Translating Cuba – Page 47 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuba Declines To Attend Baseball’s Caribbean Cup After Qualifying for the Central Americans

The trip involves additional expenses, which would be better spent on the National Baseball Series, says the Federation

Cuba has won 15 gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, November 19, 2025 — The Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation announced on Tuesday that the country will not attend the Caribbean Cup, which will be held in the Bahamas at the beginning of December. The decision was made after the Island qualified directly for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo.

According to a Prensa Latina statement, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, president of the Federation, explained that attending the tournament “made no competitive or logistical sense,” since the spot that would be contested in this event for the regional games was guaranteed.

To justify his decision, the official said that the trip involves additional expenses and that it would be better to concentrate those resources on the National Baseball Series. Since it began last September, Cuba’s participation has had to be suspended due to problems with hotel capacity, lack of fuel to move players to some of the venues and even infections with the viruses that plague the island right now.

Despite the economic, energy and even health crises that the country is experiencing, they will seek to “concentrate resources and planning” to organize a tournament

Encouraged, Pérez Pardo said that, despite the economic, energy and even health crises that the country is experiencing, they will seek to “concentrate resources and planning” to organize, in the last quarter of 2026, a continue reading

tournament that could award places for the next Pan American Games, to be held in Lima, Peru, in 2027.

Last Sunday, the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) reported that it gave out five direct tickets to the Central American and Caribbean Games. The top five teams in the Americas (except the United States) received a pass: Mexico (third place in the Americas and sixth in the world), Puerto Rico (fourth in the continent and seventh in the world), Panama (fifth in the Americas and eighth in the world), Cuba (sixth at continental level and ninth internationally) and Colombia (eighth in the continent and thirteenth in the world).

Originally, access to the regional contest was going to be split into two events at this year’s close: the America’s Baseball Cup, which would be played in Panama but was recently canceled due to sponsorship issues, and the Caribbean Baseball Cup, to be held between December 1-9, in Nassau. In the first event there were going to be five tickets in play, while in the Bahamas one ticket will be contested.

Cuba will have the opportunity in the Central American Games to return to the forefront of the discipline

With its presence assured, Cuba will have the opportunity in the Central American Games to return to the forefront of the discipline, something that it has not been able to do for 11 years since it won the title in the Veracruz in 2014, and to confirm its dominance as the greatest winner in history at the regional contest.

Since the first edition of the Central American Games, held in Mexico in 1926, Cuba has won 15 gold medals, far above the rest, where the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico appear with three. Nevertheless, Cuba’s domination has been diluted since the beginning of this century, because of the last six editions of the Games, where it won only two, as did Puerto Rico. The remaining games were divided between Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

It could also cut through the stalemate that has been especially evident in the last two years, leading to its 12th place in the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball (WBSC) ranking by mid-2025, its worst position ever since this system was invented in 2011. In recent months Cuba managed to advance to ninth place, just 41 points above Panama, in eighth place.

In addition, poor performance has also caused Team Cuba, which in 2012 was the leader of the world ranking, to fall even at the regional level, where for two years it occupied sixth place on the American continent.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Cuba: A ‘Very High’ Infestation of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitos Causes Arbovirus Cases To Rise Again

Cuba is registering an average of 700 new cases of chikungunya daily in October, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

“Your Health Says NO!” Last week, authorities reported a cumulative total of 21,681 chikungunya cases. / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, November 18, 2025 — This Tuesday, a report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) indicated that Cuba registered an average of 700 new daily cases of chikungunya in October, the vast majority in Havana and Matanzas.

Last week, authorities reported a cumulative total of 21,681 cases, while for dengue fever, data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO ) shows 9,602 cases and a very high incidence rate of 87.79 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. According to estimates from the Ministry of Health, approximately 30% of Cubans have contracted one of the two diseases during this outbreak.

According to data compiled by the Americas section of the World Health Organization (WHO), the cumulative incidence in Cuba is 183.43 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in all of the Americas this year, above Brazil (112.07) and the averages of the Caribbean (43.53) and the entire continent (26).

Adding to these figures is the fact that patients treated for fever symptoms increased by 2.5% last week, bad news after last Tuesday when the director of epidemiology, Francisco Durán said that infections had been declining for two weeks.

On Monday, Vice Minister Carilda Peña García delivered the bad news, adding bluntly that the fundamental cause is the “very high” infestation rates of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The official stated that Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Havana, and Villa Clara are the most affected provinces, although the entire country is now affected, with the exception of Isla de la Juventud, which is still considered an “alert zone.” The rest of the country remains classified as an “endemic epidemic corridor.”

Dengue fever is more localized in the west and center of the island, with Villa Clara, Havana, Sancti Spíritus, Las Tunas and Artemisa continue reading

at the forefront, but transmission has been demonstrated in 13 provinces.

The worst cases are concentrated in Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Guantánamo, which have simultaneous circulation of both diseases.

Peña García stressed the importance of fumigation – which has arrived late and with great difficulty, due to a lack of supplies, according to specialists speaking on television last week – and pointed out that it is progressing unevenly, since the plan was to cover all urban areas in three weeks, but only Mayabeque, Havana, Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila and Santiago de Cuba reached 95%.

Faced with resistance from some residents to allowing fumigation teams access, Peña García reminded them that during an epidemic, not only is it mandatory but obsctruction also constitutes a crime of spreading disease. He further emphasized the importance, now more than ever, of citizens participating in eliminating breeding grounds, cleaning water tanks, and other measures, each according to their means. The responses to the video, posted on Canal Caribe’s social media, reflect the discontent of a population that insists fumigation is not taking place.

“In Camagüey, we live two blocks from the provincial hospital, and everyone on my block has the virus, and there’s no fumigation,” laments one user. Responses from nearly every province highlight the alarming situation and how the reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg, since many people aren’t going to the hospital. “The saddest, most painful thing, and what should most concern our authorities is the loss of trust and credibility many Cubans have in our healthcare system, which was once, without any chauvinism, the best in the world. Why would I go if there’s nothing available and many healthcare workers are also infected?” another commenter laments.

Yamirka Montesino Felipe, head of the National Group of Pediatric Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, reiterated that hospitalization is essential for all children under two years old with fever, as they are one of the most vulnerable groups. If, in addition, there is a comorbidity such as diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, or kidney problems, the risk is even higher.

“When a child develops a fever and the family seeks medical assistance immediately, we can reach the sick patient early and prevent complications,” something that is key to “reversing potentially adverse developments” for the child. He warned that fever is more persistent in children and can cause skin lesions, including blisters, which are very uncomfortable and painful for them. However, the very painful joint pain that adults experience is less pronounced in children.

Montesino Felipe reminded everyone that it is crucial to keep children hydrated, as gastrointestinal symptoms can lead to dangerous dehydration.

Montesino Felipe emphasized the importance of keeping children hydrated, as gastrointestinal symptoms can lead to dangerous dehydration. This basic advice wouldn’t seem so difficult were it not for the supply problems plaguing the island, exacerbated by Hurricane Melissa’s impact on some provinces. This situation, coupled with sanitation issues, hinders treatment and increases the risk of the disease spreading. Last week, María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, director of the Research, Diagnosis, and Reference Center at the Pedro Kourí Institute (IPK), acknowledged this, warning that the proliferation of water tanks in homes—caused by the unreliable water supply—is compounded by “inadequate solid waste management and sanitation deficiencies.”

Diana Couto Núñez, president of the Cuban Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics, also spoke about another vulnerable group: pregnant women, who also require urgent hospitalization. “Diagnosis cannot be done at home. That has to be done at the hospital,” she said, especially if they suffer from hypertension or diabetes, as serious complications could arise.

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“Mission and Vision” of an Undersupplied Market in the City of Matanzas, Cuba

“If you want something, ask me and I’ll tell you if it’s available or not.”

Inside, the Ideal Market of Versailles, in Matanzas, shows its unvarnished reality. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, November 18, 2025 – At the entrance to the Versailles Ideal Market in Matanzas, the first impression is of a hastily assembled stage set. A sign welcomes customers with a list of 18 products: salt, sugar, rice, pork loin, oil… An inventory that, more than an offering, seems like an invocation. “They’re waiting here for some boss to visit,” Aurora, an elderly woman, quips ironically as she curiously examines the sign.

Inside, the shop reveals its stark reality: half-empty shelves, a few bottles of oil, a handful of cans of tomato sauce, seasoning packets, and jars of soy yogurt arranged more for decorative than commercial purposes. From behind the counter, the employee—looking weary—utters the phrase that shatters any illusion: “Ma’am, if you’d like something, just ask, and I’ll tell you if we have it or not.” Because in this market, the existence of certain products is real only in the ink on the sign.

Aurora presses on: “Do you have minced meat, mortadella, or chicken?” The response is a slow, decisive nod. “Maybe we’ll get some tomorrow,” the shop assistant murmurs. “It’s not certain. But come by and see what’s up.”

The place depends on the Matanzas Municipal Trading Company, which is experiencing fuel shortages that hinder the transport of goods.

The place depends on the Matanzas Municipal Trade Company, which is experiencing fuel shortages that hinder its ability to transport goods. The word “ideal” in its name has long since become a source of sarcasm for the locals. Marcelo, a father observing the scene from the entrance, sums up his experience: “The other day I bought four pounds of ground meat here, and it was spoiled because continue reading

they don’t have refrigeration; the refrigerator is broken.”

On the wall, two posters display the store’s “Mission” and “Vision,” hollow phrases in a place where even a simple “good morning” is rarely exchanged. Aurora finally buys a packet of cumin and tries to pay by bank transfer. The shop assistant responds with a smile that’s more of a warning than a friendly one: “It has to be cash.” Near the counter, a QR code promises to be a quick way to pay electronically. Just another sign out of touch with reality at the Versailles Ideal Market.

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The UN Considers the Detention of 49 Protesters From the 11 July 2021 Protests in Cuba To Be “Arbitrary”

The island ranks fourth on the United Nations list of enforced disappearances and first in arbitrary detentions.

Daisel González Álvarez, imprisoned in connection with the 11J massacre, is currently missing. / Facebook

14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, November 18, 2025 — The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) considers that 49 protesters who participated in the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’) in Cuba were detained “arbitrarily for political and ideological reasons and without due process or defense.” This is according to a report published Tuesday by Prisoners Defenders (PD), following receipt of the WGAD’s findings.

The organization, based in Madrid, was the one that reported the cases in this instance. The GTDA, which also acknowledged that they suffered other “multiple crimes against humanity,” such as enforced disappearance and isolation, torture, and rape, has called on the Cuban regime to release and exonerate these 49 people “immediately” and compensate them for damages.

The international organization also requested that Havana initiate a “thorough and independent investigation” into the proceedings against these participants in the 11J demonstrations.

Similarly, it considers the crimes the detainees were accused of, including contempt and resistance, to be “vague” figures and deems it a violation of due process that the arrested were tried in military courts.

Neither the detainees nor their families have a copy of the arrest warrants or the pretrial detention orders.

The WGAD accepted Prisoner Defender‘s version of events in its conclusions, stating that neither the detainees nor their families have copies of the arrest warrants or the pretrial detention orders. The group indicated that the Cuban government did not respond to its request to include its position in the report initiated following PD’s complaint.

In this regard, the organization stated in a press release that, by not responding, “the regime (…) tacitly agreed to the arguments and evidence presented by Prisoners Defenders.”

The complaining organization stated, according to the two opinions of the United Nations body, that the arrests were carried out “without a court order” and that many of those detained suffered “long periods of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention (in some cases, up to 40 days) without access to legal counsel.”

It is precisely with regards to enforced disappearances continue reading

that Cuba’s ranking in these reports is particularly striking. Since 2012, Prisoners Defenders has filed 193 urgent actions with the UN related to the island, placing the country fourth, behind only Mexico, Iraq, and Colombia. The NGO points out one “essential difference”: “While in those other countries enforced disappearances are perpetrated by organized crime, in Cuba the only organized crime responsible for enforced disappearances is the government itself.”

In this regard, PD cites the case of Daisel González Álvarez, one of those detained after the July 11 attacks, “without judicial oversight” and without “independent legal and technical defense throughout the criminal proceedings, except for the lawyers appointed by the State,” all of which they describe as “especially serious.” He is currently missing, “with no confirmation that he has left the country and no immigration record to support this claim.”

According to news reports published in various media outlets last year, the young man left the island on a boat that departed from Güira de Melena, Artemisa, and disappeared upon reaching Florida. However, Prisoners Defenders asserts that this version “has been refuted by his own family, who indicate that he ultimately abandoned that idea.”

In reality, it concludes, “there is no verifiable information about his whereabouts, and State Security has stopped looking for him and shows no interest in clarifying his situation, a highly worrying indicator.”

With the 49 cases from the July 11 protests examined, the island is already the country with the most arbitrary detentions since 2019, according to the UN, with a total of 93, and “the only one,” says PD, that has been condemned in three opinions involving “more than 10 victims.” Cuba, Turkey, and Nicaragua are, in that order, the only three countries in the world with more mass condemnations of this type.

In its judgement, the GTDA, “with these 49 new cases, places Cuba as the first country in the world for arbitrary detention since 2019, with 93 cases between 2019 and 2025” and “the only one” that has been condemned in three opinions with “more than 10 victims.”

In that regard, PD lamented that in Cuba “prison is a tool of social discipline. Detention and imprisonment are punishments, but also recurring intimidating messages to society.”

In addition to detailing the current situation of all the cases examined, the organization’s report includes the names, surnames and positions of “repressors and agents of the regime” – including defense lawyers in the service of the State – involved in 66 of the cases examined by the GTDA.

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The Ministry of Fear and the Culture of Panic

The “suspect detector” has been perfected as a management tool, each official calculates how many times per day he should tweet the hashtag ordered by the boss.

The “people” is nothing more than a huge archive where everyone has an open file. / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, Yunior García Aguilera, November 18, 2025 — Terror has taken hold of Cuban institutions. Faced with a rumor circulating on social networks about the old and long-known corruption within the Ministry of Culture, the commissioners have come out to respond with a letter of self-vindication, accompanied by some 220 signatures. The answer may seem desperate and ridiculous if you do not understand the context in which it is written: there is an internal purge and all heads feel threatened.

Only panic can explain the clumsiness of those who wrote, signed and decided to make public the pamphlet. The hornet’s nest that can be stirred up behind this letter is far worse than any rumor about a spa in the home of a former deputy minister. Because, although the family business of Fernando Rojas is not news to all of us, there are juicier tidbits hidden in the Cuban cultural muddle. The Squirrel, in honor of his nervous name, far from protecting his henchmen is focusing on them. And there everyone has a glass ceiling.

Therefore, the most reasonable explanation for the official’s reaction may be related to the Gil case. After the accusations against the former deputy prime minister and head of Economy, every bureaucrat suspects that he or she may appear on the list (and not precisely Jeffrey Epstein’s). As they would say in the time of Stalin: “There is no one innocent, only people poorly investigated.” In Cuba it would be translated as: “No one knows the past that awaits him.”

As they would say in the time of Stalin: “There is no one innocent, only people poorly investigated.” In Cuba it would be translated as: “Nobody knows the past that awaits him”

All this paranoia and conspiracy theories have their origin in the obvious disaster that the country is experiencing. But perhaps it got even more complicated from a misunderstanding. A friend who’s a jokester but well-informed tells me that someone confirmed to Raúl Castro that the ship was sinking and it was hopeless. And Raúl, without taking his eyes off the screen of his television, replied that they would look for a scapegoat. So far, everything was normal; after all, his brother had shot his best general (and best colonel) when the trumpets of perestroika and glasnost sounded. What difference would it make to sacrifice a technocrat whom no one had heard of before the pandemic? continue reading

But here comes the possible mistake: perhaps the secretary misspelled the word expiar [atone for] and replaced it with espiar [spy]. Once you screwed up, you had to continue with the pantomime, and the former comrade of Díaz-Canel went from being merely insensitive to being a notorious spy, although we still do not know if he sent the alleged information to Agent 007 or to Mortadelo and Filemón [Spanish cartoon characters].

“The Cuban people can never be divided with messages of hate,” proclaims La Jiribilla’s text, refusing to recognize the curvature of the earth. Never before, my friends, had we been so divided! What they call “the people” is made up of the same people they call “enemies.” Their own speech betrays them. The “people” is nothing more than a huge archive where everyone has an open file.

Seeing some roofs burning and others running to hose them down, I remembered a phrase that may have escaped (or maybe not) the officer who questioned me during my last months in Cuba: “I’m itching to finish you off along with the insufferable little groups of your generation, in order to deal with the big shots we’re investigating.” It is possible that his phrase was part of the manual. But it is also likely that the officers were so saturated, propping up a building that was coming down without plans, that they did not give a fig about the manual. The truth is that, if my file was about ten pages long, that of the officials of the apparatus surely occupied several volumes. That’s why they all jump at the first accusation. They’re on edge.

The poor souls who stamp their signature on the pamphlet are old acquaintances of the guild. Some of the elderly included there are dependent on the increasingly meager aid of the “attention to personalities” department, a bureaucratic euphemism for state charity. Others expect a promised house, or hope to be prioritized if a ship arrives with a donation of paper. And there is no lack of those who retain good memories of some cultural drunkenness and feel indebted to the official who brought the bottle. But not a single one of those signatories can say, with his hand on his heart, that cultural institutions are corruption-free territory or that the country is doing well.

Not a single one of those signatories can say, with his hand on his heart, that cultural institutions are corruption-free territory or that the country is doing well.

Nor is it news that some in the world of culture play at being the mascot of power. Even the Austrian painter had several artists who put their talent at the service of horror. In our own history there is no lack of examples: Machado had his salon chroniclers; Batista his pen-pushers who called him “The Man”; and Fidel Castro his army of shaggy bards. But those who used to sing to the bearded man are today still on their knees before a bureaucrat whom they themselves recognize as a mediocre leader, even if he is disguised as someone who will help when a hurricane strikes.

In the corridors of the Ministry of Censorship five-year plans are no longer discussed, but rather daily rumors: who did not applaud enough during the last speech-poem by Alpidio Alonso; who fell asleep listening to Abel Prieto criticizing Shakira and talking nonsense about cultural colonization; who did not post a a heart emoji to the last profile photo of Amauri Pérez, Prieto’s new wardrobe consultant. The suspect detector has been perfected as a management tool, and each official calculates how many times per day he should tweet the hashtag ordered by the boss.

What is coming now is predictable. UNEAC, AHS, UPEC and all those subordinates to G2 will go through the list to collect new names. And after a while, the vast majority of those who stamp their initials will say as usual: “I didn’t know what I was signing.” And the worst is that they will be right, because many of them completely ignore what is hidden behind this pamphlet.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Playing, Cuba Qualifies for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games

Cuba will seek again to win the regional tournament, which it has not won for 11 years.

Cuba seeks to confirm its dominance in Central America, where it is the biggest winner in history /Jit

14ymedio, Havana, November 18, 2025 — Without having to earn its place on the playing field and through the ranking, Cuba obtained its pass to compete in the Central American Games of Santo Domingo in 2026. This Sunday, the Executive Committee of the Pan American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) reported that it gave out five direct tickets to the tournament based on international rankings.

Originally, access to the regional competition was going to be split into two events at this year’s close: the American Baseball Cup, which would be played in Panama but was recently canceled due to sponsorship issues, and the Caribbean Baseball Cup, which will take place between December 1st and 9th, in Nassau and the Bahamas. Cuba will be present but without the pressure of gaining access.

However, due to the tight schedule, there will no longer be space to hold any tournament that would give those places, so they were awarded by world ranking and by using the last update of the list of the World Confederation of Baseball and Softball (WBSC) in mid-November. The top five teams in the Americas (except the US) received the pass: Mexico (third place in the Americas and sixth in the world), Puerto Rico (fourth in the continent and seventh in the world), Panama (fifth in the Americas and eighth in the world), Cuba (sixth continental and ninth international) and Colombia (eighth in the continent and thirteenth in the world).

The top five teams in the Americas (except the US) received the pass.

With ticket in hand, Cuba will try next year in the Dominican Republic to win back the gold in the Central American tournament, something that has not happened since 11 years ago, when they won continue reading

the title at the 2014 Veracruz Central American and Caribbean Games, confirming Cuba’s dominance in the discipline, where it is the greatest winner in history.

Since the first edition of the Central American Games, held in Mexico in 1926, Cuba has won 15 gold medals, far above the rest; the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico won three. Nevertheless, Cuban domination has been diluted since the beginning of this century, because in the last six editions of the Games they won only two, as did Puerto Rico. The remaining wins were divided between Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

The team’s poor performance has been particularly evident in the last two years, which led to it being ranked 12th in the WBSC ranking by mid-2025, its worst position ever since this system was invented in 2011. However, in recent months Cuba managed to climb to ninth, just 41 points above the eighth place, Panama.

Last year was also one to be forgotten. The Cuban team generated the fewest points of the teams in the top 10 of the world ranking

Last year was also one to be forgotten. The Cuban team generated the fewest points among the teams in the top 10 of the world ranking. The team could only add 401, far from the second worst team in that year, the Dominican Republic, with 760. The classification also takes into account achievements in minor categories, where there were also no major results.

The low performance has also caused Team Cuba, which in 2012 was the leader of the world ranking, to fall even at a regional level, where for two years it has occupied sixth place on the American continent.

In 2026, in addition to the Central American and Caribbean Games, the World Baseball Classic -in which Cuba was runner-up in 2006- is scheduled, but Cuba’s participation is still up in the air. Until the end of October, there was no confirmation from the organizing committee. Germán Mesa, who was going to be at the head of Team Cuba in the canceled Copa América, declared that “for the 2026 World Classic, we still don’t know if Cuba has received permission.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: “Those Who Have Family Outside Survive Better; the Rest of Us Improvise”

New dollar stores feed the stomach and drive inequality in Guantánamo

For months, the city has been undergoing a silent transformation: a proliferation of shops selling exclusively in dollars. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Guantánamo, November 17, 2025 — In Guantánamo, the line in front of the La Fragancia store forms early. Some arrive with international cards, others carry the Cuban Classic but all have something in common: they have dollars to buy anything from shampoo to soap. The arrival of hard currency stores in the city has been shaping domestic commerce and the economy, as well as dividing opinions between those who applaud their proliferation and those who renounce them.

On the outskirts of the central market this Friday, a dozen people were waiting to enter. From time to time, a customer came out with a transparent bag showing off some of those products that are barely found in Cuban pesos. “I have $8.70 left on the card and I have to manage it very well,” says a man who pauses for a moment and presses his face against the glass to observe the shelves inside.

For months, the city has been undergoing a silent transformation: a proliferation of shops selling exclusively in dollars, managed by Cimex, the powerful conglomerate under military control. So far this year, several of these air-conditioned spaces have been opened, with tidy shelves and products no longer seen in the dwindling shops in freely convertible currency (MLC): milk powder, detergent, pasta, imported chicken and, hopefully, some meat.

A few meters from one of these markets, a woman who identifies herself as a food worker summarizes the feelings of many. “This is an abuse: we earn in pesos and here everything is in dollars.” She says she has no hard currency card, does not receive remittances and depends on changing her Cuban pesos in the informal market to buy “from time to time a few cubes of soup and some sausages. If someone from outside doesn’t send it to you, you don’t eat here. But what are we going to do? I still have to come, because the MLC stores don’t even have oil sometimes.”

Miguel, an electrician, complains without hesitation. “This hurts. It hurts because it reminds you that your salary is not good enough to live in your continue reading

own country.” His gesture is one of exhaustion, not anger. He speaks with the serenity of one who has already spent all his fury. “If there are elderly people who don’t even have a peso to buy rationed bread, how will they get dollars to come to this kind of store?”

Next to him, an old lady with gnarled fingers holds a blue card that contains part of the money she receives monthly. ” My son in Tampa helps me refill it. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even have coffee to drink in the morning,” she says. She recognizes that these shops “save” her but immediately lowers her voice, as if she were ashamed to admit it: “This is a blessing and an injustice at the same time.”

Foreign exchange businesses also shape the informal market and the prices of private traders selling in national currency. “The MSMEs* in my neighborhood use the prices in these stores to set the exchange rate for pesos. If a carton of eggs is six dollars here, then they automatically put it at 3,000 pesos,” she complains.

That is the tone tone among the majority of people: the resigned recognition of a “necessary evil.” They use dollar stores because there are no alternatives, but almost nobody approves of them. The one who has no hard currency looks from outside; the one who has it buys, but with a hint of guilt, aware that the whole system drives inequality.

In a nearby park, a group of young people agree that these shops are an “economic tightrope.” “Those who receive remittances have it made,” says one of them. “The rest of us are cooked.” Another adds: “Before there were difficulties, yes, but we all looked at the same shelf. Now there are full shelves for some and empty shelves for others.”

“Before there were difficulties, yes, but we all looked at the same shelf. Now there are full shelves for some and empty shelves for others”

Dollar stores in the city of Guantánamo usually have good air conditioning, soft music and uniformed employees. The Micro Caribe market, of the Pan-American chain, is one of those comfort bubbles. A few meters from the premises a middle-aged man launches his diagnosis: “This is not commerce, it’s natural selection. Those with families outside survive better; the rest of us improvise.”

In the Pastorita neighborhood, the line for the currency store has become a meeting place. People chat, exchange news and make mental calculations. “Do you think I can afford a package of chicken?” asks a mother who came with her little daughter. “Hopefully,” says another. Some carry dollars in cash but they are the few.

“I prefer to put the currency on the card because they never have coins to give change and you get back candies or soup cubes,” complains another customer. The door opens and a breath of fresh air with a clean smell emerges from inside. Card in hand, the next lucky group with hard currency enters the store.

*Translator’s note: Literally, “Micro, Small, Medium Enterprise.” The expectation is that it is also privately managed, but in Cuba this may include owners/managers who are connected to the government.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana: If the Wastewater Affects the Railroad Tracks, Dig a Trench

At the 19 de Noviembre station, on Tulipán Street, the mixture of mud, grease and excrement has formed a quagmire that threatens both the nose and the metal.

As they dig, the smell becomes stronger in the midday sun. / 14ymedio

14ymedia, Havana, Natalia López Moya, November 16, 2025 — On Conill Street, in Nuevo Vedado, there is a smell that blots out the landscape. A thick stench that invades the sidewalk where every morning, almost in droves, the students of the José Miguel Pérez pre-university school pass by. For months now, the pestilence comes as a warning, a daily reminder that wastewater does not understand schedules or routines. The dark stream rises from a collapsed sewer and winds down the street.

The wastewater comes out through the gaps and edges of the metal lid, dragging bags and garbage along with it. In the course of its journey, the viscous liquid has been conquering ground until it has run into the tracks of the railway that leads to the 19 de Noviembre station on Tulipán Street. Along the way, the mixture of mud, grease and excrement has formed a muddy quagmire that threatens both the nose and the metal.

Ankle-deep in their boots in the fresh mud, they use their shovels to remove a dirt that smells like a public toilet. / 14ymedio

The image of the site this Saturday speaks for itself: a group of workers, with their boots sinking into the fresh mud, using their shovels to remove dirt that smells like a public toilet. Around them, the puddles reflect a blue sky that seems incompatible with the disaster under their feet.

One brigade embarks on what seems like an impossible mission to protect the iron tracks. They have no pumps, no new pipes or tools to rebuild the sewer system. They only have shovels, rubber boots and patience. Their “solution” — if you can call it that — is to open a trench under the rails to divert the water and prevent the tracks from ending up moving by losing solidity at the base. A kind of makeshift canal that, hopefully, will keep moisture at bay for a few days… or hours.

In a city facing a surge of viruses, this steady flow of wastewater seems like a direct provocation. / 14ymedio

As they dig, the smell becomes stronger in the midday sun. And the irony too: in a city facing a resurgence of respiratory and stomach viruses, with overcrowded hospitals and pharmacies without basic medicines, this constant flow of wastewater seems like a direct provocation.

The neighbors are no longer surprised. They have long since learned to coexist with “temporary solutions,” those patches that fill speeches and press reports but never get to the heart of the problem. The routine consists of patching, diverting, covering, filling, re-opening, recovering. As if the entire city lives under an endless cycle of cosmetic repairs that do not heal, but rather become chronic. A Havana where life passes between spills of wastewater and the slow passage of a train that, hopefully, will manage to advance without sinking into the mud.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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By Pretending, the Cuban Ended Up Not Really Knowing Who He Is

In Report Against Myself, Eliseo Alberto confesses to what many Cubans learned to do to survive: speak with two voices

In the Cuba of the report, blame is not settled: it is archived. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Málaga, José A. Adrián Torres, November 15, 2025 — There are books that are neither written nor read: they confess. Informe contra mí mismo (Report Against Myself), by Eliseo Alberto, belongs to this rare category. It is the story of a man who writes a police report — not against the enemy, but against his own family — and discovers that the real informer is not the one who signs the paper, but the system that managed to make it possible.

The novel, written from Mexican exile and silenced in official Cuba, could be read as the Cuban version of The Lives of Others. In the German film, a Stasi agent spies on a playwright and ends up redeeming himself out of compassion. In Report against Myself, on the other hand, the narrator does not redeem himself: he undresses. He does not save anyone. He only tries to save his conscience. Surveillance does not come from above, but from within. The snitch becomes his own victim.

Both works share the same moral axis: the abolition of the individual by the totalitarian state. But Eliseo Alberto adds something that the film cannot offer: the warmth of betrayed affection. There is no cold basement or interrogation room. There is a house in Havana, a poet father, a mother who puts out a lit cigarette, a family that sings while the son — a soldier in the reserves — receives the order to spy on them. It is horror with the smell of rum and the sad light of the kerosene lamp.

Eliseo Alberto was the son of Eliseo Diego and nephew of Fina García Marruz, heirs to a poetic tradition that believed in the dignity of language. That is why his testimony hurts even more: because it shows how a regime that proclaimed itself the redeemer ended up destroying even faith in the word.

The Lives of Others ends with a redemption; Report Against Myself does not. In the Cuba of the report, the guilt is not expiated: it is archived. The author says it with bitter irony: “I am imprisoned in a file.” That bureaucratic file is the real Cuban prison: one that does not need bars, just a people educated to distrust themselves. And he adds on another page: “No one is entirely guilty of his fear.”

Eliseo Alberto was not a counter-revolutionary; he went from “red” to “pink.” He loved the Revolution as one loves a youth, and that makes it more painful. Because he understood that the great success of the process was not literacy or reform, but to perfect the art of depersonalization. The Revolution turned obedience into moral virtue, loyalty into a test of faith continue reading

and fear into a form of belonging. It taught how to give up the self without feeling that it was given up.

The Cuban speaks like a militant in the ration store, a skeptic at home and a victim with foreigners or in exile.

From that moral experiment emerged a phenomenon that still defines Cuba: the multifaceted self. It is not a psychological split, but a pragmatic identity that rotates according to the context without being dissociated: a strategy of moral and linguistic adaptation in an environment where personal coherence could be dangerous. It is the ability, or need, to change both face and language according to the context. The Cuban speaks like a militant in the ration store, a skeptic at home and a victim with foreigners or in exile. Each environment activates a code, a lexicon, a “way of thinking.” That verbal and moral plasticity, born of fear, ended up becoming — like jokes and humor — another survival strategy: learning to say the “right” thing where appropriate.

It is not hypocrisy, but adaptation. In a country where sincerity could cost at least a punishment, work or freedom, discourse was fragmented. This created a culture of interchangeable opinions, where words serve to protect, not to reveal. The result: a people who, by force of pretense, ended up not knowing at all who they are.

Report Against Myself is the autopsy of that loss. Eliseo Alberto does not accuse, he does not pontificate; he shows how the system managed to install a censor within each citizen. And although the author wrote from exile, his book is still relevant on the Island. Every time someone shuts up out of prudence or fear, disguises his thinking in order to survive or changes his vocabulary so as not to be out of tune, he himself rewrites that report.

“The Revolution has grown old, but its most enduring work is still alive: the Cuban divided between what he says, what he keeps silent -but thinks- and what he seems to say.” That depersonalization triumphed where the five-year plans and the harvest of ten million failed.

‘Report Against Myself’ is not a political allegation, but an inner atonement

Perhaps the only thing left to do, on behalf of all those who unknowingly signed it, is to write the reverse: a report in one’s own favor. A report in favor of freedom. Even so, lucidity and candor do not exonerate. Eliseo Alberto was a victim and participant at the same time, like many of the intellectuals of his generation. The problem — and here is something uncomfortable — is that many, for aesthetic, family or ideological fidelity, kept silent too long. Some did so out of fear; others, believing they could still save the project from within. But when the cultural and moral repression was already evident, staying was also a form of complicity, even if it was passive or sentimental.

This moral ambiguity should be recognized: not to judge it harshly, but to remember that the sensitivity and intelligence with which a pain of conscience is expressed in writing are not enough when a long past silence perpetuates the damage. Eliseo Alberto faced the monster, yes, but he did it late. And he paid for it with a chronic remorse, not with the personal and committed political action that would have been more redemptive. Report Against Myself is not a political allegation, but an inner atonement.

His friend Héctor Abad Faciolince, from Colombia, expressed it with the clarity of someone who did not share this servitude: he admired his talent, but could not forgive him for taking so long to break the “spell.” That remark, more fraternal than cruel, sums up the moral dilemma of a generation that believed that the word — poetry, essay, criticism from within — could redeem a Revolution that had already lost its soul, given itself to the same “devil” … that it itself had created.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Sends a Ship With 70,000 Barrels of Diesel to Cuba

The ‘Ocean Mariner’ sailed last Wednesday from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, heading for Havana, where, according to the Marine Traffic website, it will arrive this Monday.

14ymedio, Mexico City, Sergio Castro Bibriesca, November 16, 2025 — This week oil shipments from Mexico to Cuba were reactivated. According to the weekly ship schedule of the Port of Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz, the tanker Ocean Mariner loaded 10,392 tons of diesel and fuel oil and sailed last Wednesday to Havana, where, according to the Marine Traffic website, it will arrive this Monday.

The shipment would represent about 70 million barrels, according to Ramses Pech, advisor of energy and economy, who points out to 14ymedio that the cargo, about 11 million liters, could represent a cost of between 12 and 18 million dollars.

Whether it’s diesel or fuel oil, “Cuba burns much of its fossil fuel to generate electricity,” he says. The island “has great problems because of that. We have seen it the last few times with the national power outages, partly due to the fact that they have received less fuel from Venezuela. That is why Mexico started to send crude oil as well,” he adds.

“Cuba burns much of its fossil fuel to generate electricity”

The expert indicates that Mexico “must be sending Cuba fuel with a low amount of sulphur, as well as fuel oil with less than 2%, and this can help generate the power plants. It may be a conversion from diesel to fuel oil. There is not much difference.” He says that “they may even be residuals that you can also burn, or a low-quality diesel. After all, they are fuels that you can use and adapt to how you’re going to burn them.” continue reading

According to the local media Notiver, which reported from early November the presence of the tanker, the Ocean Mariner arrived on October 27 but did not enter port and stayed until October 31 in the anchorage area. Although it was reported that its departure was officially on November 12, “it stayed facing the port” and left on the 14th of November.

The Ocean Mariner, flying the flag of Liberia, “a small ship,” according to Ramses Pech, has sailed from Mexican ports to Cuba on at least four occasions since May 23, according to satellite tracking consulted by the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity.

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has justified the diesel exports to Cuba, saying they are due to an alleged “surplus”

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has justified the diesel exports to Cuba, saying they are due to an alleged “surplus” in the country. However, experts such as Jorge Piñón, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, have pointed out that Mexico can send the hydrocarbon to the island because it imports diesel and gasoline from the US, to the point of being its largest buyer of refined fuels, according to official data published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

At her daily press conferenceon October 16, the successor of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that there was an elevated production of this oil derivative in the country to justify shipments to the island.

In this respect, Pech warns that “it is important that Mexico clarify how these alleged sales are made — something that Pemex has concealed and justified as a ‘private matter’– because, shortly, we will have the revision of the T-MEC (Trade Agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada) on the energy side, and that could affect Mexico in terms of the new terms and conditions that may come, which could limit shipments” to Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In the Absence of Doctors in Cuba, Holguín Residents Self-Diagnose: Joint Pain Is Chikungunya, Dehydration Is Dengue

There is no saline solution in hospitals and surgeries have been suspended because staff have been infected with the virus.

Operating theatre at Lenin University Hospital in Holguín, in a file photo. / Facebook

14ymedio, Miguel García, 14 November 2025 — The health situation in Holguín is critical and shows no signs of improving. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, arbovirus infections are multiplying, without people being clear whether they are suffering from chikungunya or dengue, the two main diseases that have spread across the island. Only some of the symptoms help you identify them: if the joints hurt, it will be the former; if there is severe vomiting, the latter.

“Almost everyone in my block has been sick already. Just yesterday, they took my cousin to the Clinical Surgical Hospital,” says Sandra, a resident of Holguín. “He’s big and strong, but he fainted from dehydration, and when he got to the hospital, they didn’t even have any IV fluids.” The same thing is happening at the city’s paediatric hospital and at Lenin Hospital. Each bag of saline solution has become a luxury item: it can be found on the informal market on Calle 13 for 3,000 pesos.

Another resident of Holguín says the same thing: “People are becoming dehydrated and nothing is being done about it. Many people go to the doctor and they are sent away, only getting advice to boil cherry leaves. At the hospital, unless they are seriously ill, they are not treated.” Talking about this, he tells us about an acquaintance who, 12 days after contracting “the virus,” experienced worsening symptoms and was becoming dehydrated. “She had to send her son to buy her IV fluids and find a nurse in the neighbourhood to administer them at home. People aren’t going to the hospital because they know there is nothing there.”

“No special favours, there’s no way we can operate under these conditions!”

We are also seeing the beginning a shortage of doctors. At Lenin Hospital, according to a nurse employed there, “they are not performing surgeries because most of the specialists are ill with arbovirosis.” Workers saw the director of the centre, Dr Amalia Pupo Zúñiga, standing at the door of a room and warning: “No favours, there is no way we can do that!” Favours, in Cuban medical slang, are the favours that health workers do on the side: for friendship, family relationships or in exchange for a gift. continue reading

Several Holguin residents also claim to know of people dying, an issue that the government keeps quiet about, despite the fact that funeral homes and cemeteries in the country are clearly busier than usual. The Holguín authorities have admitted, however, that the epidemiological situation, especially after Hurricane Melissa, has worsened in the territory. “Many people are currently suffering from joint pain, feverish symptoms, loss of appetite, restricted mobility and general malaise,” according to a note published on Friday in Ahora!

Each bag of saline solution has become, in fact, a luxury item: it can be found on the informal market on Calle 13 for 3,000 pesos. / 14ymedio

Geanela Cruz Ávila, director of the Provincial Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology, told the government newspaper that tests confirm the circulation of dengue serotype four and chikungunya in Holguín.

The official didn’t say much about the measures taken by Public Health to control the situation. She merely stated that last week the Provincial Defence Council approved a “strategy” to combat arboviruses following the passage of Melissa, which includes investigations in communities and home medical care, as well as the destruction of “breeding sites that appear in homes and other premises in order to stop the appearance of mosquitoes, mainly in their larval stage”.

The poisons that are normally used, malathion and permethrin, have a very strong and distinctive smell.

The note says nothing about fumigation, but some residents claim that it is “sporadic and isolated”. For example, Sandra says: “They know about the positive cases in the neighbourhood and they haven’t come to fumigate, as they did before with dengue. According to them, it’s because they don’t have any fuel”.

The lady also does not know whether these occasional fumigations are effective. “The poisons that are normally used, malathion and permethrin, have a very strong, characteristic smell, and when you walk past one of these brigades, you don’t smell any of that,” she explains. “I don’t know what they’re actually spraying, or whether it works.”

On Wednesday, the national director of epidemiology, Francisco Durán García, in a special programme on the country’s health situation, stated that at least 30% of the population has been infected at some point with one of the arboviruses that have spread across the island, dengue or chikungunya.

Although the former carries a higher risk of death, people are currently more fearful of chikungunya, as it is a relatively new virus in Cuba, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same vector that transmits dengue and Zika. María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, director of the Research, Diagnosis and Reference Centre at the Pedro Kourí Institute, gave detailed explanations about this disease that is keeping the island in check, as its symptoms can take up to three months to disappear and the joint pains are very severe.

Translated by GH

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The Havana Marathon, Another Victim of the Viruses That Plague Cuba

Laura, Reynier and other fans who are convalescing, even those with symptoms, have chosen to run the middle distance of 10 kilometers since the 5000 meter [5k] race is only for foreigners

This year only 200 foreign runners have registered, fewer than the 300 of the 2024 edition. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Darío Hernández, November 15, 2025 — Many runners will not participate in the 39th edition of the Havana Marathon (Marabana) due to the consequences of dengue and chikungunya, viruses that according to official figures have affected 30% of the Cuban population. Cancelations, changes of distance and disorganization marked the first day of number pick-up at the hotel Habana Libre for registered athletes.

“I’m here because I want to see if I can change the distance. I had planned to run the marathon, the 42 kilometers, but this year I won’t be able to.” Laura has been running for 10 years, and it’s been nine since she missed an edition of the most popular race in Cuba. The first time, she remembers, she ran the 5 kilometer competition and then it increased, first to 10 kilometers and then to the half marathon (21 kilometers), until five years ago when she managed to run the full marathon.

“This time it will be impossible for me. I got the virus a month ago. I spent two weeks without going out, and only now have I been able to stretch my legs a little. The pains are still there, in the wrists, ankles, the soles of my feet. I recently ran 5 kilometers as a test and spent the next three days unable to walk. And just the next day, on the Round Table program, Dr. Durán said that the pains can last from three months to a year.” Laura prefers not to take risks and to rest a bit, so she wants to cut the distance in half. “If they don’t change my participation to 21 kilometers, I won’t run this year.”

Reyner, on the other hand, says that the virus hit him very hard, and he constantly relapses. “I’m still convalescing, but this would be my first race, and I don’t want to miss it. I was going to run the 10 kilometers, and I want to lower it to 5, but it’s difficult because this distance is only for foreigners. It’s the most popular, and surely more people would come and spice it up. Cubans can only run 10 kilometers. No one runs a 10; that takes preparation. That’s why the Marabana is becoming less popular.” continue reading

About 2,800 runners will participate this year. / 14ymedio

According to data provided to the official press by Carlos Gatorno, director of the Marabana Maracuba National Running and Walking Commission, this year about 2,800 runners will participate, more than the 2,400 from last year, but only 200 will be foreigners, fewer than the 300 of the 2024 edition. They can opt for any distance and the possibility of running only 5 kilometers. To do this, they must pay $150 for registration.

Daniel is Mexican and has a two-year employment contract in Cuba. He says that the cost seems excessive and that he will wait until the day of the race, because he has been told that there are almost always extra spots at the last minute. “This year it should be much easier to buy a number. I have a friend who got in that way. An acquaintance gave him his permit to get a number, because he is in bed with the virus.”

However, on the morning of Thursday, the first day to pick up the number and the runner’s bag, which includes a T-shirt, a package of detergent and wet towels, many complained that the organizers did not let anyone else pick up the numbers of those who were sick. They had to go in person. “These people are inflexible. With the number of people convalescing how can you be so strict? They have to limp in line to enroll,” says Luis, who had to come personally on crutches to pick up his number — despite not being able to participate because he is sick — in order to give it to his brother.

“My brother came the day before to ask and they told him no, that if he was sick he could not run, and that they could not be giving out T-shirts like this, because those were used for prizes in other competitions. My brother was in shock, because nothing they told him made sense. They are very intolerant about giving the T-shirt and number to someone else.”

Foreigners must pay $150 for registration. / 14ymedio

The hours passed and the line did not advance. Above, in the registration area, members of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and other official institutions had priority when receiving their numbers and carried the T-shirts for their members in suitcases, even though it was reported that the time for these institutions was Wednesday, the day before.

This Sunday, November 16, when the Marabana begins on Independence Avenue, hundreds of registered Cubans will not participate in the race, due to the aftermath of the viruses that have been plaguing the island for months, and for which there is still no response.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mother and Son Die in a Building Collapse in Old Havana, on the 506th Anniversary of the City’s Founding

The incident occurred in a house located on Compostela Street, between Sol and Muralla.

Some local residents reported that the loud noise woke them up, and that the first people to arrive tried to remove the debris before the firefighters arrived. / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2025 — In the early hours of Sunday morning, another building collapse in Old Havana shook the residents of the capital’s historic center. The partial collapse of a house located at 568 Compostela Street, between Sol and Muralla, left two people dead: a mother and son, identified as Sara Paula Díaz, 64, and Carlos Fidel Sánchez Díaz, 38. The incident tragically coincides with the 506th anniversary of a city that, in recent decades, has become better known for its collapses than its architectural landmarks.

The incident occurred around 2:15 a.m., when the second floor of the building suddenly collapsed. Some neighbors reported that the loud crash woke them up, and that the first people to arrive tried to remove the rubble before the firefighters arrived. Rescue teams, along with the police and medical personnel, worked for hours to locate the victims and secure the area.

According to official journalists Lázaro Manuel Alonso and Alexander Ríos Cruz, the building had been in critical condition for years. Several families lived there, including a woman with four children, an elderly woman living alone, and a father with his adult son. They all lived aware of the risk, but without alternative housing or government support.

A Cubanet reporter also confirmed the building’s evident deterioration. Neighbors agreed that the collapse occurred at the rear of the building, where cracks and leaks had been visible for some time. Images circulating on social media showed rescuers, police, and onlookers gathered in front of the building, while emergency teams worked among the wreckage of the collapsed second floor. continue reading

The government itself has admitted that each year in the capital, around 1,000 homes collapse, either partially or totally.

This latest collapse adds to a long list of similar tragedies that frequently strike the Cuban capital. On September 28, also a Sunday, the partial collapse of a building located at 466 Sol Street claimed the life of an elderly man. In July, two consecutive collapses killed four people, including two young parents and their seven-year- old daughter.

The causes are well-known: buildings over a century old, overcrowded, and exposed for decades to humidity, salt air, and lack of maintenance. In Old Havana, thousands of buildings are at risk of partial or total collapse, as even official sources acknowledge. The government itself has admitted that some 1,000 homes collapse partially or completely each year in the capital, many of them occupied.

The deteriorating housing situation not only threatens the lives of residents but also reveals a profound institutional neglect. While authorities promote tourism projects and build new hotels, Havana residents’ homes are literally sinking. Urban renewal is progressing in the areas most visible to tourists, but it leaves out the alleyways and vacant lots where tens of thousands of people live.

The scarcity of building materials, bureaucratic hurdles in accessing subsidies, and the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises are exacerbating the crisis. Faced with a lack of solutions, many families are forced to live in conditions that expose them to the risk of roofs, walls, and beams collapsing. State-run shelters often offer only overcrowding, a lack of privacy, and basic necessities, leading some to return to their dilapidated homes despite the danger.

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The Government’s Plan Against the Epidemic in Havana: 600 Street Sweepers, Waste Collection and Cemetery Cleaning

The number of mosquito-spraying bazookas will increase from 450 to 750, and some 1,500 vector control workers will be deployed in the next two weeks.

The government’s plan aims to “address the accumulated problems” in the capital. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 16 November 2025 — Authorities in Havana—which is celebrating its 506th anniversary this week—are attempting to contain a growing health crisis with measures that, rather than being well-planned, seem desperate. This Saturday the government announced the hiring of 600 street sweepers, the accelerated collection of solid waste, and the cleaning of cemeteries as part of a plan to “address the accumulated problems” in the capital, where the proliferation of mosquitoes and overflowing garbage dumps threatens to worsen the epidemics of dengue, chikungunya, and other diseases.

It was in Matanzas—in mid-September—where the alarms began to sound due to the increase in arboviruses. Within a few weeks, cases began to spread throughout the country, until health authorities acknowledged that at least 30% of the population had been infected at some point. What happened to cause the situation to spiral out of control? Dr. María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, director of the Research, Diagnosis, and Reference Center at the Pedro Kourí Institute (IPK), explained that one of the causes is the disastrous waste management.

The meeting this Saturday, led by Miguel Díaz-Canel along with members of the political and military leadership, reviewed what was presented as “progress” in the city’s sanitation efforts. According to official figures, more than 93,000 liters of fuel were used last week to transport 96,500 cubic meters of garbage, an efficiency the government considers “encouraging.” However, piles of waste remain visible in the streets of numerous Havana neighborhoods, and residents continue to complain that garbage trucks are conspicuously absent. continue reading

The so-called “revival of the street sweeper’s trade” includes the creation of 77 brigades, equipped with uniforms, repaired carts, and promises of food and protective gear. Authorities insist this effort aims to restore “social discipline” to a city where, faced with the collapse of public services, many residents are forced to dump their trash on any street corner.

Faced with the collapse of community services, many residents are forced to dump their garbage on any street corner.

During the meeting, sanctions were also discussed: over a thousand fines totaling half a million pesos, and the arrest of people collecting raw materials at trash dumps, who are even accused of “spreading epidemics.” At the same time, the demolition of shacks and informal collection points was announced in an attempt to “regain control” of the urban chaos spreading throughout the capital.

The cleaning offensive extends to cemeteries and funeral homes, with repair work in 22 of the 24 Havana funeral homes and sanitation work in 16 cemeteries, including those in Guanabacoa and Santiago de las Vegas.

In terms of health, the official plan calls for increasing the number of fumigation bazookas – the equipment used to disperse insecticide – from fewer than 450 to more than 750. In addition, 1,500 workers will be added to the vector control campaign in the next two weeks, with the aim of covering more than 80% of the premises in the capital.

Although the authorities claim that fever cases have decreased and medical screenings are increasing, the reality on the ground in the neighborhoods is far removed from the optimistic picture presented in the official media. Water shortages, prolonged power outages, and uncollected garbage continue to create the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and fuel the despair of Havana residents.

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Living and Starting a Business Among Ruins in the Heart of Havana

“Miscellaneous items,” promises a mini-shop embedded in the remains of a building

Everything is arranged with a mixture of care and urgency, as if each object were a soldier ready for the daily battle against scarcity. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 15 November 2025 — From the sidewalk of Belascoaín Street, where the rumble of classic cars mingles with the smell of fried food and musty dampness, a small rectangle cut into a corroded wall catches the eye of anyone passing by. It is an irregular opening, as if forcibly torn out, embedded in the remains of a building that lost its splendor decades ago and, as of few years ago, also lost its upper floors. All that remains of that collapse are bare columns, layers of paint flaking away, and a faded mural where someone tried to paint a sun, perhaps to ward off so much ruin. But amidst the chaos, two words painted with a thick, clumsy brush offer an unlikely promise: “Miscellaneous Items.”

The phrase, written amidst rust and desolation, carries the touch of an inside joke between the city and its inhabitants. “Several,” yes: several collapses, several rainstorms without shelter, several decades of architectural neglect. But also “several” as an act of faith, as a declaration that, despite everything, someone resists the continued encroachment of emptiness. There, where there should be silence and dust, a small makeshift shop flourishes, clinging to life like the plants that sprout in the cracks of the balconies.

Behind the peeling paint, a table laden with merchandise creates an unusual collage of times and origins.

Peering into the alcove is like discovering another world. Behind the peeling paint, a table laden with merchandise creates an unusual collage of times and origins. In one corner rest packages of baby wipes—imported, smelling of another country—next to gleaming aluminum basins, brand new, as if they’d just rolled off the assembly line in some workshop in the Cerro neighborhood. A few steps further in, behind a makeshift counter made out of planks, the vendor arranges jars, funnels, ladles, and an assortment of continue reading

metal parts that could belong to anything from a kitchen to a 1970s Russian motorcycle.

Everything is arranged with a mixture of care and urgency, as if each object were a soldier ready for the daily battle against scarcity. A radio plays softly,
almost timidly, while a household fan stirs hot air that barely manages to dispel the smell of garbage wafting from the mountain of trash growing on the corner. Nothing here is comfortable, spacious, or new. But the whole thing works, pulsates, breathes. It is a fragile little venduta [shop] built on the skeleton of what was once a building and what could one day, in the distant future, be an empty lot.

The contrast is brutal and commonplace: disaster and entrepreneurship, collapse and the will to prosper coexist in a space barely three meters wide. This coexistence, so quintessentially Cuban, transforms Belascoaín’s makeshift stall into a small symbol of the entire city: what is about to fall and what insists on rising again. Between ruin and ingenuity, between precariousness and inventiveness, beats the same obstinacy that drives so many: to sell something, to survive, to not let life completely crumble.

At midday, a customer stops to look. He is not looking for anything specific; in Havana, nobody’s looking for anything particular, you look for whatever comes along.

At midday, a customer stops to look. He is not looking for anything specific; in Havana, nobody looks for anything particular, you look for whatever comes along. And in the small window opened among the rubble, something always appears: a screw, a sponge, a packet of detergent, a tired greeting from the vendor. Assorted products, just as the sign promises. Assorted and vital. Assorted and, above all, attainable.

Because here, in this fragment of ruin turned shop, the city reminds us that it is still capable of creating a tiny paradise where before there was only dust. And that this stubbornness, this will to survive among ruins, Havana’s strongest pulse remains.
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