English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, CUBA — This last Wednesday, I was walking quickly through Belascoain, disgusted by the odor of urine from the doorways. Every once in a while a peddler called his wares. On arriving at Zanja, crossing the street, the area was deserted. Three men in plainclothes blocked the door of building 409, where Marta Beatriz … Continue reading “Detained Half an Hour on Marta Beatriz’s Stairway / Lilianne Ruiz”
On Tuesday we learned of the beating of Marta Beatriz. They didn’t just beat her, they also dragged her up the stairs, 31 steps, beating her neck and whole body. I did not ask Marta’s age but she is an older woman, perhaps older than 60. She was the only woman in the group of … Continue reading “Marta Beatriz Roque, Injured by State Security / Lilianne Ruiz”
THE HOMELAND BELONGS TO US ALL Cuban Dissidence Task Group Havana City, June 27, 1997 INTRODUCTION I – HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION II- IN THE NAME OF UNITY III- THE MAIN OBJECTIVE IV – THE PLAN FOR SOLVING THE CRISIS V – CONCLUSIONS VI – RECOMMENDATIONS Original in Spanish here Authors: Felix Antonio Bonne Carcasses, Rene Gomez Manzano, Vladimiro Roca Antunez, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello Translated … Continue reading “THE HOMELAND BELONGS TO US ALL – Cuban Dissidence Task Group 1997 – Historic Document”
14ymedio, Havana, 6 September 2023. – – Dozens of residents in Carlos Rojas village, in the province of Matanzas, protested in the streets this Wednesday because of the lack of water supply. The local people demanded the restoration of the service and criticised the apathy of the officials, according to statements to 14ymedio by the … Continue reading “Cuba: Carlos Rojas Residents Protest in the Streets About Lack of Water Supply”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 30 July 2023 — I met Vladimiro Roca in mid-1963. At that time I was a student-soldier at the San Julián Base located in the westernmost part of Pinar del Río. Vladimiro was a MIG pilot who filled us with admiration with his stunts in the skies of Cuba. Then he … Continue reading “The Vladimiro Roca I Knew”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 July 2023 — The Cuban opponent Vladimiro Roca Antúnez has died this Sunday afternoon in Havana at the age of 80. Doyen of dissidence on the Island, the economist and Social Democratic politician had been suffering from diabetes and Alzheimer’s for some time, according to sources close to the family. Born in … Continue reading “Vladimiro Roca, Doyen of the Cuban Opposition, Dies at 80”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 May 2023 — “The situation is critical, a kind of perfect storm between government repression and famine.” The assertion is from the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), which hopes for “the intermediation of the Cuban Catholic Church” for “the release of political prisoners, the end of repression and changes that the … Continue reading “An NGO Hopes for the ‘Intermediation’ of the Church for the Release of Cuban Political Prisoners”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 17, 2023 — The letter sent on Wednesday to US President Joe Biden by three senators, calling for the end of the embargo on Cuba and more aid for the private sector of the Island, was answered the next day by the US-Cuba Commercial and Economic Council (Cubatrade), with several clarifications. … Continue reading “Three US Senators Ask Biden To End the Embargo and To Help the Cuban Private Sector”
14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2022 — Cuban opponents Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello and Julio Ferrer Tamayo met this Friday morning with US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden visiting Havana. “The topic of the conversation was the political prisoners and their relatives,” Roque wrote through her Twitter account. Wyden, who two days before held a meeting with Cuban president … Continue reading “Two Cuban Opponents Meet in Havana with US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden”
14ymedio, Havana 31 October 2022 — Lorenzo Rosales, the Cuban protestant pastor condemned to seven years in prison after joining the 21 July 2021 anti-government protests, has been awarded the Patmos prize, which is given out annually by the Cuban Institute of the same name. The annual award, now in its ninth year, is presented … Continue reading “Patmos Prize Awarded to Protestant Pastor Lorenzo Rosales, Imprisoned for Protests of 11 July 2021”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 13 June 2022 — Amelia Calzadilla, the Cuban mother who, with her videos on social media, became a symbol of discontent in Cuba, is at home after spending three hours in the offices of the municipal government of Cerro, in Havana. Around five in the afternoon, the young woman herself published a … Continue reading “Cuban Amelia Calzadilla Thanks Those Who Made Her Feel She is Not Alone”
Ivan García, Desde La Habana, May 2022 — For the act of writing this article, the regime – were they to deem it pertinent to do so – could prosecute me and slap me with up to twenty years in prison, according to the current Law 88 which was approved in February, 1999. For collecting … Continue reading “The Ordeal of Cuban Dissidents / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2021 — Lady in White, Sissi Abascal, who participated in the July 11th protests in Cuba was transferred to prison on Monday, after a failed appeal of her six-year jail sentence. Annia Zamora, the activist’s mother, suffered “severe chest pain” at the Jovellanos Tribunal in Matanzas, where the sentence was ratified, … Continue reading “Cuban Sissi Abascal’s Appeal is Denied and Her Six-Year Prison Sentence is Confirmed”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2021 — Last Thursday, the Municipal Court of Los Arabos, in Matanzas, sentenced the opposition José Hernández López to one year in prison for the events of 15N (15 November), according to information from the opponent Martha Beatriz Roque speaking to 14ymedio. The former ’Black Spring’ political prisoner explained that the … Continue reading “One Year in Prison for an Opponent from Los Arabos Who Dressed in White on 15 November”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, November 2, 2021 — The dictatorship’s most frequently recurring formula to impede or interfere with changes that do not align with their interests has been to incarcerate. They’ve raised the bar in two ways: first, by presenting as apocalyptic the results of anything they consider a “return to the past,” and … Continue reading “A Brief Chronology of Disregard and Intolerance in Cuba”
