The regime expands its solar capacity with support from sympathetic organisations on the continent, which are also activating colloquia and mobilisation actions
Solar panels sent by European organisations on the roof of the ELAM. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Madrid, 11 June 2026 / From this Wednesday, half the energy demand of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) can be met by the new photovoltaic grid project installed at this university study centre for foreign students. The project was promoted by MediCuba Europa, headquartered in Switzerland, which has already carried out several schemes at the ELAM and other institutions in Cuba.
According to the official press, the panels have a total installed capacity of 208 kWp, and the polyclinic and a study courtyard are protected from power cuts by batteries that have been installed, “contributed by international solidarity to support this beautiful Cuban internationalist project”.
This project forms part of the programme known as Energy for Life, designed to provide electrical supply to health institutions on the Island and funded by donations made to a MediCuba Europa account at a Swiss bank. The official Cuban press states that the organisation has the participation of NGOs from 13 European states “that practise their solidarity with Cuba in the field of health”, and asserts that they are in “different regions”, mixing countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria with autonomous regions such as the Canary Islands.
Brussels hosted a group of activists who called for an “end to the blockade”. / Cubadebate
Furthermore, the press mentions a territory that does not exist as such – Euskal Herria (Basque people or the people who speak Basque), a political-cultural entity that belongs to the imagination of Basque expansionist movements – including the terrorist organisation ETA and its milieu – whose goal is to bring continue reading
together in a single nation the inhabitants of the Basque Country, Navarra, and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques (France).
The MediCuba Europa website states that it is made up of some 18 organisations, eleven of them full members and seven as associates. In the first group are mediCuba-Switzerland, mediCuba-France, and mediCuba-Finland, together with the Spanish Sodepaz, the Italian Associazione Nazionale di Amicizia Italia-Cuba, the German Humanitäre Cuba Hilfe e.V., the Irish Cuba Support Group, the Swedish Svensk-Kubanska Föreningen, the Norwegian Cubaforeningen Norge, the Austrian Österreichisch-Kubanische Gesellschaft, and the Luxembourg Solidarité Luxembourg Cuba.
In the second group: Dansk-Cubansk Forening (Denmark), Cuba Solidarity Campaign UK (United Kingdom), CEESE-group Netherlands (the Netherlands), and the Spanish organisations Euskadi Cuba, Asociación Valenciana de Amistad con Cuba Jose Marti, Asociación Solidaridad y Cooperación Ernesto Guevara de Madrid, and the Asociación de Amistad Canario Cubana Antonio Pérez Monzón.
The ELAM project is broken down on the website into two stages: a large solar plant to be built with two companies – one German, one Swiss – of 60 kW, which has been producing since June 2015. The second stage, the current one, has been underway for a year and involves four companies from the same countries.
But the projects within the solar plan are far more numerous and have also made it possible to install capacity at the Finlay Vaccine Institute, the Faustino Pérez Provincial Hospital in Matanzas, the Cardiocentre and the William Soler polyclinic, the Borras Marfan paediatric hospital, and the outpatient maternity clinic in Matanzas. In addition, the website notes that more energy projects are forthcoming.
The organisation has also recently been involved in projects to secure locally produced sodium heparin for patients in Cuba, the purchase of paediatric antitumoural drugs, and pacemakers for the Cuban health system.
The organisation has also recently been involved in projects to secure locally produced sodium heparin for patients in Cuba, the purchase of paediatric antitumoural drugs, and pacemakers for the Cuban health system.
The activity of European associations close to the Cuban regime is currently buzzing. That same Cubadebate publishes this Thursday the mobilisation that took place at the Luxembourg Square, in front of the European Parliament, to support the start of activities of a solidarity convoy with Cuba that had arrived from Italy and will travel through several cities under the slogans “Let Cuba Breathe” and “Europe Wakes Up”.
In the rain and carrying placards, activists, Belgian and European parliamentarians, Cubans resident in the country, and others joined an event that the official press describes, cloyingly, as a demonstration of “the fact that distance does not cool legitimate commitments”. This was happening outside, while inside a European Parliament – which has already voted on numerous occasions for resolutions calling for the release of political prisoners or sanctions against the regime – an event was taking place organised by the left-wing parliamentary group, entitled Toward a New Internationalism in an Age of War, at which the role of the United States in conflicts such as those in Ukraine or Palestine, but also Sudan and Cuba, was discussed.
It is precisely these two countries that will be the destination of a €350,000 grant from the Basque Government, made up for the most part of right-wing Basque nationalists and socialists. The direct subsidy to the United Nations Development Programme in Cuba amounts to €250,000 and will support the project Havana’s Advance Towards Its Future: Comprehensive Implementation and Monitoring of the Havana Provincial Development Strategy. According to the report, this project aims to promote comprehensive development – energy, waste, and housing – on the Island, which faces “significant challenges”.
Translated by GH
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In Santos Suarez, residents took over a street and set fire to the many open-air rubbish piles and an Etecsa installation
Luyano residents took to the streets with their cooking pots, exhausted by the many hours without services. / Screen capture / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 11 June 2026 / The banging of pots and pans in broad daylight is becoming a regular occurrence. It happened again this Wednesday in the Havana neighbourhood of Luyano, in full view of two police patrols that this time limited themselves to watching as residents beat their cookware to the chant of “water and power”.
Those who leaned out onto their balconies to see what was happening were invited to join in. “It’s not up there, it’s down here, in the street,” one resident shouted at the onlookers still holding back from the protest. Others beat their pans more discreetly from their balconies. By that point they had been without power for some 27 hours – which also meant no water.
The protest, which 14ymedio was able to witness, was not the only one to take place this Wednesday in the capital – or elsewhere in Cuba. The months the population has spent enduring blackouts of sometimes more than 48 hours straight are taking an even greater toll with the summer heat.
Watch video here “Water and Power”, the desperate shout of the women of Luyanó, exhausted by the constant outages.
In Santos Suarez, the night was less peaceful. The protest began after 8 pm and the intensity kept building until, according to an eyewitness account on social media, the crowd took over Calle General Serrano from one end to the other, setting fire to every one of the many rubbish piles until the situation spiralled out of control.
“They didn’t restore the electricity. They almost burned down the Las Estrellitas de Serrano children’s centre. The fire brigade had to come to stop it spreading further. Further along Calle General Serrano they couldn’t control the fire and it burned the Etecsa server – those cabinets on certain street corners – leaving more than half the neighbourhood without communications,” an eyewitness recounted. To cap it all, the state monopoly has said it has no spare parts to repair it and the blackout will not be short-lived.
“At one of the corners where they lit the rubbish piles, because it was night-time, the wind carried the smoke into the homes and a young girl ended up at the Raul Gomez polyclinic because she is asthmatic – and that’s without counting all the other residents breathing in those chemicals,” the resident lamented. In her post she reproaches the United States for the energy blockade and the regime for demanding continue reading
resistance “with no intention of proposing any positive change. And caught between these two governments, the Cuban people are strangling themselves with that rope”.
The night was a long one again. The forecast deficit was 2,040 megawatts: at peak hours the electricity system generates only 990 MW while demand stands at at least 3,000. The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant – the country’s main one – had been expected to come back online this Wednesday after three intensive days of repairs.
Firefighters attending one of the blazes in Santos Suarez. / Impactosdesde el Corazón
In the end, the situation has dragged on a little longer and, on Wednesday afternoon, workers were awaiting the start of the hydraulic test, which will determine when the restart can begin, following verification of all the weld seams and areas of concern in the boiler.
Engineer Roman Perez Castaneda, the plant’s director general, told the official press that the inspection would take around six hours – a “decisive moment to assess the work and correct any weak points”. If the results are favourable, the boiler is closed and fired up, after which a further six hours are needed to reach operating parameters, produce usable steam and begin turning the turbine – the steps required before reconnecting to the national electricity grid.
“We acknowledge it is a race against time, but we have confidence in the work that has been carried out,” said Perez Castaneda. The worst news is that at this stage the 200 MW the Guiteras plant can contribute barely matters when the shortfall is ten times that.
Translated by GH
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The crisis has produced a devastating domino effect on the surrounding communities
Workers in Varadero waiting for transport to Cárdenas / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Pablo Padilla Cruz, Varadero, 9 June 2026 / Though the blue of its waters grows more intense with the start of June, and its white fine sand shimmers under the relentless tropical sun, walking through the streets of Varadero’s tourist enclave today is an ode to nostalgia. What was once the goose that laid the golden egg of the Cuban economy now survives as a desert of broken promises for the handful of visitors who still arrive, for the marginalised residents, and for workers mired in absolute precariousness.
The debacle is not new, but it has reached a point of no return. A self-employed worker confirms as much as she weaves her electric mototaxi around the potholes along the peninsula’s scorching asphalt. “Things have been getting worse for about ten years now,” she says, eyes fixed on the road. “First came the decline in the quality of tourists. I know that well, because I was a waitress at the Princesa del Mar hotel at Paradisus. In those golden years we had lots of Canadian guests, but Europeans too – Germans, French, Italians, and of course Spaniards. I learned that you find kind and generous tourists everywhere, but some markets are better than others when it comes to what workers take home.”
The woman explains that a change of commercial strategy by the Ministry of Tourism marked the beginning of the end. “Then the Russians, Mexicans, and Argentinians arrived en masse, and with them the purchasing power of workers in the sector dropped sharply, because they left very few tips. Later came the Chinese, and that’s when we started to miss the Latin Americans,” she says with a bitter smile. “It’s not that they’re bad people – it’s that their model of tourism is different; they barely leave the hotel and spend almost nothing outside.” Overnight, she says, the craft fairs went from being coveted jobs to being the last card left to play.
Varadero beach at 45th Street. / 14ymedio
Covid-19 drove in the final nail. “After the pandemic, the reality became unsustainable,” the driver admits. “When I saw that my income depended on the domestic market, I decided to get out. I worked at whatever I could until they authorised passenger transport licences, and my daughter, from the United States, managed to buy me this electric motorbike. That’s how I survive. When I ferry the current hotel workers around and hear about their problems – which are endless – I know I made the right call.”
The picture painted on the streets is reflected with mathematical precision inside the hotel complexes themselves. Amed, a young man who until a few days ago worked at the Los Delfines hotel, confirms continue reading
the operational collapse of tourism. “They proposed I move to a security guard role because they shut down the hotel restaurant. Now they’re only giving access to the pool and the lobby, and everything is charged exclusively in dollars,” he explains, visibly frustrated.
The employees’ discontent stems from the disappearance of the black market and tips – the two historic pillars that compensated for the poverty-level state salaries. “Everyone in Cuba knows that in tourism you live either off tips or off the food each person manages to sneak out to resell. With no customers in the facilities, there’s neither one nor the other,” Amed laments. On top of that, the dollarisation imposed by the state trading company ITH has shut the door on the island’s own citizens: “ITH now only accepts dollars, so the hotels can’t offer anything in pesos to the same Cubans who get paid in that currency. How is there supposed to be any domestic tourism like that?”
Caffechino, in Varadero, was the busiest spot a year ago. / 14ymedio
For the young man, the decision to leave the sector was a matter of pure survival. “Today is my last day of work. I didn’t accept the security guard post. If the bus fare to get here costs me a minimum of a thousand pesos a day return, and can go up to four thousand, how am I supposed to work for a state salary of barely 4,800 pesos a month? There’s no calculator in the world that makes that add up,” he exclaims, before dropping his head and staring at his phone screen.
This near-total paralysis of tourism has produced a devastating domino effect on the communities surrounding the Hicacos peninsula, which have historically depended on the resort’s economic activity. Entire communities that fed off the informal flow of resources and the surpluses taken from the hotels are today completely stranded, stuck in the middle of nowhere and battered by the widespread energy crisis gripping the country.
“Santa Marta is a shadow of what it used to be,” laments a resident of this locality, situated so close to Varadero that its inhabitants consider themselves an inseparable part of it. “The rental properties are closed for lack of customers, the private businesses that were once thriving are falling deeper into decay every day, and food prices are through the roof because now we’re forced to die in the MSMEs*.”
The village of Santa Marta, near Varadero. / 14ymedio
Scarcity has transformed even the family survival networks. “The little that workers manage to take out of the hotels nowadays goes to feed their own families – it’s no longer sold on,” the resident explains, emphasizing her words with desperate gestures. “In Santa Marta there have been entire generations of people who spent their whole lives reselling the rum and drinks that employees from the cayo [the informal name Matanzas locals give to Varadero] gave or passed on to them. Now they’ve had to reinvent themselves, leave the country, or simply go hungry. Not everyone in Varadero and Santa Marta is rich – there are poor families, extremely poor families.”
On top of the lost income comes the ordeal of the blackouts. “What’s normal here now is three consecutive days without electricity, followed by barely two hours with power, before going back to three days in the dark. That destroys the few businesses still standing and wrecks the quality of life of anyone who doesn’t have thousands of dollars to buy solar panels. Right now, Santa Marta is not much different from a rural village in Las Tunas,” the woman concludes.
Despite this severe humanitarian and infrastructural crisis, the authorities pushed ahead with their political-commercial entertainment agenda. Under the Resonance Musique brand, on 29, 30, and 31 May, the official opening of summer in Varadero was celebrated. The festivities, however, turned into a social powder keg.
The event was marked by complete disorganisation, an alarming shortage of food and drink offerings, and, worst of all, serious episodes of physical violence between exhausted workers at the Resonance hotel (formerly the Fiesta Americana, then Sandals) and dissatisfied guests. “It wasn’t worth it at all,” says Rangel, a Cuban citizen who travelled from the capital with his family. “For us, saving up enough money to come here represents an entire year of sacrifice. The party was a complete disaster — the only redeeming features were the beach and the peace and quiet, two things we don’t have back in Centro Habana.”
Rangel lists the logistical failings without hesitation: “We arrived at the hotel at 11 in the morning and didn’t get our room until 9 at night. The general service and the food were dreadful. And the worst part was the party itself: you try to have a good time because you’ve already spent the money, but the performers showed up just to go through the motions and the sound was terrible. I’m never coming back at the start of summer again.”
*MSME – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Translated by GH.
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There is no record of Hegseth having previously visited the Guantanamo Bay base since taking office in 2025, according to available information.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in an archive photo. / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, June 10, 2026 / The United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will travel this Wednesday to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to meet troops deployed at the base and with commanders from US Central Command (Centcom), amid tensions and a series of sanctions against Havana.
The trip is part of a tour to oversee military operations in the region and to make direct contact with deployed forces, at a time of reinforced US presence in the Caribbean and the Middle East, according to the Pentagon.
There is no record of the Secretary having previously visited the Guantanamo Bay base since taking office in 2025, according to continue reading
available information.
Following his visit to the base, Hegseth will travel to Florida, where he will hold meetings with senior Centcom commanders, amid a new round of exchanges of fire with Iran
Following his visit to the base, Hegseth will travel to Florida, where he will hold meetings with senior Centcom commanders, amid a new round of exchanges of fire with Iran in the Middle East and growing tension over Cuba.
This type of trip forms part of his regular troop oversight agenda, with periodic visits to military bases inside and outside the United States to maintain direct contact with commanders and deployed personnel.
The visit comes one week after the US Administration announced new sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other senior members of the Havana government, in response to the human rights situation on the island.
Since the start of the year, US President Donald Trump has hardened his policy toward Cuba, with new economic and diplomatic restrictions and increased pressure on the Cuban government, primarily through an oil blockade that began following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on 3 January.
Translated by GH.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The promotion of Dorisbel Martin Ojeda to brigadier general places a woman in the generalship of the Ministry of the Interior for the first time
Far from the crowds convened to celebrate him, Raul Castro’s reappearance takes place only under the protection of uniforms.
14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 2026 /The Cuban regime marked the 65th anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior on Saturday with a series of promotions and decorations for officials of the body, in ceremonies headed by Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel. The main ceremony, presented by the official press as a tribute to the “career trajectory” of the heads of the national security apparatus, also served to reaffirm the central role of that body in internal repression, political surveillance, and population control.
“Together with the Army General and on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the glorious Ministry of the Interior, we took part in promotion and decoration ceremonies for officers and officials of outstanding career,” Diaz-Canel wrote on X. The ruler congratulated the decorated officials on their “noble and self-sacrificing work” – the standard formula by which the regime presents as public service the functions of State Security, the political police, counterintelligence, the prisons, and the National Revolutionary Police.
The name that stands out most on the day is that of Dorisbel Martin Ojeda, head of the institution in Sancti Spiritus, who was promoted to brigadier general. The province’s official press confirmed the rank in an unusual note dedicated to the presentation of a gift basket to the first baby born on 6 June. It mentioned that the event coincided with the anniversary of the institution, the 95th birthday of Raul Castro, and “the promotion of the head of the Ministry of the Interior in Sancti Spiritus, Dorisbel Martin Ojeda, to the rank of brigadier general.”
Pro-regime profiles celebrated Martin Ojeda as the first female general of the Ministry of the Interior.
Although the state media have not highlighted it as the central fact of the day, pro-regime profiles celebrated Martin Ojeda as the first female general of the Interior. What is verifiable to date is that her promotion places her in the generalship of a body historically dominated by men and by continue reading
cadres schooled in political repression. The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba includes her in its database of repressors and identifies her as head or delegate of the body in Sancti Spiritus since 2016.
In Sancti Spiritus, Martin Ojeda has presided over ceremonies of State Security and Counterintelligence. In March 2024, the newspaper Escambray showed her conferring distinctions on “combatants” during a State Security ceremony. At that same event, three lieutenant colonels with “senior responsibilities in the Counterintelligence Body” were also decorated.
The province she heads is not outside the repressive map either. During 11 July 2021, protests took place in Sancti Spiritus and Trinidad. The official press at the time acknowledged five criminal proceedings against 11 people, while independent organisations documented convictions and subsequent harassment of demonstrators. Among the best-known cases are Luis Mario Niedas Hernandez, sentenced to three years in prison for taking part in the protests, and Alexander Fabregas Milanes, an opposition figure from Sancti Spiritus linked to 11J who was subsequently punished with new criminal charges.
Promotion ceremonies were replicated across several provinces, though without a complete national list of those promoted
Martin Ojeda’s reward therefore does not appear to reflect a province without discontent, but rather a leadership that has managed to keep it contained, dispersed, and with low media cost for the regime. Sancti Spiritus was not one of the national epicentres of 11J, but it did see protests, prisoners, and surveillance of opponents. In the logic of Cuban power, that combination – controlled conflict and territorial obedience – is rewarded.
After weeks away from the public scene and absent even from the open rallies organised in his honour for his 95th birthday, the Army General reappears on two consecutive days at closed, military-profile events: first at the Karl Marx Theatre, surrounded by the regime’s top leadership, and now at a promotion and decoration ceremony of the Ministry of the Interior. His return, far from the crowds convened to celebrate him, takes place only under the protection of uniforms, armed commanders, and security structures.
Promotion ceremonies were replicated across several provinces, though without a complete national list of those promoted. In Camaguey, the newspaper Adelante reported the promotion of Ismael Villalon Labanino to lieutenant colonel and of Yannier Rios Gomez to major. Villalon said the new rank reinforced his “honour” and his duty to remain faithful to the teachings of Fidel and Raul Castro, while Rios Gomez stated that the promotion was an incentive to take on new missions “always in keeping with revolutionary principles.”
The regime does not reward ordinary police work, but the political loyalty of a body that functions as the Communist Party’s first line of defence. / X / Miguel Diaz-Canel
In Las Tunas, those mentioned were Rolan Hernandez Perez, head of the Interior in the provincial capital municipality, promoted to lieutenant colonel, and Yanisleydis Alvarez Bello, coordination officer at the criminal investigation body, promoted to captain. Both told the local press that the recognition committed them to continue defending the homeland “under any circumstances” – a phrase which, in official vocabulary, typically encompasses the persecution of opponents, activists, and critical citizens.
In Granma, the official press gave figures but not a complete list: 27 officers promoted to lieutenant colonel and 43 to major. Speaking on behalf of those promoted and decorated was Lieutenant Colonel Mailen Martinez Olivera, though the report did not clarify whether she herself was among those promoted. In other provinces – including Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Villa Clara, Ciego de Avila, Artemisa, and Isla de la Juventud – reports were limited to references to “officers,” “combatants,” and “outstanding cadres,” without disclosing their specific responsibilities.
The regime does not reward ordinary police work, but the political loyalty of a body that functions as the Communist Party’s first line of defence. Official notes repeat words such as “loyalty,” “missions,” “State Security,” “internal order,” and “revolutionary principles.” These are the keywords of a system that conflates public safety with ideological control.
Translated by GH.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The United States modernized an island devastated by war, but also placed conditions on its sovereignty: reading the Cuban present through the lens of 1899 demands more history and less rescue epic
Perseverancia Street, in Centro Habana, reflects the urban decay affecting large areas of the Cuban capital. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, José A. Adrián Torres, Málaga, Spain, June 6, 2026 /
Rolando Gallardo published on 30 May, in 14ymedio, a thought-provoking article on North American intervention in Cuba and the possibility that history might repeat itself. His argument has a defensible core: the US occupation of 1899-1902 effectively addressed the sanitary, administrative, educational and logistical problems the island was suffering acutely in the aftermath of war. To deny this would be absurd. The Cuba that the United States encountered was wounded, impoverished, exhausted and disorganized. The war of independence, the reconcentration policy, the destruction of fields, roads and sugar mills, and the final collapse of Spanish power had left a critical situation.
But acknowledging that reality is one thing, and quite another to present the Cuba of 1899 as though it had been a wasteland of poverty, ignorance and general neglect upon which Washington had to build everything from scratch. That is where the comparison becomes too convenient. And convenient comparisons tend to have a problem: they explain a great deal all at once, but they understand very little. Complex matters are not explained by simple reasons – those only make them more digestible for the public or the voter. Turning 1899 into a template for the present distorts history and oversimplifies the future.
Late nineteenth-century Cuba was not a blank page. It was a society devastated by war, yes, but also an urban, port-based, sugar-producing, commercial and culturally rich society. Havana, Matanzas, Santiago, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Camagüey and Holguín were not villages lost among palm trees, mosquitoes and tropical resignation. They were centers with history, architecture, printing presses, theatres, cultural societies, international trade, ports, economic activity and a complex social life. One must not confuse an island ravaged by war with an island that had no existence before the arrival of the North American administrator with his ledger, his sanitation brigade and his wholesome faith in efficiency.
Avenida Zulueta in Havana, in 1900. / Library of Congress
It bears saying plainly, because otherwise one falls into a new version of the old Black Legend, now pressed into the service of a North American White Legend. Spain arrived at 1898 breathless, politically defeated and with a manifest inability to offer Cuba any acceptable way forward.
Spanish administration had been tardy, uneven, rigid and often incapable of grasping the depth of Cuban demands, trapped as it was in the tensions of the peninsular political system and in an alternation between conservatives and liberals that failed to deliver a real solution to the Cuban problem in time. Slavery was abolished late, autonomy came late, reforms came late, and war eventually blew everything apart. But from that to suggesting that under Spanish sovereignty Cuba – let alone its great cities – had known no material, cultural or economic development is a distance that history does not permit. continue reading
One thing is to acknowledge that reality and another to present the Cuba of 1899 as if it had been a wasteland of poverty, ignorance and general neglect upon which Washington had to build everything from scratch
Havana was not invented by Leonard Wood. Matanzas did not wait for the US occupation to become an economic and cultural center of the first order. Cienfuegos was not born from a North American sanitary decree. The Cuban railway did not appear by spontaneous generation between 1899 and 1902. The Albear Aqueduct did not spring up like a mushroom after an imperial shower. The Cuban sugar industry, with all its shadows – including the slavery that sustained it for far too long – was already one of the great economic realities of the Atlantic. The North American intervention rebuilt, reorganized, sanitized and modernized; but to modernize is not to create from nothing.
That nuance is not a scholarly footnote. It is the crux of the problem. Because if one starts from the idea that the United States found a Cuba without structure, without institutions, without urban culture and without economic capital, then the intervention appears as an almost providential operation: the Seventh Cavalry of the Western movies arriving, once again, to the rescue. The image may work in a film, but it should not suffice for
interpreting Cuban history.
Paseo del Prado, Havana, in 1900. / Library of Congress
The US occupation had genuine merits. In the sanitary field, the campaign against yellow fever was decisive, though one should not forget that the fundamental theory regarding the transmitting mosquito had been formulated by the Cuban physician Carlos J. Finlay. The United States contributed resources, organization, administrative discipline and executive capacity. In education, it promoted an ambitious reform, expanded the school network and fostered teacher training. In infrastructure, it repaired roads, bridges, railway lines and urban services damaged by war.
In the years that followed, the new republican era also left a vanguard, eclectic and often dazzling architecture, marked by North American and European influences, which gave Havana – and other Cuban urban centers – an essential part of its cosmopolitan splendor. In administration, it introduced more effective procedures and helped to organize a country emerging from a devastating conflict.
All of this must be acknowledged. But the reverse must also be remembered. That modernization was not an act of international charity nor an angelic mission of tropical sanitation. The United States acted with a mixture of pragmatism, economic interest, strategic vision and a will to regional influence. The Platt Amendment was the political price of that reconstruction: a formally independent republic, but one held under tutelage.
If one starts from the idea that the US found a Cuba without structure, without institutions, without urban culture and without economic capital, then the intervention appears as an almost providential operation
Cuba entered the twentieth century with its own flag, yes, but also with a sovereignty conditioned by Washington. The modernization brought sewers, schools and sanitary campaigns; it also brought naval bases and the right of intervention. That tutelary shadow fed for decades an anti-interventionist nationalism that would later be exploited, with varying intensity and no small degree of manipulation, by several generations of Cuban politicians, including the revolutionary one.
This is why the parallel with present-day Cuba must be handled with care. There are visible similarities: health crisis, infrastructure deterioration, shortages, power cuts, transport collapse, productive ruin, mass emigration and an exhausted population. But the historical causes are not the same. The Cuba of 1899 emerged from a war of independence against a retreating European metropolis. The Cuba of today emerges – if it manages to emerge at all – from more than six decades of communist rule, political monopoly, managed economy, repression, exodus, external dependence and institutional decay. One emerged from war; the other emerges from a long administration of failure and bearded messianism.
Cubans in front of Havana Bay, in 1899. / Library of Congress
The difference is no small matter. In 1899, the United States occupied a country that had just broken violently with Spain and needed to organize its transition to a republic. Today, Cuba does not need to replace Spanish tutelage with North American tutelage, because it is not under Spain or any European colonial power. It is under a national regime that turned sovereignty into a slogan while emptying the real freedom of Cubans of all content. That regime cannot be explained as a simple legacy of 1898 or as the inevitable consequence of the colonial past. The historical alibi has its limits, even in the Caribbean, where certain alibis tend to age in admirable health with a curiously gallego pedigree – in the old Cuban sense of the word.
The Cuban present cannot be explained indefinitely with a finger pointing at 1898, at Washington, or at historical fatality
It is true that republican Cuba inherited deep-seated conditioning. It is true that the United States intervened too much in the political, economic and strategic life of the island. It is true that the Platt Amendment left a mark of dependence. But it is also true that Castroism has spent more than sixty years administering the country, controlling its institutions, monopolizing patriotic discourse, expelling talent, impoverishing the economy and turning the supposed revolutionary exceptionalism – the eternal special period – into a routine of power cuts, queues, surveillance and flight. The Cuban present cannot be explained indefinitely with a finger pointing at 1898, at Washington, or at historical fatality. At this point, the Revolution is no longer a betrayed promise: it is a result.
Hence any eventual external assistance to Cuba, necessary in many respects, must not be conceived as a repetition of 1899. Cuba will need investment, technical assistance, energy reconstruction, institutional rehabilitation, productive recovery, sanitary modernization, educational opening and economic reintegration. But that is not equivalent to calling for a new foreign administration, nor to imagining that a North American intervention would resolve, on its own, what Cubans must rebuild with their own institutions, political pluralism and genuine sovereignty.
The underlying problem is not whether the United States can help. Of course it can. The problem is whether that help is conceived as cooperation with a free nation and a future ally, or as a temporary replacement for its political capacity. The first option may be necessary. The second reopens an old temptation: the belief that Cuba only functions when someone administers it from outside.
After more than six decades of authoritarianism, many Cubans on the island have not been able to practice or develop a genuine democratic culture
That idea, however well-intentioned in its formulation, sidesteps an uncomfortable question: after more than six decades of authoritarianism, many Cubans on the island have not been able to practice or develop a genuine democratic culture. Not from any natural incapacity, but because the regime has denied them for generations the everyday practice of deliberation, responsibility for public affairs – replaced too often by the national verbresolver [to resolve, to manage, to get by] – alternation in power, institutional trust, a culture of effort and free decision-making.
A society subjected to obedience, to double standards, to surveillance and to the liturgy of collective sacrifice will also need to rebuild civic habits, a culture of work, a sense of individual responsibility and ethical values damaged by decades of real socialism. But that political maturation cannot be imported packaged from Washington or decreed by a foreign administration: it can only be learned by exercising freedom.
The history of 1899, therefore, serves as a double warning. It warns against the delusional self-sufficiency of the Cuban regime, incapable of guaranteeing basic services while boasting of sovereignty. But it also warns against the fantasy of the external savior — that hope that a power will arrive, impose order, clean up, invest, discipline and then hand over a republic ready to be unwrapped. The American experience demonstrated efficiency, but it also left dependence. The Castroite experience proclaimed independence, but has left ruin. Between these two lessons, a third way should open up: national reconstruction with external support, but without ultimate political tutelage.
Cuba must not start over as though its history could be erased and rewritten under foreign supervision
Cuba must not start over as though its history could be erased and rewritten under foreign supervision. The island needs to free itself from an exhausted regime, yes; it needs to rebuild infrastructure, healthcare, education, currency, agriculture, industry and public trust. But it needs to do so without comfortable, false mythologies: not that of a Spain that left only backwardness, nor that of a United States that brought only modernity, nor that of a revolution that continues to blame the past and the external enemy for a ruin that is, for the most part, its own work.
History does not repeat itself exactly, but neither does it absolve — nor will it ever absolve — those who destroyed Cuba. Sometimes it merely disguises itself to confuse us. And in Cuba, where the political disguises in olive green have lasted far too long, it is worth looking carefully before applauding the entrance of the next savior.
Translated by GH.
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Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat suspend flights and vacation packages as Washington’s deadline for severing business ties with the Cuban Government expires
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 belonging to Air Canada, one of the models used by the airline on its routes to Cuba. / Colin Brown Photography
14ymedio, Madrid, 6 June 2026 / Canadian airlines Air Canada, Air Transat and WestJet Airlines have indefinitely suspended their operations to Cuba, along with the vacation activities of Sunwing Vacations – currently integrated into WestJet Group -, citing ongoing political and economic uncertainty and a deepening supply crisis on the Island.
Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick explained that the decision was a response to “ongoing conditions of political and economic uncertainty,” and added that affected customers will be able to opt for refunds, among other alternatives. Air Canada had already temporarily suspended its flights in February due to warnings about fuel supplies at Cuban airports, and had subsequently postponed its return to 1 November 2026.
For its part, Air Transat announced that the decision was taken owing to “the current geopolitical situation in Cuba,” obliging it to suspend operations “for an indefinite period.” The announcement adds that affected customers will be notified of other available flight options.
In the case of WestJet, the company described it as a “difficult decision” driven by the “current operating environment,” in reference to the suspension of its vacation programs to Cuba. “We understand that this news may be disappointing for customers and travel agents,” the company stated, emphasising the impact of the measure on local communities and the Cuban tourism continue reading
sector.
“We understand that this news may be disappointing for customers and travel agents”
The Sunwing Vacations travel group – integrated into WestJet Group – also announced the indefinite suspension of its operations in Cuba, affecting the Sunwing Vacations, WestJet Vacations and WestJet Vacations Québec brands. The company explained that the decision was taken following a review of its programme on the Island and current operating conditions, and confirmed that the suspension will remain in place “until further notice.” Travellers with existing bookings will be contacted regarding rebooking or full refunds.
The announcements coincide with the expiry of the deadline set by Washington for foreign companies with ties to sectors controlled by the Cuban Government to sever those ties, under threat of sanctions.
Canada has historically been the primary source of tourists to Cuba. However, the current crisis has accelerated the withdrawal of key operators. In February, Canadian airlines had scheduled more than 600 flights bound for Cuba, according to data from analytics firm Cirium cited by The Globe and Mail.
This June, approximately 20 international airlines continue to operate in Cuba, a figure significantly lower than in previous years
According to information released by the Cuban Airports and Airport Services Company (Ecasa), this June approximately 20 international airlines continue to operate in Cuba, a figure significantly lower than in previous years.
Among the routes with the greatest presence, American Airlines holds the largest market share, with several daily flights from Miami to Havana, as well as connections to Santa Clara, Camagüey, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Delta Air Lines and, on a more limited basis, Southwest Airlines also operate in the US market.
From Panama, Copa Airlines maintains daily flights to Havana, Santa Clara and Holguín. From Spain, Air Europa is the only Spanish airline with direct flights to the Island, while Air China operates the Beijing-Madrid-Havana route, which also allows boarding in Madrid as an intermediate point.
Other international airlines maintaining operations in Cuba include Aeromexico, Conviasa, Wingo, Caribbean Airlines, InterCaribbean Airways, Cayman Airways, TAAG Angola Airlines, Bahamasair, Rutaca, Aruba Airlines, Fly All Ways, Sky High and Neos, as well as various charter operations from the United States and the Caribbean – though with a significant reduction in flight frequencies.
So far in 2026, at least eleven airlines have suspended their operations in Cuba, among them Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, Air Transat, Iberia, LATAM Peru and Turkish Airlines, caused primarily by the fuel crisis, the collapse of tourism and pressure stemming from US sanctions.
Translated by GH.
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Eduardo López-Collazo proposes a universal public healthcare system, compatible with the private sector – more or less along the lines of the Spanish model
“The first thing is to know the truth: how many people are falling ill, how many are dying, what is lacking and who is accountable.” / Universidad de La Rioja
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 6 June 2026 / Eduardo López-Collazo belongs to that rare breed of scientists who are not content to observe the world from the laboratory. A nuclear physicist by initial training, with a doctorate in Pharmacy from the Complutense University of Madrid and a researcher in fields including immunology, sepsis, cancer and immune response, he has built a distinguished career in Spain within the field of biomedicine.
For many years he directed the Health Research Institute at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, one of the benchmark institutions of the Spanish healthcare system. But his trajectory does not end with science. López-Collazo has also been a science communicator, columnist, cultural critic and author of books in which he tackles difficult subjects – cancer, HIV, pandemics – in prose capable of making the complex accessible to a general readership.
Born in Cuba and resident in Spain since the 1990s, he looks at the Island from the distance of exile, but also with the precision of a scientist and the sensibility of a writer.
A patient who became infected, the infection progressed to sepsis, and from there transitioned to a shock state in which the entire system has collapsed.
Question. If Cuba were a sick organism, what would its diagnosis be today?
Answer. Good question – I love analogies. I would say it is a patient in multi-organ failure. A patient who became infected, the infection progressed to sepsis, and from there transitioned to a shock state in which the entire system has collapsed. I would like to find another figure to describe it – one with a better prognosis – but I cannot find one. And it is a complicated situation because, with the resources currently available, there is nothing truly continue reading
effective against septic shock. I say this from first-hand knowledge. Sepsis and its complications have been, alongside metastasis, one of my main lines of research ever since I left the metaphorical Island – nearly three decades ago now.
Question. As a scientist, what concerns you most about a transition: the lack of resources, the lack of talent and consensus, or the lack of method?
Answer. I believe everything plays a part, but if I had to single out one cause, I would point to the lack of method. Both in science and in art – two fields that have far more in common than we generally care to admit – method is essential. Cuba has lived with its back turned to it; that is to say, turned away from the tool that makes it possible to identify an error, acknowledge it and correct it. Of course, the lack of resources is crucial. So too is the loss of talent, today scattered largely throughout the diaspora. And, regrettably, that diaspora does not appear to have reached any great consensus; nor do I see any within the Island itself.
“The talk of a medical powerhouse was propaganda with some grains of truth and a great many holes.”
Question.For decades Cuba was presented as a medical powerhouse. How much of that narrative was real, and how much was propaganda?
Answer. I want to believe that a number of public health programmes were set up on the Island that did work. Vaccination, the family doctors and nurses scheme, epidemiological surveillance – these are good examples, difficult to deny. There were also attempts to introduce cutting-edge technology, but in that area the failures were considerable, because as a rule everything is coloured by ideology. When that happens, it all goes down the drain – can I say down the drain? We see the same thing in Spain and in many other places. Either way, the talk of a medical powerhouse was propaganda with some grains of truth and a great many holes.
As I answer you, a vivid scene comes back to me. I am from a town called Jovellanos, in Matanzas, but I did my university studies and then stayed on to live in Havana. It was at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while attempts were being made to contain the spread of the virus by methods that were, to put it mildly, rather unorthodox, when I saw that at the laboratory of the Jovellanos hospital they were pricking patients with the same lancet that, between one patient and the next, they would dip in alcohol. I remember I kicked up a tremendous fuss – and they listened to me because “he comes from Havana.”
In short: the narrative was inflated until partial virtues were turned into national myth. Cuba had good doctors; it did not have the perfect system it sold to the world.
Question.What should be the healthcare priority for a Cuba in transition: hospitals, primary care, medicines, doctors’ salaries, training, or statistical transparency?
Answer. You’re making this difficult for me. Let me think for a few seconds… The priority must be transparency. Yes, transparency. Without reliable data, nothing can be rebuilt. After that, and with equal urgency, come medicines, salaries, hospitals and primary care. But the first thing is to know the truth: how many people are falling ill, how many are dying, what is lacking and who is accountable.
“Cuba needs a universal public system, and if you press me, a mixed one with a strong public foundation.”
Question.What healthcare model might work for Cuba: a universal public system, a mixed system, a decentralised one, or would something entirely bespoke need to be designed?
Answer. I know that a large part of the diaspora is expecting me to say: private. But no – that would be a serious mistake. Cuba needs a universal public system, and if you press me, a mixed one with a strong public foundation. More or less along the lines of the Spanish model. What I am clear about is that it cannot be opaque, nor militarised. Public does not mean absolute state control. It must be decentralised, open to evaluation, compatible with regulated private initiatives and underpinned by robust primary care.
Question. Should scientists, doctors, artists and intellectuals take up public office during a transition, or should they remain as a critical conscience?
Answer. Some will need to take office and others should remain as a critical conscience. I will be among the latter, and from a distance – I’ll say it plainly, so we can spare ourselves a follow-up question (laughter). A transition cannot be left solely in the hands of recycled bureaucrats. But nor is it wise to turn every intellectual into a minister. I believe that lucidity is also a service that can be rendered from outside power.
Question. What risks do you see in a rapid opening-up of Cuba’s scientific sector: brain drain, opaque privatisation, technological dependence, capture by foreign interests, or the continuation of old structures under new names?
Answer. Allow me to put inverted commas around “Cuba’s scientific sector.” It is something rather anecdotal within the Island today. There are no longer centres of excellence doing science, and the scientists who have not yet left the country are worried about having electricity, not about interferon signalling pathways or the unification of the laws of physics.
At a certain point in history – I am talking about the late 1980s – there was a flowering of scientific infrastructure that is, by today, obsolete. Nor does a rigorously trained replacement generation exist. Many things would need to be picked up almost from scratch, and experience shows that science and its offshoots are never a priority for those who bring about the kind of social change the Island now needs.
“I research with a very artistic vision, and when I write fiction or do dance criticism I make great use of the scientific method – without that diminishing beauty in the slightest; quite the contrary.”
Question. Can artistic sensibility improve the way a scientist observes, questions, imagines and makes sense of life?
Answer. At last you’re letting me out of the scientific straitjacket. I was beginning to think it wouldn’t happen – that once you’ve been pigeonholed there’s no way to let people see the other facets.
Look, I don’t see the division between art and science; to me it’s a continuum. In fact, I research with a very artistic vision, and when I write fiction or do dance criticism I make great use of the scientific method – without that diminishing beauty in the slightest; quite the contrary.
I’ve told the story several times that one of my great laboratory projects took shape during the pas de deux in the second act of Swan Lake, in a production I saw at the Teatro Real in Madrid. I’ll just add, as an aside, that when I was getting close to having seen that ballet a thousand times, I stopped counting.
I’m not sure I’m making myself clear: without fiction, without dance – classical or contemporary – without cinema, without visiting galleries and museums… I would not be the scientist I am.
To conclude: art trains a different way of seeing. A scientist without imagination only measures; one with sensibility also suspects, connects and doubts. Science needs data, but it also needs beauty in order to formulate good questions. I always tell my university students that there are few things more beautiful than Maxwell’s equations. They are simple, concrete and only four. With them, the whole of electromagnetism is described. Pure beauty, comparable to the Sistine Chapel, the David or the Mona Lisa. And if we move on to quantum physics, relativity, or the theory of cell fusion to explain metastasis – well, that’s where we enter the territory of the sublime.
“I learned early that I had to camouflage my homosexuality, wrap it in newspaper, tuck it into a pocket and not let it show too much.”
Question. In a democratic Cuba, what place should sexual freedoms, family diversity and equality before the law occupy within the project of national reconstruction?
Answer. I am grateful for the question, because these things need to be said out loud. I am openly gay – I think at this point that is hardly a scoop – but I always remember that when I was very young, I must have been around ten, I wrote a sentence in my diary that still haunts me: “I will be myself later.” Later. Like someone who hides a suitcase under the bed to open it once the hurricane has passed.
I was born in a town, on an Island, and under a regime where anything out of the ordinary was punished. I learned early that I had to camouflage my homosexuality, wrap it in newspaper, tuck it into a pocket and not let it show too much. Otherwise, you didn’t even make it to the corner. Literally.
Question. Do you believe that a country which created forced labour camps for homosexuals is as tolerant today as it tries to project itself to the world?
Answer. I am told things have changed on the Island. Perhaps. A little. Just enough for some people to get a photograph taken. The truth is that Cuba continues to be a profoundly homophobic country, and the average Cuban – even the most educated, the most progressive, the most inclined to quote Lezama, that writer almost nobody has actually read – after the third rum, drags that particular deadweight along.
I notice it on the few occasions I find myself around people from the Island. On certain faces you can still read it, clear as day: “Fine, but don’t take it too far with the gay business.” I’ve also heard: “He’s gay, but the guy’s a genius at what he does.” The “but” as a safe-conduct pass. As if professional success earns you a temporary reprieve. As if excellence somehow compensates for the deviation. How generous!
That is why I consider it essential that any country aspiring to call itself free must have full freedom as its foundation – including sexual diversity. Without that, it excludes an enormous part of its own people. And no system, no party, no transition, no national project will have my endorsement if it intends to leave this matter for later.
Because we already know what “later” looks like.
I once sent a friend packing – a friend who was telling me, in all seriousness, that first many other things needed to be resolved before talking about LGBT rights. Of course. She had been born with those rights already in place. For her, they could wait. For us, they cannot. No one can spend an entire lifetime queuing to have the right to exist.
“Cuba needs memory so as not to repeat the harm, tolerance to integrate differences, and control mechanisms to prevent political inflammation from destroying the social fabric.”
Question. You have spent years studying the immune response. How can Cuba defend its future without turning the transition into another form of self-destruction?
Answer. Like the immune system: Cuba must defend itself without attacking itself. It needs memory so as not to repeat the harm, tolerance to integrate differences, and control mechanisms to prevent political inflammation from destroying the social fabric.
On that note, I recently published an essay entitled The Limits of Democracy in which, with the help of a neurologist friend, Pepe Castillo, we explain democracy through the lens of science. It would do no harm for those who are going to build democracy in Cuba to read it.
Question. What would be, for you, an unmistakable sign that Cuba has begun to heal?
Answer. A good sign would be that people are no longer afraid. I experienced that myself when I left in the 1990s – suddenly I stopped being afraid to talk about my plans, to criticise what was wrong, to talk about my dreams, to kiss my boyfriend in the street, and a long list of other freedoms. You know what? In recent times I have started to feel afraid again – afraid to be myself in certain places – and that means something troubling is afoot…
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This piece was produced in collaboration with Cuba Siglo 21 as part of the project “Cuba: Stabilise and Develop.”
Translated by GH
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Bruno Rodriguez describes the inclusion of Diaz-Canel among those affected by US financial restrictions as “vile”
Manuel Anido Cuesta alongside his mother, Lis Cuesta, and Diaz-Canel – all now sanctioned by the US – during a visit to the Vatican in 2023. / . / EFE
14ymedio, 5 June 2026 / It is less than a month since Miguel Diaz-Canel once again declared that the sanctions imposed by the US do not affect him because he holds no accounts or assets in the United States, so his reaction to Washington’s latest salvo came as no surprise. The president avoided personalising the issue and considered that the “illegitimate addition” of new names to the lists of those affected is “designed to reinforce the blockade measures and the scenario of conflict between Cuba and the United States.”
“The US president is making new threatening statements against Cuba and the Treasury Department has added new names of Cuban leaders, organisations and companies to an illegitimate sanctions list,” Diaz-Canel denounced on X. In his view, this attitude stems from a “political blindness” that “adds to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks (…), designed to harm the Cuban people” — a reference to the executive order signed by Donald Trump on 1 May that opens the door to sanctioning foreign companies that cooperate with Cuban state entities.
“The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will collide with our determination to face the worst scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught,” Diaz-Canel added.
“The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will collide with our determination to face the worst scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught”
His brief message followed a statement by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who did allow himself to personalise the matter. “The vile inclusion of President Miguel Diaz-Canel, part of his family, as well as Cuban institutions, civil society organisations and companies on an illegitimate and unilateral list by the US government is the latest continue reading
demonstration of the American interventionist plan to present Cuba as a threat to United States national security,” he wrote on his X account.
In the same vein as the president, he devoted the second part of his post to a message of resistance. “Every US action aimed at constructing a scenario of conflict between the two countries is destined to fail. Every threat against Cuba’s independence and sovereignty will be met with greater unity and determination from our people,” he argued.
In addition to Diaz-Canel, the United States Treasury Department imposedfinancial sanctions this Thursday on the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, the mining company La Victoria and the travel agency Amistur.
The measures extend to the president’s wife, Lis Cuesta, his stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta, Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin, son of former president Raul Castro, and the latter’s son, Raul Alejandro Castro Calis. Spared — and this is no minor detail — was Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, known as El Cangrejo, grandson of the elderly general and informal interlocutor with Marco Rubio himself in negotiations with the US that continue in spite of everything.
Diaz-Canel addressed this matter in an interview published today by elDiario.es, which sent its US correspondent to spend a few days in Havana and to whom the most newsworthy material in the piece is owed. The journalist, who explains in the introduction that the meeting with the president took place on Wednesday afternoon, asked him: “You were talking about the last round of sanctions, the one on 1 May. This very morning it happened to me at the hotel – I went to pay for something at the cafeteria and my credit card was declined.”
The Central Bank of Cuba had announced that day that Visa and Mastercard cards would not be usable from 6 June onwards, although hours later Fincimex warned that it had halted operations at 2 p.m. that same day and this newspaper confirmed on Thursday that shops were already refusing them. The journalist’s words make clear that the effect was immediate.
“You were talking about the last round of sanctions, the one on 1 May. This very morning it happened to me at the hotel – I went to pay for something at the cafeteria and my credit card was declined.”
Little that is new emerges from the rest of the lengthy conversation in which Diaz-Canel insists on how the sanctions imposed during Donald Trump’s first administration – maintained under Joe Biden and intensified in this second Republican term – have contributed to the worsening of the Cuban economy and, by extension, of its industry and services.
While acknowledging mistakes, the president insists that Cuba has held out under extreme conditions by drawing on science and innovation, claims that steps towards economic openness have been taken, and calls for the regime’s incompetence to be demonstrated by lifting sanctions. “If we are so incompetent, why blockade me? Why not let me collapse on my own? Because they have no interest in Cuba improving. That is a lie. They want to take possession of Cuba,” he added.
The two most noteworthy remarks come when Diaz-Canel is asked what will happen if there is a social uprising like that of 11 July 2021: “We have our programmes for each of those scenarios, to navigate them,” he says enigmatically, though he goes on to speak of little more than neighbourhood and recreational programmes to keep young people occupied. He also responds on the subject of talks with the US, which the journalist raises precisely when Diaz-Canel is insisting on his rhetoric of whole-people war and resistance.
“We could have a civilised dialogue of the kind the United States has with other countries it also regards as adversaries, regardless of ideological differences. Moreover, we could have trade relations, cultural, academic, sporting and scientific exchanges… There could be tourism on both sides without restriction,” he notes – but the condition remains the same: the system is not up for negotiation.
On the other side of the strait, Donald Trump – who had been absent from public life for a week – was again asked about Cuba. “The country is starving, it has no energy, no oil, no money, nothing,” he said, before declaring: “We are going to treat Cuba well and we have very good plans.” The president also maintained that his popularity among Cuban Americans is extremely high – 95% of them voted for him, he said – and that his expectations include their return to the island. “They are incredible people, energetic, entrepreneurial. Some of the wealthiest people in Miami are Cuban. I am going to take good care of them and I am going to allow them to return to their homeland,” he said.
Either way, the president again made any concrete steps conditional on what happens in the Middle East. “I like to do one thing at a time, and first we will deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as soon as that is done, on the way back we will make a brief stop…” he said, before alluding to those good plans.
Translated by GH
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Banco Sabadell will maintain its Havana office, as it only provides services to Spanish companies
Diaz-Canel invites Cubans abroad to take over management of the hotels
Banco Sabadell in Havana carries out only support activities for Spanish companies and does not consider itself affected.
14ymedio, Madrid, 5 June 2026 / With the break between the Spanish hotel companies and Gaviota now complete, experts are now considering whether legal problems will come from Havana. The possibility is plausible enough that the newspaper El Pais ran a headline this Friday reading Melia and Iberostar Face Lawsuits in Cuba for Abandoning Hotel Management, in a piece in which a lawyer sets out this angle – one that had already been raised previously.
Ignacio Aparicio, executive partner at Andersen and director of Cuban Desk, warns that Cuba has two options. “The first is the partners’ agreement. Hotels in Cuba are generally managed through joint ventures in which the Cuban state – through various entities – and the operator both participate. Faced with the unilateral withdrawal of the latter, Cuba could argue that it finds no legal or contractual basis for rescinding the contract, and will seek to resolve the dispute before third parties. A common mechanism for this is arbitration before the Cuba Chamber of Commerce, or before arbitration institutions abroad, a route Cuba rarely opts for,” he explains.
The expert believes the Cuban regime will argue that the threat of sanctions does not compel the breaking of contracts, since such sanctions have existed for decades, and he maintains that it is standard for contracts to contain a clause stating that regulatory changes in third countries do not constitute “force majeure enabling their rescission.”
“They will have to argue that they are leaving their contract for a strictly economic reason and not solely because of US sanctions”
Aparicio advises Spanish companies to focus their defence on demonstrating that, faced with “extraordinary and unforeseeable supervening circumstances,” there has been such a serious disruption to the balance of obligations under the contract as to make performance impossible. “They will have to argue that they are leaving their contract for a strictly economic reason and not solely because of US sanctions, since the absence of electricity supply, food, and air connectivity have been supervening circumstances that have left them without a business, frustrating the purpose continue reading
of the partnership,” he explains.
The newspaper notes that this was precisely the approach taken by Blue Diamond, which in its statement on leaving the island cited a “combination of causes” – such as the suspension of flights – rather than “actions taken by the United States Government.” However, both Melia and Iberostar still retain a considerable number of hotels each – 19 in the case of the former and 6 in the case of the latter – which makes invoking that argument somewhat more complex in their case.
The possibility of Cuban authorities suing what have been and continue to be their partners is, in any event, debatable. In an interview given by Miguel Diaz-Canel to the Spanish online outlet elDiario.es, the president strikes an almost affectionate tone towards the companies. “They have been investing in Cuba for a long time, they have worked hand in hand with our tourism entities, they are business people for whom we have great respect, and they are leaving against their will,” he remarked.
Diaz-Canel alludes to a mutual exchange and learning process that has lasted years and trained thousands of professionals, though he now opens the door to a change of hands in favour of Cuban entrepreneurs abroad. “I am certain that many will return to Cuba to continue the business, but it will not be easy given the stubbornness with which the US Administration has sought to hold back the development of Cuban tourism, knowing that it is a source of income,” he says – making no mention of the fact that many exiles have expressed their intention to invest if there is a political, economic, and above all legal change on the island.
The institution, quite relaxed, told the Catalan press that its activities have no connection whatsoever with Cuban state entities and that there is no intention of leaving
Meanwhile, in Spain companies continue to sort out their positions. One of the most closely watched was also Banco Sabadell, given that the executive order of 1 May explicitly targeted the financial sector. The institution, quite relaxed, told the Catalan press that its activities have no connection whatsoever with Cuban state entities and that there is no intention of leaving.
“Banco Sabadell has always complied with applicable legislation and international sanctions requirements, and will continue to do so,” it stated to ON Economia. Its Havana office has the sole function of supporting Spanish companies present on the island; it carries out no retail banking activity and takes no deposits from individual customers.
The institution has operated in Cuba through Financiera Iberoamericana, a company 50% owned jointly with the state-owned Banco Internacional de Comercio, which does not appear on the sanctions list. Even so, the bank says it will remain alert, as it must, to adapting should circumstances change. The group’s financial exposure in Cuba is minimal, as its 2025 accounts show. Its business on the island contributed barely 4.2 million euros.
The new situation has made no dent in the performance of the major Spanish corporations present on the island. On Thursday, Melia Hotels International closed the trading session up, having already gained 41.51% in the last quarter alone. Moreover, although its Cuba revenues were negligible in 2025 – at 12.7 million euros – that figure represents barely 0.6% of what the Balearic giant brings in overall.
Translated by GH.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The Russian president recalled that the Island is “a friendly country” for Moscow and that bilateral ties continue
“I would prefer not to comment further,” he added, before referring to the Russian tanker that arrived in Cuba in March with some 100,000 tonnes of crude oil. / EFE
14ymedio/Agencies, Madrid, 4 June 2026 / Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Thursday that Moscow has maintained contacts with Washington over Cuba, amid speculation about a possible US operation against the Island. The leader offered no details, but made clear that the matter had been discussed with the Donald Trump administration.
“Answering your question directly… You asked whether we had had contacts with the US administration on the Cuban question. Yes, there were,” Putin said during a meeting with senior executives of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, as reported by the Russian agency Interfax.
The Kremlin chief declined to go further. “I would prefer not to comment further,” he added, before referring to the Anatoly Kolodkin, the US-sanctioned Russian tanker that arrived in Cuba in March with some 100,000 tonnes of crude oil. “Cuba is a friendly country for us. Our relations have traditionally developed over decades. The US administration knows this. Our contacts with Cuba continue,” he said.
“The issue of US pressure on Cuba is present in our contacts with the Americans,” said Ryabkov on 1 June
The EFE agency placed those words in the context of a question about a possible military operation in Cuba similar to the one carried out by the US in Venezuela on 3 January. According to the wire, Putin admitted to having spoken with the American side about continue reading
that scenario, though his public response was limited to confirming the contacts and avoiding any specifics about their content.
The Russian president’s statement comes just days after his Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, declared that Washington’s pressure on Havana was present in conversations between Moscow and the US. “The issue of US pressure on Cuba is present in our contacts with the Americans,” Ryabkov said on 1 June.
The episode shows that Cuba has once again come to occupy a sensitive position on the board between Washington and Moscow. At the end of January, the White House declared that the actions of the Cuban government constituted an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy. The document accused Havana of collaborating with Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, as well as harbouring foreign military and intelligence capabilities.
What most closely connects the Cuban case to a possible “Venezuela-style” operation is the charge against Raul Castro for his responsibility in the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue light aircraft in 1996
Since then, Washington has tightened sanctions, including pressure on fuel supplies to the Island. The effect has already been felt at sea. The Universal, another sanctioned tanker that was travelling to Cuba, interrupted its route from mid-April and remained adrift in the middle of the Atlantic, carrying nearly 270,000 barrels of diesel, according to maritime tracking data cited by Bloomberg. Its case reflects the caution of vessels linked to the Island’s energy supply, in contrast to the Anatoly Kolodkin, which did manage to offload Russian crude in March, with US permission.
The tension has also moved into the military, intelligence, and legal spheres. On 14 May, CIA Director John Ratcliffe travelled to Havana for an unusual meeting with senior Cuban officials. Two weeks later, on 29 May, another unusual meeting took place, this time between the head of US Southern Command, General Francis Donovan, and senior Cuban commanders at the perimeter of the Guantanamo Naval Base.
What most closely connects the Cuban case to a possible “Venezuela-style” operation is the charge against Raul Castro for his responsibility in the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue light aircraft in 1996. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the Southern District of Florida officially considers him a fugitive, after he failed to appear before the court despite the active arrest warrant.
Translated by GH.
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Those close to those detained in the police operation say the medications were a donation for Cuba
Thousands of doses of more than 150 different medications were found by the Spanish Civil Guard and National Police in a house in Vilaboa. / Video capture
14ymedio, Havana, 4 June 2026 / Thousands of doses of more than 150 different medications were found by the Spanish Civil Guard and National Police in a house in Vilaboa, in Galicia, registered as the headquarters of the Cuban-Galician Association Haydee Santamaria. The blister packs include drugs such as Rivotril, Lexatin, and Lyrica – benzodiazepines used to treat anxiety – and alongside them were found more than five kilograms of cocaine, around five hundred packs of contraband cigarettes, hashish, more than 30,000 euros in cash, and several weapons, among them six shotguns.
According to local press reports, the association, founded in 2014, has had no activity since 2020, but its Cuban-born president is one of the nine people detained in the police operation, three of whom are already in custody. Those close to the woman argued that the medications had been found because they were donations for Cuba. However, investigators believe they were in fact being sold through an illegal network, and that the association’s president is the ringleader of the network, in which her son and another accomplice were also involved.
The association, founded in 2014, has had no activity since 2020, but its president is one of the nine people detained in the police operation
An official explained that as part of the investigations in Vilaboa, “a person was detected who was distributing narcotic substances in continue reading
significant quantities” and who was operating in complicity with others in the municipality of Sanxenxo. As evidence gathering progressed, “it was possible to detect and identify the presence of two organised and highly active cells, belonging to a single criminal group, engaged in the sale and distribution of cocaine, hashish, and tobacco”, which also operated in the Pontevedra municipality.
Data from the investigations also indicate that the collective – which bears the name of a heroine of the Revolution – was established with the aim of bringing together Cubans living in Galicia, and had a significant presence in Vigo, where it came to concentrate 444 of the 2,518 people from the island living in the region.
On the island, 14ymedio has documented the sale on the black market of Alprazolam in the streets of Tulipan, in Nuevo Vedado; under the arcades of Carlos III and Reina, in Centro Habana; and at the Esquina de Tejas, in Cerro. The drug is hawked alongside loose cigarettes, sweets, lighters, and packets of adulterated coffee.
Translated by GH
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Island Residents Report Sackings, Obstacles to Renting Housing and Social Rejection Following an Altercation in Supermanzana 23
The local press reported that the case began with a neighbourhood dispute related to a dog bite and ended with a strong public backlash
14ymedio, Havana, 31 May 2026 / Cuban residents in Mexico have called on the Island’s Foreign Ministry and its Consulate in Cancún to issue a public response to the hostile climate that, they claim, has been unleashed against the Cuban community in Quintana Roo following a recent incident in Supermanzana 23 of that tourist city. In a statement circulated on social media, the signatories denounce the fact that the diplomatic mission has remained silent in the face of episodes of discrimination that are no longer confined to the digital sphere but have begun to affect the daily lives of Cuban families who had no involvement in the events.
The text, titled The Need for Active and Impartial Consular Representation, expresses the “profound concern” of Cuban residents at “the lack of an official statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry” after the case sparked a strong reaction on social media and, according to those making the complaint, gave rise to “real episodes of exclusion and discrimination” in the state of Quintana Roo.
The source of the tension was an altercation in Supermanzana 23 in Cancún, where Cubans Rigoberto “N” and Yudelmis “N” were detained by Mexican authorities and placed at the disposal of the National Migration Institute. The local press reported that the case began with a neighbourhood dispute related to a dog bite and ended with the intervention of security officers, damage to a property and a strong public backlash against those involved. From that point on, outrage directed at two individuals escalated, according to migrant support organisations, into a broader reaction against Cubans living in the area.
The demand is directed squarely at the Cuban General Consulate in Cancún, located in Supermanzana 20, just a few blocks from where the crisis unfolded
“Sadly, we watched with alarm as this online climate spilled over into daily life, affecting our hard-working families who had absolutely no part in these events,” the statement reads. The document cites reports from the civil organisation Cisvac – International Council Uniting Venezuela – which works with migrants and claims to have documented “multiple daily cases” of Cubans who have lost jobs, faced tenancy disputes or suffered direct workplace exclusion following the incident.
The demand is directed squarely at the Cuban General Consulate in Cancún, located in Supermanzana 20, just a few blocks from where the crisis unfolded. For the signatories, that proximity makes the absence of a public position all the more inexplicable. “We find it paradoxical and incomprehensible that our Consulate in Cancún has maintained absolute public silence,” the text states. continue reading
The absence of any response, they add, left the community “in a position of clear social and media vulnerability.” The reproach is not confined to the Cancún case. The document links that silence to a broader critique of Cuban consular work in Mexico – a country that has become a transit territory for those heading towards the northern border, or a place of waiting or forced return for thousands of Island migrants deported from the United States.
The residents’ perception is of a diplomacy that is absent when it comes to defending nationals who are not part of associations aligned with the Cuban Government
In recent years, Mexico has been one of the main routes for Cubans attempting to reach the United States, but also a chokepoint for those who fail to cross, are detained or are sent back from American territory. Added to this are those left stranded in southern Mexico, at immigration offices or on the northern border, without documents, without steady work and with no clear way out.
“A considerable number of our compatriots are stranded at various borders within Mexico, facing a severe migration limbo,” the statement warns. The text also refers to Cubans “deported or returned from the United States to Mexican territory,” who are left “in conditions of extreme vulnerability.”
The signatories argue that, given this situation, there should be “vigorous, high-level” consular management with Mexican immigration authorities to guarantee dignified treatment for Cubans in transit or forced return. However, the residents’ perception is the opposite: a diplomacy that is absent when it comes to defending nationals who are not part of associations aligned with the Cuban Government.
“Meetings are frequently organised at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico itself, directed exclusively at resident groups that maintain a direct affinity with the official discourse”
The statement touches on one of the most sensitive points in the relationship between the regime and its diaspora: selective representation. The signatories recall that consular protection consists of “inalienable rights, not political concessions,” enshrined in International Law and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In that regard, they question the fact that the Cuban Embassy in Mexico frequently organises meetings with resident groups aligned with the official line, while ignoring a broader majority that is plural, critical, or simply outside those circles.
“Meetings are frequently organised at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico itself, directed exclusively at resident groups that maintain a direct affinity with the official discourse,” they denounce. That practice, they add, “reinforces an unrealistic rhetoric that attempts to project the idea that all of us abroad support the Government, deliberately rendering invisible the vast majority of our community.”
The text insists that the most vulnerable Cubans are typically not members of those privileged associations. They are, precisely, those facing “migration limbo, border returns or workplace discrimination.” For these people, the signatories say, consular assistance should be exercised “in a strict, impartial manner, free from ideological bias of any kind.”
The statement concludes with three concrete demands: that the Cuban Foreign Ministry issue a public declaration on the situation of vulnerability facing the community in Cancún; that it establish transparent communication channels with civil organisations working with migrants on the ground; and that it assume “an active, inclusive and equitable role of diplomatic management in defence of all its nationals, without political conditions.”
Translated by GH
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The Catholic intellectual advocated dialogue with the regime, in contrast to the roadmap of the Pasos de Cambio coalition, which ratified the Liberation Agreement this Sunday in Madrid
Roberto Veiga says his organisation is committed to breaking a dynamic of confrontation that has borne no fruit / Facebook R.V.
14ymedio, Madrid, 1 June 2026 / Roberto Veiga González, director of the Centre for Studies on the Rule of Law Cuba Próxima, has returned to the Island in recent weeks to take up permanent residence there after nearly seven years in exile. The decision was announced by the organisation he founded in 2021 through a statement informing that State Security had already detained him upon his arrival – on a date they have not disclosed – and subjected him to several interrogations.
Veiga took this decision in order to “represent, from within the reality of a people afflicted by power cuts, scarcity, and social fracture, the political proposal entitled The Agreed Opening: A Roadmap for National Reconstruction.” This is a transition pathway proposed by Cuba Próxima last April that would “replace sterile confrontation with political realism.”
The platform – which also includes Michel Fernández, Ileana de La Guardia, and Pavel Vidal, among others – argues that inaction is not an option in the face of “a systemic crisis that has overwhelmed the current model,” and that “profound change is an ethical and national security imperative” under present circumstances. Accordingly, Veiga González returns to promote, alongside others, “a process of reciprocal and verifiable steps” that would break the current dynamic.
“The director of Cuba Próxima calmly accepts the hardships and pressures that political activism from within Cuba entails, which have already begun.”
“The director of Cuba Próxima calmly accepts the hardships and pressures that political activism from within Cuba entails, which have already begun,” the communiqué states, without going into much detail about the measures taken by State Security. “The rigour of commitment demands that personal sacrifice not be an instrument for victimhood or the pursuit of admiration, but a bridge of encounter so that other Cubans may move towards a shared solution,” the text underlines.
Cuba Próxima established eight strategic pillars in its proposal: full guarantee of all rights; a democratic and social rule-of-law state, with separation of powers and local autonomy; equal opportunities and social inclusion without discrimination; efficient public bodies at the service of the citizen; a free economy with social responsibility; centrality of the labour question and dignified wages; health, education, and social security as universal services; and sovereignty and strategic neutrality, grounded in peace and mutual respect. continue reading
The organisation believes that Veiga’s return demonstrates its commitment to this agenda and that “the freedom of the Cuban people is its non-negotiable destiny.” With this gesture, the Centre places itself, the statement asserts, “at the core of national necessity, convinced that Cuba can afford no further delays.”
The agreed opening proposal formalised by the organisation on 13 April last sets out a roadmap divided into three phases for national reconstruction through what it calls an internal “Multi-Actor Sovereign Dialogue” and the normalisation of relations with the United States. The document, drawn up by the board of directors, identifies as immediate priorities the release of political prisoners under an Amnesty Law, the restructuring of the military conglomerate Gaesa, and reform of the Electoral Law, all under the umbrella of international technical mediation.
The document also contains a list of demands addressed to the United States, including an end to the energy blockade imposed by Donald Trump since 29 January last.
The document also contains a list of demands addressed to the United States, including an end to the energy blockade imposed by Donald Trump since 29 January last, the removal of Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, the lifting of the travel ban, and support for certain economic sectors, including emergency financing for an emergency food programme, a healthcare programme, and an energy programme.
The proposal has not been without controversy within the Cuban opposition, as those sectors that favour US intervention argue that the Cuban Government has shown no willingness to engage in dialogue over decades. Veiga and his team, on the other hand, believe that confrontation has likewise led nowhere.
The news comes precisely one day after the Pasos de Cambio coalition ratified in Madrid the Liberation Agreement presented in March in Miami – a document establishing a unified roadmap to guide a democratic transition in Cuba after 67 years of communism. Led by opposition figures such as Rosa María Payá and backed by organisations both on the Island and in exile, the plan opts for a pathway in which the regime plays no part.
The project envisages the creation of a provisional government to address the humanitarian emergency, release political prisoners, and restore citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
These opposing positions are precisely what led to the split between the lawyer and intellectual and his partner of more than 15 years, Lenier González. Both served as directors of the magazine Espacio Laical and the think tank Cuba Posible, which over time came to be regarded by the Cuban authorities as a threat, as it promoted conciliatory positions that were gaining traction – as both recounted in various interviews – among the more moderate members of the Communist Party.
The regime launched a campaign of harassment against the pair, who ultimately went into exile. Veiga settled in Spain, where he founded Cuba Próxima, while González moved to the United States and turned to academia, stepping back from politics. However, the latter has publicly criticised the former, attributing to him connections with senior government officials that have caused him serious reputational damage, as Veiga himself has recently lamented.
Translated by GH.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
During an event organised by Unesco, former Republican-era palaces converted into state offices revealed stained glass, marble, staircases – and sealed-off areas
“The hardest thing is the contrast with the rest of Havana, which is falling apart.” / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, Darío Hernández, 31 May 2026 — The first thing they ask of you before entering is not silence, nor respect for the heritage, nor care for the old floors. It is your identity card. At the entrance to each building, an official photographs visitors’ documents, as if a visit to a heritage property were also a bureaucratic formality – or entry to the Embassy of the Past. Only after that gesture, so routine in a Cuba under surveillance and so ill-suited to a cultural outing, does the tour of several Vedado mansions begin, opened to the public for the Open Doors Day organised by Unesco.
There were quite a few people. Families, curious passers-by, students, neighbours who had spent years walking past those facades without ever being able to cross the threshold. Some stared upwards, as if trying to take in all at once the cornices, balconies, columns and black ironwork. Others walked with the discretion of someone entering a stranger’s home – even though that home no longer has a visible owner, only acronyms, custodians, offices and official portraits of Raúl Castro and Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The Mansions of Vedado Open Their Doors, But Not All Their Secrets
In each building, students and professors of Art History were on hand to explain mouldings, stained glass, styles, dates and materials. At times the tour felt like a living lesson in Republican-era architecture; at times, like an excursion through the inventory of a private wealth converted into state heritage. The guides’ voices tried to impose order upon the beauty, but visitors could not help looking also at what was not being explained.
“The hardest thing is the contrast with the rest of Havana, which is falling apart,” murmured a man as he crossed one of the reception rooms. Outside, the city peels, is propped up, collapses, or survives patched together with breeze blocks, corrugated zinc and miracles. Inside, by contrast, there remain chandeliers, sweeping staircases, interior courtyards, gardens and high ceilings – that sense of spaciousness which today seems almost obscene in a capital where so many families live crammed together amid leaking roofs and power cuts.
Some were expropriated; of others it is said, with the convenient formula of the official narrative, that their owners left the country and “left no heirs.” / 14ymedio
The route included some of the most imposing mansions in Vedado: the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture; the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), on Paseo and 13th Street; the Casa de la Prensa, headquarters of the Union of Cuban Journalists (Upec), on 23rd and I; and the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre. All share the fact that they were built or inhabited by wealthy families during the Republic – many of Spanish origin or descent from Spaniards – and after 1959 passed into the hands of the new power. Some were expropriated; of others it is said, with the convenient formula of the official narrative, that their owners left the country and “left no heirs.”
At the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, the former home of Ernesto Sarrá and Loló Larrea commands attention even before one enters. It occupies almost an entire block and still retains the air of a family palace it must have had when the owner of one of Cuba’s largest pharmaceutical fortunes lived there with his wife. From the street, the building promises a novel of money, parties, alliances, servants, china and automobiles pulling through the gateway. Inside, however, the mansion no longer functions as a home. It is a collection of offices from which the culture of the island is administered – and kept under watch.
“What beauty, and what a waste not to be able to see it in its entirety,” commented a woman as she left one of the rooms. / 14ymedio
Many areas were closed to the public. Some because they are offices; others because they are “not in a fit state.” This was a constant throughout the tour: half-open doors that could not be passed through, staircases leading nowhere, sealed-off corridors, or areas that the guide mentioned without showing them. Visitors could barely reconstruct, from fragments, the scale of what once was.
At the FMC headquarters, amid stained glass windows, a female sculpture and rooms altered by bureaucratic use, the guide explained ornamental details while visitors raised their eyes to the ceilings, the doors and the columns. “What beauty, and what a waste not to be able to see it in its entirety,” commented a woman as she left one of the rooms. The remark hung in the air with an unintentional precision. The heritage is shown, but with caution; conservation is spoken of, but the history of ownership is barely touched upon.
The Casa de la Prensa, headquarters of Upec, preserves an uncomfortable memory for official journalism. The building on 23rd and I is associated with the García Osuna family, connected to Republican-era politics. From 1963, the organisation that brings together pro-government journalists was installed there. In its salons, where private life, receptions and family conversations once took place, propaganda subordinated to the single Party is now produced. The architecture, with its ornate iron grilles and its old-world elegance, seems to retain more freedom than the institution that occupies it.
The former mansion of the Conill family has become a civic temple to the leader who governed the country in which properties such as this one were confiscated. / 14ymedio
The starkest contrast appears at the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre. The former mansion of the Conill family, with its restored grandeur, its well-kept gardens and its museum-style displays, has become a civic temple to the leader who governed the country in which properties such as this one were confiscated, seized or absorbed by the State. Official sources acknowledge that the house belonged to the Hidalgo de Conill family and that Enrique Conill Rafecas was a captain in the Liberation Army. They also admit that, after 1959, the family left the country and the property was put to uses connected with the Ministry of the Interior.
Here the paradox achieves an almost theatrical clarity. A Republican-era palace, born of private wealth, converted into a shrine of the Revolution. A building that must once have held family albums, china, bedrooms, parties and inheritances, now transformed into the stage set of a single, carefully illuminated memory. “You spend your whole life walking past this place and you have no idea what’s inside,” said a visitor standing before the mansion in which Fidel Castro’s Mercedes-Benz is displayed as if it were a relic.
That detail alone would be enough for a different tour – less ornamental and more honest: one that passes not only through the columns, the stained glass and the ironwork, but through property records, nationalisations, exiles, emptied houses and the official versions that explain too much with too little. Who exactly were the owners? What became of them? What documents prove the transfer of ownership? Was there confiscation, abandonment, donation, seizure, litigation? Where are those archives? On the visit, that part appeared only as a footnote, as if the social history of the mansions were less important than the marble.
Many entered in amazement; others, with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
The public, however, did not seem indifferent. Many entered in amazement; others, with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. They walked slowly, photographed stained glass, discreetly touched a banister, lingered before a staircase, looked up at the ceilings as if discovering a hidden city above the visible one. For decades, a large part of the Republican residential heritage has remained behind railings, custodians, ministries, mass organisations, embassies and state offices.
The Unesco open day has value because it allows one to look. And in Cuba, looking inward is already something. But looking is not enough. A country that prides itself on its heritage should also account for how that heritage came into state hands, who built it, who lived in it, who lost it and through what mechanisms. Without that information, the tour remains an incomplete postcard of a Havana that is beautiful, deteriorating and under surveillance – where the visitor hands over their identity card before entering and leaves with more questions than answers.
Translated by GH.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Madrid, 11 June 2026 / From this Wednesday, half the energy demand of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) can be met by the new photovoltaic grid project installed at this university study centre for foreign students. The project was promoted by MediCuba Europa, headquartered in Switzerland, which has already carried out several schemes at the ELAM and other institutions in Cuba.
