English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Cynthia de la Cantera, July 1, 2020 — The stars have aligned for anyone who sees the electric motorcycle as a great business opportunity. At the end of 2019 there were already about 200,000 of these vehicles in Cuba. The recent boom is fueled by a combination of several factors: an inadequate public transport … Continue reading “The Electric Scooter, a Vehicle for the Times”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 28 May 2020 — It was in the 1980s, durng one those trips to the provinces which I took as a journalist for the magazine Cuba International, accompanied by the Luis Manuel Fernández, better known as Pirole. In the midst of the boredom of those hotels with no diversions, … Continue reading “From ’Protoplin’ to Sugarcane Juice”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 15 May 2020 — The fan stopped turning at dawn. Silence and heat came immediately. What happened, we wondered as soon as we felt the emptiness when the blades stopped. The electricity had cut out, due to a “phase fault,” something quite common in this building where, on very hot nights, … Continue reading “The Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba, Days 52 to 55: Sometimes I Prefer to Watch the News With the Sound Off”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 April 2020 — Energy consumption has increased atypically in Cuba during this period of confinement. With the increase in the amount of time that citizens stay home, national electricity consumption has risen 10% despite the closure of some companies and large hotel facilities. “Although sectors such as tourism and other non-essentials are … Continue reading “Government Blames Cuban Families for Increase in Energy Consumption”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 28 March 2020 — Today a street vendor broke the morning silence with his proclamation of coconut and guava cakes, which he described as “original,” but few neighbors dared to go down from the concrete blocks of the neighborhood. Between the need to search for supplies and the fear of contagion, this time … Continue reading “Day 8 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 15 November 2019 — The beautiful published images of the rehabilitation of the Cuatro Caminos Market and resumption of operations at the service of Cubans is one of the few pieces of good news coming from that troubled country. After almost half a century of paralysis, after the confiscations and … Continue reading “The "Resurrection" of the Cuatro Caminos Market and Free Trade in Cuba”
14ymedio, Ariel Hildalgo, Miami, 6 November 2019 — On Cuban tables the plates are almost empty, at the bus stops there are swells of people on the hunt for crowded transports, many homes on the verge of collapse are overcrowded with three and even four generations, and the blackouts and so-called “energy savings” increase the exhaustion … Continue reading “Protest Time”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 27 September 2019 — ‘The spinning top’ happens once a day, crammed with sick people or those who believe they are. “It is a bus that travels among polyclinics looking for feverish cases, patients with dengue symptoms, and they take them all to a hospital. It can be the Fajardo or … Continue reading “The Other Face of the ‘Energy Measures’ in Cuba”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 September 2019 — As of the beginning of next year, Cuba will have spent more time under the rules of the Special Period in Times of Peace than it did trying to comply with the fundamental laws of the so-called Real Socialism. To date, there has been no reversal of … Continue reading “Normality”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 12 September 2019 — As announced by the official press in the morning hours of September 11th, a special appearance of the Cuban President (not elected), Miguel Díaz-Canel, took place in the usual space of State televison’s Roundtable program, in order to report on the “current energy situation” that the country … Continue reading “Special Period or “Situation”?”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2019 — The second appearance of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and several of his ministers on the Roundtable TV show was an exercise in contortionism of the powers-that-be committed to explaining to Cubans that everything is under control and nothing will be affected but all sectors must adjust downwards. Of course, because the … Continue reading “Parade of Ministers on Cuba’s Roundtable TV Show Call for Tranquility”
14ymedio, Havana, September 11, 2019 — President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke this Wednesday about the problems with the arrival of fuel to Cuba that are affecting the day to day life of the Island, although he ruled out that it is a second Special Period, similar to the crisis of the 90s that left a traumatic memory … Continue reading “Diaz-Canel Defines the Current Energy Crisis as a "Temporary Situation"”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, July 18, 2019 — Alexander Barroso had traveled around to several service centers in Havana this Wednesday and the most-repeated response was “there is no gasoline.” “Monday was the last time that I was able to fill the tank at L and 17th and it was sucking up the last bit that … Continue reading “Gasoline is "Lost" in Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2019 — After days of complaints on social networks and long lines at gas stations, this Friday Tomás Pérez Álvarez, the marketing director of the state oil company, Cupet, said in Havana on the television news that one of the causes of the deficit of gasoline is the “large number of vehicles circulating” … Continue reading “Cuban Government Blames Gas Shortage on Increase in Vehicles”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2019 — In tune with the energy crisis currently facing the island, a Spanish-Cuban seminar organized in Madrid by the Elcano Royal Institute has analyzed the role of renewable energies in the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement signed in 2016. Cuba’s weakness with regards to energy in the last sixty years … Continue reading “Lack of Funding and Legal Security Delay Renewable Energy in Cuba”
