English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 7 May 2019 — Things have become complicated for the independent tour guides in Havana in recent weeks. Accustomed to operating for years without a license, they see how the authorities are now trying to curb their activities to protect the monopoly of state companies, such as Cubanacan or Havanatur. “We must avoid … Continue reading “Cuban Police Have Their Eyes on the Tourist Guides in Old Havana”
Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, July 2, 2018 — No one doubts that tourism is a top priority for the Cuban economy. Whether or not the communist authorities are managing it well is another matter. It is no surprise that President Díaz-Canel stresses “the priority of tourism for the country’s development given that it has become … Continue reading “Tourism as a National Development Priority / Elias Amor Bravo”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar and Zunilda Mata, Havana/Varadero, 21 September 2017 — “This is what’s left of the gardens of the Blue Lagoon,” says an employee while looking at a cellphone photo of fallen palm trees and tangled vegetation. The bus in which he is traveling is responsible for distributing staff to the hotels in Varadero, Cuba’s … Continue reading “Irma Reconfigures Cuba’s Tourist Map”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Viñales and Havana, 6 February 2016 – First they ran out of water bottles, then packaged juices became scarce, and now it is difficult to find fresh fruit. This is how a hostess of tourist rooms in Viñales describes the situation there with the significant increase of tourism in Cuba and the … Continue reading “There Isn’t Enough Beer For So Many ‘Yumas’ / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 9 September 2015 — The tourism industry in Cuba showed a growth of 17% at the end of the first half of 2015 with the arrival of two million 194,134 visitors to the island. Manuel Marrero, Minister of Tourism, reported the information in a meeting with national press during the opening of the … Continue reading “Tourism In Cuba Grew By 17% During The First Half Of 2015 / 14ymedio”
Opponents and independent journalists, with police operations and communications cut off due to Independence Day 14ymedio, Havana, 20 May 2024 — Activist Leonardo Romero Negrín was released this Monday afternoon after spending several hours under arrest at the Dragones police station, in Old Havana. A group of friends stood outside the unit demanding the release … Continue reading “Supported by His Friends, Cuban Activist Leonardo Romero Negrín Is Released”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 4 December 2023 — Martí is good, Weyler is bad, Chibás is doubtful and a little hysterical. Cubans were always reckless; the Spanish, lazy; Americans, greedy. The independence movement was inevitable; annexationism, inadvisable; reformism, a symptom of laziness and lack of character. Céspedes is the father of the country; Mariana, the … Continue reading “Almost Always Villains”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 16 February 2023 –On Thursday, in Miami, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) released a list of “20 repressors of the Cuban dictatorship” who are in the United States, in order to contribute to the end of impunity and not, it says, to encourage “hate crimes.” Among those included … Continue reading “A List of 20 Alleged Cuban Repressors is Published in the United States”
14ymedio, Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, October 22, 2022 — There is not a single country in the world whose leaders spend as much time, or consume as much energy, revising and perfecting systems for monitoring and controlling the economy as Cuba. If one were to add up all the hours dedicated to this task, they … Continue reading “Cuba’s Economy: Less Control, More Freedom”
14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 18 August 2022 — Police from the Mexican municipality of Monterrey arrested a coyote on Wednesday, who had charged seven Cubans 21,000 pesos ($1,050) to take them in a van to the state of Coahuila, from where they planned to cross the Rio Grande to reach El Paso, Texas. The smuggler, … Continue reading “Through a Traffic Ticket, the Mexican Police Discover a Coyote Taking Seven Cubans to the United States”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 2 August 2022 — With all that is going wrong in Cuba, the state press doesn’t miss an opportunity to transmit a false sense of normality that, far from being confirmed, leads to thinking just the opposite. Constantly in the Castro regime, there is talk of “people’s power” everywhere, without … Continue reading “Entertaining People with Popular Control: The Castro Regime Has No Remedy”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 January 2022 — Ten prisoners in Holguín, for whom the prosecutor maintained its request for very high sentences went on a hunger strike following their trial for the July 11th (11J) protests. This was reported by Dr. Alejandro Raúl Pupo Casas on his social media, alerted by the mother of … Continue reading “Ten July 11th Prisoners in Holguin, Cuba Begin Hunger Strike Protesting the Sentences Sought by the Prosecutor”
14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2022 — The tension between the relatives grew on the second day of the trial of the protesters on July 11 (11J) in Santa Clara. During the day the security forces multiplied around the Villa Clara Provincial Court and the news that came from the few who were able to enter the … Continue reading “Cuba: The Prosecutor’s Office and its Witnesses Present Those Indicted for the 11 July Protests in Santa Clara as Terrorists”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 6 December 2021 — The delivery, on December 15 ,of a “stimulus” in national currency to workers in the health sector is generating controversy among doctors, nurses, dentists, technologists, graduates and other workers of the Ministry of Public Health. The measure, which the Government presents as a recognition of the … Continue reading “Cuban Health Workers Upset by the Distribution of a Cash ‘Stimulus’”
14ymedio, Havana, 20July 2021 — “They are young, they are not criminals or bandits who went to throw stones or loot stores, they went to fight for the things they lack, that they are drowning.” Berta Baruch, 58, is one of the mothers who gathered on Monday in front of the 100th y Aldabó prison, in Havana, … Continue reading “The Anguish of the Relatives of the Young People Arrested in Cuba on July 11”
