English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Pedro Espinosa, Havana, 18 April 2024 — Open and full of puddles, the hole has been there for “a thousand years.” In reality, the neighbors say, it’s been about five, but it gives the impression of having always been there, in the middle of a street – in itself very mistreated – of the … Continue reading “The ‘Swimming Pool’ Pothole in Havana Where Children Bathe Has Been Open for Several Years”
14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 25 November 2023 — The abandoned site of the Frank País thermoelectric plant, a mass located in the vicinity of Havana Bay, could serve as the setting for an apocalyptic film. However, a rusty armchair next to a turbine, two recently used buckets, and lines hung with clothes, are signs that several … Continue reading “In Cuba, an Abandoned Thermoelectric Plant Serves as Homes for About 50 People”
14ymedio, Madrid, 15 September 2023 — The case of the Cubans recruited to fight alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine continues to be talked about and on Thursday displayed the complicated game of juggling that Havana maintains to please Moscow without provoking the anger of the United States and, above all, of the European … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime Juggles To Support Russia Without Provoking the United States and Europe”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 August 2023 — The two-story building located at number 352 Paseo Del Prado at Virtudes in Havana suffered a partial collapse on Tuesday after the rains caused by Hurricane Idalia. According to 14ymedio, the police have the property under surveillance. The inhabitants protested on several occasions, placing objects in … Continue reading “Hurricane Idalia Leaves Power Cuts and Collapsed Buildings in Western Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2023 — Florida remains in suspense before the imminent arrival of Idalia, which will reach the coast of Big Bend as a category 4 hurricane, according to the forecasts of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States. Its fleeting passage through Cuba, even as a tropical storm, left hundreds … Continue reading “While Florida Evacuates the Population in the Face of Idalia’s Threat, Cuba Evaluates the Damage”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 18 July 2023 — The residents of the Luyanó neighborhood in Havana have been without funeral services for two and a half years. Complaints have already begun to materialize in posts and comments on social media. However, with its doors closed and an empty outdoor entrance, the funeral home remains abandoned … Continue reading “The Bureaucracy of Death in Cuba, a Nightmare for Families of the Deceased”
14ymedio, Madrid, 8 March 2023 — Enfrigo, the state company dedicated to the conservation of cold products, has damaged 206 of its 574 refrigerated storerooms and must dedicate them to warehousing because they no longer refrigerate. The machinery, its directors told the the official Communist Party newspaper Granma this Tuesday, is obsolete and there are no … Continue reading “Cuba: Some 200 Cold Rooms ‘Invented’ by Fidel Castro to Preserve Potatoes are Damaged”
14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2023 — The deterioration of the facilities of the José Suárez Blanco Microbiology Laboratory, in Artemisa, Cuba, and the shortage of medical materials make it difficult to diagnose infectious diseases in the province. A publication of the official newspaper El Artemiseño presents a string of misfortunes since the creation of the center, which has … Continue reading “Cuba’s Artemisa Bacteriological Laboratory ‘Does Not Comply With Any Biosafety Standard’”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 10, 2022 — With 578 cases of dengue fever identified in the last week, the situation in Ciego de Ávila remains the most critical on the Island. Local statistics, offered in a fragmentary way by authorities, are the only indicator available to gauge the magnitude of the disease in Cuba, a … Continue reading “Cuba Doesn’t Report Data for Dengue Fever Cases but Ciego de Avila Does: 578 in One Week”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 July 2022 — “Come neighbors, buy something. Sheets, towels, dessert plates, keep coming in.” The proclamation, which was heard this Tuesday where Hospital Street meets Jovellar, came from the woman who runs the bodega (ration store) located on that corner, which yesterday looked renovated, in salute to the official … Continue reading “Cuba: ‘A Gleaming Bodega with Hardly Any Food and a Lot of Revolutionary Will’”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 June 2022 — Originally called the Reina Building, because of the street on which it is located, and renamed Almacenes Ultra because of the large store that is located on its ground floor, the building that bears number 109 on centrally located Reina avenue has become a danger for residents … Continue reading “Walking Through Havana Looking Up to Avoid Building Collapses”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 June 2022 — Havana reports the greatest damage due to the heavy rains associated with the large area of low pressure in the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico that affects western and central Cuba. The authorities of the capital describe the conditions in the city as becoming “complex” and report two … Continue reading “Floods, Landslides and Thousands Sheltered from the Rains in Western Cuba”
14ymedio, Madrid, 8 April 2022 — The infant mortality figures in Ciego de Ávila were very bad news last year, when the province closed 2021 with a rate of 13.8 dead babies per thousand births. For the first quarter of 2022 up to March 24, according to the authorities, six newborns died and there were … Continue reading “Doctors Leave Cuba and it Affects the Infant Mortality Rate”
EFE/ 14ymedio, Havana, 4 March 2022 — A severe drought has left more than 400,000 people in Cuba without water supply, state television reported Thursday. The provinces with the greatest scarcity are the eastern Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey, as well as Havana. In the report, the president of the National … Continue reading “More Than 400,000 People in Cuba are Affected by the Drought”
Luz Escobar, Havana, 18 December 2021 — At 9 p.m. on Thursday, December 16th, on the eve of Saint Lazarus Day, Miguel Alejandro Alderete Recio and his 81-year-old mother, Rosalba, were listening to a radio program, El Nocturno at their home. A roar broke the tranquility. A wall of the adjoining house, at the corner … Continue reading ““15 Years Ago, They Told Us That They Were Going to Demolish the Building That Fell This Thursday””
