English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 13 January 2017 — Matilde sold her home just two weeks ago to pay for the immigration route to the United States. Thursday, the hope of achieving her dreams burst when president Barack Obama put an end to the wet foot/dry foot policy that granted legal residency to Cubans who reached the United States. … Continue reading “Washington Closes The Escape Valve / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2017 — Police maintained a strong operation Thursday around the headquarters of the 1010 Academy in the neighborhood of Cerro, in Havana. Activists Joanna Columbié and Georlis Olazabal were arrested while trying to access the site to participate in a conference on constitutional law, said Eliécer Ávila, president of the independent Somos+ … Continue reading “Cuban Police Detain Activists For Second Consecutive Day / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 11 January 2017 — The economist Karina Galvez, a member of the editorial board of the magazine Convivencia (Coexistence) has been arrested and taken to the headquarters of State Security on the Pinar del Rio highway. Her home is sealed and family and friends are not allowed access. On Wednesday morning the police searched Galvez’s house. Several … Continue reading “Cuban Economist and Activist Karina Galvez Arrested And Taken To State Security Headquarters / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2016 – Cuban faces of 2016: The journalist José Ramírez Pantoja starred this year in one of the most publicized cases of censorship within the official press. The reporter was fired from his job at Radio Holguin after being accused of printing on his personal blog the words of Karina Marron, vice … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2016: José Ramírez Pantoja, Journalist (b. Holguín) / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 December 2016 — José Daniel Ferrer, general coordinator of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), was arrested on Thursday around one in the afternoon when he left the organization’s headquarters in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and released about 40 minutes later, as reported in a phone call to 14ymedio from … Continue reading “Opposition Leader José Daniel Ferrer Released / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo, Quito, 14 December 2016 — I wake up and I see a report on the arrival of a group rafters on the coast of Miami. I’m surprised by the open declaration of one of them, who confesses having left Cuba in search of a better future, but says he has nothing against … Continue reading “Cuban Adjustment Act or Upheaval Act / 14ymedio, Rolando Gallardo”
14ymedio, 27 November 2016 — The Cuban graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as “El Sexto” (The Sixth), remains under arrest, according to a report from his mother, Maria Victoria Machado, to14ymedio. Maldonado was arrested on Saturday and taken to the police unit at 51st and 240th Streets after painting graffiti on a wall of the … Continue reading “Graffiti Artist ‘El Sexto’ Still Under Arrest, Mother Says / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 November 2016 — Police informed the graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado – known as ‘El Sexto’, (The Sixth) – that he can not leave the country because he is “regulated,” having been accused in a legal process due to a complaint by his ex-wife. He received the information within a few minutes of an … Continue reading “Police Confirm To ‘El Sexto’ He Can Not Leave The Country / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, 14 October 2016 – Authoritarians aren’t very given to calm. They need the citizens to feel widespread discomfort to be able to govern them with ease. This scenario of fears has sharpened recently in Cuba, where the government has strengthened or opened new fronts against the opposition, against the self-employed, … Continue reading “Information as Treason / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2016 – The Cuban independent press has been marked by two opposing phenomena: censorship and growth, according to the report on Cuba published by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Thursday. The document prepared for the association made up of representatives from more than 1,300 publications of the Americas by Yoani Sanchez in her … Continue reading “Cuban Independent Press Grows Despite Censorship / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2016 — Journalist Jose Ramirez Pantoja appeared for a second time before the Municipal Court of Holguin on Wednesday. The reporter, expelled from his job in the provincial radio station, reported on his blog that “everything transpired normally in accordance with the law” and that the trial had “upheld the sentence.” Both parties attended … Continue reading “Sentence Upheld In The Case Of Journalist Expelled From Radio Holguin / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 8 October 2016 — The Hanna Arendt Artivism Institute (Instar), led by the artist Tania Bruguera, began operations in Cuba with a call to “encourage solidarity, always latent in the Cuban people, with those affected by Hurricane Matthew,” according to a note from the organizers of the independent project. Monday, 10 October, a holiday … Continue reading “‘Artivism’ Institute Calls For Solidarity With Victims Of Matthew / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 26 August 2016 – Josefina Vidal, Director of the United States Division for Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that the internet is being used from the United States as a way to promote internal subversion on the island. “The illegal use of radio and TV against Cuba isn’t enough, they insist … Continue reading “Cuban Official Josefina Vidal Accuses US of Using the Internet “To Promote Subversion” / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 20 July 2106 – At the beginning of the year evil was incarnated in the intermediaries, who were blamed for the high food prices in the produce markets. At the end of 2013, the boogeymen were those who worked for themselves selling imported clothes and other merchandise. In February of this … Continue reading “Guilty! / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 2016 – In the early morning hours of Wednesday the Ecuadorian police intervened to evict Cubans from an encampment in Arbolito Park in Quito, and about one hundred migrants without proper documents were loaded into four buses to take them to trial. Lazaro Ramos, one of the spokesmen for the Cuban … Continue reading “Ecuadorian Police Evict Cubans From Quito Encampment / 14ymedio”
