English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
After a period of uncertainty, the station will broadcast several of its usual programs this Wednesday. 14ymedio, Madrid, 26 March 2025 — About 50 federal employees of Radio TV Martí and the news website returned to their jobs this Wednesday, and part of their programs returned to the air. In the morning, two internal sources … Continue reading “Radio Martí Calls on Part of Its Staff To Return to Work”
“It’s where I first heard the real truth,” Tomás recalls Numerous voices inside and outside the Island speak out against Trump’s decision to paralyze the station 14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 17 March 2025 — During the Rafter Crisis unleashed in Cuba between August and September 1994, after the so-called Maleconazo, thousands of inhabitants of the … Continue reading “Nostalgia for Radio Martí in Cuba, the Soundtrack of the Longing for Freedom of Information for Decades”
14ymedio, Fabio Aecio Ettore, Boca de Camarioca (Matanzas province), 11 January 2025 — When Cubans think of the town of Boca de Camarioca, what invariably comes to mind is the mass exodus orchestrated in 1965 by Fidel Castro and Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. president at the time. That stampede was the most notable precursor to … Continue reading “Devoid of Tourists and Canadian Drilling Operations, Boca de Camarioca Is a Shadow of Its Former Self”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 December 2024 –Inseparable companion of the wedge of guava and constant presence in the hands of the sellers who display their merchandise on the sides of the road, white or Creole cheese was so common in our lives that we only knew how to value it when it began … Continue reading “The Lack of Milk and the Import of Gouda Are Burying Cuba’s Own Creole Cheese”
The interruption coincides with the paralysis of a journey that, according to rumors, occurred due to lack of fuel 14ymedio, Havana, 4 November 2024 — The ferry service, which crosses the Bay of Havana between central Havana and Regla, was suspended this weekend, and it is unknown when it will resume. The provincial transport company … Continue reading “Ferry Service Between Havana and Regla Was Suspended Due to the Waves”
The island’s current number of residents stands at 8.62 million, a loss of almost 1.8 million in one year EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, July 9, 2024 — Cuba’s population fell 18% between 2022 and 2023, due mainly due to migration, and now stands 8.62 million people according to an independent, soon-to-be released demographic study to … Continue reading “Cuba’s Population Drops 18 Percent between 2022 and 2023 According to an Independent Study”
14ymedio, Elias Amor Bravo, Economist, 6 August 2023 — A kind reader of the blog asks me why the Cuban economy is having so much difficulty getting ahead and improving the living conditions of the population. And my first warning is the mention of the embargo/blockade of the United States as a limiting factor to … Continue reading “The Economic Competition of the Territories, the Tip of the Dying Cuban Economy”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 5 May 2023 — “Line up, one by one and slowly!” shouted a security employee at the Regla pier, to the passengers who had just arrived in the boat and had to travel over a short walkway to reach land. The metal structure is so rusty and full … Continue reading “A Bridge in Ruins and Few Passengers: Deterioration Reaches the Small Launch From Regla in Havana”
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 17 September 2022 — El Instituto de la Memoria Histórica Cuba contra el Totalitarismo y Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba [The Cuban Institute of Historic Memory Against Totalitarianism and plantados (political prisoners) for Freedom and Democracy in Cuba] recently organized a conference on the different migratory waves driven … Continue reading “The Massive Migrations of Castroism”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 September 2022 — A group of eight Cubans were rescued last Wednesday night by the cruise ship Scarlet Lady, when they were trying to cross the Florida Straits in a small, makeshift raft. A couple on board the cruise ship, coming from Cozumel and bound for the Bahamas, spotted a raft built … Continue reading “A Cruise Ship Rescues Eight Cubans in a Raft Made with Barrels and Air Chambers”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2022 — Despite the repression in each of the places where demonstrations have taken place in recent days, dozens of Cubans staged a new protest this Monday. On this occasion, it was in the town of El Cepem, of the Costa Norte People’s Council, Caimito, in Artemisa, after the police tried to prevent … Continue reading “Cubans Confront the Police to Let Them Leave the Island by Raft”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 25 May 2022 — On June 22, 1990, before the United Nations, Nelson Mandela firmly demanded that the sanctions against Pretoria be maintained. The African leader wondered what mistake had been made to allow a country with apartheid to be seated after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the … Continue reading “Cuba’s Machiavellian Use of Migration”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 April 2022 — The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, assured this Wednesday that in tomorrow’s meeting with senior Cuban officials, both countries will “explore” the possibility of reactivating the migratory agreements. Mayorkas said at a press conference at the end of a visit … Continue reading “US Confirms It Will Hold Migration Talks With Cuba”
14ymedio, Madrid, 19 April 2022 — The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which brings together several opposition organizations from inside and outside the island, expressed this Tuesday its rejection of the start of talks on the migration crisis between the United States government and the “communist tyranny.” The assembly recalled that “the Castro regime is a … Continue reading “Cuban Exile Rejects the Meeting Scheduled for Thursday Between the US and Cuba”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 February 2022– About thirty people are crowding at the doors of the Deauville hotel in Havana this Wednesday, and they are not tourists nor do they carry suitcases. Loaded with boxes and crates full of empty beer bottles, they line up to buy food and drink combos for 5,000 pesos … Continue reading “In the Absence of Tourists, Havana’s Deauville Hotel Sells ‘Combos’ for 5,000 Pesos”