Translating Cuba

a personal brand that, for some, places her among the potential presidential candidates. There has been no shortage of speculation mentioning her as a possible successor to Miguel Díaz-Canel, especially since the economic, energy, and migration crises have accelerated the president’s decline.

But Chapman faces a series of obstacles that, in Cuba, outweigh any résumé. She doesn’t belong to any of the historical families that control the country’s essential levers of power, a network of clans that distribute ministries, military enterprises, and embassies as if they were private inheritances. Moreover, on the island, where key decisions continue to be made by a handful of descendants of Europeans—white, with well-known surnames, and, in many cases, with light eyes—her race acts as a silent brake. Being a woman is another burden in a political elite designed by and for men who grew up under the iron grip of Castroism.

Furthermore, on the Island, key decisions continue to be made by a handful of descendants of Europeans.

Despite this, Chapman has learned to move with calculated precision. Quiet at times, expansive at others, she has known how to manage her silences, measure every gesture, and take advantage of every public appearance. In televised meetings, she usually stands out for her direct tone, for her apparent ability to say things bluntly, although never quite enough to openly challenge the power structure that sustains her.

Her presence in flooded neighborhoods, after burst pipes or at half-finished treatment plants, has made her the public servant who steps up when infrastructure collapses, which is almost always. The population, however, has learned that no inspection can undo decades of neglect. Hence, in Manzanillo, under the scorching sun and before a fed-up populace, her technical and methodical demeanor was met not with respect, but with the sharp cries of those who no longer trust anyone.

Even so, 2025 confirmed that Chapman remains a valuable asset to the government: disciplined, efficient, and reliable. A woman who doesn’t improvise — a rara avis — in a government that improvises daily.

See also: Cuban Faces 2025: The 14 Faces That Marked the Pulse of Cuba in 2025

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

rapid deterioration, according to independent reports. His condition became a stark reminder of the extreme price of protesting in a system that does not fully recognize basic rights for dissidents.

His wife, Mailín Rodríguez Sánchez, has been one of the most visible voices denouncing not only the activist’s physical condition, but also the lack of transparency with which the authorities have handled his case. The family has stated that they were even denied access to his medical records and the results of tests performed during his hospitalization, which constitutes a violation of his right to health and personal security.

In the midst of the health crisis, García Caso wrote letters from his cell and from the hospital denouncing prison conditions and expressing that his protest was also a response to the injustice of the prison system and the lack of institutional channels for addressing citizens’ demands. His mobilization was not an isolated act of desperation, but a conscious decision in an environment that, for many political prisoners, offers no other avenues for being heard.

The hunger strike ended when authorities agreed to one of his main demands: transfer to solitary confinement, a disciplinary area within the prison that the activist had requested as a form of protest against the “continued imprisonment of all political prisoners.” Paradoxically, the concession came amidst a serious physical decline that left him on the brink of death.

After his release from the hospital, García Caso was returned to the Cuba Sí prison in El Yayal (Holguín), without prior notice to his family.

After his release from the hospital, García Caso was returned to the Cuba Sí prison in El Yayal (Holguín) without prior notice to his family. According to various reports, he continues to face adverse conditions, including poor nutrition, unsafe drinking water, and strict surveillance, which have negatively impacted his overall health.

His case has also resonated far beyond the island. Organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, and several diplomatic missions have expressed concern about his condition and the general situation of Cuban political prisoners, emphasizing the need to respect fundamental rights. In exile and among sectors of international civil society, his name has been the subject of awareness campaigns and calls for action.

See also: Cuban Faces 2025: The 14 Faces That Marked the Pulse of Cuba in 2025

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Also in 2025, Aymara Nieto Muñoz, a member of the Ladies in White and the target of multiple previous arrests, was forced to leave the island immediately after her release from prison. Convicted in 2018 of assault and property damage, she had spent years in various prisons, drastically complicating contact with her daughters. Her departure from prison directly to the airport, bound for the Dominican Republic and without being able to say goodbye to one of her daughters, was documented by international organizations as a case of forced exile resulting from political repression.

The exiles of Ferrer, Robles, and Nieto are part of a systematic pattern by the Cuban regime. Imprisonment is merely one stage in a broader process that culminates in the expulsion of dissidents from Cuba. International mediation has facilitated the transfer of those released to host countries and has thus helped justify the internal restrictions that prevent opposition members from remaining in the country. In this way, a significant portion of Cuban civic activism is forced off the island, becoming a diaspora by imposition rather than by choice.

See also: Cuban Faces 2025: The 14 Faces That Marked the Pulse of Cuba in 2025

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

detention,” it emphasizes. It also urges travelers to cooperate fully with any police or immigration checks. “Remain calm and follow all instructions. Be courteous and professional,” it adds.

The message has not been linked to any known prior reports or complaints of Americans being denied entry or expelled from the country, although two shipments of US humanitarian aid recently arrived in eastern Cuba, specifically in Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. The kits contained primarily food, hygiene, and water packages for victims of Hurricane Melissa, which struck the island in November.

According to the parties involved, Caritas Cuba has been in charge of receiving and distributing the aid, although international organizations such as Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Germany have participated in both operations, supporting logistics and financing.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the shipment of aid, valued at three million dollars, on Tuesday the 13th, while the Cuban government – ​​which said it accepted the donation, as it was funded by the contributing population – criticized the Trump administration for not officially announcing the shipment, which it said it learned about through the Catholic Church.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

that the handwritten texts were made by the accused, given the degree of elaboration, the leftward inclination, the form of the mixed movements, and, in particular, the ascending and descending disproportion of the lower strokes of the capital letter A, the location of the middle stroke with respect to the baseline of the writing of the capital letter A, the situation of the middle stroke of the capital letter B with respect to the baseline of the writing, the ascending rightward inclination of the semi-oval of the capital letter P, the straight upper stroke of the capital letter R, as well as the arched shape located in the final stroke of the capital letter R.”

However, although the judges state that it was verified that Almenares was at the Bar Feline event on the date the incident allegedly occurred, the owners of the establishment and the organizers, according to the same text, “do not remember him there because many people were present.” The court deemed this “irrelevant,” explaining in a convoluted manner that “during the oral proceedings, as is his right, he stated that he was on a ship at that time, which demonstrates his intention to evade justice.”

“They also got all the details wrong, his age, his parents’ names.”

Almenares’ mother is particularly bothered by this last point, although she insists that “everything in the document is a lie.” She continues, displeased: “They also got all the details wrong—his age, his parents’ names.”

Among the evidence considered by the judges was the record of the young man’s cell phone, through which “his link with the Cuban-American counterrevolutionary Armando Labrador Coro could be determined,” and the testimony of “witness Roberto Manuel Escalona, ​​who stated in the oral trial that he brought money from abroad to the accused without knowing the senders, but that the last time he gave him the sum of 200 USD, an amount that coincidentally is equal to that promised by Armando Labrador to the accused if he carried out the acts for which he is being tried.”

Similarly, the sentence links Almenares to “different counterrevolutionary groups” such as the independent media outlets Radio Martí and Diario de Cuba, as well as the Cuban Youth Dialogue Table, Cubalex and Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Another issue considered by the court is that they did not find a “recognized employment relationship” and that “he maintains an unfavorable social conduct by associating himself with criminal elements in the locality and with elements disaffected from the revolutionary process based both in Cuba and abroad,” although they exempt him from criminal records.

The court condemns him for painting on those sheets, based on the strict Constitution, “taking into account the degree of social harm of the act committed by the accused”

However, the court condemns him for painting on those sheets, based on the strict Constitution, “considering the degree of social harm of the act committed by the accused, due to the consequences it would bring to the economic and social stability of the country and the peace of the members of society, by putting up posters in public with a clear message that the inhabitants should oppose the Cuban social process and take to the streets, which would provoke protests, violence and a rupture of the natural state of tranquility and citizen security that characterizes our country.”

The actions of Almenares Riveras, they continue, “are in total opposition to what is established in Article 1 of the Supreme Law which states ‘Cuba is a socialist and social justice state, democratic, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all as a unitary and indivisible republic, founded on the work, dignity, humanism and ethics of its citizens for the enjoyment of freedom, equity, equality, solidarity, well-being and individual and collective prosperity’.”

The sentence does not specify in which prison he will serve his time, but until now the rapper was in the Cuba Panamá prison, located in Güines, Mayabeque, which houses inmates with HIV/AIDS. His mother has publicly denounced his continued confinement there, given that he does not have the disease, as well as the deplorable sanitary conditions of the prison.

At the end of July, Nando OBDC went on a hunger strike to protest being held incommunicado in prison. The musician’s activism had been under scrutiny by the authorities for some time. In November 2021, he was summoned to the Seventh Unit of the National Revolutionary Police for his social media posts.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Regarding the contracts signed, most were signed in 2024, with 44, while in 2023 there were six and only four in 2025.

The average age of these 54 mercenaries was 41.7 years. Of these, 32 fell into two age ranges: between 26 and 35 years old, and between 46 and 55.

According to the records, the average age of these 54 mercenaries was 41.7 years. Of these, 32 fell into two age ranges: between 26 and 35 years old, and between 46 and 55. There were also three fighters who were under 25 and eight who were over 56.

The Center stated that they “died with weapons in their hands 10,000 kilometers from home” and launched a harsh critique of the Cuban government and its silence regarding these deaths: “Their names are known in both Moscow and Havana. However, you will find no honors, no mourning, and no public mention of these people. No patriotic speeches are given about them, no monuments are erected in their honor, and they are not mentioned in the newspapers.”

It also condemned the disparity in treatment between the Cubans in the Russian Army and the 32 Cubans who were part of Nicolás Maduro ‘s security detail during his capture by the United States on January 3. “Cuban authorities declared a national holiday and day of mourning,” it added, after the government dedicated two days to honoring these militiamen, who were repatriated from Venezuela, with a media campaign that included televised coverage of their arrival and funeral.

According to Ukrainian intelligence reports, at least 20,000 Cubans have been recruited as mercenaries on the Russian side since the war began in February 2022, more than 1,000 of them with documented names and contracts. According to Kyiv, Havana is the second largest supplier of mercenaries to Moscow, after North Korea.

At least 20,000 Cubans have been recruited as mercenaries by the Russian side since the war began in February 2022.

In October of last year, figures provided by Ukrainian intelligence (GUR) to the Kyiv Independent publication spoke of 96 Cuban mercenaries who had died in hostilities or were missing.

According to Ukrainian military intelligence, most of them arrive in Russia attracted by construction jobs advertised on social media, which offer lucrative salaries of over $2,000. The process is carried out through private intermediaries, many of them Cubans residing in Russia.

This covert complicity of the Cuban government led Ukraine to vote against the United Nations resolution that called for the lifting of the US embargo against the island last October.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga explained his vote and criticized the Cuban authorities’ “inaction” in the face of Russia’s “massive” recruitment of mercenaries. Speaking on X, he said, “This gesture is not sudden. It has serious motives. We recall the Cuban president’s wish for Putin’s ‘success’ in his war of aggression against Ukraine. We heard him perfectly.”

In the same message, he clarified that the vote was not “against the Cuban people: we respect their right to live in prosperity. It is against the inaction of the Cuban authorities in response to the mass recruitment of Cuban citizens by the Russian occupation army.”

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

register them. That’s why they don’t appear in the National Repressive Police (PNR) system,” she denounced.

Pantoja, visibly upset, warned the authorities of the consequences if the situation continued. “I’m just telling you: release him, or you’ll have to deal with many more people detained, and the situation will become much more complicated,” she added. The message also included a reference to
the information released this Sunday regarding the approval of “plans and measures for the transition to a State of War.”

“We don’t believe in a State of War, because that’s the phase Cuba has been living in for a long time now: total repression and no constitutional guarantees,” Pantoja retorted.

Other Cuban activists and opposition members had joined their demands, including the professor and intellectual Alina Bárbara López, who began these peaceful demonstrations, which Fernández Era joined in April 2023. The academic started this activity precisely as a result of the writer’s arrest that year and decided to do it periodically, every month in Matanzas, due to the political situation in the country, which has meant, both for her and for those who have decided to support her, several arrests in the last two years.

López also faces trial for contempt, disobedience, and assault, crimes for which the prosecution is seeking a four-year prison sentence. But this hasn’t stopped her from continuing her protests, and just yesterday she was able to hold one in Matanzas. At midnight, knowing that Fernández Era was still missing, she warned: “If we don’t hear from him tomorrow, we will act accordingly, with civic responsibility and determination.”

Activist Miryorly García was able to demonstrate this Sunday, writing on social media, “about the deplorable state of the Cuban nation and the need for change that will return sovereignty to the Cuban people.” The editor has been leading a campaign for days demanding amnesty for Cuban political prisoners, a campaign that has garnered over a thousand signatures.

“Solidarity has been criminalized, but it is a matter of humanity to defend our brother or sister, daughter or son, mother or father, wife or husband, relative, neighbor or friend, fellow citizen. We must transform the shame of silence into the power of empathy, rise above fear, and let the punishment become inspiration,” he reminded everyone yesterday in a post in which he insisted on the importance of joining this demand despite the legitimate fear among the population. “Nothing changes if we continue doing the same thing. It is, despite the consequences, about changing ‘How long?’ to ‘Enough is enough.’ Because if we unite, we won’t fit in the prisons; we are more,” she urged.

Last December, Jorge Fernández Era was also arrested during his monthly protest, this time in Matanzas, but he was located by his family in the usual way and released a few hours later. On several of the many occasions the writer has been arrested, he has denounced mistreatment, including his arrest in July 2025 , when he was beaten by a lieutenant colonel from the Zanja police station in Havana.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.