Translating Cuba – Page 113 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Closed for Two Months, Havana’s Iconic Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor Is Resurrected With New Prices of Between 30 and 40 Pesos per Scoop

The reopening hype was quickly quelled by the employees’ clarification that, due to the low availability of ice cream, only two specialties are now served per person.

The new prices have come, however, with a more careful service. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 6 February 2025 — Coppelia is open! was the most common comment this Wednesday on the central corner of 23rd and L in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood. The popular ice cream shop resumed service after more than two months in which supply problems and a remodeling forced it to close. The reopening has come, of course, with restrictions on the quantity served per customer and with a price increase.

A long line of customers, both curious and hopeful, waited this morning to enter the courts on the ground floor, either La Torre superior or the more select Las 4 Joyas where the menu boards announced the traditional combinations of the place: ensalada [a ‘salad’ in name only], three graces, super twins, white cow, pinto and prieta, jimaguas, harlequin and Sunday. The variety of flavors, although far from the dozens that the “cathedral of ice cream” displayed in its beginnings, was much greater than before the shutdown of the Coppelia factory, last December, due to lack of ammonia for the refrigeration system.

The reopening has come, however, with restrictions on the quantity served per customer and with a rise in prices. / 14ymedio

However, the hype about the reopening was quickly shut down by the employees’ clarification that, due to the low availability of ice cream, they are now only serving two specialties per person. The warning had already been made in the official press by Yeny González Ortiz, head of services at the Recreatur Company. continue reading

Another cold shower was the new prices, which, although still subsidized, have risen significantly compared to previous years. A scoop of ice cream, depending on the specialty and what it comes with, costs between 30 and 40 pesos, far from the 7 or 9 pesos it cost less than three years ago.

The popular salad, with five scoops and a couple of sweets, now costs 155 pesos, and if you want to add a donut or a tart, then you must add 50 or 75 pesos, respectively. / 14ymedio

The popular ’salad’, with five scoops and a couple of sweets, now costs 155 pesos, and if you want to add a donut or a tart, you have to add 50 or 75 pesos, respectively. The new prices have come, however, with more careful service. “At least they are serving cold water and everything looks a little cleaner,” acknowledged a young woman who opted for a ’Three Graces’ of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

Another cold shower was the new prices, which, although still subsidized, have risen significantly compared to previous years. / 14ymedio

“The ice cream is solid and I haven’t found any ice chunks yet,” added an elderly man, surprised by a quality that, he suspected, “might not last long.” The experience of having fewer services and fewer menu items after opening a restaurant surfaced on Wednesday in the form of anecdotes and predictions.

In the outdoor areas, covered with awnings, and also in Las 4 Joyas, the payment method is exclusively through the electronic gateways EnZona and Transfermóvil, while in the rest of the indoor premises, payment can also be made in cash.

Through the window, right next to their table, the couple an see the Torre K, the luxury hotel that is about to open and where ice cream will not be paid for in Cuban pesos nor will it be rationed. / 14ymedio

In the parking lot area there are two points of sale offering ice cream cones for those customers who are in a hurry and do not want to wait in long lines. Meanwhile, on the upper floor, La Torre, two young people were trying a combination of pineapple and chocolate swirl ice cream on Wednesday. Through the window, right next to their table, you can see the Torre K, the luxury hotel that is about to open and where ice cream will not be paid for in Cuban pesos nor will it be rationed.

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Overwhelmed by Garbage, the Inhabitants of Manzanillo Fear the Arrival of a New Epidemic

“What started in a corner with a small nylon bag, today is a mountain of branches, rubble and dead animals,” they say.

A dumpster was on fire for several days, next to a playground and a medical office / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos. A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo, Granma Province, 6 Febraury 2025 — “I woke up with chest discomfort and shortness of breath. It was after 2 in the morning, and I could tell that something was burning. In the morning, when I took my child to daycare, I saw a metal container burning all kinds of waste five blocks from my house.”

This is how Gisela explains why she has to follow a new route to take her son to school in order to avoid the garbage dump that is growing in front of a playground and a doctor’s office. “What started in a corner with a little nylon bag is today a mountain of branches, debris and dead animals.”

“The Comunales [Communal Services] take so long to collect the garbage that the container overflows. They tell you that the truck broke down, that there is no fuel. It’s always something,” she laments. “In spring, the neighbors set fire, supposedly to scare away mosquitoes, but it is no longer justified. Many of us think that the officials are really the ones who set the fires, so that there is less to collect. They burn sanitary pads, plastics or who knows what. Now we are in the dry season with a lot of wind, so it’s better not to think about what you breathe or what gets in your eyes.”

A dumpster and a garbage heap block the street / 14ymedio

The city, once synonymous with culture and splendor, today is a distant memory. Manzanillo has gone from being the Pearl of the Guacanayabo to a huge open dump.

“There is no one living here anymore,” says Eduardo, a neighbor of La Kaba, an agricultural market. “They throw out garbage from the houses the same as the decomposed merchandise from the shelves. They continue reading

thought they were going to solve it with a metal container but it made things worse.” He refers to the huge orange dumpsters scattered around the city center that have proliferated in the face of the inability of Communal Services, subordinated to the municipal government, to do its job, and which, in addition to ruining the ornamentation, legitimize the garbage piles.

“It will take a century to clean it up, and in the meantime you have to stomach all that filth. There are coffee shops in the surroundings, and they are now disgusting because of the flies and the plague,” says Eduardo, who remembers better times.

“There was a time when you didn’t see so much filth on the streets. They managed to hire carretoneros, horse-cart drivers, who were quite efficient. They stopped working because they were paid very little, and the raw honey for the horse feed went up in price. It even affected the closure of the sugar mills,” he said. The same thing happened in Las Tunas, where the carretoneros hired by Communal Services complained about the low wages and the terrible conditions.

The dumpster was eventually located half a block from Céspedes Park / 14ymedio

“With the coming of the dumpsters, the ‘divers’ resurfaced. It’s terrible that someone survives like this. They dive in looking for scrap metal, firewood or anything they can sell. It’s depressing, and I’ve seen old people eat rotten fruit thrown away by street vendors. We have reached that extreme.”

Despite the pride they have always shown for their city, the residents of Manzanillo admit that it has entered an unstoppable spiral of decadence.

They fear that at any moment a new epidemic like COVID will arrive, this time caused by the contamination and the lack of sanitation. And what saddens them the most is to see children and the elderly who, pushed by necessity, rummage through the trash for a piece of metal or an empty can of beer that can be exchanged for food.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Boarded Up and Roofless, Bola De Nieve’s House Suffers From Neglect in Guanabacoa, Cuba

The house has become a greyish shell that the municipal museum, which is in charge of the building, watches over with suspicion.

The house is located on the corner of Máximo Gómez and Versalles streets / 14ymedio

14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 2 February 2025 — The state of the house where Bola de Nieve, author of the most melancholic lyrics in Cuban music, was born provides enough to write a heartbreaking bolero. Located on the corner of Máximo Gómez and Versalles streets, in Guanabacoa, Havana, the house has become a grayish shell that the municipal museum, in charge of the property, watches over with suspicion.

What is left standing are walls that mark the perimeter of the house and several columns that support the structure of the porch, topped with floral ornaments that simulate the frames remaining in the windows. The roof has long since collapsed. From the remains of the building, one can guess the dimensions of a republican manor house that once occupied the entire street corner and now remains “ boarded up” to prevent unwanted tenants from sneaking in.

Like the bolero by the Cuban artist Es tan difícil (It’s so difficult), it has become an impossible mission for the Guanabacoa museum to take care of the house and rescue it “There was a project to restore it, but it never came to fruition. In the end, they boarded it up because people were constantly coming in to sleep or live there, and that was the solution: to seal it,” a museum worker told 14ymedio. continue reading

In 2011, on the 100th anniversary of Bola’s birth, the municipal museum put up a plaque commemorating the musician’s birthday, but soon after removed it.

As explained, the house belonged to Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernandez’s family – who gave himself the ironic artistic name of Bola de Nieve (Snowball) – but the musician moved his relatives to another house in the same municipality, located on the corner of Nazareno and Maceo streets. “His brother’s descendants did not keep the house, so they exchanged it. It was for a time a”cuartería”(similar to a tenement house) where several families lived,” the employee explains.

The republican-style building retains its walls and has long since lost its roof.

While people were living in the house, the museum could not restore it, but nor it did not allow the tenants to make major changes, since the building is considered a heritage site. When it was finally vacant, another place having been given to those who lived there, the museum could “get its hands on it” without obstacles. Then, there were no more resources or intentions to repair the house.

“There has been talk of restoration projects and some have even been submitted, but nothing is being done. There are many heritage sites in Guanabacoa with restoration projects submitted, but the problem is that there is no money,” the worker says. When the Guanabacoa museum itself “needs repairing,” the future of the manor house is clear: “it is going to be lost.”

Translated by LAR

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Dialogue and Dictatorships: Cuba and the United States

Ferrer’s words make a lot of sense: the opposition needs more than ever to unite, to strengthen itself, to make itself heard.

José Daniel Ferrer, in one of his latest videos posted on social media. / Screen Capture / Youtube / Unpacu

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, 4 February 2025 — In recent days, the statements made by José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, have caused a great stir. José Daniel has earned his leadership by demonstrating uncommon courage, sacrificing several years of his life locked in Cuban dungeons, silenced, far from his family and receiving on his own body a violence that not many of us have been willing to suffer. Therefore, when someone like him expresses his opinions, of course one can disagree, but always with respect. Any patriot with a minimum of ethics would avoid falling into disqualifications, insults or questioning of his commitment to freedom and democracy.

His statements have been widely reported and debated. He mentioned some phrases that are considered cursed by a part of the opposition. For years, many activists and social media personalities have been euphorically repeating the slogan “there is no dialogue with dictatorships.” This dogma has been repeated so much that some even claim that it is one of the ten biblical commandments written in stone. Including those who insist that anyone who violates this sacred rule is part of an alleged “fraudulent change” organized behind the scenes by the regime itself in its secret offices.

The truth is that Castroism has not given any sign of going in that direction, quite the opposite. Its clinging to power is more intense than that song by Juan Gabriel. Its foolishness is more irrational and anti-dialectical than the overused theme of Silvio Rodríguez. They have not even been able to mutate towards the Chinese, or the Vietnamese, or the Russian model.

The experts who tried to help them in those adventures surely ended up receiving treatments for anxiety and frustration. How is a regime that did not even succeed in the Ordering Task, going to successfully plan the supposed fraudulent change that is so theorized about? I do not underestimate them. They have more than enough capacity to repress, but they do not possess even a tiny grain of talent for change, not even in a fraudulent way. They are “continuity.”

The dictatorship has never been willing to sit down with the opposition, except in its interrogation rooms.

But let’s talk about the demonized dialogue. First of all, the dictatorship has never been willing to sit down with the opposition, except in its interrogation rooms. Its traditional position has been to not recognize us. They were not even able to move forward in that attempt at dialogue after November 27, 2020.

They broke it off as soon as they had the first chance. Now, it is one thing to make a pact with a regime to ensure its prolongation, bending to its interests, and quite another thing to recognize the importance of countless historical dialogues and negotiations that put an end to various dictatorships. It is enough to study the Spanish Transition, the 1988 plebiscite in Chile or the end of apartheid in South Africa. None of these processes was a bed of roses, but they saved their citizens a lot of blood and avoided the indefinite delay of those regimes.

And for those for whom these examples do not serve, we also have Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall or the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, all accompanied by negotiations between different political sectors. In Poland, the Solidarity movement led talks with the communist government, which allowed a gradual transition to democracy. In short, dialogues have indeed brought down dictatorships, especially when they were accompanied by social pressure, international support and intelligent, consolidated and strong leadership.

It is obvious that if one does not have a suitcase there is absolutely nothing to negotiate, because it would be a waste of time. An opposition that is unable to engage in dialogue even with itself, that does not have the power to call for mobilization and organization of citizens for a protest or a strike, that is incapable of establishing firm alliances and consensus between the different groups in exile and within the island, or that is ignored by international powers and organizations, has nothing to negotiate. In that case there is no other option than to scream into the void, without any plan, waiting patiently for the pressure cooker to explode by itself. But those who hold out hope for violent chaos as a deus ex machina seem to forget who the person sitting in the Oval Office is.

The current president of the United States is a born negotiator. And he does dialogue with dictatorships, even the worst ones.

The current president of the United States is a born negotiator. And he does talk with dictatorships, even the worst ones. In his previous term, we saw him shake hands with the most pusillanimous dictator on the planet, Kim Jong-un. And we all watched with amazement the recent laughter of the Chavistas in the photo between Maduro and Trump’s envoy. You don’t have to pay for an online course in political analysis to know that the strategy of the tycoon-president is very simple: generate a lot of noise and apply maximum pressure to force his opponent to sit at the negotiating table.

I don’t think the Trump administration would look kindly on a violent collapse 90 miles from its borders, with the ensuing immigration chaos. Someone like him would prefer his surroundings to remain as quiet as possible, without creating risks near his walls. And his discourse has been clear from the beginning: he prefers tough guys who are capable of maintaining order in their respective houses, even if they are not very democratic.

That is why Ferrer’s words make a lot of sense. The opposition needs more than ever to unite, to strengthen itself, to make itself heard and to consider all the paths that imply less suffering for a people who have already suffered enough. State Security’s plan since they decided to release him is very obvious: to discredit his figure, to undermine his leadership, to divide even more. They have done it before and it has worked out well. They count on our ignorance and our egos. If José Daniel has had anything, it is time to think carefully, away from the noise of social networks and the fierce competition to see who claims to be more radical or to shout the loudest. For him, my deep respect, although we surely do not agree on everything, as it should be.

And for those who insult him, just one thought: the worst thing would not be that, when Trump sits down to negotiate, we are not even remotely prepared, with a good bag of options. The worst thing would be… that we are not even invited.

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An Opposition Group Urges the EU To ‘Temporarily Suspend’ Its Agreement With Cuba

The Council for Democratic Transition argued that the Havana regime sells “an image and narrative of modernization, without assuming real commitments to political openness or the improvement of human rights.”

The High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell, during a visit to Havana in May 2023 / @JosepBorrellF/Twitter

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 February 2025 — On Tuesday, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), one of the main opposition groups in Cuba, urged the European Union (EU) to “temporarily suspend” its Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (ADPC) with Cuba.

The group argued in a statement that the Cuban Government “has instrumentalized this agreement to obtain economic benefits and sell an image and narrative of modernization, without assuming real commitments to political openness or to the improvement of human rights.”

Therefore, the CTDC – which already made a similar request last September – urged the EU to “re-evaluate and temporarily suspend the ADPC until there is “concrete progress in the field of human rights and democracy” on the Island (…) and compliance with “democratic and economic” standards. continue reading

“Only with a clear and coordinated response from western democracies will it be possible to achieve respect for human rights and a peaceful change to democracy in Cuba”

It also asked the organization to “guarantee the participation of Cuban civil society in the negotiations and dialogues on the possible revision of the agreement” and to support the CTDC’s proposal for a law of amnesty and decriminalization of dissent in the country.

“Only with a clear and coordinated response from western democracies will it be possible to achieve respect for human rights and a peaceful change to democracy in Cuba,” the group argued in its statement.

The organization indicated that one of the main reasons for its request is the deterioration of human rights in Cuba, and it denounced the “systematic persecution and repression” of opponents, the “flagrant violation” of constitutional rights, the escalation of arbitrary detentions and a lack of collaboration with international organizations.

Secondly, it alleged the “failure” of Cuba’s economic model, with the “monopoly” exercised by Gaesa, “a military conglomerate that controls the country’s resources, represses the private sector” and does not pay its foreign debt.

Finally, it highlighted Cuba’s “opaque strategic alliances” with Russia, Belarus, North Korea, China and Iran, and its “logistic and military” support to countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela, “factors in regional destabilization.

It highlighted Cuba’s “opaque strategic alliances” with Russia, Belarus, North Korea, China and Iran, and its “logistical and military” support to countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela

The agreement that currently governs bilateral relations between Cuba and the EU was signed in 2016 and includes a clause of respect for human rights, whose violation allows it to be suspended.

The ADPC, not exempt from controversy within the EU (it has not been ratified by Lithuania and is criticized by conservative political parties), replaced the so-called “common position” of the EU towards Cuba, which the bloc had maintained since 1996, and which linked any progress in the bilateral relationship to progress in democratization and human rights on the Island.

The agreement promotes cooperation in favor of sustainable development, democracy and human rights, as well as the possibility of finding shared solutions to global challenges through joint actions in multilateral forums.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban President Díaz-Canel and His Foreign Minister Were Outraged That Marco Rubio Would Call Them “Enemies of Humanity”

According to the US Secretary of State, Managua, Caracas and Havana have generated a massive wave of migrants to the US “because they are countries where their system does not work”

Díaz-Canel speaking at the ALBA* extraordinary summit on February 3, 2025, in Havana / @DiazCanelB / X

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 February 2025 — The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, came out swinging on Tuesday against the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and said that “humanity is in danger” from the “neo-fascism” of the United States, in response to recent statements by the politician of Cuban descent.

“The shamelessness once again taking over the cynical politicians of the United States. It is proven that the migratory exodus in Cuba is proportional to the tightening of the blockade, which deprives our people of essential goods. Humanity is in danger because of your neo-fascism,” the president wrote on social networks.

Díaz-Canel said that “the Empire, with its expansionist appetite” is the true “enemy of humanity.”

Díaz-Canel referred to Rubio’s statements on Tuesday during a press conference in San José, Costa Rica, in which he accused Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela of being “enemies of humanity” and of having “created a migration crisis.” continue reading

Rubio assured that he had “no intention” of traveling to Cuba as Secretary of State, “except to discuss when those who govern that country will leave”

According to Rubio, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have generated a massive wave of migration to the US, “because they are countries where their system [of government] does not work.”

These are not the only statements made by Rubio about Cuba recently.

Previously, in an interview with the American television channel Fox News, Rubio assured that he had “no intention” of traveling to Cuba as Secretary of State, “except to discuss when those who govern that country will leave.”

In this regard, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, stressed on Tuesday that Rubio “was not invited” to the Island.

“The US Secretary of State wants to visit Havana, but first change our Government. His desire will remain unfulfilled. He will not be able to visit Cuba, a country of which he knows absolutely nothing. He was not invited,” the Foreign Minister wrote on his social networks.

*Translator’s note: ALBA is the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America , created by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in 2004.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The US Head of Mission in Cuba Visited the Opponent Martha Beatriz Roque in the Hospital

Martha Beatriz Roque, en una imagen de 2016. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 February 2025 — The Head of Mission of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, visited Cuban opponent Martha Beatriz Roque on Monday at the Manuel Fajardo hospital in Havana, where she has been hospitalized since last Saturday. According to CubaNet, Hammer transmitted to the activist a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who wished her a speedy recovery and hoped to be able to see her soon.

After the diplomat’s visit, it was revealed that Roque had been “transferred” to the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital, which the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, who announced the transfer, described as “temporary.”

“The director of the Fajardo hospital, Dr. Mirtha, told us at 2.30 pm that they decided to transfer Martha Beatriz Roque to the Nephrology Department of the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital. The transfer will be carried out by the Integrated Medical Emergencies System, and in the company of two trusted friends, said Berta Soler, the current leader of the Ladies in White.

Roque, spokesman for the Cuban Center for Human Rights, arrived at the Manuel Fajardo intensive care unit in critical condition, with very low blood pressure, dehydration and hyperglycemia, coming from the Miguel Enríquez hospital, known as La Benéfica. As Soler and her husband, Ángel Moya, reported last Wednesday, Roque had been taken to La Benéfica due to the worsening state of her health. Roque has diabetes and is also suffering from a kidney infection. continue reading

Since then, the activists have continued to report on her medical condition, specifying that Roque had “trusted friends” by her side.

The activists have continued to report on her medical condition, specifying that Roque had “trusted friends” by her side

These days, the opponent has been improving, and this Monday she went from a “critically unstable” condition to “serious but stable.” According to a publication by Soler this Tuesday, Roque is “conscious but disoriented in time and space.”

Roque was the only woman who was part of the Group of 75 Cubans who suffered imprisonment during the so-called Black Spring of 2003. Founder of the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists, in 1997 she started the Internal Dissent Working Group. The document La patria es de todos – (The Country Belongs to Everyone) – signed with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca – pointed out the management errors of the Communist Party during the Special Period in the 1990s, and it dates from those years.

Roque was one of the Faces of 2024 chosen by 14ymedio, which also celebrated the delivery of the Woman of Courage award, which the US Government gives to those who “have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in defending peace, justice and human rights.” Roque, however, could not go to Washington to receive the award because she is “regulated,” that is, banned from leaving the national territory.

At that time, she told 14ymedio something that gives the measure of her work in favor of democracy in the last 35 years, and its impact on the regime: “The hatred they have for me is terrible.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Several Cubans Are Among Dozens of Undocumented Immigrants Detained in Florida

Four of the 32 arrested had committed a minor crime

Irregular migrants arrested in Florida at the end of January /ICE

14ymedio/EFE, Miami, 4 February 2024 — A total of 32 undocumented immigrants were arrested in Florida in several operations by the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) and other federal agencies, on January 27 and 28. Among those arrested in the raids, carried out in Palm Beach County, there is an unspecified number of nationals of Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Nicaragua.

In a statement from the immigration authorities, detailed data are given about four detainees who committed a crime, including a 24-year-old Cuban convicted of fraud, failure to appear, theft and violation of probation.

In addition, there are cases of a 30-year-old Venezuelan with crimes of resistance to authority, drug possession and theft; a 44-year-old Haitian convicted of assault, drug possession and prostitution; and a 25-year-old Guatemalan convicted of illegal re-entry, possession of cocaine and driving under the influence of alcohol.

The four are awaiting deportation, while the remaining 28 are waiting continue reading

for a hearing before an immigration judge, who will decide if they will also be returned to their countries of origin.

The four are awaiting deportation, while the remaining 28 are waiting for a hearing before an immigration judge, who will decide if they will also be returned

In addition, the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said on Monday that, in a joint operation with federal agents carried out in Tallahassee, it arrested “alleged members of the Tren de Aragua” – a transnational gang of Venezuelan origin – for alleged conspiracy to smuggle weapons, criminal gang affiliations and illegal entry into the United States.

Different security forces are participating in the migration operations, as the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, had already warned. This Monday, on social networks, ICE boasted about the cooperation achieved for these arrests by the FHP, the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Drug Control Administration (DEA).

On January 31, the Argentine newspaper La Nación published an article in which relatives of several migrants detained in Delray Beach (Palm Beach) on the 27th denounced “deception” by ICE agents. “They took them by surprise and for no reason,” said a relative of one of the detainees. Some of those arrests occurred, according to testimonies, when those affected went to a routine appointment at the immigration supervision office.

The cousin of one of the detainees told Telemundo that her relative was summoned at 8 in the morning for a routine visit and had not returned. “He has a license, he has a social security card, he was given the appropriate documentation. All he had to do was register with immigration weekly, through a phone call, and continue complying. Today was a normal check-in,” she told the media.

“He has a license, he has a social security card, he was given the appropriate documentation. All he had to do was register with immigration weekly.”

The interviewee said that, hours later, after losing contact with him, she went to the office to look for him and found out that he was detained. “Without any reason. My cousin is not a criminal, he has never been in jail, he is not doing anything wrong,” she said.

The mother of a Venezuelan who was allegedly arrested in similar circumstances said she feared deportation, because they no longer have family in the country. “They told him to come at 2 pm because they needed to fix something on his phone for the application and supervise it. And yes, that was a lie.” The 30-year-old arrested man had been in the United States since he was six.

The report relates the cases of several other people who were apparently summoned for the usual check-ins and ended up detained.

Garrett Ripa, interim deputy director of the Office of Detention and Deportation in Miami, defended himself from the criticism and said that the work currently carried out by the agents is the same as always, “with the difference that they work together with more federal agencies.” In addition, he categorically stated that “they only arrest people with a final deportation order.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Light and Without Hope, the People of Manzanillo, Cuba, Are Back in the Stone Age

Darkness reigns on Calle Martí. In the background, three blocks away and impossible to appreciate is Céspedes Park / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Carlos A. Rodríguez, Manzanillo (Granma Province), 4 February 2025 — “It seems like we’ve gotten used to the blackouts. Now people get up to cook at four in the morning to take advantage of the current, or they buy coal that is scarce and goes up in price due to demand,” Eneida says as she selects some battered bananas in the market.

“Before six they had already turned off the power, so I had to start a fire to make coffee and cook peas. But life at home is not just about cooking. You have to wash and iron clothes and even watch a telenovela. Everything can’t be work, I’ve already done enough,” says the retiree.

Businesses that can afford it are illuminated with generators sent or acquired abroad / 14ymedio

Yordanki faces the same difficulties in his daily life, although he must also worry about his family. “Everything has become a problem,” he says. “In the house and on the street we walk like zombies, thinking about what to cook, and with what. This is an abuse. Even if my boys start their homework early, they don’t have daylight for long, even less so for the period of exams. They study with rechargeable lightbulbs and even with cell phones, but in the morning they go to school already tired. And so day after day passes, with no prospects for improvement.”

The blackouts have long ceased to be an event and now are one of the most important daily problems for the Cuban people. The consequences are catastrophic for industry and the economy, whose growth is unfeasible without energy; also for families, the most fragile link in continue reading

society.

“It’s no longer about whether it’s the Felton or the Guiteras [power plant]. Just yesterday we were without electricity from eight in the morning until dawn today. It’s too much,” Mariela protests. The Matanzas thermoelectric plant, the largest-capacity unit on the Island, left the National Electric System on Sunday morning in an “unforeseen” way. It was synchronized again on Monday night, but before 8 pm, it had suffered another breakdown. “You don’t recover from the shock. My daughter lives in the United States, and my fear is that when there is a blackout, landlines, cell phones and the internet don’t work, so you can’t even communicate with your relatives. What’s
more, the television signals go down and even Radio Granma, so there’s nowhere to find out about anything.”

At 8:30 at night, darkness hangs over the streets, and neighbors prefer to stay in their homes for fear of being victims of violence or crime / 14ymedio

“Manzanillo is unrecognizable,” says the night watchman of a company. “The city is completely dark. You only see a few public light bulbs at the beginning of the boardwalk and a few others on some streets. That, and in a couple of private businesses. People don’t go out anymore. They hardly even sit on their front steps for fear of being assaulted or having stones thrown at them. You see me here because they still have music in El Castillito, but I’m going to pick myself up just in case. And you should do the same,” he suggests frankly.

Except for a few who can relieve their nights with generators provided by relatives abroad, the people live like they’re back in the Stone Age. In the shadows, February promises to be a long month, too long, although 2025 is not a leap year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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When Cuba Was On The Goldrush Trail

The very rare ‘Californian Album’, a jewel of colonial lithography, was published in the Havana workshops of Louis Marquier

The illustration, ’A good carriage ride’, shows gold prospectors on board the emblematic Cuban buggy. / Zoila Lapique

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 1 February 2025 – On the 24th of January 1848 General John Sutter – christened Johann August in his native Switzerland and don Juan Sutter in his adoptive Mexico – found some gold nuggets in the river running through his land. He tried to keep the find a secret. Two months later a newspaper published a headline, which we would imagine to be in huge black letters, like those which John Wayne used to read in the Westerns: “Gold Mine Found!”

The news was, in actual fact, presented in just one paragraph, and in a modest font. Three or four rather frenzied sentences which promised seams of gold “in almost every part of the country” and “great chances for scientific capitalists”. And so began gold fever in California, a magnet for all types of treasure hunters and bandits. Very soon the very President of the United States had to admit that on the other side of the continent – there are more than 4,000 km between New York and San Francisco – there were people who were about to get very rich indeed.

For gold seekers, who arrived in California with a pick, a spade, buckets and divining rods, it was the journey of their lives. John, or Johann, or Juan Sutter was eventually ruined by the flood of migrants who arrived on his land (and on the rest of the American east coast) over the following decades, without asking permission. (One of these migrants was, for certain, a German hairdresser named Frederick Trump, who ran away to the United States in 1885 to escape military service. Cured of fever in remote Alaska, he dedicated himself to hotels and real estate… and a president for a grandson… Finally wealthy, he returned to his native village in Bavaria. And was deported). continue reading

For gold seekers, who arrived in California with a pick, a spade, buckets and divining rods, it was the journey of their lives.

One usually arrived in California by boat, via Panama and the Pacific. Other adventurers arrived in Mexico, reaching Sutter’s property overland. In 1850, in Cuba’s golden age, Havana was an obligatory stopover.

The treasure seekers arrived on the island en masse, just as many on their way home as on their way out. It’s undeniable that some of them, more seduced by the mulata women, the tabacco and the climate (coming, as they did, from colder countries, just like Herr Trump) forgot all about their original mission. They crowded into the port and the city squares, the taverns and the walkways, each one having the appearance of a long-bearded beggar, and it’s not hard to imagine their stuttering attempts to beg for a drink, some food or a smoke.

Witness to that invasion were two artists – Ferrán and Baturone (who for me resemble Hernández and Fernández, from Tintin), ubiquitous, with their sketchbooks in hand – who dedicated themselves to record, in a published book, these “types” and their customs, in twelve printed plates. It’s the extremely rare publication, the ’California Album’, an absolute jewel of Cuban lithography, born in the Havana workshops of the French printer Louis Marquier.

The ’California Album’ was sold in instalments, some of them exquisitely coloured and others in black and white. Ferrán and Baturone were not only skilled at creating their drawings, but they were also ingenious at titling them. The titles were translated into English, perhaps to make them marketable to the gold prospectors as a souvenir of their stay in Havana.

The ’California Album’ was sold in instalments, some of them exquisitely coloured and others in black and white

‘A Fortune Made’ – of which there is no version in colour – is the title of one picture which shows a typical prospector, posing formally, standing upright like a biblical patriarch, with a sombrero, a three-quarter length jacket and a beard reaching down to his chest. In another, the same character, along with two colleagues who are clearly hungover, now swigs from a bottle of moonshine, all three now posing in more ’comfortable’ positions. They drink, more and more, as though they didn’t have to leave soon for a new destination – a destination which would be in a place of temperance.

Wearing a neckscarf, and with his shirt open, the traveller goes into the street looking for conquest. He looks like a vagabond, but he has money. He’s in good spirits – like a ’patron of the arts’ -and he doesn’t hesitate to sit himself down in Havana’s Alameda de Paula to peel an orange with a knife, surrounded by habanera women who entertain him with tambourines and a barrel organ. He meets up with other prospectors, all of them just as drunk as he is, and they hire a seven-seater buggy and pay for a good ride.

Gold prospectors are – as the rascally Ferrán and Baturone observe – in favour of letting things just drift along: they are calm, pleasure-seeking, always drunk and never changing. If José Antonio Saco had not already written, in 1830, a report on vagrancy in Cuba, then one would have said that it was these guys who were the first to establish such a thing.

But not everything is rosy for those who have found a little gold. It’s with some discomfort that we observe a pair of friends almost levitating through the effects of cheap and rough alcohol. Two others, perhaps through having lost a bet, or having lost their last gold nuggets, wildly gesticulate their predicament. And there, next to a cannon, his gaze lost somewhere out in the bay, a melancholic prospector with a broken shoe attempts to soothe the corns on his feet.

It would seem that habaneros were not oblivious to these Californian gold nuggets, and it’s likely that these were the root cause of numerous disagreements

It would seem that habaneros were not oblivious to these Californian gold nuggets, and it’s likely that these were the root cause of numerous disagreements. In the engraving, ’Realization’, three prospectors are quarrelling with a jeweller, or a valuer. To settle the dispute, the islander lifts up a pair of weighing scales.

My favourite image from the ’California Album’ continues – naturally – to be: ’What Great Tabacco!’ You can smell it and you can taste it. One miner’s delight with his cigar caddy, and another’s delight in a whole box of them – with its official seal – seems to sum up their fantastical lives: smoke, dreams, frenzy … and ash.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Of the 200 Prisoners Released by the Cuban Regime, 31 Had Completed Their Sentences

Prisoners Defenders denounces that the released prisoners were banned from giving interviews or contacting human rights NGOs

Mailene Noguera Santiesteban and Yessica Cohimbra Noriega after being released from prison / José Díaz Silva/Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2025 — Prisoners Defenders (PD) confirmed on Tuesday a total of 200 political prisoners among the 553 released by the Cuban government through an alleged agreement with the Vatican. Of these, the organization said that at least 94% already had the right to parole, to an open regimen or even to immediate freedom. All this then, says PD, has been nothing more than “a macabre game of the regime.”

In a statement published on Tuesday, when the NGO counted 198 political prisoners released from prison, they said that 31 (15.66%) of the 198 “had already served their sentences but were still imprisoned”; two others (1.01%) would complete their sentences in four months or less, and 57 (28.79%) still had between six and 18 months left to serve. Another 67 (33.84%) had between 18 and 42 months left.

“Only 12 of the total number of political prisoners released in Cuba (6.06%) had sentences of up to 15 years, and their release can be considered a ’measure of grace’,” said the organization. continue reading

Those released, in most cases, “are obliged to perform forced labor assigned by State Security.”

Therefore, Prisoners Defenders stressed, the releases are not a real liberation. The prisoners are now in “home detention,” under draconian conditions. These restrictions include “the prohibition of leaving their city of residence, expressing themselves on social networks, giving interviews or contacting human rights organizations.”

Those released, in most cases, “are obliged to perform forced labor assigned by State Security.” The objective is to keep opponents in a state of constant surveillance and fear, preventing them from resuming their political activity or denouncing human rights violations.

The NGO also criticized the lack of transparency in the process, since many families of the inmates were not informed in advance. On the other hand, the figure of 553 released prisoners that the Government of Cuba publicized includes common criminals, without their proportion having been clarified.

As part of this “fraud,” PD adds, the regime leaked names of people who were never in prison, with no other intention than to confuse public opinion and divert attention.

It was Javier Larrondo himself, president of Prisoners Defenders, who told this newspaper on Tuesday that they had reached the figure of 200 confirmed political prisoners. It was the number he had already estimated for 14ymedio on January 23, when he emphasized that the total number of released prisoners that the regime had given was “very symbolic,” because it was the same one given by both his organization and included the imprisoned demonstrators from the Island-wide 11 July 2021 protests. “What they have done is, subliminally, let us deceive ourselves into thinking that they are all 11J prisoners.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Proposal by José Daniel Ferrer in Favor of ‘Reconciliation’ in Cuba Sparks Debate

While some congratulate him for his courage and clarity, others go so far as to call him a “traitor.”

José Daniel Ferrer during his interview with “El Toque” on January 24th /El Toque

14ymedio, Madrid, 3 February 2025 — Controversy has reached José Daniel Ferrer more than a week after an interview with the independent media El Toque, when he spoke out in favor of a process of reconciliation with the Cuban regime, if it decided to initiate it. “The question is to resolve, in a non-violent way, as soon as possible, the serious suffering of an entire nation,” argues the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), released from prison on January 16.

The opposition leader, one of the most significant members of the Cuban dissidence, imprisoned many times in recent years, talks for an hour and a half with Eloy Viera about his last imprisonment, the harsh living conditions in Mar Verde, the Santiago de Cuba prison where he was isolated for much of the last few years and where visits are prohibited. But he also devotes many minutes to addressing the political situation on the island and possible solutions.

Ferrer, who cites his beliefs numerous times when referring to forgiveness, admits at one point that he would be willing to personally renounce the prosecution of some people who have harmed him if that means agreeing to a peaceful transition, as long as it is the regime that takes the initiative. continue reading

“If they decide, even though they’re coming to it late, to begin a rapid transition process here in Cuba, then I would agree that this process should begin”

“If they decide, even though they’re coming to it late, to begin a rapid transition process here in Cuba, then I would agree that this process should begin, and we should reconcile and move Cuba forward. And I am going to forget about the guy who kicked me, and that those who criticize me and attack me possibly did not spend 12 years in prison under these conditions,” the dissident advises, aware that his words will not be liked by a large sector of the population who, in his opinion, speak from the comfort of not having experienced deprivation of liberty, physical abuse, and attacks on their relatives.

Ferrer continues comparing this eventual process with that of other countries in which dialogue was necessary with the hierarchy of a dictatorship, and cites Poland and Chile among them.

“Didn’t Lech Walesa negotiate with Jaruzelski, the man who declared martial law, brought tanks onto the streets, and was responsible for the deaths of peaceful protesters and workers in Poland? Didn’t they end up agreeing on an entire process? Didn’t Solidarity come to power with the
support of the people? Why aren’t we going to choose that path in Cuba?” he asks. Ferrer recalls that many of those who oppose dialogue lack the strength of a mass of followers supporting them, and insists that the dissidents must remain strong and united.

“The only way to get to that point is for us to unite, to understand each other, to implement truly useful strategies and tactics to achieve the political strength necessary to have a movement like the one Gandhi had in India, which led the English to grant them independence, or like the one Solidarity had in Poland, which led the Poles to abandon communism, or like the one that occurred in Chile, which led Pinochet to the plebiscite that he lost, even though by a narrow margin, he lost. There was a risk that he would win and follow on with his regime but he lost,” he continues, in the most controversial minute and a half of the interview.

“Whatever is ethical and moral in order to solve the problem of Cuba. The unworthy, the most unworthy thing in all of this is to cling to the idea that I want to tear them down, that I hate them and that I want them dead, which is not Christian, it is not healthy, it is not characteristic of someone who has good mental and moral health to be hating, even those who are the most criminal, the most abusive, those who have done me the most harm,” he concludes.

“Whatever is ethical and moral in order to solve the problem of Cuba. The unworthy, the most unworthy thing in all of this is to cling to the idea that I want to tear them down, that I hate them”

The interview was broadcast on the 24th live from the Facebook page of El Toque, at which time it received the approval of a great majority of those who followed it. Many even pointed out his moral strength because, in the midst of the suffering that he has endured over the years, he is capable of forgiving and putting the interests of the nation before personal interests.

But on Saturday, a doctor exiled in Spain, Lucio Enriquez Nodarse, published on his social media an excerpt of the interview in which Ferrer indicated his willingness to accept a dialogue if the regime asks for it. “And what is this? Reconciliation with murderers? We don’t want them to be killed! We want them to be tried!”

His post has received a flood of comments, from those who believe that he has been “brainwashed, given substances that create confusion, and is just reiterating whatever he has been hearing,” to those who insinuate that he has already made some kind of deal with the authorities. “Do you believe he really went somewhere where what they have said actually happened? The truth is, he would have to have very good genes to come out so physically vigorous. I have seen them come out exhausted, you can see quite a difference between one and the other,” says another user.

Requests for military intervention flood the comments on that post, where friends of Dr. Enriquez have exchanged accusations with those who have asked for respect for such a long-standing opponent of the regime. “I think Ferrer has more clarity than all of us put together . . . What a shame Lucio, that far from understanding a person who has suffered much more than most under that dictatorship, you are now labeling it betrayal. My take is the opposite — admiration for a man who has recently spent more years in prison than out of it, who has been beaten on many occasions yet has room for forgiveness, and who has complete clarity, whose objective is to end once and for all the suffering of the people and not cling to hatred,” says an exile in Canada, who also received numerous criticisms.

José Daniel Ferrer is one of the prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, when he received a death sentence commuted to 25 years in prison. Eight years later he was released thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain. Since then, he has remained at the head of Unpacu, which has caused him countless problems with State Security. On 11 July 2021, he was arrested before being able to join the massive demonstrations of that day and he remained there until January 16, subjected to all kinds of mistreatment and harassment. He is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, which has claimed him as a symbol of many others punished for their opposition to the regime.

Translated by Tomás A.

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Woman Stabbed to Death at Her Workplace, a Gas Station in Holguín, Cuba

Aliana Laborde Díaz, the mother of a child, was murdered in the early hours of this Monday

The woman worked at the Cupet located on the road that goes to the municipality of Gibara. / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 4 February 2025 — Aliana Laborde Díaz, the mother of a child, was murdered by her ex-partner in the early hours of this Monday at her workplace, a gas station in the city of Holguín, according to the Facebook page La Tijera and confirmed by people close to the victim.

The man’s identity is unknown at this time but some neighbors point to him as her ex-partner. He stabbed Laborde Díaz at her workplace, a Cupet located in the city of Holguín, on the road that goes to the municipality of Gibara. The shift manager “who came to the aid” of the woman was also injured in the altercation. The perpetrator “showed up at the scene and entered the offices of the service center with a knife,” the publication states.

Internet users who knew the victim confirmed on the same social network that the killer died shortly after attacking Laborde Díaz. The man fled the gas station on a motorcycle and shortly after crashed into the facade of a house. It is not known at this time if it was an accident or suicide.

A user who claims to know Laborde Díaz, commented that the woman “had an intermittent relationship with the perpetrator,” who was not the father of her child. “Sadly I knew her, she was my neighbor and my child played with hers,” she wrote.

https://www.facebook.com/Deuntijeretazo/posts/1197371375318880?ref=embed_post

The femicide of Laborde Díaz follows, this year, that of Elizabeth Ramírez continue reading

Fernández, which was confirmed in early January by the independent platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo. The woman, aged around 30, was also attacked by her ex-partner but in her home, in the town of Cacocum, in the province of Holguín.

Regarding the case of Ramírez Fernández, the activists stated that the woman had formally reported her ex-partner to the police for assault at the end of December. In light of this situation, they expressed their “repudiation” of the police “for their negligent actions” in response to the complaint filed by the victim, whose death could have been avoided, even with their “current limited procedures and lack of a gender focus.”

The year 2024 ended with a significant reduction in deaths due to gender-based violence. Independent observatories counted 55 cases, 32 fewer than in 2023, an inventory that presents some differences with respect to the list prepared by 14ymedio for the same period, which includes 54 cases (33 fewer than a year earlier).

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Cubans Are Prohibited From Visiting the Apartments of Foreign Students

“Don’t even think about having a Cuban girlfriend, because she’ll leave you speechless and cackling.”

Renting a room or apartment to foreigners with temporary residence ranges from 250 to 500 dollars a month. / EFE

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 February 2025 — From a balcony in El Vedado, Joao Henrique, a 28-year-old Brazilian native from San Salvador de Bahía, points to the building where he should be staying every night. “My scholarship is there, but the conditions are not good, so my parents helped me rent this place.” The house where he lives while pursuing a postgraduate degree in a medical specialty is more comfortable and safe than the state shelter, but it has strict rules.

For 300 dollars a month, the Brazilian student has a room to sleep in, a well-equipped kitchen, a bathroom, a balcony, and a living room. The small apartment is the result of the division of a larger house, so the owners live on the other side of the wall. “I can’t receive visitors, much less have parties,” he explains. “It’s a safe place, but the owners have warned me not to bring Cuban friends over, because then they can’t guarantee that things won’t get lost,” he explains to 14ymedio.

Tourism, which has fallen by almost 50% since the start of the pandemic, has pushed some homeowners to rent their spaces long-term to foreign students. Unlike nightly rates, which can exceed $30, renting a room or apartment to foreigners with temporary residence ranges from $250 to $500 per month, depending on the conditions and location of the home.

The most attractive spaces combine comfort, security, and proximity to the hospitals

The most attractive spaces combine comfort, security, and proximity to the hospitals where students do their internships, or to the facilities where they take classes. Foreign scholarship students are more highly valued than Cuban tenants, because they can pay more and do not accumulate any “right” over the property. But foreign students are often unaware of the characteristics of certain neighborhoods, and have a harder time reading the warning signs of a possible scam or danger. continue reading

From rooms inside a house where they share their daily life with the family, to comfortable independent apartments that include hot water and air conditioning, the variety of options fits everyone’s budget. “This place is close to the hospital where I do my internship, and is also quite central, so though I pay a little more, it’s very practical for me,” explains Joao Henrique.

As part of an agreement with Havana, Brasilia has financed the transfer to the Island of students who are paid for their plane tickets, classes in each specialty, and accommodations. The Brazilian was placed in the Comandante Ramón Paz Borroto Student Residence on the corner of 25th Street and G Street, in Havana’s Vedado. But Joao Henrique only spent the first month there after arriving on the island. “There are many problems with the water supply, and I was robbed twice in my room,” he explains.

“This apartment has better conditions, but it saddens me that my friends can’t visit me. I would like the owners to be less present in my life, and to have a little more privacy,” he admits. “Cubans have a very bad opinion of each other. The lady of the house warns me every week not to even think about having a Cuban girlfriend because she will leave me ’featherless and cackling,’” he says, imitating a Havana accent.

The owners of Joao Henrique’s apartment have a license to rent rooms to foreigners, something that many owners who do the same thing don’t have. “I was in a house where they told me I couldn’t greet the neighbors so they wouldn’t notice I wasn’t Cuban,” he recalls. “That place was cheaper, but one day the owner told me I had to leave because they had fined her thousands of pesos for renting without a license.”

The owners of Joao Henrique’s apartment have a license to rent rooms to foreigners

Others, far from home, prefer to live more closely with a local family. This is the case with Claudia, a German geography student who came from Bremen desiring to “get to know Cuban life.” The young woman took a break from her university and enrolled for a semester at La Colina. There she met a Havana student who offered to rent her a room in her house.

For 250 dollars a month, Claudia got a room in Centro Habana, about a ten-minute walk from her classroom. “I learn a lot by living with a family, but sometimes everything is very complicated. The house only has one bathroom, the kitchen is small, and when I go to the market and buy food there is only one refrigerator to store it in, so it runs out very quickly,” she says.

“I can’t bring visitors, but the girl who rents me a room and I go out a lot together. She has shown me many parts of Havana and introduced me to her friends.” What she misses most about her life in Bremen is “being able to eat vegetables more often, and having more privacy in my room, which has a door that I can’t even close from the inside.” She sums up her experience as “a crash course in Cuban life.” She says she hasn’t been able to learn much geography: “The teachers are absent a lot and sometimes classes are cancelled without explanation.”

The European Claudia and the Brazilian Joao Henrique don’t confront the roadblocks facing African students, who have to deal with prejudices and racism on the Island. For them, the rules can be much stricter.

Manuel, from Angola, and Nicolas Suminwa, from South Africa, have had to learn (by stumbling) to avoid these obstacles. Both have been living in Havana for a couple of years while studying medicine. “They give me a stipend to finance my transportation, my accommodation, and the food I need,” explains the South African, originally from Pretoria. “What I can afford is the cheap spaces, because here in Cuba life is very expensive.”

For 200 dollars a month, Suminwa rented a room with a bathroom in a large house in the El Cerro neighborhood

For 200 dollars a month, Suminwa rented a room with a bathroom in a large house in the El Cerro neighborhood that other compatriots recommended to him. “It’s quite safe, but in one room, which is not very big, I have to have everything: an electric pot for cooking, a table to study on, the bed, and my belongings.” When he returns from his next vacation he will have to rent something bigger. “It’s not going to be easy because when I read an ad, I call, and they tell me that the apartment is vacant, but when I go to see it they tell me that it’s already occupied.”

Suminwa believes that there are many prejudices against African students. “They put more restrictions on us than on others. I’ve spoken with Mexican, Colombian, and colleagues from other countries who are also studying medicine here, and this does not happen to them as much as it does to me.” The South African has experienced things that would be comical if they were not so lacerating to human dignity. “One day the owner of the house unlocked the door to my room because he heard laughter and thought I had sneaked in a secret guest, but it was something I was watching on television.”

Manuel, a 27-year-old Angolan who claims to have earned “a diploma in understanding Cubans,” has experienced similar stories. Now, after many bad moments, he has been able to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Nuevo Vedado for 300 dollars, together with his girlfriend, who is from Luanda like him. The house, owned by a family that recently emigrated to the United States through the Humanitarian Parole Program, is well-equipped and affords privacy.

“The owner’s mother comes by all the time to check if everything is okay,” says Manuel. “We have a washing machine, there is sometimes a lack of water but there is a tank to store it in, and the building is quiet enough.” But the list of prohibitions contains some things that the Angolan knows very well: “no loud music, no parties, and no Cuban visitors.”

Translated by Tomás A.

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One of the Two Cubans Arrested in Florida for Falsifying Credit Cards Had a Deportation Order Going Back to 2019

Carlos del Pino and Yandi Valdes Rodriguez were taken to the Sumter County Jail and face 113 criminal charges

Carlos del Pino and Yandi Valdés Rodríguez were found with 20 fake cards / Florida Highway Patrol

14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2025 — Cubans Carlos del Pino, 34, and Yandi Valdés Rodríguez, 35, face 113 charges in Tampa, Florida, for crimes related to credit card forgery. The couple was arrested last Wednesday for various traffic violations on Interstate 75 (I-75) in Sumter County, and the Highway Patrol found cloning devices, 20 fake cards and dollars inside the vehicle.

Since the detainees were both of Cuban origin, the presence of the Border Patrol was requested when they were arrested to verify their immigration status. Since last Sunday, the Office of the Department of Homeland Security (HSI) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) have been carrying out anti-immigrant raids in the state.

The immigration agency specified that Del Pino “had an active deportation order in force since 2019” but was “on probation.”

The data obtained by the Sumter authorities showed that the 2019 Range Rover truck driven by Del Pino had multiple infractions. The migrant also has a criminal record related to the falsification of credit cards.

Del Pino and Valdés were arrested and taken to the Sumter County jail while the investigation is being carried out. continue reading

Cuban Carlos del Pino was also arrested in 2019 for the same crime of cloning cards. / Capture/WCJB

Last Wednesday, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, promulgated the Laken Riley Act, which empowers federal authorities to deport migrants who are in the country illegally and who have been accused of crimes.

“It is a law that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to arrest and deport people who are accused of crimes,” said Mario J. Pentón, speaking to a lawyer from the Gallardo law firm. “The interesting thing about this rule is that they can arrest people who have not even been convicted,” and it is enough for them to have a case in process in a Federal Court.

The lawyer trusts that this new legislation will generate a debate for being “a violation” of the Constitution. Pentón said that in the Migration Courts, “when you request bail, you have not been convicted of any crime.”

However, he acknowledged that there are criminal charges such as “murder, terrorist acts and actions that are considered aggravated crimes” that make you inadmissible in the United States. “These people will be deported and will be subject to this law,” he stressed.

The new rule has been extended to minor crimes such as “theft and assault.” However, the lawyer specifies that the Migration Law establishes that “a store robbery is considered an exception when considered a case of “moral turpitude,” an act that violates community standards, and the courts can limit the rule for its final application.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would send the “worst foreign criminals” to a detention center at the Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba. “Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust their own countries to keep them. We don’t want them to come back, so we’re going to send them to Guantánamo,” he said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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