Translator: Regina Anavy – Translating Cuba

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero “Is Behind” the Trial of Gil Fernández for Alleged Collaboration With the CIA

The sister of the former Minister of Economy describes a plot devised by the prime minister and the military sector of the Cuban regime to protect their economic interests

The prime minister of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and Alejandro Gil Fernández, then Minister of Economy, in a 2023 photo. / Granma

14ymedio, Madrid, November 22, 2025 — María Victoria Gil, the sister of Alejandro Gil who was tried last week behind closed doors for espionage, has said that the country for which the former minister is accused of spying is the United States, specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and suggests that the case against her brother was instigated by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero. In an interview with Miami-based Cuban journalist Mario J. Pentón, she said that her source, whom she cannot name, “is very reliable” and that the information “is corroborated.”

“What I am going to say is what my brother has really not been able to say,” said the former state television host and attorney. About her revelations Pentón says: “Supposedly the CIA gave him the Ordering Task to destroy Cuba; you know where this thread leads.” And Vicky Gil adds: “They always blame the United States for all the failures of a failed system that is corrupt to the core and that has been able to totally and absolutely destroy an entire country.”

Gil’s sister reiterated that the former Minister of Economy “categorically denies all facts related to the espionage” and that, as confirmed by a source close to the case, the defense made by lawyer Abel Solá López was “brilliant.” This same informant told 14ymedio that they expect the next trial of Gil, for more than a dozen crimes such as embezzlement, tax evasion, influence peddling and money laundering, and in which other senior officials of the regime are involved, will take place next Wednesday.

This same informant told 14ymedio this Saturday that they expect the next trial of Gil, for more than a dozen crimes, will take place next Wednesday

“In a country where the entire leadership is corrupt, how are you going to try an official for corruption, money laundering, influence peddling? You would have to try all of them,” observed Vicky Gil in the interview with continue reading

Pentón. So, she continued, they have to put on a “strong case,” which, brought by State Security, as happens in cases of espionage, “may be a total lie, but how do you prove it?”

The former presenter of De la Gran Escena on Cuban Television believes that “the least guilty of all that is happening with my brother is President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez,” because he was unaware, she claims, of the case being set up against Gil, who was his right-hand man. And she mentions, in this regard, the information about the prime minister that her source shared: on February 1, 2024, Marrero called Gil and told him that “his work as Minister of Economy and Planning has not yielded the expected results, that his work was poor, and, therefore, the next day he would be dismissed and must begin to hand over all the documentation relating to the ministry.”

The following day, continues Vicky, it was reported that her brother had been dismissed. “What is Miguel Díaz-Canel doing? Congratulate my brother for the good work,” she says about the tweet that the president posted on X on February 6, Gil’s birthday. On the other hand, according to her, the now-dismissed minister agreed to go to Marrero’s office for the delivery of the portfolio. “When my brother arrived there with all the documentation, he found that along with Manuel Marrero Cruz there were two officers from Cuban State Security,” who informed him that “he was under investigation.”

From that moment on, they took him and his wife, Gina María González García, “to one of those famous houses that the Ministry of the Interior has that are wonderful, that I know, that are in Nuevo Vedado, in Miramar…” “How do you know of them, Vicky?” asks Pentón. “I know two in Nuevo Vedado, because I was an agent for a short time, and I didn’t do well because I chickened out,” she confesses, specifying that she was picked to monitor the trafficking of artwork on the Island.

Gil instead went straight to the high security prison of Guanajay, in Artemisa, where his family has been able to visit him for “15 minutes every 15 days”

In any event, Gil and his wife stayed in that house for four months, during which time nothing was known of them publicly. It was then, imagines Vicky, that a criminal investigation was ordered. Her brother was prosecuted, and her sister-in-law was acquitted and returned to their home in Miramar, one of the most affluent neighborhoods of the capital. Gil instead went straight to the high security prison of Guanajay, in Artemisa, where his family has been able to visit him for “15 minutes every 15 days,” says the former presenter.

To Pentón’s question about whether the prime minister is the one behind her brother’s arrest, María Victoria Gil reaffirms: “Yes, Marrero is the person in front and behind this whole trial against Alejandro Gil,” which she considers “a racket.” As for the crimes of corruption that are attributed to the former head of Economy, she adds, “Marrero has committed five times more.”

The confrontation between Gil — who comes from the civilian world — and Marrero — a colonel — evidences a possible operation mounted by the military-controlled Group of Business Administration (Gaesa), which would thus hold the former minister responsible for having affected its business and contributing to the widespread collapse of the economy with the Ordering Task*, the process of monetary and exchange unification that began on January 1, 2021.

For Vicky, it may come from somewhere else: “Perhaps my brother wanted to put a stop to Marrero’s shameful waste and disloyalty.” Without giving more details, she adds, “We know how corrupt that world is. What more proof of the corruption do you need, and how little does the Cuban government care about the people of Cuba that when you put them all together, they can’t even close one button on their guayaberas?”

*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” [Tarea Ordenamiento] was a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

“Fight for My Freedom” Is the Cry of Yosvany Rosell, After 30 Days on a Hunger Strike

The Cuban political prisoner faces dehydration and possible kidney failure

14ymedio, Mexico, November 21, 2025 — The health of Cuban political prisoner Yosvany Rosell García Caso continues to deteriorate after almost a month of hunger strike. The activist, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his participation in the Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 [’11J’], was rushed to the Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico of Holguín. According to his wife, Mailin Sánchez, she was able to visit him yesterday and attend a medical consultation in which the doctors expressed their concern about possible irreversible dehydration and kidney failure.

Despite his physical deterioration, which is palpable in both his weight loss and the deterioration of his voice, Rosell remains firm in his position. “Do not ask me to stop my strike, I ask you to fight for my freedom,” was the message he sent, reaffirming that his refusal to receive treatment constitutes an act of radical protest against the unjust treatment he claims to have suffered in prison.

“Don’t ask me to stop my strike, I ask you to fight for my freedom.”

His family has been making an urgent appeal to international agencies for immediate action. They consider that the case is evidence of serious violations, both because of the prison conditions in which he has remained and because of the lack of humanitarian response to his protest.

Rosell began the strike on October 23, demanding a definitive change in his confinement regime. He alleges that prisoners considered to be opponents are subjected to constant pressure, prolonged isolation and practices which he describes as abusive. His family says that this is the seventh time continue reading

the activist has been on a hunger strike, despite being hypertensive and suffering from heart disease, which increases the risks.

The family insists that every day counts and that international intervention could prevent a fatal outcome. Meanwhile, human rights organizations watch the evolution of the activist with alarm. They fear that the continuation of his hunger strike could have irreversible consequences. In the midst of this situation, his wife expressed on social media that Yosvany received religious assistance this Friday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Meliá Blames “Social Network Campaigns” for the Poor Results of Tourism in Cuba

Other hotels suffer more than the Spanish, and the country’s revenues fall another 12%, with an occupancy rate of only 18.9% of the available rooms

Year after year, occupancy data deteriorate with no end in sight. / 14ymedio/Archive

14ymedio, Madrid, November 21, 2025 — “In Cuba, there are signs of recovery despite the persistence of discouraging social network campaigns.” The phrase is not from the Minister of Tourism or any Cuban hierarchy: it appears in the quarterly results report that the Balearic hotel Meliá is obliged to make public as a company listed on the Spanish stock exchange. The company is proud of having recovered a derisory 0.7% occupancy between June and September, which is not little in the panorama of the Island, which so far this year has not managed to fill even one-fifth of the rooms available.

On Thursday, the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) published its balance sheet for the first nine months of the year. There are few reasons to be satisfied, with an occupancy rate — in international tourism — of just 18.9%. Income also fell by 12%, from 94,320,614,700 pesos in the same period of 2024 to 82,885,5516,000 this year.

Although the exchange rate applied by the government to the sector is unknown, the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal has concluded that everything indicates that it is 120, so the amount represents about $690.7 million, compared to the $786 million that accumulated last year at this point. This is gross revenue, from which expenses must be deducted, not disclosed but very high, because Cuba has to import everything from food to towels for the hotels, all owned by the State. continue reading

The amount is about $690.7 million, compared to the $786 million that it accumulated last year at this point

No indicator is saved, since there was also a drop in travelers, now known from the monthly reports, by 20.5% up to September, including the number of nights they decide to spend on the Island: a drop of 20%. If up to a year ago foreigners had more than 10 million nights in Cuba, now there are two million fewer overnight stays. In summary, the four main indicators outlined by ONEI show a substantial decline of the sector.

From the Meliá data it is clear that its hotels get the best share, since the occupancy in its facilities was 40.2%, but all that shines is not gold. The hotel has had to continue to lower rates — 76.2 euros is now its average price, 8.7% less — and, therefore, its performance per room (Revpar) fell by 6.9%, reaching 30 euros. The hotel states in its report that the current Black Friday with its offers and the bet of the tour operators — facing the drop in direct reservations — will end up returning Cuba to its place.

The document takes stock and makes it clear that its bet on Cuba continues against all odds: “US restrictions and the complex energy situation remain the main challenges. However, the creation of a supply chain of our own has improved sourcing, allowing us to gain market share and strengthen our position in the market,” it says in relation to its company Mesol, from which this newspaper has tried to gather information without obtaining any response. In addition, air capacity has increased using the charter mode, especially from key source markets such as Canada.”

The return of the Canadians had been anticipated by Juan Carlos García Granda, minister of the branch, in some tourist areas, but this has not been supported by the current data. After a season of persistent falls, the Canadians return persistently to the Island, being one of the few nationalities that grows in the month of September, when 12.7% more travelers arrived from that country.

However, we will have to wait for the development of the last quarter to know whether it is a mirage, since in global terms, Canadians still represent 20% less than in the first nine months of last year.

Canadians return to the Island persistently, being one of the few nationalities that grows in the month of September, when 12.7% more travelers arrived from that country

Few nationalities have grown in this period, and some of those that do are with a low number of visitors. Among them are Argentina (7.3%), Colombia (11.2%), Turkey (9%) and Peru, (27%) but with only 10,382 tourists.

On the other hand, among those that fall — some of them plummet — are some of the main groups: Cubans abroad (20.7%), US (19.6%), Spain (27.1%) and Germany (43.5%). United Kingdom, where the drop is 56.8% -the largest of all countries listed — does not even count as a powerful nationality, bringing in only 10,175 tourists.

Also among Cuba’s partner countries there are notable collapses, especially — and although it has already strengthened — the Russians, who were the great hope of the year (it was expected to attract 200,000, but they didn’t come in 2024) and reached only 88,879, which is 37.2% less than in the same period of the previous year. The large resources and political efforts made to increase this group have proved fruitless, another failure in the bulky account of García Granda.

Mexico, with 10% less, and Venezuela, with a 20% reduction, have not helped in this sector either. The new hope seems to be China, with whom a strategy similar to that of Russia is being deployed and which is only just beginning to bear very poor fruit. Although the coveted tourists of this nation grew by 4%, their total represents nothing for Havana: only 17,810 Chinese. Many, probably, are the ones who come to trade and monitor their investments.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Belgium Closes Its Embassy in Havana and the Regime Expresses “Surprise and Disappointment”

The decision has a strong symbolic impact at a time when official ties with Europe have cooled and the regime’s international reputation has deteriorated

Belgian Embassy in Cuba. / cuba.diplomatie.belgium.be

14ymedio, Havana, November 20, 2025 — The Government of Belgium reported the closure of its embassy in Havana, and the Cuban regime has responded by expressing “surprise and disappointment.” The announcement, made on November 18 by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is part of a restructuring of its diplomatic network which includes the closure of eight missions and the opening of five new ones.

According to the official Belgian statement, the change is due to a “strategic redistribution” of resources and does not constitute a break in its relations with Cuba, since consular services will be taken over by other regional missions and special envoys.

For its part, the Cuban embassy in Belgium stated that the measure “does not affect the historical ties that unite both peoples,” emphasizing the more than 120 years of bilateral relations, which, according to the text, have included scientific, cultural, academic and economic exchanges.

The measure “does not affect the historical ties that unite both peoples”

The Belgian embassy maintained that the decision was based on a technical and strategic analysis. Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot explained that the review was the first in more than a decade and that the government is pursuing a more “broad, resilient and future-oriented” diplomacy. continue reading

For Cuba, the decision also has a strong symbolic impact at a time when official ties with Europe have cooled and the regime’s international reputation has deteriorated, especially after the recent closure of Ukraine’s diplomatic headquarters on the island and allegations of the recruitment of Cubans to participate in the Russian invasion of that country.

In the short term, Cuban and Belgian citizens will have to face changes in consular procedures. The services provided by the Belgian embassy in Havana — visas, citizen registration and consular assistance — must now be provided from other countries, such as Panama.

But the impact does not end there. In Cuba, the Belgian embassy was also an interlocutor between official institutions and the European Union in various cooperation projects. The closure can slow down cultural initiatives and academic collaboration.

The Belgian embassy held that the decision was based on a technical and strategic analysis

In its statement, the Cuban embassy in Brussels requested “that the measure not damage the links between institutions, entrepreneurs and ‘the many friendships established between both peoples.” It warned that the closure “contradicts” Belgium’s speech on Latin America and the Caribbean and expressed its hope that the decision will not result in “a de facto break.”

Although the Belgian authorities claim that bilateral diplomacy will continue through other channels, the move comes at a time of growing tensions between Havana and the West. For Havana, it represents a new challenge in its strategy to strengthen European alliances that counterbalance its isolation with Latin America and Russia.

The Cuban embassy concluded its statement stating that it maintains “the will to preserve existing links,” even in a scenario of “difficult understanding” for citizens who expect consular services and cultural cooperation that may be affected by the Belgian decision.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Is Freezing the Bank Accounts of All Foreign Companies

There is growing suspicion that the regime has appropriated these funds to pay for its imports

Line at a branch of the Banco Metropolitano in Luyanó, Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio / EFE, Havana, November 20, 2025 — The Cuban regime is communicating to foreign companies that they will not be able to extract or transfer abroad the currencies they currently have deposited in Cuban banks. This was confirmed to EFE by “multiple business and diplomatic sources.”

Foreign companies are also being offered the possibility of opening a new type of bank account, called “real,” which must be fed with “foreign currency.” These may be used for foreign transfers and cash withdrawals.

However, some foreign companies indicated to EFE that there are also problems in these “real” accounts with extracting currency in cash and repatriating money.

In an article published this Thursday, EFE says that the measure implies a recognition of the inexplicit “corral” that the country has been suffering for months, and generalizes the model that the Cuban authorities tested in the first half of this year with a handful of foreign companies, information also reported by the Spanish agency last April. continue reading

Although the regime formally restricted this kind of operation in early 2025, in practice it had already been controlling its partners’ finances for a long time

In fact, this newspaper had access last July to a letter from Agri VMA, a Vietnamese company with facilities in Mariel. The regime officially restricted this kind of operation in early 2025, but in practice it had already been controlling its partners’ finances for a long time, allowing them to make transfers only under express authorization.

In a desperate request for authorization, dated May 28, 2024, Agri VMA addressed three Cuban ministers to explain the imperative need to access their frozen funds in an account of the International Financial Bank — owned by the Cuban state — to send $300,000 to their headquarters in Vietnam. The company claimed to need these funds to “buy raw materials and ensure a perfect continuation of our services.”

It was not possible to know whether the transfer was finally authorized, but last year Havana became much more careful with its Asian ally, its second trading partner on that continent after China and its first in investment on the island. Agri VMA itself has not stopped appearing in the headlines for its “successful” rice project and last January became the first foreign company to which the Cuban state ceded land to exploit.

What is most suspect is whether the regime has been using these currencies to pay for its imports, in a context of absolute illiquidity in the banking system. Cuba has 334 businesses with foreign direct investment, of which 56 have 100% foreign capital, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

According to what EFE published today, the plan is part of the mechanism for management, control and allocation of foreign exchange provided by the Government Program to Correct Distortions and Revive the Economy, the recently published plan of anti-crisis measures, which does not contain details.

According to the same EFE sources, the Cuban Foreign Ministry met this Wednesday with the diplomatic corps to communicate “a similar mechanism to alleviate the financial difficulties suffered by the representations of other nations,” although without having to open a “real” account. Thus, it was explained to them that a cut-off date for their accounts would be announced shortly. Foreign currency received from then on could theoretically be withdrawn and transferred abroad. The availability of previous funds is not guaranteed, they added.

The measure also takes place months after it was unexpectedly announced that all foreign entities must start paying rent in dollars

These announcements, which highlight the banking, economic and financial crisis that Cuba is suffering, take place at a time when many foreign companies are experiencing serious difficulties. These are aggravated by the distortions in the exchange rate, since legal entities must operate at 24 pesos per dollar when the street exchange of the greenback is around 450.

The measure is also taking place months after all foreign entities were unexpectedly told that they must start paying rent in dollars for the buildings they rent from Cuban real estate companies and for the salaries of their employees (which are paid through a Cuban agency that collects a commission).

Neither the Cuban government nor the Central Bank of Cuba, which is organically dependent on the executive, has publicly reported on these measures or explained the reasons. Experts and observers believe that the authorities have resorted previously to using the currencies in these accounts to be able to make payments abroad.

Also, several years ago, the debts of the Cuban State to more than 250 Spanish companies raised the sector’s complaints and forced the government of Pedro Sánchez to intervene. In a visit to Havana on the occasion of the opening of the Tourism Fair, dedicated in 2018 to Spain, the then Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, asked the regime for a payment plan for its debt with Spanish entrepreneurs, as well as a reduction of bureaucratic obstacles so that they could do business on the Island.

In return, he offered Spain’s support for investment in Cuba, such as support lines for the internationalization of MSMEs* and, especially, an equivalent fund created with the $400 million debt that Spain forgave in 2015.

*Translator’s note: Literally, “Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises.” The expectation is that it is also privately managed, but in Cuba this may include owners/managers who are connected to the government.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“In the Last Sugar Harvest We Finished Without Collecting 14,000 Tons of Cane”

A producer in Las Tunas calls for increased incentives to workers and reproaches the state insurance company for its poor coverage: “Always looking for justifications”

A worker in a sugarcane plantation in Madruga, Mayabeque (Cuba). / EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio, Madrid, November 19, 2025 — The machinery for starting the sugar harvest of 2025-2026 begins to be greased with the doubt about how much planning will go up, in a year that could drown in the bottomless pit that has become Cuba’s former premier industry. The season should be “a watershed” with respect to recent years, Joel Queipo Ruiz, first secretary of the Communist Party in Holguín said last September, and although he was referring to the particular province, the message is valid for all.

Falling below the maximum 147,652 tons produced in 2025 would be disastrous, but it is quite possible. The loss of labor force is one of the factors that adds to the agricultural and technological problems, says José Luis Jomarrón Cera, president of the Diego Felipe cooperative. Located in Puerto Padre, Las Tunas, the company is one of the few that are doing well, although the sugar mill to which it delivers the cane — the Antonio Guiteras — remained at 16% of what was foreseen last year, 7,200 of the 45,000 tons planned.

So far this year, he has achieved a good yield: 42 tons of cane per hectare “in very poor quality and dry soil,” he says. In the spring campaign he achieved the goal of planting the 82 hectares planned. “Now we have the land ready to start the cold campaign and plant another 73.4 hectares,” he tells Periodico26, which today interviews the producer to try to understand what is failing in the Cuban sugar industry and how it could be helped.

So far this year, he has achieved a good yield: 42 tons of cane per hectare “in very poor quality and dry soil,” he says

“Producers know how to do it, and we are aware that much can be done,” he says after considering that the sector suffers from the dilemma of whether it is the chicken or the egg. “Should more cane be sown if the industry cannot process it?” the producers ask him. “If the industry does not grind there will be no cane, and if there is no cane the industry will not grind,” he continue reading

says. This is not the first time that the provincial newspaper has asked the same question: on October 18, it published a long and harsh article in which it directly accused the industry of being “totally obsolete.” For Jomarrón Cera, however, the main stumbling block is the lack of incentives for the workers.

“In the last sugar harvest we were left without collecting 14,000 tons of cane with approximately 28 million pesos to be paid, of which eight would be for expenses and 20 for distribution, which would represent 200,000 pesos per profit for each worker,” he explains.

In his view, the campesino must be aware that he owns the production, and he must be provided with materials and inputs and motivated. “This is not new, but you have to pay them a stimulus for productivity, quality and work discipline. There is legal support for implementing payment systems that take these attributes into account, but there is a lack of materialization,” he says, without going into detail.

The producer states that, despite contradictory data, the government has adopted decisions that have improved the situation — the known 93 measures to strengthen sugar production that came into force in 2022 — and ensures that the State accompanies workers through all institutions, except one entity that is accused of the contrary: the National Insurance Company (ESEN).

“Insurance is too expensive and yet does not cover even 10 per cent of the costs that affect production. There are persistent droughts, floods with large productive and economic impacts, and the ESEN does not cover anything, it always seeks justifications and in most cases it does not show up. This is the general opinion among the labriegos [farm workers].

This figure should be around 20%, but in many companies, they are working with percentages of between 40 and 70 percent

Jomarrón Cera, despite his conviction that the state supports them, has some criticism. “There should be more attention paid to the workers, because right now they are the only asset we have available, and they can generate many of the resources that we lack. We have lost 10 times more than we would have spent on such actions, but we have not paid attention to that strength. We have only had speeches, good intentions and stereotypical phrases.”

In his case, he considers that the cooperative has achieved good results as a result of linking the campesino to the land and achieving a good balance of cane varieties. This figure should be around 20%, but in many companies, he says, are working with percentages between 40 and 70%. “Also, the cane is milled too late because of delays in the harvest.” Jomarrón Cera says that his company is also failing to earn a lot of money. “We had planned to pay, between basic advance and incentive for performance evaluation, up to 17,000 pesos per month, and it was not possible.” But he still gives a weekly incentive to his workers.

The producer, who praises the ability of other countries to make money from the sugar sector, still defends the production model. “The State must give autonomy, but control more. It has to play another part, another role,” he says. And he points out that the cooperative model is a work organization that is “perfect for a socialist model,” which is not sufficiently recognized.” We cannot continue betting on privatization,” he concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Declines To Attend Baseball’s Caribbean Cup After Qualifying for the Central Americans

The trip involves additional expenses, which would be better spent on the National Baseball Series, says the Federation

Cuba has won 15 gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, November 19, 2025 — The Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation announced on Tuesday that the country will not attend the Caribbean Cup, which will be held in the Bahamas at the beginning of December. The decision was made after the Island qualified directly for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo.

According to a Prensa Latina statement, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, president of the Federation, explained that attending the tournament “made no competitive or logistical sense,” since the spot that would be contested in this event for the regional games was guaranteed.

To justify his decision, the official said that the trip involves additional expenses and that it would be better to concentrate those resources on the National Baseball Series. Since it began last September, Cuba’s participation has had to be suspended due to problems with hotel capacity, lack of fuel to move players to some of the venues and even infections with the viruses that plague the island right now.

Despite the economic, energy and even health crises that the country is experiencing, they will seek to “concentrate resources and planning” to organize a tournament

Encouraged, Pérez Pardo said that, despite the economic, energy and even health crises that the country is experiencing, they will seek to “concentrate resources and planning” to organize, in the last quarter of 2026, a continue reading

tournament that could award places for the next Pan American Games, to be held in Lima, Peru, in 2027.

Last Sunday, the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) reported that it gave out five direct tickets to the Central American and Caribbean Games. The top five teams in the Americas (except the United States) received a pass: Mexico (third place in the Americas and sixth in the world), Puerto Rico (fourth in the continent and seventh in the world), Panama (fifth in the Americas and eighth in the world), Cuba (sixth at continental level and ninth internationally) and Colombia (eighth in the continent and thirteenth in the world).

Originally, access to the regional contest was going to be split into two events at this year’s close: the America’s Baseball Cup, which would be played in Panama but was recently canceled due to sponsorship issues, and the Caribbean Baseball Cup, to be held between December 1-9, in Nassau. In the first event there were going to be five tickets in play, while in the Bahamas one ticket will be contested.

Cuba will have the opportunity in the Central American Games to return to the forefront of the discipline

With its presence assured, Cuba will have the opportunity in the Central American Games to return to the forefront of the discipline, something that it has not been able to do for 11 years since it won the title in the Veracruz in 2014, and to confirm its dominance as the greatest winner in history at the regional contest.

Since the first edition of the Central American Games, held in Mexico in 1926, Cuba has won 15 gold medals, far above the rest, where the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico appear with three. Nevertheless, Cuba’s domination has been diluted since the beginning of this century, because of the last six editions of the Games, where it won only two, as did Puerto Rico. The remaining games were divided between Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

It could also cut through the stalemate that has been especially evident in the last two years, leading to its 12th place in the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball (WBSC) ranking by mid-2025, its worst position ever since this system was invented in 2011. In recent months Cuba managed to advance to ninth place, just 41 points above Panama, in eighth place.

In addition, poor performance has also caused Team Cuba, which in 2012 was the leader of the world ranking, to fall even at the regional level, where for two years it occupied sixth place on the American continent.

Translated by Regina Anavy

The Ministry of Fear and the Culture of Panic

The “suspect detector” has been perfected as a management tool, each official calculates how many times per day he should tweet the hashtag ordered by the boss.

The “people” is nothing more than a huge archive where everyone has an open file. / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, Yunior García Aguilera, November 18, 2025 — Terror has taken hold of Cuban institutions. Faced with a rumor circulating on social networks about the old and long-known corruption within the Ministry of Culture, the commissioners have come out to respond with a letter of self-vindication, accompanied by some 220 signatures. The answer may seem desperate and ridiculous if you do not understand the context in which it is written: there is an internal purge and all heads feel threatened.

Only panic can explain the clumsiness of those who wrote, signed and decided to make public the pamphlet. The hornet’s nest that can be stirred up behind this letter is far worse than any rumor about a spa in the home of a former deputy minister. Because, although the family business of Fernando Rojas is not news to all of us, there are juicier tidbits hidden in the Cuban cultural muddle. The Squirrel, in honor of his nervous name, far from protecting his henchmen is focusing on them. And there everyone has a glass ceiling.

Therefore, the most reasonable explanation for the official’s reaction may be related to the Gil case. After the accusations against the former deputy prime minister and head of Economy, every bureaucrat suspects that he or she may appear on the list (and not precisely Jeffrey Epstein’s). As they would say in the time of Stalin: “There is no one innocent, only people poorly investigated.” In Cuba it would be translated as: “No one knows the past that awaits him.”

As they would say in the time of Stalin: “There is no one innocent, only people poorly investigated.” In Cuba it would be translated as: “Nobody knows the past that awaits him”

All this paranoia and conspiracy theories have their origin in the obvious disaster that the country is experiencing. But perhaps it got even more complicated from a misunderstanding. A friend who’s a jokester but well-informed tells me that someone confirmed to Raúl Castro that the ship was sinking and it was hopeless. And Raúl, without taking his eyes off the screen of his television, replied that they would look for a scapegoat. So far, everything was normal; after all, his brother had shot his best general (and best colonel) when the trumpets of perestroika and glasnost sounded. What difference would it make to sacrifice a technocrat whom no one had heard of before the pandemic? continue reading

But here comes the possible mistake: perhaps the secretary misspelled the word expiar [atone for] and replaced it with espiar [spy]. Once you screwed up, you had to continue with the pantomime, and the former comrade of Díaz-Canel went from being merely insensitive to being a notorious spy, although we still do not know if he sent the alleged information to Agent 007 or to Mortadelo and Filemón [Spanish cartoon characters].

“The Cuban people can never be divided with messages of hate,” proclaims La Jiribilla’s text, refusing to recognize the curvature of the earth. Never before, my friends, had we been so divided! What they call “the people” is made up of the same people they call “enemies.” Their own speech betrays them. The “people” is nothing more than a huge archive where everyone has an open file.

Seeing some roofs burning and others running to hose them down, I remembered a phrase that may have escaped (or maybe not) the officer who questioned me during my last months in Cuba: “I’m itching to finish you off along with the insufferable little groups of your generation, in order to deal with the big shots we’re investigating.” It is possible that his phrase was part of the manual. But it is also likely that the officers were so saturated, propping up a building that was coming down without plans, that they did not give a fig about the manual. The truth is that, if my file was about ten pages long, that of the officials of the apparatus surely occupied several volumes. That’s why they all jump at the first accusation. They’re on edge.

The poor souls who stamp their signature on the pamphlet are old acquaintances of the guild. Some of the elderly included there are dependent on the increasingly meager aid of the “attention to personalities” department, a bureaucratic euphemism for state charity. Others expect a promised house, or hope to be prioritized if a ship arrives with a donation of paper. And there is no lack of those who retain good memories of some cultural drunkenness and feel indebted to the official who brought the bottle. But not a single one of those signatories can say, with his hand on his heart, that cultural institutions are corruption-free territory or that the country is doing well.

Not a single one of those signatories can say, with his hand on his heart, that cultural institutions are corruption-free territory or that the country is doing well.

Nor is it news that some in the world of culture play at being the mascot of power. Even the Austrian painter had several artists who put their talent at the service of horror. In our own history there is no lack of examples: Machado had his salon chroniclers; Batista his pen-pushers who called him “The Man”; and Fidel Castro his army of shaggy bards. But those who used to sing to the bearded man are today still on their knees before a bureaucrat whom they themselves recognize as a mediocre leader, even if he is disguised as someone who will help when a hurricane strikes.

In the corridors of the Ministry of Censorship five-year plans are no longer discussed, but rather daily rumors: who did not applaud enough during the last speech-poem by Alpidio Alonso; who fell asleep listening to Abel Prieto criticizing Shakira and talking nonsense about cultural colonization; who did not post a a heart emoji to the last profile photo of Amauri Pérez, Prieto’s new wardrobe consultant. The suspect detector has been perfected as a management tool, and each official calculates how many times per day he should tweet the hashtag ordered by the boss.

What is coming now is predictable. UNEAC, AHS, UPEC and all those subordinates to G2 will go through the list to collect new names. And after a while, the vast majority of those who stamp their initials will say as usual: “I didn’t know what I was signing.” And the worst is that they will be right, because many of them completely ignore what is hidden behind this pamphlet.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Playing, Cuba Qualifies for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games

Cuba will seek again to win the regional tournament, which it has not won for 11 years.

Cuba seeks to confirm its dominance in Central America, where it is the biggest winner in history /Jit

14ymedio, Havana, November 18, 2025 — Without having to earn its place on the playing field and through the ranking, Cuba obtained its pass to compete in the Central American Games of Santo Domingo in 2026. This Sunday, the Executive Committee of the Pan American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) reported that it gave out five direct tickets to the tournament based on international rankings.

Originally, access to the regional competition was going to be split into two events at this year’s close: the American Baseball Cup, which would be played in Panama but was recently canceled due to sponsorship issues, and the Caribbean Baseball Cup, which will take place between December 1st and 9th, in Nassau and the Bahamas. Cuba will be present but without the pressure of gaining access.

However, due to the tight schedule, there will no longer be space to hold any tournament that would give those places, so they were awarded by world ranking and by using the last update of the list of the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball (WBSC) in mid-November. The top five teams in the Americas (except the US) received the pass: Mexico (third place in the Americas and sixth in the world), Puerto Rico (fourth in the continent and seventh in the world), Panama (fifth in the Americas and eighth in the world), Cuba (sixth continental and ninth international) and Colombia (eighth in the continent and thirteenth in the world).

The top five teams in the Americas (except the US) received the pass.

With ticket in hand, Cuba will try next year in the Dominican Republic to win back the gold in the Central American tournament, something that has not happened since 11 years ago, when they won continue reading

the title at the 2014 Veracruz Central American and Caribbean Games, confirming Cuba’s dominance in the discipline, where it is the greatest winner in history.

Since the first edition of the Central American Games, held in Mexico in 1926, Cuba has won 15 gold medals, far above the rest; the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico won three. Nevertheless, Cuban domination has been diluted since the beginning of this century, because in the last six editions of the Games they won only two, as did Puerto Rico. The remaining wins were divided between Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The team’s poor performance has been particularly evident in the last two years, which led to it being ranked 12th in the WBSC ranking by mid-2025, its worst position ever since this system was invented in 2011. However, in recent months Cuba managed to climb to ninth, just 41 points above the eighth place, Panama.

Last year was also one to be forgotten. The Cuban team generated the fewest points of the teams in the top 10 of the world ranking

Last year was also one to be forgotten. The Cuban team generated the fewest points among the teams in the top 10 of the world ranking. The team could only add 401, far from the second worst team in that year, the Dominican Republic, with 760. The classification also takes into account achievements in minor categories, where there were also no major results.

The low performance has also caused Team Cuba, which in 2012 was the leader of the world ranking, to fall even at a regional level, where for two years it has occupied sixth place on the American continent.

In 2026, in addition to the Central American and Caribbean Games, the World Baseball Classic -in which Cuba was runner-up in 2006- is scheduled, but Cuba’s participation is still up in the air. Until the end of October, there was no confirmation from the organizing committee. Germán Mesa, who was going to be at the head of Team Cuba in the canceled Copa América, declared that “for the 2026 World Classic, we still don’t know if Cuba has received permission.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: “Those Who Have Family Outside Survive Better; the Rest of Us Improvise”

New dollar stores feed the stomach and drive inequality in Guantánamo

For months, the city has been undergoing a silent transformation: a proliferation of shops selling exclusively in dollars. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Guantánamo, November 17, 2025 — In Guantánamo, the line in front of the La Fragancia store forms early. Some arrive with international cards, others carry the Cuban Classic but all have something in common: they have dollars to buy anything from shampoo to soap. The arrival of hard currency stores in the city has been shaping domestic commerce and the economy, as well as dividing opinions between those who applaud their proliferation and those who renounce them.

On the outskirts of the central market this Friday, a dozen people were waiting to enter. From time to time, a customer came out with a transparent bag showing off some of those products that are barely found in Cuban pesos. “I have $8.70 left on the card and I have to manage it very well,” says a man who pauses for a moment and presses his face against the glass to observe the shelves inside.

For months, the city has been undergoing a silent transformation: a proliferation of shops selling exclusively in dollars, managed by Cimex, the powerful conglomerate under military control. So far this year, several of these air-conditioned spaces have been opened, with tidy shelves and products no longer seen in the dwindling shops in freely convertible currency (MLC): milk powder, detergent, pasta, imported chicken and, hopefully, some meat.

A few meters from one of these markets, a woman who identifies herself as a food worker summarizes the feelings of many. “This is an abuse: we earn in pesos and here everything is in dollars.” She says she has no hard currency card, does not receive remittances and depends on changing her Cuban pesos in the informal market to buy “from time to time a few cubes of soup and some sausages. If someone from outside doesn’t send it to you, you don’t eat here. But what are we going to do? I still have to come, because the MLC stores don’t even have oil sometimes.”

Miguel, an electrician, complains without hesitation. “This hurts. It hurts because it reminds you that your salary is not good enough to live in your continue reading

own country.” His gesture is one of exhaustion, not anger. He speaks with the serenity of one who has already spent all his fury. “If there are elderly people who don’t even have a peso to buy rationed bread, how will they get dollars to come to this kind of store?”

Next to him, an old lady with gnarled fingers holds a blue card that contains part of the money she receives monthly. ” My son in Tampa helps me refill it. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even have coffee to drink in the morning,” she says. She recognizes that these shops “save” her but immediately lowers her voice, as if she were ashamed to admit it: “This is a blessing and an injustice at the same time.”

Foreign exchange businesses also shape the informal market and the prices of private traders selling in national currency. “The MSMEs* in my neighborhood use the prices in these stores to set the exchange rate for pesos. If a carton of eggs is six dollars here, then they automatically put it at 3,000 pesos,” she complains.

That is the tone tone among the majority of people: the resigned recognition of a “necessary evil.” They use dollar stores because there are no alternatives, but almost nobody approves of them. The one who has no hard currency looks from outside; the one who has it buys, but with a hint of guilt, aware that the whole system drives inequality.

In a nearby park, a group of young people agree that these shops are an “economic tightrope.” “Those who receive remittances have it made,” says one of them. “The rest of us are cooked.” Another adds: “Before there were difficulties, yes, but we all looked at the same shelf. Now there are full shelves for some and empty shelves for others.”

“Before there were difficulties, yes, but we all looked at the same shelf. Now there are full shelves for some and empty shelves for others”

Dollar stores in the city of Guantánamo usually have good air conditioning, soft music and uniformed employees. The Micro Caribe market, of the Pan-American chain, is one of those comfort bubbles. A few meters from the premises a middle-aged man launches his diagnosis: “This is not commerce, it’s natural selection. Those with families outside survive better; the rest of us improvise.”

In the Pastorita neighborhood, the line for the currency store has become a meeting place. People chat, exchange news and make mental calculations. “Do you think I can afford a package of chicken?” asks a mother who came with her little daughter. “Hopefully,” says another. Some carry dollars in cash but they are the few.

“I prefer to put the currency on the card because they never have coins to give change and you get back candies or soup cubes,” complains another customer. The door opens and a breath of fresh air with a clean smell emerges from inside. Card in hand, the next lucky group with hard currency enters the store.

*Translator’s note: Literally, “Micro, Small, Medium Enterprise.” The expectation is that it is also privately managed, but in Cuba this may include owners/managers who are connected to the government.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana: If the Wastewater Affects the Railroad Tracks, Dig a Trench

At the 19 de Noviembre station, on Tulipán Street, the mixture of mud, grease and excrement has formed a quagmire that threatens both the nose and the metal.

As they dig, the smell becomes stronger in the midday sun. / 14ymedio

14ymedia, Havana, Natalia López Moya, November 16, 2025 — On Conill Street, in Nuevo Vedado, there is a smell that blots out the landscape. A thick stench that invades the sidewalk where every morning, almost in droves, the students of the José Miguel Pérez pre-university school pass by. For months now, the pestilence comes as a warning, a daily reminder that wastewater does not understand schedules or routines. The dark stream rises from a collapsed sewer and winds down the street.

The wastewater comes out through the gaps and edges of the metal lid, dragging bags and garbage along with it. In the course of its journey, the viscous liquid has been conquering ground until it has run into the tracks of the railway that leads to the 19 de Noviembre station on Tulipán Street. Along the way, the mixture of mud, grease and excrement has formed a muddy quagmire that threatens both the nose and the metal.

Ankle-deep in their boots in the fresh mud, they use their shovels to remove a dirt that smells like a public toilet. / 14ymedio

The image of the site this Saturday speaks for itself: a group of workers, with their boots sinking into the fresh mud, using their shovels to remove dirt that smells like a public toilet. Around them, the puddles reflect a blue sky that seems incompatible with the disaster under their feet.

One brigade embarks on what seems like an impossible mission to protect the iron tracks. They have no pumps, no new pipes or tools to rebuild the sewer system. They only have shovels, rubber boots and patience. Their “solution” — if you can call it that — is to open a trench under the rails to divert the water and prevent the tracks from ending up moving by losing solidity at the base. A kind of makeshift canal that, hopefully, will keep moisture at bay for a few days… or hours.

In a city facing a surge of viruses, this steady flow of wastewater seems like a direct provocation. / 14ymedio

As they dig, the smell becomes stronger in the midday sun. And the irony too: in a city facing a resurgence of respiratory and stomach viruses, with overcrowded hospitals and pharmacies without basic medicines, this constant flow of wastewater seems like a direct provocation.

The neighbors are no longer surprised. They have long since learned to coexist with “temporary solutions,” those patches that fill speeches and press reports but never get to the heart of the problem. The routine consists of patching, diverting, covering, filling, re-opening, recovering. As if the entire city lives under an endless cycle of cosmetic repairs that do not heal, but rather become chronic. A Havana where life passes between spills of wastewater and the slow passage of a train that, hopefully, will manage to advance without sinking into the mud.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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By Pretending, the Cuban Ended Up Not Really Knowing Who He Is

In Report Against Myself, Eliseo Alberto confesses to what many Cubans learned to do to survive: speak with two voices

In the Cuba of the report, blame is not settled: it is archived. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Málaga, José A. Adrián Torres, November 15, 2025 — There are books that are neither written nor read: they confess. Informe contra mí mismo (Report Against Myself), by Eliseo Alberto, belongs to this rare category. It is the story of a man who writes a police report — not against the enemy, but against his own family — and discovers that the real informer is not the one who signs the paper, but the system that managed to make it possible.

The novel, written from Mexican exile and silenced in official Cuba, could be read as the Cuban version of The Lives of Others. In the German film, a Stasi agent spies on a playwright and ends up redeeming himself out of compassion. In Report against Myself, on the other hand, the narrator does not redeem himself: he undresses. He does not save anyone. He only tries to save his conscience. Surveillance does not come from above, but from within. The snitch becomes his own victim.

Both works share the same moral axis: the abolition of the individual by the totalitarian state. But Eliseo Alberto adds something that the film cannot offer: the warmth of betrayed affection. There is no cold basement or interrogation room. There is a house in Havana, a poet father, a mother who puts out a lit cigarette, a family that sings while the son — a soldier in the reserves — receives the order to spy on them. It is horror with the smell of rum and the sad light of the kerosene lamp.

Eliseo Alberto was the son of Eliseo Diego and nephew of Fina García Marruz, heirs to a poetic tradition that believed in the dignity of language. That is why his testimony hurts even more: because it shows how a regime that proclaimed itself the redeemer ended up destroying even faith in the word.

The Lives of Others ends with a redemption; Report Against Myself does not. In the Cuba of the report, the guilt is not expiated: it is archived. The author says it with bitter irony: “I am imprisoned in a file.” That bureaucratic file is the real Cuban prison: one that does not need bars, just a people educated to distrust themselves. And he adds on another page: “No one is entirely guilty of his fear.”

Eliseo Alberto was not a counter-revolutionary; he went from “red” to “pink.” He loved the Revolution as one loves a youth, and that makes it more painful. Because he understood that the great success of the process was not literacy or reform, but to perfect the art of depersonalization. The Revolution turned obedience into moral virtue, loyalty into a test of faith continue reading

and fear into a form of belonging. It taught how to give up the self without feeling that it was given up.

The Cuban speaks like a militant in the ration store, a skeptic at home and a victim with foreigners or in exile.

From that moral experiment emerged a phenomenon that still defines Cuba: the multifaceted self. It is not a psychological split, but a pragmatic identity that rotates according to the context without being dissociated: a strategy of moral and linguistic adaptation in an environment where personal coherence could be dangerous. It is the ability, or need, to change both face and language according to the context. The Cuban speaks like a militant in the ration store, a skeptic at home and a victim with foreigners or in exile. Each environment activates a code, a lexicon, a “way of thinking.” That verbal and moral plasticity, born of fear, ended up becoming — like jokes and humor — another survival strategy: learning to say the “right” thing where appropriate.

It is not hypocrisy, but adaptation. In a country where sincerity could cost at least a punishment, work or freedom, discourse was fragmented. This created a culture of interchangeable opinions, where words serve to protect, not to reveal. The result: a people who, by force of pretense, ended up not knowing at all who they are.

Report Against Myself is the autopsy of that loss. Eliseo Alberto does not accuse, he does not pontificate; he shows how the system managed to install a censor within each citizen. And although the author wrote from exile, his book is still relevant on the Island. Every time someone shuts up out of prudence or fear, disguises his thinking in order to survive or changes his vocabulary so as not to be out of tune, he himself rewrites that report.

“The Revolution has grown old, but its most enduring work is still alive: the Cuban divided between what he says, what he keeps silent -but thinks- and what he seems to say.” That depersonalization triumphed where the five-year plans and the harvest of ten million failed.

‘Report Against Myself’ is not a political allegation, but an inner atonement

Perhaps the only thing left to do, on behalf of all those who unknowingly signed it, is to write the reverse: a report in one’s own favor. A report in favor of freedom. Even so, lucidity and candor do not exonerate. Eliseo Alberto was a victim and participant at the same time, like many of the intellectuals of his generation. The problem — and here is something uncomfortable — is that many, for aesthetic, family or ideological fidelity, kept silent too long. Some did so out of fear; others, believing they could still save the project from within. But when the cultural and moral repression was already evident, staying was also a form of complicity, even if it was passive or sentimental.

This moral ambiguity should be recognized: not to judge it harshly, but to remember that the sensitivity and intelligence with which a pain of conscience is expressed in writing are not enough when a long past silence perpetuates the damage. Eliseo Alberto faced the monster, yes, but he did it late. And he paid for it with a chronic remorse, not with the personal and committed political action that would have been more redemptive. Report Against Myself is not a political allegation, but an inner atonement.

His friend Héctor Abad Faciolince, from Colombia, expressed it with the clarity of someone who did not share this servitude: he admired his talent, but could not forgive him for taking so long to break the “spell.” That remark, more fraternal than cruel, sums up the moral dilemma of a generation that believed that the word — poetry, essay, criticism from within — could redeem a Revolution that had already lost its soul, given itself to the same “devil” … that it itself had created.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Sends a Ship With 70,000 Barrels of Diesel to Cuba

The ‘Ocean Mariner’ sailed last Wednesday from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, heading for Havana, where, according to the Marine Traffic website, it will arrive this Monday.

14ymedio, Mexico City, Sergio Castro Bibriesca, November 16, 2025 — This week oil shipments from Mexico to Cuba were reactivated. According to the weekly ship schedule of the Port of Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz, the tanker Ocean Mariner loaded 10,392 tons of diesel and fuel oil and sailed last Wednesday to Havana, where, according to the Marine Traffic website, it will arrive this Monday.

The shipment would represent about 70 million barrels, according to Ramses Pech, advisor of energy and economy, who points out to 14ymedio that the cargo, about 11 million liters, could represent a cost of between 12 and 18 million dollars.

Whether it’s diesel or fuel oil, “Cuba burns much of its fossil fuel to generate electricity,” he says. The island “has great problems because of that. We have seen it the last few times with the national power outages, partly due to the fact that they have received less fuel from Venezuela. That is why Mexico started to send crude oil as well,” he adds.

“Cuba burns much of its fossil fuel to generate electricity”

The expert indicates that Mexico “must be sending Cuba fuel with a low amount of sulphur, as well as fuel oil with less than 2%, and this can help generate the power plants. It may be a conversion from diesel to fuel oil. There is not much difference.” He says that “they may even be residuals that you can also burn, or a low-quality diesel. After all, they are fuels that you can use and adapt to how you’re going to burn them.” continue reading

According to the local media Notiver, which reported from early November the presence of the tanker, the Ocean Mariner arrived on October 27 but did not enter port and stayed until October 31 in the anchorage area. Although it was reported that its departure was officially on November 12, “it stayed facing the port” and left on the 14th of November.

The Ocean Mariner, flying the flag of Liberia, “a small ship,” according to Ramses Pech, has sailed from Mexican ports to Cuba on at least four occasions since May 23, according to satellite tracking consulted by the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity.

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has justified the diesel exports to Cuba, saying they are due to an alleged “surplus”

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has justified the diesel exports to Cuba, saying they are due to an alleged “surplus” in the country. However, experts such as Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, have pointed out that Mexico can send the hydrocarbon to the island because it imports diesel and gasoline from the US, to the point of being its largest buyer of refined fuels, according to official data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

At her daily press conferenceon October 16, the successor of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that there was an elevated production of this oil derivative in the country to justify shipments to the island.

In this respect, Pech warns that “it is important that Mexico clarify how these alleged sales are made — something that Pemex has concealed and justified as a ‘private matter’– because, shortly, we will have the revision of the T-MEC (Trade Agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada) on the energy side, and that could affect Mexico in terms of the new terms and conditions that may come, which could limit shipments” to Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Havana Marathon, Another Victim of the Viruses That Plague Cuba

Laura, Reynier and other fans who are convalescing, even those with symptoms, have chosen to run the middle distance of 10 kilometers since the 5000 meter [5k] race is only for foreigners

This year only 200 foreign runners have registered, fewer than the 300 of the 2024 edition. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Darío Hernández, November 15, 2025 — Many runners will not participate in the 39th edition of the Havana Marathon (Marabana) due to the consequences of dengue and chikungunya, viruses that according to official figures have affected 30% of the Cuban population. Cancelations, changes of distance and disorganization marked the first day of number pick-up at the hotel Habana Libre for registered athletes.

“I’m here because I want to see if I can change the distance. I had planned to run the marathon, the 42 kilometers, but this year I won’t be able to.” Laura has been running for 10 years, and it’s been nine since she missed an edition of the most popular race in Cuba. The first time, she remembers, she ran the 5 kilometer competition and then it increased, first to 10 kilometers and then to the half marathon (21 kilometers), until five years ago when she managed to run the full marathon.

“This time it will be impossible for me. I got the virus a month ago. I spent two weeks without going out, and only now have I been able to stretch my legs a little. The pains are still there, in the wrists, ankles, the soles of my feet. I recently ran 5 kilometers as a test and spent the next three days unable to walk. And just the next day, on the Round Table program, Dr. Durán said that the pains can last from three months to a year.” Laura prefers not to take risks and to rest a bit, so she wants to cut the distance in half. “If they don’t change my participation to 21 kilometers, I won’t run this year.”

Reyner, on the other hand, says that the virus hit him very hard, and he constantly relapses. “I’m still convalescing, but this would be my first race, and I don’t want to miss it. I was going to run the 10 kilometers, and I want to lower it to 5, but it’s difficult because this distance is only for foreigners. It’s the most popular, and surely more people would come and spice it up. Cubans can only run 10 kilometers. No one runs a 10; that takes preparation. That’s why the Marabana is becoming less popular.” continue reading

About 2,800 runners will participate this year. / 14ymedio

According to data provided to the official press by Carlos Gatorno, director of the Marabana Maracuba National Running and Walking Commission, this year about 2,800 runners will participate, more than the 2,400 from last year, but only 200 will be foreigners, fewer than the 300 of the 2024 edition. They can opt for any distance and the possibility of running only 5 kilometers. To do this, they must pay $150 for registration.

Daniel is Mexican and has a two-year employment contract in Cuba. He says that the cost seems excessive and that he will wait until the day of the race, because he has been told that there are almost always extra spots at the last minute. “This year it should be much easier to buy a number. I have a friend who got in that way. An acquaintance gave him his permit to get a number, because he is in bed with the virus.”

However, on the morning of Thursday, the first day to pick up the number and the runner’s bag, which includes a T-shirt, a package of detergent and wet towels, many complained that the organizers did not let anyone else pick up the numbers of those who were sick. They had to go in person. “These people are inflexible. With the number of people convalescing how can you be so strict? They have to limp in line to enroll,” says Luis, who had to come personally on crutches to pick up his number — despite not being able to participate because he is sick — in order to give it to his brother.

“My brother came the day before to ask and they told him no, that if he was sick he could not run, and that they could not be giving out T-shirts like this, because those were used for prizes in other competitions. My brother was in shock, because nothing they told him made sense. They are very intolerant about giving the T-shirt and number to someone else.”

Foreigners must pay $150 for registration. / 14ymedio

The hours passed and the line did not advance. Above, in the registration area, members of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and other official institutions had priority when receiving their numbers and carried the T-shirts for their members in suitcases, even though it was reported that the time for these institutions was Wednesday, the day before.

This Sunday, November 16, when the Marabana begins on Independence Avenue, hundreds of registered Cubans will not participate in the race, due to the aftermath of the viruses that have been plaguing the island for months, and for which there is still no response.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Among Fries and Pizzas, the Kiosks Near the Hospital of Matanzas Sell All Kinds of Drugs

“Except for the blood for surgery, I had to buy everything else out here among the bread and jam”

“You can find aspirin made in Cuba and antidepressants from the United States. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Matanzas, Julio César Contreras, November 15, 2025 — As soon as the sun warms the pavement in front of the Faustino Pérez hospital in Matanzas, the sidewalk begins to fill with medical students, patients’ families and curious people who roam among the blue and red kiosks lined up on the street. The scene is familiar: a small hive where the smell of freshly made pizzas mixes with the noise of the mototaxis waiting for customers and the conversations of those looking for something to eat… or something much more urgent.

Sandra is one of them. After hours of trying to get from the hospital pharmacy tablets of paracetamol prescribed for her joint discomfort, she came out empty-handed. This Thursday she can be seen among the kiosks, adjusting her shoulder bag, breathing with exhaustion. “They are only giving some of the medicines to the hospitalized patients,” she says without imagining that, next to a juice and fries counter, she would find the solution that the public health system could not give her.

In one of these stalls, barely noticeable behind the poster for smoothies and pizzas, an employee holds a large bag where refreshments coexist with bottles of pills, blister packs and several packets of syringes. “She has vitamins, antibiotics and even needles,” says Sandra, while showing the 500 mg pack of paracetamol that she just bought for 900 pesos. “If I don’t do it like this, the pain kills me.” continue reading

“That’s why the government pharmacies are empty, because there is no one to control this illegal sale.” / 14ymedio

Sandra also needs Captopril for her mother, who has been unable to purchase it at the state pharmacy for more than six months. “I don’t have enough money to pay the 350 pesos that it costs there; otherwise I would have bought it.”

“Along with a malt I bought the suture thread for my wife’s operation,” says Leonardo, a butcher who knows the informal circuit well. “The surgeon himself told me where to go and who I had to see.” His words do not surprise anyone: many in that area have gone through the same thing. “Except for the blood for surgery, I had to buy everything else out here. Among the bread and jam, if you have the money anything appears.”

El costo total de los insumos para la cirugía de su esposa rondó los 5.000 pesos: seis pares de guantes desechables –“a 250 pesos cada uno, vendidos por un tipo que hace pan con minuta de pescado”–, más antibióticos, más soluciones salinas, más suturas. “El colmo”, cuenta, “después de ser operada, mi esposa tenía fiebre. Como en la sala no había un termómetro, vine directo para acá y compré uno en 2.300 pesos”.

The total cost of supplies for his wife’s surgery was around 5,000 pesos: six pairs of disposable gloves — “at 250 pesos each, sold by a guy who makes bread with fish fillets” — plus antibiotics, more saline solutions, more sutures. “Then,” he says, “after being operated on, my wife had a fever. Since there was no thermometer in the room, I came straight here and bought one for 2,300 pesos.”

“As there was no thermometer in the room, I came straight here and bought one for 2,300 pesos.” / 14ymedio

Laura, a third-year medical student, takes advantage of a break between patients to get her father’s urgently needed Amoxicillin. The young woman, in her white coat, converses with other students and carries a folded bill between her fingers. “I’m going to wait for some people to leave. I know who sells it. I always check the expiration date before buying,” she says.

She herself explains what sells in those kiosks: “You can find aspirins made in Cuba and antidepressants from the United States.” Nothing appears on the price boards: neither Loratadina, nor Cefalexina, nor Rosefin, but everyone knows that they are available… at the price of the day. “The medicines go up as much or more than the food. Many come to eat a pizza and end up buying pills. It’s an option.”

As Laura discreetly walks away, more students arrive, more family members wait, more salesmen arrange boxes or discreetly check inside their backpacks. Between pizzas, soft drinks and endless lines, there is everything here that the state pharmacies cannot offer.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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