English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 10, 2023 — “The missing chicken and rice have arrived for the population. Pending coffee and detergent, blessings.” The message from a neighbor of Central Havana this Wednesday set off a crowd that ran in search of the chicken that had been lost for months. Two hours later there was … Continue reading “Chicken From the ‘Empire’ Was Delivered for the Cuban Ration Book”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 April 2023 — The online sales pages for relatives abroad to buy for their relatives in Cuba have not only proliferated like fungi after the rain but reveal the disorder in the island’s diet. Among the first five products of the “best sellers” on some sites, such as Supermarket … Continue reading “The Cuban With Dollars Also Eats Badly: Picadillo, Sausages and Mayonnaise Bought From the Outside”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 22 April 2023 — Cuba wants to extend to tourists who visit the Island the use of prepaid cards in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), a Cuban virtual currency based on foreign currencies, directors of the official Casas de Cambio (Cadeca) reported this Friday. Those cards began to be marketed in 2021 … Continue reading “Cuba Seeks To Extend Prepaid Cards in Hard Currency for Tourism”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, April 12, 2023 — None of the many people waiting in line outside a bank in Central Havana on Wednesday were there to deposit dollars, something they had been able to do since Tuesday thanks to a decree by the Central Bank of Cuba. On the contrary, they were suspicious … Continue reading “‘It Would Never Occur to Me to Put My Dollars in a Cuban Bank’”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez / Olea Gallardo, Havana, 30 March 2023 — The crisis that Cuba is experiencing is not only reflected in the official data, independent reports and the unstoppable exodus. In the streets, at every step, the poverty is evident. Ana María, a middle-aged neighbor of Central Havana, mentions an example: “A few … Continue reading “Poverty and Hunger are Spreading in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 2 March 2023 — The U.S. company Western Union announced on Thursday that it is now possible to send remittances to Cuba from any of its U.S. offices. The company, which had carried out a pilot test of transfers to the Island only from Florida, will use the payment channels of the Cuban … Continue reading “Remittances Can Now be Sent to Cuba from all Western Union Offices in the United States”
14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Sancti Spiritus 23 February 2023 — “To say I am irritated is an understatement. I’m as hot as a bonfire,” says Luis Mario Godinez, who with his father and brothers produce charcoal from marabou weed in Cabaiguán, a town in Sancti Spiritus province. The family has been waiting for more than four … Continue reading “Cuban Export Agencies Cite ‘Lack of Hard Currency’ for Not Paying Private Fruit Farmers”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 20 February 2023 — A new market in the heart of Centro Habana, a ration store with various items, a stationery store in the Miramar Trade Center, a fabric and upholstery store in El Vedado, a re-opened Italian pizzeria in the same neighborhood… these establishments have three things in … Continue reading “New Stores are Born in Cuba with a Strange Alliance Between the Private and State Sectors”
Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní | 14 February 2023 — The peace of a small town like Camajuaní, in Villa Clara, is only disturbed for three reasons: partying, surprise supplies in hard currency stores and the queues at the paperwork offices. The most extensive is the one that is organized every morning in front of the Directorate … Continue reading “‘The Grandchildren Law is Going to Drive Us Crazy’ Complain the Employees of the Civil Registry in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 February 2023 — The Cuban Police arrested 126 people last year and deactivated 12 networks linked to the scam in the sale of foreign currency. According to a report published in official site Cubadebate, the Ministry of the Interior detected another 17 criminal plans and charged 67 suspected criminals, currently in pretrial detention, on whom, … Continue reading “Thieves in the Sale of Dollars in Cuba Make a Lot of Money”
14ymedio, Havana, 31 January 2023 — As of March 1, the U.S. Embassy in Havana will charge all its consular services in US dollars. The diplomatic headquarters has issued a statement on Tuesday in which it announces that it will “no longer accept Cuban pesos” in payment for visas, notarial services or parole. “The U.S. … Continue reading “Cubans Must Pay in Dollars for U.S. Consular Services in Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 3 February 2023 — The walls of the workshop are eaten away by humidity. A tube giving off a cold light illuminates the work table, but it is not enough. Three men, hunched over soles and laces, try not to interrupt their work while the official press questions them. They are cobblers from … Continue reading “Faced With the Rise in Shoe Prices, Cubans ‘Resolve’ With the Cobblers”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 February 2023 — “Before, here people could use lard to cook, but there is almost no one who raises animals and to make matters worse, since last year they have not sold oil through the bodega [ration store],” complains Liubis Torriente, 32, a resident of the municipality of Alquízar, … Continue reading “Alquizar, Cuba, Feels Abandoned Since the End of the Year, With No Coffee, Sugar or Oil at the Ration Store”
14ymedio, Havana, 29 January 2023 — Marta Vázquez Molina, mother of two women who shipwrecked on Tuesday in a precarious boat in the surroundings of Cayo Cruz del Padre, in Matanzas, denounces that the Cuban Border Guards did not continue the search for the disappeared, alleging that they did not have the equipment to work at night. … Continue reading “The Tragedy of a Cuban Mother: One Daughter Disappeared in a Shipwreck, the Other in Prison for July 2021 (11J) Protests”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 January 2023 — The financial company Western Union decided to expand its service for sending remittances to Cuba to 343 offices in Florida through the pilot program that it has been implementing since the beginning of this month and which had started in a few branches. Among the establishments that were incorporated into sending … Continue reading “Western Union Expands its Offices to Send Remittances from Florida to Cuba to More Than 340 Sites”
