English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2021 – The singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez recognized this year, for the first time, that Cuba “could be” a dictatorship. He did not do so on his blog, Segunda Cita – where he makes room for different but monotonous voices, all pro-government – but in a Chilean magazine, Culto, in an interview that was later reproduced by … Continue reading “Silvio Rodriguez, in Ambiguity Until the End”
Dimas Castellanos, Havana, 29 November 2021– “The U.S. government is following a script, seeking to portray Cuba as a failed state,” grumbled Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla on Wednesday, November 10, during his appearance before the accredited diplomatic corps in Cuba. Among the defining elements that characterize a failed state, those related to its economy are … Continue reading “Yes, Cuba is a Failed State / Dimas Castellanos”
EFE/14ymedio, Miami, 15 December 2021 — The Cuban journalist Carla Colomé, exiled in the United States, who works for the independent digital El Estornudo and People magazine in Spanish, is the first winner of the International Prize for Young Journalism in the Vargas Llosa-Atlas Network Chair. She received the prize for her reporting on the July 11 protests in Cuba. … Continue reading “Cuban Carla Colome Wins the Prize for Young Journalism in the Vargas Llosa-Atlas Network Chair”
14ymedio, Sebastián Arcos Cazabón, Miami, 5 December 2021 — Unlike the popular protests of last July 11 and 12, the march called by the Archipiélago platform for Monday, November 15 was announced weeks in advance. The most optimistic put their hopes for rapid change in the march, but they underestimated the repressive capacity of the … Continue reading “Public Marches Are Effective Tools of Political Change”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 November, 2021 — There was not a soul this Tuesday in the basement of the Habana Libre hotel where long lines used to form to buy tickets to Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua, but the storm is coming. After Nicaragua made public this Monday that it will stop requiring visas for Cubans, it only remains … Continue reading “Suspicion Grows that the Cuban Regime is Preparing a Slow Motion Mariel* Through Nicaragua”
14ymedio, Luis Zúñiga, Miami, 22 November 2021 — The Cuban regime faces a very delicate and dangerous situation to maintain itself in power. On the one hand, the July 11 protests, in more than 40 cities and towns, showed the disgust of the population, which is living under the longest dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere, as … Continue reading “The Paris Club Must Stop Financing the Repression in Cuba”
14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, November 19, 2021 — If I had written this article before November 15, people would have been called me a pessimist, a harbinger of bad luck, a saboteur of protest marches, and in a way they would have been right. I would never collaborate with the oppressors but, in general terms, … Continue reading “Cuba: A Manual for a Successful Protest March”
14ymedio, Havana, November 12, 2021–Chancellor Bruno Rodríguez’s harangue last Wednesday before the diplomatic corps has fallen on deaf ears in the European Union. Diplomats from EU member states will cover the Civic March for Change on November 15th and should inform the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, of the events, as reported by … Continue reading “European Union Diplomats Will Observe from the Ground the March in Cuba on 15N (15 November)”
14ymedio, Havana, 11 November 2021 — On Thursday the dissident coalition Archipiélago released a list of recommendations for those who would like to participate in the Civic March for Change in Havana, which is scheduled for Monday. The group issued the recommendations in response to threats by the regime, which has indicated it considers any such … Continue reading “Archipielago Provides Participants with Guidelines for November 15 Demonstrations in Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 2021 — “We do not want to see the police beat their own people again,” 15 Cuban Catholic priests say in a letter released this Wednesday, with less than a week remaining before for the Peaceful March for Change. “We do not want blood to be shed again,” or “to hear gunshots again,” insist the priests, “that is … Continue reading “‘We do not want to see the police beat their own people again,’ Say Cuban Priests”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 22October 2021 — On Thursday, the journalists Henry Constantín, from La Hora de Cuba, and Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, from La Prensa (Nicaragua), were officially awarded this Thursday with the Grand Prize for Press Freedom granted by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). The award had been announced earlier this month. The awards to both, vice-presidents of the … Continue reading “Henry Constantin and Juan Lorenzo Holmann, Awarded Grand Prize for Press Freedom”
14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2021 — It is the fourth time that the defense of Luis Robles Elizastigui, known as “the young man with the placard,” has been denied a change in his confinement. In a document provided to 14ymedio by his brother, Landy Fernández Elizastigui, the Provincial Court of Havana considers that “the reasons for this measure … Continue reading “‘The Young Man With the Placard’ is Denied Pre-Trial Release for the Fourth Time”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, October 12, 2021 — The Rapid Response Brigades (BRR), the regime’s shock troops, were mobilized on Tuesday after the Cuban government refused to to allow a public march on this coming November 15. In neighborhoods where the July 11 demonstrations were most intense, state-employed workers, police and State Security agents … Continue reading “Officials Station Rapid Response Brigades Near Key Government Sites”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 September 2021 — The government opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa was released on Wednesday night after an arrest of almost 12 hours in which the police told him that the marches called for November 20 will not be authorized, according to the dissident himself speaking to 14ymedio shortly after returning home. The vice president of … Continue reading “‘We Will Not Allow the 20N March’, Cuban Political Police Warn Opponent Cuesta Morua”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 September 2021 — Surrounded by metal fencing to control entry and with a strong police operation reinforced at each corner, this is how the Church of La Merced in Old Havana looked on Friday. Despite the rigors of the pandemic and the rain, hundreds of devotees came to this temple … Continue reading “Under a Strong Police Operation, Cubans Venerate the ‘Patroness of the Incarcerated’”
