“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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While donations are at a minimum, people increasingly offer in exchange for money, food, or even a high-end cell phone.
National donations fell by more than 100,000 between 2020 and 2023 alone / Granma]
14ymedio, Madrid, 23 June 2025 — With a population estimated at 404,037, the health authorities of Sancti Spíritus estimate that 12,000 blood donations are needed throughout the year. However, in 2024 they were just 7,252, the lowest level in the last five years. Failing to reach the goal of 1,000 donations per month, they have to turn to the families of patients who can donate or to the lucrative black-market blood-selling business.
In a report by the provincial newspaper Escambray, the former coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) of Sancti Spíritus, Jorge Luis Nápoles Marín – replaced in May by Yurkenia Ciriano Alonso – admitted that the organization’s ability to motivate citizens is limited. “This is not going as well as before; it’s a reality that you can’t blame on the blockade or the economic situation,” he says, although he takes care to explain the real reasons: the population’s disaffection towards the regime’s mass organizations, especially the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs).
“Sancti Spíritus has 308,000 CDR members and a plan of 12,000 donations per year. We have plenty of arms to donate”
He admits that there are no healthcare hearings or debates on the subject and accepts the criticism, although his arguments draw attention. “Sancti Spíritus has 308,000 CDR members and a plan of 12,000 donations per year. We have plenty of arms to donate,” he says, regardless of the fact that CDR membership has lost relevance.
The Escambray article, entitled TheVirtualBloodDonationMarket, reviews the country’s latest official donation data: 254,845 in 2023, compared to 357,665 in 2020. The pandemic, which accelerated the demographic and economic crisis, stands as a definitive turning point for the catastrophe, since between 2014 and 2020 the number fell by just over 57,000 donations, while between 2020 and 2023 the decrease was 102,820.
Among the reasons, which Escambray has asked people connected to the sector about, is the lack of mobile banks. “In Topes de Collantes, donors have been scheduled up to eight times, and they haven’t been able to attend because we don’t have a car,” says Barbarita Altunaga Villas, head of the blood collection center in Trinidad, the area with the worst situation in the continue reading
province. The outlet states that work is underway to repair a vehicle for this purpose, but also poses a rhetorical question: “Why has the Banco Provincial not had its own facility for more than two years?”
Mirta Santos León, Director of Medical Assistance at the General Directorate of Health, claims that there have been times in recent years when the blood supply situation has become, she points out, a headache, and when there has been a shortage of collection bags. However, although there has been no shortage in 2025, “the problem lies in the willingness to donate.”
Experts consulted by Escambray believe that the loss of quality of the snacks given to volunteers is one of the reasons why the willingness to donate blood has declined. Raumara Ramos, acting director of the Provincial Blood Bank, believes it’s almost essential that the situation improves. “The snacks need to be of better quality. If we go to a place with which we have a contract and they tell us, ‘What we have is mortadella,’ we have to take it.”
The article repeatedly emphasizes that the lack of altruism is increasingly perceptible, and even calls on a sociology expert to speak of a loss of values. “Foreign codes are being adopted because the alternatives conceived within our social system as altruistic, moral, and supportive have ceased to work for a segment of the population,” reproaches José Neira Milián, a doctor in sociology, who believes that this “disdains what has been constructed in terms of human values, the original moral meaning being the intrinsic and authentic value of blood donation.”
Neira Millán describes exchanges—financial or in-kind—for blood donations as “foreign codes,” while admitting that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), altruistic or minimally incentivized donations are the majority worldwide. According to available data, Cuba collects 20 donations per 1,000 inhabitants, far from the 40 recommended by the WHO. Spain, the world leader in blood donation, only gives volunteers a small sandwich and a soft drink and has placed the city of Burgos at the top of the world list , with 60 per thousand inhabitants.
“We’ve looked for ways to get people to donate, and material support is more influential than moral stimulation.”
However, those interviewed by Escambray insist on the “incentive” approach. “We’ve looked for ways to get people to donate, and and material support is more influential than moral stimulation. We’ve stopped holding donor days; we no longer encourage those who are prominent on the block or in the work groups. It’s a botched job for a bank to offer a snack that consists of a poorly prepared sandwich and a soft drink, or not even having a mouthful of coffee to give,” says Nápoles Marín.
“Voluntary donors hardly ever show up, and only the relatives of the patient undergoing surgery attend. We need to encourage more; before, we did the donor activity, they were given a sweater, a module [food or supplies]…” says Raumara Ramos.
“What was done at one point,” says Mirta Santos, “isn’t possible now. And stimulation isn’t just about giving people a package of detergent. The Ministry of Health can guarantee medical care; but there are other things that neither the Ministry of Health nor anyone else can offer because they aren’t available today.” Altunaga Villas, however, maintains that work must be done with the private sector to find something, and reveals that this is already being done in Cienfuegos. “It doesn’t have to be a package of chicken; something always helps,” she adds.
Sonia Sánchez, head of the Transfusion Service of the Hemotherapy Department at the Camilo Cienfuegos General Provincial Hospital, says that about 20 or 30 transfusions are needed every day and gives the example of what happened one day she remembers perfectly: April 25th of this year, when she looked at the statistics, availability was zero.
“Sometimes, not always. When we’ve had the noose around our necks, we’ve had support. In recent days, the government and some companies have pledged to help us,” says Altunaga Villas.
In March 2024, the Provincial Bureau of the Communist Party requested the reactivation of the national blood program, which was in decline—in its opinion, due to “insufficient CDRs”; it is up to them, together with the Ministry of Health, to revitalize this movement,” said its head. Meanwhile, the marketing continues, and those interviewed describe cases in which people are asked for anything from 5,000 to 12,000 pesos or a high-end cell phone without the slightest hesitation right at the door of the provincial Blood Bank. Although those who were clearly doing this at the center have been called to attention, those responsible deny having filed complaints due to lack of evidence. However, they acknowledge: “Everyone knows about this.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Without housing, formal employment, and a ration book, these internal migrants are “illegal” in their own country.
Many arrive in the capital, where they are required to meet legalization requirements which, in most cases, the eastern migrants cannot meet. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 17 July 2025 — Tens of thousands of Cubans are “illegal” in their own country, according to Government parameters, above all in Havana, the last stop for migrants who arrive from the east of the Island to escape extreme poverty and who don’t have the means to emigrate to the US or any other destination. Until yesterday, before the dismissal of the Minister of Labor, Marta Elena Feitó, they were also invisible or “disguised” as beggars.
Officialdom attributes the recent intensification of this migratory phenomenon “to a greater urbanization of society,” as stated by Antonio Ajas, director of the Center for Demographic Studies at the University of Havana, in comments reported by the State newspaper Granma on July 13. According to the expert, this is a natural trend in the country’s development process, where more and more people leave rural areas to settle in cities, especially in Havana, the main receiver of these displacements.
At first glance, Ajas’ explanation may seem reasonable: as cities grow, villages are emptied, and the countryside population gets older. However, attributing this phenomenon to “growing urbanization” ignores the social, economic and political context that gives rise to it. This is not a desired migration, a planned one or the product of progress, but the impoverishment and lack of prospects that push many Cubans to leave their places of origin in search of the minimum indispensable for survival. What Ajas describes as a process of urbanization is actually a desperate escape from poverty.
This reality has a face and a name, although not official. In popular Cuban language, especially in the capital, those who emigrate from the eastern provinces are called, in a derogatory way, Palestinians. The term — inherited from the idea of a displaced people, without land and without rights — has acquired a stigmatizing character. As a publication Acento notes, this phenomenon “is the result of institutional fragility in the countryside and the abandonment of rural areas, which push its inhabitants to wander around the country in a kind of contemporary nomadism.” continue reading
Unlike international displacements, these Cubans migrate within their own borders but suffer similar restrictions.
Unlike international displacements, these Cubans migrate within their own borders but suffer similar restrictions: discrimination, lack of access to housing, legal insecurity and almost total invisibility in public policies. Many arrive in Havana without a place to live, without formal employment, without a ration book, and in many cases, without being able to legalize their stay because of the still-existing restrictions of the home registration system. They are citizens of their own country but are treated as intruders.
To this situation is added a legal obstacle that further aggravates the vulnerability of internal migrants: regulations that prevent provincial Cubans from settling legally in Havana without express authorization. Decree 217 of 1997 imposes restrictions on moving to the capital, requiring a series of steps that, in most cases, eastern migrants cannot meet. This special permit system, inherited from a territorial control scheme, makes Havana a sort of restricted enclave within the country where not all citizens can legally reside.
In a 2016 article, the journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa managed to collect statements from several deported Palestinians: “I am your brother-in-law. Look, yesterday at noon they took Junior. But calm down, he did nothing. He was with me having lunch at the gate of Alfredo’s house, and a police car parked in front of us and asked for our identity cards. They saw that he was from Santiago de Cuba and arrested him.” Two buses leave Havana every Friday, each with 45 seats plus a monthly train, returning those people to their provinces of origin.
Decree 217, still in force in practice but not always applied with the same severity, contradicts the Cuban Constitution itself. Article 52 of the Constitution recognizes the right of every citizen to reside anywhere in the national territory. The paradox between constitutional letter and decreed regulations reveals a state that, instead of facilitating integration and equitable access to rights, imposes barriers that fuel exclusion.
The birth rate continues to fall, and population aging increases; more than 25% of Cubans are over 60 years old
Official figures confirm the extent of the phenomenon. According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the population of Cuba decreased by 307,961 people between 2023 and 2024, reaching 9,748,007 inhabitants, although the renowned economist and demographer Campos believes it has actually dropped to 8 million. The birth rate continues to fall, and the aging population increases; more than 25% of Cubans are over 60 years old. In parallel, more than 250,000 people emigrated abroad in 2024 alone. But what is not discussed enough is what happens inside the country: a massive internal movement from the provinces of the East and the Center to the West, with Havana as an almost obligatory destination.
Although it is also the main point of exit, the capital concentrates the bulk of internal migration. According to the ONEI, only Havana and its metropolitan area maintain positive population growth figures, precisely because of this constant flow of internal migrants. Meanwhile, provinces such as Las Tunas, Granma, Holguín and Guantánamo are losing inhabitants at an accelerated rate. In many of them, the loss of young people is alarming and threatens to render unviable local economic and social projects, already fragile after years of state divestment.
However, this forced migration is not limited to the movement from the countryside to the city. As Ajas himself points out, there is also displacement between rural areas: farmers who leave unproductive land in their municipality to settle in another where more land is available or better conditions. This movement, although less visible, reveals a logic of economic survival which has nothing to do with urban growth or modernization. It is simply the need to find a space where one can work and live with a minimum of stability.
There are no specific programs to accommodate, legalize and guarantee basic services for these people.
But the state still does not design a clear policy towards these internal migrants. The official discourse prefers to speak of “circularity,” “return” or a “rapprochement with the diaspora,” while ignoring those who, without leaving the country, are in a legal and social limbo. There are no specific programs to accommodate, legalize and guarantee basic services for these people. Access to the rationed market, children’s school enrollment, jobs and even health care for pregnant women becomes cumbersome for Palestinians. Nor is there a serious strategy to revitalize the countryside beyond slogans about “food sovereignty.”
The case of the Palestinians shows a double abandonment: that of their places of origin, emptied of opportunities, and that of their new destinations, where they are treated as second-class citizens. Rather than taking this reality seriously, the authorities present it as a “technical challenge” or a “natural process.”
But there is nothing natural about tens of thousands of Cubans being forced to leave everything to start from scratch, without state support, without minimum guarantees and bearing the burden of stigma. This is not urbanization. It is simply forced displacement.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Neither of them asked permission to settle in Cuba or in the Tabacalera park, explained Alessandra Rojo.
A backhoe removes the statues of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara from the Tabacalera Garden in Mexico City. / Cuauhtémoc City Hall
14ymedio, Havana, 17 July 2025 — Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are, for the time being, prohibited from sitting on the bench in Mexico City’s Jardín Tabacalera park. As if they were patients in intensive care, the heavy statues of both men seated were carried in the arms of several workers on Wednesday and removed from the site, after years of controversy over their “irregular” installation.
“Neither Che nor Fidel asked for permission to settle in Cuba… nor in the Tabacalera,” posted Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, the combative mayor of Cuauhtémoc, one of the 16 territorial demarcations into which Mexico City is divided and where the monument was located.
According to the politician, elected by a coalition opposed to the ruling party in the capital and the country, the placement of the figures in 2018 lacked the necessary documentation from the Committee on Monuments and Works of Art in Public Spaces, and the installation process was never completed. She added that her mayor’s office does not have “a single document” authorizing the statues’ presence in the park and “they are under the irregular custody of a mayor’s employee without any legal basis for doing so.” This led the district’s Urban Services department to remove the monuments.
“That’s not how things are done,” criticized the Mexican mayor and businesswoman, alluding to the “personal whims” of those who continue reading
governed the district in 2018, despite requests from Cuauhtémoc residents to recover the park bench that housed the Cuban and the Argentine.
This isn’t the first time Castro and Che Guevara have been deprived of their seats. / Fil
This isn’t the first time Castro and Che Guevara have been deprived of their seats. In 2019, the statues were reinstalled in the same location after being removed due to irregularities in the process, but the correct procedure wasn’t followed then either. Now, the mayor’s office announced, they will be put in storage and a consideration will be given to sending them to another location.
On X, the mayor’s announcement sparked all kinds of controversy and comments between those who see the measure as an offense and assured that “Che and Fidel will be back,” and those who celebrate the eviction of those “responsible for the misery a people as beautiful as Cubans are experiencing today.”
Others, jokingly, proposed sending the statues to regions governed by Morena, the party of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum, which controlled Cuauhtémoc when the bronze sculptures were placed.
Known as the Encounter Monument, the figures of Guevara and Castro—tobacco in hand, both already in their post-1959 military uniforms—commemorated their exile in Mexico, where they met before sailing to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma. Since its installation, it has been the target of complaints among those who frequent the Tabacalera Garden, not only for representing a totalitarian power, but for being an obstacle to urban harmony.
Known as the ’Meeting Monument’, the figures of Guevara and Castro commemorated their exile in Mexico.
Rojo was nominated last year as the mayoral candidate for Fuerza y Corazón por México [Power and Heart for Mexico], a coalition made up of the three main opposition parties. Before winning the election, her vehicle was shot at five times by an individual who later confessed he had been hired to “scare” the politician. In the election, she won against the candidate of the ruling Morena party, Catalina Monreal— daughter of Ricardo Monreal, the former mayor of Cuauhtémoc — who tried to overturn the election result by accusing Rojo of alleged electoral irregularities. The statues were installed during Monreal’s term as mayor.
In July 2024, 14ymedio published a report on the Encuentro Monument, located in a central area of the capital, which has been vandalized (covered in white paint) and served as a clothesline for those washing in the park’s fountain.
“For me, it’s an aberration to have these statues here. We have countless national heroes, so why would we have these individuals if Castro was a dictator?” a neighborhood resident told this newspaper at the time. Another, drawn into the conversation, replied: “Shouldn’t they be somewhere else? In Cuba, for example?”
For the moment, however, Castro and Che rest in some storeroom at city hall. An empty bench and two stains on the crossbars remain in the park: they are the trace, neither epic nor heroic, of the expulsion.
For the moment, however, Castro and Che rest in some storeroom at city hall. / Expediente
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Instead of 1,528 pesos, the monthly payment will be 3,056 pesos for about 430,000 people.
[In Cuba, more than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over. / 14ymedio14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2025 — The Cuban government announced this Wednesday an increase in the minimum pension for about 430,000 retirees starting in September, as confirmed by the prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, before Parliament. 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 it represents twice the current amount, is still well below informal market prices.
Marrero justified the measure after a recent meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), where the “complex situation of pensioners’ incomes” was assessed. According to the head of government, the adjustment will benefit 79 per cent of all retirees in the country — about 1.3 million people — who currently receive less than 4,000 pesos. “We are still looking for solutions, but I think it is fair that, although now we cannot cover everyone, we have started with 1.3 million because they are the most vulnerable,” said Marrero.
The Government did not specify where the resources will come from to cover this sum.
The measure will have an estimated tax cost of 22,000 million pesos per year (about 916 million dollars at the official exchange rate for companies), although the Government has not specified where the resources will come from to cover this sum. Marrero only advanced that “a group of measures” will be implemented to finance the expenditure, without providing details.
However, beyond the official rhetoric, the real impact of this adjustment on pensions is limited. In a country where one carton of 30 eggs can exceed 3,000 pesos, the new minimum would barely cover a single commodity, leaving pensioners unprotected against the rest of continue reading
everyday expenses, from medicines and transport to electricity, water and food. As manyindependent economists have warned, the problem is not only the low level of income, but the continued devaluation of the Cuban peso and the galloping inflation that has pulverized purchasing power.
More than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over.
According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), more than a quarter of the Cuban population is aged 60 or over. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of people over 60 grew from 2.3 million to 2.4 million, an increase of 3%. In contrast, the 15-59 age group fell by almost 12 per cent from 6.7 million to 5.9 million. This demographic change poses enormous challenges for a social security system that is increasingly supported by fewer contributors and more dependents.
The situation is compounded by deteriorating health services, chronic drug shortages and the collapse of the primary care system for older adults. In provinces like Guantanamo and Granma, homes for the elderly survive on donations, while many retirees must rely on remittances from relatives abroad, barter or informal jobs to survive. In recent reports, 14ymedio has documented how retirees sell coffee, soap and cigars on the streets, collect plastic bottles or take care of houses for tourists as their only means of subsistence.
The announcement looks more like a gesture of restraint than a substantive solution.
In addition, while the Government announces these partial reforms, it offers no guarantees of transparency or mechanisms for citizen control over the use of the state budget. The increase in pensions comes without being accompanied by a comprehensive economic reform plan or a coherent fiscal policy that addresses the structural roots of the crisis: unproductivity, bureaucracy and unbridled inflation. Nor have immediate relief measures such as the opening of markets in national currency or the liberalization of individual imports without customs barriers been considered.
In the midst of this panorama, the announcement seems more a gesture of restraint than a substantive solution. The population is aging, families are emigrating, and the generation that built the Revolution today is forced to subsist on pensions that do not cover even one lunch. With the currency in free fall, undersupplied markets and stagnant wages, doubling the minimum pension is at best a bandaid on an open wound.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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It’s true that the problem of begging was not born with the Revolution, but it is a direct result of the demagogy and cynicism of pretending to serve the poor.
José María López Lledín was born in Spain in 1899 and emigrated to Cuba as a child. / Gaspar, El Lugareño
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 17 July 2025 — In the collective memory of Cubans, there are figures who, without having held official positions, are more remembered than most ministers. One of them is José María López Lledín, better known as El Caballero de París, the Knight of Paris. His image — with prophetic beard, white mane and an unbreakable dignity wrapped in rags — still inhabits the imagination of Havana residents. Despite being a wanderer, a “street madman” to many, he became a myth, an urban legend and a symbol of the Cuban contradiction between marginality and popular respect.
López Lledín was born in Spain in 1899 and emigrated to Cuba when he was just a child. He is said to have worked in hotels, restaurants and even as a bank clerk. But it was the street that eventually took him in. For decades he wandered through Havana with a flowery speech, greeting those he met with nineteenth-century courtesy, pronouncing philosophical phrases, improvising speeches, collecting papers, sometimes writing in the air. His wandering made him part of the urban landscape, a kind of living statue that roamed the city without restrictions. He died in 1985, in the Psychiatric Hospital of Mazorra.
The official story has tried to turn him into a romantic eccentricity of the past. He has even been carved in bronze in front of the convent of Saint Francis of Assisi, as if the country had to settle its debts with the homeless only after death. But what is most annoying is not that kind of late symbolic redemption. What’s irritating is that the same system that tried to cover up the problem of begging by locking up wanderers now continue reading
disguises itself as “sensitive.”
What’s irritating is that the same system that tried to cover up the problem of begging by locking up wanderers now disguises itself as “sensitive.”
The Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó, has “resigned” after generating a scandal by saying that “there are no people living on the street,” only “people who disguise themselves as beggars.” The regime first tried to erase the videos of her speech. Then, when they understood that it was too late and the indignation almost reached the doors of the Parliament, they decided to “disappear” her. Her speech, worthy of a libretto by Ionesco, exposed a Revolution that swore to be humble but ended up accommodating a caste that never lowers the windows of its cars.
It’s true that the problem of begging was not born with the Revolution, nor was corruption, opportunism or poverty. Cuba, like any country in the world, has always had its marginalized population. But what is the direct fruit of the regime is the demagoguery and cynicism of
pretending to serve the poor, but instead multiplying them. For decades, “madmen” and beggars were hidden in institutions such as Mazorra or “social rehabilitation” centers, just as they also tried to hide homosexuals, believers and the ideologically confused. The city had to look clean, disguised only by workers and militants.
The Knight of Paris, with all his elegance and delirium, represents something uncomfortable for power: the dignity of the homeless.
Today, economic decline, runaway inflation and loss of meaning in a country with no visible future have dramatically increased the number of homeless people. You only have to go for a walk through Centro Habana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago. And yet, the official speech insists on the mirage that “no one will be left behind.” Social networks, counter-revolution and imperialism are blamed for the real image of the country, while a parallel narrative is produced where Cubans have a hard time only “in the movies.”
The Knight of Paris, with all his elegance and delirium, represents something uncomfortable for power: the dignity of the homeless, the untitled intelligence, the madness that tells truths. His figure, idealized by some, reminds us that social problems are not solved with bronze statues, denial or falsely empathetic speeches, but with concrete policies.
Today we do not have a Knight of Paris, but we have thousands of Cubans sleeping on cardboard, escaping from hunger and dodging the police, “inventing” to survive. Meanwhile, the statue in front of Saint Francis of Assisi seems to ask, in silence, why those who come to pay homage to him today do not want to look at those who continue, like him, to wander the streets of an unremembered Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The former Interior Ministry official was directly involved in the repression of mass protests four years ago.
Daniel Morejón García, in an image of his arrest released by U.S. immigration authorities. / X/@HSI_Miami
14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2025 — Daniel Morejón García, who appears on the list of repressors of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), was deported to the island, according to journalist Mario J. Pentón. The migrant had been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since April.
“The former Interior Ministry official was directly involved in the repression of the mass protests on July 11, 2021,” Pentón stated on his X account. Morejón has been in Cuban territory since May 30, the reporter added. For its part, this newspaper attempted to contact Morejón’s daughter several weeks ago to confirm his deportation, but she never responded.
The repressor arrived in Havana in a group of 130 migrants, 106 men and 24 women who arrived through José Martí International Airport.
According to a statement issued by ICE shortly after his arrest, the 57-year-old Cuban was “administratively” arrested at his home in Miami after it was established that he had lied upon entering the country. continue reading
“Law enforcement officers obtained official Cuban government documents and information from reliable sources indicating that Morejón García had not disclosed his affiliations,” that is, his immigration application had failed to include his membership in the Cuban Communist Party and the Ministry of the Interior.
There is evidence, the text then asserted, that Morejón García attacked protesters during the massive protests of 11 July 2021.
There is evidence, the text asserted, that Morejón García attacked protesters during the massive Island-wide demonstrations of 11 July 2021 (11J) “as part of his duties.” The former agent was president of the National Defense Council in the province of Artemisa and a member of the Rapid Response Brigades, the text indicates, explaining that these are groups “composed of civilians trained and organized by the government” and “designed to assist authorities during incidents of social unrest, protests, or riots.”
The information provided by ICE coincided with that found on the FDHC website, which indicates that, as seen in a video, during the 11 June demonstration in Las Cañas, Artemisa, Morejón got off his motorcycle and attacked Armando Martínez Luis. Now a political prisoner, Martínez Luis suffers from hypertension and paranoid schizophrenia, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Two other protesters arrested at the same location, Rolando González Arévalo and Richael Cantún Morales, were sentenced to six and seven years, respectively. All three are serving prison sentences in Guanajay prison (where artist and San Isidro Movement leader Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is also being held).
Based on a complaint, the Foundation reported that the former agent, who was also director of the Las Cañas feed factory, was living at his daughter’s house in Miami.
Based on a complaint, the Foundation reported that the former agent, who was also the director of the Las Cañas feed factory, was living with his daughter, Dhayma Morejón, in Miami. Another complainant, according to the foundation’s file, claimed he was a State Security agent who “walks around armed” and in Cuba was the manager of Almacenes Universales, a subsidiary of the Gaesa military conglomerate.
The former official also appears on the list that Cuban-American Congressman Carlos Giménez sent last March to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with more than 100 people who, the Republican politician alleged, “previously supported the brutal policies of the Castro dictatorship and have taken advantage of U.S. immigration laws to enter our country.”
Until his deportation, Morejón García was held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade County. ICE has asked anyone with “information regarding alleged human rights violators traveling to or entering the United States” to report this situation, which can be done anonymously.
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Exiles pay the internet expenses of their relatives on the Island
The figure represents an astronomical increase in the company’s collection of hard currency. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2025 — In the little more than one month since the tarifazo [huge price increase] came into force – 46 days, to be exact — stirring up Cuban universities and putting the state telecommunications monopoly in a bind — Etecsa has managed to raise more than 24,839,866 dollars. The data, revealed by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero in front of Parliament on Wednesday, confirmed what the students had been criticizing for weeks while the company denied it: Etecsa is prioritizing the collection of foreign currency over its users.
The figure represents an astronomical increase in the collection of hard currency by Etecsa of 5,300 percent, averaging $540,000 per day. Before, said Marrero, it was barely $10,000 (54 times less). Exports also grew by 3.5%, he said, although without giving specific figures. According to him, the revenues will be used to improve the Island’s telecommunications infrastructure, which has one of the worst internet connections in the world.
Marrero dismissed the “just complaints” caused by the “political and communication strategy of the company.”
The prime minister dismissed the “just complaints” caused by the “political and communication strategy of the company” and said that the claims have been “attended to.”
Announced by Marrero himself in 2023, the tarifazo was implemented in June amid protests and criticism, mainly from the country’s university students, because the new prices limit refills in national currency to 6 GB monthly for 360 pesos, while extra packages beyond that are sold at exorbitant prices.
Last June in the podcast Desde la presidencia, hosted by Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Etecsa’s president Tania Velázquez Figueredo acknowledged that limiting consumption was a deliberate strategy to push customers to seek international refills. In practice, it is the Cuban exile that pays for their relatives’ internet on the Island, and which, in the last month, has fattened the company’s coffers. continue reading
She also categorically denied that there was any conflict with the students.
Then, she also categorically denied that there was any conflict with the students, a position that has been maintained by the government, even when the university students threatened to carry out a student strike. The “high indebtedness” of the company, repeated again and again by its managers, forced Etecsa to raise its rates without any possibility of reversing the measure.
In order to appease the students, an Additional Plan was created whereby 2 GB can be purchased for 1,200 pesos – added to the basic 6 GB for 360 pesos – “once a month and with a duration of 35 days.” There is also a Sector-based Plan, intended exclusively for students, which offers an additional 6 GB for 360 pesos.
The company’s “high debt” forced Etecsa to raise its fees.
In the official press release of mid-June, Etecsa acknowledged that 38% of users in Cuba consume more than 8 GB. “Our company is aware that there are sectors with greater consumption needs and that this Additional Plan will be insufficient for them; but in the current conditions, it is the solution that can be provided to increase the level of connectivity of our customers.”
In no time at all Cubans again found themselves uneasy, but once again the monopoly justified itself: “Etecsa reiterates its commitment to the search for solutions to overcome current challenges, working hand in hand with the people, supporting education and the construction of the Cuban digital society.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The spokesperson for the African country says that Roberto Mosquera Del Peral and those expelled from Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam are in transit.
Roberto Mosquera Del Peral Cuban, is among the five fugitives who were detained in prison in Eswatini. / EFE
14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2025 — The US government resumed deportation flights to third countries on Tuesday with the expulsion to Eswatini of Cuban Roberto Mosquera Del Peral and four other migrants from Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam. Because of their criminal records, they were not accepted by their countries of origin.
According to Undersecretary of National Security Tricia McLaughlin, “murderers and a rapist, all convicted” were on the flight that landed in the African country, the former Swaziland.
Among those expelled is the 58-year-old Cuban, Mosquera, who was arrested last June. The US authorities point him out as a member of the Latin Kings gang, which emerged in the city of Chicago in the middle of the last century and is considered by the FBI to be “a serious threat” to the country. He also has “a conviction for murder and aggravated assault on a police officer with a weapon” in Miami. continue reading
The Eswatini Government confirmed the landing of the deportees and said that they do not pose a threat to national security.
The Eswatini Government confirmed the landing of the deportees and said that they do not pose a threat to national security. The migrants were detained in isolated units inside penitentiary centers, “where similar offenders are held,” interim spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said. However, he specified that criminals expelled by the US “are only in transit” and insisted that they will be repatriated to their respective countries of origin.
“Eswatini and the United States have had fruitful bilateral relations for more than five decades. Therefore, each agreement reached is carried out with meticulous attention and putting the interests of both nations first,” Mdluli said.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has pushed for express expulsions to countries like El Salvador, South Sudan and now Eswatini as part of his mass deportation campaign, one of his main campaign promises.
Earlier this month, the US government sent eight migrants of various nationalities, including two Cubans and a Mexican, to South Sudan after a court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries with which detainees have no ties.
Eswatini has a population of about 1.2 million people who are predominantly rural, and 60% are living on resources below the poverty line, according to data from the World Bank.
The Washington Post reports that an ICE memorandum instructs immigration officials to keep immigrants in detention “for as long as their deportation process lasts.”
King Mswati III, head of state since 1986 and leader of the last absolute monarchy in Africa, holds executive and legislative power, and although the country holds elections every five years to elect members of the lower house of parliament, these only play the role of advisors to the monarch.
The deportation flights are taking place while The Washington Post reports that an ICE memorandum instructs immigration officials to keep immigrants in detention “for as long as their deportation process lasts.”
Vanessa Dojaquez Torres, practice and policy advisor to the American Association of Immigration Lawyers, denounced policies that keep people in detention longer. “The Government’s goal of detaining and deporting more people is growing.”
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Officials say that the mountains of Manantlán and Rosario “are recognized as sisters.”
They will study the connectivity between natural spaces and the effects of climate change. / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Mexico City, July 16, 2025 — Mexico and Cuba signed a collaboration agreement on Wednesday to conserve, protect and study the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve in Cuba, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) reported.
By signing at the Orquideario de Soroa Botanical Garden in Cuba, Lelieth Feyobe Sandoval, director of the Cuban reserve, and Carlos Alberto Gallegos Solórzano, head of the Mexican Sierra, agreed to “the rebirth of a biocultural family, where the mountains of Cuba and Mexico are recognized as sisters,” according to a statement describing the relationship.
They will study the Biosphere Reserve Youth Network
The Partnership and Action Plan Agreement will seek to cooperate in areas of agro-biodiversity and agricultural production systems; biological corridors and connectivity between natural spaces; studies on climate change impacts; and issues of ecosystem management and services, in addition to working on the Biosphere Reserve Youth Network. continue reading
This twinning occurs three decades after the first agreement, symbolizing “the continuity of a shared history and the renewal of a joint commitment to biodiversity, communities, and ancestral and scientific knowledge,” presented by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico.
The setting of the signing also served to raise the importance of mountain areas for the resilience of coastal basins, through the panel ’Ecological research in both Protected Natural Areas (ANP)’.
They raised the importance of mountain areas for coastal basin resilience.
At the Sierra del Rosario Ecological Station, institutional presentation sessions, working tables, collaborative mapping and cooperation agreements were held to establish a common vision of the challenges and opportunities of the spaces.
The Sierra de Manantlán is a biosphere reserve located between Jalisco and Colima (in the west of the country), known for its biodiversity and its wild corn.
For its part, the Sierra del Rosario was the country’s first biosphere reserve, characterized by its tropical ecosystems.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In Cuba, no one is allowed to resign from their position; disgrace and dismissal always come from “the top.”
A disabled man searches for something to eat in a garbage container in Havana. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 16 July 2025 — Blackouts, inflation, and the economic crisis have ceased to be the talk in the streets in Cuba, at least for a few days. The focus of social anger has turned on the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó, who launched a bitter tirade last Monday against people who beg for money in public or rummage through garbage to find food. The outrage has reached a point where the official resigned, a cosmetic move in a regime that refuses to acknowledge the extent and severity of poverty on the island.
Before Parliament, Feitó lashed out at those people “disguised” as homeless people who extend their hands to beg for bills, clean windshields at a traffic light to extract a meager payment, or plunge their hands into trash cans filled with garbage and then shove a piece of bread or a piece of nearly rotten fruit into their mouths. The minister accused all these Cubans living in extreme vulnerability, many of whom were homeless, of being drunks, deceivers, and illegal immigrants. Before dozens of parliamentarians, she unleashed her insults without receiving any criticism, without anyone raising their hand to ask to speak and rebut her.
Luckily, we have social media. Shortly after that disastrous intervention, Feitó’s brief moments in front of the microphone went viral on the internet. There was no way to defend her words, not even from a regime accustomed to closing ranks around the nonsense uttered by its leaders. For a system that prides itself on being “of the humble and by the humble,” the contemptuous tone of the Minister of Labor, specifically toward the poorest, was indefensible. The damage control strategy then began to unfold, culminating in Feitó’s departure from the ministry. But the reasons that led her to assert that homeless people are “people who have found an easy way of life” remain.
Recognizing the misery in which a large part of the population lives or continuing to boast that 66 years later the scourge of homelessness has been eradicated, that is the dilemma
The island’s authorities are trapped in a dilemma with a difficult solution. Acknowledge the misery in which a large part of the population lives in an attempt to alleviate these hardships, or continue boasting that 66 years after that January of 1959, the scourge of poverty has been eradicated in Cuba, making our political and economic model superior to its capitalist nemesis. Putting numbers on the unprotected and needy would be admitting that the system has failed in one of its initial objectives and that the loss of civic and individual freedoms has not been worth it if it has not even managed to reduce the number of homeless people.
In Cuba, no one is allowed to resign. The fall into disgrace and dismissal always come from “on high,” an order from the highest leadership, capable of sacrificing any party cadre to protect itself. This is what happened on this occasion. Officialdom is now trying to counter Feitó’s nonsense with the words of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who, hours after the minister’s blunder and without mentioning her name, asserted that “the Revolution cannot leave anyone behind.” But the essence of the social security policy has been exposed. For Castroism, the poor are an annoying presence that reminds them and exposes their failure.
This may be the first time that a Cuban minister, in the last half-century, has resigned due to popular pressure stemming from publications in the independent press and dissemination on social media. The regime is no longer running solo on the path of the public narrative, and its stumbles, blunders, and profound reactionary nature are increasingly evident.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on DW and is republished with the author’s license.
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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.
