Category: Translator: Regina Anavy

As part of the logistics, it was indicated that the Ticket application will come into operation, “for which 80 daily shifts will be released, with customers occupying an independent line”

According to the plan, “14,000 cylinders per day are expected to be extracted from the cylinder filling plant for transport to the centers in Santiago de Cuba and the rest of the territories.” Although the planned production includes the extraction of 4,000 cylinders in the morning and 3,500 in the afternoon, this will depend on whether there are no “setbacks in the industry.”

At least 164 cylinders will be taken every day to each marketing point and “will be sold to customers, who since January or before, have not received liquefied gas.” It has been specified that in the two following turns those people will be given preference who bought until the February 15, and the distribution will continue like this, with the following turns being sold to the rest of the customers successively.

“Each customer will buy only once, regardless of the cycle interval of their group. Until all of the customers are served, they will not be able to make a new purchase. This decision seeks to cover all the demand that exists today,” published the newspaper Sierra Maestra.

According to information disseminated by Granma, the liquefied gas will be supplied to “care centers, educational institutions and others of social importance”. Each province was left to implement a strategy and to do so quickly.

This Tuesday the priority of supply of liquefied gas will be the population that lives in tall buildings, such as those on the 18 floors of Garzón and Martí. On Wednesday, the supply includes the residents of the 18 floors of Micro 9, along with other tall buildings in the city, such as the 20 floors located in the municipality of Trocha, Versalles and Block J of the José Martí Urban Center.

The distribution also includes sales outlets for commercial houses in the towns of El Cobre, Melgarejo and Boniato. After that, it will cover those located in the districts of Antonio Maceo and Abel Santamaría, which includes the village of El Caney. Santiago de Cuba will be supplied on alternate days. Beginning on the ninth day, distribution will occur in the settlements of El Brujo, Sevilla, El Espardillo and El Castillito.

The despair over the lack of liquefied gas in Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila, Matanzas and Cienfuegos encouraged all kinds of risky practices such as filling cylinders with natural methane gas instead of liquefied gas. This means that the small cylinders are subjected to twice the pressure, with the danger of an explosion.

“It’s a risky time bomb in our kitchens, because liquefied gas is denser than natural gas, and natural gas spreads faster and is more volatile in the air,” warned a young man worked at the Methane Gas Plant.

The first deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines said that in the case of the central provinces from Villa Clara to Ciego de Ávila, “they will continue to be supplied with the products of the Cienfuegos Refinery.” The official acknowledged that the shortage is “one of the major current problems for cooking food, and it is one of the causes of the increase in demand for electricity.”

Eleven days after the triumphant announcement of the completion of maintenance at the Cienfuegos refinery, the official newspaper Vanguardia confirmed that the shutdown of the refinery was due to the slow arrival of the ship carrying the crude oil, because “it had a technical failure which prevented its arrival as planned.” Domestic gas production covers only 13 per cent of demand, and the rest depends on increasingly expensive imports, whose price has risen by almost 40 per cent in the last six months.

Denying the optimism of the official media, “it won’t be until the weekend when the plants start and liquefied gas production is restarted,” said Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, deputy director of Cupet. The picture does not seem to change. In Matanzas, more than 100,000 households are without cylinders and the distribution works half-way. In Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque, about 99,000 customers did not have access to the service between October and November 2024.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuspinera announced his hunger strike in a handwritten letter signed on May 21 and sent from the Combinado del Este, almost a year after his arrest with no news of his whereabouts. In it, he made “an appeal to the international community, to international and human rights bodies,” as well as to the United States Department of State, “to intervene with the Cuban institutions for the constant violations of my rights and the denial of legal guarantees for my defense by the Cuban state institutions and their representatives.”

The businessman complained that he was manipulated by State Security and the Cuban judicial apparatus, “which are viciously activated against me” and which managed, with “multiple falsehoods”, to accuse him “without the right of defense”.

Several Diplomarket workers are being investigated and ’regulated’

All this was confirmed to 14ymedio by Luis, who gave details about the case, since the Diplomarket was closed and its owners arrested on June 20, 2024. After receiving the visit of officials from the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) who “had a complaint for tax evasion, without having done a prior audit”, the Technical Directorate of Investigations (DTI) appeared in the supermarket. The entrepreneurs were arrested and their business licenses taken away “immediately” from both Cuspinera SURL, the firm under which the supermarket operated, and Kmila-mart, his wife’s company, leaving them “inoperable”.

A former collaborator of Cuspinera and Castro, who also requests anonymity, tells this newspaper that several Diplomarket workers now are “regulated“; that is, they are not allowed to leave the country. “There are several people who have tried to leave Cuba; no one informed them of anything, and when they got to the airport they were told that they couldn’t leave and lost their plane tickets,” says the source.

“When you go to see the instructor, Major Yiset Oliva Betancourt, she tells you that you cannot leave the country because all the workers in that company are under investigation.” The situation, the man denounces, goes against the Constitution, which in article 52 decrees freedom of movement.

One month before the operation against Diplomarket, the company’s accountant left the country without notice

A third source related to Cuspinera, whom we will call Olga, says that one month before the operation against Diplomarket, the founder of the company’s accounting department and the wife of the general manager of Kmila-mart, “left the country without meeting the review period for their work and without prior notice”. According to Olga, the managers of the company later discovered that “there were bad procedures in their work,”  and they undertook an “internal audit.”

At the time of arrest, Olga says, “there were already indications of capital misappropriation and defaults,” but the investigation could not be concluded due to the closing of commercial operations. “Some time after her husband left the country, it became known that they are both in the United States,” says the woman, who cannot confirm “how much could have been diverted.”

The couple’s behavior in any case, is “highly suspect,” and “the authorities have not taken this into account, making Frank solely responsible.”

Luis, who categorically denied that Cuspinera was associated in any way with the regime, ventured before 14ymedio a few days ago that what happened may have to do with the success achieved by the Cuban-American, and that, once arrested, the State Security “pulled” all the information about the operation of Diplomarket to implement the “model” in the current dollar stores, inaugurated on the last day of December with the Supermarket 3rd and 70th.

“Here everyone knows that all the MSMEs do currency trafficking, because when they enacted the laws for private companies it was done knowing that there would never be availability in the bank to obtain the currency legally. It is known that the largest percentage of everything sold in Cuba are imported products obtained with foreign exchange transactions, because nothing is produced here, so you have to import to produce later,” said the source. “They let you run knowing that they have the power to invoke this crime when they don’t want to let you run anymore, and they choose MSMEs that got out of their hands to eliminate them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the document – written in legal language and supported by constitutional arguments – the signatories warn that the new price increase not only violates educational and communication rights, but also deepens social inequalities. The limitation of service to only 6 GB and sectoral solutions represent “a social segmentation of Cuban society,” they said.

The students also challenged any attempt to delegitimize their thinking, falsely accusing them of acting under “manipulation, interference or external intervention.” The president himself, Diaz-Canel, in his podcast From the Presidency, denied that there was any conflict with the student body and stated that the news about protests and academic stoppage were a fabrication of “a totally despicable matrix.”

Although they do not have the backing of the ruling Federation of University Students (FEU), which parrots the interests of the Communist Party of Cuba, the students also condemn the partial dollarization of internet access through establishing re-charges from abroad. They consider that this system excludes those sectors of the population that do not receive remittances and reinforces the social gap between those who have access to foreign currency and those who depend exclusively on wages in Cuban pesos.

“This is not only an economic issue,” said René Javier, the young man from Holguín, but a flagrant violation of the right to information, fairness and personal development.”

The students also propose a meeting for dialogue with Etecsa between June 6 and 13, to find a consensual and peaceful solution to the crisis that is affecting a large part of the population. However, they make it clear that they reject any attempt at political instrumentalization or co-optation by official structures. Neither the FEU nor the management of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Holguín showed their support, so the signatories reject any gesture of support after the publication of the document.

“We request a firm response from the defendant,” they conclude, “to declare our claim admissible with all its pronouncements in the required period.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The second phase, which is institutional in nature and through online platforms, will bring together organizations affiliated with the Council and independent actors both within and outside the country. This segment will focus on the internal consolidation of the CTDC and the elaboration of a democratic vision with a State perspective, based on principles such as separation of powers, respect for human rights and priority attention to political prisoners.

Several CTDC members are currently in prison

Several of its members are currently in prison, including its president, José Daniel Ferrer, and vice-president, Félix Navarro. Both opponents were part of the group of prisoners released last January, under an agreement between the regime and the Vatican, and returned to prison eight days after the death of Pope Francis.

The event is held at a crucial moment, as the Council itself warns, marked by the hardening of authoritarianism, the growing discredit of the Cuban regime and the need to offer alternatives structured from civil society. The Convention aims to become a space for civic articulation and legitimacy in the face of the State’s lack of institutional representation.

“The country is in transition, even if the regime denies it,” says the statement. “The challenge is to order, channel and sustain this transition in an ethical, peaceful and democratic way”.

The Council was founded in Cuba on June 14, 2021 – a few weeks before the historic protests of 11J [11 July 2021] – and acquired international legal personality after its legal formalization before a public notary in Spain on January 14, 2022, where the articles of association and the founding document were certified. This process included their legalization before the Madrid Notarial College, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, as well as before the Consulate General of Cuba in Madrid, fulfilling all the requirements for legitimacy required by Spanish law. Finally, the CTDC was annotated on April 5, 2022, in accordance with the Hague Convention, giving it international validity. The entire process was managed by attorney Ernesto Gutiérrez Tamargo, legal coordinator of the Council.

“The country is in transition, even if the regime denies it”, says the statement

At the time of its founding, 14 organizations converged in an unprecedented union. Today, the Council is composed of 28 independent organizations and actors, who are committed to collective work, democratic institutions and plurality as pillars of change.

On its fourth anniversary, the CTDC says that “We are in transition” is not just a slogan, but “an affirmation of the present and a call to imagine, build and sustain a free, plural and peaceful Cuba.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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solutions for the people,” demands the statement.

The words do not seem to have found an echo in the University of Havana’s board, which has responded to the call indirectly indicating that meetings were held with those responsible for Etecsa, and the solution must be in this dialogue. “It must be made clear that nothing and no one will interrupt our teaching processes with calls that are totally out of touch with the spirit which has animated exchanges with student and youth organizations,” they warned in a veiled allusion to the call, which became private shortly after publication, as announced by the same officials.

“The Matcom Telegram channel was not deleted. We made it private because people from outside the faculty are entering the group of our institution, and we want to moderate the intentions that can be projected. It is a measure taken by the FEU students themselves to protect the purity of our cause,” they say in a Facebook post, where it was shown that at least part of the University Student Federation, members from the Communist Party machinery who support the regime, are supporting these initiatives.

This was confirmed by the publication of a letter from the FEU Council and the Committee of the Union of Young Communists of the Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría (CUJAE), drawn up on the basis of the measures for the student sector announced on Monday. In it, both organizations jointly claim to address the demands of their students when it comes to expressing “again” their dissatisfaction and requesting “more concrete and inclusive solutions in a timely manner,” as well as a “more respectful” position from the Etecsa management.

In the letter, officials who participated in the previous day’s Round Table are accused of “lack of technical rigor in explanations”

In the letter, officials who participated in the previous day’s State TV Round Table program are accused of “lack of technical rigor in explanations” by presenting contradictory graphs on the average consumption of internet data. Although they accept that there is a “cruel impact of the blockade”** and an “urgent need for foreign exchange,” they denounce that “unacceptable inequalities are being generated in a socialist system,” arguing that there can be no privileges for the teaching community. “If the internet should ’prioritize sectors that support the country’s development’, this restriction limits that goal,” they claim.

The letter contains strong criticism of Etecsa, which they accuse of contradicting itself and taking insufficient measures, such as allowing university students to buy two bonuses at the most basic level and hiding the exchange rate used for extra packages, even though it’s obviously the informal rate, plus an abusive lack of transparency. “It is not correct nor is it revolutionary practice to give us news of an immediate implementation without any capacity for reaction or preparation,” they say.

The FEU and the UJC [Young Communist Leagues] launch a battery of proposals to make the borrowing of foreign currency compatible by reducing the damage to the population, including plans segmented by applications, night bonuses for downloads and the extension of benefits designed for students to other sectors, such as professionals and vulnerable groups. “The official solutions have not lived up to the popular demand. They have had disrespectful positions,” they say.

Some official channels and people related to the regime, including the organizer of the El Vedado gas stations and the social group Gente de Barrio organized by Pedro Garcés, have claimed that there are communiqués circulating from several universities “that are false [and] seek to alter the state of opinion and give a general character to this call from the students.” However, the CUJAE letter is not only real and can be downloaded in pdf from the Telegram channel AlmaCujae, but it is also confirmed in another publication of the organization in which Cibercuba is accused of manipulating the news by illustrating it with a photo showing a crowd of students.

“That photo is taken from the start of the course at which Buena Fe was giving a welcome concert,” says the post, despite the fact that the independent media indicates it in the caption. The content of the article, however, is not questionable or slanted.

The FEU of the UH has expressed its opposition, warning that it is in favor of creating a “multidisciplinary group to work with Etecsa” and that it supports the students, but rejects ” media manipulation [and] attempts to alter the normality of university life. We stress the need to respect the importance of the educational teaching process in the current context. The FEU is and will remain revolutionary”, it stressed.

But the fracture is visible in the announcement of the same organization in the Cujae, which uses an energetic and forceful tone against the forms and decisions that, although they have been announced by the company, were taken by the government, As evidenced by the interventions of the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and senior officials of the Ministry of Communications. Miguel Díaz-Canel himself has expressed his support for the measures taken “in view of the urgent need to maintain and develop an essential service,” and he has promised to explain them better in his podcast Desde la presidencia, which is usually presented on Thursdays every two weeks. However, all indications are that it could be advanced to tomorrow.

The tension is high, even though last night Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Martínez Díaz appeared on television for another tedious Round Table in which he insisted on exactly the same thing that had been said 24 hours before. “These limitations, although painful, are temporary and respond to the complex economic situation of the country,” he repeated. At about the same time, two agents of the Ministry of the Interior were zealously erasing graffiti from a wall in front of the Universidad José Martí de Sancti Spíritus: “Down with the dictatorship.”

Translator’s notes: 

*’Tarif’ translates as ‘price and the ‘azo’ ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’magnifier’. Thus, in this case, the term means roughly: “the gigantic price increase thing”

**There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

“As a result of the cooperation between Mexico and the Republic of Cuba, said country requested our support to print school books because of the lack of materials and technological resources,” says the first contract. It makes clear that the Cuban Ministry of Education asked for help from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development (Amexcid), which belongs to the Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry then managed the printing of the 268 titles requested, which were paid by Mexico, as stated in the contract, at the request of the Cuban government. To complement the investigation, documents were requested from the Customs Office attesting to 10 shipments by sea with loads that total, between 2023 and 2024, 14,940,578 copies, slightly above the amount set by contract (14,861,861).

By date, five shipments were made between September 14 and 28, 2023, and two others on October 18 and 20 respectively. According to Veritrade records, a value of less than one cent per copy was reported, although the cost of production would be 24 pesos on average ($1.35 at 2023 exchange rate).

The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In these shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to production costs, averaging $1.2 million.

The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In those shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to the production cost, averaging $1.2 million

Exports were made through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent to the Cuban Editorial Pueblo y Educación. Since Mexico was only in charge of printing, the books are produced by Havana; therefore, the contents have the ideological bias that can be expected.

El Universal describes what is not unknown to Cubans. References to the “persecution” and “blockade” of the US abound in various subjects, although especially in books on Moral Education and Citizenship. Interviewed by the newspaper, Ruiz Irquiola says that this turns the Mexican government into a “participant in indoctrination”.

The Mexican newspaper recalls that the López Obrador administration argued “humanitarian reasons” to multiply its support for Cuba, a policy that his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, seems determined to maintain. Despite the 610 professionals who arrived from Cuba, the population of Mexico without access to health services doubled, according to a report by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL).

To this support should be added the supply of oil, worth close to 900 million dollars, that the government of López Obrador sent to Cuba in 2023 and 2024.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the specific case of the island, reference is made first to its membership on the list of states sponsoring terrorism drawn up by the State Department

“According to the Report on Excess of Stay, Cuba had an excessive stay rate with B1 and B2 visas of 7.69%, and with F, M and J visas of 18.75%,” specifies the text. Consequently, the US suspends the entry of Cubans with B1 and B2 visas (business and tourism, respectively), F and M (academic and technical studies), and J (cultural exchanges). “Consular officials shall reduce the validity of any other non-immigrant visa issued to Cuban nationals to the extent permitted by law,” adds the paragraph.

There is a section for exceptions in the extensive document, up to nine. Among them is one that has been at the center of many Cubans’ concerns since the draft of this proclamation began to circulate. “It prevents the suspension or restriction of entry to legal residents in the US,” says the text, tempering the fears of those who were afraid to travel to the island for any reason and then be denied entry to the US on their return.

In addition, persons with dual nationality, foreigners with other visas – officials of the respective countries or international organizations – athletes, relatives of residents and people involved in adoption processes are exempt. Other exemptions include special visas for Afghans, US government foreign employees and persecuted minorities in Iran.

The proclamation enters into force on June 9, and visas issued earlier cannot be suspended or revoked. It does not affect refugees or prevent them from seeking asylum under the law.

In a long preamble, Trump argues that already in 2017, during his first term, he restricted the entry of people from several countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as some specific cases for North Korea and Venezuela. He boasts that the measure was a success – although there is no way to prove it – because it prevented the arrival of potentially dangerous people.

“The United States must ensure that foreigners admitted, and those already in the country, do not exhibit hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles, and that they do not defend, help or support foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security,” he argues.

“The United States must ensure that foreign nationals admitted, and those already in the country, do not exhibit hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles”

Under this principle, he entrusted his officials, as The New York Times reported in March, to prepare a report in 60 days identifying countries that do not provide sufficient information on travelers or maintain inadequate security practices with regard to the issuance of passports and granting of citizenship. “We cannot allow open migration from any country where we can’t conduct a safe and reliable assessment and control,” Trump said in a video statement released this Wednesday at the time of announcing the proclamation.

Included on this blacklist are “citizens of some countries who pose a significant risk of staying in the United States longer than allowed by their visas, which increases the burden on immigration and law enforcement and often aggravates other risks related to national security and public safety.”

In another document dated Wednesday, Trump also suspended visas for students with the “purpose of attending Harvard University or participating in an exchange program sponsored by it.” “This Justice Department will vigorously defend the president’s proclamation that suspends new foreign students from entering Harvard University for reasons of national security,” Attorney General Pam Bondi maintained in a post on X.

The official considered that it is a privilege and not a right to study at the prestigious university, as Trump believes that it does not meet his requirements. In a statement released on Wednesday night and picked up by AP, Harvard states that it “will continue to protect its international students. This is another illegal and retaliatory step by the Government, in violation of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment,” pointed out university authorities.

As far as the proclamation that affects Cuba is concerned, there is no response at this moment, but bilateral relations are more deteriorated than ever, even on a diplomatic level, after the Cuban government attacked the US chargé d’affaires in Cuba, Mike Hammer, for his meetings and visits to opponents and citizens critical of the island’s regime.

The State Department summoned the Cuban ambassador in Washington, Lianys Torres Rivera, last Friday to express its rejection of this attack against Hammer

On Wednesday, Martí Noticias reported that, according to sources with knowledge, the State Department last Friday summoned the Cuban ambassador in Washington, Lianys Torres Rivera, to express its rejection of this attack on Hammer and other members of the US diplomatic staff. “They can travel all over the country, and our ambassador, too,” they transmitted, allegedly, to the diplomat at the meeting.

The media, based in Miami, could not officially confirm the information, but a spokesman for the State Department said: “We oppose the harassment by the Cuban regime of the Head of Mission, Mike Hammer, and the staff of the US Embassy in Havana for performing normal diplomatic functions as authorized by the Vienna Convention.”

The State Department argued that the Cuban Embassy in Washington holds meetings as it sees fit without any interference from the Administration. “Complaints about the conduct of Ambassador Hammer are not justified. Everything is based on the principle of reciprocity and is fully supported by international norms governing diplomacy,” the State Department added.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“What I can say is that we are working on the proposal with the determination to put it into effect before the end of this year,” a government official told independent Cuban media CaféFuerte.

According to CBS News data, with official sources, more than 77% of asylum applications take over 180 days, and almost 40% are pending two years later. But even for the lucky ones who receive a response within the legal deadline, the possibility of having a job is far from being possible, since this one-year period would be required. CBS News has also requested official statements.

“Over the past four years, the Biden Administration has undermined the integrity of the US asylum system. The Department is exploring all possible options to protect our national security and enhance program integrity,” the official stated, stressing the government’s right to “mitigate all forms of fraud and abuse.”

However, organizations defending the rights of migrants and refugees have expressed their concern that these people would be deprived of their right to economic sustenance, forcing them to work illegally, which, in turn, may harm their legal status. At the bureaucratic level, asylum seekers are no longer taxpayers, except for indirect taxes.

“Asylum seekers play a critical role in a wide range of jobs, from doctors to hospital cleaners,” Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, told CBSNews.

In the last decade, applications for asylum in the US have multiplied, now reaching 1.5 million in the hands of the USCIS and 2 million in immigration courts, according to official data. In 2024, only 35% of the reviewed petitions received an affirmative response, with a very uneven distribution. New Mexico and Texas have a large majority of refusals, with rates of 86% and 83%, while Nevada (23%) and Missouri (19%) have lower refusals.

Trump already tried to implement a policy similar to the one now proposed in his first term in 2020, but the arrival of the pandemic allowed him to impose a much stricter border closure than he had ever expected.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“establish a genuine, secure and transparent dialogue with the people,” with the aim of “making progress along a path of necessary changes in legal, institutional and any other structures that require transformation.”

They also urge “the review and correction of the punitive measures and sentences” of those who “because of their ideas, today suffer imprisonment or police harassment,” as well as “the holding of forums for democratic participation with plural concurrence of visions” and “the recognition and public apology for the damage caused to sectors of Cuban civil society that have been affected by exclusionary and discriminatory policies.”

The message for ordinary Cubans is also convincing, urging them to “move from resignation to perseverance, from apathy to social and political activism, in order to establish a new and restorative moment that heals hatred and removes resentment.” Thus, they encourage the citizens to “exercise the right to participate in processes of constructive change in our country, voluntarily, honestly and transparently; choose as a priority the peaceful path for building a new country”; and “look to the future with hope.”

This includes arbitrary detention, intrusive surveillance, repeated interrogations, threats, harassment, and in some cases physical abuse

The Presbyterians’ message is published just days after Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) issued a report on the situation of religious freedom in the island. A total of 624 violations were committed in 2024. This includes arbitrary detention, intrusive surveillance, repeated interrogations, threats, harassment, and in some cases physical and verbal abuse of children in school settings because of their beliefs.

The report, entitled “No Respite: Systematic Repression of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Cuba,” highlights that both registered and unregistered religious groups, including Afro-Cuban communities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants and Roman Catholics, have been targeted by the Government. In addition, there has been an increase in the imposition of fines on religious leaders for conducting unauthorized activities or worshipping in places that are not officially recognized.

One emblematic case is that of the pastors Luis Guillermo Borja and Roxana Rojas, arrested on May 19, 2024, after invoking their religious beliefs in a military court where their son was tried for intent to evade compulsory military service. Both are facing charges of disrespect and contempt of the authorities. Their son, Kevin Lay Laureido Rojas, who holds a medical exemption for a psychiatric condition, remains in a military prison.

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom has also pointed out that the Cuban regime uses a repressive legal framework to strictly control religious institutions and criminalize activities considered contrary to its ideology. Since 1959, no independent religious group has been legally registered, and those who operate without such registration are subject to surveillance, harassment and confiscation of property.

The Cuban Human Rights Observatory reported at least 996 acts against religious freedom in 2024, including impediments to attending masses, fines for religious leaders of unrecognized churches and harassment of Christians with civic commitment. In addition, there were documented cases of denial of religious assistance to political prisoners and threats against religious leaders to expel relatives of political prisoners from their congregations.

Organizations and human rights defenders have urged the international community to express its concern over these continuing violations and to seek ways to support independent civil society in Cuba, including religious groups. The current situation shows a systematic pattern of repression that undermines fundamental freedoms and human rights on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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current situation of the country, with constant and prolonged problems with electricity and water services, low availability of public transport and rising food prices, to mention just some of the problems that are already part of our daily lives, internet access remained one of the last resources available to the population and students.”

The pro-regime spokesman known as El Necio also posted a review of Etecsa on social networks

The pro-regime spokesman known as El Necio [The Fool] also posted a review of Etecsa on social networks, saying that the managers on State TV’s Round Table program “did not really respond to the specific dissatisfaction and concerns at the moment.” The company’s measure, he explained, “does not solve much” and has been “highly unpopular.”

“I do not recall any other measure which has generated such a high level of immediate and widespread dissatisfaction, even among the sector of people most committed to the Cuban Government and to the socialist process. Analyze the impact and listen to the citizenry that is being expressed. If the measure goes against the interests and needs of the people it is against the Revolution,” he said.

Using the meager excuse of the embargo, El Necio said that Etecsa “will have no choice but to rectify this commercial strategy and find a balance between the need of the companies to collect dollars and the population’s need for connection to communicate, study, work, inform themselves in the face of so many blackouts and also entertain themselves.” Bypassing needs and claims of the people, he noted, “is very harmful.” He also placed the task in the hands of the Party and the Government “to instruct the managers of Etecsa to rectify [the price increase] as soon as possible.”

María del Carmen Hernández, a professor at the Universidad Central de Las Villas and mother of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s official journalist, Leticia Martínez, said she understood “Etecsa’s need for foreign exchange to improve its service, but unfortunately I can’t contribute a dollar. Today I shall watch the Round Table, but most certainly I will not pay these prices.”

For her part, Mariana Camejo, director of the online medium La Joven Cuba – almost always in affinity with the regime – demanded that Etecsa think about “the students; the teachers who send, receive files and search for resources for their classes with their own data because the connection in universities does not allow them to do so; and the retirees who enjoy watching videos, etc.”

“The prices of the ’extra’ plans are prohibitive wherever you look. Etecsa is trying to highlight the ’cheap’ basic plans, but there is no way that people will not notice that their wages are falling and life’s precariousness is rising. No, the policy cannot be that the macro accounts balance the loss, at the expense of the people.”

Also added to the call was musician and writer Ernesto Limia, who highlighted that “university students and their teachers, doctors, journalists and intellectuals – a journalist at the ICRT earns just over 4,000 pesos, to cite an example – have been harmed. Also affected are artists and writers who work in the public sector without internet connection; professionals who without a connection don’t have the opportunities of their counterparts abroad; and pensioners whose checkbooks do not give them enough to survive without family or social security assistance.”

The musician and writer Ernesto Limia also added that “university students and their teachers have been harmed”

This Friday, Lidia Esther Hidalgo Rodriguez, commercial vice president of Etecsa, explained that customers of the prepaid mobile service will be able to make recharges to their main balance up to a total amount of 360 pesos over the course of 30 days. This restriction contrasts with the ability that Etecsa customers had, until this Thursday, to carry out refills in national currency without restrictions.

With this recharge of 360 pesos for 30 days, consumers will be able to purchase, at most, a package with 6 gigabytes (GB) of web browsing, 60 minutes for making calls and the possibility of sending 70 text-only messages (SMS). Below the package of higher price and capacity, there are 4.5 GB of internet connection for 240 pesos; another 2 GB + 15 min, 20 SMS for 120 pesos and 4 GB + 35 min, 40 SMS for 240 pesos.

Since this Friday, an extra package of 3 GB of web browsing requires 3,360 pesos, while to obtain 7 GB you have to pay 6,720, a figure that exceeds the average monthly salary, which in 2024 stood at 5,839 pesos. As for the package of 15 GB of data to connect to the internet, it amounts to 11,760 pesos, a price that has caused a flurry of indignant comments on the official pages of the company.

Even so, several users have complained about the inability to access new offers, supposedly available since yesterday. Many even associate it with the possibility that Etecsa, in a rapture of lucidity, has decided to “rectify its error.”

*Translator’s note: The “azo” ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’’magnifier.’ ‘Tarif’ is ‘rate’ or ‘price’. Thus, ‘tarifazo’, translates roughly as: “the gigantic price increase thing”

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

birds in the environs of the Hanabanilla reservoir, in his native Villa Clara. “Once, in the area of Rio Negro, we saw a parakeet chick, which had apparently been dropped by traffickers. We picked it up, and my cousin raised it.”

With mammals, he explains, the same thing happens. “Before there were people who raised hutías in the yard and had parakeets or other birds in the house. Now that world is very rare.” The statistics are unknown and fragmentary, regrets Cubadebate, which, by way of example, says that in only one month of 2021, bird theft was reported in 98 municipalities of Cuba.

In addition to hunting, “extensive agriculture, mining, deforestation and pollution” have led to habitat loss in Cuba.

Cuba is a signatory to all the conventions published by the United Nations on the protection of natural diversity, but it’s another matter for them to comply. In everyday life the Cuban has an almost non-existent environmental culture. He does not have the means to recycle, and the huge trash dumps in the cities say everything about the state’s neglect of hygiene.

Measures against hunting, buying and selling of species has never been a priority problem for the Ministry of the Interior, whose squalid corps of rangers can do little against the bird and crocodile thieves at critical points, like the Zapata Swamp or the Northern Keys.

Cubadebate claims that the loss of biodiversity in Cuba is part of a global phenomenon

Cubadebate claims that the loss of biodiversity in Cuba is part of a global phenomenon. The island is, together with Haiti and the Dominican Republic (Hispaniola), a point of high concentration of biodiversity, where 40% of the species are endemic, so their loss constitutes an irreparable damage.

On May 26, at a meeting of Cuban botanists in Havana, scientists warned that much of the biodiversity of Cuba’s flora remains to be discovered. In 20 years, only 152 new species have been identified.

As for amphibians, whose great variety made Cuba famous in the scientific world, there are 71 species identified, of which 94% are indigenous, a phenomenon only surpassed by Hispaniola. For Cuba, 70% of the island’s amphibians are at some degree of extinction.

Another disturbing fact, although it does not have to do with biodiversity, is the lack of urgency that Cubans feel about the loss. At the bottom of the Cubadebate article, and despite the harshness of the figures, there was only one comment from the readers.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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