English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 7 November 2020 — Around eight in the morning on Saturday a man shot two women who were at a bus stop in the Micro 9 neighborhood in the city of Santiago de Cuba. One of the victims died at the scene and the other died while undergoing surgery at the Saturnino Lora … Continue reading “Two Women Shot Dead in the Middle of the Street in Santiago de Cuba”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 16 October 2020 — Safety and the absence of robberies and street crime were always a symbol of the Cuban regime. That was not the case these last few days, when various murders took place in Havana, without a single mention from the official press. As in other similar instances, the … Continue reading “A Week of Violent Homicides in Havana”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 6 October 2020 — While day after day they carry on about the arrests of re-sellers and “hoarders,” the official media maintain total silence on the rape of a 13-year-old girl by five men in Havana’s El Cotorro municipality. Not only that, complains the victim’s mother: the Police have released three … Continue reading “"It wasn’t a cow they killed. It was a girl they raped."”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 6 January 2019 — Recently, the official press announced that infant mortality in Cuba during 2019 was 5 children per thousand live births. The Communist Party owned Granma newspaper stressed that this meant that the Island continued to have better indicators than many countries in Latin America and the world, but did not mention that the data … Continue reading “The ‘Puncturing’ of Statistics in Cuba”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 2 July 2019 – He watches her pass by and whistles as she walks away, on the bus he sticks to a young woman until he is so close she feels his sweat on her skin and, when he gets home, his wife has dinner on the table and doesn’t start … Continue reading “Cuban MeToo Movement Challenges the Power with “Hairs on Its Chest””
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 8 March 2019 — This Thursday, Cuban national TV broadcast some minutes of the first session of the Congress of the Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC) now underway in Havana. In the most of the speeches I heard, they were talking about women as a part of the Cuban economy and our … Continue reading “Cuban Women, The Rights We Lack”
14ymedio, Justo Mora / Mario J. Pentón, Cienfuegos/Miami, 5 December 2018 — Rafael Garcia, alleged perpetrator of the double femicide that shook Cienfuegos last May, committed suicide on the eve of his trial, scheduled for Wednesday, several sources close to the family confirmed to 14ymedio. The tension was thick in the air in the morning hours in the vicinity of … Continue reading “Alleged Murderer of Two Women in Cienfuegos Commits Suicide”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 25 August 2018 — A few weeks ago, purely by chance, I attended an international event about the treatment of gender violence in the press. The official Cuban representative at the meeting, with a certain pride and a touch of superiority, emphasized that on the island there was no “crime blotter” and … Continue reading “Victims of Machismo and Official Silence”
14ymedio, Justo Mora/Mario J. Pentón, Cienfuegos/Miami, 22 May 21 — It was 11:30 in the morning last Thursday when Luis Roque heard the first calls for help. He was about to go to work when his neighbor’s screams made him stop short. “Oh my little daughter, oh my little daughter,” shouted Tomasa Causse Fabat, a 64-year-old nurse on … Continue reading “Murder of Two Women Shocks Cienfuegos”
