Translating Cuba – Page 106 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuba Lost More Than 300,000 Inhabitants in One Year, Confirms the Government

The regime gives the figure of the current population of the Island: just over 9,700,000

“We are an aging country, so the strategies and actions being implemented are still insufficient” / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 21 February 2025 — It has been known since last July, as the Government itself acknowledged, that Cuba’s population had dropped below 10 million. However, until this Friday, they had not disclosed the exact figure. The number of inhabitants on the Island as of December 31, 2024, according to Juan Carlos Alfonso Faga, deputy head of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), was 9,748,532—more than 300,000 fewer people than the previous year (10,055,968), the official specified.

He also indicated that more than a quarter of the Cuban population is 60 years old or older, and that the elderly are the only demographic group that has grown in recent years. By the end of 2023, for example, as revealed just three months ago, this age group accounted for 24.4% of the population (2,452,489), one percentage point more than the previous year and nearly five compared to 2016 (19.8%), when it was already considered high. Furthermore, over the past 20 years, the increase has been 9.7 percentage points.

Adding to these dramatic figures is the fact that only about 71,000 births were recorded last year, ’the lowest number in decades,’ they conceded.

About 71,000 births were recorded last year, ‘the lowest number in decades’

In light of this situation, the authorities gathered in the governmental commission on the subject, presided over this very Friday by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, expressed that ’implementing strategies’ for the Demographic Dynamics Program is ’a priority.’ One of these strategies is the establishment of ’fertility programs and the maternal and child continue reading

program.’

In this regard, Marrero asked the ’state business organizations’ to create childcare facilities ’according to the demand of their own workers.’ ’It cannot be that the central government has to be using the Ministry of Education’s budget to make investments for this purpose, when these are mothers who are employed, generating wealth, working with the State, in these business organizations that should be the ones executing these investments,’ lamented the Prime Minister.

In the meeting, which was echoed by the Canal Caribe news program, it was also revealed that not all of the budget allocated to social public policies has been executed. Referring to this, Marrero called for ’discipline’ and exclaimed: ’How is it possible that we have money and do not spend it?’

Nevertheless, they acknowledged: ’Although work is being done on different programs aimed at addressing the needs of the elderly, we are an aging country, so the strategies and actions being implemented to protect the nation’s demographic dynamics are still insufficient.’

’How is it possible that we have money and do not execute it?’

The post by pro-government journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso spreading the news was immediately filled with comments full of bitter humor. “I would like to know where the rations are for the almost three million missing people,” wrote Yariel Abrahante Jiménez, to which D Jorge Daba responded: “Simple, the shipment of rice from December, January and February arrived, and now the three million missing people show up.”

Others are simply asking for explanations. ’And how are they going to solve the issue? Soon we’ll be back to six million again,’ says Erick Sánchez, alluding to the population figure from 1959, at the triumph of the Revolution.

What was not mentioned at any point in the official media are the causes of the dramatic population decline, which specialists like Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos view as close to an ’implosion.’

This Cuban economist and demographer published a study last July estimating that Cuba had lost 18% of its population between 2022 and 2023, mainly due to migration. Albizu-Campos’s figures were more pessimistic than the Government’s (8.62 million inhabitants), but they align with the fact that many emigrants who left less than two years ago are still counted as residents on the Island.

In any case, the figure is also explained through many additional indicators, such as the increase in child poverty, the rise in maternal mortality, the decline in life expectancy, or the surge in teenage pregnancies.

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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Million-Dollar Waltz at the Habanos Festival, Supposedly for the Cuban Health System

The humidor auction that closed the event raised $17 million

The closing gala was enlivened by the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire. / EFE

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo. Havana, 1 March 2025 — Two cedar drawers one atop the other, a giant Indian head – the Cohiba Behíke logo – and white squares on black varnish: this is the humidor auctioned this Friday for 4.6 million euros (4.7 million dollars) during the closing gala of the Habanos Festival. Never before had so much been paid for a cigar storage unit, whose exclusivity is based on a detail that the official press did not mention: the signature of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Six other humidors – valuable but not signed by the president, a tradition established by Fidel Castro – were auctioned off during the dinner, for a total of 16.41 million euros (17 million dollars). They represented the major cigar brands: Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann, Partagás and Hoyo de Monterrey. According to some media the buyer, who was not identified, is Chinese.

The money, the official press insists goes to the island’s health system. In light of the Cuban health debacle and the total crisis in the country, few can believe this mantra that is repeated at each Festival.

Díaz-Canel was at the dinner, but unlike last year, there were hardly any photos circulating of him smoking among the guests or signing the humidor, gestures that caused great controversy at the last edition of the Festival. Also at the dinner were the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and other members of the top brass of the regime. continue reading

The auctioned piece of furniture was not the only record broken by Habanos SA – the Cuban tobacco monopoly, shared by Cuba and Spain – which announced at the beginning of the week that it had had revenues of 827 million dollars in 2024, 106 million more than the previous year.

The auction which, in the past, Castro served as host of millionaires and sometimes served as auctioneer, is the most eagerly awaited event of the Festival, attended by tycoons and fans from around the world. Some of its participants were the first, albeit very discreet, guests of the new luxury hotel Iberostar, in the 42-story K Tower on 23rd Street, opposite the decaying Coppelia.

The closing gala – with entertainment by the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire – was overshadowed, however, by the “intermediate” dinner that Habanos organized at the Capitol on Wednesday to present another luxury vitola, the H. Upmann Magnum 50. The adjectives that the company used to describe the event left no doubt about its character: “exclusive, refined, exquisite.”

The Salon of Lost Steps, once a place of debate and reflection on the Republic, was filled with 600 guests in tuxedos, overwhelmed by the play of light. No colored lights were spared on the dome of the Capitol, nor on the also gold-plated statue of the Republic, cast in 1928 by the Italian sculptor Angelo Zanelli.

“The place is the seat of our Parliament and is now used in images that resemble some kind of brothel from the 1950s”

The pro-government journalist and professor at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana, Ana Teresa Badía, harshly criticized the display. “What was the intention this Habanos Festival meant to convey? In a world in which the construction of public opinion is increasingly symbolic, this is very wrong. A serious error in political communication that buries the ideology that Cuba has defended. The place is the headquarters of our Parliament and now it is used in images that resemble a kind of brothel from the 1950s,” she wrote on her Facebook profile.

The painter Hermes Entenza, for his part, wrote: “The Habanos Festival, where glamour becomes ridiculous and extravagant, where the working people, who look at the building in dismay, do not even have cigarettes to smoke. Cuba in the Capitol, Cuba imprisoned by itself, moaning in the dark and feeling the walls of the beautiful building rumble to the sound of the empowered who have raised this movie to the level of a horror film… You have to have a very perverse mind to applaud this revelry.”

The immoderation marked both the making of the humidors and the vitolas. This was underlined by David Savona, director of Cigar Aficionado – the most recognized magazine in the sector – who was present at the Festival, who described step by step the hours it took him to finish the Cohiba Behíke BHK 58, the star of the night.

While the cigars and lights were lit in the Capitol, the country’s electricity deficit was 1,641 megawatts (MW). On Friday, while the multimillion-dollar auction was taking place in Pabexpo, west of the capital, the shortage was 1,625 MW. This Saturday, when the guests announced their return home with “cigars as gifts,” they left an Island submerged in blackout and with a deficit of 1,575 MW.

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With the ‘Instability’ of the Family Basket, Cuba’s Ration Stores Run Out of Cash

The function that allows customers to receive money with a QR code linked to their bank account is thus lost.

Businesses that request the extra cash service do not receive money in advance by the bank to put it into the hands of customers / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, February 28, 2025 — The Government must have thought “for big problems, big solutions” when it invented the “extra cash” service. The long lines at the banks, the lack of cash in the branches, the blackouts that shut down the ATMs and the disconnections that prevent card payment were going to be solved with this alternative. The concept is simple: the customer goes to one of the affiliated establishments, scans a QR code and makes a transfer of money to the premises, which – once the validity of the operation is verified – gives him cash: the panacea for rural areas.

More than three years later, the idea, which never prospered as expected, fails to work worse than ever. “If the stores and government establishments don’t collect money, you can’t withdraw money. The last thing they told me in the grocery store is that they are saving money to pay their workers. The rest of us have to sleep in front of the bank to withdraw 2,000* pesos, assuming there is money and electricity,” says a woman from Nuevitas.

Businesses that request the extra cash service do not receive money in advance by the bank to put in the hands of customers but rather depend on what they collect themselves. The 2021 measure was designed for ration stores, points of sale for propane and pharmacies, although later Correos [post offices], Casas de Cambio [currency exchanges], Cupet [gas stations] and other state-owned companies have been able to take advantage of it. The incentive is basically null, since the bank pays the premises a continue reading

commission of 0.5% of the balance of the day and a peso for each operation carried out, but – in return – it is doing the job of a cashier.

The official press of the provinces has dedicated some sporadic reports to the disappointment of this service

The official press of the provinces has dedicated some sporadic reports to the disappointment of this service, which has been progressively reduced. In December, the Central Bank of Cuba announced that the amount of 5,000 pesos without limit of operations, that was in force until that moment, was drastically reduced: 6,000 pesos, but only once a week.

The Government has not given up on the service but admits that it has been increasingly limited, as indicated by the report published this Friday by the State newspaper Granma. The article gives both praise and criticism to the extra cash service, based on cases in two provinces: Villa Clara, where the project progresses properly, and Granma, where it is shipwrecked without hope of rescue.

Juan Miguel Cabrales Perdomo, director of Development of the Commerce Business Group in the eastern province, says that of the 862 extra cash services that were initially enabled in the Commerce network, there are not even 400 that continue to work. For the official, the reason is very clear: the shortage of products for the rationed family basket leaves the coffers of the ration stores empty.

“Regardless of the fact that the majority of ration stores sell industrial products and other items, the most money they collect is from the sale of products for the family basket, which today do not have stability and arrive in fractional form. What happens as a result? The ration store requests extra cash, but there is none,” he tells the official newspaper of the Communist Party.

Cabrales Perdomo says that it was a good idea and was born “as an alternative to the lack of cash,” but “the situation has been changing.”

The provincial management of the Bank of Credits and Commerce (Bandec) indicates that there are 1,298 premises with the service, but the requests have stopped due to “lack of interest of some agencies, given the limitations they have with the existence of cash.”

However, the bank states that the increase in electronic payments is also behind the reduction in available cash and gives the electricity company as an example. Last year, 85% of the billing was through the bank, the company says, so the little money in cash they have left is for paying the workers and not for the public that requests it. “For me, the extra cash service has been a very comfortable and effective option, but for some months, withdrawing money that way has become an impossible mission,” said a customer. She told Granma that she used to withdraw cash from the gas company and that she would be an example of this type of case, since payments for electricity are most often done by bank, as the authorities have stated numerous times.

Apparently to alleviate the situation, the report addresses the case of Villa Clara, where 2,243 premises offer the service

Apparently to alleviate the situation, the report addresses the case of Villa Clara, where 2,243 premises offer the cash service. In this way, the residents of the province obtained 815,425,000 pesos (about 2.4 million dollars at the informal exchange rate), an amount that, without the comparative data, was much higher than that of the previous year. Specifically, Santa Clara ostensibly excelled, with 257,210 extra-cash operations (45% more than the previous year), worth 681 million pesos.

According to the newspaper, the abysmal difference between the two provinces is due to the fact that the administrators of the establishments of the Commerce of Villa Clara carried out very adequate informative work, which has promoted adherence to the program. The merchants managed to pocket 3,745,000 pesos in commissions, “nothing negligible,” the report considers, although it is the equivalent of 11,000 dollars among more than 2,000 establishments.

The report also addresses the corruption that can occur in this service, although the Commerce director assures that everything is under control. “We have had some cases of people trying to take advantage of this facility for personal purposes or to favor others, which have been detected and neutralized immediately, thanks to the vigilance that we carry out every day on this matter, and to our close relationship with the banking system, which can trace and record all the operations,” he emphasizes.

Translator’s note: The peso/dollar exchange rate is quite volatile, and varies even on the same day in different places based on different exchange scenarios. That said, today 1 Cuban pesos is worth roughly 4.2 cents US.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With More Than a Thousand Political Prisoners in Its Jails, the Cuban Regime Denounces the Decline in Rights in the West

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez regrets the advance of “conservative and neo-fascist platforms”

Bruno Rodriguez at the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday. / EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Geneva, 24 February 2025 / Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez expressed alarm at the rise of “neo-fascism” globally and the retreat of policies supporting vulnerable groups in the West, speaking at the opening of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

“We observe with great concern the advance of conservative and neo-fascist platforms, and how in developed countries we are experiencing a decades-long regression in fundamental rights, including women’s equality, sexual and reproductive rights, the rights of Afro-descendants, of ethnic minorities and of migrants,” he said.

“The right to life is in grave danger. The United Nations Charter, international law and multilateralism are being threatened, while attempts are being made to impose economic coercion and political subversion as methods of international relations,” warned Rodríguez.

“The United Nations Charter, international law and multilateralism are being threatened, while attempts are being made to impose economic coercion and political subversion as methods of international relations”

In this context, the minister called on the United Nations Security Council, which on Monday opened six weeks of debates on crises and conflicts in the world, to “advocate more strongly for a fair and democratic international order that guarantees peace and balance in the world.”

Cuba’s foreign minister also pointed to the United States, which withdrew from the Human Rights Council with the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, for being “an active accomplice to the Israeli genocide in Gaza” and for its decades of maximum pressure on Cuba through the blockade*. continue reading

Rodríguez also stated that recently “copious evidence has been released about the US practice of allocating millions of dollars from the federal budget through entities such as USAID to finance organizations, media outlets, artificial intelligence laboratories and technological platforms that use the protection of human rights as a facade.”

“In reality, they respond to the legitimate political objectives of that government. This is a serious and pertinent matter for this Council and its mandate, as it demonstrates the double standards and opportunism with which the issue of human rights has been used to subvert sovereign governments,” he said.

The opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council coincided on Monday with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was the focus of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ speech. “Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the war in Ukraine is a grave threat not only to the peace and security of Europe, but also to the very foundations and fundamental principles of the United Nations,” he said.

The opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council coincided on Monday with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Cuba has not commented on this matter, in which it has always sided with Russia, calling the invasion a “special operation.” As of 31 January 2025, there were a total of 1,150 political and prisoners of conscience on the island “suffering judicial sentences or restraining orders,” according to the organization Prisoner Defenders.

Like that organization, the human rights NGO Amnesty International has denounced that the Cuban regime, which committed itself in January to release 553 prisoners, and has incurred in a multitude of “irregularities” and “lack of transparency” in the process .

According to the NGO, 172 prisoners have been released and another nine have received some change in their legal status, with most of these being participants in the anti-government demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J). Prisoners Defenders, for its part, estimates the number of political prisoners released to be 200, and added that it has accredited some common prisoners who have also been released.

Translator’s note: 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.

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“There Is No Bread, There Is No Flour”: The Omnipresent Poster in Havana’s Shops

Shortages affect both the rationed and informal markets

A bakery in Havana announces on an improvised poster that it is not selling bread / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 February 2025 — In La Timba the mornings are too quiet. In that poor neighborhood that extends a few meters from the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, the proclamations of the street vendors who sell bread have not been heard for days. The absence of their voices is a terrible sign in a city where many bakeries have displayed the “There is no” sign due to the lack of flour that has sunk the production of this basic food.

“There is some, but you have to do a lot to find it,” says a retiree who this Friday walked from the Luyanó neighborhood to Central Havana. “I went to several private businesses, and they say they are not making bread, that they don’t know when they will sell it again.” In at least two of these MSMEs, employees explained that the current shortage is due to problems with the supply of flour after the offensive that the authorities unleashed against informal sellers and illegalities in the sector, in the capital and also in the provinces, especially Matanzas.

An open secret is that much of the bread sold by street vendors is made in the same bakeries that make the rationed bread. The raw materials that guarantee 60 grams per consumer per day are being diverted and become a product that economically supports a wide network of bakers, administrators who turn a blind eye, and informal sellers. These days, the official media have warned in several provinces that the State does not have enough flour to guarantee that daily quota, a shortage that has also put the black market in check.

“I went to several private businesses that say they are not making bread and don’t know when they will have it for sale again”

Private producers are also experiencing difficulties. “The price of flour has gone up, which forces us to raise prices or cut production,” Samuel, a young baker who works in a private candy store where they also make cookies, breads and the popular breadsticks, explains to this newspaper. “In continue reading

February of last year, if you bought by quantity, a 25-kilogram bag wasn’t even 30 dollars, but now it’s a miracle if you can find it under 40.”

“We had to stop selling bags of bread because there was one complaint after another. We had one that contained eight bread rolls at 200 pesos because they were big, but the people who came in treated us like scammers,” he explains. Finally, “we couldn’t even continue at that price, because buying quality flour and selling at that price only gives us losses.”

Samuel points to an increase in State controls as part of the problem. “Some inspectors arrived at the bakery and started handing out fines before even entering. They fined us thousands of pesos because we had a sign outside with the prices, and they said No, it has to be inside. Then they came in, and because there was a bag with a little flour that we had transferred from a sack and did not have the origin on the outside to compare it with the invoice, they added 8,000 more pesos to the fine.”

The result was that they stopped making not only bread but also panettone, puff pastry and any other type of dough made from flour. “Now we are only making cremitas de leche (milk caramels), guava bars, custard and coconut macaroons.” Of course, the large sign with “There is no bread, there is no flour” has been placed inside the business, on a counter with empty shelves behind it.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Releases Five Other 11J Political Prisoners

Following the resumption of releases this week, nine opposition members have been released from prison

As of Friday, there have been 219 releases of political prisoners / Niurka Rodríguez García / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 28 February 2025 — Five other Cuban political prisoners – Yunaiky de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez, Andy Alexis Martín Pérez, Luis Armando Cruz Aguilera, Lázaro Antonio Rodríguez Jerez and Abel Lázaro Machado Conde – were released this Friday. After stopping the releases in January, the Regime resumed them as the result of a negotiation with the Vatican. All the prisoners had been arrested during the popular protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) and given sentences of up to 10 years.

Martín Pérez received the prison benefit yesterday afternoon, when the release from prison of four other political prisoners was also announced: Iván Mauricio Arocha Arocha, Ohaurys Rondón Rivero, Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez and Yaquelin Castillo García.

According to the organization Justicia 11J, Martín Pérez – father of five children and a “ponchero“* by profession – was arrested in Colón, Matanzas. After his arrest, he was prosecuted by a military court, and the prosecutor asked for 22 years in prison for sabotage, robbery with force and public disorder.

Linares Rodríguez, for her part, was the first person released from prison this Friday, and according to CubaNet was put on parole. The 27-year-old – she was 24 at the time of the demonstrations – was arrested in Havana and “was incommunicado for two days,” Justicia 11J clarifies. continue reading

For her participation in the Toyo corner protest, which left the iconic image of the overturned patrol car, she was accused of sedition

For her participation in the Toyo corner protest, which left the iconic image of the overturned patrol car, she was accused of sedition; the prosecutor’s office requested 17 years in prison. The sentence was 10 years, and after an appeal by the family, it was reduced to eight, which she served in the Women’s Prison of the West, also called El Guatao, in the capital.

Yunaiky [Linares Rodríguez] suffers from thyroid problems, and during her confinement she reported that she did not receive medication. On several occasions she was taken to a punishment cell after she demanded that her rights be respected. Her helplessness and pain for the injustices she endured in prison led her to self-harm,” said Justicia 11J.

During her time in prison, her mother, Niurka Rodríguez García, carried out a very intense activism for the cause of political prisoners and tirelessly reported the violations of the rights suffered by Linares Rodríguez and other women prosecuted for their participation in the historic demonstrations.

The releases were negotiated between the Vatican and Havana, which promised the release of 553 prisoners throughout 2025, allegedly to show the “spirit of Jubilee” and the humanism of the Cuban Government. The statements, made at the beginning of the year, coincided with the decision of former US President Joe Biden to remove the Island from the list of states that sponsor terrorism.

After the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House on January 20, Cuba was again included on the list, and the releases stopped. Until that moment, about 200 political prisoners had left Cuban prisons – more than 30 of whom had already finished their sentences – along with others, common prisoners.

After Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House on January 20, Cuba was again included on the list, and the releases were stopped

With the most recent five, there have been 219 releases of political prisoners, but this not guarantee their acquittal. They are on conditional parole.

Mike Hammer, Special Envoy for the U.S. Embassy in Havana, arrived on the Island shortly before the releases began and, since then, has been involved with activists, political prisoners and opponents.

This Friday, the diplomat posted on the Embassy Facebook account: “On my second visit to Matanzas, I met with Maibel Gelin and Alexey Rodríguez, parents of political prisoner José Alejandro Rodríguez Gelin, and with Rosemery Bello, wife of political prisoner Yasmany Porras. We join their request for the release of their relatives and other political prisoners.”

One day before, he visited former political prisoner Samuel Pupo Martínez and his wife Yuneisy Santana González, who thanked the diplomat for their interest in the Cuban opposition and for the testimonies of those who have been imprisoned for political reasons.

In recent weeks, Hammer visited other opposition figures such as José Daniel Ferrer, who was also released from prison as part of the agreement; the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler; the dissident Martha Beatriz Roque, who was hospitalized; Félix Navarro; and the teacher and activist Bárbara Alina López in Matanzas.

*Translator’s note: Someone who repairs flat tires

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Authorities Promise To Fight Drugs With ‘Blood and Fire’

In 2024, more than 1,000 kilos were seized, mostly cocaine, and more than 1,100 people were sentenced to prison.

Anti-drug operation this week in Havana / Tribuna de La Habana

14ymedio, Madrid, 21 February 2025 — The authorities’ concern about the increase in the amount of drugs circulating on the Island is as evident as is its desire to spread the message that they are fighting on all fronts. This is demonstrated by apparently trivial details such as the fact that this Thursday Noticiero Estelar issued a brief report about a trial held in Havana against a 50-year-old man accused of drug trafficking for being in possession of a package in his name with 7.5 kilograms of cocaine from the Dominican Republic.

In a country where crime was previously not talked about and the circulation of narcotics was denied, the issue of drugs is very present lately in the official media, which are reporting this trial before the sentence is known.

The provincial newspaper Tribuna de La Habana has not missed a beat and this Friday had two news reports – one of them from the previous day – that also address the issue from different angles. One talks about the “confrontation” with several images of police operations in the capital and the offer of “support for young people at risk”; the other celebrates a workshop that was held at the Saúl Delgado Urban Pre-University Institute, in El Vedado, for the prevention and rejection of drugs.

The data offered by the Ministry of the Interior at the end of 2024 make it clear that the problem exists on all fronts of the Island. Last year, 1,051 kilos of drugs were detected in Cuba, mostly cocaine, in addition to marijuana, methamphetamine and cannabinoids. The maritime route continues to be the most active – or, at least, the one where most drugs were detected. There alone, the police seized 844.02 kilos (619.72 of cocaine, 222 of marijuana and 2.3 of hashish) in 133 landings. There were also nine searches in which 37.5 kilos of drugs were seized. continue reading

The data offered by the Ministry of the Interior at the end of 2024 make it clear that the problem exists on all fronts on the Island

The report, published this Friday in the State newspaper Granma, highlights the participation of other countries in these crimes and mentions several operations concerning speedboats that penetrated national territory from the US, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Cuba cooperates with the authorities of these countries, including an investigation into “20 organizers abroad.”

Within Cuba, a case in Pinar del Río stands out in which three people – the organizer and two boat drivers – were arrested with more than 8 kilos of methamphetamine.

Detection from the air was lower, although the ministry points out that it has corroborated “the intention of foreigners and Cubans based abroad to introduce drugs to the national territory through several airports from ten countries in the region,” by way of mules, cargo or post.

“From the United States, synthetic cannabinoids (el químico – the chemical) are kept in their natural state – powder – and mixed with tobacco and methamphetamine,” says the report. This economical product is ravaging the streets of many cities on the Island and visibly worries the authorities, who have admitted the death of at least two people related to this product, as well as the addiction of countless young people.

In the airports, the information indicates, 94 people were arrested, 75 of them Cubans. In addition, more than 90 kilos of drugs were confiscated: 74 of cocaine, 7.8 of marijuana, 5.8 of synthetic cannabinoids, 2.6 of methamphetamine and 0.06 of ecstasy. Through Interpol, 59 Cubans and two foreigners are being sought for the crime of illicit drug trafficking.

Within the Island, the note adds, 157 interprovincial trafficking operations were hindered, with 267 detainees and more than 73 kilos of drugs secured. Most cases are concentrated in Havana, Camagüey, Holguín, Granma and Santiago de Cuba. The concentration of cases of dismantled cultivation in the east of the country is striking, since it only refers to those provinces when reporting the 105 cases found, with more than 49,000 plants and more than 207,000 seeds seized.

The ministry insists on international cooperation and says it is in contact with 37 foreign anti-drug services

The ministry insists on international cooperation and says it has contact with 37 foreign anti-drug services and has exchanged 105 messages with 24 countries.

Nor does it skimp on numbers when reporting on the “application of criminal and prison policy.” There are 1,237 drug trafficking files opened by the prosecutor’s office and 897 certified for possession. Of those accused, 92% go to pre-trial detention “because of their harmful nature.” In the courts there were 980 cases in which 1,193 people were judged, 97% of them sanctioned and 94% with deprivation of liberty. In addition, figures are given for hundreds of thousands of talks and debates in educational centers with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people. Also, it reminds readers that an organization dedicated entirely to this phenomenon, the National Drug Observatory, has been inaugurated.

In the midst of this panorama, Manuel Marrero also addressed the matter in a meeting with the authorities of the State and the Party in the Palace of the Revolution. There, the figures exposed by the Ministry of the Interior were reviewed, and the dangers of these substances were stressed, both for health when they are consumed and for national security when they are introduced into the country.

All the speeches underlined the importance of having the phenomenon under control and called it “a battle” to indicate that it is a war “against all those who are trying to contaminate society.” Marrero turned, at the end, to the leaders of the Revolution and, quoting Raúl Castro, said that drugs will be fought “with blood and fire.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With the Release of Four Political Prisoners, the Cuban Regime Resumes the Process Interrupted a Month Ago

These are the 11J protesters Ivan Mauricio Arocha Arocha, Brusnelvis Adrian Cabrera Gutierrez and Yaquelin Castillo Garcia and the activist Ohaurys Rondon Rivero

Iván Mauricio Arocha Arocha, one of the political prisoners released in the last few hours / Prisoners Defenders

14ymedio, Madrid, 27 February 2025 — Iván Mauricio Arocha Arocha and Ohaurys Rondón Rivero are the first two political prisoners that the Cuban regime has released since Donald Trump put an end to the agreement with the Vatican.

According to Prisoners Defenders (PD), Arocha Arocha, a demonstrator on 11 July 2021 in Santiago de Cuba, was released this Thursday from Boniato prison under “conditional parole .”

The 55-year-old man was arrested along with his son, Iván Arocha Quiala, who remains in prison. Both were sentenced to 10 years for the crimes of attack, public disorder, disrespect, resistance, instigation to commit crimes, defamation of institutions, “and organizations and heroes and martyrs,” and spreading epidemics.

According to Rondón’s own testimony, he was released along with 29 common prisoners

The case of Ohaurys Rondón, a member of the Opposition for a New Republic Movement, was confirmed by Martí Noticias, which reported that the activist was released from a forced labor camp in Havana. According to Rondón’s own testimony, he was released along with 29 common prisoners, all of them from the 1580 prison of San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana.

The activist was sentenced in November 2023 to two years in prison, for the crimes of “property damage and propaganda against the constitutional order,” breaking the windows of a pharmacy in the Havana municipality of Marianao and painting anti-government posters. The charges were dropped, and he was charged with the common crime of possession of a knife, explains Martí Noticias. continue reading

The organization Justicia 11J , which collects data on those imprisoned for the historic protests, was the one that reported on Thursday the other two cases placed on “conditional release”: Brusnelvis Adrián Cabrera Gutiérrez and Yaquelin Castillo García.

The Provincial People’s Court of Havana sentenced Cabrera Gutiérrez to 15 years in prison – which was finally reduced to 10 – after “proving” that the young man, then 21 years old, “showed up at the crowd of people riding a red moped, with which he joined those present, and made gestures with his hands and movements with his body inciting the population that was watching to join in the disorder.”

Castillo García, who participated in the La Güinera demonstrations on July 12, 2021, was sentenced to 11 years for sedition. NGOs denounced her situation, highlighting that she has a teenage son in the care of her aunts.

The Provincial People’s Court of Havana sentenced Cabrera Gutiérrez to 15 years in prison

With these four releases, the number of political prisoners released would total 214 under an agreement that the Cuban regime has always distanced itself from the United States, although it was announced less than an hour after Biden removed Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. At the same time that, days later, Trump was sworn in and returned the Island to the blacklist, Havana halted the 553 promised releases.

With Arocha and Rondón, 212 political prisoners have now been released under an agreement that the Cuban regime insists has nothing to do with US policy, although it was announced less than an hour after Biden removed Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. After Trump assumed power and returned the Island to the blacklist, Havana stopped releasing the 553 political prisoners.

In the same way, the Government hurried to clarify that the releases were “neither an amnesty nor a pardon,” but “benefits” that did not exempt those released from returning to prison if they did not comply with the “obligations.”

By then, historical opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, and activists such as Pedro Albert Sánchez, Luis Robles and Lady in White Tania Echeverría were free. But there has been no news of the possible release of other dissidents including the artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo, and Ladies in White Sissi Abascal and Sayli Navarro.

For Prisoners Defenders, the releases have been no more than “a macabre game of the regime.” The total number of released prisoners given by the Regime was “very symbolic,” said Javier Larrondo, president of PD, because it is the same estimate given by both his organization and other demonstrators arrested after 11 July 2021. “What they have done is, subliminally, let us deceive ourselves into thinking that they are all 11J prisoners,” he told this newspaper on January 24.

The number of political prisoners in Cuba has risen to 1,150, according to PD. To contribute to their most urgent needs, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba presented an initiative on Tuesday called “Neither Forgetting nor Abandonment: Let’s Save Cuban Political Prisoners.” With it, they hope to raise money for food, medicine and personal hygiene items for those imprisoned for ideological reasons.

“In Cuba, a family needs at least 50 to 100 dollars a month to support a political prisoner. Every contribution, however small, can make the difference between life and death in the regime’s prisons,” he said in a statement, recalling that at least 50 people died in the island’s prisons last year.

“No cause can prosper if those who have been imprisoned on the front lines for defending freedom, democracy and human rights are abandoned. Justice and human dignity cannot be just abstract principles; they must be translated into action,” they ask in the document, in which they claim the phrase popularized during the Holocaust: To save one life is to save all humanity.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban ‘Mules’ That Travel to Margarita, Venezuela, Are a Source of Dollars for the State-Owned Cubatur

Nearly 30,000 Cubans have flown to the Venezuelan island to shop since the program was launched

The Cubatur agency office located at 23 and L, in Havana, where travel packages to Margarita, Venezuela, are sold. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2025 — Margarita has become one of the favored destinations for Cubans. The numbers are already incontestable: almost 30,000 people have traveled from the Island since a program was created in 2022 to encourage commercial tourism in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.

The data was released on Wednesday by the Venezuelan Ministry of Tourism, which applauded the fact that the local airport, Santiago Mariño, received more than a thousand travelers between February 17 and 23 of this year alone. Of these, 224 were Cubans and 709 Polish, the two nationalities with the most travelers in total, with 29,324 and 20,703, respectively. Trinidad and Tobago, with 11,394, is the third nationality.

The program has undoubtedly been a commercial success for the Venezuelan government. In the first year alone, Cubans spent around 17 million dollars there to “purchase various items,” said the president of the Nueva Esparta Chamber of Commerce, José Gregorio Rodríguez, who estimated that there were 5,000 visitors from the island since August 2023. The success was such that the organizers decided to start chartering cargo planes to increase the volume of purchases by passengers. continue reading

In the first year alone, Cubans spent around 17 million dollars there to “purchase different items,” said the president of the Nueva Esparta Chamber of Commerce.

But there is another party that profits from this obvious business for Cuban mules and that is the Havana regime. Travel packages to Margarita Island are managed by Cubatur and the Gira Agency, which is also represented on the island by the state-owned company. To no one’s surprise, the trips, which until mid-2024 were sold in national currency and foreign currency, have become available exclusively in dollars. In addition, in just one month, prices have risen from $610 in January to $860 announced for this February. In March, the price will be close to $700.

“At the Habana Libre, tickets to [Margarita] Island can be paid for in dollars in cash,” reported an agency employee on the Telegram channel set up for the occasion. There are more than 2,700 people subscribed to this network where commercial advertising invades the screen and complicates the lives of those who are only looking for information.

“We are waiting for you at Nirvana Intima with the best prices and the best service on the island,” announces a company with dozens of photos of underwear. “We offer you the best prices and quality in Paraná,” says another. “Novelties Nina, with the best price on soft drinks on the island,” promotes another company. Shoes, sandals, sweaters, 43-inch televisions, Redmi phones for 110 dollars, cables of all kinds and solar plants…” The bazaar is huge and the possibilities of purchasing items and reselling them on the Island are very attractive.

According to data from the Venezuelan Minister of Tourism in 2023, Cubans spent 5,000 dollars in Margarita, although the president of the Chamber of Commerce lowered the amount to 3,400. Today, many of these travelers estimate the amount needed to be around 3,000. “It all depends on the amount of luggage you are going to bring and the merchandise you buy, obviously not everything has the same price. On my first trip I packed everything: six suitcases, two with toiletries, food and medicine, and four with miscellaneous items. I needed about 2,900 dollars,” says one mule .

“On my first trip I packed everything: six suitcases, two with toiletries, food and medicine, and four with miscellaneous items. I needed about 2,900 dollars”

Customs allows the free importation without limits of food, medicines and toiletries, something that travelers are very aware of, but – they know – it is very important not to mix products. “If you mix medicines, toiletries, soft drinks, there are no problems. What you cannot do is mix a single product, if they declare it as commercial,” recommends a regular, although there is not always an Official Gazette to cling to. “They are only allowing five kilos per product. The rest is up to the customs officer on duty.”

Travel packages in national currency, which once cost around 114,500 pesos and were already difficult to find, are history, but there are still some options to pay in MLC. However, some buyers say that achieving this is almost a miracle. “Are there no more offers in MLC?” asked one buyer to the agency. “Yes, but the POS (for card payment) has been broken for a long time,” they replied. The price does not include the special visa for purchases, which at the beginning of the program cost 30 dollars and has risen to 50.

That price is the same as what Panama demands to enter the Colon Free Zone, one of the destinations with which Margarita competes, but which remains the preferred destination for Cubans – even more so since the violence in Haiti has cornered that market. The latest available data, from the first quarter of 2024, indicate that 4,172 buyers from the Island arrived in Colon.

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Despite Their Profits in Cuba, a Spanish Luxury Hotel and a Canadian Hotel Refuse To Pay Extra to Their Staff

Facade of the Iberostar Selection Parque Central, in Havana / Facebook / Iberostar

14ymedio, Madrid, 24 February 2025 — The workers of at least two hotels managed by foreign firms, the Iberostar Selection Parque Central, in Havana, and the Royalton Hicacos, in Varadero (Matanzas), have been demanding a wage stimulus for two years, which has been denied despite the companies’ profits. An article in the newspaper Trabajadores pointed out last week that the shareholders’ 2023 and 2024 meetings of both establishments “decided not to approve the creation of the Economic Stimulus Fund (ESF).” It is likely, the text ventures, that the same thing will happen in 2025.

“As expected, the discontent became a regular customer of two key facilities in tourist operations in the country, both for its weight in the amount of income in foreign currency and for the efficiency in operations concluded with profits,” regrets the article, included in a lengthy special dedicated to wage incentives on the Island.

That refusal of the companies, the report clarifies, is protected by current legislation, specifically the Foreign Investment Law of 2014, which “leaves it up to the parties to create said Fund.”

The complement in CUC to their meager salaries in pesos was one of the main attractions for workers in tourist facilities

With the Ordering Task*, which led to the disappearance of the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) at the beginning of 2021, the incentives in this currency were eliminated for the employees. It wasn’t something minor. The complement in CUC to their meager salaries in pesos was one of the main attractions for workers in tourist facilities. This helped them not only retain their employees but also stopped the theft of supplies, something common.

According to Trabajadores, based on the “monetary and exchange ordering,” workers were promised “an attractive monthly payment of 2% or 3% of the profits.” They “dreamed about” having jobs in joint venture hotels. continue reading

That payment happened again in 2022, although “a very low percentage corresponding to 2021 was distributed then.” The amounts, the text continues, increased considerably in 2023 and 2024, but both the Iberostar Parque Central de La Habana, belonging to the Spanish hotel, and the Royalton Hicacos de Varadero, of the Canadian Blue Diamond, did not grant incentives.

“Other joint ventures did award 3,784 employees of the Cubanacán business group,” the report states. Although for more than two years, “the union has been promoting the idea of looking for some way to protect the right to be rewarded for the wealth created,” says the report, “the matter is still pending solution, with the cost of a marked exodus of the labor force and a negative impact on the quality of tourism processes.”

The hope is that the obligation of the ESF in joint ventures will be included in an upcoming reform of the Foreign Investment Law, scheduled for 2026.

The distribution of stimulus payments from the profits creates “concern” during the first three months of the year

Also, says Trabajadores, several debates are taking place about the distribution of company profits, which must be done by March 31. First, two fundamental requirements must be met: “We cannot talk about wealth distribution if it has not been created before; nor should we talk about a distribution of income generated by it that is not compatible with the individual participation of workers.”

The distribution of stimulus payments from the profits, says the newspaper, creates “concern” during the first three months of the year, when financial statements are released.

Already in the last weeks of December, when the year begins to close, “people have more or less an idea of the “size of the ball,” as we say, about whether or not they will get that additional income. What they don’t know is how much, and sometimes their impatience about when they will receive it comes to the surface.”

Agility in this process, says Trabajadores, is fundamental: “An entanglement in the accounts, an uncertainty in the calculations, can lead to a delay in the distribution of profits among workers.” The trade union organizations, it continues, must participate in the decision-making of the management councils. “The ability of the unions to negotiate, based on the preparation of their leaders, will determine the success of the distribution of profits.”

In the case of the Iberostar Parque Central and the Royalton Hicacos, the unions have not been successful so far.

*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” [Tarea Ordenamiento] was a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Extends Visa Restrictions to Those Involved in the Export of Cuban Labor

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio states that Havana “continues to benefit from the forced labor of its workers”

In the case of medical “missions,” adds Rubio, ordinary Cubans are deprived of “the medical care they desperately need in their country” / Facebook/Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela

14ymedio, Madrid, 25 February 2025 — The United States has expanded its visa restriction policy to people who are involved in forced labor on the Island. In a statement made public on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explains that the expansion affects officials or former officials, Cubans or those from other countries, “who are believed to be responsible for or are involved in the Cuban labor export program, in particular, Cuba’s medical missions abroad.

The restrictions will also apply, he adds, to the “immediate family” of those indicated. Rubio does not reveal their identities but says that the State Department has already taken “measures to impose visa restrictions on several people, including Venezuelans, under this expanded policy.”

In his statement, the head of US foreign policy says that the Cuban regime “continues to benefit from the forced labor of its workers” and that “the abusive and coercive labor practices of the regime are well documented.” In the case of medical missions, Rubio adds, ordinary Cubans are deprived of “the medical care they desperately need in their country.” continue reading

“The regime’s abusive and coercive labor practices are well documented”

The measure expands restrictions already established, as is the case of the 28 Cuban officials sanctioned in 2022 for intervening in the repression of the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021. In addition, it adds to other provisions issued by the current Trump administration, such as the reinstatement, on January 31, of the Restricted List of Cuba, a “black list” that vetoes certain transactions with companies under the control of the Cuban military, intelligence or security services, or that act in their favor. Among them is the financial company Orbit, which managed Western Union remittances.

Last Friday, the Government of the Island said that Washington had suspended “the application mechanism for a group of visa categories that are used for state officials and their agencies,” rejecting “dozens of passports.”

On that occasion, a source from the Cuban Foreign Ministry told the Associated Press agency, on condition of anonymity, that the refusal of visas is directly related to a 2020 United States provision that vetoes the delivery of visas to countries that do not cooperate with the migrant deportation process.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba, a Television Series Highlights the Sexist Violence That the Regime Minimizes

Sexual assaults; femicides; transphobia; pedophilia and the fear of victims to report are topics addressed in ‘ Cats, Masks, Shadows’

The series of 12 episodes follows Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence / Cubavision

14ymedio, Raquel Martori, Havana, 24 February 2025 — Sexual assaults, femicides, transphobia, pedophilia and the fear of victims to report are some of the topics addressed by the Cuban series Los Gatos, las máscaras, las sombras [Cats, Masks, Shadows], the first dramatized material that addresses these evils so directly on state television.

In an interview with EFE, its director and screenwriter, Elena Palacios, says that the vision of Cats, Masks, Shadows, whose team is almost entirely female, is “to offer a genuine look from a human point of view.”

“I tried to focus on the conflict in each story. I preferred to concentrate on a specific violence, to show it in a calm, suggested way,” she emphasizes.

Lisy, Amelia, Sandra, Chelo, Verónica and Inés personify the stories that have a common thread through Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence and the protagonist of the series.

Lisy, Amelia, Sandra, Chelo, Verónica and Inés personify the stories that have a common thread through Laura, the psychiatrist for a group of victims of sexist violence

Palacios took over the task after receiving a commission from Cubavisión. For the director and screenwriter, sexist violence “is a universal problem” that is based on “inequality or a power imbalance” that ranges from the violent – “death” – to “psychological” – micro violence and “micro continue reading

machismo.”

For the screenwriter, the comments on social networks about the series is something she considers “a success.” The favorable ones are mainly from women, but “there are also very good analyses and criticisms from men.”

In fact, Palacios believes that audiovisual products “can contribute much more than any social orientation program, campaign or theoretical event, because people enjoy fiction, and it has the power to influence emotions and make people think in a direct and deep way.”

The first episode presents the case of Lisy, a young woman who lives in fear with a violent partner. Palacios thought that the story was “dramatically exploitable” given that it takes place during the pandemic, which was “a trigger for domestic violence.”

In another episode, the character of Amelia appears, who exposes the “colonizing attitude” of a European man towards a Cuban woman. Palacios emphasizes to EFE the care she had to use with the case of a pedophile grandfather and his granddaughter: “That happens more than you might imagine.”

Chelo, says the director, is the trans woman, who in the series represents those who “face a lot of daily violence,” so her intention was to “sensitize the viewer” with “the familiar and acceptance.”

“Cats is an artistic license of mine, because I like cats. Some characters in the series have them, and that has allowed me to show that one of the first manifestations of violence is reprisals against pets or property,” Palacios points out.

The masks are related to “the image and the roles that women try to fulfill like the professional and the mother.” The psychiatrist defines the shadows as “a psychoanalytic element. It’s that dark side of human beings, things that are hidden, guarded.”

She defines the shadows as “a psychoanalytic element. It’s that dark side of human beings, things that are hidden, guarded”

But she warns that some shadows, like those of the abusers, are “more dangerous,” especially when they reach their “worst moment” in the series. The sixth episode will be broadcast this Sunday in Cuba.

Cats, Masks, Shadows arrives on Cuban television at a time when sexist violence has been placed at the center of discussion on networks and, although at a slower pace, in official circles and media.

The Government has declared “zero tolerance” for gender violence and has launched the No More campaign, focused on the prevention and response to aggression against women. However, feminist associations still insist that not enough is being done, and they denounce, among other things, the lack of a comprehensive law against sexist violence.

Last year, according to the registries of the independent activists of Alas Tensas, Yo Sí Te Creo and this newspaper, a total of 54 femicides were recorded, mostly committed by the partners or former romantic partners of the victims.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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When Havana Was on the Posters for Tours by Great Musicians

In the vast circuit of world music venues, Cuba no longer competes. It lacks any material attraction.

Joaquín Sabina during a presentation in Mexico in early February 2025. / jsabinaoficial/Instagram

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 25 February 2025 — Last Saturday, in Miami, thousands of spectators sang along with Joaquín Sabina’s best-known songs. The city of Florida hosted the concert of the Spanish composer on his farewell tour of the stage. Among the audience were many of those Cuban fans who once enjoyed his performances in Havana. Now, they are migrants in a foreign country and it is unlikely that the author of Hola y adiós will be allowed back into the Island.

In 2022, the Úbeda-born artist made his position clear: “I was a friend of the Cuban revolution and of Fidel Castro. But I am no longer, I cannot be.” Those words cost him a place on a list that the Castro regime constantly updates with artists who have dared to criticize its political model, the character of its leaders or the Communist Party. The list is very long and has changed over the years. It not only contains exiled Cuban musicians but once included figures such as José Feliciano, Roberto Carlos, Julio Iglesias, Raphael, Carlos Santana, more recently Fito Páez and even the Beatles themselves.

“I was a friend of the Cuban revolution and of Fidel Castro. But I am no longer one, and I cannot be one”

Among those censored were also songs by Joan Manuel Serrat, Mercedes Sosa and Miguel Ríos. Sometimes the scissors came because of the performer’s public attitude, other times, simply because the lyrics of one of their songs irritated the rigid Cuban commanders and generals. However, despite so many controls and suspicions, in those years performing in Havana, Varadero or Santiago de Cuba continued to be an aspiration of many international musicians, so being excluded from those concerts was considered a punishment.

However, time passed and everything changed. Now, performing in our country is of little interest to most of the great artists of the moment. Colombian Shakira is on the world tour Las mujeres ya no lloran [Women No Longer Cry] and the Cuban capital is conspicuous by its absence among the chosen destinations. Bad Bunny has not given any sign that he will rock, in the short or medium term, the seats of the Karl Marx theater or the Ciudad Deportiva de La Habana. The voices of Rosalía, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift have not been heard live in any of the concert halls continue reading

on the Island.

Now, performing in our country is of little interest to most of the great artists of the moment.

The reason for these absences is not only the political exclusions carried out by the regime. There is also an economic motivation. In the wide circuit of musical venues worldwide, Cuba no longer competes. It lacks any material appeal. In what currency should tickets be charged so that the artist can collect some income from their show? The Island has also lost its appeal as a stopover to gain prestige or a name; rather, it is quite the opposite. Singing at the National Theater or the Martí can now be seen as an act of blindness to the excesses of a dictatorship and an act of gross complicity with a government that has more than a thousand political prisoners.

That is why, and for many other reasons, Joaquín Sabina sang in Miami and not in Havana last Saturday: not only because they might not let him enter the island, but also because most of his audience is already abroad.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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Likes & Dislikes

Disapproving of Trump is not sympathizing with the Democrats or subscribing to the ’Communist Manifesto’, but rather hating a style of doing politics

For Trump, there is only one country, and I’m not even sure it’s the United States. / EFE

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 23 February 2025 — Who can forget the tedious English classes in high school, when the teacher asked for a paragraph – a composition, she would say, as if one were Mozart – that listed pleasures and annoyances, hobbies and chores, likes and dislikes. Writing a column about Trump feels like that. An exam, a strange duty, before a world that has accepted reasoning with the viscera (the guts, teacher!) and not with the brain. I have thought a lot, so much, about him. Since the first day and with both hemispheres. But what is coming has a lot to do with the stomach.

I don’t like Trump, I don’t like the fanaticism of Cubans for Trump, I don’t like that he is in the news every day, it’s not healthy, I don’t like the politics of harassment and corporate aggression, I hate the way he manages – like a farm, like Birán [the Castro family estate] – what for us was the country of freedom. I don’t think he understands what a democracy is. I don’t think he understands it or knows how to preserve it. In that he is like us.

Disapproving of Trump is not sympathizing with the Democrats or subscribing to the Communist Manifesto. Disapproving of Trump is hating a style of doing politics that has already had – please remember – four years to show what it could and could not do. Trump, the man who today makes whispered deals with Putin and Maduro, is “the hero who will save the Trocha”? What did Trump do for us in his first term? What is his duty against that insignificant dictatorship, Olympically ignored by 13 administrations, from Eisenhower to Biden? What commits him? The Florida vote? Please. continue reading

What is his duty against this insignificant dictatorship, completely ignored by 13 administrations, from Eisenhower to Biden?

To see a Cuban rave about him, celebrate his victory, throw a pathetic little party, a pathetic little cake with blue, white and red meringue, is to re-enact that orgasmic militancy that he once felt for Fidel Castro. Another “The Man”? Another “The Horse”? Another “My Commander”? Again “This is your house, Fidel”? No, thank you, whoever it is. A politician is an administrator, not a messiah.

I arrived in Europe without knowing what I was going to eat for the next month. I was assigned a number. I know what it is like to be a number or an illegible card, and I am not remotely alone. This country welcomed me, life made its way through mountains of bureaucracy, regulations, paperwork and uncertainty. What kind of human being would I be if I approved – or worse, if I voted! – for a policy that gives the green light to the hunt for migrants, hundreds of them my fellow citizens.

No, Biden’s immigration policies have not solved anything, but that does not justify thousands, perhaps millions of people living in total uncertainty since January 20. Not uncertainty, but fear. That is not the America we believed in. That is not freedom.

But Cubans are never afraid. Cubans, who do not live in a country but in a bubble of exceptionality, do not take it personally. Trump, my friend, the people are with you. One of the lowest hours of Cuban exile was traveling to Washington, to the doors of the White House, and asking for absolutely everything – some already saw themselves in a B-1 Lancer dropping bombs on Point Zero, with the Ride of the Valkyries in the background – except clemency for migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti, three countries as screwed as we are, perhaps more so. And the Afghans? And the Ukrainians? And the others?

Many pro-Trump friends, who are now beginning to moderate their enthusiasm, have told me: “I never imagined it would turn out like this.” I reply that there was nothing to imagine, because Trump may be a cruel, authoritarian guy and a compulsive liar in almost everything, but that when it came to migrants he was more transparent and sincere than the Virgin Mary. You like Trump, but he doesn’t like you.

I don’t like the fact that any Cuban who expresses the slightest displeasure with Trump – which ultimately is not just hating that ugly, orange-haired old man, but the values he proposes – is met by a school of patriotic piranhas on social media. One leaves Cuba to speak, think and defend whatever one wants. Be a Trumpist, I respect that right. But cancelling and censoring, putting all the nuances in the same bag, simplifying, insulting, defaming, those are Villa Marista tactics that we have assimilated by dint of suffering them.

Trump will not help us build a country. No one is going to fix it for us or gift it to us.

Trump will not help us build a country. Nobody is going to fix it for us or gift it to us. For Trump, there is only one country, and I am not even sure it is the United States. The politicians who accompany him, whom the press calls Cuban-Americans, are Americans even if they have Latin surnames. They are concerned about a nation, their own, not that of their parents, and with good reason. Cuba – Kiuba – is a word that must sound very exotic in Washington.

I cannot speak about the end of aid to the independent Cuban press, because I have run out of space. To understand the impact of this news, one only has to take a look at the happiness that is felt in Cubadebate, Granma, the Party and the Foreign Ministry.

Well, Donnie, we’re done (I’ll leave Musk for another day). These are my dislikes, with zero likes because I don’t have Facebook or X. Brain and stomach and an arsenal of patience for the future. I feel free, freer than ever, as every Cuban migrant should feel, and the rest is literature. “Let Trump cook,” one wrote recently. Let him cook, the Kingdom is his. But with what ingredients, with whose sweat, at the cost of what values, with what allies, the Cubans? Like in Woody Allen’s joke, I no longer dare to belong to any club where there are people from my country.

At the end of this tunnel of tension that is about to become a roller coaster, we are ants trying to live our lives in the age of Trump, extras in an episode of House of Cards or Succession, a poorly drawn drawing in the background of the comic strip. Gray and forgettable people. But tell me, at the end of the day, isn’t that a little comforting?

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The Cuban Police, Left Without Staff, Try To Recruit Their Retirees

Crime surge blamed in part on shortage of officers

Many ask for leave and go to work in State stores and private businesses / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 February 2025 — Rolando retired from the police a decade ago. All his life he was an office worker and patrolman in Havana, and after retiring, he looked for small jobs, finding gas and standing in line for the neighbors who hire him. He hadn’t felt linked to the Ministry of the Interior for some time, and, therefore, the call he recently received from a unit of the municipality of Diez de Octubre, asking him to return to work, left him perplexed.

“They asked me if I was working and if I wanted to do something with them again because they lack staff,” the retiree, whose name was changed for this article, tells 14ymedio. Rolando thought for a moment about his answer, not because he wasn’t clear about it but because it’s always better to choose your words carefully with the authorities: “I’m old now, and I don’t have what it takes for that kind of work.”

While it is true that his 75 years have not passed in vain, his age is not the only reason why he declined the offer, although it was the only one he gave out loud. “I will work for anyone but the State. The costs of transportation and living are too high for me to work in a police unit. What does the State offer that is worth that sacrifice?” he asks.

On the other side of the phone they insisted that he come back. “They told me that they could pay me 6,000 and up to 7,000 pesos. They asked me what I was doing for work and even offered me a position as a duty officer. It’s a pretty simple job, because you spend the day sitting, although you’re continue reading

usually on call 24 hours and then off for 48. But no, I don’t want to do anything with the State,” he says.

On the other side of the phone they insisted that he come back. “They told me that they could pay me 6,000 and up to 7,000 pesos”

It is not the first time that they tried to recruit Rolando to be a police officer again. “In 2023, Transportation called to offer me a position issuing fines. When I turned it down, they even said that they would help me, I’m not sure if that meant with resources or with the work, but I refused again,” he recalls.

As he explains, the lack of personnel in the police units is critical. “Recently they had a meeting in that same unit of Diez de Octubre looking for sector heads, officers on duty and even file clerks and receptionists, he says. And he adds: “the units are bare.”

Although without specific data, the Ministry of the Interior has acknowledged on several occasions that it lacks staff. In interviews on Cuban Television and with the official media, some managers have attributed the increase in crime in part to the shortage of police. For Rolando, that is another weighty reason to categorically refuse the offer from the Ministry.

“Because of that shortage of officers, the streets are very dangerous. I can’t go back to the police at my age. I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. I could kick someone, but that’s about it,” argues the habanero, who knows that in terms of danger, younger people also think like him. “People ask for leave and go to work in stores, where they are paid between 5,000 and 6,000 pesos, or to MSMEs, where they can earn even more depending on the work,” he says.

“Because of that shortage of officers, the streets are very dangerous. I can’t go back to the police at my age. I’m old and can’t defend myself”

At this point, the police are desperate to hire people, explains Rolando. In the middle of last year, the Ministry of the Interior offered several courses that were shared by local governments and the State press, for anyone who wanted to join their ranks in Pinar del Río.

From enrolling in a Law Degree to being a patrolman, the offers for those who accepted a one-year course were broad and the requirements minimal: “Must be between 17 and 40 years old, with 12-years’ education and a degree completed, and in good physical and mental condition.”

A 75-year-old retired officer “is now working with them,” says Rolando. “But what the hell! Don’t let them count on me!”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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