Translating Cuba – Page 41 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

One More Year, the Cuban Regime Marks Human Rights Day With a Police Deployment

Patrols and State Security agents surround opposition members in their homes

Police patrol in front of the home of Boris González Arenas, in Havana, this Wednesday. / Facebook

14ymedio Havana, December 10, 2025 –- As every year, Cuba spent this Wednesday’s International Human Rights Day with police operations, internet cuts, and house arrests imposed on activists and independent journalists. The regime once again deployed its ability to silence any civic gesture.

The 14ymedio newsroom in Havana woke up without web browsing service and with a police operation at the entrance of the building where it is located in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood. The repression has also extended to other journalists, such as Boris González Arenas, held in his home under the watch of State Security. “This Government only has energy to repress the people it is starving to death,” denounced Juliette Fernández Estrada on Facebook.

Activist Yamilka Lafita, known as Lara Crofs, reported that a man who introduced himself as “chief of the combatants, Eduardo,” accompanied by two police officers, arrived at her home to warn her that she could not go out. “They say it’s ‘for the reason I know,’” she wrote on her social media. “My door may be watched, but they won’t silence my voice,” she said, dedicating the day to the Cuban people, the political prisoners, and their families.

Cuba spent International Human Rights Day with police operations, internet cuts, and house arrests against activists and independent journalists

Wilber Aguilar, father of political prisoner Walnier Aguilar, also denounced a police cordon in front of his home. “Patrol car 241 is parked here. I can’t leave; I can’t move from my house,” he reported. “Everyone in my house came down with the virus, practically dying, and not a single doctor showed up, but today the State Security agents do come.” Bitterly, the father of the continue reading

young man imprisoned for participating in the Island-wide 2021 July 11 protests summed it up: “We live in a country where human rights don’t exist, nor humans with rights.”

In the Havana municipality of Lawton, the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, warned of heavy surveillance against her and her husband, Ángel Moya Acosta, as well as against the headquarters of the movement. She explained that neighbors have reported several patrols surrounding the area. The operation is located at the corner of Martínez and D streets. “State Security repressors started early with their repressive deployment,” she
denounced.

The human rights crisis on the Island, recall the members of the Cuba X Cuba project, is not limited to political prisoners or those facing arbitrary proceedings. “It also affects millions of people condemned to live in degrading conditions,” they stated. “Twenty-hour blackouts, lack of medicines, food shortages, collapsed basic services, growing insecurity, and a health crisis form a landscape where surviving is an act of resistance.” On this Human Rights Day, the organization renewed its commitment “to dignity and freedom, to those still imprisoned, to those waiting for a nonexistent medicine or surviving in darkness, or watching their neighborhood, their school, their hospital, and their future deteriorate.”

Cubans abroad called marches and protests around the world to make visible the precarious human rights situation on the Island

Cubans abroad used the date to call marches and protests around the world with the aim of making visible the precarious human rights situation on the Island. Opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer García called for a global day for human rights and freedom in Cuba.

Various actions were organized in at least 13 cities, including protests, walks, gatherings, and symbolic acts, in countries such as Spain, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Chile, France, and the United States.

In Berlin, a group of members of Cuban civil society was received by German government authorities “for the first time in history,” explained activist Tania Tasé on her profile Las Taniadas. “We will do the best we can, for all Cubans,” she said moments before the meeting.

In Barcelona, a group of emigrants gathered in the streets to denounce the Cuban dictatorship. Videos posted on the page of the Coalition of Women for a Free Cuba show participants speaking on issues such as the severe health and food crisis in the country, political prisoners, and the total lack of rights faced by Cubans.

In Madrid, the protest of exiles took place in front of the Cuban embassy and was broadcast by the Council for the Transition in Cuba and the magazine Alas Tensas.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Night-Time Protests Against Power Cuts Lasting More Than 12 Hours in Cuba

In Marianao, rubbish is set alight to block a street; demonstrations in San Miguel del Padrón, Diez de Octubre, Alamar and Regla, as well as Las Tunas and Baracoa, in the east of the country.

The regime claims that peope are just expressing concern about the supply problem and that this is not a protest against the government. / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 9 December 2025 — On Monday, the streets of Marianao, in Havana, were crowded with people angry about more than 12 hours of power cuts. A dozen videos have shown unhappy and tired people yesterday facing yet another night of “insufficient generation capacity”, as journalist Bernardo Espinosa described the 61% shortfall in national electricity production for the night (more than 2,000 megawatts for a demand of 3,300 MW).

Omar Ramírez Mendoza, an engineer at Unión Eléctrica, explained on Noticiero Estelar that three of the four largest units in the national electricity system (SEN) were “out of base generation” and a total of ten, which were damaged or under maintenance, were also out of service. Added to this is the unavailability of some 1,000 MW in distributed generation. This situation has been developing on the island for months, but it is affecting the capital, which is especially prone to outages, more than ever before.

The worst situation was in Zamora, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Marianao, where not only were they hitting pots and pans, but lighting bonfires in the middle of the street, rubbish bins were being knocked over and people were shouting that they were fed up. The police quickly arrived at the scene of the protests, and although there were no clashes or arrests at first, many assumed that arrests would follow later. continue reading

The worst situation was in Zamora, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Marianao, where not only were they banging on pots and pans, but lighting bonfires in the middle of the street.

“As normal, the same vicious circle: now they catch three or four ringleaders, [because] the neighbourhoods are full of security forces, and the blackout gives money to the regime, which saves thousands of dollars with the power cuts, and also to the gossipers on social media, shameless people who are profiting from the misfortunes of the poor Cuban people,” wrote one user on social media.

Some videos show how, in the course of the protests, the power eventually comes back on in the area. “It worked,” writes one user who shared images of the moment. “It didn’t work. They know how to keep the slaves happy. Give them a couple of hours of power,” replied another.

The protests spread to other municipalities, including San Miguel del Padrón, Diez de Octubre, Alamar and Regla, where people were also shouting about how nobody cares because not only
was there no electricity, but also no water or sanitation.

People are getting more upset at a time when, not far away, the El Vedado Film Festival is on, where they are trying to keep things normal. Havana residents are unhappy at seeing the lights on in the event’s cinemas while their homes are in a permanent blackout. “In El Vedado there are lights, music, screens. In my house, I can’t even charge my phone,” one resident told this newspaper over the weekend. In reality, it is just an illusion. More than one screening has been cut short by a sudden blackout.

With things as bad as they were in the capital, the east of the country was in an even worse situation. From Bayamo, a social media user claimed that there had been no electricity for more than 20 hours, encouraging theft and the spread of viruses, with mosquitoes everywhere in the darkness. “It should be the whole country, this out and out abuse of the people is too much,” she cried.

The protests also reached Baracoa, in Guantánamo, where it was a pro-government account that gave the most coverage to the event, claiming it was a spontaneous gathering “to express concerns related to water supply and electricity service, both affected by known and objective causes”.

The account claims that the authorities engaged in dialogue with the population, who did not utter “any offensive slogans” and that, afterwards, the residents withdrew “peacefully”.

The information, put out by the Primera Trinchera account, argues that this is not a protest against the government, as “some media outlets and profiles linked to anti-Cuban propaganda have spread” in order to “sow mistrust, foment disorder and create an image of chaos that does not correspond to reality”. The account maintains that the authorities engaged in dialogue with the population, who did not shout “any offensive slogans” and that, afterwards, the residents withdrew “peacefully”. “The people of Baracoa, known for their civic-mindedness and attachment to the Revolution, are not swayed by these smear campaigns or by those who thrive on discrediting others and spreading lies,” they wrote.

In Las Tunas, residents of the El Marañón neighbourhood in Yarigua took to the streets on Saturday, banging pots and pans and shouting, “Electricity schedule! Respect the people!” Those affected, who walked along the Carretera Central, partially blocking the road, said that in the last week they had been getting an average of 25 minutes of electricity per day.

The promises made by the Minister of Energy and Mines for a year in which no great improvement is expected, and Qatar’s recent announcement that it will contribute four and a half million dollars through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help the situation, come too late for an exhausted population. If they arrive at all.

Translated by GH

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Why Did the Cuban Regime Need To Bury Economy Minister Alejandro Gil?

A public trial would have been a cluster bomb against the elite itself.

Miguel Díaz-Canel and Alejandro Gil, then Minister of Economy, in a 2019 photo. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Jorge Luis León, Miami, December 9, 2025 – I don’t write from the comfort of an absolute truth, but from the moral obligation to think aloud. The case of Alejandro Gil is not a simple legal matter; it is a broken mirror reflecting the deepest fissures of Cuban power. What is officially presented to us as “justice” seems, in reality, to be a carefully measured combination of real punishment and political theater.

From the outset, the process was shrouded in secrecy unbecoming even by Cuban standards. There was no transparency, no verifiable accounts, no real access to technical details. Only a closed narrative: serious corruption and, as a dramatic finale, espionage for the CIA. That last accusation, rather than convincing, arouses suspicion. Too convenient, too functional, too comfortable.

I don’t deny the possibility of corruption. It would be naive to do so. In a system where political power manages resources without independent audits, without a free press, and without real checks and balances, corruption is not the exception: it is the structural norm. However, what I find impossible to believe is that Alejandro Gil was a moral anomaly within a healthy system. No. If there was corruption—and it is likely there was—it wasn’t an isolated incident, but an integral part of a mechanism that has functioned this way for decades.

Then why him? Why life imprisonment ? Why the charge of espionage?

The most coherent answer is not legal, it is political.

Alejandro Gil proved to be the perfect candidate for sacrifice. A recognizable face. A visible name. A technician with a public profile.

The country is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the 1990s. The Economic Reorganization Plan—one of the government’s main initiatives to restructure the economy—has failed spectacularly. Runaway inflation, decimated wages, destruction of purchasing power, and chronic continue reading

shortages. This plan wasn’t the brainchild of a single individual: it was approved by the top brass, backed by the Party, and celebrated by the propaganda machine. And yet, someone had to take the blame for the disaster.

Alejandro Gil proved to be perfect for the sacrifice. A recognizable face. A visible name. A techie with public exposure. Making him the “culprit” for the debacle allowed them to salvage the central narrative: the problem isn’t the system, it is a man who betrayed, who stole, who conspired.

Here the second level of the case emerges: internal fear. When a high-ranking official falls from grace, it is not just about what they stole or did, but about what they know. Gil wasn’t a minor bureaucrat; he was at the heart of economic decisions, he knew the real circuits of power, the informal networks, the double standards, the privileges that are never written into law. A public trial, with real airtime, would have been a cluster bomb against the elite itself.

That is why the secrecy. That is why the summary nature. That is why the extreme severity.

The label “spy” serves a precise function: to shut down all discussion. Espionage is not debated, not nuanced, not relativized. It is treason. Period. With that word, the process was shielded, the doors were closed, and the maximum punishment was justified.

There is one detail I can’t ignore: the president’s own political ineptitude. In the midst of this turmoil, we saw him publicly congratulate Gil on his work. A gesture that, far from strengthening the image of power, brutally weakened it. Because it revealed something essential: the real strings of power don’t pass through his hands. The president was, in this episode, a secondary player, either ill-informed or deliberately excluded. This reveals not only a lack of coordination, but also the existence of a hard core that makes decisions without consulting, that executes without explaining.

We are not dealing with justice, we are dealing with an administration of fear.

The message is twofold: to the public, “we punish corruption”; to the rank and file, “no one is safe, no one is indispensable.” Life imprisonment is not just a punishment, it is a symbol. It is not about reforming the system, it is about preserving the power structure.

It wasn’t just Alejandro Gil’s actions that were judged; his downfall was used to redefine blame, clean up the facade, and protect the regime’s intact structure. They didn’t want justice: they needed a political scapegoat.

And that, in my opinion, is the key to this whole episode. They weren’t trying to fix the system. They were trying to save it.

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Cubans With I-220A Visas Are Among the 75,000 Migrants With No Criminal Record Detained This Year

Data published by NBC News refutes the official version that only “murderers, rapists and gang members” are deported.

ICE detains migrants with no criminal record. / @CBP

14ymedio, Havana, December 8, 2025 / More than 75,000 migrants with no criminal record, including several Cubans, have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first nine months of the Trump administration. The figure, published Sunday by NBC News, refutes the official claim that the government is detaining and deporting “murderers, rapists, and gang members.”

Among the Cubans without criminal records is Cuban nurse Iván García Pérez, who has an I-220A form (Order of Release on Recognizance). ICE detained him on November 7th due to his immigration status and transferred him to the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center, where he has been pressured to accept self-deportation. His case remains unresolved.

Another case is that of Giovanys Vidiaux Revé. His wife, Marielys Gómez, reported his arrest on November 4th after his scheduled appointment in Houston, Texas. ICE detained him despite his having “complied with all his immigration and legal obligations” and “having no record, not even a traffic ticket,” she emphasized.

Last November in Miami, immigration attorney Willy Allen warned in an interview with América TeVé that Cubans with I-220A status face a growing risk of detention and deportation. “Deportations are being reported under this category. There is enormous danger. Eventually, the I-220A status could be recognized as parole, but there could be victims along the way,” he stated.

Migrants detained by the US Border Patrol. / @CBP

Analyst Ariel Ruiz Soto, from the Migration Policy Institute, said that Trump’s immigration policy exhibits a scenario of greater vulnerability for those living under immigration supervision, alternatives to detention, or pending legal proceedings. continue reading

The figures published by NBC News are the result of the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and do not include operations carried out by the Border Patrol, which, from cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and New Orleans, has intensified its efforts to locate and detain migrants within the country.

“The Border Patrol is a black box about which we know nothing,” warned Ruiz Soto. “We don’t know how many arrests they make, how many end in deportations, or under what conditions.” The specialist noted that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE operate under the Department of Homeland Security but with different missions: “The lack of transparency in CBP reports leaves a critical gap.”

In mid-May, then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller threatened to fire top ICE officials if they didn’t reach a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day. However, the actual figures, according to NBC News , reflect an average of 824 arrests per day—a considerable number, but still far from the target. Even so, it represents more than double the average during Joe Biden’s administration in 2014, when 312 arrests were recorded daily.

Ninety percent of those arrested were men, mostly of Mexican origin (85,000), followed by Guatemalans (31,000) and Hondurans (24,000). More than 60 percent were between 25 and 45 years old, a key generation for the workforce.

George Carrillo, executive director of the Hispanic Construction Council, warned that these arrests are already directly impacting industries that rely on migrant workers. “Even the most conservative Republicans are noticing. This is affecting their businesses,” he said.

Although the data does not specify how many of those arrested were deported, it does indicate that 22,959 cases are listed as “voluntary departures.” In addition, ICE currently holds 65,000 people in detention centers across the country.

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Maria Corina Machado’s Press Conference at the Nobel Institute in Oslo Has Been Cancelled

Diosdado Cabello lashed out against the award and called it an “auction” given “to the highest bidder”

File photo of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. / EFE/ Ronald Peña R

EFE (via 14ymedio), Oslo / Caracas / December 9, 2025 – The press conference Venezuelan opposition leader María Corona Machado was scheduled to give this Tuesday at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, the day before receiving the Peace Prize, has been canceled and it is not possible at this time to predict how and when the former deputy will arrive in the Norwegian capital, the organization said.

The press conference “will not take place today,” said Erik Aasheim, spokesman for the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

“María Corina Machado herself has stated in interviews how complicated the trip to Oslo will be. Therefore, at this time we cannot provide any further information on when and how she will arrive for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony,” which will be celebrated this Wednesday.

“We cannot provide any further information on when and how she will arrive for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.”

The press conference, initially scheduled for 12:00 GMT this Tuesday, was first postponed indefinitely. Finally, due to the opposition leader’s difficulties in reaching the Norwegian capital, the event has been cancelled.

Machado herself, who lives in an unknown location in Venezuela, had confirmed a few days ago to the Nobel Institute that she would travel to the Norwegian capital to receive the prize.

This Tuesday, her sister, Clara Machado Parisca, said in an interview from Oslo with the Colombian radio station Blu Radio that the Nobel laureate intends to be there and that they are waiting for her “with faith that she will arrive very soon.”

“Her wish is to be here and collect the award. That’s all I can tell you at this time. I don’t know anything else,” she added.

Her mother, Corina Parisca, her sister, and her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, are already in Oslo and will be accompanied at the ceremony by her two sons, Ricardo Sosa Machado and Henrique Sosa Machado. “We are here for her, because of her, and with the full conviction that she will arrive and will be here to receive the award,” her sister added.

It is unknown how and when the opposition leader will leave Venezuela, amid the air connectivity crisis that Caracas is experiencing, without international connections due to the cancellations of several airlines that withdrew their flights because of warnings from US authorities about the danger of flying over the region, following Washington’s military continue reading

deployment in the Caribbean.

In addition to her family circle, representatives of the Latin American right are also traveling to Oslo to support the opposition leader.

The whereabouts of the Venezuelan opposition leader, who has been living in hiding in her country since the beginning of this year, remain unknown, and her appearance in Oslo would be her first in public since January 2025.

Argentine President Javier Milei took off yesterday on a special flight, while his Paraguayan counterpart, Santiago Peña, will arrive in the Norwegian capital on Wednesday for the official award ceremony.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino is already in Oslo, where he met with Machado’s family.

Also expected to attend tomorrow’s ceremony at Oslo City Hall is the Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain. He ran against Nicolás Maduro in the July 2024 elections when Machado was barred from running.

The secretary general of Venezuela’s ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, lashed out on Monday against the award, calling it an “auction” given “to the highest bidder”: “With respect to Oslo, I don’t know. We know nothing about that, we didn’t participate in that auction,” he affirmed yesterday.

Cabello preferred to focus on the pressure exerted by the United States with its unprecedented military deployment in the Caribbean and denounced the fact that the International Criminal Court has not ruled on Washington’s attacks against boats allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

“The International Criminal Court is rude; its silence on massacres in different parts of the world is gross,” he added.

The opposition team conducted a detailed analysis of the Venezuelan Army and concluded that only a “limited” purge would be necessary, since only 20% of the officers are “irredeemable.”

He also rejected Panama’s offer to mediate between Caracas and Washington amid tensions between the two countries over the Panamanian government’s support for the Venezuelan opposition. “What the United States says goes,” he stated.

Amid these tensions, the Washington Post revealed that the Trump Administration reviewed the plans of Machado and her team in the event of Maduro’s departure from power, a plan that proposes creating forces to stabilize the country within the first 100 hours and 100 days after the current president’s exit and holding elections during the first year.

According to the newspaper, the opposition team conducted a detailed analysis of the Venezuelan Army and concluded that only a “limited” purge would be necessary, since only 20% of the officers are “irredeemable” and the rest are either opposed to Maduro or apolitical.

This information adds to Trump’s comments that he could soon begin ground attacks against Venezuela, fueling doubts about the scope of a possible Washington intervention under the guise of combating drug trafficking.

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Cuba Closes November With a Record 1,192 Political Prisoners

Prisoners Defenders and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights denounce the increase in repression in November

14ymedio, Havana, December 9, 2025 – Cuba closed November with 1,192 political prisoners, the highest figure ever recorded by Prisoners Defenders. In its report published this Tuesday, December 9, the organization denounces that repression is the only policy used by the Cuban regime to survive amid the country’s economic, social, and humanitarian collapse.

The NGO, founded in Madrid to protect human rights on the Island and in other totalitarian regimes, documents 19 new arbitrary detentions that occurred that same month with recurring patterns. Arrests without warrants, forced disappearances, incommunicado detention, and criminal charges as vague as “disobedience,” “contempt,” or “public disorder”—used to punish opinions expressed on social media, verbal statements, or protests over the lack of basic services and food—confirm a form of “State terrorism” aimed at silencing any gesture of dissent.

Repression remains the policy used by the Cuban regime to survive amid the country’s collapse

Among the new cases is that of Dr. Pedro Bauta Gómez, a well-known psychiatrist from Holguín, who was arrested after saying publicly that there is no transportation for the sick but there is for the Party. Since then, his whereabouts are unknown, and he has been denied legal counsel and contact with his family.

Also notable is the case of William Sosa Marrero, detained for critical Facebook posts and accused of “pre-criminal penal disobedience,” a provision in the new Penal Code that replaces the former concept of “social dangerousness” while preserving preventive persecution against citizens who have committed no crime.

The organization denounces the criminalization of simple neighbors in Las Tunas detained for shouting slogans or painting critical graffiti, or of protesters in Bayamo arrested for peacefully protesting the lack of governmental response, while families live in terror and do not even dare to complain for fear of reprisals. continue reading

Among the most alarming issues are incarcerated minors. The report notes that 33 adolescents have been convicted for political reasons between 2021 and 2025—10 of them confined in adult prisons or penitentiary centers called “schools,” and 23 under police surveillance and constant threats. Many were arrested during the social uprising of 11 July 2021, tortured, and subjected to extreme overcrowding and violence, in direct violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

July 11 remains the most significant moment of repression; 409 protesters are still imprisoned

In 2025 this pattern continues, with cases such as Eliane Martín, detained at age 16 while pregnant, with no information available on her location or health status; or Leroy Hernández Escalona, imprisoned after participating in a peaceful protest, whom relatives say is being held in a “torture center” in Las Tunas. These cases show that neither childhood nor pregnancy acts as a limit to political punishment in Cuba.

The 11th of July 2021 (11J) remains the most important moment of repression. Since then, 409 protesters continue to be imprisoned, and 334 are serving sentences outside prison under threats. Even those who are no longer behind bars live under a regime of harassment and fear, as illustrated by numerous cases included in the report.

In total, 743 Cubans continue to be punished for that day, which marked the largest citizen protest in more than six decades, among them 13 women—mothers and workers—who are being punished with particular cruelty in order to suppress independent female leadership. Among them are Lizandra Góngora, imprisoned in Los Colonos prison and separated from her five children by a 14-year sentence for demanding basic freedoms; and María Cristina Garrido, a poet imprisoned and subjected to constant harassment for having raised her voice against the Government.

The regime also targets artists. Eleven remain in prison and together face more than 137 years in sentences for making music, poetry, or critical art. Among them are the rapper Maykel Castillo Osorbo, two-time Latin Grammy winner for Patria y Vida, who has endured numerous solitary confinement cells and threats of transfer far from his family; and the visual artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, held in Guanajay prison, where he has suffered chikungunya fever and diarrhea without medical care. He recently began a voluntary hunger strike to demand the freedom of all prisoners of conscience.

The country’s health crisis—worsened inside the prisons—makes the situation even more severe. Currently, 461 political prisoners suffer from serious illnesses without treatment, and 41 have mental disorders without psychiatric care, figures that show that physical and psychological deterioration is a deliberate component of the repression.

Meanwhile, the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) reported at least 225 repressive actions on the island in the month of November, of which 18 were arbitrary arrests and 207 were other abuses.

Among the most common violations committed by the Cuban regime last month were illegal home detentions, abuses against political prisoners, threats, and police summonses. Most of these repressive actions occurred in the provinces of Havana, Holguín, Guantánamo, and Sancti Spíritus.

The country’s health crisis—exacerbated inside prisons—continues to worsen the situation of political detainees

“The regime maintains repression in a context of a deepening social crisis, without medicines or food to alleviate the health situation caused by several simultaneous epidemics. The authorities offer no solutions and, at the same time, continue repressing any political or civic initiative,” the OCDH stated in its report published Monday.

Repression in November once again extended beyond the island’s borders, as the government directly threatened—by name—18 journalists and contributors to the digital media outlet El Toque, located outside the country.

“We are deeply concerned by the increasing use of blacklists to threaten exiled activists in various countries. We hold the Cuban regime responsible for any situation these individuals may face,” added the OCDH.

So far this year, at least 2,883 repressive actions have been recorded, including 651 illegal home detentions and 508 arbitrary arrests.

Prisoners Defenders also highlighted other shameful records for Cuba in 2025: the island became the number one country in the world for cases of arbitrary detention, according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the second worldwide in terms of penal population; and fourth globally in the number of urgent actions issued by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Why Are Communist Regimes Unsustainable?

Fidel Castro, shortly before his death, confessed to a journalist that “the Cuban model doesn’t even work for Cubans.”

The system led to a small group rising to the top as the elite of a party / ‘Cubadebate’

14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, November 30, 2025 — I’m not talking, of course, about the society idealized by Marx, where the State would supposedly dissolve and all the means of production would pass directly into the hands of the workers—something never actually achieved in any country. Socialism supposedly referred to a system that would benefit all of society, because back then workers labored long hours for meager wages that was barely enough to survive and they lived in tenements in the poorest slums, so the whole family—women and children—had to join in that hard work as well.

Marx and Engels labeled all the socialists who came before them as utopian. And yet, paradoxically, Marx turned out to be the most utopian of them all. His proposal for a workers’ State that would expropriate capitalists and landowners, and would transform that state into a new, gigantic, and absolute monopoly that would no longer represent the workers and, therefore, would not stop in its voraciousness, dispossessing even the people themselves, anyone who possessed any means of subsistence, however modest. Thus, even self-employed workers would be subjected to administrators appointed by the State itself, giving rise to a colossal bureaucracy, a new social class above the entire population. And at the top would be established a small group as the elite of a party, the only one legally permitted, supposedly the vanguard of the entire proletariat. continue reading

This “socialism” that was not socialism, created by “communists” who were not communists, was what became known as state socialism.

This “socialism” that wasn’t socialism, created by “communists” who weren’t communists, was what became known as state socialism or “real socialism,” which most people would later simply call “communism.” But state socialism isn’t socialism; it’s statism.

Why did all those Eastern European governments implode without coups, wars, insurrections, or assassinations—not even Romania, erroneously presented as an exception? (Communism continued after Ceausescu’s death with Iliescu, who was worse than him until his peaceful defeat in 1996 by a democratic coalition.)

Why did China and Vietnam have to make radical changes, introducing capitalist elements into their regimes? Why did Cambodia end in a genocide of over 1.5 million people? Why does Cuba always require an external ally to subsidize it and must resort to mass exoduses every fourteen or fifteen years to alleviate tensions? Why is it now facing a humanitarian tragedy of prolonged blackouts, famines, and epidemics, the true number of deaths of which is still unknown?

All these questions have one answer: an economically unsustainable system. Why unsustainable? Because it suffers from what I call, for clarity, degenerative pathogens — contradictions of interest among large groups of people that negatively affect the production process in different socio-economic formations. In these systems, one party lacks productive interest, thus requiring extra expenditure to pay foremen or supervisors, and in the case of slavery, overseers, who are responsible not only for the smooth operation of the work but also for ensuring it doesn’t stop, since neither the slave nor the day laborer owns what they produce.

A clear example is reflected in a parable of Jesus: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” (John 10:12).

Even those pathogens can lead to collapse, in the case of capitalism, to productive units such as several US airlines

Even those pathogens can lead to collapse, in the case of capitalism, to productive units such as several US airlines at the end of the 20th century, three of which closed permanently due to strikes by their employees demanding wage increases.

However, when another airline, United Airlines, ran into crisis for the same reasons, and an eminent man, Robert Reich, President Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, mediated between them, the employers argued that they could not grant wage increases without the company being affected by fierce competition. Reich suggested granting them company stock instead. This was done, and the workers called off their strike. Later, having become owners themselves, they not only relinquished the wage increase but, on the contrary, agreed to reduce it. What Reich had done, in this case, was simply to eliminate the degenerative factor.

In all socio-economic formations, the number of people with a real interest in productivity, such as slave owners, feudal lords, and capitalists, is a minority, because they have been the ones who appropriated most of the value produced, and these degenerative pathogens have caused great human tragedies throughout history, such as the tens of thousands of slaves killed in the first century BC during the Spartacus rebellion, and the more than one hundred thousand in 1525 among the feudal peasants who rose up against the Holy Roman Empire.

What happens to communist regimes? They suffer from two degenerative pathogens, twice as many as the capitalist system. On the one hand, there are the workers, who have no incentive because their wages don’t cover all their needs and they can’t demand better conditions from a single owner who simultaneously makes the laws, judges, and enforces them by force. On the other hand, there are the thousands of administrative bureaucrats controlling means of production that they don’t own, but which they exploit as if they did. Hence, there are two conflicts: labor and administrative.

Neither the workers nor the administrators have a real interest in productivity; only an elite, incapable of exercising effective control over those thousands of bureaucrats, does. As this author wrote 44 years ago in the manuscript that earned him an eight-year prison sentence: the revolutionary leadership, like Dr. Frankenstein, created a monster that it was then unable to restrain.

Fidel Castro, shortly before his death, confessed to a group of students that the “Revolution” could be overthrown from within.

That is why Fidel Castro, shortly before his death, confessed to a group of students that the “Revolution” could be overthrown from within, and told a journalist that “the Cuban model is not even good for Cubans.”

The late intellectual Carlos Alberto Montaner demonstrated, from a liberal perspective, the superiority of capitalism over communism, arguing that while in the former there were hundreds or thousands of people – the capitalists – with a genuine interest in productivity, in the latter that interest only existed in twenty or thirty people of the Political Bureau of the single Party and the Council of Ministers.

This is true in the sense that while capitalism has only one degenerative seed, communism has two. So, taking Montaner’s reasoning to its logical conclusion, we could ask ourselves: What would the situation be like when that interest is shared not just by the twenty or thirty in communism, nor by the hundreds or thousands in capitalism, but by millions? In other words, what would a society without any degenerative seed be like? It would be a country with unprecedented prosperity.

In the Cuban case, this could only be possible through a profound change in the structures of society, which is what defines a revolution. If in the 1959-68 revolution almost all private property was nationalized, now it would be the State itself that should be nationalized, giving workers in all those centers and companies a share of the profits they themselves generate and dissolving all the monopolies created by that State.

If during the period from 1959 to 1968 almost all private properties were seized, now it would be the State itself that should be seized.

Most of those who theorize about democratization processes in Cuba see the return of confiscated properties to their former owners as one of the first steps, without considering the changes that have occurred over more than six decades; many have even disappeared. Those owners, except for the many who have already passed away, would very likely prefer compensation. But in the early years of this transition, the country would not be in a position to pay such compensation due to all the devastation caused by that regime. What is most urgent, beyond ideologies, is a pragmatic policy to incentivize all productive sectors.

If Martí said that “the monopoly was an implacable giant at the door of all the poor,” it is time for those poor to hold the most gigantic of all accountable, to intervene against the great intervener.

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Former Cuban Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Sentenced to Life in Prison for Espionage

In a second trial for bribery, influence peddling, and tax evasion, he received an additional sentence of 20 years in prison

Gil, according to the Court, acted in a “corrupt and deceptive manner,” and “deceived the country’s leadership and the people.” / ANPP

14ymedio, Havana, December 8, 2025 — The People’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling against Alejandro Gil Fernández, former Minister of Economy and Planning and one of the officials most heavily promoted by official propaganda until his abrupt dismissal in 2024. In language filled with references to “treason against the homeland” and a supposed “ethical, moral, and political degradation,” the ruling sentences him to life imprisonment for espionage and an additional 20-year prison term in a second trial for economic and administrative crimes.

The oral hearings, held in two phases between November 11 and 29, 2025, proceeded — according to the Court — “under full respect for procedural guarantees.” However, as is common in high-profile political trials, there were no independent observers, public access to the sessions, or verifiable details about the evidence presented. Even the daughter of the former deputy prime minister, Laura María Gil González, was not allowed to attend the espionage trial. The Government has limited itself to publishing a summary of the events that reads less like a legal document and more like a political narrative meant to reinforce the image of an internal enemy infiltrated within the State structure.

In the first criminal case, Gil was found guilty of espionage, bribery, theft and destruction of documents under official custody, violation of seals, and repeated infringement of classified information protection regulations. According to statements made by his sister, María Victoria Gil, the authorities linked him to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The official description claims that the former minister removed and “made available to enemy services” confidential economic documents. Based on that accusation, the Court imposed a life sentence.

In the second case, the ruling included ongoing crimes of bribery, forgery of public documents, influence peddling, and tax evasion. For these, he received an additional 20-year sentence, although the Court clarified that once appeals are resolved, a single joint sentence will be formed, as established under the current Criminal Code.

Gil, according to the Court, acted in a “corrupt and deceitful” manner, deceived “the country’s leadership and the people,” received money from foreign companies, bribed officials, and caused “damage to the economy”

The additional sanctions include confiscation of assets, a permanent ban on managing public resources, and the loss of several civil rights. The ruling states that the assessment complies with Article 147 of the Constitution and Articles 29 and 71.1 of the Penal Code, which refer to the “social harmfulness” of the acts.

The official narrative does not spare adjectives. Gil, the Court says, acted in a “corrupt and deceitful manner,” deceived “the country’s leadership and the people,” received money from foreign companies, bribed officials, and caused “damage to the economy.” The document cites continue reading

Article 4 of the Constitution, recalling that treason against the homeland is the gravest crime and is punished with the harshest penalties.

But the political emphasis does not hide an obvious contradiction: the same Government that for years promoted Gil as the architect of monetary reform, a champion of “economic resistance,” and a fresh face in the Cabinet, now portrays him as an infiltrated enemy. It is a familiar script in recent Cuban history, where high-ranking officials shift from hero to villain in a matter of months, without any acknowledgment of failures in the selection process or internal Party oversight.

As in other high-profile cases — such as corruption trials against party leaders — the authorities have offered no concrete details about the alleged espionage: neither what information was taken, nor when, nor how it supposedly reached “enemy intelligence services.”

The speed of the process is also striking. In less than a year since his removal from office, Gil went from being a central figure in economic policy to receiving one of the harshest sentences given to a civilian in decades. According to analysts cited in previous reports, the rush could reflect the Government’s urgency to suppress debate over the failure of the “reorganization” plan and the economic collapse of recent years.

This time, the target is the man who for years publicly defended, across all official platforms, the same policies that now leave the country facing its worst economic situation in decades

Alejandro Gil was one of the figures most publicly supported by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Presented as a modern technocrat, he spearheaded the Ordering Task — a project that in practice triggered inflation and severely eroded purchasing power — and defended every measure that deepened the economic crisis. Even after his dismissal, the president continued praising him on the social platform X, offering congratulations, embraces, and birthday messages.

His downfall, announced in February 2024, was followed by an unusual official silence. Only later — and slowly — did references begin to appear regarding “serious misconduct” and “incompatible behavior.” The sentence now confirms the type of narrative the regime tends to construct to convert structural failures into individual blame.

The Court notes that both the defendant and the Prosecutor’s Office have ten days to file the corresponding appeals. In the case of the life sentence, even if no appeal is filed, an appeal will be automatically processed as a “guarantee” for the accused — a formality that, within the Cuban judicial system, is unlikely to alter the political course of the process.

The statement concludes by noting that both Gil and his lawyers acknowledged that procedural guarantees were respected. This is a standard declaration in cases of this type and cannot be independently verified.

This time, the chosen target is the man who for years defended, in every official forum, the very policies that now keep the country in its worst economic situation in decades. The sentence against Gil says much about him — but says even more about the model that elevated him, used him, and now buries him under the label of “traitor.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Journalists Club of Mexico Is an Instrument of Cuban and Russian Propaganda

Some 72% of the magazine’s content distributed by the Club comes from RT, Sputnik and Prensa Latina to promote “freedom of expression and journalistic rigor”

At the Journalists’ Club, five blocks from the headquarters of the Mexican government, a ceremony for the 60th anniversary of Prensa Latina / SPR took place

14ymedio, Mexico City, December 7, 2025 — From Mexico, with public resources, the narratives of the regimes of Russia and Cuba are being disseminated. According to a report published this Sunday by Factchequeado, a US fact-checking institution, the Journalists’ Club, a Mexican non-profit organization that claims to promote “journalistic excellence since 1952,” acts as “a propaganda facade” for both governments.

The Club uses a magazine called Journalist Voices, its “news organ,” to republish information from official agencies in Russia and Cuba. According to the research, since April 2025, almost three-quarters of its content (72%) is taken from state media, mainly from the Russian RT and Sputnik (53%), followed by the Cuban agency Prensa Latina (18.6%).

Although the Journalists’ Club claims to promote “freedom of expression and journalistic rigor,” it is now “a pro-Kremlin and anti-Western propaganda conduit,” according to an analysis by the Alliance for Securing Democracy of the non-partisan German Marshall Fund. The author of the report added that the page “amplifies the narratives of the Russian and Cuban regimes while publicly presenting itself as a genuine national journalistic project.”

The page “amplifies the narratives of the regimes in Russia and Cuba while publicly presenting itself as a journalistic project”

The Journalists’ Club shows a clear inclination in favor of the present and past government in Mexico, and it’s no wonder. It benefited financially under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, an open sympathizer with the Cuban regime. From 2020 to 2023, it received 951,000 pesos (about $ 51,000), for advertising in the magazine that it “publishes,” although it is not known where you can get a physical copy, and despite the fact that its Facebook page has only 2,600 followers. continue reading

The Club is run by Celeste Sáenz de Miera and Mouris Salloum George, the editor responsible for the publication. Just last April, he was recognized by the Government of Vietnam “for his work in spreading the values and the resilient spirit of the Vietnamese people.”

Previously, in 2019, at the headquarters of the Journalists’ Club, five blocks from the Palacio Nacional, the seat of the Mexican government in Mexico City, Salloum George led a ceremony for the 60th anniversary of Prensa Latina. At the event, the then director of the agency, Luis Enrique González, stated that his “mission” to “counter the campaigns of disinformation and manipulation about the Cuban revolution” was still “in effect.”

Salloum George led a ceremony for the 60th anniversary of Prensa Latina

As for Celeste Sáenz de Miera, in 2017 she headed an event in which a prize was given to the RT channel for its “contribution to the plurality of information.” In her message, the journalist, who says publicly that “the deliberate violence of lies” must be denounced and that her organization defends “truth as an ethical obligation and backbone of journalism,” pointed out that the role played by the Russian channel on the international scene “is fundamental, since it contributes in a decisive way to the plurality of information with unquestionable quality and rigor.”

In 2023, at an event where she presented a prize addressed to the Russian propaganda media Tsargrad for its coverage of the invasion of Ukraine, Sáenz de Miera even told the Russian ambassador to Mexico, Viktor Koronelli — who that same year was sent to Cuba to occupy the same post — that the Journalists’ Club was “the Mexican home” for diplomats from Russia. The envoy from Moscow, who was in charge of receiving the recognition, stated that “we have other media in Russia, and I believe that in subsequent years all of them will be given these types of awards.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Organizes a Low-Profile Event in Support of Nicolás Maduro

In Díaz-Canel’s absence, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez presided over the podium and avoided mentioning the contacts with Washington regarding Maduro.

The official event on 17th Street in Havana unfolded amid predictable slogans and speeches that insisted on a narrative of “imminent aggression.” / Cubadebate

14ymedio, 7 December 2025 — Havana awoke this Saturday to an official event on 17th Street in El Vedado, hastily convened and with a discretion that contrasted sharply with the massive demonstrations of Venezuelans scattered throughout Latin America in support of María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. While in Bogotá, Lima, and Panama, tricolor shirts, flags, and signs celebrating the opposition leader predominated, in Havana the event organized by the Cuban government reiterated its condemnations of Washington, its accusations of war threats, and its unequivocal support for Nicolás Maduro.

The absence of President Miguel Díaz-Canel—whose presence has been constant at international events of government propaganda—set a low tone from the outset. In his place was Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, accompanied by the secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women, Teresa Amarelle Boué, and the Venezuelan ambassador to Havana, Orlando Maneiro Gaspar. None of them mentioned the rumors circulating for days about alleged talks between Havana and Washington regarding Maduro’s uncertain political future.

Anonymous sources cited by Reuters on Saturday indicated that “some members of the Cuban regime” have made discreet contact with U.S. officials to explore possible scenarios should Maduro leave power. According to the report, among the options discussed is a “world without the Maduro regime,” which reveals that certain circles within the Cuban power structure are already analyzing the feasibility of a change in Caracas in light of escalating sanctions, international pressure, and military operations.

After more than a quarter of a century of “violations, death and misery,” the country finds itself “on the threshold of freedom”

In contrast to the cold official ceremony this Saturday in Havana, the streets of Latin American cities were filled with thousands of Venezuelans called upon by Machado to march “for peace and freedom,” four days before she will officially receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. In Bogotá, Mauricio continue reading

Vaquero, of the Comando con Venezuela en Colombia (Command with Venezuela in Colombia), summarized the sentiment of many, stating that after more than a quarter of a century of “violations, death, and misery,” the country is “on the threshold of freedom.” Vaquero’s words, far removed from the defensive tone of the speeches in Cuba, reflected the conviction that the international distinction awarded to Machado is a symbolic blow to Chavismo.

In Panama, dozens of Venezuelans marched from the Cinta Costera to the Plaza de la Democracia. “We are proud to have a Nobel laureate who has fought for the freedom of an entire region,” said Ricardo Contreras, one of the organizers. The march, which many described as “full of light and hope,” was a far cry from the rigid atmosphere of the event in Havana, where every speech seemed like a rehearsed recitation of the panic within the Castro regime over the potential loss of its main ally in the region.

Lima was also the scene of a demonstration in front of the Venezuelan Embassy, where the diaspora — 1.5 million migrants in Peru — carried replicas of the Nobel Prize medal, flags, and signs with phrases such as “The Nobel Prize belongs to those unjustly detained” and “The Nobel Prize belongs to those who have given their lives for this struggle.” Verónica Durán, of the New Global People Alliance, stated that the prize “is a victory for all of Venezuela.”

Venezuelans have reacted with outrage to the death in custody of Alfredo Díaz, former governor of Nueva Esparta, after a year of isolation at the SEBIN (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service). His death adds to a string of at least six opposition members who have died in prison since November 2014, and to a record that, according to Foro Penal (a Venezuelan human rights organization), includes 17 political prisoners who have died since 2014. Both the NGO and María Corina Machado denounced these deaths as part of a pattern of torture, isolation, denial of medical care, and stalled trials, while the country continues to hold 887 political prisoners.

Today, Havana’s calls to action lack force, overshadowed by the internal crisis and a population increasingly unwilling to validate official spectacles.

Meanwhile, the official event on Havana’s 17th Street unfolded amid predictable slogans and speeches that insisted on a narrative of “imminent aggression” by the United States. Dr. Idalmis Rodríguez, chosen to speak as “a representative of the forces defending peace,” criticized the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Machado, calling it a “grotesque contradiction” and accusing her of calling for foreign military intervention. This worn-out rhetoric was heard by a small audience, composed mainly of mobilized activists and state officials.

The ambassador of the Caracas regime, Maneiro Gaspar, for his part, reiterated the claim that his country has faced “a real threat” since August and denounced “murders in the Caribbean Sea,” referring to the US attacks on some twenty vessels linked to drug trafficking. Even so, he went so far as to announce “exponential growth of 6%,” an economic optimism that contrasts sharply with the crisis gripping the country and the lack of enthusiasm among Venezuelan emigrants to return home.

Amarelle Boué reiterated the sanctions as “collective torture,” the denial of links between the Venezuelan regime and criminal organizations, and the demand to “keep your hands off Venezuela.” But neither she nor the other speakers addressed a persistent underlying issue: what role does Havana play in the diplomatic maneuvering surrounding Maduro’s political future?

For decades, Cuba was the natural stage for large-scale “anti-imperialist” demonstrations, but today these events lack force, overshadowed by the internal crisis and a population increasingly unwilling to endorse official spectacles. The fact that the government opted for a modest event and that Díaz-Canel remained on the sidelines reinforces the impression that the priority at this moment is not Venezuela, but rather the island’s own political survival.

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The Ferocious Reign of Reinaldo Arenas, the Writer the Cuban Regime Could Not Silence

Memoirs of the author who transformed exile, desire, and rebellion into his own literary territory

Arenas represents what they have not been able to erase: the memory of the free body. / Margarita Camacho

14ymedio, Noemí Herrera, Miami, 7 December 2025 — This December 7th marks 35 years since Reinaldo Arenas decided to say goodbye to the world, and I still find it difficult to write the word “death” without feeling that it falls short. Arenas didn’t die in 1990, in that New York apartment where illness and poverty gradually consumed his body; what was left behind was the physical matter that could no longer accompany his voice.

The work of the Holguín native, however, continues to breathe with an almost ferocious intensity, untamed, that insists on relentlessly challenging the certainties of Cuban power. And it is that Arenas, even from beyond the grave, remains the regime’s bête noire: a writer they could never tame or reduce to an anecdote, and whose words still resonate with a freedom they have never been able to silence.

To write about Arenas from this distance is also to remember the man before the myth.

My first readings of Arenas were furtive, almost clandestine, as if the book feared being discovered. I remember opening Celestino antes del alba [Celestino Before Dawn] and feeling as if someone were tearing me away from the domesticated literature I had read until then. Everything in his prose was excess, delirium, defiance. He wasn’t trying to please, he was trying to break free. It was, for a young reader, like witnessing a fire: you can’t look away, even though what is burning frightens you.

I’m also told that he laughed with a disarming force, that even in the tightest spaces he found a glimmer for the ‘fiesta’

While studying Philology at the University of Havana, I had an opportunity denied to millions of Cubans: to learn of Arenas’ existence. No, I didn’t learn of him because his work was required reading in Cuban or contemporary literature courses, but because his books circulated from hand to hand in an essential initiation rite for anyone wishing to call themselves a student of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.

My readings of his work— his delusions, his irony, his depths —were also intertwined with accounts from friends who knew him in Havana, in the literary offices where he was viewed with suspicion, in the National Library where he worked among other’s manuscripts while his own was taking shape in the undertow. They always speak to me of his gaze: a flash of insolence that was continue reading

simultaneously tenderness and defiance. They also tell me that he laughed with a disarming force, that tightest spaces he found a glimmer for the fiesta, for unbridled imagination, for the freedom that the system sought to wrest from him.

That freedom is, perhaps, the key to his writing. Arenas invented a prose that moved between fury and laughter, between baroque outburst and wounded confession. El mundo alucinante [The Hallucinatory World] and, of course, Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls], form not only a literary body of work, but an emotional constellation where childhood, repression, eroticism, hunger, desire, guilt, laughter and revenge intertwine. In his pages, the Island appears as a territory of unbearable beauty and systematic violence; a place where the dream of freedom is always a struggle. Arenas understood, more than any other Cuban writer of his generation, that imagination could become a highly effective tool of resistance.

He continued writing even in the worst of times: persecuted for his homosexuality, imprisoned in El Morro, watched, silenced, driven into literary secrecy, forced to flee. But his work is not that of a victim; it is that of a rebel who made writing an exercise of insurrection. His prose, so marked by the political incorrectness of real life, anticipated a way of narrating the Cuban experience from the margins, far from the revolutionary solemnity that sought to monopolize the national narrative.

AIDS, which in those years was a silent and stigmatizing executioner, cornered him, but did not stop his creative impulse

When he arrived in the United States as part of the Mariel boatlift, he carried with him accumulated traumas but also an undiminished will to name the disaster he was leaving behind. New York was for him an ambiguous territory: refuge and exile, a space of freedom and also the stage for the disease that relentlessly advanced.

AIDS, which in those years was a silent and stigmatizing executioner, cornered him, but it did not stop his creative impulse. Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls] —one of the most powerful memoirs in Latin American literature—was born from that urgency to tell everything before physical silence took hold. Those who were with him during those months have told me repeatedly that he wrote as if each sentence were a race against time, with the awareness that the truth had to be told forever.

Thirty-five years later, Arenas occupies a place that not even his enemies could deny him: that of a major writer in the Spanish language. His influence reaches generations who read in him not only a denunciation of totalitarianism, but also a celebration of desire, a radical approach to identity, and a stylistic freedom that transcends categories. Contemporary Cuban literature, fragmented and multifaceted, carries in its DNA something of his irreverence and his courage. In Latin America, his name has become synonymous with aesthetic and ethical resistance.

What is most surprising is that his work continues to be uncomfortable for those who govern Cuba. Arenas represents what they have been unable to erase: the memory of the free body, the imagination that knows no borders, the word that returns again and again to remind us that repression is never invincible. He himself knew that all censorship is useless in the face of a book that finds its reader.

Today, when I remember him, I don’t think about his death but about the power of his legacy. Arenas wrote to survive, and he survived through his writing. In a time when so many voices are still silenced, his work remains a fierce reminder that freedom begins with daring to tell one’s own story, even when the whole world conspires to prevent it.

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La Habana No Aguanta Más / Havana Can’t Take it Anymore

“This was the first time I’ve heard people openly criticising the government in front of me, a foreigner”

“So is there any solution?” I ask. “Get rid of the Communists” / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Cath Forrest, London, 7 December 2025 — “Volver … que veinte años no es nada” (“Returning … for twenty years is nothing”) goes the song. But arriving back in Havana after a gap of twenty years is a shock.

The city was always crumbling, that was part of its charm. But the view over the rooftops of Central Havana now resembles a war zone, its pock-marked concrete drained of all colour except for the shining golden dome of the Capitolio, restored with Russian money. Along the iconic facade of the Malecón, with its once picturesquely faded pastel colours, many buildings have collapsed altogether like jagged missing teeth, while others have been brutally replaced by giant international hotels. The micro-brigade housing that sprouted so hopefully along the coast to the east in the 1980s is now badly in need of repair.

There were always power cuts and they never kept to the published timetable. But now, at least in the part of Central Havana where I was staying, the lights go out every single evening for at least five hours, and usually for several in the daytime as well. This is deeply demoralising. As is the sight of the towering new Iberostar Hotel in the Vedado, with all its lights blazing, while below it the whole surrounding district is plunged in darkness.

Ever since the dollar was legalised and the country opened up to tourism in the early 1990s, there has been a growing rift between tourists, who can have things, and Cubans who cannot. It often appears that all the resources of the state are being thrown at tourism, in a kind of national prostitution. This divide has now reached a level that is frankly ugly. It’s not much fun for the tourists either, unless continue reading

they have the hides of rhinos, which some obviously do. They hire the famous old Chevrolets and Buicks that have been done up to gleam in fabulous colours, and parade up and down the Prado in them, waving their arms in triumph and hooting their horns. No wonder the once utterly lovely Parque Central is now swarming with hustlers, like the worst of Venice.

But the effect is much more damaging than that, distorting the whole economy. A dollar, originally intended to be equal to one peso, is now worth over four hundred, so that the money Cubans earn – the average salary is about 6500 pesos a month – is effectively worthless and prices are insane. Unlike in the “Special Period in Times of Peace”, there is food available. But a single tangerine from a barrow on the street will cost you 600 pesos. An old man sits under a tree in the Vedado, eating a cake he has begged from a fancy cafe, while behind him another man rummages in a heap of rubbish piled against the wall of a dilapidated but still graceful home. Inside the cafe, Cubans are welcome but the prices are pegged to the dollar so that a pizza costs nearly 2000 pesos, ten times the usual price.

All this, combined with the sorry state of the streets, where paving stones jut in the air, holes gape in the ground and sewage runs down the gutters, means that it is no longer safe to walk alone after dark. Twenty and even thirty years ago tourists were already the target for robberies. Here my comparison has to be with forty years ago, when, as a young, fair-haired foreign woman, I could take two buses home to a distant suburb at three in the morning with absolutely no fear. It was the safest place in the world. The change doesn’t only affect tourists. An elegant lady outside one of the few cinemas still open advises me to go to the 2pm show as otherwise I’ll have to leave in the dark. “Ah, how I used to love to sit in the cinema,” she sighs, echoing my thoughts exactly.

I should say that these were my impressions on first arrival in Havana as a tourist and that I soon adapted enough to be able to enjoy again the endless beauty of this city and the natural, quiet courtesy of its citizens away from tourist hotspots.

The great difference on this occasion was the attitude of Cubans themselves. They have always grumbled, played around with every new adversity with sharp, black humour, that old blitz spirit. But this was the first time I’ve heard people openly criticising the government in front of me, a foreigner. “It’s all Fidel’s fault, he destroyed our industry,” says Milagro, an old woman sitting on a doorstep in a blackout. “They’ve forgotten Che,” wails her friend Ilsa, beside her, “They’re hypocrites who send their children abroad to be educated.” “We’re too weary to go on strike, we just keep each other laughing,” says a mother trying to cook with arthritic hands in another power cut. A taxi driver tells me that people would protest but “We can’t afford to go to jail on top of everything else.” A shop boy compliments me on my Spanish and I reply that I worked here before he was born: “Ah, so you caught the good times” “Yes” “That’s all over now, isn’t it?” Two young men in a local cafeteria are agreed that “Everything is destroyed.” “So is there any solution?” I ask. “Get rid of the Communists” answers Yoel, quick as a flash.

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Russia Joins the Governments That Warn of the Risks of Travelling to Cuba Because of the Arbovirus Outbreak

Moscow’s warning adds to those already issued by several foreign governments against non-essential travel to the Island

People line up at the post-arbovirosis clinic. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, December 6, 2025 — The epidemiological situation in Cuba is so serious that even an ally like Russia has been forced to issue a new international alert for its travellers. The embassy in Havana, citing a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, has advised its citizens to take extreme precautions against the resurgence of cases of dengue and chikungunya. Suggested measures include the use of repellent, closed and long-sleeved clothing during periods of high mosquito activity and avoiding areas with stagnant water.

Concern about the epidemic in Cuba has been noted in Russia in recent days. The press has reacted with growing alarm, calling into question the safety of travelling to the island during the holiday season.

Epidemiologist Guennadi Onishchenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences advised citizens to “return their tourist packages” and opt for destinations near Moscow, considering that “taking the risk of contracting an infectious disease is, at the very least, unwise.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry has advised its citizens to take extreme precautions against the epidemic in Cuba

Gazeta called the situation “critical” and estimated that there are currently about 1,500 Russian tourists in the most affected areas, of whom at least 14 are ill.

The actual numbers of infected Russians seem to be higher. Cases of people with the virus often appear on social media. In the Facebook group “Russians in Cuba,” tourist Anna Lynn recounted the case of her husband, infected with the virus in Holguín and with a 104 degree (F) fever. “We called the doctor and the diagnosis was chikungunya. But they told us there is no treatment, only water and rest. I’m very worried,” she said. continue reading

Other countries like the US, the UK and Canada have previously warned about the epidemiological situation on the island

The health situation on the island and the recent warning issued by Moscow could affect the number of Russian visitors in the coming weeks, which would further accentuate the current drop of 36.2% in Russian tourists for the first ten months of this year (99,908, instead of 156,614 in 2024).

Other countries have previously issued warnings. One of the first was the US, which in September issued through its Embassy in Havana a health alert for all citizens who want to travel to Cuba, due to the outbreak of chikungunya. The risk was then determined at Level 2, which requires taking “additional precautions.”

The Government of Canada maintains its warning to “exercise a high degree of caution” when travelling to Cuba, updated on November 25, 2025. Cuba is explicitly included as a destination at risk from mosquito-borne diseases.

The UK Foreign Office, in its recently updated travel guide for Cuba, reported on the declared epidemic of arbovirosis on the island and advised travellers to take precautions to prevent bites.

Several warnings mention that the risk is not only from arbovirosis but also from a health infrastructure in crisis, with shortages of medicines, irregular water supply, and difficulties in accessing adequate medical care.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba Will Go to the World Baseball Classic and Has Now Handed Over a Preliminary Roster of 50 Players

Manager Germán Mesa’s call includes Andy Pagés, Yoán Moncada and Zach Neto, while the case of Yariel Rodríguez is still not defined

Players Andy Pagés, Yoan Moncada and Zach Neto are on the roster that was handed over by manager Germán Mesa for the World Baseball Classic. / Archive Photo/Jit

14ymedio, Havana, December 4, 2025 — Finally, and after weeks of uncertainty, Cuba will participate in the World Baseball Classic. According to Cuban Baseball Digest, the Island’s national team “has the necessary permits and will soon announce its participation in the tournament.”

The same media reported that the negotiations of the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation (FCB) with the US Major Leagues “have been positive and have made significant progress.” The publication comes days after World Classic president Jim Small said in Puerto Rico that the so-called Team Asere would be part of the event in March.

This Wednesday, journalist Francys Romero reported that the FCB handed over a preliminary roster of 50 players. In addition, he stressed that no one from the Cuban federation was present at the Winter Meetings 2026, which took place in Orlando, Florida, and no one is expected to “attend the winter meetings.”

This Wednesday, journalist Francys Romero reported that the FCB handed over a preliminary roster of 50 players

Among the players chosen by manager Germán Mesa are Andy Pagés, Yoan Moncada and Zach Neto. The inclusion of Yariel Rodriguez is contemplated; however, Pelota Cubana USA journalist Yusseff Diaz said that the inclusion of the ball player is still under debate. Although the pitcher has expressed continue reading

interest in playing for the Island, there are managers who do not forgive him for breaking a contract in 2023 with the Japanese team of the Chunichi Dragons.

The Mesa team has Pagés as an outfielder; however, there is still no response from the Los Angeles Dodgers team where he plays. Victor Labrada (Seattle Mariners) and Albert Lara (Laguna Union Cotton Growers) are in the line-up.

The Mesa roster also lists Zach Neto (Los Angeles Angels), free agents (FA) Andy Ibáñez, Yoan Moncada, Ernesto Martínez Jr., and Yiddi Cappe (Miami Marlins), Alexander Vargas (Cincinnati Reds) and Jean Walters (Arizona Diamondbacks).

Mesa envisages Omar Hernandez (Kansas City Royals) as a catcher. For pitchers it has Daysbel Hernández (Atlanta Braves), Ryan Fernández (Saint Louis Cardinals), Lázaro Estrada (Toronto Blue Jays), Rafael Sánchez (Toronto Blue Jays) Yariel Rodríguez (Toronto Blue Jays), Emmanuel Chapman (Pittsburgh Pirates), Denny Larrondo (FA), Pedro Santos (FA), Jorge Marcheco (Los Angeles Angels), Silvano Hechavarría (Toronto Blue Jays), Josimar Primo (Mayagüez Indians), Osiel Rodríguez (León Bravos), Jan Carlos Hechavarría (Los Angeles Angels), Robert Roilan Portuondo (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Elián Leyva (FA).

The list also includes left-handers Daviel Hurtado (New York Mets), Darién Núñez (FA), Julio Robaina (Guasave Cotton Growers), Francis Texidó (Los Angeles Angels), Randy Labaut (FA) and Andrés Pérez (Jalisco Cowboys).

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With the Defeat of the Left in Honduras, the Cuban Regime Loses a Second Ally in the Region

The two right-wing candidates – one supported by Trump – are tied and have obtained 80% of the votes according to preliminary data.

Salvador Nasralla and Nasry Asfura (left) lead the provisional results. / Televisión Azteca

14ymedio/EFE, Tegucigalpa, 1 December 2025 — Three days after Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ crushing defeat in the Caribbean islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Havana loses another ally, this time in Honduras, where elections were held on Sunday with high voter turnout and decisive results.

Conservative candidates Nasry Tito Asfura, from the National Party – for whom US President Donald Trump asked for votes – and Salvador Nasralla, from the Liberal Party (centre-right), are leading the preliminary count early on Monday morning with a narrow margin in favour of the former, signalling the return of the right to power.

With 44.23% of the votes counted, Asfura had obtained 597,184 votes (40.39%), while Nasralla had obtained 579,626 (39.20%), results that mark a change in trend in Honduras, which has been governed by the left during the last term.

The ruling party candidate, Rixi Moncada, from the left-wing Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), was relegated to a distant third place with 287,166 votes (19.42%), forcing her leaders to be cautious and asking supporters to remain “ready for battle” until the count is complete.

The first preliminary results took more than an hour to be published by the three councillors of the National Electoral Council.

The first preliminary results took more than an hour to be published by the three councillors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) due to technical problems and the expectant gaze of the hundreds of election observers present in the room.

In a brief and angry message before the first count was known, Asfura demanded that the president of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, speed up the preliminary report.

“We demand that Ana Paola Hall, I don’t know what she’s waiting for, come out and do her duty. We can’t have a country waiting, on tenterhooks, in darkness. Do it, for the sake of democracy. The law continue reading

says so. Thank you, Honduras. We are here to serve you, and we stand firm,” said Asfura, who told reporters, “With the help of God and the Honduran people, we are going to win this election,” and warned that “this is not over until the last vote is counted.”

The general elections in Honduras took place on Sunday without major incidents, with minor reports of delays, alleged impediments to observers during the count, and damaged ballot boxes, but with a high turnout of more than 2.8 million voters (out of a total of 6 million eligible voters) at polling stations, according to initial data.

This participation has been applauded by the United States, which is “closely monitoring” the electoral process in Honduras.

In addition to asking for votes for the presidential candidate, Trump promised that if he won, there would be “a lot of support” for this Central American country ravaged by poverty and waves of migration of its nationals to the north, considering it to be the “only true friend of freedom in Honduras”.

With Asfura, Trump also stated that he sees the possibility of “working together to fight the narco-communists” and confront Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

This support from Washington, just days before the elections, came in the form of a future pardon for former president Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022), convicted of drug trafficking in the United States and from the same political party as Asfura.

The American justified the controversial decision on Sunday and claimed, without evidence, that the previous government had “set up” the Honduran. “The people of Honduras really thought they had been set up (…) a trap by the Biden administration, and I looked at the facts and agreed with them,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back to the US capital.

Trump did not cite any evidence and did not directly blame Biden, but rather the advisers who worked for the Democrat during his presidential term (2021-2025), despite the fact that the case was tried in court.

Trump did not cite any evidence and did not directly blame Biden, but rather the advisers who worked for the Democrat during his presidential term (2021-2025), despite the fact that the case was tried in court. “If someone sells drugs (in a country), that doesn’t mean you should arrest the president and put him in prison for life,” Trump said of the Hernández case.

Hernández was part of a group of individuals investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) since 2013, the year in which he was elected, for activities “related to the importation of cocaine into the United States.” The document was made public as part of the case against the former president’s brother, Juan Antonio Tony Hernández Alvarado, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges related to cocaine trafficking to the United States.

With all this, Asfura leads the vote count by a narrow margin over Nasralla, the conservative who remains “optimistic” and hopeful that the results will be reversed to end 16 years of absence of the Liberal Party, but without the support of the United States.

Following the victory of the current president, Xiomara Castro, of the Libre Party, in the last elections, Nasralla held one of the three presidential appointments (vice-president) until April 2024, when he resigned due to confrontations with the president and her husband, Manuel Zelaya, who is also the general coordinator of the political party.

Translated by GH

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