English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2023 — In 2022, Cuba reached the highest rate of women arbitrarily detained in the last four years. The figure is documented by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) in its latest report, published this Thursday, in which they attest to more than 5,500 repressive actions by the regime as of … Continue reading “More than 60 Percent of Cubans Arbitrarily Detained in 2022 Were Women”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 January 2023 — The opposition platform D Frente [D Front] thanked the European Union on Monday for having met with the Cuban Minister of Justice, Oscar Silvera, last Wednesday, and for having addressed the sentences of the protesters on July 11, 2021. “We see this gesture of solidarity, not as a feeling of … Continue reading “Human Rights Group D Frente Highlights that the Cuban Constitution Allows Pardons and Amnesty for July 11th Prisoners”
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 December 2022 — On Monday the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power agreed to put back the debate and final approval of the controversial Social Communication Law, an action which postpones for now the idea of illegality of non-state media. The Parliament’s president Esteban Lazo explained that the Council of State requested … Continue reading “Cuban Parliament Considers Law to Prohibit Non-State Digital Media”
14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2022 — With 24 new arrests this November, the Cuban government keeps a total of 1,034 political prisoners incarcerated, according to what Prisoners Defenders (PD) denounced this Friday. In its latest monthly report, the Madrid-based organization exposed the “inhuman repression” that “dominates Cuba since 11 July 2021 (11J).” PD clarified that … Continue reading “Political Prisoners Take Advantage of ‘Passes’ to Escape Cuba as Rafters”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 20 November 2022 — The winds of uncertainty are blowing over Twitter: massive layoffs, an attempt to charge for account verification, and inflammatory statements by its new owner, Elon Musk, have fueled doubts about the future of this social network. In Cuba, questions are also growing about a tool … Continue reading “Cuban Independent Journalism in the Face of the Uncertain Future of Twitter”
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 30 October 2022 — the Cuban press is suffering “constant repression” and “control of their telecommunications”, and is living through “the greatest exodus in history”, according to a report released on Sunday during the 78th General Assembly, in Madrid, of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). The document reveals that journalists on the … Continue reading “Cuban Press Suffers ‘Constant Repression’ Says Inter American Press Association (IAPA)”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2022 — On Tuesday, the Cuban government presented a preliminary draft of the Social Communication Law and opened, according to the official Granma newspaper, a “specialized consultation process” to support “the knowledge and study of the population regarding this norm.” The 32nd version of the law was signed on April 15, but … Continue reading “Law Presented in Cuba to Require Press to Support ‘The Goals of the Socialist Society’”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2022 — Due to the “episode of repression” that activist Saily González Velázquez suffered last Thursday, she decided to leave Cuba and this Sunday she arrived in Miami in the United States. According to what she made known through her social networks, her decision was made “very hastily and I have told … Continue reading “Saily Gonzalez Arrives in the US in the Face of Growing Threats from the Cuban Police”
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, January 30, 2022 — Cuban independent journalism has had to reinvent itself several times. The police repression and draconian laws against freedom of expression maintained on the Island are not the only obstacles. Emigration is one of the biggest threats to a press that is also still being persecuted and demonized. Work teams … Continue reading “Exodus of Reporters Strikes a Blow to the Independent Press in Cuba”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 29 March 2022 — The recently announced Law of Expropriation for reasons of Public Utility or Social Interest has notorious differences with the abundant legislation on this matter. Here we no longer speak of confiscation as punishment or revenge, as in the laws enacted between 1959 and the mid-1960s. However, when … Continue reading “Lawyers and Compensation Instead of Militiamen and Confiscations in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 March 2022 — Regardless of the more than a thousand political prisoners, the surveillance of any place where a riot could take place – the latest one, the Embassy of Panama – the harassment of any discordant voice, the discrediting of activists and opponents in the official media, small corners of freedom … Continue reading “How to Overthrow the Cuban Regime from a Havana Barbershop”
14ymedio, Madrid, 3 February 2022 — The Madrid-based Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), denounced the continuing “repressive spiral in Cuba,” amid the silence of Spain, the European Union, and Latin America. In its last report, the organization documented 643 repressive actions in January, of which 136 were arbitrary detentions and 507 other types of … Continue reading “At Least 184 of the 187 Trials in Cuba in January were for the July 11th (11J) Protests”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Brussels, 9 May 2015 — Wendy Flores Acevedo, a young lawyer with the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH), spoke with 14ymedio in Brussels about the loss of legal guarantees in recent years in her country, under the government of Daniel Ortega. Escobar. What is the situation today with human rights in Nicaragua? Flores. Human … Continue reading “Human rights in Nicaragua have deteriorated considerably since 2008″ / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Miguel, married and with three children, used to work as a cook in a State enterprise. He would get up at three in the morning and undertake a trip of more than 12 kilometers and arrive early to work. He paid union dues and on two occasions was chosen ‘vanguard worker’. But his salary didn’t … Continue reading “Many Cubans Steal to Survive / Laritza Diversent”
