In statements to ’14ymedio’, Mayor Alessandra Rojo proposes “a public auction” of these pieces to recover the $32,000 they cost.
Tabacalera Garden Bench, in Mexico City, where the statues of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara once stood. / Cuauhtémoc City Hall
14ymedio, Mexico City, 22 July 2025 — The mayor of the Cuauhtémoc municipality in Mexico City, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, wants to put up for public auction the statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara that she ordered removed last week from the bench where they stood in the Jardín Tabacalera park . This is what the politician told 14ymedio, explaining that if this solution is possible, the auction would start at the original purchase price – 600,000 pesos, $32,000, in 2017 – “corrected for inflation in recent years,” with the money to be reinvested in the park.
“I want to return that money to the people, money which should have been used to improve their quality of life,” the mayor stated in a written response to questions from this newspaper. She also asserted that she had “had extensive discussions on the issue” with the mayor of the capital, Clara Brugada, and with the team of the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and that they are willing to hold a “working meeting” with lawyers. “Our team can reliably support the claim that the action was legal, consistent with good administration, and focused on addressing a citizen demand,” she asserted.
Rojo de la Vega says she is “willing to listen” to the position of the federal government and the ruling Morena party, “as long as it is focused on administrative debate and a solution that ensures the rights of the residents of the district.”
“I want to give people back that money, which should have been used to improve their quality of life.”
In one of her morning press conferences, President Sheinbaum had criticized the removal of the statues, arguing that the decision should be made “by a committee.” “You can’t remove a statue or monument like that. In this case, it wasn’t done by the institution.” At the same time, she opposed a possible auction of the works, created by sculptor Óscar Ponzanelli. “It would be a financial loss,” she declared, adding that she requested “that the monument be handed over and relocated.”
Rojo de la Vega responded to the Mexican president on social media, reminding her that in 2020 she had stated that “the ignominy in the city was coming to an end” and that homage would never again be paid to oppressors or dictators. “Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were exactly that: oppressors, representatives of a dictatorial regime, and responsible for thousands of deaths,” the mayor stated. continue reading
The politician, elected by a coalition opposed to the ruling party in the capital and the country, reiterated that 600,000 pesos were paid with resources from Chapter 5000 of the budget, an allocation that could have been used to “buy equipment for potholes or to replace streetlights.” She insisted that “the Constitution, which is much more than an administrative committee, establishes that we have the authority to manage the assets and properties belonging to the mayor’s office.”
“It has become clear that the Morena Party does not consider Che Guevara or Fidel Castro to be murderers.”
The removal of Fidel and Che Guevara came after an eight-month discussion, during which several residents expressed their discontent. “It’s a battle not for ideology, but for consistency,” she said.
In her exchange with 14ymedio on Monday, she also reported having received “many threats for complying with and enforcing the law,” including from “senators from the ruling party” and “a few government secretaries.”
“It seems that there is a double standard among some or many of its leaders. When criminals and human rights violators are their allies, what they did is not wrong. Only when they are their adversaries is it objectionable,” laments the mayor, who forcefully states, “It has become clear that the Morena Party does not consider Che Guevara or Fidel Castro murderers, that it defends the Cuban regime, that it believes that the political persecution of Cuba is not reprehensible, and that the mass exodus and forced displacements that have existed since the emergence of the Cuban dictatorship are not morally condemnable.”
That, she concludes, “is not the country, nor the project for which millions voted in the last elections, nor is it the city or country project that any Mexican wants.”
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Former Spanish President Rodríguez Zapatero participated in the operation that included the extradition of Dahud Hanid Ortiz, born in Venezuela and holding a US passport.
Dahud Hanid Ortiz, second from the right, behind, wearing a cap and carrying the American flag, along with nine other prisoners released by the government of Nicolás Maduro / X/@usembassyve
14ymedio, Madrid, 22 July 2025 — Of the more than fifty prisoners released by Venezuela through an exchange with the United States mediated by former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, one is not only not a political prisoner, but a murderer. This is Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who in 2016 killed the Cuban women Elisa Consuegra and Maritza Osorio and Ecuadorian Pepe Castillo in Madrid in what is known as the Usera triple murder.
The newspaper El Debatestated this Monday that “someone hasn’t done their job” and denounced Zapatero’s collaboration, as a negotiator, in “the release of the murderer of three people stabbed in Madrid.” Víctor Salas, owner of the law firm where the murders took place and the true target of Hanid Ortiz, who was seeking revenge for his wife’s infidelity with the lawyer, told the Spanish news outlet he felt “terrified”: “That murderer is free on his way to the United States and could come and kill me at any moment.”
Hanid Ortiz, a former US military officer of Venezuelan origin and resident in Germany, showed up at the office of the Peruvian lawyer and discovered his wife was cheating on him on June 22, 2016. When he couldn’t find the lawyer he took his revenge on the two Cuban employees—one from Havana and one from Holguín—and a client, killing them with a crowbar and a knife, and later fled to Venezuela. continue reading
“That killer is free on his way to the United States and could come and kill me at any moment.”
He was arrested there in 2018 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in late 2023. Venezuelan authorities had refused to extradite him to Spain, claiming he was a Venezuelan citizen. After his sentencing, the Attorney General’s Office informed the judge that he would be transferred to Spain “for humanitarian reasons,” and the court granted the deportation, but the Spanish authorities objected.
The killer had arrived in Germany in 2011 as a first lieutenant in the US Army after serving in Iraq and Korea. On June 30, 2015, a US military court convicted him of using false documents to obtain the rank of Army officer. He was also sentenced for fraud against the state for pretending his family was still living in the US while he was stationed in Germany, which allowed him to receive $87,000 in social assistance to which he was not entitled.
US authorities released photographs and videos on Monday showing Hanid Ortiz alongside the other nine former prisoners with US citizenship or residency, now free. Smiling, wearing a cap and waving a US flag, he listens attentively as President Nayib Bukele thanks him. In exchange for their release, Bukele returned to Caracas 252 Venezuelan migrants deported to Central American prisons by the Donald Trump administration.
“It was a great decision, and I am very happy, very satisfied, and very grateful,” Zapatero can be heard saying over the phone in a video released by Nicolás Maduro. Maduro thanks him for his mediation and says he hopes “he will soon visit the country so that he can, as always, support the
Raúl Castro said: “When he completes his two terms, if he works well (…) he should remain” as first secretary of the PCC
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 July 2025 — The elimination of the age limit as a requirement for being elected president of the Republic of Cuba has unleashed a wave of speculation about who will be hand-picked to this position, which, as we know, will not be an election.
It’s not necessary to quote Article 5 of the Constitution, which Fidel Castro drafted in its entirety, to recognize that, hierarchically, the position of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) ranks above that of President of the Republic. These two positions have traditionally been held by a single individual, with the exception of the period between April 2018 and April 2021, when Raúl Castro remained at the head of the party while Miguel Díaz-Canel held the office of President.
To confirm what is stated in the title of this commentary, we must recall Raúl Castro’s speech during Díaz-Canel’s inauguration on April 18, 2018, when he bluntly warned:
“When he completes his two terms, if he performs well and our Party’s Central Committee approves it (…), he should stay on. The same thing we are doing with him, he will maintain with his replacement. His ten years as president of the Council of State and ministers will be over, and for the three remaining years until the congress, he will remain as First Secretary to facilitate the safe transition and spare us the learning curve of his replacement until he retires to care for his grandchildren.” continue reading
Thus, the successor appointed to the presidency in 2028 will remain under the supervision and tutelage of Díaz-Canel until 2031.
The only thing that has changed is that the title of the position is now President of the Republic, which Díaz-Canel will hold until April 2028. The ninth Party Congress will be held between April 16 and 19, 2026, and barring a miracle or a curse, the current first secretary will be reelected for another five years, that is, until April 2031. Thus, the successor appointed to the presidency in 2028 will remain under the supervision and tutelage of Díaz-Canel until 2031.
The proposal to limit the holding of “fundamental political and state offices” to a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms was approved at the Sixth Party Congress in 2011 and ratified at the Seventh in 2016, but it wasn’t until the new Constitution was approved in 2019 that this proposal became legally valid. The peculiarity is that Article 126 merely states that the President of the Republic is elected for a five-year term and may only serve up to two consecutive terms, after which he or she may not serve again. The Constitution makes no mention of the tenure of the First Secretary of the Party.
The curious thing is that this detail is not specified in any of the PCC’s programmatic documents, not even in its statutes, where the furthest it goes in this regard appears in Article 21, which establishes that the renewal of leadership positions will be done “by establishing limits on tenure by time and age, according to the functions and complexities of each responsibility.”
At the time when the commander-in-chief ruled the country as he pleased, the question of who is coming after Fidel Castro couldn’t even be asked, because there was no one but himself. During Raúl Castro’s years, the consolidated generalship gained importance as a power behind the throne in the form of the Gaesa military conglomerate. The stigma of “hand-picked” that weakens Díaz-Canel’s leadership raises the question of whether he, from within the Party, will be the one to follow his presumed replacement, or whether the shadow of sabers will remain behind, or above, a fiction of civilian government.
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The removal of the age limit for the presidency is a sign that a similar profile is being sought to ensure continuity.
Why would Morales Ojeda be the successor? Who is this individual? / Prensa Latina
14ymedio, Ramón Martínez, Orlando (Florida), 21July 2025 — Castro’s latest move to eliminate the 60-year age limit for accessing the office of President of the Republic, as provided for in the Constitution approved in 2019, was a predictable gesture.
The justifications given for approving this “constitutional amendment” are trivial, because what lies beneath is the need to appoint a person to that position for the next 10-year term who will guarantee the continuity of the regime and who will more or less follow the current ruler’s line, which, although disastrous across the board, has been successful in the one area where they cannot afford to make mistakes: continuing to hold the reins of power. The analysis should have focused then on the possibility that finding someone under 60 to fill that position would not be an easy task.
Miguel Díaz-Canel, who has governed the country since April 19, 2018, when he was appointed President of the Council of State and, also, President of the Council of Ministers, succeeding Raúl Castro, began serving as President of the Republic with effective date of the new Constitution on October 10, 2019.
The president shall serve a five year term and may be re-elected only once.
As stipulated in the Constitution, the president shall serve a five-year term and may be reelected only once. Thus, Díaz-Canel, who was reelected by the National Assembly of People’s Power in April 2023, must step down from office in the same month of 2028.
Apparently, as we can see, the next president of the Republic of Cuba will be Roberto Morales Ojeda (born Cienfuegos, June 15, 1967). He would turn 61 in 2028, when Díaz-Canel is due to leave (although if he is appointed to office in April, as is assumed, he would not yet have turned 61). But “the regime’s strategists,” — that group of shadowy thinkers who guide the Cuban ship with a firm hand toward no port — do not want to make months-long mistakes, so they have eliminated the 60-year-old requirement.
But why would Morales Ojeda be the successor? Who is this individual? Let’s have a look. continue reading
Morales Ojeda has been a member of its Central Committee since 2006 and of the Political Bureau since 2016.
After graduating in medicine in 1991, Morales Ojeda briefly worked in epidemiology before moving on to health administration (he served as municipal health director of Rodas and Cienfuegos, respectively) before beginning his rising career as a professional cadre of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). He has been a member of its Central Committee since 2006 and of its Political Bureau since 2016. He has served as First Secretary of the provincial party in Cienfuegos, a member of the Central Committee Secretariat, Deputy Minister and Minister of Public Health, and Deputy Prime Minister. In 2021, he was selected as Organizational Secretary of the PCC Central Committee.
But beyond his career and official positions, he has recently emerged as a media figure and has been very close to the current president-designate in most of the activities in which the latter participates. He is acts as a second-in-command, quietly following his boss, as if to “continue gaining experience.” And although he draws from a dry source, like everything that emanates from the mind and actions of the current president — “hand-picked” (as the popular slang goes) — his learning would be useful to fulfill the role of “firefighter” once the current president retires.
This individual, in his interventions and speeches, does not display, as expected, any differentiating nuance that separates him from the norm of continuity. He is an obedient, dull, and uncharismatic person, like the current president, so he would be his ideal replacement.
The ‘nomenclatura’ would be better off keeping Marrero in his current position.
But the regime’s strategists shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket and rely solely on Morales Ojeda. The possibility of appointing Manuel Marrero, the current prime minister and also a member of the political bureau, who would be 65 in 2028, could also be a valid reason for eliminating the 60-year limit. However, the nomenclatura would be better served by keeping Marrero in his current position, as he could continue to be “elected” indefinitely. Although the term of office is also five years, as it is for the president, there is no limit to the number of times a person in that position can serve.
Thus, Morales and Marrero will be able to continue destroying the country with a heavy hand. A domino effect is almost a foregone conclusion.
It is not realistic to think that the elimination of this clumsy constitutional bureaucratic obstacle of 60 years was to give consideration to a “historical,” which conceptually are those characters linked to the regime since before its triumph or since the beginning of its establishment in 1959. Of the few that are still active, names like First Vice President Salvador Valdés (80), or the president of the National Assembly of People’s Power Esteban Lazo (81) — both also members of the political bureau of the PCC — would be unthinkable because they do not have the slightest capacity to overcome the adversities that the head of state in Cuba has to deal with.
One of the requirements to be elected president is to be a deputy of the National Assembly
As for José Ramón Machado Ventura and Ramiro Valdés, age could be a deterrent, since in 2028 the former would turn 98 in October, and the latter 96 in April.
Nor would it seem logical to appoint, when 2028 arrives, leaders who are little or not at all known, as might be the case with some other members of the political bureau who must be there to fill a quota and who, when the time comes, would be of a suitable age to serve as president.
At a slightly lower level, there is an exquisite pool of men and women, many of them rising stars, who are members of the Central Committee, but who should not yet be considered “presidential candidates.” Furthermore, one of the requirements to be elected president is to be a deputy. The age range of this large group is marked, ranging from young people in their 30s to elderly people over 80.
And although in this group there are some names that have had some relevance and appear more frequently than others in the public eye, it is no less true that it would be very surprising if any of them received the blessing of Raúl Castro, who would be 97 years old in 2028 (June 3, 1931).
There has already been a lot of Castro-military in power with Fidel (almost 50 years in power) and Raúl (10 years)
Nor would it be advisable to promote any of the military to the supposed top position of the Cuban State, especially the members of a general staff who are not yet advanced in age. For example, the names of the division generals of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and member of the central committee, Raúl Villar (60), head of the Central Army, Eugenio Ravilero (60), head of the Eastern Army or Ernest Feijoo, head of the Western Army, and coincidentally also 60 years old, are key pieces in the maintenance of the framework of power and would only be 64 years old when the next president is appointed, therefore, it is better that they continue to be very useful in the positions they hold. They have a whole life ahead of them.
Much less to think about Lázaro Alvarez (62), a member of the political bureau, recently promoted to Army Corps General, who has been the Minister of the Interior since 2020 and is the person most responsible for maintaining internal order (a term that in real words means having the efficient repressive machinery of the dictatorship well oiled).
So there was already too much Castro-military power with Fidel (almost 50 years in power) and Raúl (10 years), to continue putting military personnel in charge, although in truth the transmutation from civilian to military in communist Cuba is only mediated by the change from a guayabera to an olive green uniform.
Of the heirs of the Cuban royal family, the one who has done the most to flirt with power is Alejandro Castro Espín.
Finally, among the heirs to the Cuban royal family (read: children or grandchildren of Fidel and Raúl), the one who has done the most to flirt with power is Alejandro Castro Espín (59), although he does not meet the requirement of being a deputy. The only son of Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín, he is a brigadier general in the Ministry of the Interior and works for the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Directorate of this shadowy ministry. He is possibly one of the members of the so-called “power behind the scenes,” as it is speculated exists on the island.
Castroism, which claims to be eternal, continues to renew itself, taking steps to guarantee its continuity. It was stupid to stipulate that a 60-year-old human being cannot aspire to the office of president of a republic, when at that age, one is supposed to reach adequate political maturity and possess the still optimal physical and intellectual performance if the person remains healthy. Hence, the dictatorial planners have rectified their position in time.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The cancellation of the presentation of the students’ graduation short films marks the end of a free space for artistic creation.
The screen never lit up, the doors never opened, and no one gave a clear answer. / Instagram / Cynthia Deus Fagundo
14ymedio, Havana, 21 July 2025 — What was supposed to be a celebration of young art and creative freedom ended with a slammed door, disguised as a “technical problem.” On Saturday, July 12, the students of the 30th Generation of the International School of Film and Television (EICTV), based in San Antonio de los Baños, showed up at the Acapulco Cinema in Havana with their graduation short films in hand, ready to share with the public the fruits of their talent, effort, and training. But the screen never lit up, the doors never opened, and no one gave a clear answer.
For more than three decades, the screening of graduates’ thesis projects has been a tradition that not only marks the end of the academic year but also allows new filmmakers to showcase their vision to the world from a public venue. This year, however, this right was denied without official justification, without visible interlocutors, and, above all, without transparency.
“An unprecedented event in the history of our school”
The students denounced the incident in a statement circulating on social media and supported by members of the national film industry, including the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers. The cancellation, they said, was “an unprecedented event in the history of our school.” Two buses packed with students, family members, technicians, and teachers arrived at the Havana movie theater only to find closed doors, missing signs, and an institutional silence redolent of censorship.
Barely twenty minutes after the scheduled start time, a school official briefly announced that everything was canceled due to “supposed technical problems.” But the students, and anyone who has lived in Cuba long enough, recognized the strategy. There was no schedule, no projection continue reading
equipment, and no will to resolve or reschedule. There was only one familiar maneuver: passing it off as censorship ‘by accident’.
Susana Molina did not even offer explanations to the students.
This authoritarian gesture is not an isolated incident. As the Filmmakers’ Assembly rightly recalled, similar “technical failures” prevented the screening of films during the last Film Festival, with none of them subsequently rescheduled. It is also not new that the Ministry of Culture—through its network of institutions—maintains absolute control over the country’s theaters, determining what is and isn’t shown, and leaving in the lurch many filmmakers whose works never reach their audiences.
But what this case reveals with particular starkness is the level of institutional intervention and manipulation that EICTV, once a symbol of plurality and creative independence, has reached. Founded in 1986 by Gabriel García Márquez, Fernando Birri, and Julio García Espinosa—with the “protection” of Fidel Castro himself—the school was born with a Latin American and international vocation, open to dialogue between cultures and critical thinking through cinema. Today, its leadership seems to subordinate itself unquestioningly to the single Party and its mechanisms of control, relegating its founding principles to the archives of discomfort.
EICTV’s current director, Susana Molina, did not even offer an explanation to the students. She hung up the phone on a student representative when asked for an answer. Her silence, according to multiple voices in the union, is neither coincidental nor new. Her administration has been criticized as opaque, repressive, and serving political power. For many, she represents the face of an institution that, instead of defending its students, prefers to align itself with the bureaucrats who decide which films are worth seeing and which are not.
The students, far from passively accepting the situation, publicly demanded “explanations from the Ministry of Culture and the management of the EICTV; guarantees that the theses will be screened without restrictions; and respect for the school’s academic and artistic autonomy.” Their statement was clear and courageous: “We will not allow our cinema to be silenced.”
The EICTV Generation 30 is made up of 42 young people from more than a dozen countries.
Since June, students have been expressing their discontent over the deteriorating basic services and the school’s appalling infrastructure. The protests forced Fernando Rojas, former Deputy Minister of Culture and current direct advisor to the minister, Alpidio Alonso, to intervene. His presence on campus, and not that of representatives from the New Latin American Cinema Foundation—the entity that historically mediated the management of the EICTV—exposed a truth that had already been suspected: the school has come under the direct control of the Ministry of Culture. Today, far from being an autonomous space for artistic creation, the EICTV operates under the watchful eye of the government’s cultural commissioners.
In a country where public theaters are under state control and where the Youth Showcase has disappeared without explanation, censorship is not the exception, but the norm. EICTV’s Generation 30, made up of 42 young people from more than a dozen countries, is not only demanding their right to show what they have created. They are demanding respect for a promise: that school be, as the official press proclaims, “the school of all worlds,” and not just another cog in the machinery of silence.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Little remains of the luxury and comfort that attracted such prominent figures as José Martí’s widow and son at the Campoamor Hotel.
The former Campoamor Hotel has signs everywhere warning of the “danger of collapse.” / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Cojímar (Havana), 19 July 2025 — “Do not enter. PNR.” The ‘People’s Revolutionary Police’ prohibition, written in large black letters on the back of an abandoned truck, is almost unnecessary when you look up at the building. Resembling a haunted mansion, the ruins of the former Campoamor Hotel, which housed a reformatory and had many other uses in Cojímar, make it clear to the passerby what awaits them if they cross the threshold.
Similar warnings hang on pieces of zinc from the fence that protects the building, which is “in danger of collapse,” and which has been reinforced with poles and barbed wire to keep out curious onlookers. Inside, in the old garden, rest a wheelless truck and a rusty bus whose frame bears the marks of scrap metal dealers, who have left only the shell of the vehicle.
“First it was a reformatory, then it was a separate school [for students with learning disabilities], and now it’s abandoned,” Pedro, 77, “born and raised in Cojímar,” explains to this newspaper. However, the fisherman only describes the chronology he knows, which is limited to the time the building was in the hands of the Revolution.
When it was built in 1907, its owners and architects wanted it to be the jewel of the capital’s seaside resort, where wealthy Creoles traveled and where the island’s great fortunes spent their summers. The story is even recorded by Ecured, the official Wikipedia , which awards the property to Pilar Samoano, a hotel entrepreneur who owns, among other buildings, the El Telégrafo hotel in Havana, which in 2022 became the first Cuban LGBTI+ friendly accommodation thanks to the Spanish chain Axel. continue reading
When it was built in 1907, its owners and architects wanted it to be the jewel of the capital’s resort. / 14ymedio
Purchased by the government of the Republic, a few years after its opening it became a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients until Fidel Castro came to power. Today, not even the Cuban on-line encyclopedia Ecured hides its dereliction: “After 1959, this building had various uses until, unfortunately, the lack of care and maintenance led it to a completely disastrous state, from which it will probably never recover.”
“It’s a shame,” Pedro agrees. “The government is letting it fall into disrepair. It needs to be repaired, and how many families couldn’t fit there? People who are living with their in-laws or don’t have anywhere to live,” the fisherman emphasizes, pointing to the gigantic structure that still has a faint pinkish hue.
With abandonment, the building has become a kind of greenhouse. Creepers eat away at the walls, attracted by the damp, ferns hang from the cracks in the balconies, and the green branches of several trees sprout from the top-floor windows, strong from years of peace. Their roots have destroyed the floor and erased the boundary between one level of the old hotel and the next.
A rusty bus whose structure shows the marks of scrap metal dealers, who have left only the shell of the vehicle / 14ymedio
Little remains of Campoamor’s luxury and comfort, which, in its day, attracted such prominent figures as José Martí’s widow and son, the Liberation Army captain José Francisco Martí Zayas-Bazán, heir to several lines of illustrious surnames on the island. “A few years ago, there were rumors that the Historian’s Office wanted to repair the building, but they said the foundations and structure couldn’t withstand complete repairs, and the plan was to demolish it. It seems they still haven’t decided what to do,” laments Pedro.
Meanwhile, garbage piles up against the wall of the building that faces Calle Real, Cojímar’s main street. The street has become a promenade of small dumpsters that appear on every corner and potholes that cars try their best to avoid.
The same fate befell other elegant buildings and mansions in Cojímar, which during the Republic belonged to businessmen and families of Havana’s upper class. This is the case with Quinta Pedralbes, which belonged to the Catalan businessman Joaquín Boada and was built by Mario Rotllan, a prominent exponent of Art Nouveau who had several workshops on the island.
With its walls peeling and its gardens overtaken by wild plants, the mansion barely survives as a refuge for several families. Palm trees and banana trees now sprout from the former gardens, where exotic plant species brought from all over the world once coexisted.
The same fate befell other elegant mansions in the Republic that belonged to businessmen and families of Havana’s upper class. / 14ymedio
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Once there was a cinema, shops, a boulevard; today, nothing remains.
Private cars to La Lisa cost 150 pesos. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Punta Brava (Artemisa), 20 July 2025 — In Punta Brava, there’s nothing to see, nothing to do, and nothing that works. This small town in Artemisa, nestled right on the border with Havana, has the feel of a set for a movie Western. Dust, trash rolling in the streets, and the skeletons of unused buildings. Everything feels frozen in time.
“It’s a disaster. I think this is the raggediest little town in the entire country,” two guajiros busily husking corn on the cob under a bush told 14ymedio. Their opinion is echoed by every resident interviewed by this newspaper, without exception: Before there were “things”— a movie theater, shops, a boulevard — now there’s nothing.
The cinema, three elderly people sitting on a balcony where they avoid the day’s heat, explain, “was gutted and everything was taken, even the tiles and the roof. No one knows who, but they stole everything.” Now, hollow inside and half-ruined, it’s Punta Brava’s public restroom. “They cleaned it up a bit, but it’s still the town’s latrine.”
History repeats itself with all the facilities and public spaces. “I was born here and I’m 82 years old, but when I was a kid, the park was in good condition. The only thing they left was the gazebo, and it’s in disrepair. The new generations have destroyed all that,” notes another elderly resident, speaking from the balcony that overlooks the park, where a bust of Maceo is located.
It was in this town that the Bronze Titan fell, they recall, and they assert, “without political fanaticism,” that the disaster it has become leaves even history in a very bad light.
The decadence of Punta Brava is easily traced: “That used to be the boulevard, now it’s not even the cemetery.” “The Cochino* River runs through there, living up to its name, and the buildings are old and neglected.” When the list ends, the retirees realize that all that remains standing in the town is the churches. “The Nazarene, the Methodist, the Evangelical, the Jehovah’s Witnesses—all the churches here are continue reading
functioning,” they emphasize.
Completely destroyed, the old cinema is now the town’s latrine. / 14ymedio
For retirees, life in the village consists of sitting in doorways amid the unbearable stench of the garbage dumps; “no one can stand it, they even throw dead animals in there,” one complains. For the younger ones, the goal is to climb on the first bus that passes along the avenue to get to Havana, where many work. But not even buses pass through Punta Brava, forgotten on the border with the capital.
“It’s very difficult to get in and out of Punta Brava. Bus 436 comes by at 8:30 am, so hold on,” the man describes, searching his pocket for his wallet. “I was a bus driver, look at my pass. What good is it if there are no buses?”
Route 180, which goes to Santa Fe, also sometimes passes through in the mornings, but other than those buses, almost nothing happens on the highway. There are private cars, but a fare to La Lisa, the nearest municipality in Havana, costs 150 pesos, so many prefer to stand on the side of the road, raise their arms, and wait for a driver who will take them as far as they can.
In front of the park, neighbors point out, there is an aqueduct and an elevated tank crowned by a sundial and bearing the sign: Pure water at all hours. / 14ymedio
The other means of transport is the train, which departs from Tulipán and passes through several stations such as Cien y Boyeros, El Cano, Punta Brava, Bauta, Caimito, and others until it reaches Mariel. It has about five cars and all the residents of the towns it passes through use it to travel to Havana, so it’s always full. However, to the dismay of many, “it’s been stopped for three days, and no one reports anything. It’s the only way I can get to Cerro,” says one of the Punta Brava residents.
The rest of the public services are in equally deplorable conditions. The blackouts are as annoying as in the rest of the island, and the water supply is very poor. In front of the park, neighbors point out, there is an aqueduct and an elevated tank topped by a sundial and bearing the sign: Pure water at all hours. “Before, there was water all day, but now the water comes from the fire department. It comes here every other day, but it doesn’t come to my house. I have to put the pump on the stairs to get it to the house,” he says.
The rest of the town is a picture of the same disaster. The post office is closed in broad daylight, and there are no children in the park despite it being vacation time. “Look at the state of the streets, compadre. We should put a cross in the middle of the street that says: Rest in peace,” sighs the old man.
The stench of the garbage reaches the houses and bothers residents. / 14ymedio
*Translation: pig, slob, dirty, filthy
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Díaz-Canel and all the henchmen who accompany him in government and in the inevitable repression are consumed by the fear of losing power.
The 11th of July protests will forever remain in our history / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 21 July 2025 — Castro’s totalitarian regime has once again demonstrated that the only thing left in its arsenal of lies and manipulation is the most brutal and destructive repression, the preferred tool of despots who are accustomed to using bayonets to hide their fears.
Cubans on the island ignore numerous anniversaries of the struggle for freedom that a large segment of the population has led against the Castro tyranny, but everyone knows that on the 11th of July 2021, the population took to the streets to demand their rights despite police brutality and the inevitable prison sentences they would face.
The protests of 11 July will forever remain in our history. Citizens fed up with the dictatorship, mostly young people, took to the streets and staged protests that had been lost to the national scene for decades, for a free Cuba, responding to the satrap Miguel Díaz-Canel: “You know your time is up, freedom is coming!” an expression I read with great satisfaction on the Martí Noticias website.
Another important report from Radio Martí, a piece by journalist Ivette Pacheco, reminds us that 1,597 people were arrested for participating in the protests on 11 July and the following days, and that “at least 360 remain in prison and others remain deprived of their liberty.” Camila Rodríguez, founder of Justicia 11J, told the station that those incarcerated are serving between 10 and 22 years in prison for protesting and that more than 60 minors continue reading
were among those arrested, three of whom remain in prison.
All this information about the extreme cruelty of the dictatorship is a clear message to those outside of Cuba who have defended totalitarianism.
All this information about the dictatorship’s extreme cruelty is a clear message to those outside Cuba who have defended totalitarianism, arguing that the Cuban people didn’t rebel because they agreed with their government. Now they will have to admit that they never wanted to listen to the cries of the dictatorship’s opponents, because there are many Cubans who oppose Castroism.
A new generation of Cubans has redeemed those who, for ideological reasons, opportunism, or any other motive, collaborated in the construction of a totalitarian system that destroyed the Republic and who have the sense of nation of a population in comatose state. This new generation, mostly born after Castro’s regime, are the ones occupying prisons for political reasons, as the NGO Prisoners Defenders states in one of its most recent reports.
Díaz-Canel and all the henchmen who accompany him in the government and in the inevitable repression are consumed by the fear of losing power and facing the consequences of their humiliating and degrading actions against the people. For this reason, their threats are always accompanied by criminal actions against the population, as in the time of Fidel Castro, lord and master of the Díaz-Canels who continue to sink Cuba: “We were born in a free country bequeathed to us by our parents, and the island will sink into the sea before we consent to be anyone’s slaves.” Destruction and death have always been this subject’s maxim.
This Numantian commitment of Castro’s loyalists was what led to the intermittent interruption of telephone and internet services. This is also why several police officers were stationed in front of the home of Oscar Elías Biscet and his wife, Elsa Morejón, while the regime organized a dance show near the residence in an effort to provide a circus for the citizens, since bread is conspicuously absent.
Castro’s repressive practices resemble the actions in George Orwell’s book 1984: the authorities arrest and suspend public services to prevent protests when the regime suspects something contrary to its interests is about to happen. For example, in the city of Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas was arrested, and in the capital, the tireless Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, was arrested along with her husband, former political prisoner Ángel Moya Acosta. This is how Castro’s totalitarianism operates.
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The interested party must show an opinion from a “multidisciplinary team” from Cenesex
The law meets a long-standing demand from trans people and the LGBTI community. / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 19 July 2025 — On Friday the Cuban parliament approved the right to change sex “at personal request” without surgery or a court order for citizens of legal age. The deputies unanimously approved—as is customary in the Assembly—the new Civil Registry law, whose main innovation is this amendment.
Among the changes included in the legislation is that the applicant may change their gender up to two times, provided they are over 18 years of age and that the first change was made when they were a minor. If the change is requested by a minor, a court order will be required.
The reform also establishes that the changes will not be conditioned “on the prior modification of the person’s appearance or bodily function, nor on a surgical procedure for genital reassignment.”
The update to the Civil Registry places Cuba among the countries that have legislated in favor of so-called “gender self-determination” and fulfills a long-standing demand of Cuban transgender people and the LGBTI community that was not realized in 2022, when the country approved the Family Code in a referendum.
In the case of intersex newborns, parents will have the right to register them with the sex they prefer.
To register a sex change, the interested party must present a report from a “multidisciplinary team” from the National Center for Sexual Education (Cenesex) and their birth certificate. Similarly, the law establishes that sex changes made before the Civil Registry are considered restricted because they are considered “sensitive.”
In the case of intersex newborns, parents will have the right to register their continue reading
child with the sex they prefer, based on their predominant physical attributes, and the child may opt to change gender in the future. If the child is still a minor, the applicant will need the consent of their parents; if not, their own consent will suffice.
Before the reform, trans people had to go through a cumbersome bureaucratic process to change their sex. In many cases, to avoid this labyrinth, people opted to change only their name, which in practice presented even more difficulties and discrimination in their daily lives.
The Cuban NGO Translúcidos, made up mostly of trans men, welcomed the changes to the law but considered that it would have been better to replace “sex” with “gender” in the final document.
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The solution to reducing this gap is not to rethink the effectiveness of the Ordinance, but to avoid the “concentration of wealth in a few hands,” he said.
The president emphasized the importance of exports to attract much-needed foreign currency. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2025 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged this Friday that the dollarization of the island’s economy has led to a “widening” of the “gaps that mark social inequality.” However, far from questioning the effectiveness of a policy that has been plunging citizens deeper into poverty for years, the president justified the situation by calling out “the ferocious enemy persecution,” which has left the country—according to the official narrative—operating “under many risks.” The solution to reducing this inequality, he explained, is not to consider better public and economic policies, but to avoid the “concentration of wealth in a few hands.”
In his closing speech at the National Assembly of People’s Power, the president asserted that giving the dollar a greater presence in daily life was a decision made to “overcome” the effects of the economic crisis, which has resulted in shortages of basic goods and prolonged power outages. “To overcome this situation, we have been forced to partially dollarize the economy, which has, in some ways, benefited those with certain resources and capital and those who receive remittances,” he stated.
Therefore, he proposes, the State’s capacity to redistribute resources must be improved. According to Díaz-Canel, compared to the previous year 2024, and so far in 2025, the State has achieved that goal: ensuring that companies, especially private ones, pay their taxes in full.
“We closed 2023 with a 35% increase in the fiscal deficit. Many will remember the alarm this caused (…). A year and a half later, the encouraging news is that we were able to achieve a significant reduction. In fact, during the first four months of this year, we had surplus results, and up to this point, the current account has closed without a deficit, something that hadn’t been achieved in more than ten years.”
“Discipline and strictness,” which in practice translate into excessive controls, fines and surveillance of private businesses, were the formula for success.
“Discipline and strictness,” which in practice translate into excessive controls, fines, and surveillance of private businesses, were the formula continue reading
for success, he said. “This result (…) will allow us to redistribute that income to the most vulnerable sectors, such as our retirees at this time,” he added, referring to the increase in pensions. State aid will increase from 1,528 Cuban pesos (about $12.70 at the official exchange rate) to 3,056 pesos ($25.40), a figure that, although double the current amount, is barely enough to buy two bags of powdered milk on the informal market.
The president also emphasized the importance of gaining a presence in the international market, which will attract much-needed foreign currency to the country. “We cannot remain passive (…). We must focus on all our export capabilities, which inevitably stem from an increase in production in every sector possible (…) that will then allow us to prevail against the global siege and competition.”
The island needs foreign currency to import everything from fuel to power its electrical system to a large portion of its basic food basket. Its dependence on imports means the lack of hard currency is felt in every aspect of Cubans’ daily lives, from the lack of electricity to the inability to purchase the most basic items.
This is the first time that Díaz-Canel has directly referred to the increase in inequality marked by access to foreign currency and the depreciation of the national currency.
This is the first time Díaz-Canel has directly referred to the growing inequality marked by access to foreign currency and the depreciation of the national currency. The Gini coefficient, the main indicator of social inequality, has moved from 0.25 in 1989, out of a maximum of 1, to between 0.4 and 0.5 today, according to conservative official estimates, which would place Cuba among the average of Latin American countries.
In the last five years, Cuba’s GDP has fallen by 11%, a collapse that the government attributes—like everything else—to the US embargo, in addition to the effects of the pandemic. However, much of the food the country purchases comes from the United States. From January to May 2025, the island’s purchases from Washington amounted to more than $205 million, 16.6% more than the same period last year.
For his part, in a harangue, Raúl Castro rose from his chair this Friday and shouted several slogans before the National Assembly. “Long live Díaz-Canel!” “Long live the Revolution!” exclaimed the 94-year-old former president. The chorus of unanimous responses from the deputies was immediate. With their fists raised, the closest parliamentarians echoed the shouts of Castro, who was dressed in full military uniform.
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“I don’t care if it has religious sayings. The bakery on my block is decorated with a picture of Fidel and a July 26th poster, and no one complains about it.”
The Bread of life sells for 300 pesos a bag.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 July 2025 — Pan de vida [Bread of life], reads the label on the bag of six rolls purchased this Friday at the home of Luis Manuel, a 21-year-old resident near Calzada de Diez de Octubre in Havana. A Bible verse on the back confirms that the package contains more than just food to satisfy hunger. “Everyone in the neighborhood is saying the same thing: ’We saw what’s written on it,’” the young man, who quickly devoured his allotted portion, told 14ymedio.
For 300 pesos a bag, the product fills the void left in Luis Manuel’s home by the lack of rice or root vegetables due to the rising price of agricultural products. “Now we’re eating more bread because rice has risen sharply, and here in this neighborhood it’s at 310 and even 320 pesos a pound,” he details. The peculiar package, which features a fragment from the Book of Isaiah, speaks of the poor and couldn’t be more in tune with the hardships experienced by the entire neighborhood, the city, and even the entire island.
“I don’t care if it has religious sayings. The bakery on my block is decorated with a picture of Fidel and a poster celebrating the 26th of July, and no one complains about it,” the young man reacts. The bags of bread come from 610 San Benigno Street in Santos Suárez, the modest bakery that supplies several areas of the same municipality. The bakery’s interior, filled with sacks of flour and the owner’s friendliness please those who come to buy because they sense that the supply will continue, unlike the fluctuations suffered by state sales, and they also receive friendlier treatment than at the rationed market.
A few years ago, it was unthinkable that a Bible verse would sneak into merchandise sold door-to-door. [“…For Jehovah has comforted his people, and for his poor has compassion” Isaiah 49:13]/ 14ymedioA few years ago, it was unthinkable that a religious phrase would be included on a product that would end up being sold door-to-door. Much less so that a biblical reference would accompany bread, the food that for continue reading
decades was a state monopoly until the economic reforms of the 1990s allowed the opening of private bakeries. Since then, the private sector has been gaining ground in the production of the product that officialdom has failed to maintain. With better quality and variety, the cookies, flautas, and loaves made by self-employed workers or micro, small, and medium-sized businesses are much tastier than the small, sour, and often greenish loaf purchased through the ration book.
On the other hand, the word “bread” is mentioned more than 400 times in the Bible, and it is no surprise at all. It is the most basic of all foods and a symbol that goes beyond something to put in your stomach. Bread is also a metaphor for the economy of a country or a family; it is synonymous with community, friendship, and divinity. Bread is, as the bag that Luis Manuel’s family emptied in just a few minutes says: life.
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Under the intense sun, the protesters expressed their outrage over a problem that affects every aspect of their lives.
Visibly upset by the situation, the women argue that they’ve gone “everywhere, but it’s always a mess.” / Facebook/ Reglanos
14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2025 — With buckets, tanks, and other containers, a dozen women and their children blocked access to vehicles on Calzada Vieja between C and D in the Havana municipality of Regla, protesting the lack of water in the area for almost four months. After fruitless complaints and bureaucratic procedures, the protesters, from the Unión neighborhood, decided to take action this Saturday.
“It’s over! We’ve been without water for almost four months!” one of the women complained, as a pair of motorcyclists insisted they remove the objects from the road, according to a video posted on social media. Visibly upset by the situation, the women argue that they’ve gone “everywhere, but it’s always una baba y una muela [claptrap and hot air]. ”
Under the intense sun, with temperatures in Havana with temperatures in the high 80s, women expressed outrage over a problem that affects every aspect of their lives, from food preparation and personal hygiene to caring for young children and the elderly. continue reading
Near the well-known Guanabacoa intersection and the oil refinery, in the Unión district, the most affected area is on the top of a hill.
Near the well-known Guanabacoa intersection and the oil refinery, in the Unión neighborhood, the most affected area is located high on a hill. “The water situation here is critical,” a resident confirmed to 14ymedio. Despite everything, she feels less affected because she has been without water for only a month, given that her house is located at the bottom of the natural elevation.
Shortly after the protest began, a water truck arrived at the scene to provide residents with water supplies. This arrival helped break up the demonstration and restore vehicle traffic, according to this newspaper. Residents in the surrounding area came out with buckets and electric pumps to try to collect as much water as they could.
Shortly after the protest began, a water truck arrived at the scene so residents could get supplies. / 14ymedio
Near the truck, police cars and other vehicles bearing the Criminalistics Department emblem could be seen, as well as local government officials trying to keep the area calm.
The water shortage is a problem that increasingly affects Cuban homes due to the poor condition of pumping equipment, the lack of electricity, and the broken water mains. In recent months, the problem has only worsened in parallel with the drought and widespread blackouts that disrupt daily life on the island.
Street closures, whether to protest the poor condition of housing or to denounce the lack of water supply, have become increasingly common in Cuba in recent years. In Havana, lines of people are frequently seen blocking traffic, demanding everything from a solution to their housing problems to the arrival of a water tanker truck to alleviate the water shortage.
Last June, Lázaro Aguilar Medrano, a resident of Aguiar Street at the corner of Muralla Street in Old Havana, was arrested after blocking traffic to demand an institutional response for the poor condition of his home. Instead of officials, it was the police and State Security who arrived at the scene.
In November 2023, a dozen women and their children also blocked traffic on the corner of Monte Street and Agramonte Street in Old Havana. After several days without water, residents in the area decided to protest to highlight their situation.
“We’re not doing anything illegal, we’re just demanding our rights,” one of the residents then asserted.
In recent months, the water problem has only worsened in parallel with the drought and widespread power outages. / 14ymedio
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“If you’re looking for a key word for what you’ve seen, don’t worry, here it is: miserable,” says one specialist.
The theater was packed, yes: with olive-green uniforms, diplomatic ties, and bureaucratic guayaberas. / Facebook / La Colmenita de Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, 7 July 2025 — La Colmenita [The Little Beehive] a well-known Cuban children’s theater company, presented its latest show last Friday, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nonagenarian Raúl Castro Ruz—present at the premiere—received more applause than the children themselves, perhaps because the venue chosen for the performance was the universal hall of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The theater was packed, yes: with olive-green uniforms, diplomatic ties, and the guayaberas of the bureaucracy.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel also attended the premiere of Una colmenacerrado [A Closed Beehive], and the play closed the annual meeting of Cuban diplomatic mission heads abroad. But it didn’t end there. This Sunday, the production was broadcast on Cubavisión, sparking an avalanche of negative reactions among viewers.
The play is about sick children who blame the imperialist “blockade” for all their misfortunes.
The synopsis: sick children who blame the imperialist “blockade” for all their misfortunes. “Shocking” was the word used by the official press about the piece. The opinions of critics and experts, however, have been quite different.
“Is this art?” critic and researcher Yasmani Castro Caballero asked on social media. “The work I saw yesterday by La Colmenita is a clear example of when art becomes political propaganda and not political art,” he emphasized. continue reading
“It’s a shame. To say it’s mediocre is a very high assessment.”
The young critic also questioned the loss of artistic flair that, according to him, the company had displayed in previous productions. “It’s a shame. To say it’s mediocre is a very high epithet,” he added. “Teresita Fernández must be turning in her grave for using her highly poetic music in this attempt at a theatrical production.”
The artistic and general direction was by Carlos Alberto Tin Cremata Malberti. However, the libretto was not written by any renowned revolutionary poet or playwright, but by an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On this occasion, Pedro Pablo Prada Quintero combined his skills as an improvised screenwriter and as Cuban ambassador to Argentina. It is true that he studied philology in the former Soviet Union and collaborated as a journalist for the magazine Verde Olivo [Olive Green], although since 1994 he has dedicated himself entirely to official diplomacy.
The company itself, perhaps aware of the show’s artistic shortcomings, was quick to clarify that “it is not a play, at least not in the traditional sense.” Instead, they proclaimed that it was “an action for justice and life.”
“In this mock staging, there was an excess of what theater should not allow itself: being boring and obvious.”
Playwright and professor at the University of the Arts, Roberto Viña, agreed that the production had nothing to do with theater: “The reek of slogans and flat rhetoric destroyed the class and disintegrated the classroom. It’s true, that wasn’t theater. It can’t be when the sense of victimhood and begging overrides all ethics and creative responsibility. In that simulated staging, there was an excess of what theater shouldn’t allow itself to be: boring and obvious.”
Viña’s criticism went beyond the stage: “State negligence and ineptitude cannot be attributed to a policy of foreign interference.” His opinion was shared and applauded by numerous colleagues across the country. Even people outside the performing arts pointed out that it was “in very poor taste to use sick children for the state’s political propaganda.”
But Viña was even more incisive: “If you’re looking for an essential word for what we saw, don’t worry, here it is: miserable. Because the legitimacy of the pain, loss, and trauma behind these ’everyday stories’ doesn’t excuse the miserable way in which they appropriate that narrative for ideological advertising.”
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Producers will sell 1,404 tons and the Colombian government will subsidize export.
The crisis in rice production in Cuba has forced the Government to take measures such as leasing land for the first time to a foreign company / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, July 10, 2025 — This Wednesday, at the Youth Labor Army (EJT) market on 17th and K, a poster announced the sale of imported rice at 310 pesos a pound. A few hours ago, the May’s allocation arrived at Havana’s ration stores (bodegas). “How can the poorest people eat rice with these prices?” asked a Havana resident on a walk through the countryside. “In my house you have to buy a pound daily, for lunch and dinner for three people. It’s 9,300 pesos per month, and my mother’s check is 1,500 pesos, same as my stepfather’s. They couldn’t eat rice without me,” he says.
In a parallel world, in Tolima, Colombia, so much rice is produced that prices have fallen to the minimum. In 2023, Colombia produced 685,576 tons of the product, more than 21% of national production, so the Colombian government has facilitated an agreement to sell 1,404 tons to be exported to Cuba. Although it is a small thing for the region, and farmers have warned that it does not solve their problems, any help is welcome for the Island, which barely harvested 80,000 tons of rice, a staple for Cuban tables, last year. This covered only 11% of the demand.
Cuba spent more than $300 million last year to import 407,000 tons of rice to make up its deficit, and it is not known how much it will now pay for this direct agreement with the Government of Colombia, which subsidizes the export of the product to the Island in order to minimize the costs of domestic enterprises. continue reading
Small-scale Tolima rice producers -4,968 of them- are expected to export their rice to Cuba, “generating business worth more than 5.984 billion pesos over a year,” equivalent to $1,487,817
According to the Agency for Rural Development, trade will be direct between small producers and Cuba, and it is expected that 4,968 small producers of Tolima rice will export their grain to the Island’s market, “which will generate business in excess of 5,984 million pesos during one year,” equivalent to $1,487,817.
There will be 1,644 tons of white rice marketed annually, of which 1,404 will go to Cuba, while 240 tons remain to supply social programs in Colombia, “positioning the country as a reliable food supplier and reaffirming the potential of farmer societies,” states the government agency in a press release.
But this is no solution for Dignidad Agropecuaria Colombiana, an organization that has been demanding for at least a year the intervention of the leftist government of Gustavo Petro in a complex conflict, one for which a strike is called between July 7 and 14.
“The Presidency of the Republic announces that 1,644 tons of rice will be exported, with subsidies, probably to the exporter to sell them, but the country will collect more than 2 million tons in the harvest that has already begun. This export is an effort, but it does not solve even 0.1%”of the problem, regrets this farmers’ movement, which calls for the imposition of remunerative and stable prices, in addition to fulfilling the agreements reached in a previous strike.
Between March and April, during the previous strike, the government promised to provide marketing subsidies, but months passed as farmers saw promises not kept while cereal prices plummeted and inputs became more expensive. This agreement with Cuba is one of the mechanisms to make the plan effective, but the volume of subsidized sales is, the producers claim, much too low.
In Tolima, the region where the rice that goes to Cuba is produced, productivity is very high. Despite being the third in land area dedicated to sowing, it is the largest crop of the country, with a yield above the national average, at 7.3 tons per hectare. The figure contrasts sharply with the 1.6 achieved in Los Palacios, in Pinar del Río, although the Vietnamese company AgriVMA, which cultivates 1,000 hectares under usufruct in that same province, achieves an average yield of 7.2 tons per hectare.
The figure contrasts sharply with the 1.6 achieved at Los Palacios, in Pinar del Río, although the Vietnamese company AgriVMA, which cultivates 1,000 hectares under usufruct in that same province, achieves an average yield of 7.2 tons per hectare
“The climate is very good for agriculture, and the way Cubans work here is good, but there’s a shortage of fertilizers, so we brought everything. The biggest problem here is transportation and fuel, which we’re working on with the Cuban company,” Trán Trony Pai, a Vietnamese specialist in Los Palacios, told the international press this June.
“We want more yield (in our business in Cuba), but it’s the first time we are sowing here. There are many things we are learning as well: for example, to know the land,” he added.
The crisis in rice production in Cuba has forced the government to take measures such as this, to lease land for the first time to a foreign company, but also to depend on donations from some of its partner countries – mainly Vietnam and China themselves – or to import it from Brazil, Uruguay or Canada, usually with difficulties in paying the freight.
On several occasions the inability of the Government to carry out the transaction has caused the ships to remain outside the island or stopped in port without being able to start unloading, while the Cubans are still looking for life every day to be able to fill their plates.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The infant mortality rate rises to 8.2 per thousand and the maternal rate to 56.3 per cent.
“Among the population, there is still a fair amount of dissatisfaction associated with the provision of services that we have been unable to resolve,” said the minister.
Maternity hospital in the city of Matanzas / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, July 15, 2025 — “It has been impossible to achieve the expected results in the most sensitive issues affecting our people.” With these words, published by the official press on Monday, the Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, reported on the performance of his sector during the first half of the year. The picture is very dark, and the mother-child program is at the top of the list.
From January 1 to July 12 of this year, 234 infant deaths were recorded out of 28,400 live births. Although there were 26 fewer deaths than in the first six months of 2024, there were also fewer births: 28,400 compared to 35,138 in the same period last year. As a result, the infant mortality rate rose to 8.2% per 1,000 births, almost one percentage point higher than last year’s 7.4 percent.
Only six provinces maintain rates below 7: Sancti Spíritus (1.9), Cienfuegos (3.7), Pinar del Río (4.3), Matanzas (4.2), Artemisa (5) and Las Tunas (5.7).
The aging of the population was another of the “challenges” identified by the minister.
Although eight provinces maintain a zero maternal death rate, seven others do record deaths: three, respectively, Guantánamo, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba; two, Havana and Granma; and one, Mayabeque, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.
The aging of the population was another of the “challenges” identified by the minister of the Health and Sports Committee, who is preparing a report for the next regular session of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Of the official figure of 9.7 million inhabitants, almost 2.5 million are elderly adults, 25.7% of the total, and care for them is not optimal. In the country, said Portal Miranda, there are 305 elderly facilities for 13,949 places, “90% of them certified,” and 156 nursing homes, 70% certified.
The minister not only recognized the disaster in these areas, but also the “difficulties to improve the state of construction of medical offices and an availability of only 30% of the basic set of drugs, which in pharmacies is barely 32%.”
The latter is one of the elements most criticized by the population, but it does not follow from Portal Miranda’s presentation that there is an easy solution. The minister vaguely alluded to the elimination of the illegal sale continue reading
of medicines and said that “they ought to have a gradual recovery as long as the necessary financing is available.”
In the country whose propaganda flag has been healthcare since 1959, the medical staff and coverage of clinics are not complete.
Despite placing the “blockade” of the United States at the top of the list of those responsible for the situation, Portal Miranda did not fail to mention other obvious problems: the “exodus of professionals; failures in the organization of services -such as delays in surgical treatments; unethical attitudes; and the illegal sale of services in some institutions.” Thus, he conceded, insisting: “Among the population there remain fair dissatisfactions associated with the provision of services, which we have been unable to solve.”
In the country whose propaganda flag has been healthcare since 1959, the medical staff and coverage of clinics are not complete. There are 16,541 “healthcare facilities,” the minister indicated, “with 92.2% covered.” Although the minister says that wage benefits have been implemented for 72% of workers in the sector, which has “contributed to reducing layoffs by 25%, this does not solve all dissatisfaction.” The reduction in staff, he says, “has made it more difficult for hospitals to function.”
As measures to recover the labor force, for example, 156 retired nurses were hired, and “the rescue of another 191 through personalized arrangements” was achieved, said Portal Miranda, without specifying the details of those arrangements.
In the midst of the debacle, only one aspect shines: foreign exchange income; that is, the sale of medical services, Cuba’s main source of revenue. In the first half of the year, they achieved 102%, “reaching 50% of the annual target.”
However, despite this “over-fulfillmemt” and a “self-financing scheme in currencies” that “have allowed activities to be reordered and halted the deterioration of the system,” Portal Miranda said, with vocabulary typical of the Special Period, the conclusion is not ambiguous: “There are still no relevant results.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio, Mexico City, 22 July 2025 — The mayor of the Cuauhtémoc municipality in Mexico City, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, wants to put up for public auction the statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara that she ordered removed last week from the bench where they stood in the Jardín Tabacalera park . This is what the politician told 14ymedio, explaining that if this solution is possible, the auction would start at the original purchase price – 600,000 pesos, $32,000, in 2017 – “corrected for inflation in recent years,” with the money to be reinvested in the park.
