Translator: Regina Anavy – Page 32

Hundreds of Migrants, Mostly Cubans, Leave for the North but No Longer Seek To Go to the US

Trump’s veto on travel from 19 countries, including Cuba, “puts at risk” the generation of taxes, warns a report.

Migrants report that work permits are available from Canada, Germany, Australia and Switzerland. / Archive / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Tapachula/Washington, August 7, 2025 — Hundreds of migrants, mostly Cubans, set off on Wednesday in a new caravan from the southern border of Mexico, looking to reach the north of the country. There they hope to regularize their documents to be able to travel to Canada or other countries that offer work, in the face of the tightening of US immigration measures.

“We want to get to Monterrey because the embassies of Canada and Germany are giving us visas to work and to populate their cities,” Maydali Barajo, a Cuban woman who travels with her grandson, told EFE.

The woman explained that they had the illusion of making their dreams come true in Mexico, but the country “denied it.” Now, she says, they want to look for other horizons “where we can realize ourselves as human beings and be the honest people that we are. And fight and help those we left behind.”

La Cubana points out that she went to Mexico because she hoped that the government would welcome them and give them work opportunities after Donald Trump “closed the dream to the whole world” of entering the US. But both the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (COMAR) and the migration authorities “refused everything.” continue reading

‘La Cubana’ points out that she went to Mexico because she hoped that the government would welcome them and give them work opportunities.

In the caravan there are women and men, old people and children, who are undertaking this journey on federal highway 200 despite the risks and dangers.

This was after their stay in Tapachula, Chiapas, where they had been waiting several months for the resolution of an unsuccessful asylum application.

Prior to their departure, Father Heyman Vázquez Medina, pastor of San Andrés Apóstol in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, prayed with the migrants and asked them to remain united on their way towards their next destination.

The priest said that the migrants want to reach a city so they can work, have a better quality of life and live with dignity, but he regretted that the authorities intimidated them to avoid mobilizations.

“It’s a way of telling them: ’We’re going to hold you,’ of scaring and intimidating them so that they don’t have the courage to leave. The migrants are determined; it’s good, positive, that they come out, that the government and the world realize what is happening in Chiapas,” he said.

Juan Ríos, a Nicaraguan migrant, spokesman and coordinator of the group, told EFE that they organized themselves voluntarily because they do not want to stay in Tapachula. Although some have found employment, they face 12-hour working days for a salary of only 200 pesos per day (about $10.75), while conditions in the shelters are precarious.

“We have no destination in the United States. Our destination is to get to Monterrey, because most want to travel to Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Australia, which are giving work visas,” he said.

He also argued that they are not criminals, but working people. ” We are university students; here there are doctors and nurses who are suffering under a regime, for example in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.”

The Trump administration eliminated a number of immigration programs and benefits created by his predecessor, Joe Biden, including the Humanitarian Parole Program for Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti, and the CBP One application, which allowed people to request an appointment to legally cross the border.

As a result, more than half a million people have been left in legal limbo, while the courts decide on the legality of the programs, or directly on an irregular migration situation.

More than half a million people have been left in legal limbo, while the courts decide on the legality of programs, or directly on an irregular migration situation.

Trump is seeking to accelerate deportations and detentions to fulfill his campaign promise to expel the more than 11 million undocumented migrants living in the country.

Another part of his migration plan, the ban on travel to the US from 19 countries -among which is Cuba- puts “at risk” and impacts the generation of $715 million in taxes and $2.5 billion in purchasing power, according to a report by the American Immigration Council published this Wednesday.

“Those affected by this travel ban are students, workers and family members who pay taxes, support local economies and hold jobs in industries with massive shortages,” the report says.

According to the American Immigration Council, Trump’s measure puts the generation of 2.5 billion dollars at risk, because “thousands of workers cannot enter the country or move freely in the territory.” The analysis says that during 2022, the nearly 300,000 people representing the 19 banned countries generated $3.2 million in labor income and $715 million in taxes.

The human and social impacts also include family division, as some 2.4 million people in sanctioned countries are naturalized, but now many of their relatives will not be able to visit them.

Finally, the US Immigration Council considers that the veto is an exclusionary measure towards Muslim and African groups and questions the reasons Trump gave as justification for implementing the migration veto, recalling that at least 13 of the affected countries have very low rates of migration violations.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Tobacco Is Recovering in Pinar Del Río, Cuba After Months of Blackouts and Lost Hectares

Last June, the authorities of Consolación del Sur complained that 385 hectares of the tobacco crop were ruined by lack of irrigation.

The industry has even surpassed the plan for cigarette production. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, August 9, 2025 — After months of declaring blackouts, agricultural losses and figures that seemed more appropriate for a disaster zone than for a “tobacco power,” the Cuban tobacco industry is growing again. At least, this is what the Ministry of Agriculture claims, announcing that the production of twisted tobacco for export reached six million cigars during the first half of the year. According to the agency, this figure exceeds what was achieved for the same period in 2024.

The news catches Cubans off guard, because just two months ago they read in the official press that the panorama for tobacco-growing municipalities like Consolación del Sur, in Pinar del Río, was anything but promising: 385 hectares of tobacco had been lost due to blackouts and lack of irrigation, and the yield was only 79% of that expected.

Even so, and against all odds, this Saturday the State newspaper Granma announced that not only has the plan for delivery of cigars to Habanos S.A been fulfilled by 90%, but the manufacture of cigarettes is also going strong. In fact, the Communist Party paper applauded the results, despite “two very complex months” from failures at the BrasCuba factory, located in Mariel, where production has now reached its “productive peak.” continue reading

Out of the 192 million packages planned, some 201 million were produced, so the target was surpassed at 103.4%.

The industry, said its managers, even surpassed the production plan for cigarettes: of the 192 million packages planned, some 201 million were manufactured, so the target was surpassed at 103.4%.

The recovery of the curing sheds affected by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and an upturn in agricultural production compared to the previous year are also part of the optimistic facade of Tabacuba, although there is no lack of signs of a debacle in one of the sectors that, paradoxically, the State most pampers.

Mechanized production suffers from a lack of imported parts, although according to the managers of Tabacuba, they have already produced 80% of what was planned, with the hope of catching up in the last two months of the year.

Mechanized production suffers from a lack of imported parts, although according to the managers of Tabacuba, they have already produced 80%

Even taking into account the delays in the production of cigarettes, the data contrast with the disaster declared by the authorities of Pinar del Río last June. It was planned to sow 1,500 hectares in the year with an expected yield of at least 1,778 tons, but the output was only 1,301 tons, a drop of 27 per cent.

The blow was also felt in the number of cujes (sticks for hanging the tobacco leaves): 1.9 million were achieved, just 79%, when 2.5 million were expected.

Interviewed by the official press, the farmers then admitted to being concerned about the harvest, although they assured that they would continue working “with what there is.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

In Bolivia, Cuban Doctors ‘Performed Unnecessary Operations To Inflate Statistics’

“They were thrown away, mainly paracetamol and diclofenac, to claim they were being given to patients,” a specialist told Cuba Archive.

Cuban medical brigades were sent to Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, when Evo Morales was president. / Archive/Escambray

14ymedio, Madrid, August 7, 2025 — “Patients had to be invented in order to justify all the Cubans who were part of the missions and had nothing to do with medicine.” This is what a Cuban doctor tells Cuba Archive about his experience of several years in the medical brigades sent to Bolivia by Havana during the time of the government of Evo Morales.

A doctor from the same mission confirms to 14ymedio the testimony of the specialist quoted by the organization based in the United States, and adds: “They had private cooks, custodians, drivers, laundry services, maintenance, housekeepers, counselors, maids, secretaries and support staff: all were Cubans and served as doctors.”

The doctor interviewed by Cuba Archive denounces the misuse of medicines to pretend that more patients were being treated than they actually received, in order to make the Bolivian government believe that more specialists were needed. “Surgical procedures were invented to ask for more money and make propaganda: unnecessary operations for abnormal fleshy growths and invented cataracts,” he says. continue reading

“Paracetamol and diclofenac were basically thrown away, supposedly given to patients.”

He also mentions that nurses were forced to break insulin syringes, break and burn prescription glasses and dispose of analgesics. “They basically threw paracetamol and diclofenac into the trash and said they were being given to patients,” he says, among other examples.

However, he continues, the majority of those sent were not doctors. “I remember that once in an official activity we were given a pamphlet which said that in Bolivia there were more than 700 ‘Cuban collaborators’ and, of those, fewer than 300 were healthcare personnel. I knew that the minority were doctors. The rest were handpicked. For all of them we had to invent patients and justify the money that Cuba was stealing from Bolivia.”

He also accuses the mission coordinators of living in the “most luxurious places in La Paz” with an entourage of staff: cooks, security, drivers, laundry service and all kinds of employees, who were disguised as doctors, when in reality they were political commissioners.

The doctor personally accuses the then ambassador of Cuba to Bolivia, Benigno Pérez Fernández, of sending “huge wooden crates, more than three feet high” by diplomatic bag while his colleagues were limited to 40 pounds of luggage. “The pilots and flight attendants made fun of us because we traveled with several pants and T-shirts one on top of the other in order to take some things home while the elite could send as much as they wanted,” he says.

Together with the former ambassador -in office until 2019- the doctor mentions other officials and involves the Argentine doctor Fernando Leanes–representative of the Pan American Health Organization–whom he accuses of knowing under what conditions the health workers were working without doing anything. “President Evo Morales and his family were served there, and Evo went a lot. Leanes loved stealing a camera and taking pictures with them. He knew everything, knew perfectly how we lived.”

“In Bolivia, many Cubans left the mission. Ironically, many of them were the same very revolutionary and shameless bosses]]

The doctor, who says he worked at the El Alto Eye Care Center in La Paz and is now abroad, did not leave the brigade for fear of the repercussions it could have on his family. “But in Bolivia many Cubans left the mission. Ironically, many of them were the same very revolutionary and shameless bosses.”

Similarly, he claims that he had difficulties in joining a medical brigade, because in previous years he had obtained a passport with the intention of emigrating to Spain but was refused exit. The authorities were suspicious of him, thinking that he wanted to use his job to leave the island, which is why he was systematically rejected, until an opportunity arrived for him in Bolivia.

The doctor considers that his non-military status in the Communist Party and the Union of Young Communists also played against him and states that its members paid 400 or 600 CUC (Cuban convertible currency, no longer used) to guarantee a “quick exit” from the mission. “I know that missions are bought, and even a cafeteria manager can leave as a medical technician,” he says.

The specialist earned $670, although he had been promised $800, sometimes with arrears of up to four or five months, and claims that he received a reduction of $100 per month, allegedly to pay for rent and basic services to be provided by the Bolivian Government, “so the mission leaders must have been stealing it,” he states. The doctor claims to have seen a “payroll” showing that $4,000 was paid per worker.

“Upon arrival in Bolivia, as soon as we got off the plane, someone from State Security was waiting for us at the bottom of the steps to take our passports. If you had to take another flight, they would give it back with the ticket and take it away again when you arrived at the next destination,” he says. This is consistent with what has been reported by hundreds of brigadistas, and they were forbidden from forming emotional or personal relations with nationals of the country in which they were serving. Visits to other homes were prohibited, and they were told how to respond in possible interviews.

The internationalist mission in Bolivia ended in 2019, when then acting president Jeanine Áñez cancelled the agreement with Havana, claiming that “less than a third were health professionals.”

At that time, 702 doctors left the country, of whom an estimated 205 were qualified. “They had a salary of 1,040, a stipend of 68 bolivianos per day ($9.50), and air transport costs paid by the State, making a total of about 9,000 bolivianos ($1,302) for each of them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

A Report on the Escape of a Blind Cuban Swimmer Is a Finalist in the SIP Awards

Two journalism students in Chile narrate the desertion that occurred during the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago.

“Escape in the Dark: the Story of the Blind Parathlete Who Deserted During Santiago 2023.” / JIT

14ymedio, Havana, 5 August 2025 — “I’m in a taxi and I’m escaping,” was the brief phrase Yunerki Ortega Ponce, a blind Cuban swimmer, told his mother over the phone after escaping from the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in November 2023.

Now, the report that recounts that flight, Escape in the Dark: The Story of the Blind Parathlete Who Deserted During Santiago 2023, published by Diego Portales University, has been nominated as a finalist for the Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) International Prize in the category of University Journalism.

Written by Francisco González and Juan José Leyton, the text accurately reconstructs the voluntary flight of Ortega Ponce, a Paralympic swimmer from the island who decided to leave the Cuban delegation.

He was the last of at least eleven Cuban athletes who deserted during that edition of the Games in Chile.

The report describes how Ortega, diagnosed with retinosis pigmentosa, came to compete in the S11 category and finished fifth in the 50-meter freestyle. He was the last of at least eleven Cuban athletes who deserted during that edition of the Games in Chile -among them members of the women’s hockey, rowing, handball and athletics teams- and his defection generated a police complaint for “alleged misfortune” before the Carabineros de Chile.

According to the report, his escape was planned with the support of a Mexican athlete friend and a lawyer in Chile. He left the Villa Panamericana in the early hours of November 19 and walked with all his belongings to the National Stadium. He was then taken by sympathetic supporters to the home of a compatriot and began the process of political asylum with attorney Mijail Bonito Lovio.

“God, don’t let them catch me, because if they grab me that will be my end.”

The text highlights the voice of Ortega, who expressed fear and determination: “God, don’t let them catch me, because if they grab me that will be my end,” in reference to possible reprisals in Cuba. It also describes his humble origin in Ranchuelo, his sports career, and the contrast between his international achievements and the lack of state support on the island.

Legislative recognition in Chile is also part of the story. In July 2025, the Chilean Senate unanimously approved granting citizenship by way of grace to Ortega, following a proposal that received support in the Chamber of Deputies in April of the same year. This institutional support helped his integration into sports in Chile. Now he is training for the paratriathlon with Venezuelan Miguel Brito as his coach and guide, with the ambition of representing Chile at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

A system that rewards athletics, but marginalizes socially

The article, nominated for the Spirits International Prestige Awards (SIP), balances the chronological reconstruction of desertion with a human perspective and contextualizes the Cuban reality: a system that rewards athletically, but marginalizes socially. Ortega, a seven-time Parapan American medallist, faced obstacles in his country that led him to seek ansylum and a new citizenship in Chile, where his talent can find dignified conditions and a renewed projection.

In this sense, the journalistic work of the UDP not only exposes an individual story of escape and reinvention but also a broader phenomenon: the multiple desertions of Cuban athletes at recent international events. The narrative combines direct testimonies, logistical reconstruction and political analysis, which explains its inclusion among the finalists for the SIP competition.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

The Dance of Millions in the Tax-Free Enterprises of the Cuban Armed Forces

The Miami Herald got access to documents that reveal details about Gaesa’s finances and a $5 billion drop from the tourism crash.

Photo of a Cimex office in Holguín / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, August 7, 2025 — The fact that the Gaesa military conglomerate has a free hand in the Cuban economy is no secret to anyone, but knowing -with figures in hand- that the economic crisis is also affecting its finances is, to say the least, surprising. A leak of 22 internal financial documents corresponding to March and August 2024, obtained by the Miami Herald, not only provides figures on its management, but also demonstrates that the group operates without being subject to tax control or paying part of its taxes.

In the first quarter of 2024 alone, the regime’s golden goose made $2.1 billion in net profits. Cimex, its most lucrative company, was responsible for more than half of that amount, with $1.2 billion in profits as of March 2024, out of total revenues of $3.4 billion in that period, although they were even higher the previous year.

Between January and August 2024, excluding Cimex, Gaesa recorded a drop in sales and profits of 67% and 72%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Cimex does not appear in the 2024 balance sheets, possibly due to a cyber-security attack that paralyzed their systems in January of this year, according to the Miami Herald, which points out that the fall in the finances of the whole conglomerate -and not only Cimex- coincided with the government’s offensive against the private sector, especially against wholesalers and importers, whom it perceives as competition.

The Herald gives the example of Gaviota, the Armed Forces division dedicated to tourism, whose leaked records show that the company lost $5.8 billion in just five months last year. By March, the company had deposited $8.5 billion in “unidentified bank accounts” and in Rafin S.A., continue reading

another financial institution owned by Gaesa. Five months later, the money given to Rafin was gone, and Gaviota had only $2.7 billion in the bank.

Five months later, the money given to Rafin was no more, and Gaviota had only $2.7 billion in the bank.

According to the Herald, “there is a possibility that the military may have simply transferred the missing dollars abroad or used them to finance other investments without being recorded. However, the collapse of tourism on the Island provides a reasonable explanation for at least some of Gaviota’s losses.”

The same is true for the other companies not associated with Cimex, which between March and August 2024 went from having $14 billion in liquid assets to only 9.3 billion, a fall of 5 billion attributed to the report to the collapse of tourism.

However, the size of Gaesa’s business is such that even without taking into account the contributions of Cimex, which represent about 40% of its revenues, the rest of its companies had, in March 2024, some $18 billion in assets, of which 14.5 billion were deposited in banks or financial institutions controlled by the conglomerate itself. These figures, argues the media, give an account of a business network that functions as a state within the state and which, according to the Cuban economist Pavel Vidal -consulted by the Herald-has assumed the role of “central bank.”

The business of the conglomerate continues to generate large profits. In 2023, Gaesa accumulated $17 billion in sales and $7.2 billion in net profits in the first eight months of the year. According to Vidal, these gross gains represented about 40% of Cuba’s official GDP and were 3.2 times higher than all the State’s tax revenues.

In sectors such as tourism, construction and finance, Gaesa’s role could be even greater. “I have not been able to find a similar example of a conglomerate with such a large share in the economy of a country,” Vidal said. “It even exceeds the weight of Ecopetrol in Colombia, Petrobras in Brazil or Pdvsa in Venezuela”.

Among the companies with the largest bank accounts up to March 2024 are Gaviota, with $8.5 billion; TRD Caribe, with $3.4 billion; and Almacenes Universales, with $1.6 billion.

One of the most alarming facts revealed by the documents is that Gaesa companies do not pay taxes on their foreign exchange transactions. In August of last year, the military conglomerate owed 920 million pesos in taxes -less than 1% of its domestic sales of 100 billion pesos- but had received from the State 9.2 billion as “state investment,” ten times more.

There is also no information on the taxes that Cimex should have paid, but the documents reveal that the tax deductions that Gaesa does pay end up in an institution hitherto unknown: the Revolutionary Armed Forces Tax Administration Office.

The Herald also denounced the opacity of the conglomerate’s financial records, which distort and hide its real assets.

The Herald also denounced the opacity of the conglomerate’s financial records, which distort and conceal its real assets. For example, the finances of August 2024 report a net worth of $2 billion, identical to the profits, when in reality that patrimony amounts to $13 billion, plus 28 billion pesos.

Gaesa uses the exchange rate of 1 dollar for 24 pesos in its operations, an anonymous source close to the conglomerate told the media, and its reports add up pesos and dollars as if they were equivalent.

Although much of the information is half-baked, it is clear that Gaesa’s power within the Cuban economy is greater than expected and that the tax benefits it receives favor its enrichment. In stark contrast, the Cuban people sink ever deeper into poverty, while the dollars flow to tourism, exports and banking.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuba Hopes To Place Among the Top Four in the Pan American Junior Games

The Island will be represented by 231 athletes, three of them hoping to win gold

One of the main contenders is the weightlifter Emanuel de la Rosa, who will compete in the category of 79 kilograms. / Granma

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, August 7, 2025 — One of the main contenders is the weightlifter Emanuel de la Rosa, who will compete in the category of 79 kilograms. His competitive record places him as a favorite, having been triple Continental Junior U13 champion and winner of three gold medals at the Pan American Youth Championship held last March in Havana. At that contest, he registered 140 kg at the start and 170 kg in the push, accumulating a total of 310 kg in the biathlon.

In the women’s section, hope is placed on the sprinter Yarima Garcia, who will participate in the 100 and 200 meter dash, in addition to the 4×100 meter relay. Her international renown grew after reaching seventh place in the U-20 World Championships of Athletics in Cali 2022. Her personal best is 11.32 seconds in the 100 meter and 23.36 seconds in the 200 meter.

In the women’s section, hope is placed on the sprinter Yarima Garcia, who will participate in the 100 and 200 meter dash.

The third outstanding name is the sprinter Reynaldo Espinosa, who will run the same tests as Garcia in the male section: the 100, 200 and 4×100 meter relays. Espinosa already has experience on the Pan American podium, after winning the silver medal in the Santiago 2023 Games with his teammates Rogelio Amores, Yaniel Carrero and Shainer Rengifo, with a time of 39.68 seconds, being surpassed only by the Brazilian team that clocked 38.68.

With a larger delegation than in the 2021 edition of Cali, where 212 athletes participated, Cuba will try to surpass the fifth place achieved then, when it accumulated a total of 70 medals: 29 gold, 19 silver and 22 bronze.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Foreign Funds for Endangered Cuban Crocodiles and Polymite Snails in the Midst of the Environmental Crisis

The shells of colorful snails, endemic to the island, are sold on the internet for up to 200 dollars.

Image of caretakers at the crocodile farm in Ciénaga de Zapata. / UNDP

14ymedio, Havana, 6 August 2025 — Like many other sectors in crisis on the island, the loss of biodiversity has proved to be another sensitive issue that attracts international aid to the satisfaction of the regime. If the species are also endemic, it is likely that more resources and funds will be allocated. This is the case of the Cuban crocodile, whose protection has prompted a fund-raising effort by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The campaign, called See you in a while, crocodile – based on the English expression See you later, alligator – will begin this coming October and is aimed at ensuring “the survival of the Cuban crocodile,” which is “threatened by human action on the ecosystem, climate change and other factors.”

According to the official UNDP website, “donations will make it possible to purchase satellite tags and place them on the crocodiles to monitor their movements, as well as develop educational activities that strengthen their protection in local communities.”

The program specifies that the tags will allow the study of their patterns of movement, habitat use and areas of activity, which will facilitate the planning of actions to conserve the ecosystem. They will also help identify suitable sites for releasing captive-bred crocodiles, which would increase continue reading

their chances of survival.

The initiative will also seek to strengthen collaboration with local communities, promoting educational activities that integrate residents of the Zapata Swamp in the protection of the ecosystem. “With your support, we will be able to closely follow the Cuban crocodiles in their natural habitat and better understand how to protect them,” concludes the campaign.

The initiative will also seek to strengthen collaboration with local communities, promoting educational activities.

The project is led by two specialists: biologist Etiam Pérez and veterinarian Gustavo Sosa, who, according to UNDP, have years of experience working with crocodiles. They will be responsible for the placement of satellite tags and for coordinating research, education and conservation actions that can be carried out thanks to donor contributions.

Hopefully, the funds will help to improve the quality of life of the species and extend the project, a result of an alliance between the Group of Specialists in Crocodiles of Cuba (GECC), the Company for the Conservation of the Ciénaga de Zapata, the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation for Nature and Man (FANJ), and the UNDP representation in Cuba. The activities are also supported by the global Biofin initiative, coordinated in the country by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment.

The Cuban crocodiles are not only a unique species of the island, but its ecosystem, close to the beaches of the south coast of Matanzas and several tourist enclaves -the breeding farm itself being one of them- has exposed them to constant human contact. Under more or less precarious conditions, crocodiles are bred in the Zapata Swamp, where they can be visited by national and international tourists, who can even taste their meat – a luxury that mostly foreigners can afford.

But the Cuban crocodile is not the only endemic species at risk for which the state receives funds and aid. In the east of the country, snails known as polymites are at risk due to climate change, habitat loss and, above all, illegal trafficking of their shells, coveted for their natural beauty and colors. A conservation study between the University of Oriente and the British University of Nottingham attempts to prevent their disappearance.

According to Cubadebate, which quotes a BBC report, there have been sales on the internet of polymite shells from the United Kingdom for more than 200 dollars, although their extraction from Cuba without permission is illegal, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Among the most threatened, adds the official newspaper, is the variety sulphurosa, which has green hues with blue, orange and yellow bands. “Its beauty attracts people who collect and trade in shells. The same thing that makes them interesting as scientists is also putting them at risk,” explains Angus Davison, a geneticist at the University of Nottingham involved in the conservation project.

Of the approximately 36,700 species listed in Cuba, 35% are endangered.

The collaboration, also led by conservation biologist Bernardo Reyes-Tur, seeks to understand the genetic evolution of these species and preserve their diversity. While genetic research is being carried out in Nottingham, the work in Cuba is done “in a hot climate to try to breed snails in captivity,” a process still in the experimental phase, but which specialists believe is on track.

Cuba is facing an alarming crisis of biodiversity loss: of the approximately 36,700 species listed, 35% are endangered, and it is estimated that up to 75% of mammals could disappear. Plants are also severely affected: 580 plant species are critically endangered, along with 16 amphibian species. In addition, 70% of amphibians, of which 71 species are identified (94% endemic) on the island, are threatened.

This deterioration is mainly due to illegal hunting, intensive agriculture, mining, deforestation and pollution, which has eroded natural habitats and drastically reduced local fauna. However, the attention of the state also plays an essential part in a context of economic crisis, where the enjoyment of tourists is prioritized over the protection of natural reserves.

Even the official data confirm the state’s inability and lack of resources to protect endangered species. In the Zapata Swamp, they have come to admit, the number of rangers is insufficient.

In 2020, 14ymedio published an article on social indifference to the silent environmental crisis in Cuba. This newspaper then denounced the predation of polymites for their use in handicrafts and their illegal trade, despite being protected.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

In a Dark Year for Health in Cuba, Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates Go Up

The infant mortality rate rises to 8.2 per thousand and the maternal rate to 56.3 per cent.
“Among the population, there is still a fair amount of dissatisfaction associated with the provision of services that we have been unable to resolve,” said the minister.

Maternity hospital in the city of Matanzas / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, July 15, 2025 — “It has been impossible to achieve the expected results in the most sensitive issues affecting our people.” With these words, published by the official press on Monday, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, reported on the performance of his sector during the first half of the year. The picture is very dark, and the mother-child program is at the top of the list.

From January 1 to July 12 of this year, 234 infant deaths were recorded out of 28,400 live births. Although there were 26 fewer deaths than in the first six months of 2024, there were also fewer births: 28,400 compared to 35,138 in the same period last year. As a result, the infant mortality rate rose to 8.2% per 1,000 births, almost one percentage point higher than last year’s 7.4 percent.

Only six provinces maintain rates below 7: Sancti Spíritus (1.9), Cienfuegos (3.7), Pinar del Río (4.3), Matanzas (4.2), Artemisa (5) and Las Tunas (5.7).

The aging of the population was another of the “challenges” identified by the minister.

Although eight provinces maintain a zero maternal death rate, seven others do record deaths: three, respectively, Guantánamo, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba; two, Havana and Granma; and one, Mayabeque, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.

The aging of the population was another of the “challenges” identified by the minister of the Health and Sports Committee, who is preparing a report for the next regular session of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Of the official figure of 9.7 million inhabitants, almost 2.5 million are elderly adults, 25.7% of the total, and care for them is not optimal. In the country, said Portal Miranda, there are 305 elderly facilities for 13,949 places, “90% of them certified,” and 156 nursing homes, 70% certified.

The minister not only recognized the disaster in these areas, but also the “difficulties to improve the state of construction of medical offices and an availability of only 30% of the basic set of drugs, which in pharmacies is barely 32%.”

The latter is one of the elements most criticized by the population, but it does not follow from Portal Miranda’s presentation that there is an easy solution. The minister vaguely alluded to the elimination of the illegal sale continue reading

of medicines and said that “they ought to have a gradual recovery as long as the necessary financing is available.”

In the country whose propaganda flag has been healthcare since 1959, the medical staff and coverage of clinics are not complete.

Despite placing the “blockade” of the United States at the top of the list of those responsible for the situation, Portal Miranda did not fail to mention other obvious problems: the “exodus of professionals; failures in the organization of services -such as delays in surgical treatments; unethical attitudes; and the illegal sale of services in some institutions.” Thus, he conceded, insisting: “Among the population there remain fair dissatisfactions associated with the provision of services, which we have been unable to solve.”

In the country whose propaganda flag has been healthcare since 1959, the medical staff and coverage of clinics are not complete. There are 16,541 “healthcare facilities,” the minister indicated, “with 92.2% covered.” Although the minister says that wage benefits have been implemented for 72% of workers in the sector, which has “contributed to reducing layoffs by 25%, this does not solve all dissatisfaction.” The reduction in staff, he says, “has made it more difficult for hospitals to function.”

As measures to recover the labor force, for example, 156 retired nurses were hired, and “the rescue of another 191 through personalized arrangements” was achieved, said Portal Miranda, without specifying the details of those arrangements.

In the midst of the debacle, only one aspect shines: foreign exchange income; that is, the sale of medical services, Cuba’s main source of revenue. In the first half of the year, they achieved 102%, “reaching 50% of the annual target.”

However, despite this “over-fulfillmemt” and a “self-financing scheme in currencies” that “have allowed activities to be reordered and halted the deterioration of the system,” Portal Miranda said, with vocabulary typical of the Special Period, the conclusion is not ambiguous: “There are still no relevant results.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

If You Need Blood in Cuba, You Will Probably Have To Buy It

While donations are at a minimum, people increasingly offer in exchange for money, food, or even a high-end cell phone.

National donations fell by more than 100,000 between 2020 and 2023 alone / Granma]

14ymedio, Madrid, 23 June 2025 — With a population estimated at 404,037, the health authorities of Sancti Spíritus estimate that 12,000 blood donations are needed throughout the year. However, in 2024 they were just 7,252, the lowest level in the last five years. Failing to reach the goal of 1,000 donations per month, they have to turn to the families of patients who can donate or to the lucrative black-market blood-selling business.

In a report by the provincial newspaper Escambray, the former coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) of Sancti Spíritus, Jorge Luis Nápoles Marín – replaced in May by Yurkenia Ciriano Alonso – admitted that the organization’s ability to motivate citizens is limited. “This is not going as well as before; it’s a reality that you can’t blame on the blockade or the economic situation,” he says, although he takes care to explain the real reasons: the population’s disaffection towards the regime’s mass organizations, especially the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs).

“Sancti Spíritus has 308,000 CDR members and a plan of 12,000 donations per year. We have plenty of arms to donate”

He admits that there are no healthcare hearings or debates on the subject and accepts the criticism, although his arguments draw attention. “Sancti Spíritus has 308,000 CDR members and a plan of 12,000 donations per year. We have plenty of arms to donate,” he says, regardless of the fact that CDR membership has lost relevance.

The Escambray article, entitled The Virtual Blood Donation Market, reviews the country’s latest official donation data: 254,845 in 2023, compared to 357,665 in 2020. The pandemic, which accelerated the demographic and economic crisis, stands as a definitive turning point for the catastrophe, since between 2014 and 2020 the number fell by just over 57,000 donations, while between 2020 and 2023 the decrease was 102,820.

Among the reasons, which Escambray has asked people connected to the sector about, is the lack of mobile banks. “In Topes de Collantes, donors have been scheduled up to eight times, and they haven’t been able to attend because we don’t have a car,” says Barbarita Altunaga Villas, head of the blood collection center in Trinidad, the area with the worst situation in the continue reading

province. The outlet states that work is underway to repair a vehicle for this purpose, but also poses a rhetorical question: “Why has the Banco Provincial not had its own facility for more than two years?”

Mirta Santos León, Director of Medical Assistance at the General Directorate of Health, claims that there have been times in recent years when the blood supply situation has become, she points out, a headache, and when there has been a shortage of collection bags. However, although there has been no shortage in 2025, “the problem lies in the willingness to donate.”

Experts consulted by Escambray believe that the loss of quality of the snacks given to volunteers is one of the reasons why the willingness to donate blood has declined. Raumara Ramos, acting director of the Provincial Blood Bank, believes it’s almost essential that the situation improves. “The snacks need to be of better quality. If we go to a place with which we have a contract and they tell us, ‘What we have is mortadella,’ we have to take it.”

The article repeatedly emphasizes that the lack of altruism is increasingly perceptible, and even calls on a sociology expert to speak of a loss of values. “Foreign codes are being adopted because the alternatives conceived within our social system as altruistic, moral, and supportive have ceased to work for a segment of the population,” reproaches José Neira Milián, a doctor in sociology, who believes that this “disdains what has been constructed in terms of human values, the original moral meaning being the intrinsic and authentic value of blood donation.”

Neira Millán describes exchanges—financial or in-kind—for blood donations as “foreign codes,” while admitting that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), altruistic or minimally incentivized donations are the majority worldwide. According to available data, Cuba collects 20 donations per 1,000 inhabitants, far from the 40 recommended by the WHO. Spain, the world leader in blood donation, only gives volunteers a small sandwich and a soft drink and has placed the city of Burgos at the top of the world list , with 60 per thousand inhabitants.

“We’ve looked for ways to get people to donate, and material support is more influential than moral stimulation.”

However, those interviewed by Escambray insist on the “incentive” approach. “We’ve looked for ways to get people to donate, and and material support is more influential than moral stimulation. We’ve stopped holding donor days; we no longer encourage those who are prominent on the block or in the work groups. It’s a botched job for a bank to offer a snack that consists of a poorly prepared sandwich and a soft drink, or not even having a mouthful of coffee to give,” says Nápoles Marín.

“Voluntary donors hardly ever show up, and only the relatives of the patient undergoing surgery attend. We need to encourage more; before, we did the donor activity, they were given a sweater, a module [food or supplies]…” says Raumara Ramos.

“What was done at one point,” says Mirta Santos, “isn’t possible now. And stimulation isn’t just about giving people a package of detergent. The Ministry of Health can guarantee medical care; but there are other things that neither the Ministry of Health nor anyone else can offer because they aren’t available today.” Altunaga Villas, however, maintains that work must be done with the private sector to find something, and reveals that this is already being done in Cienfuegos. “It doesn’t have to be a package of chicken; something always helps,” she adds.

Sonia Sánchez, head of the Transfusion Service of the Hemotherapy Department at the Camilo Cienfuegos General Provincial Hospital, says that about 20 or 30 transfusions are needed every day and gives the example of what happened one day she remembers perfectly: April 25th of this year, when she looked at the statistics, availability was zero.

“Sometimes, not always. When we’ve had the noose around our necks, we’ve had support. In recent days, the government and some companies have pledged to help us,” says Altunaga Villas.

In March 2024, the Provincial Bureau of the Communist Party requested the reactivation of the national blood program, which was in decline—in its opinion, due to “insufficient CDRs”; it is up to them, together with the Ministry of Health, to revitalize this movement,” said its head. Meanwhile, the marketing continues, and those interviewed describe cases in which people are asked for anything from 5,000 to 12,000 pesos or a high-end cell phone without the slightest hesitation right at the door of the provincial Blood Bank. Although those who were clearly doing this at the center have been called to attention, those responsible deny having filed complaints due to lack of evidence. However, they acknowledge: “Everyone knows about this.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Poor, Abandoned and Unable To Emigrate to the US, the ‘Palestinians’ Survive in Havana

Without housing, formal employment, and a ration book, these internal migrants are “illegal” in their own country.

Many arrive in the capital, where they are required to meet legalization requirements which, in most cases, the eastern migrants cannot meet. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 17 July 2025 — Tens of thousands of Cubans are “illegal” in their own country, according to Government parameters, above all in Havana, the last stop for migrants who arrive from the east of the Island to escape extreme poverty and who don’t have the means to emigrate to the US or any other destination. Until yesterday, before the dismissal of the Minister of Labor, Marta Elena Feitó, they were also invisible or “disguised” as beggars.

Officialdom attributes the recent intensification of this migratory phenomenon “to a greater urbanization of society,” as stated by Antonio Ajas, director of the Center for Demographic Studies at the University of Havana, in comments reported by the State newspaper Granma on July 13. According to the expert, this is a natural trend in the country’s development process, where more and more people leave rural areas to settle in cities, especially in Havana, the main receiver of these displacements.

At first glance, Ajas’ explanation may seem reasonable: as cities grow, villages are emptied, and the countryside population gets older. However, attributing this phenomenon to “growing urbanization” ignores the social, economic and political context that gives rise to it. This is not a desired migration, a planned one or the product of progress, but the impoverishment and lack of prospects that push many Cubans to leave their places of origin in search of the minimum indispensable for survival. What Ajas describes as a process of urbanization is actually a desperate escape from poverty.

This reality has a face and a name, although not official. In popular Cuban language, especially in the capital, those who emigrate from the eastern provinces are called, in a derogatory way, Palestinians. The term — inherited from the idea of a displaced people, without land and without rights — has acquired a stigmatizing character. As a publication Acento notes, this phenomenon “is the result of institutional fragility in the countryside and the abandonment of rural areas, which push its inhabitants to wander around the country in a kind of contemporary nomadism.” continue reading

Unlike international displacements, these Cubans migrate within their own borders but suffer similar restrictions.

Unlike international displacements, these Cubans migrate within their own borders but suffer similar restrictions: discrimination, lack of access to housing, legal insecurity and almost total invisibility in public policies. Many arrive in Havana without a place to live, without formal employment, without a ration book, and in many cases, without being able to legalize their stay because of the still-existing restrictions of the home registration system. They are citizens of their own country but are treated as intruders.

To this situation is added a legal obstacle that further aggravates the vulnerability of internal migrants: regulations that prevent provincial Cubans from settling legally in Havana without express authorization. Decree 217 of 1997 imposes restrictions on moving to the capital, requiring a series of steps that, in most cases, eastern migrants cannot meet. This special permit system, inherited from a territorial control scheme, makes Havana a sort of restricted enclave within the country where not all citizens can legally reside.

In a 2016 article, the journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa managed to collect statements from several deported Palestinians: “I am your brother-in-law. Look, yesterday at noon they took Junior. But calm down, he did nothing. He was with me having lunch at the gate of Alfredo’s house, and a police car parked in front of us and asked for our identity cards. They saw that he was from Santiago de Cuba and arrested him.” Two buses leave Havana every Friday, each with 45 seats plus a monthly train, returning those people to their provinces of origin.

Decree 217, still in force in practice but not always applied with the same severity, contradicts the Cuban Constitution itself. Article 52 of the Constitution recognizes the right of every citizen to reside anywhere in the national territory. The paradox between constitutional letter and decreed regulations reveals a state that, instead of facilitating integration and equitable access to rights, imposes barriers that fuel exclusion.

The birth rate continues to fall, and population aging increases; more than 25% of Cubans are over 60 years old

Official figures confirm the extent of the phenomenon. According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the population of Cuba decreased by 307,961 people between 2023 and 2024, reaching 9,748,007 inhabitants, although the renowned economist and demographer Campos believes it has actually dropped to 8 million. The birth rate continues to fall, and the aging population increases; more than 25% of Cubans are over 60 years old. In parallel, more than 250,000 people emigrated abroad in 2024 alone. But what is not discussed enough is what happens inside the country: a massive internal movement from the provinces of the East and the Center to the West, with Havana as an almost obligatory destination.

Although it is also the main point of exit, the capital concentrates the bulk of internal migration. According to the ONEI, only Havana and its metropolitan area maintain positive population growth figures, precisely because of this constant flow of internal migrants. Meanwhile, provinces such as Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín and Guantánamo are losing inhabitants at an accelerated rate. In many of them, the loss of young people is alarming and threatens to render unviable local economic and social projects, already fragile after years of state divestment.

However, this forced migration is not limited to the movement from the countryside to the city. As Ajas himself points out, there is also displacement between rural areas: farmers who leave unproductive land in their municipality to settle in another where more land is available or better conditions. This movement, although less visible, reveals a logic of economic survival which has nothing to do with urban growth or modernization. It is simply the need to find a space where one can work and live with a minimum of stability.

There are no specific programs to accommodate, legalize and guarantee basic services for these people.

But the state still does not design a clear policy towards these internal migrants. The official discourse prefers to speak of “circularity,” “return” or a “rapprochement with the diaspora,” while ignoring those who, without leaving the country, are in a legal and social limbo. There are no specific programs to accommodate, legalize and guarantee basic services for these people. Access to the rationed market, children’s school enrollment, jobs and even health care for pregnant women becomes cumbersome for Palestinians. Nor is there a serious strategy to revitalize the countryside beyond slogans about “food sovereignty.”

The case of the Palestinians shows a double abandonment: that of their places of origin, emptied of opportunities, and that of their new destinations, where they are treated as second-class citizens. Rather than taking this reality seriously, the authorities present it as a “technical challenge” or a “natural process.”

But there is nothing natural about tens of thousands of Cubans being forced to leave everything to start from scratch, without state support, without minimum guarantees and bearing the burden of stigma. This is not urbanization. It is simply forced displacement.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

With Their Pension, Cuban Retirees Will Be Able To Buy One Carton of Eggs a Month

Instead of 1,528 pesos, the monthly payment will be 3,056 pesos for about 430,000 people.

[In Cuba, more than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2025 — The Cuban government announced this Wednesday an increase in the minimum pension for about 430,000 retirees starting in September, as confirmed by the prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, before Parliament. State aid will increase from 1,528 Cuban pesos (about $12.70 at the official exchange rate) to 3,056 pesos ($25.40), a figure that, although it represents twice the current amount, is still well below informal market prices.

Marrero justified the measure after a recent meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), where the “complex situation of pensioners’ incomes” was assessed. According to the head of government, the adjustment will benefit 79 per cent of all retirees in the country — about 1.3 million people — who currently receive less than 4,000 pesos. “We are still looking for solutions, but I think it is fair that, although now we cannot cover everyone, we have started with 1.3 million because they are the most vulnerable,” said Marrero.

The Government did not specify where the resources will come from to cover this sum.

The measure will have an estimated tax cost of 22,000 million pesos per year (about 916 million dollars at the official exchange rate for companies), although the Government has not specified where the resources will come from to cover this sum. Marrero only advanced that “a group of measures” will be implemented to finance the expenditure, without providing details.

However, beyond the official rhetoric, the real impact of this adjustment on pensions is limited. In a country where one carton of 30 eggs can exceed 3,000 pesos, the new minimum would barely cover a single commodity, leaving pensioners unprotected against the rest of continue reading

everyday expenses, from medicines and transport to electricity, water and food. As manyindependent economists have warned, the problem is not only the low level of income, but the continued devaluation of the Cuban peso and the galloping inflation that has pulverized purchasing power.

More than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over.

According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), more than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of people over 60 grew from 2.3 million to 2.4 million, an increase of 3%. In contrast, the 15-59 age group fell by almost 12 per cent from 6.7 million to 5.9 million. This demographic change poses enormous challenges for a social security system that is increasingly supported by fewer contributors and more dependents.

The situation is compounded by deteriorating health services, chronic drug shortages and the collapse of the primary care system for older adults. In provinces like Guantanamo and Granma, homes for the elderly survive on donations, while many retirees must rely on remittances from relatives abroad, barter or informal jobs to survive. In recent reports, 14ymedio has documented how retirees sell coffee, soap and cigars on the streets, collect plastic bottles or take care of houses for tourists as their only means of subsistence.

The announcement looks more like a gesture of restraint than a substantive solution.

In addition, while the Government announces these partial reforms, it offers no guarantees of transparency or mechanisms for citizen control over the use of the state budget. The increase in pensions comes without being accompanied by a comprehensive economic reform plan or a coherent fiscal policy that addresses the structural roots of the crisis: unproductivity, bureaucracy and unbridled inflation. Nor have immediate relief measures such as the opening of markets in national currency or the liberalization of individual imports without customs barriers been considered.

In the midst of this panorama, the announcement seems more a gesture of restraint than a substantive solution. The population is aging, families are emigrating, and the generation that built the Revolution today is forced to subsist on pensions that do not cover even one lunch. With the currency in free fall, undersupplied markets and stagnant wages, doubling the minimum pension is at best a bandaid on an open wound.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

The Caballero de París and the Homeless That Don’t Exist

It’s true that the problem of begging was not born with the Revolution, but it is a direct result of the demagogy and cynicism of pretending to serve the poor.

José María López Lledín was born in Spain in 1899 and emigrated to Cuba as a child. / Gaspar, El Lugareño

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 17 July 2025 — In the collective memory of Cubans, there are figures who, without having held official positions, are more remembered than most ministers. One of them is José María López Lledín, better known as El Caballero de París, the Knight of Paris. His image — with prophetic beard, white mane and an unbreakable dignity wrapped in rags — still inhabits the imagination of Havana residents. Despite being a wanderer, a “street madman” to many, he became a myth, an urban legend and a symbol of the Cuban contradiction between marginality and popular respect.

López Lledín was born in Spain in 1899 and emigrated to Cuba when he was just a child. He is said to have worked in hotels, restaurants and even as a bank clerk. But it was the street that eventually took him in. For decades he wandered through Havana with a flowery speech, greeting those he met with nineteenth-century courtesy, pronouncing philosophical phrases, improvising speeches, collecting papers, sometimes writing in the air. His wandering made him part of the urban landscape, a kind of living statue that roamed the city without restrictions. He died in 1985, in the Psychiatric Hospital of Mazorra.

The official story has tried to turn him into a romantic eccentricity of the past. He has even been carved in bronze in front of the convent of Saint Francis of Assisi, as if the country had to settle its debts with the homeless only after death. But what is most annoying is not that kind of late symbolic redemption. What’s irritating is that the same system that tried to cover up the problem of begging by locking up wanderers now continue reading

disguises itself as “sensitive.”

What’s irritating is that the same system that tried to cover up the problem of begging by locking up wanderers now disguises itself as “sensitive.”

The Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó, has “resigned” after generating a scandal by saying that “there are no people living on the street,” only “people who disguise themselves as beggars.” The regime first tried to erase the videos of her speech. Then, when they understood that it was too late and the indignation almost reached the doors of the Parliament, they decided to “disappear” her. Her speech, worthy of a libretto by Ionesco, exposed a Revolution that swore to be humble but ended up accommodating a caste that never lowers the windows of its cars.

It’s true that the problem of begging was not born with the Revolution, nor was corruption, opportunism or poverty. Cuba, like any country in the world, has always had its marginalized population. But what is the direct fruit of the regime is the demagoguery and cynicism of
pretending to serve the poor, but instead multiplying them. For decades, “madmen” and beggars were hidden in institutions such as Mazorra or “social rehabilitation” centers, just as they also tried to hide homosexuals, believers and the ideologically confused. The city had to look clean, disguised only by workers and militants.

The Knight of Paris, with all his elegance and delirium, represents something uncomfortable for power: the dignity of the homeless.

Today, economic decline, runaway inflation and loss of meaning in a country with no visible future have dramatically increased the number of homeless people. You only have to go for a walk through Centro Habana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago. And yet, the official speech insists on the mirage that “no one will be left behind.” Social networks, counter-revolution and imperialism are blamed for the real image of the country, while a parallel narrative is produced where Cubans have a hard time only “in the movies.”

The Knight of Paris, with all his elegance and delirium, represents something uncomfortable for power: the dignity of the homeless, the untitled intelligence, the madness that tells truths. His figure, idealized by some, reminds us that social problems are not solved with bronze statues, denial or falsely empathetic speeches, but with concrete policies.

Today we do not have a Knight of Paris, but we have thousands of Cubans sleeping on cardboard, escaping from hunger and dodging the police, “inventing” to survive. Meanwhile, the statue in front of Saint Francis of Assisi seems to ask, in silence, why those who come to pay homage to him today do not want to look at those who continue, like him, to wander the streets of an unremembered Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

US Deports a Cuban Gang Member and Four Other Convicts to the African Kingdom of Eswatini

The spokesperson for the African country says that Roberto Mosquera Del Peral and those expelled from Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam are in transit.

Roberto Mosquera Del Peral Cuban, is among the five fugitives who were detained in prison in Eswatini. / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2025 — The US government resumed deportation flights to third countries on Tuesday with the expulsion to Eswatini of Cuban Roberto Mosquera Del Peral and four other migrants from Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam. Because of their criminal records, they were not accepted by their countries of origin.

According to Undersecretary of National Security Tricia McLaughlin, “murderers and a rapist, all convicted” were on the flight that landed in the African country, the former Swaziland.

Among those expelled is the 58-year-old Cuban, Mosquera, who was arrested last June. The US authorities point him out as a member of the Latin Kings gang, which emerged in the city of Chicago in the middle of the last century and is considered by the FBI to be “a serious threat” to the country. He also has “a conviction for murder and aggravated assault on a police officer with a weapon” in Miami. continue reading

The Eswatini Government confirmed the landing of the deportees and said that they do not pose a threat to national security.

The Eswatini Government confirmed the landing of the deportees and said that they do not pose a threat to national security. The migrants were detained in isolated units inside penitentiary centers, “where similar offenders are held,” interim spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said. However, he specified that criminals expelled by the US “are only in transit” and insisted that they will be repatriated to their respective countries of origin.

“Eswatini and the United States have had fruitful bilateral relations for more than five decades. Therefore, each agreement reached is carried out with meticulous attention and putting the interests of both nations first,” Mdluli said.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has pushed for express expulsions to countries like El Salvador, South Sudan and now Eswatini as part of his mass deportation campaign, one of his main campaign promises.

Earlier this month, the US government sent eight migrants of various nationalities, including two Cubans and a Mexican, to South Sudan after a court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries with which detainees have no ties.

Eswatini has a population of about 1.2 million people who are predominantly rural, and 60% are living on resources below the poverty line, according to data from the World Bank.

The Washington Post reports that an ICE memorandum instructs immigration officials to keep immigrants in detention “for as long as their deportation process lasts.”

King Mswati III, head of state since 1986 and leader of the last absolute monarchy in Africa, holds executive and legislative power, and although the country holds elections every five years to elect members of the lower house of parliament, these only play the role of advisors to the monarch.

The deportation flights are taking place while The Washington Post reports that an ICE memorandum instructs immigration officials to keep immigrants in detention “for as long as their deportation process lasts.”

Vanessa Dojaquez Torres, practice and policy advisor to the American Association of Immigration Lawyers, denounced policies that keep people in detention longer. “The Government’s goal of detaining and deporting more people is growing.”

The Cubans with form I-220A, Jhon Eduardo Hernández, Denis Durán Dávila and Hermes Sánchez López, were arrested last week after going to court in Miami. They were admitted to Alligator Alcatraz without the option to post bail.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Mexico and Cuba Seal an Alliance To Protect and Study Their Biosphere Reserves

Officials say that the mountains of Manantlán and Rosario “are recognized as sisters.”

They will study the connectivity between natural spaces and the effects of climate change. / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Mexico City, July 16, 2025 — Mexico and Cuba signed a collaboration agreement on Wednesday to conserve, protect and study the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve in Cuba, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) reported.

By signing at the Orquideario de Soroa Botanical Garden in Cuba, Lelieth Feyobe Sandoval, director of the Cuban reserve, and Carlos Alberto Gallegos Solórzano, head of the Mexican Sierra, agreed to “the rebirth of a biocultural family, where the mountains of Cuba and Mexico are recognized as sisters,” according to a statement describing the relationship.

They will study the Biosphere Reserve Youth Network

The Partnership and Action Plan Agreement will seek to cooperate in areas of agro-biodiversity and agricultural production systems; biological corridors and connectivity between natural spaces; studies on climate change impacts; and issues of ecosystem management and services, in addition to working on the Biosphere Reserve Youth Network. continue reading

This twinning occurs three decades after the first agreement, symbolizing “the continuity of a shared history and the renewal of a joint commitment to biodiversity, communities, and ancestral and scientific knowledge,” presented by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico.

The setting of the signing also served to raise the importance of mountain areas for the resilience of coastal basins, through the panel ’Ecological research in both Protected Natural Areas (ANP)’.

They raised the importance of mountain areas for coastal basin resilience.

At the Sierra del Rosario Ecological Station, institutional presentation sessions, working tables, collaborative mapping and cooperation agreements were held to establish a common vision of the challenges and opportunities of the spaces.

The Sierra de Manantlán is a biosphere reserve located between Jalisco and Colima (in the west of the country), known for its biodiversity and its wild corn.

For its part, the Sierra del Rosario was the country’s first biosphere reserve, characterized by its tropical ecosystems.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

“For Every 100 Cattle Thefts, Only One or Two Are Cleared Up,” Confesses a Deputy From Santiago De Cuba

Private producers hold 84.5% of the livestock mass, but the Government continues to prioritize the State sector.

“I sleep with a gun next to me, keeping watch 24 hours a day. This is not business; it’s passion and sacrifice” / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 15 July 2025 — There is no more precise metaphor to describe the situation of Cuban livestock than the image of a skinny cow, chased by rustlers in the early hours, locked up before sunset to avoid becoming meat, and poorly fed by bureaucracy and improvisation. That portrait, as sad as it may seem, is very close to the panorama that the Agrofood Commission of the Cuban Parliament released on Monday, a session that purported to be a road map to rescue the sector and ended up being a collective confession of impotence.

The official narrative, as usual, invoked the “blockade,” recent rains and financial constraints. But the data are more stubborn than the slogans. Livestock, far from advancing, has decreased without pause since 2019, in milk and meat. And it does so in the midst of a monumental paradox. Private producers hold 84.5% of the livestock mass, but the Government continues to prioritize the State sector, unable to guarantee even the shade under which its cows graze.

“What is this idea of prioritizing State enterprises?”

The economist Pedro Monreal was right in his criticism. He pointed out that the parliamentary discussion revealed the fundamental inconsistency of continue reading

trying to fit a private activity within a State regulatory corset designed for a centralized economy and without real incentives. “What is this idea of prioritizing State enterprises?” he asked on X.

But the nonsense goes further. The plan to save livestock includes dollarizing some of the scarce, if not symbolic, milk and meat production
and genetic material in a clumsy attempt to attract foreign exchange. “We have the regulation, the idea, the approval, but then we get stuck in the implementation… everything is complex for us,” admitted Deputy Nidia Montes de Oca. The example she used to illustrate this disorder could not be more revealing: genetic procedures that in the private sector are solved with an invoice and nitrogen, get lost in the State’s bureaucratic maze without an exit.

Parliament, in a rare moment of frankness, acknowledged the structural inefficiency and Kafkaesque slowness surrounding the implementation of any policy. “In a country where a liter of milk costs 200 pesos on the street, and the State wants to pay only 30, where do producers get any incentive to continue milking their cows for the official system?” questioned another MP.

“This is not solved just by Agriculture or the Minint; we all have to unite.”

One of the most alarming revelations of the session was the mention of a scourge that is little talked about in official media: the theft of livestock. The deputy for Contramaestre (Santiago de Cuba), Víctor Manuel Montesinos, warned: “For every 100 cases, only one or two are clarified.” And he added: “This is not solved just by Agriculture or the Minint [Ministry of the Interior]; we all have to unite.”

Monreal quipped: “Where is the State? Did it give up its most basic function, that of ensuring security in the countryside? Or is it preparing to install its own version of a Wild West sheriff?”

Insecurity, coupled with lack of inputs, deteriorating infrastructure and uncompetitive prices, has placed private producers in an unsustainable position. Some, like Rolando Benítez Fernández, a resident of Remedios, said without exaggerating: “Today those who keep livestock are heroes. I sleep with a gun next to me, keeping watch 24 hours a day. This is not business; it’s passion and sacrifice.”

“I sleep with a gun next to me, keeping watch 24 hours a day.”

In the meantime, the 63 measures adopted for the development of the sector remain in the drawer. The so-called Livestock Promotion and Development Law has been unable to promote anything or develop anything beyond discourse. As another parliamentarian pointed out: “What we are seeing here today is not promotion or development; it is the decline of livestock farming.”

This decline is not only economic. It is also moral. It is the symptom of a model that insists on ignoring that without real incentives, without respect for the laws of the market, without simplification of formalities and without legal or physical security for producers, the famous “glass of milk for every Cuban” that Raul Castro promised two decades ago will never be a reality.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________