English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 19 May 2021 — Between last September and the middle of this month, the Logistics Business Group of Cuba’s Ministry of Agriculture (Gelma) has more than three million dollars in merchandise in its network of agricultural supplies and equipment stores, as announced this Tuesday by executives of the state company which also identified … Continue reading “Cuba: The High Price of Feed is Ending Family Pig Farming”
14ymedio, Havana, May 3, 2021 — If figures from the Sancti Spíritus Wholesale Food Company are to be believed, the province’s residents consume about 3.5 tons of food a month. By failing to have their names removed from the ration card registry, as required by law, residents currently living overseas are “bleeding the economy dry” … Continue reading “Newspaper Reports Sancti Spiritus Residents Consume 3.5 Tons of Food a Month”
The Spanish-Cuban company Habanos made $507 million in profits last year, 4% less than in 2019. The figure was provided by the company this Tuesday, at the inauguration of the virtual event Habanos World Days, which replaces the Festival del Habano, whose twenty-third edition was canceled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The official press … Continue reading “The Habanos Company is Doing Well, While Cuban Tobacco Producers are Broke”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2021 — Beekeeper Yoandy Verea’s worst nightmare has come true. After months of intense work, the lack of fuel caused the loss of tons of honey in his fields in the municipality of Perico in Matanzas, according to his posts on the social network Facebook. “I am a beekeeper contracted by … Continue reading “Cuban Beekeeper Denounces the Loss of ‘Tons of Honey’ for Lack of Transport”
14ymedio, Havana, 15 April 2021 — Among sales kiosks run by the military, a private seller of spices in the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street seems to have found the formula to prevent his premises from becoming a parliament of complaints to the “Ordering Task” and the rise of food prices, which have … Continue reading “Cuba: Taking Control of Your Own Health in Times of Rampant Inflation”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 5 April 2021 — While more and more images are arriving of the impact of the social protests that increase throughout Cuba — including the San Isidro Movement and UNPACU — the communist leaders try to cope with the great problem of lack of food and introduce small reforms such … Continue reading “Cuba: Reforms in the Countryside Should Not be Left Half Done”
14ymedio, Carla Gloria Colomé Santiago, New York, 28 March 2021 — The CUC has died and died young, like Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin, just 27 years old. The CUC, the Cuban convertible peso or chavito, as it has also been called, would become the substitute actor of the dollar that, at times, … Continue reading “The History of the CUC, or How the Dollar’s Bastard Brother Shaped the Lives of Cubans for 27 Years”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 March 2021 – Amid the rise in prices brought about by the ‘Ordering Task’, the prices of cement and some other construction materials will not vary, according to a report on Cuban Television’s Roundtable program this Friday. However, the product has disappeared from the State stores and is only found on the … Continue reading “Cuba: One Bag of Cement Costs More Than 1,000 Pesos vs. the State Price of 165”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 24 March 2021 ─ On March 22nd, the official Cubadebate website has published an analysis on electronic commerce in Cuba one year after the implementation of the TuEnvío platform. Despite the forced omissions imposed by the dictatorship’s orders to its spokespersons, the article recognizes some of the numerous problems that weigh … Continue reading “Electronic Commerce in Cuba, Another Gordian Knot”
Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, 19 March 2021 — The Cuban communists have decided not to settle for applying the absurd ideas they have regarding economic affairs within the island, but now, whenever they can, they try to impose them in international forums when they have the floor. Exactly what they do not do in Cuba … Continue reading “The Public and Private Debate and the Cuban Communists”
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus 17 March 2021 — The means of transport used by Correos de Cuba (the Cuban Postal Service) for home deliveries is the bicycle. And not only to bring the press, parcels or correspondence, but also checks to pensioners. In Sancti Spíritus, at least 27,000 retirees, more than 70%, depend on … Continue reading “Cuba Today: No Pension Checks in One Sancti Spiritus Neighborhood Because the Postman’s Bike Has a Flat Tire”
14ymedio, Serafín Martínez, Havana, 9 March 2021 — The times when all the burners were lit in a kitchen or of simmering beans for hours are over for many Cubans. Increases in the rate of manufactured gas has redesigned culinary practices and has also put in check the families who cannot pay the new prices, … Continue reading “Cuba’s Poorest Find it Impossible to Pay the Gas Bill”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 8 March 2021 — Cuban Vice-President Marino Murillo, has returned to the forefront of current affairs to talk about what he considers to be the positive effects of the currency unification and exchange. He insists on the same arguments, and of course, it is his opinion, and of course, respectable, but if he … Continue reading “Cuba’s Marino Murillo: Nothing More to Lose”
14ymedio, Havana, 5 March 2021 — After withdrawing the results of the survey carried out at the beginning of this week on the Ordering Task, the State website Cubadebate has published an article this Friday with some of the trends that the responses to the survey showed, but hiding the most unfavorable percentages. The manipulation of this information is drawing angry … Continue reading “Cubadebate’s Readers Rebel Against a Manipulated Survey”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 5 March 2021 — The San Isidro Movement (MSI) has launched the Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] platform to convene a “national dialogue” with all actors in society, including the Government, and build a Cuba that represents “a safe home for all,” and to overcome the serious crisis that the nation is … Continue reading “San Isidro Movement Calls for a National Dialogue Without Excluding the Cuban Authorities”
