English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 March 2022 — Every day it is more common to go to a doctor’s office and hear “we don’t have a doctor, you’ll have to come another day.” The exodus in the Public Health sector is increasing despite the obstacles that the Cuban Government puts up to prevent the bleeding of … Continue reading “‘I Left Cuba Because I Felt Alone in My Struggle,’ Says Dr. Manuel Guerra”
14ymedio, Havana, February 22, 2022–Activist Silverio Portal, leader of Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID), was released on Monday after fully serving his four-year prison sentence for contempt and public disorder. “This is the letter, releasing me from the little prison, to the big prison. Homeland, life, and liberty,” wrote Portal on his Facebook profile along … Continue reading “Cuban Opponent, Silverio Portal, is Released from Prison After Completing His Sentence”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2022 — Cuban activist Fernando Almeyda joined this weekend the list of dissidents who are leaving the island. After requesting a humanitarian visa from Spain, which was not granted, the former Archipiélago coordinator decided to go to Serbia, a country that currently does not require a visa for Cubans, although his intention does … Continue reading “Two Jurists Harassed by State Security Leave Cuba”
14ymedio, Madrid, 24 January 2022 — The playwright Yunior García Aguilera will request asylum in Spain, where he arrived in mid-November 2021, after leaving the island forced by the siege around his apartment that he was subjected to by Cuban State Security. The founder of the Archipiélago platform traveled to Madrid with a tourist visa … Continue reading “Yunior Garcia Will Request Asylum in Spain Because ‘It Would be Suicide’ to Return to Cuba Now”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 22 January 2021 — Serious threats from Cuban State Security are forcing independent journalist Yadiris Fuentes to, in a few days, move out of the home she’s lived in since June 2021. The owner of the home was warned by political police that if he did not evict her, he could … Continue reading “Cuban State Security Evicts Journalist Yadiris Fuentes from Her Home”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 13 January 2022 — The Cuban government continues “repressing and punishing practically all kinds of dissidence and public criticism” on the island, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced this Thursday in its 2022 world report. The section on Cuba in the annual study on the global state of human rights … Continue reading “Human Rights Watch: Cuba ‘Represses and Punishes Practically All Kinds of Dissidence’”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2021 — Only a few times before has it been so difficult to compile this list with the 14 most relevant faces of the year in Cuba now ending. The twelve months that have elapsed so far have been marked by an infinity of events and thousands of protagonists who have … Continue reading “2021 in Cuba, the Year of the Collective Face”
We know the agent Fernando — whose real name is Carlos Leonardo Vázquez González, a doctor by profession — as a mock nemesis of Yunior García Aguilera. The Cuban regime took this doctor out of the closet at the beginning of November to discredit the playwright and the visible face of the Archipiélago, whom he … Continue reading “Agent Fernando, a Cuban Doctor at the Service of State Security”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 December 2021 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged that his government has been late in defending certain social rights. Speaking this Friday, at the closing of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, for the umpteenth time,he again defended socialism as “the only way to development with … Continue reading “Cuban President Diaz-Canel Admits That His Government has ‘Lagged Behind’ in the Recognition of Some Rights”
Dimas Castellanos, Havana, 29 November 2021– “The U.S. government is following a script, seeking to portray Cuba as a failed state,” grumbled Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla on Wednesday, November 10, during his appearance before the accredited diplomatic corps in Cuba. Among the defining elements that characterize a failed state, those related to its economy are … Continue reading “Yes, Cuba is a Failed State / Dimas Castellanos”
14ymedio, Madrid, 13 December 2021 — The Cuban playwright Yunior García Aguilera and the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López were victims of an act of repudiation this Monday at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. With posters and shouts, a group of radical leftists tried to blow up the event, in … Continue reading “Cuban Yunior Garcia and Venezuelan Leopold Lopez Face an Act of Repudiation in Madrid”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, December 8, 2021 — On Tuesday, Cuban political prisoner Andy García Lorenzo, detained following the protests on July 11th (11J), received a visit from his lawyer at the Guamajal prison in Villa Clara, where he had been transferred last week from La Pendiente prison in that same province. The young man’s … Continue reading “Andy Garcia’s Lawyer Confirms His Transfer to Guamajal Prison in Villa Clara”
14ymedio, Havana, December 9, 2021 — Minutes before he was to give a telephone interview to Actualidad Radio on Thursday, Cuban State Security detained Guillermo Fariñas, coordinator of the United Antitotalitarian Forum. “People from State Security came dressed as nurses,” denounced the activist’s mother, Alicia Hernández, before that same media outlet. Fariñas’s detention occurred right … Continue reading “Cuban Activist Guillermo Fariñas is Detained and Taken Against His Will to a Hospital”
14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2021 — A group of Cuban activists and influencers will broadcast live and simultaneously this Friday, International Human Rights Day, the event “The families of political prisoners in Cuba speak.” The meeting, organized at the request of the family of Andy García Lorenzo, detained after the July 11 protests in Santa … Continue reading “The Families of Cuban Political Prisoners Will Speak Live on December 10”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 November 2021 — Retaliation against anyone who expresses themselves on social networks against Cuba’s current healthcare system continues. This Tuesday, a resolution signed by the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, “disqualifies from the exercise of [his] profession” Dr. Alexander Jesús Figueredo Izaguirre. “The arbitrariness and denigration continue” just because “I … Continue reading “Cuban Government Disqualifies a Doctor for His Criticisms of the Healthcare System”
