The market will be occupied mainly by self-employed workers who had to leave the nearby Feria de los Chinos
The polluted Jigüe River passes near the area where the market is built. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Holguín, Miguel García, October 12, 2025 — “A pigsty” is how the neighbors describe the new market for the sale of food and other products that is built a few meters from a polluted stream and surrounded by a huge garbage dump on Cuba street, between Carbó and Mendieta, in Holguín. In recent days, the walls of the kiosks have been rising to the same extent as popular discontent grows for the short distance between beans and sewer water, bread and waste of all kinds.
The city is filling up with this type of candonga [practical joke] complains Heriberto, a resident in the neighborhood of the market that will house, basically, the self-employed workers who had to move from the nearby Feria de los Chinos. “They had tents there, and when the official press complained about the hygienic conditions, they were told that they had to dismantle them and have ended up here, where the filth is even worse.”
The Jigüe River, with its sewage from industrial and residential discharges, spreads its stench throughout the area, near the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin General University Hospital. When the kiosks are finished, they will offer both imported and domestic food. Sacks of rice, sugar in bulk and boxes of frozen chicken quarters will be sold within a short distance from the bags of garbage, the piles of construction waste and the miasmas carried by the swollen stream.
What’s worse is that this is authorized by the local authorities,” warns a neighbor. / 14ymedio
“What’s worse is that this is authorized by the local authorities,” says a neighbor. The women thinks that economic precariousness has given rise to this kind of improvised sale with a poor infrastructure. “It eventually ends with the customer taking home a product that has been in contact with flies and germs in that environment,” she summarizes. To her surprise, some of her acquaintances do not see the contradiction in offering food in such a dirty place. “We are used to living surrounded by crap, that’s what happens.”
In a few weeks, the kiosks will be ready to sell pork loin, wheat flour and malangas. Customers will have to overcome the mud and grime to take that food home.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In the middle of the lake, a home restaurant (paladar) offers visitors local products: chicken, lamb, goat, pork and fish
The boats and barges are part of the ecosystem. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Hanabanilla (Villa Clara), October 12, 2025 — Surrounded by hills and lush nature, the Hanabanilla reservoir, in the heart of the Escambray, is an idyllic landscape away from the garbage and insalubrity of Cuban cities. The area is poor in the old way: they build their own houses with real palm wood and raise animals that are then served at the table. Some remote villages have not even received electricity.
Life is not easy for the residents, but people have always lived in Hanabanilla, even on the islets in the middle of the lake, and are accustomed to moving around in boats and fishing to eat. “For the people on this side, the little boat comes early in the morning at 7:00, picks them up and takes the children to school. And at 4:00 in the afternoon, it returns them,” explains one of the residents on the reservoir .
The hamlets have been around for decades, and in the ’50s, when “an American” wanted to build the hydroelectric power plant that Fidel Castro then nationalized in the ’60s, they were the protagonists — according to the official Ecured report — of “one of the most shameful scenes in the history of Cuba with the eviction of the humble farmers who inhabited the Siguanea Valley. They were mostly Galician emigrants, dedicated, fundamentally, to the cultivation of coffee.”
Even on the islets in the middle of the lake, there have always been people accustomed to moving around in boats. / 14ymedio
In the old village “there were houses, schools, shops, everything. The American who was going to build the dam bought the houses from the people who lived below,” the neighbors recount. Despite fierce criticism of the “Yankee” project, the Revolution continued the work on the dam and also turned it into a tourist enclave. “All this was done by the Americans; only a few engines were missing. In 1961 the Revolution shut it down and continue reading
then brought in some Czech engines” to start up the hydroelectric.
Around Hanabanilla, and under the influence of Fidel Castro, numerous businesses emerged that are now in decline due to the low influx of travelers. Some, however, survive, and the paladar El Guajiro, of wide renown among residents and anyone who has ever visited the lake, is an example. The only way to reach the rustic restaurant is by boat, and, as soon as the visitor approaches the shore, he hears the sizzling of hot oil and smells the odor of roast beef.
The shack, made entirely of wood, serves everything that is missing in Cuba, for prices between 1,800 and 2,000 pesos: “chicken, lamb, goat, pork steak or fried pork and fish.” Each dish is served with its portion of rice, snacks and salad, and everything, as the cook himself says, is produced in the paladar. “We produce the pigs ourselves, also the cassava, malanga… The lake gives us the fish: trout and tilapia,” he says with pride.
The guajiros of Hanabanilla live to the rhythm of the boats
Before, he recalls, they even saw deer on the hills that came down to drink at the shore. “I caught them before by swimming, right here in the lake. These are the things (the fish) that are being lost. If I don’t catch them, someone else will,” he reflects.
The possibility of exploiting resources in the area is a relief for the residents. According to the man, who lives at times between the lake and the village of Cumanayagua, “here [in the hamlet] you can live without electricity. Down there [in the village] I can’t live without it: mosquitoes, despair, having nothing to cook with. Not here. Coal is used here permanently, for everything.”
Businesses like El Guajiro, one of the first paladares, founded “before 2012” according to its owner, mark the day to day on the lake. “You arrive at the hotel [Hanabanilla] or anywhere on the lake and tell the boatman ‘I want to eat at Guajiro’s House’ and come to Guajiro’s House to eat. They have to bring them here, and then we give lunch to the boatman,” explains the worker.
The paladar also has other workers, who, when they have shifts all day, stay to sleep in a small house near the restaurant, made, like all the others, of wood.
The boatmen are a whole guild of neighbors who know each other and have been crossing the lake for years. / 14ymedio
The boatmen are a whole guild of neighbors who know each other and have been crossing the lake for years. They also have their own businesses and do the tourist routes to the different corners of the lake. “We give excursions to Jibacoa, from Jibacoa to the canopy, and we return to the waterfall and Guajiro’s House. The other excursion that we have is the one that goes to Nicho, (part of the Topes de Collantes nature park)” says one of them.
The canopy, through which visitors hang from a thick cable over the lake, is a very recent attraction. Installed just last year, it is “the longest in Cuba, in the Jibacoa-Hanabanilla park,” says one of the managers, dressed in gloves, helmet and harness.
The boats and barges are part of the ecosystem. Each family has its own, some motorized, others with oars. The boatmen, surrounded by ancient and Taino names such as Hanabanilla, Jibacoa and Cumanayagua, choose to name their boats with more modern names like Natalia or Príncipe.
The boats come and go from the Hanabanilla hotel, a multi-storey building that Fidel Castro ordered to be built. / 14ymedio
The boats come and go from the hotel Hanabanilla, a multi-storey building that Fidel Castro ordered to be built, and which with the passing years and deterioration is losing more and more charm. The majority of tourists who pass through the area still arrive there.
When night begins to fall, the hotel is filled with music and the noise of the kitchen even though it is mostly empty. On the shore, a few boats, two or three, wait at a tiny floating dock, hoping that some visitor is encouraged to take a tour on the lake, although the demand is almost as small as the boats themselves. However, many prefer to hire private boatmen.
With the passage of time and the decline of the hotel complex, the engines break, there are irreparable gaps in the hulls, and the boatmen depart. The hotel itself has become a graveyard for boats. In its surroundings, dozens of boats rest face down, becoming a refuge for lizards, snails and small animals.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The 2,269 hectares granted are for the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, cane and for livestock.
Another 96 youngsters about to finish military service are ready to obtain land. / La Demajagua
14ymedio, Havana, October 9, 2025 — The need to increase the labor force on the island, affected by mass emigration and disenchantment with State jobs, has led the government of Granma province to give land in usufruct to 300 young men just out of compulsory military service. Another 96, who are not yet released, have signed up to receive land when they are “demobilized” by the armed forces.
LaDemajagua, the official press, did not make it clear whether the imminent farmers were offered benefits, but it is certain that they are not talking about greater freedom when working their land. Spread over the 13 municipalities of the province, the boys have already registered the 2,269 hectares [5,600 acres or 8.7 square miles] granted in total to various endeavors: “52 in agricultural enterprises, another 54 in basic units of cooperative production, 142 in credit and service cooperatives, and 18 in agricultural production cooperatives,” said LaDemajagua, adding that this “link” to the State gives the farmers “the possibility of obtaining bank loans, contracting and marketing their products, and purchasing supplies.”
The land handed over also has predetermined purposes. The crops to be cultivated are coffee and tobacco, products normally dedicated to export and currency collection, as well as sugar cane — a crop in critical debacle — and for raising small and large livestock, whose products have also disappeared from national markets. continue reading
Finally, said La Demajagua, the initiative will also include 132 young people from the “job insertion plan of June, for those who go to the municipal registry and are offered the delivery of available land.” According to the media, a similar measure began in 2011 to put young service graduates to work, and Granma was the first province to carry out this process.
Spread over the 13 municipalities of the province, the boys have already registered for the 2,269 hectares granted in total to various institutions
The regime’s allergy to the “bums” and “pariahs,” as it has come to call the unemployed, is something that its leaders have been unable to get rid of for more than six decades. Now, with the Island lacking a labor force, getting young people to work for the State is like solving both issues at once.
“It’s a weapon deployed against unemployment once again in this territory, where 2,203 people, until a week ago disconnected from study and work, have returned to the classrooms,” celebrated Granma this Wednesday, alluding to Guantánamo.
Although some seek to graduate from high school and others enter university, most will “train as technicians in different specialties — 32 in total — which take priority and are needed in upper Granma province,” wrote the Communist Party media.
“From this effort, the Guantánamo health services will receive nurses and anesthesiologists; new transport railways will see the light, as well as inspectors in the electrical branch and linemen who will reinforce the work of Etecsa [the State telecommunications monopoly],” added the media, which did not hide that the main objective is “to inject manpower into strategic sectors in which Guantánamo has a deficit.”
As before, those involved were not entirely free to choose the areas in which they would work. The province, which visited the unemployed “house to house,” made a list of options that respond to specific needs of the territory. “The courses, which are also open to those who have chosen to join the Ministry of the Interior, involve the University of Guantánamo in the training of graduates in Accounting and Finance, Management for Development, as well as in Law, Primary Education and Preschool Education,” it added.
While looking for the labor force it needs, the State has begun, for the umpteenth time, to fill vacancies with university students
While looking for the labor force it needs, the State has begun, for the umpteenth time, to fill vacancies with undergraduates. On Monday, at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana, students were called to form a work contingent of teachers due to the shortage of teachers in the schools. “We have more than a thousand students engaged in this work in several provinces, although we expect the number to increase in those territories where there are the greatest complexities,” Education Minister Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto told Juventud Rebelde.
The plan is for university students to fill vacancies at secondary and pre-university levels throughout the island*. For this, said the minister, it is necessary to “encourage and increase the interest of young people who already participate and eliminate certain bureaucratic obstacles that hinder the recruitment of the newly interested.”
The Medical Science students are the same ones who also, year after year, are sent to carry out inspections against disease vectors in the neighborhoods all over the island.
An employment survey published last July by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information stressed that Cuba has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the region (1.7%). However, the numbers in the report themselves reflected a different reality: more than half of Cubans over 15 are not working or looking for work.
Of the 8,433,226 Cubans aged 15 or over in 2024, 4,227,333 persons were not part of the labor force, compared to 4,205,893 who were (50.1% versus 49.9%), and of these, 69,333 were unemployed. This represents an employment rate of just 49 per cent, one of the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the average last year was 58.9 per cent, according to the International Labor Organization.
*This program is called “Educating for Love”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Faced with the farmers’ demands, the authorities replied that “there are more important companies” to attend to first
Farmers can barely guarantee water for the animals and their own homes. / Adelante
14ymedio, Havana, October 11, 2025 — For more than two weeks, Amarilys and Gustavo have been without electricity in their home in the Cuban municipality of Florida, Camagüey. Heavy rains in late September caused serious damage to the infrastructure of the poles that bring power to the farmers associated with the Martyrs of Barbados Basic Cooperative Production Unit (UBPC). Since then “the blackout has been total and we are desperate,” the woman tells 14ymedio.
“We have complained everywhere but no one gives us a date for restoring the power,” she explains with anguish. ” All this is costing us money and health; even the animals are suffering because we don’t have electricity to pump water.” Her situation is even more dramatic because “there are two elderly people in the family. One is now bedridden and suffering a lot, because without a fan they can’t sleep, and without power, the food in the refrigerator goes bad.”
The heavy downpours of September 23 and 24, coupled with a severe local storm, put a dent in an electrical supply system that was already showing multiple failures. “We experienced severe flooding in Florida those days; people had to get their belongings to safety as best they could.” The weather has remained unstable, and this Thursday the rainfall brought “rain on top of damp,” says Amarilys, and not only from the water that fell from the sky.
“They say that the rains make it difficult to repair the fallen poles that left us without light and that there are other priorities of companies more strategic than our UBPC.” With about 25 associated families, including usufructuaries and owners, the entity specializes in milk production and sugar cane cultivation. Right now and until the end of next January, the so-called cold campaign is taking place in Florida, with crops, vegetables, rice and fruit being planted on more than continue reading
3,200 hectares of land distributed among state enterprises, cooperatives and other entities.
“The UBPC is the largest cooperative in the municipality for milk delivery and the most important in the cultivation of sugar cane”
“The UBPC is the largest cooperative in the municipality for milk delivery and the most important in the cultivation of sugar cane,” explains a family member who prefers anonymity. “Several demands have been made for the restoration of electricity, and the answer given is that there are more important companies.” The source clarifies that “the farmers are going through a hard situation because they can’t even give their animals water or recharge lamp batteries.”
“There are more than 100 people affected,” estimates the woman, who maintains close communication with relatives in the area. “The farmers have asked that as long as this situation lasts they allow them to deliver cheese [already made and easier to keep even with the lack of power] instead of milk, but they [the State] does not accept this possibility,” she explains referring to the government’s demands.
“The milk cart picks it up at 5:00 in the morning, so farmers must get up at 3:00 in the morning to milk,” she complains. “Their lamps aren’t charged so milking is a headache, because due to the rains the mud is horrible.”
Until a few years ago, the UBPC delivered the cane to the Argentina mill, but after the paralysis of that industry they began to bring the cane to the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes sugar mill. “Last year there were problems with milling for lack of water,” says Amarilys, who has several family members working in the nearby sugar factory. “Now, with these rains the fields are flooded, and it is very difficult to plant at this stage, and everyone is very upset with the lack of electricity.”
The hopes of the families affected by the long blackout are now focused on “the sun coming out, so everything is dry and the electricity company can work and bring us power.”
The hopes of the families affected by the long blackout are now focused on “the sun coming up, so everything is dry and the electric company can work and bring us power.” Expenses are high. “You have to cook only what you are going to eat that day because you can’t save anything. When I buy chicken I have to buy the small packages because the big ones would spoil, and that ends up being more expensive.”
Together with her husband, Gustavo, the woman tries to do “everything possible while there is sunlight.” When night falls “here you can’t even see your hands because the lamp batteries are now at zero.” This Saturday makes exactly 17 days since the last time the light bulbs hanging from the ceiling went on in their house. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” says Amarilys.
The weather, however, drives away the dreams of the woman and the rest of those affected. “The network of rain gauges of the National Institute for Water Resources in the province of Camagüey recorded significant rainfall accumulations during the last three days, influenced by the permanence of a trough over the territory and the transit of tropical waves to the south,” warns an update published this Saturday. The forecast is that the situation will remain very unstable in the coming days.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Norwegian Academy highlights her struggle “to achieve a just and peaceful transition”
Archive photo of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. / EFE/Ronald Peña
14ymedio, Madrid, October 10, 2025 — The Norwegian Academy has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado “for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian committee, began the announcement at 11:00 am with these words: “The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to a courageous and committed peace advocate: a woman who keeps alive the flame of democracy in the midst of a growing darkness.”
Next, Watne, a human rights lawyer by profession, gave the name of the Venezuelan opposition leader and justified the decision, which was taken by considering Machado, 58, “a figure of unity in a political opposition that was previously divided.”
“As leader of the democratic movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times,” the committee said.
“As leader of the democratic movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times,”
According to the document, read during the brief but ceremonial act, the Venezuelan opposition found a point of consensus in the demand for free elections. “This is precisely the essence of democracy: our shared will to uphold the principles of popular will, even if we disagree.”
The committee has described briefly but harshly the situation in Venezuela, which it has referred to as a country that was “relatively democratic and prosperous,” which has evolved into “a brutal and authoritarian state now suffering from a humanitarian and economic crisis. The majority of Venezuelans live in extreme poverty, while a few at the top get rich. The state’s violent machinery is directed against its own citizens. Almost eight continue reading
million people have left the country. The opposition has been systematically repressed through electoral fraud, legal persecution and imprisonment.”
The committee highlighted the political work that Machado has done, first as the founder of Súmate, defending judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. “She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.” Despite this, she found her candidacy blocked, and it had to be taken over by Edmundo González Urrutia.
The chairman of the committee recalled how the election campaign for the presidential elections of July 2024 took place, in the midst of risks, arrests and torture, with the support of hundreds of thousands of volunteers who helped document the election result “before the regime could destroy the ballots and lie about the result.”
The text unequivocally supports the electoral victory of the Venezuelan opposition and recalls that there was support from international observers. “However, the regime refused to accept the election result and clung to power,” it adds.
From X: In the past year, #NobelPeacePrize laureate Maria Corina Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people. When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.
The Norwegian Committee, through the Venezuelan opposition, has defended democracy, which it considers “in retreat” worldwide. “Democracy is a prerequisite for lasting peace. Yet we live in a world where democracy is in decline, where more and more authoritarian regimes defy the rules and resort to violence. The iron control of power by the Venezuelan regime and its repression against the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends worldwide,” it states. Although 2024 was an eminently electoral year around the world, the committee has highlighted that these processes are becoming less and less free and fair.
“Last year, Mrs. Machado was forced to go into hiding. Despite serious threats to her life, she has remained in the country, a decision that has inspired millions of people. When authoritarians take power, it is crucial to recognize the brave defenders of freedom who rise up and resist. Democracy depends on those who refuse to keep quiet, who dare to step forward,” said Watne.
According to the committee, María Corina Machado meets the three criteria set out in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Nobel Peace Prize: uniting the opposition, not wavering in her resistance and supporting the transition to democracy.
With this decision, Machado becomes the seventh Latin American to receive the award. She is preceded by the Argentines Carlos Saavedra Lamas and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Mexican Alfonso García Robles, the Costa Rican Oscar Arias, the Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú and the Colombian Juan Manuel Santos.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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According to the official newspaper ‘5 of Septiembre’, these vehicles transport 80% of the passengers in the province
Many circulate without a license to transport people. / 5 de septiembre
14ymedio, Havana, October 10, 2025 –This Friday, the official press of Cienfuegos launched a diatribe against the drivers of private electric tricycles. Although at a time of “extinction of urban buses” vehicles represent a relief in passenger transport, their presence in the province has gone out of control and spreads “disorder, chaos, speculation, scams, excessive fees to the people and collisions that can be avoided.”
For one kilometer of road, 5 of Septiembre criticizes, from Avenue 36 to the funeral home of the capital city, the drivers can charge 200 pesos per passenger, an amount that the newspaper calls “irrational,” which increases if the route extends just five more blocks. The “urban road landscape, depressed” by the lack of public transport and fuel, has been the perfect scenario for speculators to proliferate, and fares rise without any price cap.
The newspaper also wonders why, despite the number of tricycles that have been added to the city’s routes, prices do not go down. The answer, it argues, is because they agree “to charge more and more for really insignificant stretches.”
“It is known today that about 80% of the movement of people here is done thanks to these electric tricycles. From their inception, the Ministry of Transport identified them as a real possibility to move personnel, authorizing their conversion for this purpose, provided that the standards and the same requirements for each electric vehicle were met. Thus, their presence in the cities has multiplied, both legal and illegal, on and off the main arteries.”
However, what is unacceptable, the newspaper stresses, is that the streets of Cienfuegos become an “uncontrolled jungle” thanks to them
However, the newspaper stresses that what is unacceptable is that the streets of Cienfuegos become an “uncontrolled jungle” thanks continue reading
to them. “Their owners have added them to the local fauna on wheels, competing with private and state transport, in the struggle to see who gets paid more in very short stretches.”
These actions are to the detriment of citizens, it claims, “already bored by so many failed inventions that only affect their pocketbooks.” The reason for the high fares, the drivers defend, is the high price they pay not only for the vehicle but also its batteries, which are usually of poor quality and don’t last long.
As if that were not enough, 5 de Septiembre claims that many “circumvent” the traffic laws and circulate without a license to carry passengers. “There are hundreds that circulate without such a license, something that can be seen in the poor driving by some of the drivers,” adds the newspaper.
This may be due, it admits, to the “sometimes very long” delays in the technical testing of tricycles and the certification required for them to serve as public transport, which leads drivers to start driving without the necessary permits.
In many cities, as in Cienfuegos, it is the private ones that transport the largest mass of passengers daily
Sold on online platforms, mostly in dollars, the electric tricycles have been widely purchased by Cubans whose families abroad can afford to buy them. Business owners and MSMEs* also started buying them to use in the movement of goods. Recently, they have become vehicles to carry passengers with the approval of the State, which lacks the means to take care of public transport on its own.
In many cities, such as Cienfuegos, it is the private sector that transports the largest mass of passengers on a daily basis, since buses have disappeared, and the State tricycles, imported from China and distributed throughout the country in small quantities, usually do not last long or don’t suffice.
Even with the “help” of private individuals, transport in Cuba is at its worst. According to data published in September by the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI), in the first half of this year, 407.9 million passengers were transported in the country, 10.2% fewer than a year earlier.
Not only does the number of people being transported by conventional means decrease but there are also fewer travelers using “alternative means,” such as animal-powered cars, bicitaxis, trucks and private cars. Between January and June 2025, there were 169.1 million, compared to 191.5 million in the same period of 2024, some 11.7% fewer.
*Translator’s note: Literally, “Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises.” The expectation is that it is also privately managed, but in Cuba this may include owners/managers who are connected to the government.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The province is reorganizing its services to monitor the sick, while the population is reluctant to go to emergency rooms because of their condition.
At least three other provinces are taking action, including Havana.
The students had to leave school abruptly, according to some reports. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Matanzas, October 9, 2025 — The dormitories of the University of Medical Sciences in Matanzas have been emptied and converted into a makeshift hospital to deal with the epidemiological situation in the province. As confirmed by 14ymedio in a visit to the center, near the Faustino Pérez hospital, students have been sent home to make room for pediatric care rooms. Some were still seen around on Thursday with packages and backpacks. While they were leaving, the sick children who could not be treated in the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Provincial Pediatric Hospital, which was 100% full, were being brought by bus to the university for admission.
On social media, several people have alluded to the “abrupt expulsion” of the university students. “Now they have taken the students from Medical Sciences, whose building is next to the Hospital Faustino Pérez, to extend both the pediatric ward and the hospital itself because they are overwhelmed,” commented a woman on Facebook at the bottom of the epidemiological article published daily by Dr. Francisco Durán.
Reporter Niover Licea also published a comment from a student. “We were ordered to evict without notice. It’s disrespectful. There is no food for those who stay, and they want to solve at once what they did not prevent from the beginning. This crisis will end when we are all sick.” According to him, the university authorities asked the students to be discreet and warned them against possible reprisals for disseminating data on the health situation.
The provincial newspaper, Girón, indicated on Wednesday afternoon that the capacity of the Provincial Children’s Hospital Eliseo Noel Caamaño is at 100%. “We have a complex epidemiological scenario where arbovirosis joins other viral infections, such as rotaviruses that cause diarrhoeal diseases, which increases the demand for care,” said the center’s director, Anaelis Santana Alvarez.
The university is near the Faustino Pérez Provincial Hospital. / 14ymedio
Currently, there is a reinforcement of the distribution of patients and human resources, possibly –although it is not indicated– as a result of the dispatch of health personnel that the authorities announced last Monday. Dr. Santana stated, however, that the total occupancy of the hospital is nothing more than the result of protocols requiring compulsory admission of children under 10 years old with fever and suspected arbovirosis, “regardless of whether they present complications or not.”
The staff reinforcement plan includes, in any case, specialists and emergency room residents as well as students to assist in consultations. The hospitals of Cárdenas and Colón have been mobilized to provide care for children over age five “without warning signs,” in order to decentralize care and alleviate the burden. The Eliseo Noel Caamaño Hospital is, therefore, left with those who do present such warning signs and infants under one year, in addition to the most serious symptoms, which according to the directive have not occurred so far.
“There has been no lack of resources to care for the children, nor does the province have serious or critical arbovirosis,” he said, while categorically denying that there are cases of cholera, as has circulated on social networks. “The current diarrheal disease is caused by seasonal rotavirus.”
Julio Ernesto Hernández, director of Medical Assistance in the province, said that there are 75 beds in Matanzas to care for feverish patients and they are ready to expand by 100 more. “The fundamental thing for the population is to go to the doctor when continue reading
there are any symptoms,” he said, the same idea that had previously been highlighted by the director of the pediatric department. He expressed his confidence in the system and a vigilance that, in his opinion, works, so that there have been no deaths, while asking the families to remain calm, because the specialists are trained for their task.
The citizens’ distrust is not, in any case, in the doctors. The lack of drugs and reagents to detect the specific disease is now a cause of discomfort and disgust among the population. However, the main obstacle in this scenario is the poor hygienic condition which exists in many hospital centers and which profoundly discourages patients from seeking help.
The lack of drugs and reagents to detect specific diseases is now a cause of discomfort and disgust among the population
In this respect, households are not much better protected either. Julio Ernesto Hernández urged the population to “maintain general measures in housing, self focus, adequate intake of liquids and to watch for possible warning signs.” However, the lack of running water in countless houses, together with the garbage that floods the streets, do not create the best scenario for halting the spread of this type of disease.
“After the capital, the dirtiest city in garbage collection is Matanzas. Do not invest more money in making parks and allocate the budget to clean up the city: that is quality of life, that is vector zero. Please, are there no leaders with vision in the 21st century? The formula is easy: clean city, zero diseases,” reacted a user on the site of the newspaper Girón.
More than 100 people responded, warning that the epidemiological situation in the city has been serious for weeks and the reaction is late and precarious. “One arrives with sick children and they abuse you and leave you lying there, not to mention the poor hygiene in bathrooms and clinics,” reproached another. Many comments reveal family-wide contagion.
Although the epicenter of this panorama is Matanzas, the rest of the island is not saved, and Havana, in particular, is worried because of its its high population and density. The authorities have continued to report sanitation work, including the removal of garbage, which already has reached 90,000 cubic meters, compared with 35,000 at the weekend. The capital city is also facing a viral outbreak, and new reports are coming to this newspaper every day: patients with very high fevers, severe muscle aches and rashes.
Sources from the Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico Salvador Allende, better known as La Covadonga, told Cibercuba on Wednesday that a public health commission visited the center with the idea of enabling it for patients of arbovirosis
It has not been officially reported, but sources from the Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico Salvador Allende, better known as La Covadonga, told Cibercuba this Wednesday that a Public Health Commission visited the center with the idea of enabling it for patients with arbovirosis, similar to the Matanzas pediatric hospital, but for adults. For this, it would be necessary to close the departments of Internal Medicine, Ophthalmology, Urology, Orthopedics and Geriatrics, in which patients with dengue, chikungunya and other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes would be admitted. The six operating rooms would remain open, but outpatient consultations would be suspended if the plan is implemented.
Ciego de Ávila has also announced, in this case formally, a strengthening of surveillance for the same reason. For the time being, efforts will focus on fumigation and waste clearance, especially in the most affected areas: Morón, Ciego de Ávila and Venezuela. The decision is taken on the basis of the spread that leaves two health areas as the epicenter of the disease, the Belkis Sotomayor polyclinic in the capital city and the Morón South polyclinic.
The same strategy is planned, for now, in Bayamo, Granma province, where there are many cases of arbovirosis. There, the authorities have required the population and companies, state and private, to comply with their part in “the strategy of sanitation and disposal of sewage, weeds and landfills,” including the obligation to facilitate the entry of health personnel who carry out door-to-door searches. Otherwise, remember, there will be “the imposition of fines or other punitive measures in cases where necessary.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In these stores you can’t get aspirin or dipyrone, but vitamins or cough syrups are available at stratospheric prices.
Pharmacy on the ground floor of the Sevilla Hotel in Havana. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, October 9, 2025 — “Payment in dollars, starting October 1st.” This information surprised the few customers of the Sevilla Hotel pharmacy on Tuesday, the employees heard. Until just a few days ago, it was an establishment where payments could be made in freely convertible currency (MLC), but now only fula [US dollars], foreign credit cards, or the Classic prepaid card are allowed.
According to the same workers, the same thing is happening in all the “international” pharmacies, like the one on the ground floor of the Habana Libre Hotel. Calling them pharmacies, in any case, is an exaggeration, as the selection is limited and mostly focuses on vitamin supplements.
Shoppers were even more surprised to learn that they didn’t have aspirin or dipyrone*, common medicines. As for the prices, the high prices are no longer surprising. Cough syrups range from $13 to $19, laxatives at $11, vitamins—even those manufactured in Mexico, like Troffin—at more than $20. As is often the case in other state-run continue reading
stores, the items fill the shelves even if they are of the same type.
“International” pharmacy on the ground floor of the Habana Libre Hotel. / 14ymedio
“Antibiotics, painkillers, and other necessary things like that are very easy to get ‘on the left’ . No one is going to buy those things from them,” explained a woman accustomed to this type of transaction. “They’ve come late to wanting to get dollars from selling medicines, and they know perfectly well that the black market has cornered them.”
Indeed, the list of medicines for sale on “specialized” Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups resembles a real pharmacy, at lower prices than the official ones. A young man who regularly buys his mother’s diabetes medication through these channels comments: “Those pharmacies are going to fail.”
*Note: [from the ‘web’] “Metamizole, also known as dipyrone, is a strong analgesic and antipyretic that is available in many countries but is not authorized for use in the United States. It is marketed under hundreds of brand names by numerous manufacturers globally. ‘
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Reports collected by ‘CubaNet’ speak of two detainees and indicate that the majority of the protesters were women.
Residents of Marianao in the streets, Tuesday night. / X/Capture
14ymedio, Madrid, October 8, 2025 — Dozens of people took to the streets Tuesday night in the municipality of Marianao (Havana) to demand an end to the blackouts. In a video shared on social media, residents can be seen banging on pots and pans [a cacerolazo] in the middle of a street where they have stopped traffic and set fires.
According to local residents’ accounts collected on the scene by CubaNet, the incident occurred at 51st and 88th Street in the Santa Felicia neighborhood, and the police arrived immediately. “There are two young men detained,” Karelia Ibáñez stated “Not only did they bang on pots but there was a demonstration. Nothing official was planned before the convoy arrived, so they went all out.”
A few minutes later, they also reported, power was restored to the neighborhood. “They had been turning the power on and off every 10 or 15 minutes for four days, at dawn and throughout the morning,” says Lissette de las Mercedes Quintero Flores. “They banged pots and pans all over the neighborhood, but as always, someone called the police, and a police van came.”
“For four days the power went on and off every 10 or 15 minutes, at dawn and throughout the morning”
Sami Mayde Sánchez provides more details, but agrees with many comments: “People, mainly women, burned things on the street. When I passed there were many policemen and everything was quiet, but there were still a lot of people.” For his part, Mario Miguel Lago Leyva specifies that “the demonstration left from Finlay” and then “joined together” other areas. He continues: “A police convoy and colonel arrived, a van, five patrol cars, two snitches and one citizen continue reading
who was arrested without cause. Ah, and then the mayor of the municipality. After that they turned on the power and gave a political speech of unfounded justifications.”
In recent weeks, protests have been multiplying, not only over the blackouts but also over the lack of water and garbage collection. Last week, 14ymedio recorded a cacerolazo in the middle of a blackout in the vicinity of the Ciudad Deportiva, known as an area “where the lights go out.”
Similarly, a group of women closed down Monte Street in the heart of Havana, loaded down with their children and empty buckets, expressing their anger at the lack of services. Although several police officers confronted them, moments later a water truck arrived, guarded by a patrol car.
The blackouts are not the only affliction in Marianao. Just three days ago, State television reported on the “sanitization” campaign in the municipality, for which the government has put officials of all ministries to work, and neighbors were talking to the cameras openly about their situation. “There are several problems; if there was only one, fine, but it’s the water, it’s the garbage, it’s the power,” complained Orfareina Bien Jiménez, a resident in the neighborhood of Pocitos.
“We have been without water for 36 days,” said Talía Leyé, who added “the issue of garbage, the issue of the polyclinic, that there are no medicines.” Garbage is collected every month “or every two months,” said another neighbor, Pedro Miguel González. “That’s the problem. If they collected the garbage more often, there wouldn’t be all the diseases.”
More than 27,000 inhabitants live in Marianao, reported Canal Caribe, “and the situation with the water supply is critical.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Despite the good performance of a Vietnamese company, only 10% of national consumption was covered in 2024
The private sector has gone from contributing 40% of the rice to more than 50%. / El Artemiseño
14ymedio, Madrid, October 8, 2025 — The participation of the private sector in rice production has grown so much that it has already exceeded the State’s contribution. Based on official information, the economist Pedro Monreal deduces that private deliveries increased from 40.8% to 50%, while the State’s share fell from 55.7% to less than 50%.
“The non-State sector contributes 50% of the rice program, which helps to reduce imports of rice,” the leaders of the sector admitted in passing, participating on Tuesday in the television program Mesa Redonda to explain the agricultural production.
The overall picture is very bleak, even with this vital contribution from the private sector. According to the authorities, the new campaign again will not be good, even with outside help. In 2024, Cuba produced 80,000 tons, just over 10% of its domestic consumption.
The drought that the island has suffered throughout the year does not help at all, although the managers hope that the more recent rains, which have improved the filling of some reservoirs, allow for some optimism. Currently, the reservoirs are at 45% on average, “which does not favor rice activity.” However, the forecast for the cold season is to increase the planting in about 20,000 hectares. continue reading
Currently, the reservoirs are at 45% on average, “which does not favor rice activity “
“Work is being done on the productive chain between two large enterprises and forms of non-state management, which guarantee the inputs necessary for the campaign, while rice-growing enterprises provide irrigation systems, drainage and industrial infrastructure,” they explained yesterday, recalling that there is foreign investment with “significant impact” in two provinces.
They referred, predictably, to the projects of Pinar del Río (in Los Palacios and Consolación del Sur) and Artemisa, where the Vietnamese company Agri VMA owns land in usufruct, with yields evident to Cuban farmers: 7 tons per hectare compared to the country’s average of 1.5, although this rose to 3.5, thanks to the use of bio-fertilizers to solve the shortage of chemicals.
But it will take more than that to improve production. The managers of Agriculture explained that tractors are being leased -probably those provided by Belarus in exchange for rum and coffee, among other things- and “progress is being made on the opening of six comprehensive logistics centers to sell supplies to producers. The first one, they specified, will open in Pinar del Río, offering seeds and technology packages.
It was not specified in which currency these purchases can be made, since a little more than two weeks ago in the same province a shop opened with “more than 100 supplies and products necessary to guarantee production for the tobacco industry and improve the living conditions of producers.” This is how Tabacuba promoted the store, but the goods can only be bought in freely convertible currency (MLC).
As the authorities warn, “all components of the technology package are not yet available, so agricultural yields will remain low.” In Granma province, they said, 12,000 hectares will be sown during the cold season, with the goal of reaching 30,000 in spring, a “figure not reached since 2018.”
To alleviate this bad omen, which the new non-quantified donation of rice from South Korea will not solve either, it is planned to produce more crops that require less water for their cultivation, such as cassava or bananas. Another protagonist of the cold campaign will be corn, both for direct consumption and feed. According to the managers of the sector yesterday, national production of animal feed is “practically nil.”
Cuba spends more than $1.2 billion annually in the import of five products, one of which is corn
Cuba spends more than $1.2 billion annually on imports of five products, one of which is corn. For this reason, the use of transgenic seeds, which give a better harvest, has been promoted for several years but is not very widespread, as the official newspaper Granma regretted last September.
They plan to plant 1,000 hectares of yucca and as many hectares of banana, while recovering the old areas that specialized in this product in Camagüey, Matanzas and Ciego de Ávila. “We are working this year to rescue those historic areas, which at the time were national references for their productive results,” said Julio Gómez Moldón, vice president of the Agricultural Business Group.
The latter again highlighted the task of two of its best known companies, Ceballos and La Cuba, which this year managed to cultivate 4,000 hectares of bananas, the largest figure in its history. In total, this product is one of the few that meet the projections, and by August more than 16,000 hectares were planted throughout the island.
The managers mentioned more projects that are “dynamic,” from the Yabú Valley, in Villa Clara, to the company of Horquita, in Cienfuegos. But Cubans will have to wait to see the fruits of the planted hectares, and if there is a way to bring them to their tables.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The US accuses the Cuban regime of torturing him: “They beat him and subject him to unbearable conditions for demanding basic rights”
José Daniel Ferrer with Nelva Ismarays Ortega Tamayo in a stock photo. / Facebook
14ymedio, Madrid, October 7, 2025 — The uncertainty about the immediate future of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, José Daniel Ferrer, is extreme since the possibility came to light on Friday that he would accept exile in order to leave the prison of Mar Verde, in Santiago de Cuba, where he has been since his release was revoked in April. On Monday, his wife, Nelva Ismarays Ortega Tamayo, was detained for several hours after demanding explanations for being denied a conjugal visit this week.
Ana Belkis Ferrer, sister of the opponent, said on Monday that Ortega Tamayo went to the prison to visit her husband, but Captain Liván Laguart Riquelme refused her entry “for no clear reason.” At 12:30 pm, with Ferrer’s wife standing in front of the entrance to protest the decision, four agents of the Ministry of the Interior arrested her, saying that she should accompany them to the Research and Operations Center in Versalles so that someone could explain why she was not allowed to visit.
After taking her there, they kept her for almost half an hour inside the patrol car under the sun. They then drove her to an office where the aforementioned repressors were located: Major Raúl, another with a camera filming and another who initiated the threats. “According to them,” said Ferrer’s sister, “this was her last warning about going on social networks and publishing against the authorities and institutions of the regime, in addition to the current situation of my brave brother. And if another video or publication came out everything would go backwards in terms of the exit process, both for him and for the family, and she would be imprisoned.” She adds continue reading
that her sister-in-law returned home around 2:00 pm in the afternoon.
“According to them, this was her last warning about going on social networks and publishing against the authorities and institutions of the regime, in addition to the current situation of my brave brother”
The leader of UNPACU published a letter on Friday through his relatives in which he explained why he has taken the decision to accept the insistent demands of State Security for him to leave Cuba. In recent months, he said, “the dictatorship’s ruthlessness against me has exceeded all limits,” with “beatings, torture, humiliation, threats and extreme conditions,” as well as “the theft of my food and toiletries” and threats against his family.
However, he explained in the letter, “since they began the procedures to achieve this end, as always happens, the agents of the regime have been playing very dirty: they continue with the plan of harassment, threats, humiliations, thefts and extreme conditions.” Ferrer argued that the authorities want him to demand a dialogue between the Catholic Church and Washington, among other things, something he refuses to carry out, putting his exit in check.
In this context, on Tuesday the pro-Castro media Cubainformaciónpublished an article entitled “The front, the table and the script: The truth behind the speech of dignity and persecution about José Daniel Ferrer.” It brings to mind the video that the authorities published in 2019 with the intention of discrediting him during his arrest, in which he was seen with allegedly self-inflicted injuries. The text insists that he is not “a ‘persecuted patriot’ forced to leave Cuba by the ‘Castro dictatorship'” but runs an organization of “subversive” character that receives money from abroad “as part of the strategy to destabilize our country.”
Furthermore, the article states that Ferrer – who was imprisoned during the 2003 Black Spring – has been in prison not as an opponent but as a “mercenary” and adds that he practices a “destabilizing activism, with subsequent arrests for repeated provocations against the Cuban institutional order.” The report categorically denies that he was tortured, which explains why it was published.
On Monday, hours before the article came out, the US had insisted on condemning the ill-treatment and “torture” suffered by the opponent. In a statement sent to Martí Noticias, the State Department said that “the Cuban regime continues to brutally repress” Ferrer, who is “a leading voice for freedom on the Island.”
“The United States is with him and will continue to act against the illegitimate and oppressive regime in Cuba until all political prisoners are released”
“The Cuban regime tortures José Daniel Ferrer, beats him and subjects him to intolerable conditions for demanding basic rights. But neither the beatings nor the isolation have succeeded in silencing him,” said the State Department. “The United States is with him and will continue to act against the illegitimate and oppressive regime of Cuba until all political prisoners are released.”
The spokesperson also refused to make statements on whether there are any efforts to facilitate the departure of Ferrer and his family. “We have nothing to share right now,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The families of Daniel Alfaro Frías, José Antonio Pompa López, and Lázaro Mendoza García accuse the trial of being “rigged.”
José Antonio Pompa López was sentenced to eight years in prison / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 6 October 2025 — The Havana Provincial Court has sentenced opposition figures Daniel Alfaro Frías, José Antonio Pompa López, and Lázaro Mendoza García to nine, eight, and five years in prison, respectively. The Cuban American National Foundation reported this Monday, acknowledging the family members’ complaint that the trial was “rigged.”
Prosecutor Niurka Margarita Tabares Valdés had requested up to 10 years in prison for “propaganda against the constitutional order,” “association,” “meeting,” and “illegal demonstrations.” For this reason, the official was added on August 12th to the list of Cuban repressors compiled by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba.
The evidence presented at trial consisted of 95 stickers with the logo “Act Against Violence,” “nine membership cards of the opposition movement For a New Republic,” and seven shirts, two of them black and five white, bearing the logo of the organization Cuba Primero, with the phrase Violence and an X above them.” In its report, the Prosecutor’s Office argued that one of them, Pompa López, “has received funding from abroad.”
The evidence presented at trial consisted of 95 stickers bearing the logo “Act Against Violence”
Relatives of the three convicted men told Martí Noticias that they will pursue every last resort for their defense. They have five days to file an appeal, starting the day after the ruling is notified.
“They are three peaceful men who have fought against this regime for more than 15 years, demanding freedom for our people and continue reading
demanding that human rights not be violated. It is all because they are part of the Cuba First movement, but they have always shown, and we have always shown, that our struggle is peaceful,” said Suarmi Hernández, Pompa López’s wife.
The three convicted men were held in pretrial detention without trial for more than a year and a half in the Guanajay and Combinado del Este prisons, where they were interned in early 2024.
“Their crime is having distributed anti-government leaflets, being financed and directed from abroad, because it cannot be publicly admitted that Cubans on the island are rebelling against a regime that keeps them mired in the worst crisis in Cuba’s history, suffering from hunger, blackouts, lack of water, medicine, and housing, amid rampant insecurity, and that clings to power through sheer repression,” stated the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba when including the prosecutor on its list of repressors.
“It cannot be publicly admitted that Cubans on the island are rebelling against a regime that keeps them subservient.”
Dozens of Cubans have been sanctioned so far for inciting against the constitutional order since the new Penal Code was approved in 2022, the foundation said, questioning whether anyone could be charged with these types of crimes “simply for recording their political opinion in writing on social media.”
The organization has been compiling this list for years, which includes, among many others, prison officials who have made decisions that harmed or damaged the physical and moral integrity of political prisoners; judges and prosecutors—many of them based in the United States —who have made unfounded or simply unfair accusations against opponents; doctors who refused to provide treatment options abroad; and, of course, military personnel and members of the Party and government who are part of the regime’s top leadership.
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In collaboration with Spain, experts from Cuba Energía seek to replace diesel by moringa biomass in the bakeries
Bakeries currently consume a high amount of diesel daily. / Tribuna de La Havana
14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2025 — The bakeries in Havana are preparing to work with moringa biomass and solar panels. The method has been successfully tested at Panadería Dulcería Línea y 12, located in El Vedado, and its workers claim that the specialists have certified the hot dog bun used in the experiment as a quality product.
Canal Caribereported on the project this Sunday, saying it will save huge amounts of diesel and gas for the food industry. “Daily, this oven that we are going to see now consumes daily about 80 kilos [over 175 pounds] of diesel at the minimum. So, multiply that by 385 days, and that’s going to be the result we’re going to get,” said C. Alfredo Curbelo Alonso, a researcher at Cuba Energía.
These quantities, in each bakery of the country, amount to a strong economic outlay, dependent, moreover, on the availability of the resource. Instead, this project involves the start-up of ovens from another type of fuel: moringa pellets. The invasive plant is one of the few things that abound in Cuba, and this idea sparked a collaboration with Spain, through companies and the University of Zaragoza with the International Development Cooperation Agency.
These amounts, in each bakery of the country, amount to a strong economic outlay, dependent, moreover, on the availability of the resource
The research for the project began in 2022, as announced by the Spanish Biomass Association, through the Energy Resources and Consumption Research Center, which tested the suitability of moringa biomass, the continue reading
system and process of converting its woody remains into pellets and its potential, among other things. This allowed the first factory of this type in Cuba to open in October 2024.
In a note published on the occasion of the opening of the center, the Spanish association stated that the woody remains of moringa “with its rapid growth and multiple applications” would be transformed. Instead of being discarded, it would be used as a source of heat. The company Ecofricalia contributed the biomass-specific moringa pellet plant, and the company Biocurve provided the biomass boilers.
“Thanks to the use of biomass, the drying process is done with a lower energy cost compared to the electrical system that was being used,” said the press release. This would guarantee, a priori, the supply to the bakeries resulting from the agreement with the Ministry of Food Industry and Cuba Energía. “Cuban experts and researchers emphasize the validity of this proposal in view of the energy crisis facing the country. In addition, they value its importance in exceptional situations such as those caused by meteorological phenomena,” states the report.
The report explains how the use of wood pellets, which have a high burning power and are very easy to handle, has become widespread. Researcher Curbelo Alonso points out that what is going to begin in bakeries could be extended to other larger industries, although in this case it will be necessary for the pellets to be made of wood chips, “a little easier to produce and more difficult to handle, but worth it.”
The goal is to transform the energy matrix using an abundant resource. Last week, in an interview with Bloomberg Line, the expert at the University of Texas Jorge Piñón recommended precisely the use of biomass in Cuba as a substitute for the expensive domestic crude, of poor quality, although he proposed the cane as the raw material base.
The report also mentions the possibility of installing photovoltaic panels in all the bakeries in the country wherever possible
The report also mentions the possibility of installing photovoltaic energy panels in all the bakeries in the country wherever possible, so that baking could be carried out during the hours of sun. “This is an integral project that is now in the investment plans, which we are preparing for 2026, on the roofs of bakeries that have the right conditions,” adds the engineer. He ensures “continuous production for the population, without interruptions due to lack of diesel.”
The shortage of flour and the poor condition of the mills have caused another crisis on the Island: the bread is of poor quality and shrinking in size. To this is added the lack of electricity, which often puts the production of the product at risk, even provoking a panic in the population that desperately seeks to get hold of it. This leads not only the authorities but the bakers themselves to rationing the sale on several occasions, even in private businesses.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The court held an “exemplary” trial in which it was proved that the defendants had “a purpose to illegitimately increase their personal assets”
Screenshot of the video broadcast of the trial of two people in Artemisa for robbery and slaughter of cattle / Artemisa TV
14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2025 — A court in Artemisa has handed down sentences of seven and eight years’ imprisonment for two persons accused of theft and illegal slaughter of livestock. The trial was held on September 26, although it wasn’t broadcast on local television until this weekend.
According to the report, “it was proved that the accused, in order to illegitimately increase their personal assets through the sale of illegally slaughtered cattle meat, appeared in the immediate vicinity of the road to the Carranza estate, municipality of Mariel, province of Artemisa, and took possession of an animal of the Brown Swiss breed belonging to someone else and killed it without being authorized.”
In addition to deprivation of liberty, both will have to pay an unspecified fine for civil liability. The tools used in the commission of the crime, which were not detailed either, were confiscated, and, as normally happens, they will not be allowed to leave the country.
In addition to deprivation of liberty, both will have to pay an unspecified fine for civil liability. The tools used in the commission of the crime were also confiscated.
The report states that “their social behavior, its characteristics and the injuriousness of their actions” were taken into account when imposing the sentence, but the long length of the sentences is not the only element which suggests that there was an exemplary purpose to the trial. The written indication was on the page of Artemisa television in its social media, which used the word “exemplary” as the title of the video.
“Why doesn’t it say that the lawyer asked a question to the head of Sector and never got it answered because he did not have an answer to the relevant questions? Odor tests were not done in the proper manner and have no value under State law codes. It was all a farce set up by the head of sector. The injustice continues in condemning Julio César, 26 years old,” writes a user on social networks. “How can you publish this and not the questions that the police asked? Because those journalists who were in the courtroom didn’t ask them,” he continued, upset. continue reading
Cases of theft and slaughter of cattle are a headache for the Cuban authorities, in a context of beef shortages that have lasted for too many years. In recent times, moreover, with the increase of the economic crisis and the emergence of crimes, there have been countless robberies of this type. The ranchers declare themselves powerless, because they lack, among other things, such basic things for the protection of animals as wire fencing and personnel to guard them.
The harsh sentences surpass one of this year’s most prominent cases, when last April a man who stole two horses in San Antonio del Sur in Guantánamo in April was sentenced to three years in prison.
The harsh sentences surpass one of this year’s most prominent cases, when last April a man who stole two horses in San Antonio del Sur was sentenced to three years in prison
In February, after ten months of inspections and monitoring, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that there are 2,914,009 cows left in the country, an alarming figure that is a measure of the livestock debacle in a country with six million head in 1958, as many as its inhabitants.
In addition to the crimes of theft and slaughter, there are other illegalities linked to the sector, such as births that are not declared, changing the declared sex of animals to avoid obligations with the State and a multitude of traps that have been consolidated over decades by the demands of authorities that have only led to an absolute crisis of the livestock population.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The authorities are secretive about the port facilities, while giving great publicity to the construction of solar parks
Satellite photo taken in March of the chimneys still being installed / Jorge Piñón/Google Earth
14ymedio, Havana, October 5, 2025 — The Asticar power plant, located on the docks of Astilleros del Caribe in Havana, has been under construction since at least the beginning of this year. A satellite photo taken in March, shared with this newspaper by University of Texas expert Jorge Piñón, shows the progressive construction of the chimneys.
Mentioned only a couple of times by the authorities of the National Electric Union (UNE), the power plant — which, unlike other Turkish patanas is not floating and is on land — remains a mystery. Located on a dock of the state shipyard belonging to the Gemar Group of the Ministry of Transport, it is unknown where the engines came from, what generation capacity they have and how much Havana disbursed — unless they were donated- – to acquire them.
However, it is clear that the Asticar plant is still under construction. So far it has only six visible chimneys, numbered 4 to 9 on the top, suggesting that at least three more are missing. Photos taken by 14ymedio show three other scaffoldings similar to those supporting the chimneys just at the side, indicating that towers 1, 2 and 3 are still under construction.
About the origin of the patana, located a short distance from where the Turkish Suheyla Sultan used to be, which left in August, taking with it the 240 megawatts (MW) it produced, Piñón ventured several hypotheses. Looking at the date of construction of the chimneys, the engines may have continue reading
arrived on board Karpowership’s floating power plant Cankuthan Bey in December 2024.
Photo of the visible chimneys of the plant, numbered from 4 to 9, taken on October2 / 14ymedio
As the UNE reported at the time, the Cankuthan Bey arrived in Havana on December 8, 2024, “to begin work on its units and, once completed,” left Cuba in September.
Another theory is that the generation units of the Asticar plant — or at least part of them — arrived on board the heavy cargo ship OK last May, although the satellite image, which shows the half-built chimneys, suggests that the placement of the patana began months before.
As for the origin, everything points to the chimneys being Turkish, although they could also be one of the many donations made by China to Cuba in recent months, or even by a third partner that the regime refuses to reveal. In the first case, points out Piñón, each of the nine engines, similar to those of the floating power plants, would have a capacity of 15 or 20 MW, which would give a total generation of 135 or 180 MW.
The mention of the “Asticar patana” at the beginning of this week in a breakdown report from the Havana Electric Company also suggests that the patana could be running at half capacity while they finish installing the corresponding engines and chimneys.
The entrance of the Turkish yard in the Karen Caribbean Shipyard in Havana / 14ymedio
The secrecy with which the authorities act has also been reflected in the agreements signed with the Turkish company Karpowership (Karadeniz Holding) since the arrival of the first patana, in 2019. The cost to Cuba was never known, although by August 2023 it was estimated that the bill amounted to more than $100 million.
Faced with Havana’s inability to pay this amount, the Turks gradually withdrew their patanas and managed to get compensation. Of the eight in Cuba, only one remains, in Regla. Although this is again a secret agreement, it is known that the Turkish shipping company Karen Caribbean Shipyard was awarded a port concession for part of the docks in the state-owned Caribbean Shipyards (Asticar), where they are installing the new engines to produce power.
The silence surrounding this plant and its installation does not fit with the authorities’ desire to show, at all costs, that “work is being done” in the country to reduce the hours of blackouts. The best example is the delivery of Chinese solar panels and industrial generators, which the official press has announced on each occasion with great hype, assuring that every extra MW that arrives at the National Electric System (SEN) relieves the burden of the overexploited thermoelectric plants of the Island.
However, neither the photovoltaic with its thousands of panels installed nor the Chinese generators have been able to alleviate the enormous deficit that the Island experiences on a daily basis. The lack of power has normalized in the country to such an extent that the 1,570 MW deficit forecast for this Sunday by the UNE seems a relief from the 1,840 registered last Tuesday.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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