English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 8 January 2024 — Pedro Luis Frómeta, owner of a private business in Holguín, was murdered at his home in the course of a violent robbery in the early hours of Sunday. A source close to the family told 14ymedio that the victim was taken to the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin General Hospital at … Continue reading “Two Thieves Rob the Owner of a Private Business in Holguin and Kill Him With a Machete”
14ymedio, Madrid, December 1, 2023 — Prisoners Defenders (PD) reported this Friday that political prisoner Luis Frómeta Compte has received a brutal beating in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, where he is incarcerated. As confirmed by the Madrid-based organization based on the testimony of his relatives, the prisoner has been in the prison medical … Continue reading “Cuban ’11J’ Prisoner With German Citizenship Is Beaten in Prison”
14ymedio, Havana, 15 October 2023 — This Sunday, relatives of Shakira Martínez received the body of the 21-year-old who died along with nine other Cuban women in a traffic accident on October 1 when the truck they were traveling in to reach the U.S. border was driven at excessive speed and overturned in Pijijiapan, in … Continue reading “The Bodies of Ten Women Who Died in an Accident in Mexico Arrive in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2022 — “State Security visits us and harasses us, but we are going to continue asking for the freedom of our children.” The words of Migdalia Gutiérrez Padrón, mother of a 21-year-old young convicted because of the 11J protests [July 11, 2021] without even proof that he was there, explain why … Continue reading “They Challenge the Political Police and Demand Freedom for Their Children”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 April 2022 — The “restless boys” of the Cuban political police no longer know what to ‘invent’ to boycott our journalistic work. Today it occurred to them (they have also done it before) to circulate my husband’s and my mobile phone numbers on several digital classified sites along … Continue reading “Cuban State Security Believes the Press is Muzzled with Crude Fumbles”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 July 2021 — There are deaths, injuries, arrests, and disappearances. It is unknown precisely how many or where because the internet and telephone lines are cut in Cuba, but little by little, by encrypted channels, messaging, and social networks, the toll of the repression of the popular, massive, and unprecedented uprising, which … Continue reading “Dead, Wounded, and Disappeared, the Imprecise Toll of the Repression after the Protests in Cuba”
14ymedio, Fernando Donate Ochoa, 3 August 2015 — This weekend the serious epidemiological situation in the city of Holguin forced it to suspend the first celebration of Holguin Nights for the month of August. The increase of dengue fever cases has sparked alarm among local authorities who are asking people to take extreme measures to avoid contagion. The … Continue reading “‘Holguin Nights’ Suspended Due To Increased Cases Of Dengue Fever / 14ymedio, Fernando Donate Ochoa”
After two months of hiding in the neighborhood of Güinera, I reappeared in my neighborhood. Everything seemed calm. The good thing was that I had taken advantage of the time to read and create. And I thought I could resume my life. When I least expected it, they raided my house and arrested me once … Continue reading “Testimony: The Failed Attempts to Make Me an Agent – II / Angel Santiesteban”
Knowing how to say no when the opportunity presents itself, no matter the surprise, the gain, or the subsequent costs of the negative, is what differentiates us from prostitutes. My rejection of the regime came to me from an early age, I knew it was the wrong road and that with the Communist System the … Continue reading “Testimony: The Failed Attempts to Make Me an Agent – I / Angel Santiesteban”
