English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, July 29, 2023 — I have rarely addressed Cuban economic issues or those of any other country, but upon receiving my fellow prisoner and friend Juan José Estrada a statement from the Vice Minister of the Food Industry of Cuba, Midalys Naranjo Blanco, I have no choice but to venture into … Continue reading “New Economic Actors in Cuba”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Olea Gallardo, Havana, 26 June 2023 — The new Home Deli food store on Calle 12, between 21 and 23 in the heart of El Vedado, Havana, was inaugurated at the beginning of June and is not like the ones you usually see in Cuba. Clean and stocked, decorated with a … Continue reading “The Other Cuba: Luxury, Good Taste and Outrageous Prices from the Hand of a Successful Italian”
14ymedio, Havana, June 30, 2023 — Members of Cuba’s ruling party offered an unprecedented, sudden and impassioned defense of capitalism on Friday. The statements came as part of an extensive two-person interview published in Cubadebate on the role of micro, small and medium-sized companies companies (MSMEs) in the nation’s economy. Though they acknowledged the misgivings … Continue reading “Cuban Officials Praise Chinese and Vietnamese-style Capitalism”
14ymedio, Madrid, 29 June 29, 2023 — The private company, anathema in Cuba for more than 60 years, has become, from one day to the next, a lifeline of the regime and a new reason for friction with Washington. In some unusual statements, this Thursday, Johana Tablada, he Cuban Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director General for the … Continue reading “‘The Private Company is of the Revolution’, the Cuban Government Tells tothe United States”
Ivan García, Havana, 22 May 2023 — Juan José, a private entrepreneur in Cuba, spent a year and a half trying to find a place to install a mini-brewery west of Havana. “He greased the palms of several government officials in the Playa municipality with bills to speed up the procedures. But no go. Things never … Continue reading “Crony Capitalism in Cuba”
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 25 May 2023 — Josep Borrell’s first public event in Havana has been a meeting with Cuban entrepreneurs at the Estudio 50, on Lugareño Street. The representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs began a three-day visit to the Island on Thursday, focused on strengthening bilateral economic and political ties. “I … Continue reading “In His First Public Event, Borrell Greets Cubans Who ‘Have the Courage and Ability To Take Action’”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 12 May 2023 — Spain announced this Friday that it will support private Cuban micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) interested in doing business on the Island and will facilitate the pathways for potential investors. The three pilot sectors will be food, technology and cultural industries, said the economic and commercial … Continue reading “Spain Will Support Small Private Cuban Companies Interested in Doing Business”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 March 2023 — “Obviously, someone gave an order to go after the talent agencies,” says Ofelia, a Havana singer for whom the pandemic was a turning point in her career. It happened the moment she went onstage, she tells 14ymedio. It was the first time one of her appearances had not been … Continue reading “Cuban Musicians Are Victims of Corrupt State Talent Agencies”
14ymedio, Havana, 16 February 2023 — The National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) still has not managed to connect a good hit with the “new forms of economic management” that they have intended to implement in the Latin American Stadium since October 2021. According to the vice president of Inder, Omar Venegas … Continue reading “Havana’s Latin American Stadium Will Have to Generate 30 Percent of its Budget”
14ymedio, Madrid, 30 January 2023 — Just 23.3% of the members of the 4,096 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) approved by the Cuban Government at the end of June 2022 were women. The data, offered this Sunday by Cubadebate, dedicated to analyzing the gender gap, joins other data that show that women are far … Continue reading “Despite the Triumphalist Discourse of the Government, Women Have a Minor Role in the Cuban Economy”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 16 December 2022 — It’s only been six years but it seems like a century. From then until now, the official discourse has been turned around, said and unsaid, confirmed and denied countless times. In 2016, an angry statement by the National Association of Small Farmers (Anap) slammed Washington’s proposal to buy directly from … Continue reading “In Its Attempt to Seduce the US, Cuban Regime Takes Over the Private Sector”
14ymedio, Havana, 2 December 2022 — The report on small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) that the Camagüey newspaper Adelante published on Friday lays bare all the regulatory hurdles facing anyone trying to set up a business in Cuba. The situation is so bad that Miguel Hernandez Fernandez, a member of a local group trying to promote … Continue reading “‘The Rate of New Business Failures in Cuba Predicted to Exceed 90 Percent if Changes Are Not Made’”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, Spain, October, 1, 2022 — Reaching the limit and wanting to go further, for the sole vice of maintaining power. At any price. This is the selfish and suicidal lesson the communist regime wants to teach Cubans, so that tomorrow, the whole world will remember the tragic final venture (which … Continue reading “Cuba: It Is the End of the Communist Dictatorship”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 June 2022 – Does the Cuban communist regime really know what it wants to do with the new economic actors? There are serious doubts. The best thing the regime can do for them is to forget that they exist, let them function in the most free and autonomous way … Continue reading “Cuban Regime Has No Idea What To Do With Private Entrepreneurs”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Raquel Martor, Havana, 8 June 2022 — Cuban Loypa Izaguirre, with her small business in Old Havana that offers designer clothes, cocktails and music, is an example of the new generation of young entrepreneurs that is emerging on the island despite the crisis and the pandemic. The 33-year-old has been promoting the … Continue reading “Clothes, Cocktails and Music: A Cuban Entrepreneur Against the Crisis and Covid”
