiming they would be rebuilt in the same location. “What they promised were just empty words. The official date for the building’s completion.

Nor has there ever been a full explanation of what happened. Authorities initially attributed the incident to possible leaks in the hose of a tanker truck that was supplying liquefied natural gas to the hotel at the time of the explosion. An investigation was promised but no findings were ever released. “What is most painful is the silence,” said Tenreyro. “No one tells us anything, no one helps us, no one responds to our concerns.” Her post included several photos showing the scene before and after the incident.

Using the same images to illustrate her own comments on the situation, Katherine T. Gavilán writes, “Another May 6th [has come around] and they are still homeless. Some have decided to leave the country while most are still living in Villa Panamericana. The relatives of those killed in the incident and everyone else are still awaiting the results of an investigation but there continue reading

is no news.”

Gavilán notes that, two years ago, families who had been living in the building’s twenty-seven apartments were informed that “they would be able to return to their homes by August 2025.” She adds that residents delivered letters to the local government, the National Assembly and the hotel’s owner, the Business Administration Group (GAESA), last year.

GAESA, the owner of the hotel, told residents that it “had nothing to do with matter”

GAESA, a business conglomerate run by the Cuban military, has owned the hotel since 2016, when it was seized from Habaguanex, a business subsidiary of Havana’s once all-powerful Office of the Historian, headed by the late Eusebio Leal. According to Gavilán, GAESA told residents that it “had nothing to do with the matter.” They received no response from the other two government entities other than to say that “the person in charge of the issue was the Havana government’s head of construction.”

Gavilán adds, “A little less than a month ago, one of the residents, acting on behalf of the entire building, requested a meeting with Namán Morales, the official in charge. Morales’s aide said she would discuss the matter with him and would call back in a few days. The following week, the aide said that she had not been able to speak with him. Gavilán got the same response fifteen days days after her initial contact.”

If the authorities had taken any steps, we would have heard about it. It has been well over a year since they have given us any information,” she complains, adding that none of the various government agencies responded to letters that one resident delivered to them in person.

“Initially, they provided a bus for us here but took it away because there was no fuel

They tried to deliver another letter to the Communist Party Central Committee on Monday but were unable to do so due to lack of transportation from the area where they are being housed. “Initially, we had a bus. It took us from the Villa every day and brought us back in the evening. But they took it away because they they didn’t have the fuel to keep it running,” she says.

The biggest problem in Villa Panamericana is not transportation, however, but running water. “Here, water here is only available here one or two times a day, for an hour. That’s when we have to fill tanks, jars and plastic jugs to last us the whole day. It’s what we use for the bathroom, for bathing, cooking, cleaning, for everything.”

Living conditions for the former residents vary, along with their complaints. “One neighbor had a swarm of rats. To shut her up, they sent an exterminator but no one fixed the furniture the rats had been eating. Others have had serious problems with leaks. Others with termites, even in the doors and windows.”

Work stopped last November, “after they poured the foundation,” she says. “There was never an explanation as to what caused the accident. They have never given us that information and we’re tired of asking for it.”

Residents were told that “construction would begin on February 24 and would be completed by December 25, that the building would go up quickly. Now look at where we are.” Work has been stalled since November, “after they poured the foundation,” she says.

A photo posted by residents on social media on Tuesday shows a hole in the foundation of 609 Prado Street, with bare concrete and stacks of rebars left here and there. Gavilán estimates it was taken in late December or early January” from the roof of the adjoining building, the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba. “No one else has been able to take photos [since then] because they covered up that little hole.”

A hole of the slab of 609 Prado Street as seen from the rooftop of the Yoruba Building Facebook

Located a few yards from Havana’s Capitol building, the site would normally be considered very desirable. Before the explosion, several families made money by renting out rooms to tourists but have been unable to do so for the last three years. The move to East Havana has not only deprived them of this economic opportunity, it has also completely cut them off from the retail network they relied upon and from the schools their children attended.

Meanwhile, reconstruction on the iconic Saratoga has also come to a standstill. Almest, a real estate developer affiliated with the the Armed Forces ministry, was tasked by the government to carry out the work in conjunction with an an unnamed French company, widely believed to be based in the city of Bouygues and to have worked on the construction of twenty-two luxury hotels on the island.

On the first anniversary of accident last year, Cuban architect Luis Ángel Gil, who now lives in Spain, shared a proposal on social media for renovating the hotel. He proposed a new name, Kairós Saratoga, after the classical Greek words for “opportune moment.”

His basic idea was that the building would act “like a horizontal opening” so that “users would not feel enclosed by walls and could enjoy the excellent views the site has to offer.” To achieve this, he proposed incorporating “a vertical park” that would serve as “a natural extension of the existing public space,” enveloping the building and “strengthening the connection between architecture and nature.”

This proposal, ignored by authorities like the still unknown plan that officials might have, seems to being lying dormant in a drawer somewhere.

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Nostalgia for Radio Martí in Cuba, the Soundtrack of the Longing for Freedom of Information for Decades

“It’s where I first heard the real truth,” Tomás recalls
Numerous voices inside and outside the Island speak out against Trump’s decision to paralyze the station

Radio Martí was for at least a decade the only alternative source of news in a country where the Communist Party had a strict monopoly on information / Al Jazeera

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 17 March 2025 — During the Rafter Crisis unleashed in Cuba between August and September 1994, after the so-called Maleconazo, thousands of inhabitants of the Island tuned in to Radio Martí for one main reason: every day, the names of those rescued at sea were read there. It was, for many, the only way to know if their relatives were alive.

Years earlier, the station widely covered Case number 1 of 1989, when Arnaldo Ochoa and other high-ranking soldiers were executed, accused of drug trafficking and high treason. “If it had not been for Radio Martí, very little or nothing would have been known about the true involvement of the Castro regime in drug trafficking, ivory trafficking in Africa and other excesses,” says María, a resident of El Vedado in Havana. Like so many compatriots, she is dumbfounded that the current US president, Donald Trump, has suspended, by an executive order that includes other federal projects, the operations of the media, which this Monday is no longer broadcasting live.

Radio Martí – later called Radio and Television Martí when it had its own channel – was for at least a decade, since its inauguration on May 20, 1985, the only alternative source of news in a country where the Communist Party had a strict monopoly on information, until independent media appeared in the late 90s. As a part of Radio Broadcasting to Cuba, created in 1981 by then-President Ronald Reagan at the behest of anti-Castro leader Jorge Mas Canosa, it transmitted by short wave, and its signal could be heard in several Caribbean countries.

“Very few on the Island dared to give statements directly to Radio Martí, and those who did were repressed”

“At that time there were very few on the Island who dared to give statements directly to Radio Martí, and those who did were automatically stigmatized and repressed,” recalls María, who remembers the maneuvers that had to be done in the houses to tune in. “You had to have a certain type of radio and put it in a certain place. My father discovered that if he lay down on the bathroom floor and put it on the tiles, he picked up the station better, so the bathroom became a very busy place.”

Aware of the power of providing information other than the official one, the regime immediately jammed the signal with an annoying interference. “It continue reading

could barely be heard and had a noise, brbrbrbr,” imitates Tomás, a resident of Centro Habana, who claims to be a listener of the station since he was a teenager. “The neighbor next door put it on and taught me how to look for it on the radio and I put it on too.” At that time, says the man, there was no other universe than the one presented on national television. “We were completely oblivious. Here we thought that the world was a disaster and that Cuba was paradise.”

In its programs at that time, you could learn about the consequences of hurricanes crossing the Island – something that official propaganda always tried to minimize – or officials who had deserted on a trip abroad, or even international sanctions against the Havana regime. Tomás concludes: “Where I first heard the real truth was on Radio Martí.”

It also served, for example, to know what number came up in the “bolita,” the illegal lottery that is played on Cuban streets

The musical theme at the beginning of the broadcasts was repeated several times during the day and in some way became the soundtrack of our desire for freedom of information. “When you heard that cadence coming from a home in some tenement, you knew that the family was listening to the forbidden station,” María continues.

When I was little and heard it for the first time, it was in the middle of the Special Period,” says Josiel, an immigrant in Florida. “I soon sensed that it was something forbidden because in the neighborhood many spoke quietly when they mentioned this station.” Josiel says that he was not very aware of what was happening, but he associates Radio Martí with some neighbors who “made rafts with truck bodies” and reached the Guantánamo Naval Base.

As an adult, the young man continues, he visited the house of an uncle in Santiago de Cuba, who was very critical of the regime and a “faithful listener of Las Noticias Como Son (The News as it is).” In a similar way, María believes that the political transformation of her father, who ended up denying the Communist Party of which he had been a member, “was partly due to Radio Martí, which he greatly admired.”

There were consequences to getting involved in some way with the station. In the repression of the Black Spring, the mere possession of a shortwave radio to capture the signal or having ever spoken through microphones, via phone call, were considered incriminating evidence against the activists and independent journalists who were tried in those days of 2003.

“It can be reactivated with fewer staff, but nothing guarantees us employment”

The medium did not always have such a serious task. It also served, for example, to know what number came up in the “bolita,” the illegal lottery that is played on Cuban streets. “There were people on my block who only tuned in for that,” explains Gabriel, now a resident of Miami. His first memory of Radio Martí was not as a listener of the station but as a student, at the beginning of what was called the “Battle of Ideas“: “The first thing I heard were attacks made by teachers against that medium, which they called an enemy. In the classrooms we were constantly bombarded with rants against everything related to the Cubans in Miami.”

This 35-year-old father, a Trump supporter, does not believe that the closure of Radio Martí will be definitive. In this regard, he mentions the president’s own order, issued as “temporary,” and the promise of Cuban-American Republican congressmen Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart to “work” to guarantee the continuity of broadcasting.

“Radio Martí has been key to counter the propaganda of the Castro/Díaz-Canel regime. While the programs and agencies of the federal government are restructured, I will continue to work with President Trump to ensure that the Cuban people have access to the uncensored news they need and deserve,” Salazar wrote on his social networks.

Martí Radio Television workers who a few days ago maintained optimism, this Monday were more hopeless. “It can be reactivated with fewer staff, but nothing guarantees employment,” one of them told 14ymedio on condition of anonymity.

“The freedom and democratization of Cuba is not only of interest and benefit to Cubans but also to the United States”

For the time being, numerous voices inside and outside the Island have spoken out against the presidential decision. On Monday, the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance urged Trump on Monday to help, instead of ending Radio and Television Martí. “The preservation and strengthening of this means of communication is indispensable for the Cuban people,” the Miami-based coalition, composed of 53 groups, stressed in a statement. It also reiterated: “The freedom and democratization of Cuba is not only of interest and benefit to Cubans but also to the United States.” It recalled that the Havana regime “has installed on its territory military and espionage bases of the adversarial regimes of the United States and has consistently undermined US national security.”

For its part, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, based in Madrid, expressed its “deep concern about the order to dismantle the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which includes the temporary suspension of funding for Radio and Television Martí. ” This “has already brought negative consequences, such as the receipt of dismissal letters by workers, who are in a situation of uncertainty.”

In a statement made public on Monday, the organization emphasizes that these media “have played an essential role in offering truthful information to the Cuban population, breaking the regime’s information monopoly and acting as a necessary counterweight to state propaganda.” In addition, it points out that they have also been “key elements to promote independent journalism, peaceful resistance against repression and censorship of the Cuban regime.”

And they warn: “The disappearance of Radio and Television Martí would represent a significant setback, benefiting exclusively the Cuban regime in its propaganda discourse both inside and outside the Island. In addition, it would strengthen the propaganda and misinformation of other authoritarian regimes that already have a presence in Cuba and in the rest of the world, such as the Russian media, Russia Today (RT), CGTN of China, HispanTV of Iran and Telesur of Venezuela, which would also affect the democratic interests of the United States and the West in general.”

José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), spoke along the same line. In repeated posts on his social networks, he highlighted that Radio and Television Martí is “a necessary and inseparable symbol of the cause in favor of freedom and democracy in Cuba.” He understands “any necessary restructuring” so that “these platforms constantly improve and are more effective and of greater scope,” but affirms that “they must not cease to exist.”

“Its total absence would greatly benefit the discourse and propaganda of the Cuban communist regime and the anti-democratic media increasingly present on our continent”

“Its total absence would greatly benefit the discourse and propaganda of the Cuban communist regime and the anti-democratic media increasingly present on our continent,” insisted the historical opponent. He asks that the president of the United States allow Radio and Television Martí “to continue to give voice to our people, oppressed and silenced by a brutal and tyrannical enemy of the United States and the entire West.”

Miriam Leiva also lashed out against the measure. In a post published on Facebook, the independent journalist recalled her collaboration, over more than 20 years, with Las Noticias Como Son, the program presented by José Luis Ramos, Amado Gil and her husband, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, which cost him the regime’s reprisal. “In his trial as part of the 75 of the Black Spring of 2003, the prosecutor used his participation in that program. Chepe replied that if they didn’t want him to do it, ’give me space on national radio’. The response to him was harsh and offensive.”

In the same publication, Leiva recalled, in capital letters, that Radio and Television Martí never paid them (something, by the way, that other collaborators expose as a criticism and that has been a frequent source of discomfort among reporters living in Cuba, who did not even benefit from phone recharges by the station). Not in vain, the journalist relates how the regime has recently congratulated itself on the cancellation of the programs that help independent media and human rights activists. Leiva concludes: “With this dismantling, the Cuban government has won.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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