Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 2

“Trump, Military Intervention Now!”, a New Sign at the Mayabe Cemetery in Holguín

In June 2025, more than twenty graffiti messages on the same wall prompted a major police deployment

It is not the first time that signs against the Cuban regime have appeared on the wall of the Mayabe cemetery. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, October 10, 2026 — A new sign appeared this Saturday on the wall of the Mayabe cemetery in Holguín, this time with a message directed at the U.S. president: “Trump, military intervention now!”, written in large blue letters on the white wall bordering Avenida de los Internacionalistas, as 14ymedio observed at the scene. The graffiti is signed with the initials CLH, which stand for the Free Commandos of Holguín.

“The sign is brand-new because State Security hasn’t arrived yet,” a local resident said. A vehicle belonging to a state-owned company parked beside the wall, and one of its occupants tried to scrape off the paint but was unsuccessful.

A vehicle belonging to a state-owned company parked beside the wall, and one of its occupants tried to scrape off the phrase but was unsuccessful

It is not known what time the sign was painted, but this type of dissident graffiti is often produced at night or in the early morning hours, when darkness is greatest. continue reading

The group known as the Free Commandos of Holguín is a clandestine organization that, since at least September 2026, has been credited with several signs against the regime at different locations throughout the city, including Plaza de los Chinos, the area around Lenin Hospital, the provincial government building, and bus terminals.

This is not the first time that the wall has become the setting for a protest against the regime. On June 12, 2025, more than twenty anti-government signs appeared along approximately 200 meters of the wall. “Homeland and Life,” “Díaz-Canel, you motherfucker,” “Freedom for the People,” and “Down with the dictatorship” were among the slogans, which were painted in black at the time.

This is not the first time that the wall has become the setting for a protest against the regime.

The authorities’ response was much more dramatic then than what had been observed so far this Saturday. Agents from the Ministry of the Interior kept watch over the cemetery and its surroundings while the letters were scraped off, even using machetes. They also brought in a tanker truck loaded with lime to cover the messages. An electric tricycle driver who passed by the scene told 14ymedio at the time that he had been afraid of being arrested by the Police.

Last September, the façade of the theater at the Central University of Las Villas in Santa Clara awoke to an enormous “Down with Canel.” The authorities covered the graffiti with Cuban flags and flags of the July 26 Movement, while State Security tried to identify those responsible.

The repression of such actions has also reached the courts. University professor Ariel Manuel Martín Barroso was sentenced to ten years in prison in Sancti Spíritus for several pieces of graffiti against the regime, including “Down with Díaz-Canel” and “Homeland and Life.”

The Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 42 pieces of graffiti against the regime in February 2026 and another 70 in March, appearing on walls, fences, and streets in different parts of Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Diesel Imports from the U.S. Surpassed the Record Set the Previous Month

In August, vehicle exports reached $15.28 million, with motorcycles leading the way at $3.7 million.

A Cupet gas station in Yayabo, Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, October 9, 2026 — The growth in fuel exports from the U.S. to Cuba continues unabated. In August, the value of these products rose 22.4% compared to the previous month, reaching $74.8 million. This figure once again sets a record, surpassing the $61.1 million recorded in July, which was itself 27.7% higher than June. In the first eight months of the year, the cumulative value of petroleum-derived products exported to the Island reached $231.74 million.

According to statistics published this Thursday by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, the product most heavily purchased by the Island in August was diesel, particularly through two significant shipments from Miami, worth $21.49 million, and Houston-Galveston, Texas, worth $12.98 million. Next in importance was a shipment of regular gasoline from Miami valued at $23.8 million.

In addition, exports of other petroleum oils and hydrocarbons are also particularly significant, especially two shipments from Houston ($6.1 million) and New Orleans ($5.5 million).

In addition, exports of other petroleum oils and hydrocarbons are also particularly significant, especially two shipments from Houston ($6.1 million) and New Orleans ($5.5 million)

As usual, the US-Cuba Trade report does not reflect the volume of exports. To determine the quantities involved, and whether they also increased or to what extent rising fuel prices contributed to the increase, it will be necessary to wait for data provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last July, that report revealed that the Island had received 3,222,000 barrels of petroleum products, almost double the amount agreed upon by Cuba and Venezuela in 2000 under the agreement signed by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. continue reading

Cuba’s private sector is importing this fuel, which keeps the Island afloat, with authorization from both governments: the Cuban government allows it to purchase the fuel, and the U.S. government allows its companies to sell it. The country would have collapsed completely without these shipments. On paper, the State is not allowed to touch this fuel, although this newspaper has widely reported that numerous regime vehicles are being supplied with this diesel, which is purchased from private operators through schemes that the U.S. describes as violations of the sales contracts.

Over the past week, the U.S. said it had intercepted around 90 fuel shipments to the Island that were destined for the sanctioned Cuban state-owned company Enetec. Of these, 71 were detected at the port of Fort Everglades, Florida, and 19 at the port of Houston, Texas. In total, the authorities seized 600,000 gallons of petroleum (2.27 million liters) worth $2.8 million. The destination of all the shipments arriving on the Island is unknown, since it is unlikely that the private sector has the capacity to consume it all. One plausible theory is that the State is attempting to rebuild its strategic reserves, which it had to draw upon during the first months of U.S. sanctions.

The official press, for its part, is publishing an extensive report this Friday in an attempt to demonstrate that the oil blockade and fuel shortages have brought the transportation sector to a standstill. Among the arguments is the inability to supply airports with kerosene, which has led to flight cancellations and, consequently, the collapse of tourism, on which the Government had partly pinned its hopes for an economic recovery.

In addition, the authorities claim that “passenger transportation in Havana is currently operating with just over 100 buses, when at least 3,000 are needed to provide quality service,” they state. They claim that with barely 40,000 tons of fuel allocated this year, only 65% of demand can be met. These are among the examples cited.

Alongside the fuel boom, bilateral trade between Cuba and the U.S., authorized under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Treasury, continues to generate high figures in other sectors, such as vehicle sales. In August, vehicle exports—new and used, electric and gasoline-powered, trucks, motorcycles, and spare parts—reached $15.28 million, with motorcycles clearly leading the way, accounting for $3.7 million.

So far this year, the value of sales in this sector has exceeded $106 million, and it remains to be seen whether it will reach the record set in 2025, when it reached $149.4 million

So far this year, the value of sales in this sector has exceeded $106 million, and it remains to be seen whether it will reach the record set in 2025, when it reached $149.4 million, more than double the previous year’s figure. Republican complaints against Joe Biden, the first president to authorize vehicle sales to Cuba in 2022, have been forgotten, and exports are experiencing a period of extraordinary growth.

Meanwhile, sales of agricultural products and food showed a temporary recovery in August, increasing by 54.6% compared with the previous month. However, compared to August of last year, the value has fallen by 3.4%. Chicken once again tops the list in three different categories, with eggs in seventh place, and vegetable oils and cookies also remain high on the list. The tenth-place item in the top ten stands out: coffee, a product native to Cuba that is exported from the Island as a gourmet product, even as Cubans have to obtain it from the United States.

According to US-Cuba Trade projections, the cumulative total of U.S. exports to the Island across all authorized categories could exceed the $1 billion mark by the end of 2026.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Doctors Have Returned to Jamaica, Now With Individual Contracts

Health Minister Christopher Tufton puts the number of Cuban professionals already deployed in the field at 200.

Cuban doctors arriving in Jamaica. / The Sun

14ymedio, Madrid, October 8, 2026 – Seven months after the withdrawal of the medical brigade from Jamaica, the number of Cuban healthcare professionals on the Caribbean island has already reached 200, increasingly approaching the number that existed when Kingston broke the agreement under pressure from Washington. The specialists are arriving this time through individual contracts, a modality that more and more countries are turning to in order to retain personnel from the Island and circumvent sanctions from the White House.

“These 157 are in addition to the other 43 Cuban medical professionals who had remained in the country, bringing the total number of Cuban medical professionals in the public health service to 200,” Jamaican Health Minister Christopher Tufton said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The official spoke about his Government’s recent efforts to recruit abroad the medical personnel the country needs, as it is affected by a chronic shortage in this sector. At the end of September, a group of healthcare workers from Ghana joined the system under an agreement that calls for 400 to arrive. “We warmly welcome the Ghanaian nurses and look forward to the valuable contribution they will make to our healthcare system and to the people we serve,” Tufton said on the 28th when he received them. continue reading

The minister explained that this is only one piece of the program, called Vision for Health 2030, and that Nigerians and Cubans will join them

But on Wednesday, the minister explained that this is only one piece of the program, called Vision for Health 2030, and that Nigerians and Cubans will join them. “Over the next three years, the ministry will recruit around 300 nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals to work in the Jamaican public health system,” he said.

“In the case of Nigeria, the new agreement builds on the health cooperation already underway. Previously, we had welcomed four specialized nursing educators under the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps Program, who continue to contribute to specialized training and service delivery in the public health system,” he clarified before specifying the destinations of each group of specialists.

As for the Cubans, the largest group (69) has gone to the southeast region, another 28 to the west, 25 to the University Hospital of the West Indies, and 26 to the southern region. Finally, nine have been sent to the northeast area and the Ministry of Health.

Last July, Tufton had already announced the return of 50 Cuban healthcare workers who would join the group that had decided to remain in Jamaica from the outset. The Health Minister put the number of Cuban specialists in the country at 278 at the time the agreement was terminated. “Of that number, more than 40 decided not to return [to Cuba] and were given individual contracts. Now, they are working in the system,” he said in May.

The termination of the agreement with Cuba took place in March, following intense negotiations to renew an agreement that had expired some time earlier. Since the beginning of the year, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had pressured for an end to the contracts with the Cuban regime, based on complaints that they constitute forced labor because of the conditions under which they are carried out, and above all, because around 80% of the salary is appropriated and handed over to Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health, leaving the professional with barely 20%.

Rubio met with various governments to warn them of sanctions if they did not end these agreements. Among those contacts was Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who received the Secretary of State in Kingston and tried to convince him that his government was “very careful not to exploit Cuban doctors.” However, during the renegotiation of the agreements with Havana, he sought to find a satisfactory solution for both sides, urging the regime to accept individual contracts. But the idea did not succeed.

“This comes after both governments were unable to agree on the terms and conditions of a new technical cooperation agreement, following the expiration of the previous one in February 2023,” Kingston said when announcing the termination, although it left the door open for the specialists to remain in Jamaica in one way or another.

“This comes after both governments were unable to agree on the terms and conditions of a new technical cooperation agreement, following the expiration of the previous one in February 2023”

The Cuban Government accused the country of yielding to U.S. pressure to withdraw the medical mission, an attitude that has forced the termination of similar agreements with Honduras, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, some others are resisting the pressure, such as Mexico and several Persian Gulf countries, and direct hiring is gaining ground, as in the case of the Italian region of Calabria and Uruguay, which Jamaica now joins. Precisely because of the Calabrian case, there is certainty about what many organizations had warned: once the payment is made, healthcare workers end up donating a large portion of their salary to the Cuban Government.

“We are all aware of the economic situation in Cuba. It is a contribution that we make voluntarily because Cuba trained us, educated us and made us doctors,” said a doctor assigned to Italy this July; several of her colleagues offered similar testimonies to the Associated Press.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Dollars That Do Not Appear Upon Returning From a Medical Mission in Angola

A healthcare worker who returned in June says she has been unable to collect her savings in cash, while colleagues who remain in Luanda are suffering from payment delays.

Daniel hopes that pressure from Washington over medical cooperation agreements will reach Angola and push its authorities toward direct contracts with healthcare workers. / Prensa Latina

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, October 8, 2026 – When Laura landed in Cuba in June, after three years on a medical mission in Angola, she brought with her a mixture of relief and exhaustion. She had left behind years of work, payment delays, and the hope that, at least upon returning, she would be able to access the money accumulated during her stay in the African country. Months later, she sums up the result with a blunt sentence: “I have not managed to receive a single cent.”

Her case gives a face to a complaint that has long circulated among Cuban brigades in Angola. Contracts managed by the Corporación Antillana Exportadora (Antex), which is linked to the Cuban military, establish that a large portion of the collaborators’ income is deposited in Cuba and provide for payment in dollars, subject to banking availability. In 2025, discontent led to tense meetings in Luanda, where several healthcare workers even threatened to sue the company because they were unable to withdraw their savings in foreign currency on the Island.

Laura, whose name has been changed to avoid reprisals, has gone “more than four times” to branches of the Banco Popular de Ahorro in the city of Sancti Spíritus, where she lives. She has submitted a request to withdraw dollars in cash but is still waiting. For now, she explains, she can only access MLC (Moneda Libremente Convertible, for electronic use only) and the balance on a Clásica card, in dollars, which can also be used to buy gasoline and even transfer funds from one to the other. The problem arises when she tries to turn those virtual numbers into real money. continue reading

With MLC stores out of stock, the alternative ends up where so many economic transactions by Cubans do: in the informal market

With MLC stores out of stock, the alternative ends up where so many economic transactions by Cubans do: in the informal market. “Sell the balance on the Clásica to get cash in pesos and then buy the dollars,” she explains. Each step involves a loss on the money she believed she was saving during three years.

The return was not the end of the logistical problems either. Laura says that on her flight and on one or two subsequent returns, Antex stopped guaranteeing transportation from Havana to the provinces. “They make you sign a paper saying that you agree to arrange transportation to your province; otherwise, you stay in Angola,” she says. She knows colleagues who have been in the African country for more than 20 months, waiting for there to be space on a flight to return.

Nor did the goods purchased during the mission arrive with her. The shipment must be arranged independently, and her belongings remain in Angola. Since the direct TAAG flight in June, she says, there has been no other direct connection to bring them back.

The Cuba she found after three years away does not resemble the one she left either. “As a bus driver would say, we are moving backward,” she jokes. Then she lists: “Misery, shortages, abandonment, mistreatment, crime, incompetence.” She returned to her former position in Public Health but did not last long. “I left it because my 5,000-peso salary is not enough for anything. You can earn more even selling candy.”

Her assessment of Angola is equally bitter. During the three years she was there, “there wasn’t even one” period when she received the 200 dollars a month she was supposed to receive for her expenses in the African country. Most of the time she received 100 dollars, and on two occasions she went two months without being paid. Complaints previously collected by 14ymedio also described systematic delays, problems with vacations, and professionals forced to extend their stays.

From Luanda, Daniel, a Cuban doctor currently working at the Hospital Materno Infantil do Camama Dr. Manuel Pedro Azancot de Menezes, confirms that little appears to have changed. “Delays have been the order of the day with the payment they are supposed to give us every month,” he says. “We thought that with everything that has happened with Cuban medical missions in other countries they were going to treat us better, but everything remains the same.”

Daniel hopes that pressure from Washington over medical cooperation agreements will reach Angola and push its authorities toward direct contracts with healthcare workers. He looks to Calabria as a reference, although the Italian model has not eliminated the transfer of part of the salary to the regime either: doctors interviewed there acknowledged that they hand over up to half of what they receive to the State.

Laura, by contrast, no longer expects reforms. When asked what she thinks of Antex, she answers bluntly: “The worst, they’re only there to collect money from you.” And when asked whether she would recommend a mission in Angola to a colleague, her answer is even more emphatic: “Not even to my worst enemy.” She does not wish on anyone, she says, “either the ordeal of living there without any response to anything or the bureaucracy and mistreatment from the moment you arrive at the airport until now.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One in Four Cuban Workers Has an Informal Job

Opportunities to access decent work, whose international day is celebrated this Wednesday, are shrinking in a Cuba facing a polycrisis.

Pensioners who have no family support or other means of livelihood engage in informal and precarious work to make ends meet. / IPS

IPS Cuba (via 14ymedio), Havana, October 7, 2026 – Magalys, 63, sells coffee from a thermos that she prepares at home every weekday outside the Hermanos Ameijeiras Clinical-Surgical Hospital, in the center of the capital, one of the informal and precarious jobs performed by elderly people in Cuban cities.

“Even though I receive a pension, I have to go out and hustle, because the money isn’t enough,” she tells a customer to whom she also sells a cigarette. In the face of the crisis, more and more people like her are seeking other sources of income, often far from the guarantees of decent employment defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The ideal of decent employment, to which every October 7 has been dedicated since 2008, was defined in 1999 by Chilean lawyer and diplomat Juan Somavia, the ILO’s first director-general, and expresses the idea that, globally, work should be a means of self-realization through freedom and not merely a means of subsistence.

“Work is not decent when it is carried out without respect for fundamental labor principles and rights, nor when it does not provide a fair income proportional to the effort made, without gender or any other type of discrimination, nor when it is carried out without social protection and excludes dialogue,” wrote Virgilio Levaggi, deputy regional director of the ILO for Latin America and the Caribbean. continue reading

“Work is not decent when it is carried out without respect for fundamental labor principles and rights, nor when it does not provide a fair income proportional to the effort made, without gender or any other type of discrimination, nor when it is carried out without social protection and excludes dialogue”

“Since the university closed in February, I wanted to work at something, but in my town there is hardly anything where they pay fairly,” a 23-year-old university student who lives in a rural community in Artemisa province told IPS Cuba.

“I looked for work at the elementary school, but the salary was very low and I had to go every day. And in the countryside you work a lot and they pay very little,” he continued, describing his search for income since university classrooms closed and classes shifted to a digital format because of the oil blockade imposed on Cuba by the U.S. in January.

The young man opted for an informal activity that is quite common among people who manage to acquire a means of transportation on the Island. “I have an electric motorcycle, and with it I give short rides to people I know,” he said.

As early as 2022, jurist Roberto Rodríguez identified as many as seven challenges related to the Cuban State’s compliance with it. In 2023, researcher Ovidio D´Angelo described how social conditions were creating dilemmas in this regard. The worsening situation in 2026 makes it more difficult to uphold these recently expanded international prerogatives, Cuban Minister of Labor and Social Security Jesús Otamendiz said last June before the ILO.

Today, Cuba’s labor ecosystem is marked by a collapse in the value of wages and deterioration in working hours, staffing, and income in key sectors of the economy that once generated employment, such as tourism and tobacco.

Cuba ended 2025 with a working-age population of 5,606,541, according to the latest available figures from the state National Office of Statistics and Information, which updated the country’s total population to 9.4 million people.

The 2024 National Employment Survey (ENO) placed Cuba among the countries with the lowest employment rates in the Latin American region, with only 49.1% of its working-age population employed. That indicator had an average of 58.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean at the time, according to the ILO.

Magalys, who worked as an accountant all her life, now receives a retirement pension of 5,000 Cuban pesos, equivalent to around six dollars according to the different exchange rates in effect.

“I could go back to my former State job to earn the additional salary, but it isn’t worth it,” she said, referring to what it means today to work for an average state salary equivalent to less than $10, with required working hours and responsibilities, while facing difficulties such as lack of transportation, blackouts, and water shortages.

“I could go back to my former State job to earn the additional salary, but it isn’t worth it”

Salaries in Cuban pesos, which are mostly paid by the State, the country’s main employer, are losing value amid inflation estimated at 25% by the end of this year. Price growth during the first half of 2026 was close to 20% compared to 2025, according to the January-July 2026 report from the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy.

Many social protections thus lose part of their value, despite Minister Otamendiz’s assertion in June that budgets and social workers had been expanded.

According to a study conducted by the University of Havana in 2025, these vulnerable sectors face, in terms of employability, “systemic barriers such as lack of accessibility and discrimination, where more comprehensive oversight and the standardization of the legal framework are required.”

The above factors make informal employment attractive to sectors that, taken together, without labor guarantees or rights, already represent 25% of the country’s workforce, employed mostly within the private sector, according to the ENO.

Other strategic sectors that once provided employment have been affected by the polycrisis, such as construction, professional services, non-sugar agroindustry, food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, biomedical production, the sugar agroindustry and its derivatives, and light industry.

The National Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030 includes among its objectives “generating sufficient and productive employment.” Among the goals of this task is to provide more opportunities for decent employment.

For specialists, the expansion of mipymes (micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) can contribute to this aspiration. There are more than 16,100 mipymes approved to date, adding to the 1.3 million private-sector employees that existed in 2024.

On the other hand, the State sector has a large number of vacancies. One problem is the low salaries, which many qualified employees consider insufficient, prompting them to move to the private sector or the informal economy, as Ileana Díaz of the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy explains in an article.

“My greatest motivation is to finish the mandatory social service. If they paid me better, I could practice my profession, but when I finish, I want to devote myself fully to something that gives me money and that I am equally passionate about,” said Ana Fundora, 22, a recent History graduate of the University of Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban State Gets Its Solar Panels from Beijing, While Private Individuals Buy Them in the U.S.

Photovoltaic equipment purchased from the neighboring country rose from $500,000 in 2025 to $6.3 million so far this year.

Duty-free imports of solar panels began to be authorized in 2021. / (Heriberto González Brito/Trabajadores)

14ymedio, Madrid, October 7, 2026 – The U.S. and China are fighting another small battle in Cuba: photovoltaics. Although the Asian giant is an incomparable exporter both worldwide and specifically to the Island, a combination of proximity, the liberalization of measures, and the Cubans’ pressing need have turned the northern neighbor into a growing supplier.

According to data from the U.S.-Cuba Economic and Trade Council (Cuba Trade), compiled by the economic portal Bloomberg, so far this year the U.S. has exported solar cells and modules worth $6.3 million to the Island, 1,070% more than the $500,000 exported the previous year. In addition, this represents more than 185 times the total for 2024.

“It is somewhat ironic that Cuba could become an important renewable energy export market for U.S. companies,” John Kavulich, president of Cuba Trade, told Bloomberg. “Especially considering the White House’s unfavorable stance toward renewable energy.”

“It is somewhat ironic that Cuba could become an important renewable energy export market for U.S. companies”

The outlet specifically recounts the case of La Campana, an events venue located in the municipality of La Lisa that has invested $10,000 to become independent not only from the national electric system, but also from the noisy generator they used for 15 years and for which finding fuel was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. continue reading

A relative of the owner living in the U.S. was the one who sent him, through the CubaMax shipping agency, the 5-kilowatt-hour lithium batteries he needed, previously purchased on Amazon. As Bloomberg recounts, while the Island suffered its seventh nationwide blackout of the year last September, the guests continued partying under La Campana’s lights and did not even know what had happened until they left the venue.

China is by far Cuba’s main supplier of solar energy equipment. In 2025 alone, Beijing sent $117 million worth of photovoltaic equipment to the Island, compared to just $5 million in 2023. At the beginning of 2024, the Cuban regime announced the construction of 92 solar parks by 2028 through contracts with two Chinese companies. Of that total, more than 50 have already been completed.

Added to this are the 10,000 kits delivered directly by the Cuban government in two batches of 5,000, which have been installed in medical centers, isolated areas, and facilities serving vulnerable populations. In addition, in 2025 Cuban authorities spoke of a donation that could be used to build another 22 photovoltaic parks of 120 MW, seven of which already have the initial equipment needed to begin construction.

In this way, China, the world’s largest exporter of this technology, is responsible for nearly 80% compared to 1% for the United States. It has become the main contributor to the change in the Island’s energy matrix by selling to the State, which also markets the equipment at retail through Copextel to private individuals and businesses.

Bloomberg points out that, in contrast to the growth in sales from the U.S., imports from China have slowed. It bases this on exports recorded through the end of July, when the value of sales had reached $19.5 million, little compared to the aforementioned $117 million in 2025. Although half a year remains to be added, the decline is significant, at 83%, although the agency is comparing an entire year to seven months according to the report.

The U.S. represents a much smaller figure when taking into account that China has exported solar equipment worth three times as much, but another factor to consider is the recipient. While Beijing is a state-level supplier, kits for private individuals and private businesses arrive from U.S. ports.

While Beijing is a state-level supplier, kits for private individuals and private businesses arrive from U.S. ports

In 2021, the Island’s government authorized duty-free imports for Cubans, a measure that was expanded in mid-2025 to companies, which have since been exempt not only from paying customs duties but also airport fees, all in an attempt to expand renewable energy amid an extreme energy crisis. In 2026, the situation has worsened with the end of Venezuelan oil deliveries and the U.S. blockade of crude shipments to Cuba from any country.

In August, the authorities also published a resolution authorizing the private sector to generate and sell electricity produced in this way, by allowing it to sell its surplus to the State.

No solution has been sufficient to alleviate the serious national energy crisis, among other reasons because the weakness of the thermoelectric plants prevents them from robustly compensating for the fluctuations inherent to renewable energy. In addition, the lack of batteries capable of storing electricity generated during daylight hours renders the solar parks ineffective in the middle of the night, during peak hours.

“Solar energy is a good investment as long as it is done intelligently, something that, unfortunately, they are not doing at the moment,” Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the University of Texas Energy Institute, told Bloomberg.

“The reason Cuba has not stopped, collapsed, or ground to a halt is because the economy has shrunk almost to the same extent as the volume of fuel it used to import,” Kavulich concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Episcopal Church of Cuba Expresses Its “Solidarity” with Anna Bensi and Her Mother

“We cannot remain silent in the face of the pain that we are all suffering at this moment in our history,” it states in an open letter

Anna Bensi in a video released after the trial / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2026 – The Episcopal Church has joined the multiple Protestant churches that had expressed their support for the cause of influencer and activist Anna Sofía Benítez, known as Anna Bensi, through a statement published this Monday in which they also denounce the living conditions of Cubans and the growing inequality among them.

“As the Body of Christ on this earth, we cannot remain silent in the face of the pain that we are all suffering at this moment in our history,” begins the letter, published on the Church’s website and social media. The text is structured into five sections, the first of which describes what they call “our reality,” a panorama that speaks of migration that “tears families apart,” rising prices for basic products and increasing inequality.

Among its main concerns, it raises the lack of water, food and medicines, the “unbearable blackouts,” the deterioration of the healthcare and education systems despite the “titanic effort” of workers in both sectors, who continue to contribute their “vocation” despite everything. “These are not abstract realities, but rather they materialize in the lack of bread on the table, in sick people without treatment, in new generations without education and in mothers without hope,” it summarizes. continue reading

“These are not abstract realities, but rather they materialize in the lack of bread on the table, in sick people without treatment, in new generations without education and in mothers without hope”

The Episcopal Church, after citing a brief list of those that have already spoken out on behalf of Anna Bensi, expresses its “frustration and pain at the use of violence, intimidation and harassment by police forces against those who decide to raise their voices and demand their rights,” and cites the Constitution as the source of the right to freedom of expression.

“We are saddened by the suffering that these actions are causing in thousands of families, especially among young people. Silencing the voices of young people is silencing the present and future of the homeland. In the face of all this we say: enough! because we firmly believe that no Cuban should raise a hand against another Cuban, neither for political reasons nor for any other reason,” the text denounces. In the letter, the Church says it stands with the “weak and dispossessed,” as well as with those who suffer the consequences of expressing their discontent.

Although the appeal is “to the mercy of God,” so that the authorities will listen to the people, “whom they are called to serve and protect and not to continue asking for more sacrifices,” the letter is addressed directly to the Government. “Without any intention of confrontation, but rather of dialogue,” it emphasizes, before closing the text by highlighting the Church’s commitment to “serve and accompany” the people.

The letter is signed by Ángel Roberto Rivera Rodríguez, the ninth bishop of this denomination in Cuba, but it is endorsed by more than twenty reverends of the Church.

The case of Anna Bensi and her mother, Caridad Silvente, both identified as members of the Baptist Church, has sparked a wave of solidarity among a dozen Protestant churches on the island. Among them are the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, the Evangelical Pentecostal Church (Assemblies of God), the Evangelical League, the Methodist Church, and many others that have spoken out through statements or open letters in support of the activist.

The letter is signed by Ángel Roberto Rivera Rodríguez, the ninth bishop of this denomination in Cuba, but it is endorsed by more than twenty reverends of the Church

Benítez and Silvente were tried last Thursday, October 1, for an offense against the honor of a State Security agent, who reported the recording and dissemination of images of him by both women when he went to their home to deliver a summons. The East Havana Municipal People’s Court in Cojímar found them guilty and verbally announced a sentence of two years of restricted freedom for each of them, the exact terms of which remain unknown until the official notification.

The case has been widely reported by the international press, which was even able – unusually – to be at the courthouse doors and collect statements from Anna Bensi. The activist has received support not only from Protestant churches but also from many other dissidents and Christians, such as Anthony Martínez, who was summoned this Monday to a police unit after having accompanied the influencer at the trial.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba and the U.S. Communicate via WhatsApp and Phone, but There Are No Negotiations

The US State Department denies it and insists that talks are continuing, without results.

Cuba and the U.S. admit that they are talking but cannot agree on how to define the contacts. / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2026 – Cuba and the U.S. are talking: face-to-face via WhatsApp and phone, but they cannot even agree on the word they use to describe those conversations. For the Havana regime, they are “channels of communication,” according to the definition given by Lianys Torres Rivera, chargé d’affaires at the Cuban embassy in Washington. The diplomat gave a brief interview to the British agency Reuters in which she refused to reveal the dates, participants and topics discussed in those contacts.

Torres Rivera insisted that the regime is open to a “respectful” dialogue but that the “red line” remains not touching the political system, and she added that any demand for the removal of the current Cuban Government is a violation of its sovereignty. Meanwhile, there are “channels of communication” but no formal negotiation, she reiterated.

“We are not surprised that the Cuban regime is circulating this propaganda,” a White House official told Reuters in response. “In reality the talks are continuing, and the regime has so far been unwilling to accept anything that could help the Cuban people, which ultimately threatens its total control.” continue reading

“In reality the talks are continuing, and the regime has so far been unwilling to accept anything that could help the Cuban people, which ultimately threatens its total control”

The statements are, of course, in line with those of President Trump, who just two weeks ago stressed at the United Nations, on the sidelines of the 81st General Assembly, that Marco Rubio was “deeply involved in negotiations” with Havana. The president again described Cuba as a failed state, and just one day after new information circulated about Pentagon movements that fueled speculation, emphasized: “I would say that Cuba and we will make a deal. I don’t think we need the military.”

In the interview with Reuters, Lianys Torres Rivera once again denied that Cuba is a threat to the U.S. and insisted that these are excuses to “continue economically suffocating” the Island, imposing “collective punishment” on the population. In addition, the official made clear that they do not trust the Administration and have increased preparations to defend themselves against possible military action, without providing further details.

“Cuba has always been preparing for a U.S. aggression,” Torres Rivera said. “And we are increasing our capabilities now more than ever to defend ourselves.”

The official also criticized, as other members of the Cuban Government have done before, the U.S. attempt to systematically obstruct reforms to liberalize some sectors of the economy through sanctions. Among them, she pointed not only to the oil blockade on the Cuban state – although thousands of liters diverted from the private sector, the only sector authorized to purchase it, reach its hands – but also to measures against foreign companies that do business with it or against Cuban businesspeople who have accounts in the U.S., Washington’s latest target.

Among them, she pointed not only to the oil blockade on the Cuban state, but also to measures against foreign companies that do business with it or against Cuban businesspeople who have accounts in the U.S., Washington’s latest target

Many citizens have stated that the only people who had obtained authorization to have an account in that country were individuals close to the regime, which only opened the permission at the beginning of September. Two weeks later, the U.S. Government ordered those accounts blocked, and they may only be opened if they have express authorization from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Although the president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, John Kavulich, said just a few weeks ago that “the Trump Administration feels quite positive about the direction things are taking,” Washington has told Reuters that the reforms are not sufficient and that it continues to insist on “free and fair” elections. In addition, the State Department official added that the Government will not allow “foreign adversaries to threaten the United States in its own backyard,” without providing further specifics.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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U.S. Recruits Seven Workers Again Through Palco for Its Embassy in Cuba

Applicants have until October 8 through October 15 to apply, depending on the position sought.

The State Department pays Palco for the local employees it has at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, an amount that according to official data ranges between 100 and 200. / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, October 05, 2026 – The U.S. State Department is looking in Cuba for seven professionals for its embassy who must submit their applications in the coming days. The employees of this diplomatic mission are, paradoxically, hired by the state-owned Palco, which belongs to the sanctioned Gaesa conglomerate. Despite the fact that the regime has just published new regulations exempting foreign companies from the obligation to use a state employment agency, embassies and official organizations remain subject to intermediation, as indicated in Article 2 of the law.

For this purpose, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) provides specific exemptions from the sanctions that prevent commercial and economic relations with Cuban state entities. The State Department pays Palco for the local employees it has at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, an amount that according to official data ranges between 100 and 200.

Most of the positions offered correspond to lower levels of public employment, although there is one higher-level position: Strategic Content Coordinator in the Public Diplomacy section, for which the application deadline is Wednesday.

This position, for which a university education or at least two years completed in Communications, Business, Marketing or any other equivalent field is required, will have the highest salary because of its level, although the information does not specify how much is being offered. The employee must be able to design, manage and execute content and engagement strategies on social networks and websites to promote U.S. foreign policy priorities and connect with audiences on the Island. continue reading

This position, for which a university education or at least two years completed in Communications, Business, Marketing or any other equivalent field is required, will have the highest salary associated with it

At a slightly lower level are two other positions: Institutional Relations Assistant, and Information Technology Infrastructure and Systems Specialist Technician, with deadlines of October 12 and 15, respectively.

The former is responsible for designing, planning and coordinating activities aimed at entrepreneurs and young people to promote U.S. values through workshops and interactive programs.

Duties for the latter consist of installing, maintaining and repairing network infrastructure (UTP cabling, fiber optics and wireless systems) and communications devices (telephones, radios, satellite equipment and IoT) at U.S. Government facilities, vehicles and official residences. In addition, the employee must provide user support and manage the necessary connections and permissions.

The remaining four positions are for operational staff. There are two openings for security guards, with access-control and order-maintenance responsibilities, for which applications can be submitted until this Thursday the 8th, and which require nothing more than a rudimentary knowledge of English, quite the opposite of the driver position, which requires a good command of the language. The duties of the latter are to safely and efficiently drive light vehicles (not armored) owned or leased by the U.S. Government to transport personnel, official visitors or cargo, while also performing messenger duties when required. This position can be applied for until the 12th.

Finally, there is another position for driving trucks, which also requires the employee to be responsible for the transported cargo, its storage and the maintenance of the vehicles. Candidates can apply for this position until Thursday the 8th.

The recruitment announcement through social media has received a multitude of comments, some of them criticisms from people calling for the end of the “blockade,” but most not only express interest in joining the team, but also spontaneously offer themselves for any other need that may arise, such as artists, cooks, teachers or carpenters.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the Spanish Justice System, Mistreatment Suffered at the Hands of the Cuban Police Does Not Entitle One to Asylum

The National Court rejects a family’s appeal and emphasizes that refugee status applies only to people persecuted for “reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinions or sexual orientation.”

File image of the Asylum and Refuge Office of the Ministry of the Interior, in Madrid. / EFE/Juan Carlos Hidalgo

14ymedio, Madrid, October 05, 2026 – The Cuban political system does not in itself constitute grounds for granting asylum or refugee status to applicants in Spain, who must individually demonstrate that they face an imminent and specific danger if they return to their country. The Spanish Justice System has once again pointed this out, in the case of a Cuban family that appealed the resolution of the Ministry of the Interior and has been met with confirmation of the denial.

The case dates back to September 2019, a few days after the arrival of a father, mother and two children, the younger of whom had cancer, who submitted an application for international protection to the Provincial Brigade for Foreigners and Borders in Madrid. The father stated at the time that his youngest son had been diagnosed with the disease in Havana in 2012 and was undergoing treatment at a city hospital.

During that treatment, the father tried to get the doctors to prescribe a medication that would cause fewer side effects for the child, but they refused and began, according to his testimony, to coerce and threaten him and warn him of sanctions. According to the account, from that point on, the parents began searching on their own for alternative medications in pharmacies in the city without managing to get them, until they were eventually denied entry to the establishments for disturbing public order. According to the father, both parents were arrested and made the decision to leave Cuba because of death threats.

According to the father, both parents were arrested and made the decision to leave Cuba because of death threats

The Spanish authorities asked the father whether he had suffered or feared suffering in the future persecution because of race, religion, political opinions or political manifestations, and he answered no. However, he answered yes when asked whether there is an international or internal conflict in Cuba that causes indiscriminate violence that threatens the lives of its citizens or puts their physical integrity at risk. continue reading

There is an internal political conflict in Cuba, he said, adding that he himself had reported the events described to the Provincial Police Inspectorate of Havana, although he never learned what happened with the case. In addition, he indicated that the family had asked the Provincial Health Center in the municipality of Playa for help regarding the minor, without receiving a response. Months later, his wife was detained for three months for disturbing public order, but she was acquitted at trial. His other son was also involved in a dispute with the police.

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior rejected the family’s asylum application, and they decided to appeal through the courts. Now, the National Court has rejected the appeals against the decisions denying the right to asylum and subsidiary protection, basing its decision on the fact that those affected have not been “subject to persecution as required by asylum legislation,” even accepting the account as true.

The ruling emphasizes that refugee status is granted by law to people persecuted for “reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinions, belonging to a particular social group, gender, sexual orientation or sexual identity,” none of which apply among those described. The court stresses that the appellant “does not even claim the status of a citizen who actively militates against the regime that has governed Cuba’s destiny since 1959, nor does he acknowledge belonging to an organization or group opposed to the current political system.”

The document acknowledges that the shortage of medicines and food cited in the lawsuit is an economic factor that has been denounced by Cubans for years and that can give rise to protests and disturbances of public order resulting from discontent. However, it concludes that this is not a matter covered by asylum legislation.

“It is true that the father claims to feel unfairly treated by his country’s police apparatus and describes a case of animosity with a police chief, but the truly relevant fact is that he acknowledges that his wife was tried and ultimately acquitted of an offense against public order, highlighting both the cessation of government actions against them and their limited nature,” the ruling argues.

“The truly relevant fact is that he acknowledges that his wife was tried and ultimately acquitted of an offense against public order, highlighting both the cessation of government actions against them and their limited nature”

The court considers that if a person does not meet the requirements to be considered a refugee, they could qualify for subsidiary protection, but that to receive it they must demonstrate “well-founded reasons to believe that if they returned to their country of origin they would face a real risk of suffering serious harm to their physical integrity.” In general, the text adds, this usually corresponds to situations of conflict in which violence is indiscriminate. European regulations, moreover, state that granting protection is justified if there are “serious and individual threats to the life or physical integrity of a civilian motivated by indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict,” and therefore it does not apply to Cuba.

“It is our opinion that Cuba is not involved in an armed conflict, for the simple reason that the Cuban State holds an authentic monopoly on organized violence, without armed opposition from dissident sectors. The foregoing leads to the dismissal of the appeal,” the decision concludes, by which the appellants are also ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings, although with a limit of 1,000 euros.

The ruling is just one more example of the thousands of asylum cases filed by Cubans that are denied and dismissed when appealed in Spain. According to data from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (Cear), over the past five years the average percentage of approved applications has been between 2% and 3%. In 2023, the year with the most cases recorded (3,082), only 30 refugee statuses were granted out of 1,157 cases resolved. Another striking figure was that of 2022, when after 11J the number of applications doubled (from around 1,000 in previous years to 2,000) but only between 15 and 20 were approved.

Cear points out that most cases are rejected for the reason indicated by the ruling: the lack of direct evidence of individualized persecution. The organization estimates that between 15% and 25% of Cubans decide to file an appeal before the National Court through the prescribed procedure, which is contentious and administrative, but the dismissal rate is around 95% and 98%.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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To Find Out How the Dollar Is Doing in Cuba, You Have To Ask How Much a Beer Costs.

Imported brands dominate the shelves in Matanzas, Cuba, and pass on to the consumer every shock of the informal currency market.

Behind the bars, foreign brands dominate the shelves, a scene repeated in numerous shops throughout the city. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, October 4, 2026 / Inside the freezer, behind the bars protecting a small business in Matanzas, cans of beer appear to Eduardo as the most immediate solution to the dryness that gnaws at his throat. Before arriving home in El Naranjal and plunging into the daily blackout, the surgeon wants to drink something cold. In his refrigerator, the bottles of water have long since become indistinguishable from the ambient temperature.

“My preferred is Bucanero, but you can’t even find that in spiritual centers anymore. Right now, to quench my thirst, anything will do,” he jokes, holding three 200-peso bills in his hand. Behind the bars, foreign brands dominate the shelves, a scene repeated in numerous stores throughout the city: imported beer has taken over the space left by Cristal, Bucanero, and other increasingly difficult-to-find national brands.

Eduardo thought that with his 600 pesos he could also buy his son two or three chocolates. But he looks at the prices and discovers they’ve changed since last week. “It can’t be that Hollandia costs 500 pesos when I just bought it here last Saturday for 450,” he protests. The clerk blames the suppliers and inflation. The doctor then looks at Frank País’s face on the bills and starts doing the math.

“Those of us who live on a salary or a pension, if we want something cold, will have to settle for those sugary sodas that make us even thirstier.” / 14ymedio

Beer serves as a particularly sensitive economic barometer in Cuba. This Sunday, with the informal rate of 785 pesos to the dollar, a 600-peso can is less than a dollar—a price that would seem like a bargain in Madrid or Miami. For a Cuban earning the minimum wage, however, it represents a fifth of a month’s salary. continue reading

And the temperature rises in tandem with the currency. A large portion of the beers that fill private refrigerators is purchased abroad with hard currency, so every jump in the dollar’s value ends up affecting the price at the counter. Adding to this dependence in March was a special tax of $0.30 per liter on beer and other imported alcoholic beverages, a cost that inevitably ends up being passed on to the consumer.

“We still have it at 520 in Mayabe, but in other places it’s around 580,” explains the saleswoman, a former hotel waitress, who is now getting used to her new job. The owner, she says, has decided to cut back on buying alcoholic beverages because “there’s no electricity to keep them cold, and it’s getting harder and harder to buy them from the supplier.”

A man cools off standing by a window while a Barcelona flag hangs in the background. / 14ymedio

Even Parranda, the cheaper, domestically produced alternative, reflects the market distortions. Produced in Mariel by a joint venture and packaged in plastic bottles, the brand has been promoted as a substitute for more domestic options more preferred by the comsumers. Its quality provokes frequent criticism, and in Matanzas, it was even mandated in some hotels to boost sales.

Where it is opened also affects the price. A bottle of Parranda that costs 1,500 pesos at the Hotel Velasco can be found for 1,400 at a café on Calzada de Tirry. “A cold beer would be nice in this heat, but in this country even that’s a luxury,” Migdalia laments. Her cigarette addiction doesn’t leave her much choice either: “I’m forced to choose between a can of Cristal or a pack of Popular Rojo.”

The retiree, who receives 3,200 pesos a month and some help from her grandson, has really gone out to buy a pound of mortadella. Even so, she asks about prices at the Los Chamas micro-business. “It says here that Lobo costs 460 and you’re telling me 480. What’s the deal?” The clerk apologizes: the numbers change so fast that the price stickers become outdated before the merchandise.

Even Parranda, the cheaper, locally made alternative, shows the market distortions. / 14ymedio

In another establishment, a man stands by a window, cooling off while a Barcelona flag hangs in the background. In a nearly empty bar, a plastic bottle of Parranda beer takes center stage on a table. The images encapsulate a time when enjoying a cold one requires calculation, comparison, and, for many, sacrifice.

Migdalia looks at the cans behind the glass as if they were museum pieces. “Those of us who live on a salary or a pension, if we want something cold, will have to settle for those sugary sodas that make us even thirstier.”

In Matanzas, you no longer need to check the dollar to know where the economy is headed: just ask how much beer costs.

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Two Baseball Players Who Left Cuba Sign with Major League Teams

The departures of Alain Michel Rodríguez and Dainel Santos from the Island are confirmed, as they seek an opportunity with U.S. clubs in the Dominican Republic.

Rodelvis Santiesteban signed with the Chicago Cubs and received a $20,000 signing bonus. / Francys Romero

14ymedio, Havana, October 4, 2026 – Two of the baseball players who left the Island have achieved their dream of signing contracts with Major League Baseball teams in the United States. Rodelvis Santiesteban signed with the Chicago Cubs, while Omar Elías Guerra reached an agreement with the San Diego Padres. The agreements coincide with the departures of other talents, Alain Michel Rodríguez and Dainel Santos.

Santiesteban officially joined the Chicago club, which also has other athletes from the Island among its ranks: Naikys Piedra, Darian Rivero, Eriandys Ramón, Félix Stevens and Frank Hernández. The player from Guantánamo was awarded a $20,000 signing bonus, in addition to having his studies guaranteed.

The 17-year-old baseball player left Cuba in June 2024. In Santo Domingo, he was taken in by GT Baseball Academy, run by Cuban Jorge Luis Toca, where he refined his skills. Santiesteban averages 60 yards in 6.3 seconds, according to data provided by journalist Francys Romero.

Toca’s academy is located in Punta Cana, where it trains young talents from the age of 14. Cubans William Alejandro Álvarez and Lázaro Herrera Jr. have also arrived at this facility. They were all attracted by the track record of a man who played in the National Series with Villa Clara and had a brief stint with the Mets. He was later sent to the Minor Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Expos, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. continue reading

Last Friday, Omar Elías Guerra reached an agreement with the San Diego Padres to sign his contract in the coming days. He is one of the talents who was part of the Cuban Under-15 national team that participated in the Pan American Championship for the category in March 2024, in the Dominican Republic.

Last Friday, Omar Elías Guerra reached an agreement with the San Diego Padres to sign his contract in the coming days

Francys Romero specified that Guerra “combines contact ability and defensive versatility, characteristics that the Padres hope to develop so that he can advance through the Minor League system.”

Guerra is part of the Yuan Pino Academy, which is dedicated to training and placing Cuban baseball players. Last July, the school already had 15 young players from the Island with agreements with U.S. clubs.

The Island continues to suffer the departure of its young baseball prospects. This Saturday, the arrival of Alain Michel Rodríguez in the Dominican Republic was confirmed. The athlete “is the son of Yessander Rodríguez, who played in the National Series with Santiago and for many years has been a leading figure on the Cuban Softball team,” the journalist emphasized.

Rodríguez will train at Noni Sánchez’s Academy ahead of January 2027, when he will be eligible to sign with a Major League team.

On the last day of September, it became known that 18-year-old Dainel Santos was in Santo Domingo. The baseball player, a native of Villa Clara, was a member of the Under-18 team at the World Cup held in September 2025 in Japan.

“Ten of the 20 players who made up the team at the Under-18 World Cup are no longer in Cuba,” Romero specified.

The journalist recalled that as of August of this year, there were “between 45 and 60 departures of baseball players in different categories, a large proportion of them between the ages of 13 and 17, which are the players the industry is most interested in. Many of those young players already have preliminary agreements.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Industriales Is the First Cuban Sports Team To Receive Sponsorship From a Private Company

Fuel marketer A Granel is supporting the Havana team in the National Series, and the players are receiving uniforms bearing the company’s logo.

Industriales’ sponsorship marks a new stage for a company that has rapidly expanded its commercial activity. / Instagram/guillermogatorebelde

14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, October 4, 2026 / The private fuel company A Granel has put its logo on the Industriales uniform for the 65th National Baseball Series, a major step toward promoting itself through advertising, just three months after beginning operations in Havana.

An image circulated on social media shows the “Blue’s” jersey with the A Granel brand, while new images taken this Saturday by 14ymedio at the company’s facilities also confirm the business’s increased visibility. On the building, located on Avenida del Puerto, where customers arrive to purchase fuel, there is now a large sign bearing its name and the phrase “Fuel Sales.”

The Facebook group Serie Nacional de Béisbol also confirmed that Industriales will be “one of the first teams” to have sponsorship at this stage. The post states that the funds can be used for transportation, fuel, food, clothing and other needs of the Havana team. The image accompanying the message, attributed to Por La Goma, shows the Industriales uniform with the A Granel logo and the advertising slogan “A tu medida” [Made to fit you].

The funds can be used for transportation, fuel, food, clothing and other needs of the Havana team. / Facebook/ Serie Nacional de Béisbol

The company opened its doors on June 27 and initially promoted itself through a video by influencer Iraisel Pintueles. A few days later, 14ymedio confirmed that the small and medium-sized private enterprise [mipyme] was selling diesel imported from the United States at $2.50 per liter from an industrial facility belonging to the Cuban Lubricants Company (Cubalub), a subsidiary of the state-run Cupet, located at the end of Avenida del Puerto, opposite the Regla generating plant, according to the company’s own promotional material. Inside were dozens of tanks holding about 1,000 liters each and several vehicles being refueled. continue reading

Industriales’ sponsorship marks a new stage for a company that has rapidly expanded its commercial activity. In addition to fuel in large quantities, A Granel has subsequently promoted gasoline and diesel in smaller quantities, as well as deliveries by tanker trucks and other distribution services.

The president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, said on October 2 that the organization is working to expand sponsorships of teams and facilities and specifically mentioned the existence of “negotiations related to Industriales.” According to the official, organizing a National Series costs more than $600,000, and the expenditure exceeds $1 million when the Elite League is added.

The company appeared at a time when Washington opened a channel for selling U.S. fuel to Cuba’s private sector

A Granel’s entry also comes nearly a year after Cubadeportes attempted to attract private capital with sponsorship packages carrying very high prices for the Cuban context. In November 2025, the state company offered state-owned and private companies sponsorship options ranging from approximately $24,300 to $148,000. For Industriales, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas, a Diamond-level sponsorship was set at 56,250,000 pesos, about $117,000 at the exchange rate used at the time.

In return, Cubadeportes promised brand exposure in stadiums, on national television, on digital platforms and through other print and audiovisual media. At the time, however, the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation itself acknowledged that there were no businesspeople willing to invest in local clubs or place advertising on uniforms and in stadiums.

The situation has begun to change. Villa Clara announced this week three local businesses as sponsors of its uniforms: La Glorieta, Pastelería 2 Reyes and La Esquina de la Minuta, whose brands will appear as patches on the sleeves. In those cases, too, the amounts or duration of the contracts have not been disclosed.

Current regulations allow uniforms used in national, provincial and municipal competitions to display the brands of previously authorized sponsors. The rules published this year also establish that agreements must go through the corresponding sports structures and give Cubadeportes responsibility for negotiating and contracting national-level sponsorships.

The company opened its doors on June 27 and initially promoted itself through a video by influencer Iraisel Pintueles. / Instagram/ Iraisel Pintueles/ Screenshot

In A Granel’s case, its commercial growth contrasts with the scant public information about who is behind the business. In her introduction to the company, Pintueles said that the owner was “a private entity with foreign capital” and had no connection to any member of the Government, but she did not identify the partners or the origin of the funds.

The company appeared at a time when Washington opened a channel for selling U.S. fuel to Cuba’s private sector, while Havana, in turn, began loosening restrictions on the participation of non-state actors in a business that for decades had been monopolized by Cupet. In July, sources consulted by this newspaper said that A Granel was only “the first of many” companies interested in taking advantage of the new market.

Since then, the State has managed to circumvent U.S. sanctions and has turned to some private small and medium-sized enterprises to appropriate the fuel. The latest available data indicate that more than 3.2 million barrels arrived through this channel in July, as much as during the era of Venezuelan bonanza under Hugo Chávez.

Three months later, the business is not only openly displaying fuel sales from a state facility; its brand will also be seen on the playing field with Industriales. For now, neither A Granel nor the sports authorities have reported how much the agreement is worth or whether the company will provide the “Blues” with money, fuel or a combination of both.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba, the Country with the Fourth Most Requests for Urgent Action Over Enforced Disappearances Before the UN

The Island has accumulated 217 enforced disappearances since 2012 and 17 in the first eight months of 2026, surpassed only by Mexico.

Boat registered in Florida intercepted in waters off Villa Clara last February. / Canal Caribe/Screenshot

14ymedio, Madrid, October 3, 2026 – Cuba has accumulated 217 requests for urgent action before the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances from 2012 through August 31, 2026. This is the fourth-highest figure among the countries included in the body’s report published on September 30. Only Mexico, with 877; Iraq, with 670; and Colombia, with 255, have reported higher numbers.

In the first eight months of this year, the Island recorded 17 requests, the second-highest number after Mexico, which had 73. Ecuador follows, with 11. The document, entitled Informe sobre las solicitudes de acción urgente presentadas en virtud del artículo 30 de la Convención [Report on requests for urgent action submitted under article 30 of the Convention], records a total of actions involving 36 countries, 11 of them in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance allows, under the aforementioned Article 30, a request to the Committee for urgent action to search for and locate a disappeared person.

Among the 17 cases from 2026 are the five occupants of the boat from Florida intercepted last February, who were later accused of terrorism

The Committee does not identify the 17 Cubans by name, but describes four groups of cases. Five are the occupants of the boat from Florida intercepted last February, who were later accused of terrorism. “Although the authorities reported that they had survived the interception, they allegedly did not provide their relatives with accurate information about their whereabouts and physical condition after being deprived of their liberty,” the document states. continue reading

The case was brought before the Committee by Cubalex, which submitted requests on behalf of Conrado Galindo Sariol, Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara, Leordán Enrique Cruz Gómez, Amijail Sánchez González and José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló.

Another 11 cases date back to June. One concerns a man who went to a police station in Havana after receiving a summons and was subsequently taken away in a police vehicle. That description matches the detention of rapper Andrés Matos Alcántara, Mc K-Libre. Cubalex submitted to the Committee both the request concerning his case and the ten urgent actions corresponding to those detained during the operations following the fire at the Orlando Pantoja Tamayo Memorial House, in Maffo, Santiago de Cuba; four of them were minors.

The last Cuban case described by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances in its report concerns a person who had been serving a sentence since 2021 and was transferred in July from Guanajay prison to an unknown location shortly before the date scheduled for the completion of the sentence. The person is easily identifiable: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was taken out of that prison on July 7 and remained at an unknown location before being deported to Miami on July 18. Cubalex had also submitted a request for urgent action before the Committee in his case.

Cuba has still not “provided any information on the measures taken to search for and locate” 11 people on whose behalf urgent actions were registered

According to the report, the Cuban State eventually provided “information clarifying the whereabouts of the persons concerned” in the cases of the five occupants of the boat intercepted in February and the person transferred from Guanajay prison, so the Committee was considering closing those urgent actions. However, the Committee regrets that the Island’s government “has still not provided any information on the measures taken to search for and locate the other 11 persons on whose behalf urgent actions were registered,” the document adds.

The body also notes that “a large majority of the cases in which the disappeared person was located alive refer to disappearances occurring in the context of protests in Colombia and Cuba,” where detainees were deprived of their liberty while their relatives received no information about their fate or whereabouts.

The Committee also devotes a section to so-called short-term enforced disappearances and notes that during the period under review it recorded allegations concerning two cases, one related to Cuba and the other to Mexico. The body recalls that “there is no duration element in the definition of enforced disappearance under international human rights law.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With the Streets Half-Empty, Electric Vehicles Dominate Cuba’s Accident Statistics

An Ecomóvil and a tricycle collided this Saturday in Sancti Spíritus, where these alternatives are gaining ground amid the transportation crisis.

The two vehicles ended up next to the curb after the impact, at one of the busiest intersections in Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, October 3, 2026 – This Saturday, an Ecomóvil and a tricycle ended up next to the curb after colliding at the intersection of Carretera Central and Sobral, in Sancti Spíritus. The accident, apparently without serious consequences, might be dismissed as an insignificant incident if its protagonists were not, precisely, two of the vehicles that best represent the accelerated transformation of transportation on the Island.

According to a witness who spoke to 14ymedio, the motor scooter had activated its turn signal to turn when the Ecomóvil, while attempting to avoid a white Lada, moved toward the same side and the two vehicles collided.

The Ecomóviles, small electric minibuses with little bodywork, have become a common sight in Sancti Spíritus. Conceived as an alternative to the lack of fuel and the deterioration of public transportation, around 30 of these vehicles were supposed to operate in the provincial capital, although passengers complain about increasingly irregular service and waits that can reach two hours.

Fewer cars, however, has not necessarily meant less risk for those who continue to travel

These new forms of transportation are gaining ground just as a large part of the traditional vehicle fleet remains immobilized. In recent months, amid the worsening fuel crisis, the Carretera Central in Sancti Spíritus became practically deserted, while in Havana numerous cars and buses were also disappearing from the streets.

Fewer cars, however, has not necessarily meant less risk for those who continue to travel. continue reading

The National Road Safety Commission itself has acknowledged that, despite the “decrease in the mobility of combustion-engine vehicles,” the use of electric motorcycles, mopeds and tricycles as transportation alternatives continues to increase. Between January and March, 1,234 accidents were recorded in Cuba, with 153 deaths and 1,154 people injured. Motorcycles, mopeds and pedestrians were involved in 74% of the crashes.

The phenomenon is even clearer in Holguín. According to data released this Thursday by the official newspaper ¡Ahora!, between January 1 and September 28, there were 344 accidents there, with 47 fatalities and 350 people injured. Mopeds, a category which includes motor scooters, motorcycles, tricycles and motorized bicycles, were involved in 78% of the accidents. Motor scooters alone were involved in 89 incidents.

“They are very fragile when faced with potholes or impacts; there is nowhere to hold on, and the seats are hard, often made only of metal”

Another recent accident, this time on the Maceo-Holguín route, left the driver of a tricycle, a woman and a girl injured. According to an eyewitness who recounted the incident on Facebook two days ago, the tricycle failed to stop at a Stop sign and collided with a bus, whose driver was unharmed. The driver of the light vehicle was knocked unconscious by the impact, although he regained consciousness on the way to the Vladimir Ilich Lenin General Hospital; the other two occupants suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Among passengers, the experience does not always inspire enthusiasm either. “It feels like you’re riding a horse. They bounce as if there were no tomorrow and make your stomach come up into your throat,” says a resident of Sancti Spíritus who is accustomed to using them. He also questions the skill of some drivers: “Many are inexperienced; they even drive in the opposite lane.”

“I travel with my heart in my throat,” confesses a Havana woman who regularly uses these vehicles in the capital. “They are very fragile when faced with potholes or impacts; there is nowhere to hold on, and the seats are hard, often made only of metal.” On hills, she adds, patience is also part of the journey: “They are slow, very slow. Sometimes I prefer to pay more for an almendrón that makes the trip in half the time.”

In the absence of fuel, buses and spare parts, the crisis has gradually driven a large part of the traditional vehicles off the streets and put a new assortment of vehicles in their place. Increasingly, they are the ones keeping Cuba moving. And they are also the ones appearing more frequently in its accident statistics.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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