Translator: GH – Translating Cuba

Cuba: The Holguín to Guantánamo Train Runs Again After Months Stuck With No Fuel

The four cars can carry between 600 and 700 people, for a price ranging from 135 to 150 peso

The route was set for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2025 — Ferrocarriles de Cuba has relaunched one of its most popular routes and, at the same time, one of the most irregular: the train from Holguín to Guantánamo. With the energy that only the 26th of July brings, the company announced this month that the reopening of the route is not only “a temporary measure for the summer season, but is planned as a permanent transport solution”. That is, as long as there is fuel and functioning technology, the same two issues that kept the thing at a standstill for months.

The official press release on the restarting of the line seems to be an exact copy of the one published a year ago with the same announcement. At that time, the train travelled on alternate days and the authorities promised that the route would not disappear again. By November, however, the route was only running on Saturdays due to a lack of fuel and, at the beginning of this year, it was suspended again.

The train was suspended as soon as the harvest began and the wagons were put back to their original purpose: transporting cane.

A year earlier it had had the same problem. After starting to operate with machinery from the sugar industry, the train was suspended as soon as the harvest began and the wagons were destined for their original purpose: to transport sugar cane.

With such a “track record”, it is not surprising that passengers doubt the reliability of the service, which reappears only around National Rebellion Day.

Given the doubts, the authorities claimed that the train had a broken locomotive, which made it impossible – due to the chronic lack of these engines on the island – to resume the service. According to Pedro Durruty Martínez, deputy director of Ferrocarriles in Guantánamo, bringing back the train “required repairs and structural modifications to guarantee the continue reading

safety and reliability of the service, as the cars are just shells with no real support under the floor”, according to the State newspaper Granma.

The route was fixed for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with five wagons.

The media describes the maintenance work as a “feat”, which entailed the manufacture from scratch of the necessary parts by the workers of the Guantanamo workshop Vanguardia Proletaria.

The route is set for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with five carriages — four for passengers and one for parcels and luggage — and capacity for between 600 and 700 people. The price, according to the Communist Party newspaper, ranges between 135 and 150 pesos “depending on the section, a rather more affordable alternative to private transport”.

“And what about Santa Clara to Morón?”

Far from celebrating the news, as the authorities expected, passengers have taken to the press to criticise the poor state of the railways. “A lot of people hope that in this holiday season, August, the Bayamo-Guantánamo train, which has not been running for years, and also the Holguín train, will be started up. They could alternate them and so help families who are separated by high ticket prices and the limited availability of transport,” suggested someone in Granma.

“And what about Santa Clara to Morón , which hasn’t run for over six years and nobody knows anything about it?” another reader asked in Cubadebate.

Ferrocarriles de Cuba has added other routes, although most have been in the western provinces. In Havana, the train to Expocuba, which the authorities went on about as an option for visiting the park during the summer, was started up in early July.

The train to Playas del Este takes more than an hour and a half for a journey of just 25 kilometres.

However, on a visit to the fairgrounds – using the line – 14ymedio saw that the train was travelling practically empty and that, of the passengers who get on, hardly any went to the final destination. With three carriages and a price of 20 pesos, the vehicle is designed to carry 204 people and makes stops in Luyanó, Dolores, La Víbora, Naranjito, Miraflores, Los Pinos, Alcázar, Arroyo Naranjo, Galápagos, Calabazar and La Piscina.

Around the same time, it was also reported that the train to Playas del Este, which takes more than an hour and a half for a journey of just 25 kilometres, was launched.

Earlier, in June, the Los Arabos-Matanzas route was revived. The Matanzas Provincial Transport Directorate announced on that occasion that the line will run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing at 4:40 a.m. and returning at 3:30 p.m. Initially, it will have only two cars of 80 passengers each, with the possibility of increasing to four in the future.

Translated by GH

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In Placetas, a Woman Is Killed by Her Husband, Who Then Takes His Own Life

The killer of a young man in Ciego de Ávila had a previous relationship with the victim’s partner.

The bodies were discovered by a neice in their home, near Tabaquería Reloba. /Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, August 25, 2025 (delayed translation) — The murder of Rosa Delia Morales and the subsequent suicide of her husband and assailant in Placetas, Villa Clara, has not yet been reported in the official press. However, the Alas Tensas Observatory confirmed the crime, which took place on 22 August. Also, as usual, friends and relatives shared their grief on social media. One of her friends, Diamara Bosch, corroborated the facts to 14ymedio.

“She was an excellent person and very special,” said the woman in a private message. According to reports on Facebook, it was a niece who discovered the bodies in the couple’s home, located on Calle 4 del Norte, between 4 and 5 del Oeste, near the Tabaquería Reloba, according to a neighbour. Morales’ throat was slit and the scene was “Dantesque”, according to other witnesses.

The victim was a native of the town of Villaclare and worked at the Chiquitico Fabregat sugar mill.

“A noble and good person who did not deserve this”, said Milagros Núñez Martínez, who explained she was a friend of hers from when they were at school together in the Lidia Doce camp in Remedios. The victim was a native of that town in Villaclare and worked at the Chiquitico Fabregat sugar mill.

Regarding the partner, Rubén Caña, nicknamed El Caña, he is said to have worked in the Ministry of Sugar, both in the transport base and in the administration of a camp site, and he is from Placetas itself.

One of the pages that reported the news criticised the “authorities’ inadequate response” after the tragedy: “The police arrived late, without mortuary boxes or adequate transport to lift the bodies, which made people angrier and frustrated”. It continued: “This poor response not only shows a lack of resources, but also the absence of proper procedures for dealing with this kind of emergency, leaving the victims and their families even more helpless”. continue reading

Yisan Arrechea, 32, received “multiple stab wounds”.

Another crime involving partners, but with a man as the victim, was committed in Lugones , in Ciego de Ávila. According to a report on the Crímenes y Desaparecidos en Cuba website, Yisan Arrechea, 32, was “stabbed multiple times” and then had his throat slit by two men, one of them a former prisoner who had had a previous relationship with his victim’s partner.

The assailants are on the run, according to the sources who reported the incident, which has also not been mentioned by the official media .

Translated by GH

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Three New Femicides Reported, Two in Holguín and One in Matanzas

Damaris Ricardo, 48 years old was “violently attacked” by her parrtner, who then killed himself.

In August, seven femicides were reported on the island. / YoSíTeCreo en Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, September 3, 2025 (delayed translation) — Three new femicides recorded during the last month in Cuba. The Observatorio de Género Alas Tensas reported the killing of Damaris Ricardo Martínez, Dayli Villa Ortiz and Yolennis Rojas Rojas. Two of the attacks happened in August and the third one in July.

According to the NGO, last August 28th, Damaris Ricardo, 48 years old, “was violently attacked by her partner, who took his own life afterwards. The woman’s body was found by the police in the Cueto municipality, in Holguín.

The second reported case was in Matanzas. Dayli Villa Ortiz, 24 years old, died at the hands of her partner in their home in Carlos Rojas, Matanzas. “Sadly this terrible act took place in front of one of Dayli’s daughters, who, hopefully will receive the specialised support she needs” said Alas Tensas.

Finally, there was a case reported last July 29th. This was Yolennis Rojas Rojas, 32 years old, stabbed to death by her husband in the Rafael Freyre municipality in Holguín. This occurrence “underlines the urgent need for specialised protection systems to support women fleeing violent homes. Yolennis tried to do it and was helped by her father, who was injured and nearly died”, added the organisation. The woman leaves two small children. continue reading

The aggression “underlines the urgent need for specialised protection systems to support women fleeing violent homes”

With these three new cases confirmed by the observatory, this brings the total number up to 28 femicides so far this year, according to 14ymedio’s calculation.

In August, the number of such violent attacks reached an alarming level, with seven murders. The first was Mailenis Blanco Amor, 47 years of age, on August 4th in Piareña district of Puerta de Golpe, in Consolación del Sur Municipality.

One day later, on August 5th, there was another one in Holguín city. 56 year old Milagros Batista Estévez died at the hands of her ex-partner, in her home in Alex Urquiola.

The third victim in August was Bárbara Elena Tejería Magdaleno. also 56 years of age, living in Calabazar, Boyeros, in Havana. She was attacked on August 11th with a machete by her partner, who denied having seen her. Bárbara’s body was found three days after in some waste land in Las Cañas slum. The attacker killed himself shortly after.

Another case confirmed by the ONG was Ledisvannielis Acosta Echavarría, 19 years old, on August 12th. Her body was found in the bath in her home, in calle Amistad between San José and Barcelona, in Central Havana.

The last instance reported by the observatory was August 25th. Rosa Delia Morales, between 61 and 62 years old. She was attacked in her house in Placetas, Villa Clara, August 22nd, by her partner, who later killed himself.

Translated by GH

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‘La Libertad Es Un Verbo’ (Freedom Is a Verb), an Intimate Look at the Art of Cuban Artist Edel Rodríguez, Now Launching

“I wanted this story to be told because in places like Spain and other countries in Europe they think that Cuba is an ideal country”

Rodriguez usually depicts the US president’s face completely orange and always without eyes / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Hugo Barcia, Miami, 8 August 2025 — Illustrator Edel Rodríguez, known for his covers of Time, The New York Times and Der Spiegel magazines, is used to portraying what is happening around him, but in the documentary ‘Freedom is a Verb’, which will be released digitally next Tuesday, he is the one being portrayed.

Edel Rodriguez: Freedom is a Verb

His time in Cuba, where he was born in 1971, his exile to the United States during the Mariel exodus in 1980 and his progressive path to his current fame have been compressed into just 18 minutes to create a documentary that reviews Rodríguez’s artistic career. “The documentary tells a lot about the Cuban experience, about what it is like to be a Cuban born in Cuba and to be a refugee”, the artist told EFE in a virtual interview.

“I wanted this story to be told because in places like Spain and other countries in Europe they believe that Cuba is an ideal country and that the Revolution was very good for the country,” Rodríguez added.

Freedom has always been the artist’s driving force. It was what pushed his family to leave the island when Rodríguez was a child and it is what now influences his covers, which are seen all over the world. “When I do my work I always have that in mind: people in Cuba are looking at me, people in Iran are continue reading

looking at me. I have friends in Iran who write to me in secret,” the illustrator admitted.

And while he fled Cuba in search of freedom, Rodríguez said that in recent months, after President Donald Trump came to power, he has been reacquainted with an old friend in the United States: fear. “It’s not Cuban-style fear of a dictatorship that is going to lock you up”, Rodríguez said, but it is a kind of self-censorship for fear of “pissing someone off” and that it might affect his work or the funding a gallery or media outlet receives.

It’s not a Cuban-style fear of a dictatorship that you will lock you up,” Rodriguez said, but it is a kind of self-censorship for fear of “pissing someone off”.

The artist regretted having witnessed this fear first-hand, assuring that “there have been several situations” in which galleries or media have been reluctant to publish his work, although he maintains that he knows how to deal with it. Trump has been the subject of some of Rodríguez’s most famous covers, and in the documentary he tells how he usually depicts the US president’s face completely in orange and always without eyes. “I want people to pay more attention to what he is doing. When you make eye contact with someone, you have more empathy with that person or with the illustration,” the artist is heard saying in the documentary.

‘Freedom is a Verb’ was released in November 2024, but until now it has only been available at festivals in the United States and Europe. From next Tuesday it will be available in digital format on YouTube. “The film invites you to reflect on the fragility of democracy, censorship (…) and the value of activism, of people taking to the streets”, said Creus.

Translated by GH

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Cuba: Darkness, Heat and a Train That Doesn’t Turn Up — The Night in the Matanzas Terminal

New railway timetables push passengers into early mornings and long waits in dangerous conditions.

Passengers are used to blackouts, toilet closures and no drinking water in the terminal. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 31 July 2025 — Evening fell slowly over the makeshift Matanzas train terminal, a former freight warehouse refurbished to fill the gap in the lack of a proper station. There, amidst mosquitoes and shadows, dozens of commuters were checking out the new schedule this Monday for the four domestic trains departing from Havana until September 30th.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the readjustment responds to “the shortage of cars” and the need to “have more trains throughout the summer,” that will leave every four days. These additional convoys, the agency said, “will guarantee the transport of students, workers, athletes participating in sporting events, such as the School Games, and other sectors,” while the rest of the population will be able to book seats whenever available “as usual during this period.”

However, at the Yumurina terminal, travellers see a very different reality. “I had to come early, because this place is so remote that you can only get there by renting a vehicle,” Georgina told 14ymedio, while recalling that she had already spent “2,000 pesos on a bicycle taxi” without knowing whether she would be able to board the train to Holguín. “In the morning I signed up on the waiting list. Then I went to my daughter’s house, who lives near Parque René Fraga, to pick up my luggage,” she says with a tired expression.

The Havana-Holguín train used to pass through Matanzas around 10 p.m. / 14ymedio

The Havana-Holguín train used to pass through Matanzas at around 10 p.m., but the new timetable means passengers will have to wait past midnight. “I booked the tickets several days ago. I thought the stay at the terminal was going to be relatively short, but now they tell me it will leave Havana at 10:05pm. That means we’ll be coming to catch it after 1:00 in the morning. How inconsiderate,” complained Reidel, accompanied by his wife and young son. continue reading

Accustomed to the blackouts, closed toilets, and no drinking water in the terminal, Reidel knows that not even the street vendors dare to cross the Camilo Cienfuegos distribution area at night. “We bring food from home because here, when it gets dark, you can’t even see your hands in fonrt of your face,” he says. The young man recalls that “last month I almost couldn’t travel because of the waiting list, because the train had only five cars. Now that I buy my ticket in advance, they change the timetable. They do nothing to help us.”

Inside the main hall, which is also the domestic bus terminal, the heat and mosquitoes make the wait unbearable. The crammed together metal benches barely leave room to move between the luggage. Some, like Isabel, who is returning to Las Tunas, prefer to sit outside on the concrete walls. “The employees have their work cut out too; they have to use the torches on their phones to check tickets or make a note on the waiting list,” she says.

With her suitcase between her feet, Isabel estimates that, with luck, she’ll be home in 12 or 13 hours. “My son wanted me to stay a few more days and take one of those extra trains they announced, but if they don’t follow the established routes, I don’t think they’ll add anything extra,” she says, aware that the transportation crisis will delay her next reunion with her grandchildren.

As faces blur in the darkness, resignation grows. An elderly man stretches out on a cement wall and nods in a restless sleep. Others improvise conversations to pass the wait, as if talking could shorten the night. At the Matanzas terminal, everyone knows, even if no one says so, that the train will hardly leave on time, even under the new schedule. Amidst blackouts, heat, and stinging winds, they await the moment when the metallic roar of the locomotive breaks the silence.

Translated by GH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by GH

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‘My Life Is Over,’ Says Russian-Recruited Cuban Mercenary Who Escaped the War

Francisco García paid nearly $13,000 to a trafficker to take him to Greece, where he is living on the street

The Cuban Francisco García escaped the war last October. / La Tijera

14ymedio, Havana, 6 June 2025 — It was made clear to Francisco García that he would “return to Cuba in a coffin or as a hero”. The 37-year-old understood that the attractive online advertisement shown to him by a friend months earlier, offering 204,000 roubles ($2,594) a month and a Russian passport for repairing buildings damaged by Ukrainian shelling, was a lie. He had been recruited as a mercenary. “My life is over,” he told the British newspaper Daily Mail.

García witnessed the death of dozens of Cubans in combat, “Russians who committed suicide” because they could not bear the war. However, mercenaries are not “allowed to show fear”, they cannot feel pain or compassion. “We were asked to be like robots on the battlefield.”

Garcia, who escaped last October and is in Greece surviving on the streets, is one of more than 20,000 Cubans recruited by Russia since the war began in February 2022. A man who “has fought in a war” that has nothing to do with him. Ukrainian intelligence data shows that there are about 7,000 Cubans currently on the battlefield with little or no training.

From the moment he stepped off the plane that took him from Havana to Sheremetyevo International Airport, the presence of a Cuban man in military uniform and backed by Russian soldiers who forced them into army trucks made him fearful. “They didn’t give us food or water. After a long journey, we arrived at an abandoned sports school, guarded by armed police,” he told the same newspaper.

García corroborated the same modus operandi that other Cubans have gone through. Once in Moscow, they are given contracts in Russian and, amid shouts and threats, they are forced to enlist as mercenaries. continue reading

Garcia was forced to carry heavy weaponry, including an assault rifle, a portable rocket launcher and four grenades. / La Tijera

He was given an assault rifle. “It was the first time I held a gun in my hand,” said the man who lives haunted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words: “traitors will never be forgotten”. The Cuban insists that he has not killed anyone, but admits: “I don’t know if I wounded anyone because I fired in panic, but that is always in my mind.”

After 30 days with other Cubans and people from Asia and Africa, he was pushed to the front lines of the war without warning because “Russia was losing many soldiers every day”. Garcia was forced to carry heavy weaponry, including an assault rifle, a portable rocket launcher and four grenades.

He quickly realised that war was “not a game” and that his mission from then on was to survive. “There were 90 Cubans like me at the beginning, but more than half of them died in combat,” he said.

In combat, he witnessed the destructive capacity of kamikaze drones, which “we Cubans didn’t even know what they were” and which “caused a lot of damage, much more than hand-to-hand combat”.

The mercenaries, Garcia said, are abandoned by the Russians when they are wounded on the front lines.

On one occasion while on the front line he was hit by bullets and left a scar on his right bicep. “I rushed to protect myself, but I was hit. It felt like I was hit with a giant hammer, but I didn’t feel much pain because of the adrenaline and trying to save my life.” Garcia was shocked and was quickly put in a tourniquet and injected with morphine to overcome the pain.

The second injury occurred when “a bomb hit a building near me. I can still hear the bang. Some metal fragments from the explosion hit my left arm and both legs, and a toxic smell came out.”

After a year in the Russian artillery brigade in Rostov, Donetsk and Soledar, the Cuban was awarded a medal and a certificate in honour of his service. In addition, he was given two months off in October 2024. That was the time he took the opportunity to escape. He contacted a people smuggler who, for 1,000,000 roubles ($12,715), guaranteed to take him “safe and sound to Greece”.

Garcia was counting on the money he had been paid for his services because he was not allowed to send it to the island. His journey took place in airports between flights through six countries, from Belarus to Azerbaijan, then to the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, before finally arriving in Athens, he told the Daily Mail.

He explains, “I have gone through many difficulties and no one helps me. I sleep on the streets and struggle to survive. I wish I could go back to the simple life I had before in Cuba, but I can’t.”

Translated by GH

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The Chinese Negotiate Shorter Power Cuts for Their Workers in Cuba

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by GH

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In No Hurry To Evacuate Its Citizens, the Cuban Regime Invents Made-Up Iranian Victories

The distressed messages of a Holguín journalist trapped in Tehran reflect another reality.

Jaime Yoan Batista Peña works as a contributor to HispanTV, the Iranian state channel in Spanish. / HispanTV/caption

14ymedio, Havana, 18 June 2025 — Last Monday, June 16th, while millions of screens around the world showed an Iranian presenter fleeing the set when a missile exploded, a Cuban journalist wrote from Teheran: “Israel attacked the radio and television headquarters; I try to protect myself. Best wishes to all.”

This is Jaime Yoan Batista Peña, a Cuban audiovisual media professional, ex-commentator, journalist and presenter in Holguín province. He started off in radio and moved to TeleCristal, before establishing himself as a contributor to HispanTV, the Iranian Spanish language state channel. Nevertheless, there has not been a single mention of his situation in Noticiero Nacional de Television [Cuba’s official, state-run nightly television news program], nor in official Ministry of External Relations websites. Not even a formal note from the Cuban embassy in Teheran, which limits its public activity to reproducing Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez’ slogans and citations from Miguel Díaz-Canel about the “solid character” of the Revolution.

The newspaper “Ahora”, mouthpiece of the Communist Party in Holguín, is also silent.

The silence also extends to the Ahora newspaper, mouthpiece of the Holguín Communist Party, which has not even once mentioned the prize-winning Holguín reporter who is right now in danger in a conflict zone. And the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba (Upec) [CubanJournalists Union] has also said nothing. But colleagues in the island have inundated his Facebook with messages of support. However, the Party has so far not given an order to issue any comment about him.

Batista has contributed to HispanTV since at least 2015, when his reports began to appear about Latin American politics. Since that time, his face has appeared on that platform, where he is reporting directly from Iran. His work is characterised by an information strategy totally aligned with the official narrative of that theocracy, whose interest in Latin America is as ideological as it is geopolitical.

HispanTV was founded on December 21st, 2011, as part of Iran’s international propaganda apparatus, alongside PressTV (in English) and Al-Alam (in Arabic). The channel is owned by Radiodifusión de la República Islámica de Irán (Irib), a state organisation directly controlled by the supreme leader, Ayatolla Ali Khameneí. Financed by Iranian public continue reading

resources, HispanTV pursues an anti-Western, anti-Israeli agenda, and with links to authoritarian regimes. It has been frequently been sanctioned for putting out conspiracy theories and antisemitic content. Although its declared objective is to “strengthen cultural links” with Latin America, its real mission is to act as the international voice of the Iranian regime.

Financed by Iranian public resources, HispanTV pursues an anti-Western, anti-Israeli agenda, and with links to authoritarian regimes

In his Facebook message on Monday, Batista cautioned: “Do not send me internal messages because I cannot respond. We are in complex difficult circumstances. I am grateful for all expressions of solidarity and love.” It was a dry text, as if written between sirens, with bated breath and barely concealed anxiety.

And on Wednesday morning he wrote another even more worrying message: “The internet is very limited and extremely slow. Messages are not going out. Best from Teheran.” And then, a possibility of escape: “They are making preparations for evacuations through terrestrial borders. The situation remains tricky. I am OK and being helped by our Cuban embassy. Thank you for your messages.”

Several days have passed since the conflict broke out, and the Cuban state response remains the same as ever: hidden in silence. Just as happened in other international crises – Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria – the government seems more concerned about protecting ideological alliances than guaranteeing the safety of its citizens. We haven’t forgotten the names of Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández, two doctors in Kenya, whose bodies have not been recovered. The Cuban regime applied the same strategy to that case: let the silence fester until no one asks any more questions.

The government seems more concerned about protecting ideological alliances than guaranteeing the safety of its citizens

Iran is unsafe during the systematic Israeli offensive, which has destroyed the armed forces chain of command, attacked the underground bases at Natanz and Fordow used for uranium enrichment, decimated the aerial defence systems, and wiped out nearly two dozen scientists who designed the nuclear project. Various Latin American countries – including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and México– are already evacuating their embassies in Teheran.

The Cuban community in Iran is small: diplomats, technicians and some assistants. But their small numbers don’t make them less vulnerable. The lack of official data on how many Cubans live in Teheran, or other cities, increases the risk of being abandoned. In a country where ideological repression is disguised as religious observance, where the use of the veil is compulsory, homosexuality is punished, alcohol consumption is forbidden, and the media are strictly controlled by the state, the safety of foreigners – especially those without firm diplomatic support – is uncertain. A military escalation, as we are seeing now, converts this uncertainty into a direct threat.

( The lack of official data on how many Cubans live in Teheran, or other cities, increases the risk of being abandoned

Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran and Cuba have had a relationship sustained by a shared dialogue against “imperialism,” especially against the United States and Israel. High level visits, cooperation agreements on health, energy and biotechnology, and mutual support in international forums have cemented a strategic alliance. But have also sealed a pact of mutual silence over violations of human rights.

The regimes protect each other, that is why Cuba is more interested in declaring support for Iran and asserting in its media that Teheran is winning the battle against Israel, than the plight of its citizens trapped beneath the bombs. Meanwhile, friends and family of Batista know that to find out if he is still alive, can escape and return to his country, they need to keep looking at his Facebook profile.

Translated by GH

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Mother of Two Small Children Stabbed in the Street in Niquero, Granma Province, Cuba

The woman was stabbed three times in public.

Gretel Matos was 33 years old when she died /La Hora de Cuba / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 15 June 2025 — The murder of Gretel Matos, mother of two small children, last Friday in Granma province brings the total of femicides to 15 so far this year in Cuba, according to 14ymedio records. The 33-year-old woman was stabbed three times in the street in the Niquero municipality, where she lived.

Matos’ assailant was named as Didier Almagro, father of her second child, “who fled after committing the crime, near La Plaza del Pueblo,” according to the independent media La Hora de Cuba.

The man was hiding from the law up to this Saturday said a media source, who added that “he said several times he was going to kill her (Matos), after he had tried unsuccessfully to revive their relationship.” continue reading

La Hora de Cuba reported that she was with her present partner when it happened.

Almagro “had said on various occasions that he was going to kill her, after he had tried unsuccessfully to revive their relationship

At the start of the month, the official press, which rarely mentions this type of crime, reported the femicide of Rosa María Santana Álvarez, aged 29, following lots of rumours of her death in social media.

Escambray reported that the aggressor, Santana’s ex-partner, had been caught and confessed to the killing of the woman who was mother of two young children. The main was arrested “less than two hours after he did it,” a Ministry of the Interior committee was pleased to report to the paper. It added that the arrest was “thanks to public support” and the speedy action of the police.

A few weeks before that, at the end of April, Yiliannys Reyes, a girl from Camagüey, hardly 17-years-old, was assaulted, also at the hands of her ex-partner. And before that, 40-year-old Yunisleidy López Milián, had been killed by her partner, who attacked her in her home in Guayos in Cabaiguán municipality.

To date this year, there have been 15 femicides in Cuba according to our records. The feminist associations noted the killing of Odalys Bataille as an instance of this type of violence. She was a 53-year-old nurse in Habana del Este. But up to now it is not known what the link is between the victim and the perpetrator, a presumed ex-convict, and 14ymedio has it registered as a homicide.

Translated by GH

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Propaganda and Ruin, the Two Faces of a Building in Cuba

The flags on the high-rise buildings of Peñas Altas, in Matanzas, barely hide the deterioration, which puts neighbors and passersby at risk.

“Every time I go in or out I do it as quickly as possible, because it’s not the first time bits have fallen off the balconies or the outside columns” /14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 6 May 2025 — Looked at from one side it looks majestic, but the 13 storey building in Peñas Altas, in the city of Matanzas, only has one good side. The huge Cuban flag, 44 metres high, painted on one side of its façade, barely hides the ruin of the rest of the building, a deterioration putting at risk the lives of the people living there and anybody passing by.

Four years ago, the face of the city was changed with the completion of an enormous mural, signed by the artist Jesús Alberto Mederos Martínez. For the occasion, the local press was full of headlines praising the world’s largest Cuban ensign, but the rest of the concrete block was completely ignorant of the paintbrushes and scaffolding that were mobilised for the occasion.

Now, the inhabitants of the building, which was put up in the years of Soviet subsidies and which looks like all the communist architecture in Eastern Europe, is falling to bits. This week a lump of concrete balcony collapsed right next to a little boy who was, at that moment, entering the building with his father. “It fell next to my smallest boy, touching his shoulder, it tore his pullover but he escaped with hardly a scratch”, the alarmed man declared in the social media.

A poster “Fatherland or death, we will win” leaves it quite clear where is the priority of the propaganda about investment to improve the lives of the residents.

While the balcony parapets, cracked and with rusted metal, endange the lives of anyone passing by, a poster “Fatherland or death, we will win” leaves it quite clear where is the priority of the propaganda about investment to improve the lives of the residents. Below the wording on the ensign, in bright red, the walls of the building also known as “Polineiso Building” after the restaurant on the top floor, are cracked, dirty and bulging in places.

“Every time I go in or out I do it as quickly as possible, because it’s not the first time bits have fallen off the balconies or the outside columns” one of continue reading

the top floor residents, who has lived there since it was built, told 14ymedio this Monday . In those days, the Peñas Altas complex of modern buildings was seen as a foretaste of the future and the consecration of the Cuban model and its most finished product: the new man.

Sylvia cannot help comparing the present situation with her memories as a youngster, when dozens of families, all carefully seletced by the system, moved into a pristine building, with wide corridors, a welcoming entrance hall, and spectacular view of the bay and the city of Matanzas. At that time, the elevators were a source of wonder for many people who had never been in one, but over the years they had become a headache due to technical problems and long power cuts.

Sylvia prefers to go up the stairs to her apartment every day to avoid being trapped by a power cut, or having to put up with the jolts in the apparatus, which has been damaged by the passage of time and by people using it to move their furniture and heavy boxes. The woman does not conceal her dismay at the contrast between the building’s symbolism with its enormous national flag on its side, and the reality of living inside it.

The mural with its single star and white and blue stripes form part of the artistic “My flags” quarter, dedicated to Fidel Castro and opened at the end of 2021, when the city of Matanzas celebrated the 328th anniversary of its foundation.

“We are not so badly off because at least we have the Cuban flag” saiys another resident ironically, indicating one of the buildings in the complex decorated with the flag of the July 26 Movement and the ranks of the Commander in Chief. Look at from a distance both buildings make up an image that the official press photographers look for and the official extol.

From up close on the other hand real life doesn’t have such intense colours. “These corridors at night are so dark that I only go down from my flat in an emergancy” Sylvia explains. In the gloom you have to look out for the bumps and holes on the steps. “A little while ago my neighbour fell over when he caught his foot where there was no concrete above the scaffolding. If we put up lights they steal them and if we bring up the need for some repairs they says they have no money, says the woman.

“As soon as you come near you can smell the urine, because there are people who use the ground floor area as a public toliet” /14ymedio

Water leaks between floors also plague the residents. “The pipes are rotten. You can see where the columns and structure are weak. You only have to look at the cracks to see it could collapse,” says another resident, who knows every detail of a building he has lived in for more than thirty years. “It won’t be today or tomorrow, but if they don’t do something , there could be a disaster,” he says with the knowledge that comes from his job as a builder.

Apart from the residents in the building, lots of clients come to the Consumer Register Office (Oficoda) every day which is located on the ground floor. Also at ground level is the rationed goods warehouse and other state establishments that have permanent queues. Over the heads of the people waiting to go through a procedure or buy their ration of subsidised food lumps of concrete are dangling ready to fall on their heads, rusty steel reinforcement rods and old air conditioner casings rotting in the sun.

The restaurant El Polinesio on the top floor does not escape this mess. With its slogan “high level gastronomy” the state diner is closed most of the time due to lack of supplies and the infrastructure problems. Re-opened in 2023 after being closed for two years and after an investment of 18 million pesos, the business suffers most from having to go without electricity.

Humidity inside the “Polynesia building”, in Matanzas. / 14ymedio

It sounds simple enough to say it — just nip up to the 13th floor to reach the restaurant – but having to do it is enough to scare off just about anyone.” says the workman. And the state of the building doesn’t help much. “As soon as you come close you can smell the urine, because there are people who use the ground floor as a public toilet. It’s obvious that this place doesn’t invite anybody to come and eat – or to live – I am still here because I haven’t been able to move. Locals speak of the microbrigade buildings like they’re cursed.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the high-rise blocks that began to be put up in Cuba’s main cities were seen as a foretaste of the modernity that the whole country would enter at an accelerated pace, but with the passage of time, the deterioration and evidence of the limitations of these projects made with cheap materials, hasty construction and lack of maintenance, earned them a bad reputation.

All it takes is for a classified ad to state that the flat for sale or exchange is located in a microbrigade building for potential buyers to flee in panic. On the other hand, stressing that it is a “capitalist” property, built before January 1959, guarantees greater success in the transaction. The difference in price and the speed at which these properties move is also very different. Those built for the ‘New Man’ are worth less and people don’t want them.

And, what’s more, if the buyer learns that the flat for sale is located in the “flag building”, he or she is likely to put an unenthusiastic look on his /her face, as evident as the red triangle flag painted on the side of the building is in the Matanzas landscape.

Translated by GH

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Moskvitch Taxis Sent by Russia to Cuba Will Compete With the Soviet-Era Ones

Moscow is considering sending 50 vehicles, 25 of which are the Moskvitch 3 fuel-powered models and another 25 Moskvitch 3e, which are fully electric.

Miguel Díaz-Canel, with the mayor of Moscow, trying out one of the Moskvitch models coming from Russia to Cuba. / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 8 May 2025 — The last century uncomfortable Moskvitches which privately carry passengers around in Havana will soon have new competitors: Russian vehicles of the same make, but many years younger, sent by Russia. At least, that’s what Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, promised Miguel Díaz-Canel when he visited their car factory this week.

Last April, the Russian deputy prime minister, Dimitri Chernyshenko, promised the government it would help revive its worn-out public transport, and said, without the press revealing any details, they would send a fleet of Moskvitches. Now, Díaz-Canel went in person to review the deal which, as revealed by the Moscow mayor, intends delivering an initial consignment.

To start off, the mayor told the Cuban premier, they are talking about sending 50 vehicles, 25 petrol Moskvitch 3’s, and 25 completely electric Moskvtich 3e’s.

From sending them to maintaining them, installing the charging infrastructure, training the mechanics and drivers – first in Russia and later locally – all at the expense of the Kremlin, which has created a joint company with the island to manage the taxi fleet. In view of the inability of the Cuban economy to keep even its own fleet going, it will be Russia which continue reading

guarantees “the uninterrupted working of the electric vehicles”.

“I hope these cars will grace the streets of Havana and make it more comfortable to move around your wonderful city”

In the future, the mayor said, I hope that the number of Moskvitches – which will be added to the depleted Cuban fleet – will be able to serve most of Havana’s population and the 150,000 Russian tourists who visit the capital on routes between Havana and Varadero.

“I hope these cars will grace the streets of Havana and make it more comfortable to move around your wonderful city,” Sobyanin said.

Modern, spacious and brightly coloured, the new Moskvitches have little in common with those still in circulation on the island, relics of the Soviet subsidy era. The fact that it is Russia that provides them out of its political interest in Cuba, and with hardly any benefits in return, is the real point in common between the old and the new vehicles.

Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged the widespread use of Moskvitches in the country, especially from the 60s to the 90s, although they have been getting fewer due to the lack of parts to repair them and the obsolescence that comes with decades of use and their poor gas mileage.

“The employees of this plant can be proud of the high quality of their products, as these old cars from that era are still on the streets of Cuba. This is due, of course, to the high build quality and to the creativity and ingenuity of the Cuban mechanics,” he said.

The president himself left the factory with a gift that would make many Cubans jump for joy: a gift voucher for 10 Moskvitch 6’s.

In terms of transport, Cuba depends almost exclusively on what other countries are able to give away and on companies willing to import vehicles. The total lack of money and resources is shown by the new process introduced by Salud Pública and MVC Comercial, an importer of vehicles for both state and private companies.

Months ago, the press announced that the institution would start renting MVC’s imported German Mercedes-Benz ambulances instead of acquiring its own transport. Some 60 days after putting the service to the test, Granma reports that the results are promising: the response time of the emergency system, for example, has been reduced from an outrageous 31 minutes in 2024 to 18 in the last two months, and emergency services from 43 to 16.

According to this management model, it is the drivers who are responsible for the condition of the ambulances, which, the health authorities stressed, “has had a positive impact on their care and sustainability”.

MCV, however, is worried about the government’s inability to pay for its services. “To be able to restock with new equipment and expand, it is essential that the payments come in and we are able to get the funding,” said a company official, adding that good management could lead to an expansion of the ambulance fleet in the capital or its expansion to other provinces.

But Public Health claimed that payments in freely convertible currency (LCM) and pesos to the company are “up to date”. But, apart from not clarifying whether they owe other invoices in foreign currency, it reminded MCV that payments “have the normal financial problems caused by the blockade”.

Translated by GH

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US Deports 60 Irregular Migrants to Cuba

This is the third flight of this type since Donald Trump became president.

Two of the new deportees are in detention / Granma

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 28 March 2025 — A group of 60 illegal Cuban migrants arrived from the United States on Thursday in Havana in the third deportation operation since President Donald Trump began his second term in office in January.

This return – of 55 men and five women – took place “as part of the bilateral migration agreements” between the governments of Havana and Washington, according to official media.

With this operation, including those carried out from the US on 23 January and 27 February, there have been 13 returns to different countries in the region so far in 2025, with “a total of 367 people”.

With this operation, including those carried out from the USA on 23 January and 27 February, there have been 13 returns to different countries in the region.

Two of the persons included in this new deportation are in detention, one of them “for allegedly committing criminal acts before emigrating” and the other because “he left the country illegally while on parole”.

The authorities stress that they remain “firm” in their commitment to “regular, safe and orderly” migration, while emphasising the danger and life-threatening conditions posed by illegal departures from the country by sea. continue reading

Cuba and the US have a bilateral agreement that all migrants arriving to US territory by sea will be returned to Cuba. For the moment, nothing has changed on the return of such migrants carried out under the previous Joe Biden Democrat administration.

In April 2023, deportation flights resumed, mainly for those deemed “inadmissible” after being held at the US-Mexico border.

According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, 217,615 Cubans arrived in the United States during the 2024 fiscal period, ending on 30 September.

Likewise, a total of 8,261 Cubans were registered by US border authorities last October, the first month of fiscal year 2025, and, according to the CBP, in the last four years more than 860,000 migrants from the island have entered US territory.

In 2024, 93 returns were carried out to different countries in the region, with a total of 1,384 illegal migrants returned, according to official media.

In 2024, 93 returns were carried out to different countries in the region, with a total of 1,384 irregular migrants returned, according to official media.

With its severe economic crisis, Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented exodus of migrants, with food, medicine and fuel shortages, galloping inflation, frequent and prolonged power cuts and partial dollarisation of the economy.

The situation has depleted the population to such an extent that an independent demographic study by the renowned Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos concludes that it now stands at just over eight million people, with an accumulated drop of 24% in just four years. Specifically, there are 8,025,624, a lot less than the 9,748,532 in the figures of the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei).

Translated by GH

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Swiss Bank PostFinance Closes Accounts of Holders in Cuba

In a letter published by the SRF radio station, the entity gives an account holder two weeks to withdraw their funds.

Branch of the Swiss bank PostFinance in Zurich in Cuba X/@UrsBolt

14ymedio, Havana, 28 March 2025 — The Swiss bank PostFinance gave Sandra, who lives in Cuba, two weeks to find a new bank. The financial institution sent her a letter on 17 March telling her that they are “forced to terminate the business relationship and close the account and associated services”. According to Swiss radio station SRF, the decision follows pressure from US sanctions on the island.

In its report, the media outlet says that “the short deadlines raise questions” and supposes “the US authorities put direct pressure on the federally controlled bank”. The bank did not provide any information on this to the broadcaster. “The reaction suggests the conclusion that fear of Donald Trump has reached the head office in Bern,” said SRF.

PostFinance, for its part, denied it, telling Reuters that the SRF report was based on speculation. Any possible termination of business ties was carefully reviewed in advance, PostFinance said.

“Due to bank-client confidentiality, we cannot comment on the specific reasons that ultimately led to the termination of individual business relationships,” the bank responded.

Regarding Sandra’s case, PostFinance stated that the client’s profile “did not match the commercial policy orientation” of the institution, but did not explain further.

Sandra tried to make a withdrawal after receiving the letter, but was unable to do so. As a Swiss citizen living abroad, she pays continue reading

higher bank charges. She now lives in uncertainty because “it is not clear how they will receive their AHV payments (old-age and survivors’ pensions paid in Switzerland) in the future”.

The radio station confirmed that Sandra’s case is not unique. PostFinance is systematically closing its services to clients with a connection to Cuba.

SRF recalled that a few years ago major Swiss banks suspended payment transactions with Cuba due to US pressure. However, PostFinance remained the only large institution that continued to make payments, until 2019 when the institution stopped processing them. “This led to criticism. Filippo Lombardi, a former centrist member of the Council of States of the canton of Ticino, argued that PostFinance had been mandated by the federal government to guarantee basic payment services, including for retirees abroad.”

On 20 January, Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the United States and among his first actions was to reverse the last-minute decision of Joe Biden’s administration to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

PostFinance said that international sanctions are subject to constant change and that sanctions against Cuba are nothing new, but have also evolved over time. PostFinance has therefore constantly adapted its internal policy on this, he added.

Translated by GH

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“We’ll See if We See Each Other Again,” the Last Message Her Daughter Sent Her Before She Disappeared in Mexico

Relatives reported the disappearance of Meiling Álvarez Bravarez and Samei Armando Reyes Álvarez from 21 December. / Margarita Bravo

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico city, 12 March 2025 — Margarita Bravo has not heard from her daughter, Meiling Álvarez Bravo, 40, and her grandson, Samei Armando Reyes Álvarez, 14, for 81 days, and the Cuban consulate in Mexico, to which she appealed, asked her to “stay strong.” The two of them, along with four other Cubans, Dairanis Tan Ramos and Elianis, Jorge and Lorena, who were in Tapachula, Chiapas, have been missing since 21 December.

“Breakfast is here, we might leave now, mami. Kisses, I’ll write to you later.” This was the last audio message Bravo received from her daughter that day. Months of uncertainty and worry have followed since then. This Havana native tells 14ymedio that her daughter and grandson left in search of a better future, but their journey has turned into a nightmare.

The woman says that the last point of reference for her family members was a house near Parque Hidalgo, in Tapachula. From this place they were to be picked up by a coyote identified by the alias Chapín. “The man was paid 2,000 dollars” to take them by boat to Juchitán, in the state of Oaxaca, so that they could avoid the checkpoints of the National Migration Institute (INM).

When she did not hear from Meiling and Samei, who usually provide travel updates, Margarita dialled their cellphones, but got no answer to the calls or messages. “I don’t know what’s happening, the messages aren’t being received.” continue reading

An acquaintance, she continues, filed a report with the Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office about the disappearance of Meiling and Samei. She also “presented herself at the Siglo XXI and Huixtla migration stations, but there is no record of them there.” She also contacted the Cuban Consulate in Mexico to present the case.

Dairanis Tan Ramos is among six Cubans who disappeared in Chiapas last December / Facebook/Dairanis Tan Ramos

From Nebraska (USA), another daughter, Mayelin, contacted the coyote, but he told her that he knew nothing about the Cubans, that “the National Guard probably had them.” When asked about their whereabouts, he changed his story and said that “they were probably arrested by immigration agents.”

This Chapín even suggested that they could have been victims of kidnapping by the criminal cells operating in the region. When questioned about the money he was paid for the transfer, he stated that the Cubans had left with another coyote. “I don’t have anything to do with them any more,” he said.

“We don’t know if it’s true or not, because he was the one who was paid,” says Margarita.

Meiling and Samei entered Mexico through the southern border on 18 December. They had started their journey on the 12th of the month, when they left the island on a flight to Nicaragua. According to Margarita Bravo, a couple of Guatemalan coyotes identified as Marilyn and Rafael took them to the Guatemalan border.

Among the missing is also Dairanis Tan Ramos. The migrant, from Camagüey, according to a cousin’s report on Facebook, has had no contact with her family since 18 December.

In addition to these disappearances, there has been a wave of kidnappings of Cubans in Tapachula. A man ordered “Take the Cubans away,” on his radio, to his armed accomplices, according to a witness. Since November, there has been no news of Reynaldo Leyva Izquierdo, 54, Dalviris Domínguez (47), Leonel Gutiérrez (28) and Jorge Luis Gutiérrez López (58), who didn’t make it to the USA .

In the same month, Cuban nationals Leydi de la Caridad Rodríguez Acosta and Ana Mercedes Capetillo Savón were also kidnapped and murdered. Their dismembered bodies were left in a waste tank between the Chiapas communities of Pumpuapa and Nueva Granada.

Translated by GH

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