Translating Cuba

OCAC believes the island is in Scenario B, which could put the figure at 8,700 deaths with the more moderate lethality. Nevertheless, the report notes that even if Cuba were in better condition than presumed (Scenario A), there would still have been 2,900 deaths, which is 61 times higher than the 47 recognized by the Ministry of Public Health at that time.

However, one of the report’s inaccuracies is that it does not separate the two diseases that are, in principle, causing the mortality. The estimate that 30% of the population has been infected was offered by the director of Epidemiology, Francisco Durán, who at the time referred to “nonspecific febrile syndromes” and also did not differentiate the type of virus. In that television appearance, the doctor assured that there was no “new” disease circulating on the island, and that these cases were dengue and chikungunya.

Currently, according to official data, there are 37 deaths from complications of the latter and 18 from dengue, a much more lethal disease to which the same calculations cannot be applied. Since Durán did not provide the percentage of those infected by each disease, it is impossible to make a precise calculation.

Among the criticisms appearing in the report is this one: the lack of transparency. The report attributes to this the long delay in informing the population about the seriousness of an issue that social media and the independent press had been warning about since the summer. Patients multiplied in a perfect breeding ground: power outages that prevented protection against mosquitoes, breeding sites due to water accumulation, lack of garbage collection and the absence of an anti-vector campaign due to limitations in supplies and human resources.

The report emphasizes that the current health crisis is a direct consequence of poor “political decisions sustained over years that have systematically weakened the State’s capacity to protect the life and health of its population.” Among these, it cites underinvestment in health care (approximately 2% of State expenditures) compared to the enormous percentage of State money going to tourism (around 36%), which is managed by the military conglomerate GAESA.

Among the poor decisions, it cites underinvestment in health care (approximately 2%) compared to the enormous percentage of State money going to tourism (around 36%)

This situation has reduced medical staff to a minimum: between 2021 and 2024, the system lost a staggering 30,767 professionals. In addition, since 2019 there have been 7,144 fewer hospital beds. The report also includes data from BioCubaFarma’s report on medication shortages up to January 2025, which noted the absence of 255 of the 395 drugs the company supplies to the national system. Furthermore, authorities stated last week that the basic formulary is made up of 651 medications, of which 62% are produced domestically and the remaining 38% are imported. Of the latter, at least 60% are not available.

“For the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Auditing, the collapse of the health system constitutes a form of structural violence exercised from power. Keeping millions of people in conditions of malnutrition, health defenselessness and permanent exposure to epidemiological risks is not an accident, but the consequence of a model of governance that has ceased to prioritize basic human well-being,” the document states, adding that profound structural changes and an independent assessment of the situation are needed.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“There are many things that could be solved but which have not been solved this year, and which in the long run will lead to totally insufficient levels of production”

“For farmers, production costs have skyrocketed enormously, which we then suddenly try to regulate by imposing price caps, and the only consequence is that they stop producing, because they cannot sell at a price lower than what it costs to produce,” said Cordobés, who also railed against the delays caused by bureaucratization.

“There is the whole problem of non-payments; there is the whole problem of delays in the procedures that farmers have to go through. In other words, there are many things that could be solved but which have not been solved this year and which in the long run lead to production levels that are totally insufficient,” he lamented.

Cordobés, however, also made some remarks that surprised viewers. “Today the country has an industrial infrastructure that, with a different dynamic in agriculture, improved financial flows for the country and the ability to import the raw materials needed, would allow industry to meet the demands of the population. I think that’s very important,” he said. In other words: if things worked properly in the country, there would be no problem. To put it bluntly.

The officials, satisfied that the industry “does not need investments but does not exploit them efficiently,” regretted that at present there is no foreign currency to import everything that would be needed, and they congratulated themselves because the “links” – the private enterprises – have contributed a lot and in a satisfactory way. “We should be closing at around 70,000 tons of product with those actors. Without them, we would not have incorporated that amount into our system. So somehow the industry has been able to take advantage of that scenario.”

“Well, I do organic farming. It’s less efficient, more expensive, but I sell the product at a higher price. So the person who has money eats healthy food and the others continue to be poisoned. I mean, that doesn’t fit in our system.”

Roberto Caballero has also analyzed Cuba’s conditions, with a tradition of small farms in most areas of agriculture – excepting sugar cane – for reasons which he attributed mainly to the climate and the saline soils. “There are those out there who have said that we cannot be self-sufficient in food, that Cuba doesn’t have the right conditions,” he noted, and he also admitted that in a globalized world, full sovereignty is not indispensable either, but that it is important to accept the circumstances of each country.

“The other day we were talking to some Koreans and they said that they practically don’t produce food. As they have many minerals and export a lot of technology, what they do with the money they earn is to buy food. Ah, okay, that’s a solution. But we don’t even consider that; it wouldn’t be valid for us, because they don’t have a blockade* and we do,” he emphasized.

The officials also spoke at length about sustainable agriculture and said that Cuba must strike a balance with this model because, while it is important, it may in some sense contradict the State’s principles of social justice. “For there this problem of the environment is very easily solved. Well, I do organic farming. It’s less efficient, more expensive, but I sell the product at a higher price. So the person who has money eats healthy food, while others continue to be poisoned. That doesn’t fit into our system,” they said. However, they do not deny that, in the long run, an improvement can be achieved.

The final segment was entirely devoted to theorizing about how to produce more, but, again, it all came down to the usual pie-in-the-sky story and how with foreign currency, exporting and generating income, things would get better. “It’s a big task we have for the year 2026, and things can be done in this scenario. Even with these complexities, things can be done,” they promised. One more year.

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Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Regardless of the fact that China and India are by far the main producers of pharmaceutical raw materials, the official blamed the “US blockade” for difficulties in importing active and inactive ingredients and for the “technological obsolescence in some plants, interruptions in the energy supply and limitations on performing proper industrial maintenance.”

Poor domestic production has a major impact, given that the country’s basic list includes 651 medications, of which 62% – 403 products – correspond to medications that are supposed to be produced by the national pharmaceutical industry. The remaining 38% are imported, and at least 60% of these are unavailable.

The breaking point, said Lara Bastanzuri, was the rupture in 2019 with Brazil, which was ruled at that time by Jair Bolsonaro, resulting in the loss of an “important source of supplies, inputs and revenues for the sector.”

There is “an almost total shortage in pharmacies. It’s real, the drugs are not there”

This has led to “an almost total shortage of supplies in pharmacies. It is real, the drugs are not there,” acknowledged the official. She added that it is not even possible to guarantee the continuation of card-controlled medications, which are intended for patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and epilepsy. They constitute the highest priority within the outpatient care system.”

“Practically, the funding that goes to the industry is allocated to saving lives with drugs and serums,” she said, which sometimes leaves community pharmacies by the wayside, with several days of delay in receiving supplies.

The wait can be long, up to 60 days, when the original design of the supply system operated on a replenishment “every 12 to 15 days.” This delay has increased pressure on the organized sales system “and has inevitably intensified public dissatisfaction.”

Irregular distribution has also affected prescribing practices, “because people are practical and will take whatever medications are available.” Family doctors and specialists are “often forced to adapt their treatments to the momentary availability of drugs.”

Doctors are “often forced to adapt their treatments to the availability of drugs”

Without medicine and with a collapsed health system, Cuba is currently facing an “epidemic phase” due to viruses that plague the island, which have so far left 55 people dead.

However, despite the lack of supplies and electricity to operate certain medical equipment, the government announced with great fanfare that as of Monday it has been attending patients suffering from the sequelae of viral fever. According to Cubadebate, specialized consultations, “unprecedented in Cuba,” offer patients access to diagnostic tests such as CT scans and ultrasound.

“For those with severe pain, specialized anesthetic treatments will be available. In addition, personalized physiotherapy programs will be designed to promote rehabilitation and rapid reintegration into daily and work activities,” said the media. The consultations are being held at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.