English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 14 February 2021– The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) tried to reassure the film industry this week, stating that the new bans on self-employment do not affect them. The artists had expressed their complaints and doubts on the social networks, but the ICAIC insisted on a “clarifying note” … Continue reading ““Independent Filmmakers Will Continue Filming Without Permits””
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 15 December 2020 — State Security continues its harassment against activists and artists who were housed at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement. One day after Carlos Manuel Álvarez was arrested when he left his family’s house in Cárdenas, Matanzas, and was interrogated for six hours, Katherine Bisquet denounced the organization … Continue reading “Cuban Police Committed to Supporting Acts of Repudiation Against Artists”
Artículo 19 and Cubalex — Article 19 strongly condemns the wave of arbitrary arrests that have been taking place since Thursday, November 12, against independent journalists, human rights activists and political opponents in Cuba. These events have been accompanied by interrogations, threats, seizures of work equipment, beatings, among other assaults. The aggressors have been agents … Continue reading “Organizations Speak Out Concerning the Wave of Repression in Cuba / Artículo 19 and Cubalex”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2020 — A total of nine people, including artists, activists and independent journalists, have been on hunger strike since Wednesday afternoon at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement (MSI) in Havana to demand the freedom of Denis Solís. The strikers are Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Esteban Rodríguez, Maykel Castillo, Humberto Mena, … Continue reading “Nine Activists of the San Isidro Movement, on Hunger Strike for the Freedom of Denis Solis”
14ymedio, Havana, 16 November 2020 — The rapper and government opponent Denis Solís, a member of the San Isidro Movement who was arrested on November 9 on the street, was sentenced to eight months in prison for the crime of “contempt”, as reported in a Facebook video by the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, coordinator of the collective. … Continue reading “Denis Solis Sentenced to Eight Months in Prison for ‘Contempt’”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 November 2020 — A police cordon around the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, in Old Havana, has blocked pedestrians since since last Monday. State Security arrests anyone who tries to reach the place, where seven activists remain confined in protest of the sentence of eight months in prison for the rebellious rapper Denis Solís. … Continue reading “Cuban State Security Continues to Harass the San Isidro Movement”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 September 2020 — The young influencer and reporter Jancel Moreno was summoned this Wednesday afternoon by the police of the city of Matanzas and was threatened with up to four years in prison if he does not stop publishing criticism against the Cuban authorities on social networks. Moreno, who is also … Continue reading “Cuban Police Threaten the Young ‘Influencer’ Jancel Moreno with Prison”
14ymedio, Havana, August 3, 2020 — The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), headquartered in Madrid, in its July report, denounced the consolidation of a new pattern of repression on the Island, keeping activists in their homes. According to the NGO, although the practice isn’t new, it has increased this year. Already in February, before … Continue reading “Cuba is Criticized for Home Detentions, Dollarization and Persecution of ‘Coleros’”
14ymedio, Havana, 31 July 2020 — Independent journalist Camila Acosta*, a reporter for Cubanet, was detained this Friday by Interior Ministry officials while she was in Havana’s Central Park. Two uniformed women asked the reporter for her identity card and also for the phone number with which she was transmitting what had happened to social networks. … Continue reading “Another Day of Arrests and Surveillance Against Activists and Independent Journalists”
14ymedio, Havana, 31 July 2020 — The Spanish press agency EFE’s representative in Havana, Lorena Canto, was challenged on Twitter by two senior officials of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Relations in response to a tweet that referenced the “persecution” suffered this Thursday by several independent journalists. “Independent journalists in Cuba complain that, once again, authorities … Continue reading “Government Officials Lash Out Against EFE’s Correspondent in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 July 2020 — From the early morning hours on Thursday, several activists and independent journalists began to denounce police operations around their homes. More than a dozen people have reported that members of the State Security are preventing them from going out, although the reason for this prohibition is, so far, unknown. Journalists … Continue reading “Police Operation in Havana Prevents Activists and Journalists from Leaving Their Homes”
14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2020 — This Monday a petition signed by more than 3,000 Cubans, 500 of them residents on the Island, was delivered to the National Assembly of People’s Power with a request to repeal Decree Law 370 “as unconstitutional.” The petition is addressed to Esteban Lazo Hernández, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and other … Continue reading “A Group of Cubans Presents a Request to Repeal Decree-Law 370”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 29 December 2019 — The Cuban independent press has experienced one of its most intense and productive years in 2019. Despite the authorities’ censorship and increased repression against journalists, private media are gaining space in a country where the Constitution gives the state a monopoly over this sector. The arrest, prosecution … Continue reading “The Private Press in Cuba Gains Spaces Despite Repression”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2019 — The year is nearly over and it is time to draw up the editorial plans for the next twelve months and also to share with 14ymedio readers the list of names that this newspaper considers keys to understanding the news of the year 2019. Here are those people or groups that … Continue reading “14yMedio’s 14 Faces of 2019”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 September 2019 — This Monday, as Guillermo del Sol’s hunger strike reached 50 days, a group of activists, opposition figures, and independent journalists have made public a letter of support in which they intend to express their “solidarity and recognition” to the activist for his “sacrifice to eradicate one of the most lamentable … Continue reading “Several Cuban Activists Arrested During "Performance" In Solidarity With Guillermo Del Sol”
