English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Madrid, 2 May 2022 — His name is Elías Rizo León and he is 16 years old. The boy who became the symbol of the July 11 protests in Cuba by climbing with a flag onto an overturned police car on the corner of Toyo, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, has made … Continue reading “Young Man With the Cuban Flag on Top of the Police Car on July 11th (11J) Shows up in Madrid”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 30 March 2022 — Cuba’s Council of Ministers has said that “not without tensions, the Cuban economy is reactivated.” And to this the state newspaper Granma dedicates an extensive report, which includes no data to to justify this assertion. We are at the end of March, and we are still waiting for … Continue reading “Cuba’s Council of Ministers Turns its Back on the Country’s Economic Reality”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 30 March 2022 — The opposition group Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) presented a proposal this Tuesday for an amnesty law that would favor both those detained for the July 11 (11J) protests and Cuban public officials and officials. The organization disseminated its proposal with the hope that … Continue reading “A CTDC Proposal for Reconciliation in Cuba: Amnesty for Political Prisoners and Authorities”
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, Havana, 14 February 2022 — What the State newspaper Granma reports “is a great falsehood, and I don’t care if State Security comes for me and if the police come to my house, that’s a lie.” This is how Yudinela Castro, mother of young Rowland Jesús Castillo, one of the July 11 protesters tried … Continue reading “‘A Grieving Mother is Capable of Doing Anything for her Imprisoned Children’”
14ymedio, Anonymous, Havana, 6 January 2022 — The 11J [July 11 nationwide protest] was so spontaneous, popular and genuine that it is funny, or a shame, to see how officialdom tries to sell the idea of a small group paid by federal agencies in the United States. That day I was very close to the … Continue reading “‘In Seconds, the Bus Became the Freest Place in Cuba’”
14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2022 — Cubans have said goodbye to one of the most difficult years in their memory, to enter, this Saturday ,into a period full of many uncertainties. Hundreds of political prisoners, the economy bottoming out, a massive exodus in process, and a pandemic that has not yet ended complete a gloomy … Continue reading “2022, The Year That Forecasts Will be Useless in Cuba”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar / Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 December 2021 — Reserve Brigadier General Humberto Omar Francis Pardo died this Monday in Havana, as 14ymedio confirmed on Tuesday. His body, which will be cremated, is at the Calzada y K funeral home, located at Calzada number 52, in El Vedado. A source close to the … Continue reading “Cuban Brigadier General Humberto Francis Pardo, in Charge of Fidel Castro’s Security, Dies”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 14 December 2021 — The only gleaming corner in the home of Jonathan Torres’s family, one of the young people arrested after the protests on July 11th (11J), is the corner with the crib for the baby, who is almost two months old. The clean sheets, the mosquito net, the wet … Continue reading “‘If More Mothers Unite, We Will Achieve Our Children’s Release’”
14ymedio, Havana, November 12, 2021–During a televised broadcast on Friday, announced only hours before, Miguel Díaz-Canel broached topics such as tourism and the pandemic, although the Civic March for Change scheduled for November 15th was the topic which generated the most interest during his long address in which he repeated on various occasions, the phrase … Continue reading “‘We’re Prepared to Confront Any Action’ Warns Cuban President Diaz Canel Ahead of 15N (15 November)”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 2021 — “We do not want to see the police beat their own people again,” 15 Cuban Catholic priests say in a letter released this Wednesday, with less than a week remaining before for the Peaceful March for Change. “We do not want blood to be shed again,” or “to hear gunshots again,” insist the priests, “that is … Continue reading “‘We do not want to see the police beat their own people again,’ Say Cuban Priests”
14ymedio, Havana, November 9, 2021 — Facing harassment by State Security and the local government, Archipiélago in Santa Clara announced this Tuesday “replacing the initial proposal” of a march on November 15th (15N). The new strategy proposed taking to the streets in “a decentralized manner from any point in the city.” The convening will still take place … Continue reading “In Santa Clara, Cuba, Archipielago Proposes Taking to the Streets in a Decentralized Manner on 15 November”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2021 — The image of a young man violently taken into custody by a plainclothes policeman a few meters from the Capitol in Havana has become one of the iconic photos of the repression against protesters on July 11. Now, the protagonist of the snapshot taken by a 14ymedio reporter faces a sanction of ten months … Continue reading “Ten Months Forced Labor for Young Cuban Marching on the Street on July 11th”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, July 25, 2021 — With the slogan “The hour of freedom has arrived. If Cuba is in the street, we are too”, the March for Cuba was held this Sunday from the Plaza de Cibeles to the Plaza de Callao Madrid. Among the participants were the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Gauidó and the president … Continue reading “They March in Madrid for Freedom in Cuba and Spain’s People’s Party Joins the Demand”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 July 2021 — For many years, Fidel Castro’s speeches at the events of July 26, the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, became a source of speculation for the “fidelologists.” Everyone wanted to predict what would be the presumed tiller of the Commander-in-Chief, both in international politics and in … Continue reading “What is Cuba Going to Celebrate This 26th of July?”
