English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Ariel Hildalgo, Miami, 6 November 2019 — On Cuban tables the plates are almost empty, at the bus stops there are swells of people on the hunt for crowded transports, many homes on the verge of collapse are overcrowded with three and even four generations, and the blackouts and so-called “energy savings” increase the exhaustion … Continue reading “Protest Time”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 27 September 2019 — ‘The spinning top’ happens once a day, crammed with sick people or those who believe they are. “It is a bus that travels among polyclinics looking for feverish cases, patients with dengue symptoms, and they take them all to a hospital. It can be the Fajardo or … Continue reading “The Other Face of the ‘Energy Measures’ in Cuba”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 23 September 2019 — As of the beginning of next year, Cuba will have spent more time under the rules of the Special Period in Times of Peace than it did trying to comply with the fundamental laws of the so-called Real Socialism. To date, there has been no reversal of … Continue reading “Normality”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 12 September 2019 — As announced by the official press in the morning hours of September 11th, a special appearance of the Cuban President (not elected), Miguel Díaz-Canel, took place in the usual space of State televison’s Roundtable program, in order to report on the “current energy situation” that the country … Continue reading “Special Period or “Situation”?”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2019 — The second appearance of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and several of his ministers on the Roundtable TV show was an exercise in contortionism of the powers-that-be committed to explaining to Cubans that everything is under control and nothing will be affected but all sectors must adjust downwards. Of course, because the … Continue reading “Parade of Ministers on Cuba’s Roundtable TV Show Call for Tranquility”
14ymedio, Havana, September 11, 2019 — President Miguel Díaz-Canel spoke this Wednesday about the problems with the arrival of fuel to Cuba that are affecting the day to day life of the Island, although he ruled out that it is a second Special Period, similar to the crisis of the 90s that left a traumatic memory … Continue reading “Diaz-Canel Defines the Current Energy Crisis as a "Temporary Situation"”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, July 18, 2019 — Alexander Barroso had traveled around to several service centers in Havana this Wednesday and the most-repeated response was “there is no gasoline.” “Monday was the last time that I was able to fill the tank at L and 17th and it was sucking up the last bit that … Continue reading “Gasoline is "Lost" in Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 July 2019 — After days of complaints on social networks and long lines at gas stations, this Friday Tomás Pérez Álvarez, the marketing director of the state oil company, Cupet, said in Havana on the television news that one of the causes of the deficit of gasoline is the “large number of vehicles circulating” … Continue reading “Cuban Government Blames Gas Shortage on Increase in Vehicles”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2019 — In tune with the energy crisis currently facing the island, a Spanish-Cuban seminar organized in Madrid by the Elcano Royal Institute has analyzed the role of renewable energies in the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement signed in 2016. Cuba’s weakness with regards to energy in the last sixty years … Continue reading “Lack of Funding and Legal Security Delay Renewable Energy in Cuba”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 13 July 2019 — From that year I remember the wait, it was a feeling that filled everything like the unstoppable ticking of a story that was about to end. More than hunger, the heat of summer and the blackouts, the most difficult thing to endure was that prolonged parenthesis that … Continue reading “The Day Innocence Drowned”
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 6 May 2019 / Translation from Latin American Herald Tribune — Leopoldo López says that some generals came to his home to express some kind of solidarity. It must be true. For now, Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, the former head of the SEBIN (Bolivarian Intelligence Service), is hiding. López fled his … Continue reading “Loyalty in Venezuela in Times of Crisis”
14ymedio, Beatriz Sogbe, Caracas, April 7, 2019 — A few years ago I did not understand how Cubans could survive on ten dollars a month. I could not see how anyone could survive on that amount. But now I understand. The observations here are not intended for Venezuelans, nor Cubans for that matter. They are … Continue reading “Beatriz Sogbe: I Am Living in Hell”
Iván García, 5 March 2019 — Twenty-five years ago, Luis David Fuentes pedaled 17 kilometers a day on a rough Chinese bicycle through the dark and dilapidated Havana streets towards the CUJAE, today José Antonio Echevarría Technological University, located in Marianao, a municipality in the south of Havana, where he studied mechanical engineering. Those were the … Continue reading “From Engineer in Havana to Magazine Director in Kentucky / Ivan Garcia”
Ivan Garcia, 1 March 2019 — Within twelve months, salaries will continue to be a joke in poor taste in Cuba. The predatory inflation caused by the dual currency will be maintained. The shortage of food in state markets will increase. Public transport will get worse. The streets will need to be paved. The water leaks will continue. Thousands of multifamily buildings, … Continue reading “Almost Two and a Half Million Cubans Didn’t Vote Yes / Ivan Garcia”
Ivan Garcia, 7 February 2019 — John Bolton, Donald Trump’s National Security advisor, is asking autocrat Nicolas Maduro to renounce power in Miraflores and to enjoy a political retirement on a Caribbean beach. Otherwise, he forecasts a terrorist prison cell for him at the United States’ Guantanamo Naval Base, more than 1000 kilometers east of … Continue reading ““If Maduro Falls, in Cuba We’ll Return to the Special Period” / Ivan Garcia”
