English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Cubalex, Laritza Diversent, 11 March 2022 — Instigating a crime is a crime against public order which appears in Article 202 of the Island’s current Criminal Code. However, this would undergo notable changes, according to the draft of the new Criminal Code, which will go into effect in April 2022, after approval by the delegates … Continue reading “Instigating a Crime in the Draft Cuban Criminal Code / Cubalex”
14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2022 — No one had read the new Family Code this Monday when the debate was held in a neighborhood south of Morón, in Ciego de Ávila, in anticipation of a referendum on a date yet to be determined. At the very least, sincerity reigned in the atmosphere at the beginning of … Continue reading “Unanimous Submission on Cuba’s New Family Code from a Neighborhood Meeting in Ciego de Avila”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2021 — The Cuban Government will eliminate “pre-criminal dangerousness,” a legal definition that it has been used for years to imprison opponents. The elimination of this ’crime’ has been demanded by international organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Rubén Remigio Ferro, president of the People’s Supreme Court, said on Tuesday on … Continue reading “‘Pre-criminal Dangerousness’ is Removed from the Cuban Penal Code, but ‘Regulation’ — Being Forbidden to Leave the Country — is Legalized”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 11 June 2021 — An informative note from the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) presented on Cuban TV’s Roundtable program this Thursday, June 10, announced the temporary suspension of US dollar deposits in Cuban banks by individuals and legal entities. As expressed in the note, this measure, which will go into … Continue reading “Cuba’s New Bank Resolution: More Shadows than Lights / Miriam Celaya”
Juan Juan Almeida, 21 February 2018 — The Cuban government is in the process of updating an old, punitive legal statute that would allow it to control the growth of the self-employment sector and independent commercial activity as well as to curb private initiative, which has in recent years been expanding in the country. Martí … Continue reading “Cuban Government Plans Severe Penalties to Control Private Businesses / Juan Juan Almeida”
Note: The video is a brief excerpt from the interview and is not subtitled in English. 14ymedio, Mario Penton, Luz Escobar, Miami, 22 July 2016 – His name is tattooed on the skin of a Cuban graffiti artist (Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto) or is suggested by the letter L, standing for Liberty, formed … Continue reading ““When we achieve justice we can build a new society” / 14ymedio, Ofelia Acevedo, Mario Penton, Luz Escobar”
You don’t need to be an expert critic, clairvoyant sociologist or a wise politician to understand that when you grow up in a totalitarian and absolutist country like Cuba, flooded with numerous afflictions, it’s normal to feel small. Thus, because of the great restrictions on individual freedom, the meager access to modernity and a determined … Continue reading “The New Man in Cuba in Search of Anabolic Steroids / Juan Juan Almeida”
PUERTO PADRE, Cuba, November, cubanet.org — Officials in charge of overseeing the self-employment sector are updating their documentation of its licensees and subsequently warning them of possible violations. Eddy Vega — a manufacturer and vendor of plumbing supplies, who buys and refurbishes pieces of tubing, accessories and old keys — was warned in no uncertain … Continue reading “New Business Owners Consider Turning In Their Licenses Due to Lack of Freedom / Alberto Mendez Castello”
The reforms of the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Act adopted by the State Council to “ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency in the prevention and the fight against crime” raises a red flag about the situation of human rights in Cuba. The amendments will come into force on October 1st. Their main objective is … Continue reading “Red Flag: The New Penal Law Threatens Human Rights / Laritza Diversent”
I always remember from Oedipus: I am a toy in the hands of destiny. Maybe the life of Angel Santiesteban, prominent Cuban writer and opposition blogger, is also marked by that concept. But the Kafkaesque style of totalitarian societies where fatum is a metaphor for the State, has to be taken into account. Making the … Continue reading “A New Trial for Angel Santiesteban / Lilianne Ruiz”
By Wilfredo Vallín Almeida As we have seen, there seems to be a new offense under the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Act (LPP), a “crime” that seems interesting to analyze with regards to what it might mean to the future. And I begin this analysis with what — over so many years — … Continue reading “The U.N. Covenants on Human Rights: A New Crime In Cuba? / Cuban Law Association, Wilfredo Vallin Almeida”
The oldest of the three, Dylan McFarlane, is 18 and is the only one who didn’t fire that night. Eric Ronald Ellington, the first to be arrested and the author of the most amazing confession the police interrogators of Miami-Dade had ever heard in all their years in their posts, is 16, the same age … Continue reading “Death Penalty and Respect for Life / Ernesto Morales Licea”
A ghost runs around Cuba: the Internet ghost. A month after the arrival of fiber optics from Venezuela to create a much faster information and telecommunications highway — some media outlets are predicting speeds three thousand percent faster — the government seems to be looking for excuses to justify why, once again, it will continue … Continue reading “Death Penalty for Internet in Cuba? / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
A ghost runs around Cuba: the Internet ghost. A month after the arrival of fiber optics from Venezuela to create a much faster information and telecommunications highway — some media outlets are predicting speeds three thousand percent faster — the government seems to be looking for excuses to justify why, once again, it will continue … Continue reading “Death Penalty for Internet in Cuba?”
14ymedio, Havana, September 27, 2023 — Three independent organizations released a statement on Tuesday calling on the Cuban government to grant greater economic and market freedoms to address the structural crisis facing the country. The League of Independent Farmers, the Latin American Federation of Rural Women and the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba also … Continue reading “Cubans Go without Food as the State Grants Concessions to Government-Controlled Businesses”
