English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Ivan García, Havana, 22 May 2023 — Juan José, a private entrepreneur in Cuba, spent a year and a half trying to find a place to install a mini-brewery west of Havana. “He greased the palms of several government officials in the Playa municipality with bills to speed up the procedures. But no go. Things never … Continue reading “Crony Capitalism in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 26 May 2023 — The announcement of the opening in Cuba of an assembly plant of the Uliánovsk Automobile Factory (UAZ) is one of the many symptoms of the good health of relations between Havana and Moscow. The company’s directors said that they will send the first batch of machines to the Island … Continue reading “This Year, the Russian Builder UAZ Will Open a Factory To Assemble Vehicles in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 May 2023 — The two highest powers in Cuba will meet this Tuesday. While the Parliament will discuss for two days “the constitutional design of the State and elements of the Constitution,” the Communist Party began its Sixth Plenary of the Central Committee focused on economic aspects. Both meetings take place a … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime Will Discuss ‘The Constitutional Design of the State’”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 21 May 2023 — Fidel Castro activated a plan, not deviating one millimeter from its content, for seizing power in Cuba following the fall of the Batista regime. And in that plan, one of the first actions — when the execution machinery was in full swing at La Cabaña fortress … Continue reading “Cuba’s 64 Years of Agrarian Reform: Nothing to Celebrate”
Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 15 May 2023 – On 20 June 2022, the Cuban Language Academy (ACuL) sent out a laconic message: the poet Roberto Méndez, who should have led the institution until 2026, gave up his post “for health reasons”. His successor would be the essayist Jorge Fornet, the then vice-director and one of the … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime Hijacked the Academy of Languages for Critcising Daniel Ortega”
14ymedio, Madrid, 19 May 2023 — A huge portrait of José Martí watched this Thursday as the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernishenko and his Cuban counterpart Ramiro Valdés cut the tape of the new steel company that bears his name and that will replace the old Antillana de Acero. Russian technology replaces the Soviet … Continue reading “A Report Points Out That the Cuban Electricity System Cannot Tolerate the Power That Antillana De Acero Requires”
14ymedio, Havana, May 19, 2023 — The Russian airline Aeroflot will resume its commercial flights to Cuba on July 1, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernishenko announced on Thursday during his visit to Havana. Until now, the air service between the two countries had been limited by the international sanctions imposed on Moscow after its … Continue reading “The Russian National Airline Will Resume Its Flights to Cuba Beginning July 1”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 May 2023 — Despite his busy schedule of support to Russia in the last 48 hours, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel found time to receive this Friday Ahmed Bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia and president of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Development Fund. As in the case … Continue reading “Diaz-Canel Exuberantly Receives a Minister From Saudi Arabia and His Millionaire Proposals for Cuba”
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Havana, 11 May 2023 – The App ’Ticket’, launched in Cuba in December 2022 to facilitate the electronic processing of appointments in both public institutions and private businesses, increasingly displeases customers and even one of its creators, Jesús Daniel Saura Díaz. A few days ago, the latter expressed one of the … Continue reading “One of Its Inventors Describes the Cuban App ‘Ticket’ As ‘The Monster I Helped Create’”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 May 2023 – I re-read Dulce María Loynaz, I listen to recordings of her voice, I submerge myself in her world. I see her descending to the lounge of her house in an iron elevator. She opens the grille and exits, fanning herself, passing between the armchairs and yellowing sculptures. … Continue reading “A Soldier’s Daughter”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 5 May 2023 — In Havana on Thursday, Cuba and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding for the bilateral investment initiative that includes the business projects agreed to between the two countries with the aim of expanding their relations. Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister and Head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, … Continue reading “Cuba and Russia Sign a Memorandum To Promote Joint Investment Projects”
14ymedio, Madrid, 3 May 2023 — This is the third consecutive week of a high-level Russian visit to Cuba. Maxim Oreshkin, economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, met on Tuesday with the highest authorities of the Island, starting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who highlighted from Moscow his “enormous sensitivity to Cuba’s problems.” The Cuban president … Continue reading “Russia’s Waste of Good Intentions Towards Cuba During the Visit of Putin’s Economic Adviser”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 May 2023 — “The situation is critical, a kind of perfect storm between government repression and famine.” The assertion is from the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), which hopes for “the intermediation of the Cuban Catholic Church” for “the release of political prisoners, the end of repression and changes that the … Continue reading “An NGO Hopes for the ‘Intermediation’ of the Church for the Release of Cuban Political Prisoners”
14ymedio, Havana, 14 April 2023 — In addition to seriously affecting the construction of homes, the lack of cement is delaying the restoration works of one of the most symbolic places of the Cuban regime, the Anti-Imperialist Grandstand of Havana, popularly known as the “protesto-drome.” The shortage of raw materials and fuel tops the list … Continue reading “The Anti-Imperialist Grandstand of Havana, Victim of the Shortage of Cement in Cuba”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 14 April 2023 – After arduous negotiations with the government in Valencia over a period of seven years, Havana has given its reply: the paintings of Joaquín Sorolla, currently in the custody of the city’s Museum of Fine Art, and whose journey to Spain for the centenary of the death of … Continue reading “Sorolla, Hijacked in Havana”
