Translating Cuba – Page 81 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Migrants Turn Around: Thousands Return Disillusioned With the “American Dream”

Donald Trump’s arrival to power has pushed for this return, which is not always easy.

Many migrants use land and sea routes to avoid the Darién Jungle and face limitations due to lack of documentation / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, 1 July 2025 — A wave of migrants wanders along the road. After years of a steady flow north, more and more people in the region are returning to their countries of origin or stopping along their route, forced by lack of resources, obstacles at the borders or disenchantment with the “American dream,” a phenomenon that is beginning to be noticed in Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, among other countries.

They tried to reach the United States, but the arrival of Donald Trump to power has pushed thousands of migrants back to South America. The return is not easy. Many migrants use land and sea routes to avoid the Darien Jungle and face limitations due to lack of documentation to access humanitarian flights or voluntary return programs, while remaining in vulnerable conditions.

In Panama, migrants collide with the Darién barrier and the high cost of continuing on a boat through the Caribbean. “Here we are held back by the sea and money,” they confess to EFE. In Miramar, a small coastal town in the Panamanian Caribbean, dozens of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, hope to embark for Colombia after running out of means to continue their journey.

In Miramar, a small coastal town in the Panamanian Caribbean, dozens of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, hope to embark for Colombia after running out of means to continue their journey

Marielbis Campos, mother of four children who traveled through the Darién carrying one of them on her back, waited in Mexico for more than a year for an asylum appointment. But with Trump’s return to the White House, the notification never came. It was then that she decided to return to Brazil, but the return has become another ordeal. Marielbis is accompanied by her four children, ages seven, four, three and one.

Marielbis’ journey is that of thousands of migrants. The tightening of immigration policies in the United States has changed the direction of the continue reading

flow. According to data from the Panamanian authorities, more than 12,700 migrants, 94% of them Venezuelans, have transited from north to south since November 2024, a reversal of the flow that previously filled the route to Darién, which over half a million people crossed in 2023 to go north. The number has been declining after a peak in April with 3,000 migrants, which fell to 1,779 in June.

Return journeys are marked by precariousness and fear. In Panama, some migrants such as Jesús Alfredo Aristigueta, a 32-year-old Venezuelan, report being kidnapped in Mexico and extorted on his return route. And he regrets that the help from the Venezuelan authorities that once made it easier to go north has disappeared for those who now need “a push to return.”

The phenomenon of “reverse transit” is also intensifying in Colombia. Between January and May, more than 10,200 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have returned through the Darién, where they crossed rivers and areas of difficult access without any presence of officials or agents, exposed to trafficking networks and sexual violence. The Office of the Ombudsman has warned about the lack of protection channels for these migrants, many of them unaccompanied minors.

Migrants complain that the help from the Venezuelan authorities that once made it easier to go north has disappeared for those who now need “a push to return”

“Reverse migration is a challenge that requires binational cooperation and urgent protection,” says Mireille Girard, representative in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Many of these people return without resources or support networks and in the aftermath of violence and exploitation during the journey, she says.

The authorities of Venezuela claim to have reactivated a program called “Gran Misión Vuelta a la Patria,” which has facilitated the return of more than 5,600 Venezuelans deported from the United States between January and May this year, some on flights with stopovers in Mexico and Honduras.

This return occurs within the framework of a deportation agreement signed between Caracas and Washington despite the absence of diplomatic relations since 2019. Returnees receive medical assistance and reintegration support, with programs from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) providing training to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Ecuador has not recorded a massive return after the change in United States policies, but the country has undergone a change of destination for migrants. More and more Ecuadorians are heading to Argentina, where over 7,700 people have traveled since the beginning of 2025 without being recorded as having returned. Displacement is driven by the lack of opportunities and growing insecurity in the country.

It is estimated that about 100,000 Ecuadorians have emigrated annually since 2021 on a regular basis and not returned. Meanwhile, the Government is trying to promote circular migration programs, which have so far been limited in scope.

It is estimated that about 100,000 Ecuadorians have emigrated annually since 2021 on a regular basis and not returned

Peru also faces a complex situation. In addition to being a major recipient of Venezuelan migrants, with 1.6 million on its territory, the country is dealing with the suspension of international cooperation funds, which means limited attention to vulnerable migrant populations. At the same time, Peruvians in an irregular situation in the United States have been deported, with more than 12,000 returning since 2022.

In the Dominican Republic, the phenomenon of return has its own peculiarity. The policy of mass deportations of undocumented Haitians has led to an increase in voluntary returns. Between January and May of this year, more than 153,000 Haitians have been deported following measures that include requiring documentation even in hospitals, which is affecting pregnant women and people seeking basic health care.

This panorama of reverse migration in Latin America reflects the impact of migratory restrictions imposed by the United States, lack of resources, violence along the routes and disenchantment with the “American dream”. For the thousands of people starting their return journey, this change in the migratory flow is taking place without protective measures or initiatives of bi-national cooperation, and amid new dangers.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Regime Prevents Cuban Guests From Attending the 4th of July Party at the US Embassy

Several activists and opponents, in Havana and in the province, were arrested or surrounded in their homes.

Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, was arrested when she tried to leave the organization’s headquarters / Facebook / Ángel Moya Acosta

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2025 — As happens every year, the celebration of US Independence Day becomes an uncomfortable date for the Cuban regime. This Wednesday, several independent journalists, activists and opponents denounced the police surrounding their homes to prevent them from attending the official reception organized by the chargé d’affaires of Washington in Havana, Mike Hammer.

Journalist Reinaldo Escobar reported that agents of State Security prevented him from leaving his home in the neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, both to attend a family lunch and for the July 4 celebration, scheduled for 7:00 pm at Hammer’s residence in the municipality of Playa.

“I tried to go, I was going to a lunch, but an agent of State Security intercepted me and told me that I couldn’t leave,” he confirmed. Since the early morning, on the ground floor of the building where 14ymedio is located, a permanent operative was deployed, according to several neighbors.

For Escobar, the crackdown on party guests is “disrespectful to the American nation.” The reporter wonders “how ‘friends of Cuba in Washington’ would react if the FBI prevented them from attending the festivities for July 26 at the Cuban embassy.”

“A State Security officer intercepted me and told me that I could not leave”

In a similar situation is Manuel Cuesta Morúa, vice-president of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, who claimed to be under close surveillance at his home in Alamar, in the municipality of Habana del Este. Also, activist Marthadela Tamayo and rapper Osvaldo Navarro reported on social networks that the headquarters of the cultural project Di.Verso remains surrounded by agents dressed in civilian clothes. continue reading

The same measure has been applied against former political prisoner Óscar Elías Biscet and his wife, activist Elsa Morejón, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton, as well as against the opponent Librado Linares, in the municipality of Camajuaní in Villa Clara, to whom “an officer on a motorcycle verbally announced” the movement restriction.

For her part, Lady in White Maria Cristina Labrada reported on her Facebook page: “My house is besieged by servants of the Communist Party and the Department of State Security.” Labrada described the presence of two women dressed as civilians stationed at the corner of their house on Cortina street, Milagros corner, in the neighborhood of Santos Suárez. A neighbor alerted her to the operative from early hours. “Always, even with fear, they sympathize with me,” she added, referring to her neighbors.

“An officer on a motorcycle verbally announced” the movement restriction

Labrada also published a list of other opponents under house arrest, including the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler – who was arrested – and activists Bárbaro de la Nuez and Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramirez. This newspaper was also able to confirm that journalist Boris González Arenas had surveillance around his house.

Another case is that of former political prisoner Ángel Moya Acosta, intercepted by political police agents around 9:30 am on Wednesday morning as he was walking along Calle E and Avenida Porvenir, in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton.

“One of the operatives, who identified himself as an officer of State Security, told me that I could not go to Martha Beatriz Roque’s house and urged me to return to the headquarters of the Ladies in White,” said Moya in a message sent from his mobile phone shortly before being held incommunicado. He said that his neighbors had alerted him to the presence of a patrol car and plain-clothes officers outside the headquarters of the opposition movement.

Arrests and similar operations have also been reported outside Havana

Roque, also a former political prisoner of the Black Spring, had declined Hammer’s invitation for health reasons. “I can’t walk,” she told this newspaper. The concentration of police around her house suggests that the intention was not only to prevent her attendance but also to avoid any meeting or connection between dissidents on the eve of the celebration.

Outside Havana, similar arrests and operations have also been reported in recent days, which could be related to both the 4the of July event and another key date: the anniversary of the 11 July 2021 protests.

On 23 June, during an interrogation in Pinar del Río of the two main members of the Centro de Estudios Convivencia, Dagoberto Valdés and Yoandy Izquierdo, an officer warned them that this year they would not allow “people from the provinces” to attend the Independence Day event.

The regime has been waging an intense campaign against diplomat Mike Hammer since his appointment

In Camagüey, journalist Henry Constantín – director of the independent newspaper La Hora de Cuba – has been detained since Sunday, when he accompanied his colleague Iris Mariño to a police summons. In Santiago de Cuba, Nelva Ortega, wife of political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer, was arrested on Tuesday while demanding proof of life for the opposition leader, currently on a hunger strike.

The regime has been waging an intense campaign against diplomat Mike Hammer since his appointment as head of mission at the US Embassy in Cuba. The media offensive has increased as Hammer has developed a style of direct diplomacy, going through neighborhoods, greeting passers-by and visiting the homes of activists and opponents, in contrast to his predecessors.

Traditionally, the American independence celebration is attended not only by independent activists and journalists but also by artists, Catholic priests and a wide diplomatic representation from other countries.

“This is not a meeting for guidance from the CIA or the State Department, as the regime tries to make it”

“In previous years there was no surveillance to prevent the participation of civil society at these celebrations,” recalled journalist Camila Acosta, also under house arrest on Wednesday. “But now, with a new administration in Washington that has increased the pressure against the regime, and an ambassador who has visited almost all of Cuba in a few months and has a more confrontational stance, they want to prevent us from going.”

Acosta stressed the informal nature of the event: “This is not a meeting to receive guidance from the CIA or the State Department, as the Cuban regime tries to make it. What is happening is a party. But their objective is to isolate us, to prevent us from having contact with US diplomats and with each other.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Photo of the Creator of the Drug Trofin Selling Coffee Shows the Reality of Cuban Retirees

Before, he sold wine, says his daughter, because “his retirement isn’t enough for anything.”

Café Raúl is the name of the business venture of doctor and researcher Raúl González Hernández. / Facebook/Elizabeth González Aznar

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2025 — “One day he told me, ’I’m going to sell coffee,’ and I swear my heart sank.” Elizabeth recalls the words of doctor and researcher Raúl González Hernández, whose 80th birthday was celebrated last Sunday. “My brain thought: My God, a retired scientist, creator of a product and its line like Trofin — a drug for the treatment of anemia — selling coffee? I froze.”

The woman shared the reality of every Cuban on social media and recalled that her father “already sold wine” because “his retirement isn’t enough for anything,” and when he left work, things worsened.

The scientist’s daughter expressed her admiration for the 80-year-old man who has been an example of tenacity. “You started milking cows as a child to help your parents, but you grew to become a scientist, a doctor of science, a senior researcher, and the creator of a product that helps so much and its patents. You’ve never tired, Dad.”

González has taught numerous courses and lectured in Cuba, Russia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. His research was instrumental in obtaining donations for the island. Between 1992 and 1993, the Venezuelan firm Promed contributed $10,000 for clinical trials and registration of the drug Trofin, an anti-anemia drug.

“At 80 (years old) you split your sides and sell coffee without a hint of frustration, you know that it’s not you who is wrong, it’s them, and they should feel the shame, not us.”

However, some government officials took her words as a harsh denunciation, so in a second post on her Facebook account, continue reading

she clarified: “I’m telling the truth about my life, my father’s life, which unfortunately is the life of many Cubans. I didn’t provoke it, I didn’t invent it, I didn’t imagine it. On the contrary, I live it and suffer it like his daughter, because in my 46 years I never saw him tire, always working and fighting.”

Elizabeth says her father “listens to the news on the radio because the TV broke, and where do I get the money to fix it? Because the roof of the house is just rebar, and how much does a sack of cement cost today?” The scientist, she adds, “had to give up his car because it was rotting.” The woman emphasizes that her post “is not about crying, it’s not about complaining, it’s about indignation, helplessness, sadness, and the worst part is, I can’t help him anymore, no matter how much I want to, and it’s not fair, not to him or to any of those older adults.”

The daughter points out that many have suggested leaving the island, but in her case, it’s not an option. “Honestly, it would be killing him. Old age alone, even with money, isn’t joyful; it’s painful, a lot. Loneliness hurts, even if many don’t say so, and I say this because I see it every day with several people. That’s not the solution.”

The story of Raúl González Hernández is being revealed just as actress Miriam Mier received a walker, which she “urgently needed to improve her mobility,” Cubaactores reported. Elio Lázaro García Noa delivered the equipment to the La Victoria grocery store on D Street and 27th Street in Vedado, Havana.

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ICE Confirms the Deportation of One Cuban and Two Others Arrested for Serious Crimes

The country Rafael Ojeda Acosta was taken to is not disclosed; the arrests of Osmani Mompié and Vladimir Blanco Menéndez on serious charges are also reported.

The Cuban Rafael Ojeda Acosta was arrested and tried in New Orleans / X/@ERONewOrleans

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2025 — The Cuban Rafael Ojeda Acosta was arrested and tried in New Orleans for the crimes of “illegal carrying of a weapon, rape, sodomy, assault, escape from custody, theft and invasion of private property.” The Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) reported on Monday that he was deported without indicating to which country. The entity also reported the arrests of Osmani Mompié and Vladimir Blanco Menéndez.

The most recent flight of deportees from the US to Cuba was on June 18. The Interior Ministry confirmed the arrival of a flight to Havana with 89 migrants from the island- 76 men, 12 women and one minor. It was reported that one of the returnees was transferred to the investigative body, because at the time he illegally left the country he was on probation.”

In the last week of June, the Supreme Court gave free rein to US President Donald Trump’s administration to resume expelling immigrants to third countries such as South Sudan and El Salvador.

However, a month earlier, the Department of National Security deported Cubans Enrique Arias Hierro and José Manuel Rodríguez Quinones after Cuba refused to receive migrants with criminal records. The action sparked controversy, and Boston-based federal judge Brian Murphy said that the Trump administration violated a court order by deporting eight migrants to South Sudan without giving them an opportunity to object to the transfer. continue reading

One of the most recent cases is that of a Cuban identified by the initials C.R.L. According to official information, the transfer “was delayed because Cuba did not want to receive him and refused to facilitate his deportation.” The migrant, who spent three years in prison for serious crimes, resorted to habeas corpus and requested to be released until the US found a country willing to receive him. Mexico was the nation, but the detainee refused to accept it, so he remains in custody.

As for Osmani Mompié, ICE stated that he was sentenced for conspiracy to transport immigrants illegally, which put the lives of the people involved at risk. “He came here to traffic people. Now he’s the one who is being escorted back,” the agency emphasized in its publication.

The agency reported that Vladimir Blanco Menéndez was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse in Palm Beach County, Florida. It also published a number for people to report in the case of more victims.

The local newspaper The Palm Beach Post reported Blanco’s capture in 2019. The publication reports that a woman installed a tape recorder in her home on suspicion of a relationship with her daughter. The audios were used by the young woman to denounce her aggressor, whom she accused of forcing her to have sex. He was prosecuted by the authorities and fined $75,000 at that time.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The UN Manages Aid of up to $40,000 for MSMEs in Eastern Cuba

Applications will be received between July 1 and 31, and the selection process will take approximately three months.

The project is designed to provide resources and equipment for “new economic actors” in the east of the country / Sierra Maestra

14ymedio, Madrid, June 30, 2025 — From this Tuesday and throughout the month of July, both private and state-owned MSMEs*, non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA) and local development projects (PDL) from the east will be eligible for up to $40,000 in funding. The project, financed by the European Union as part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with assistance from the French Government, is intended for acquiring resources and equipment.

The objective, described by UNDP in the call made public last Wednesday, is “that the new economic actors [NAE] strengthen their capacities, improve the quality of their products and services, and broaden their presence in the market, in order to promote the creation of employment and the activation of the local economic fabric, with a focus on women and young people.”

Thus, they intend to “contribute to the well-being of the Cuban population by encouraging a dynamic and revitalized economy and economic actors in their innovation, entrepreneurship, management and, where appropriate, access to international markets,” they say in a burst of optimism that contrasts with the deep crisis that the country is experiencing.

The agency also announces that it will soon launch another five calls, two regional and three national

The review of applications will be carried out by “multidisciplinary teams,” says the statement, “made up of an odd number of experts from the three regions of the country, who will never evaluate projects in their own region in order to facilitate transparency and impartiality.” continue reading

To apply, you must fill out a form and send it to convocatoriasnae2025@gmail.com, with the subject “Application,” from 1 to 31 July. The selection process will take, according to UNDP, no more than three months.

The agency also announces that it will soon launch another five calls, two regional and three national, focusing on “strategic sectors” such as sustainable agro-food systems, renewable energy, information technologies and “creative industries.”

On UNDP social networks, several users complain that self-employed workers (TCP) are excluded from these possible grants. Thus, Henry Chávez Góngora asks how a TCP could access funding, to which the organization responds that although the call “is aimed at other actors, it aims to promote experiences that encourage productive chains where other actors can participate.”

Chávez Góngora, who claims to have an agro-industrial project with “eight production lines potentially only 12 kilometers from the main port of Cuba” – Mariel – continues: “How good, but at the beginning and in the end it is the farmer who is directly in the field, with projects of mini-industries in my case, to process myself the productions obtained on the land. My suggestion is to look at the front line of the production chain and if we have chains in our businesses.”

To the question of whether the call covers farmers with land under usufruct, UNDP answers that “other forms of management” can participate by “associating themselves with these experiences as chains,” it says, referring to MSMEs, CNA and PDL. And the user argues: “The farmers are associated with all these forms, but we perform the same work as them and with a greater commitment to the people. We sell at much lower prices and make greater more sacrifices in order to produce. If your call is only for that ’robust sector’, it stinks in my opinion.”

A total of $35.3 million was allocated to Cuba last year by this UN program, according to its own report, “to support sustainable development” in more than 40 projects on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

*MSME – Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises

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With Half-Empty Hotels and Deserted Restaurants, Varadero, Cuba is Bleeding

Many workers return to their hometowns, Cárdenas and Matanzas, to seek alternatives outside the tourism sector.

After the shock of the Covid pandemic, Varadero is experiencing its worst crisis in decades / EFE]

14ymedio, Pablo Padilla Cruz, Veradero, June 30. 2025 — In the 1990s, during the so-called Special Period, the Cuban regime bet on international tourism as a lifeline for its faltering socialist economy. The Hicacos peninsula, better known as Varadero, became in a few years the emblem of the new economic model: all-inclusive hotels, rum, tobacco and a low-cost tourist package that attracted mainly Spanish hotel chains.

But the boom is only a memory. After the shock of the covid-19 pandemic, Varadero is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. The decline in tourism has left half-empty hotels, deserted streets and thousands of workers on the verge of subsistence.

“There have always been ups and downs, but nothing like the last five years” / 14ymedio

“After Covid we had to reinvent ourselves,” says Maria Carla, a 30-year employee of the restaurant Floridita in Varadero. “There have always been ups and downs, but nothing like the last five years. All inclusive hotels have affected us a lot: tourists no longer leave the hotel, they leave a tip inside to ensure good service and they go away without stepping inside a shop or restaurant outside the complex.”

Maria Carla remembers with nostalgia the days when the city was a hotbed. Today, except for some places frequented by locals, such as the brewery on 43rd street or the bowling alley on 45th, “Varadero looks like a desert.” Many workers are returning to their home towns of Cárdenas and Matanzas to look for alternatives outside the tourism sector.

During the last decade, the official press claimed to have exceeded four million tourists per year, of which more than one million would have arrived in Varadero, but that figure has been questioned even from within.

“Every December they said that they had reached one million visitors, but there was still a long way to go to reach that figure” / 14ymedio

“At Radio 26, where I worked, everyone knew that the numbers were inflated,” says a former technician from the provincial radio station. “Every December they said that they had reached one million visitors, but there was still a long way to go to reach that figure”.

Competition has also played its part. Punta Cana, Cancun, Puerto Rico, Isla Margarita and the Bahamas offer modern infrastructure and better service. The comparison is humiliating.

“The hotels here look like campsites,” says Anthony, a buffet worker at the Los Delfines hotel. “Shrimp and lobster are almost invisible. And if they come in, we workers fight for them. Our salary is not enough, and when tourists see the environment, the toilets without seats and the leaks when it rains, they don’t leave a tip. If you don’t believe me, pass by Cuatro Palmas on a rainy day.” continue reading

“The hotels here look like campsites”

Anthony bitterly recalls a week he spent in a modest hotel in Punta Cana: “In Varadero, it would be in the top ten.” It is not surprising that the state-owned chains – Cubanacán, Gaviota and Islazul – are increasingly turning to national tourism.

“It’s the third year that we come here with the family,” says Elena, a habanera living in Marianao. “My husband and I work hard and give ourselves this luxury. But you can see the drop in service and offers. Still, we had a good time, although every year we think it will be the last. Just three days in a three-star hotel cost us more than 100,000 pesos, and with that we can eat at home for several months.”

For many Cubans from Mantanzas and Cárdenas who work there, Varadero is not just a beach, it’s their livelihood. Every tip, every bag of groceries and hotel leftovers ends up in their homes. “If Varadero is fine, Matanzas is fine,” is repeated as a mantra among those who live on what “falls off the truck.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government Remains Silent on the Historic Collapse of Venezuelan Oil Shipments

Reuters reveals that Caracas sent only 8,000 barrels of crude oil per day in June, instead of 55,000

Pdvsa is exporting more oil, but 90% ends up in China, while it decreases in Cuba / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 July 2025 — Havana, which has historically benefited from fewer scheduled power cuts, has already had its dose of blackouts for a few days. According to the authorities, the change “is due to the situation of extreme contingency of the electroenergetic system in the country, caused by the lack of fuel.” In recent days, the Electric Union (UNE) has placed at almost 900 megawatts the deficit of generating plants that depend on imported oil, and the population can’t take it anymore. The explanation is in the surprising data that Venezuela sent only 8,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) in June, a historic low.

The figure is far from the average of 55,000 bpd committed in 2000 in the agreements signed by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, and it is also worse than the previous low record, which was 10,000 bpd last January. According to the statistics, the average received by Cuba from Venezuela in the five months for which there are data -in May the amount was not known- is 32,000 bpd, a figure exactly the same as the average in 2024, which was already 42% lower than that for the same period in 2023.

In June, Venezuelan oil had the worst deficit data in the recent history of Cuba, reaching 1,936 MW on Saturday the 28th

In June, Venezuelan oil had the worst deficit data in the recent history of Cuba, reaching 1,936 MW on Saturday 28. The Cuban government, which handles its crude oil imports as a state secret, has not published any data and has not given an explanation about the dramatic reduction in deliveries.

There is no apparent reason why Venezuela has delivered such a derisory amount of oil to Cuba in the midst of the alarming situation that its partner — and brother, as described by Maduro and Díaz-Canel — is experiencing. According to Reuters data, the Venezuelan state-owned Pdvsa exported 8% more than last month, a total of 844,000 bpd, and it went mainly to China, to compensate for the loss of US and European markets affected by Washington’s decision to suspend the license to Chevron and other partners authorized to market Venezuelan crude.

The Venezuelan oil company exported that amount, in addition to 233,000 metric tons of by-products and petrochemicals, with 27 tankers leaving the country in June. For China, the fuel is sold to “little known intermediaries that make deals with independent refineries in China,” according to Reuters. In total, Beijing received 90% of Venezuelan oil exports, compared to 75% the previous month, which indicates that the bet on the Asian market is clear.

In total, Beijing received 90% of Venezuelan oil exports, compared to 75% the previous month, which indicates that the bet on the Asian market is clear

Other products exported by Venezuela, in this case to Europe and India, were methanol and petroleum coke, a solid byproduct. The British agency also highlights the boost in sales of Boscán crude oil, with three shipments to Asia. The ultra-heavy product is used for asphalt processing and has proved to be key, according to Reuters, in preventing Pdvsa from cutting its production in this oil field, which is one of the country’s largest, with reserves estimated at 25 billion barrels, previously acquired by Chevron.

According to Reuters, Pdvsa did not import diluents this June, but it took the prevention of filling its refinery tanks before the licenses were canceled.

While Venezuela exploits its products in Asia, the island lives on the edge. The Cuban flag tanker Sandino, which according to the Mexican press will carry 296,000 barrels of crude oil to the Cienfuegos refinery, is still docked in the port of Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) this Wednesday, and the blackouts do not cease.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Mexican Press Reveals That Pemex Has Sent More Oil to Cuba, in Addition to Ammonia

Since January, the Sheinbaum government has delivered more than one million barrels to the island.

The Cuban-flagged oil tanker ’Sandino’ awaits a shipment of approximately 296,000 barrels of crude oil in Mexico / Shipspotting.com

14ymedio, Madrid, June 30, 2025 — The oil tanker Sandino, which sails under a Cuban flag, is anchored in front of the Port of Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) where it awaits its turn to load approximately 296,000 barrels of crude destined for the refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba, according to the local press and the Marine Traffic website. The records of the Administration of the National Port System (Asipona) reveal that this year four shipments were made to the island, three of oil and one of ammonia, two of them in January and two this June, according to Veracruz state media.

According to this information, the first shipment of the year appears in the documents of Asipona Coatzacoalcos, which reflect that the Cuban tanker Vilma was at that port between December 31, 2024 and January 3, 2025, to load 53,040 tons of Isthmus-34-Light, also bound for Cienfuegos.

A few weeks later, between January 21 and 24, the same Cuban oil tanker returned to take a similar quantity of the same product back to the island. The two shipments are equivalent to 774,000 barrels.

A few weeks later, between January 21 and 24, the same Cuban oil tanker returned to take a similar quantity of the same product back to the island. The two shipments are equivalent to 774,000 barrels

After several months without further data, the same entity’s schedule shows that between June 6 and 10, 5,000 tons of ammonia were sent to Cuba from the docks of Pemex in Pajaritos, the petrochemical compound at the port of Coatzacoalcos. The product was loaded onto the Liberian flag ship Eugenia Gas, with final destination in Havana, and it arrived in Mexico through the shipping company Tomás Ruiz. continue reading

According to the local press, ammonia is produced at the Cosoleacaque Petrochemical Complex and is used for the manufacture of fertilizers.

Currently, the Eugenia Gas appears in Moa, allegedly arriving from Coatzacoalcos on June 26.

Applying the reference calculation of 7.3 barrels per ton of crude oil, although the quantity depends on the density of the product, the total sent from Mexico to Cuba so far this year would amount to approximately 1,070,384 barrels; how Cuba acquires it is not known. At the current approximate price of a barrel, the cost would be around 60 million dollars, a sum that is very difficult for the island to pay, as it is immersed in an enormous economic crisis.

In 2024, Pemex sent to Cuba some 20,100 barrels of oil per day (bpd), 20% more than in 2023; derivatives decreased by 18%. However, the past aggregate value doubled to what it was before, reaching $600 million.

The transactions were made through Gasolinas Bienestar S. A., a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company that provides data to the United States Securities Commission, where Pemex is listed.

The exchanges began during the term of office of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, predecessor of the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who are both close to the regime in Havana. In September 2023, Chancellor Alicia Bárcena said in an interview that the country should study how to send oil to Cuba without incurring US sanctions. “Why not? We have to see how it can be done, with what kind of transaction. We have a financial situation, of course. It is not easy to donate,” said Bárcena.

The managers of the oil company have persistently denied that any of their products are being donated and most recently stated that “the sales of Gasolinas Bienestar are made under contracts denominated in pesos at current market rates. We have procedures in place to ensure that such sales are conducted in compliance with the applicable law,” they insisted.

On that occasion, Sheinbaum herself confirmed the dispatch of technical cooperation and a tanker with 400,000 barrels, but so far no data are known for 2025

Claudia Sheinbaum stated, after the collapse of the Cuban national electricity system in October 2024, that her country would continue to support Cuba in this regard even if there were criticisms, and that it would do so “for humanitarian reasons.” On that occasion, she herself confirmed the dispatch of technical cooperation and a tanker with 400,000 barrels, but so far no data are known for 2025.

Mexico, along with Venezuela and Russia, is one of the main suppliers of oil, a product that Cuba desperately needs in the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis that worsens. This weekend, the island broke a new record of electricity deficit, with the lack of 1,936 megawatts on Saturday, when the demand was 3,600, indicating that only 1,664 MW were being generated, some 46% of the national needs.

The thermoelectric power plants are in poor shape, and the contribution made by solar parks during the day helps a little, but the authorities point out that the great problem today is the lack of 860 MW due to the paralysis, caused by the fuel shortage, of a significant number of generating plants.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nearly 14,000 Cubans Remain in Tapachula, Mexico, and Many of Them Are Trying To Rebuild Their Lives

According to official figures, 3,915 migrants have permanent residence, 1,533 have temporary permits and 2,228 have humanitarian reasons, while 6,000 are undocumented

Almost 6,000 Cubans are still waiting to regularize their immigration stay in Tapachula, Chiapas / EFE

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, June 30, 2025 — Tapachula has become a second home for 13,779 Cubans. However, 5,959 of these people still have not regularized their immigration status, a migration employee confirmed to 14ymedio. “There are no officials in the Comar [Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees], so they have delayed the delivery of documents, and this will go on for another two months,” says Yaniel Ponce de León, who still doesn’t have his humanitarian visa.

The Cuban said he was surprised by the list of Cuban migrants recorded by the Unit of Immigration Policy, Registration and Identity for the Government Secretary. “Although I see many more.” According to him, families “are there for one or two months and then want to leave the city to settle in Veracruz and Cancun, because they think they can get better pay there.”

Ponce de León also plans to move to the city of Veracruz but does not rule out establishing himself in Mexico City. Although he has had to sleep on cartons and eat one meal a day, he says that “you’d have to be crazy to return to the Island.” continue reading

Although he has had to sleep on cartons and eat one meal a day, he says that “you’d have to be crazy to return to the Island”

Attorney José Luis Pérez denounced the apathy of the immigration authorities toward speeding up the process for these Cubans. “Migration violates the rules and has kept thousands of people in uncertainty stranded in Mexico. With the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, the American dream was cut short, and all that migrants are asking for is an opportunity.”

The lawyer has advised several Cubans who “have abandoned their country and left behind children, grandparents and parents because they live a constant nightmare. Everyone tells you that the black market is the only way to get medicines and food. Wages are not enough, and if you protest they harass and threaten you. There is no fuel, and blackouts happen every day.”

Pérez says that migrants come to the Comar, explain their case and everything goes well, but the process, which should take a maximum of three months, takes up to six months and even a year. “There is an urgent need for the authorities to address this situation because the migration will not stop. Many Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Haitians still mistakenly think that Trump is going to open the border.”

According to figures confirmed to this newspaper, in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, 1,533 Cubans have a Temporary Resident Card, which guarantees them legal stay in the country for a limited period and its subsequent renewal. Another 3,915 Cubans already have permanent residence.

The Unit of Immigration Policy, Registration and Identity has also issued 2,228 Cards for Humanitarian Reasons to Cubans in vulnerable or at-risk situations, giving them temporary access to services and legal protection.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Venezuela Secretly Exports Sardines for Cuban Rations

Cans of Venezuelan sardines are delivered to Cubans through modules in warehouses or sold in shops with foreign currency cards. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2025 — No Cuban who has received the tiny tins of sardines from Venezuela for the basic food basket would think that behind the scarce food, with a strong flavour, there is a whole sordid web of Nicolás Maduro’s government endangering the species and keeping the fishermen starving. Venezuela takes sardines out of its own mouth to give them mainly to Cuba, headlines an article in an independent media on Sunday, showing that both countries have corruption and hunger in common.

In addition to the ban on sardine fishing that runs from December to March, Venezuela has also banned sardine exports. However, as Armando.info points out, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture has itself broken the rule and exported thousands of tonnes of the fish to the international market since at least 2021.

Between then and August 2024, 73% of these exports – some 1,409 tonnes – went to Cuba. The shipments were always of canned product and were mostly marketed by the Ministry of People’s Power for Fisheries and Aquaculture itself.

It is also surprising that the United States is the second largest buyer of sardines from Venezuela, although with just a third of the tonnage delivered to Cuba. continue reading

As cryptic as Havana, Caracas keeps many of its export records outdated.

As cryptic as Havana, Caracas keeps many of its export records outdated, and sardines are not included in its list of 24 marine species in the 2024 and 2025 Exportable Supply Catalog. On paper, everything seems to be operating according to the law, but statistics from other sources, such as the United Nations Comtrade, among others consulted by Armando.info , “unequivocally certify that Venezuela is indeed selling sardines to other countries,” the outlet reports.

The platform explains that both the ban and the sardine export ban were imposed in 2017 due to the species’ rapid decline in Caribbean waters since 2005. In addition to its use as bait for catching other species or for preparing certain foods, sardines represent “the most important source of low-cost animal protein for Venezuelans.” Therefore, it argues, their preservation was not just a whim.

Armando.info offers figures to prove it: according to the latest available official data, in the first half of 2023 Venezuela caught 29,000 tons of sardines, 15% more than a year earlier. But compared to the 200,000 obtained in 2005—when the so-called sardine crisis began—the number is minuscule.

The 1,932 tons exported between 2021 and 2024, valued at more than $1 million, were a small figure compared to the amount used for domestic consumption. However, Armando.info warns, they could have been used to produce canned food for a subsidized food program.

The Maduro government, a faithful apprentice of Havana, has covered up exports while promoting initiatives to achieve food sovereignty and protect the sardine population. Last April, the outlet reports, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, along with the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, announced the “Venezuela Eats More Fish” operation to stimulate “exclusive domestic consumption” of sardines.

“Behind the rhetoric, consumption was not ’exclusively national’: contrary to official regulations, exports were taking place.”

“However, behind the rhetoric, consumption was not ’exclusively national’: against official regulations, exports were taking place,” Armando.info reports.

The platform also highlights the opinion of Juan José Cárdenas, an oceanographer and fisheries expert who believes that it is “unacceptable that a country with high levels of malnutrition and a food crisis is exporting the main animal protein and the one with the most affordable price for Venezuelans.”

According to 2024 records from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 24% of Venezuelan women between the ages of 15 and 49 suffer from anemia, and the number has increased since 2021, when sardine exports began. The number in Cuba is similar, at 20%.

Venezuelan sardines arriving in Cuba are sold primarily through the rationed market in modules that sometimes include pasta or rice donated by other countries. It’s also common to find cans of the El Faro and Maripiar brands, yellow, red, or green, on the shelves of stores selling freely convertible currency (MLC). In tomato sauce or with vegetable oil, however, the product isn’t cheap when sold in foreign currency, at a price that exceeds two dollars per unit.

It’s not about robbing one saint to pay another, as the saying goes, because the sporadic canned goods distributed in Cuba and their meager contents do not solve the lack of protein on an island that, by definition, should have plenty of fish.

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Five Cuban Doctors in Sinaloa Are Facing the Same Health Crisis as the Island

Health workers complain of a lack of staff and medicines, too many patients to care for, and a terrible hygiene situation.

A Cuban anesthesiologist, an ophthalmologist, a nephrologist, a pathologist, and a cardiologist arrived at the Los Mochis General Hospital / Debate

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 30 May 2025 — Going on a mission doesn’t always mean an improvement. The five Cuban doctors who arrived several weeks ago at the Los Mochis General Hospital in the Mexican state of Sinaloa know this well. The facility faces numerous criticisms for its poor conditions, similar to those of medical centers on the island: it lacks staff and medications, there are too many patients to care for, and the hygiene situation is appalling.

Hortensia, a relative of a patient at the center, confirmed to 14ymedio how depressing the situation is in Los Mochis, which is also located in one of the most tense and violent states due to drug trafficking. In this context, the Cubans—an anesthesiologist, an ophthalmologist, a nephrologist, a pathologist, and a cardiologist—have been, she admits, a “palliative” in the face of the lack of personnel.

However, the woman warns, despite the fact that “you hear in the hallways that there is a Cuban cardiologist,” her father—who suffers from ventricular arrhythmia—has never seen her and he has not “had the opportunity” to consult with the professional. continue reading

Their presence there has not represented a significant improvement in hospital care nor has it resolved their logistical problems.

In an interview with the local newspaper Debate, the hospital director, Luisa Reyna Armenta, acknowledged that there were Cubans working in Los Mochis and that thanks to Havana, “we have complete coverage” of the staff. She also said they were “quite hardworking.” The source interviewed by 14ymedio does not deny this, but emphasizes that their presence there has not represented a significant improvement in hospital care nor has it resolved the logistical problems, which are just as urgent as the staffing problems.

“What is still lacking here are pediatricians and neonatologists,” he explains. “A niece had to see a doctor at a private clinic because they don’t have these specialists here.”

Hortensia complains that there is also a shortage of medications in Los Mochis, a shortage Cubans are more than accustomed to. These aren’t basic drugs—like paracetamol, which is often available—but specialized treatments. “They never have amiodarone for arrhythmia or sacubitril to lower blood pressure. Without patented medications, you spend between 2,500 ($130) and almost 3,000 pesos ($150).”

A patient’s relative reported finding cockroaches inside the Los Mochis General Hospital (Sinaloa). / Luz Noticias

The elderly relative’s pension “is not enough,” he summarizes, another situation with which it is not difficult to find a parallel between Mexico and Cuba.

Hortensia applauds the arrival of specialists, but states: “What are they going to do in a hospital where a few months ago, patients’ families had to bring their own fans because the air conditioning wasn’t working? It works now, but the cold season has arrived.”

The woman also reported a cockroach infestation. “The incident was a scandal. In a hospital that should have all the necessary hygiene protocols is unforgivable for this to happen,” she commented. The local press reported on the situation at the time. “A nurse went to apply medication and was surprised to see them on the bed, on the table where food is placed, and on top of my father,” a patient’s relative told a Sinaloa newspaper last April.

The hospital director acknowledges that “they still don’t have the necessary supplies,” but assures that patients are provided support in the blood bank, in the neonatal ward, in the intensive care unit, and in hemodialysis—”which is very expensive”—and that they treat between 18 and 20 chronically ill patients free of charge every day.

The hospital director acknowledges that “they still do not have the necessary supplies,” but assures that they treat between 18 and 20 chronic patients free of charge every day.

The Cuban doctors in Los Mochis are part of the more than 3,000 specialists Mexico has hired to care for the population of Guerrero Mountains, the area with the highest poverty rates and one of the most insecure, due to the presence of several criminal groups fighting over drug cultivation and trafficking.

An official from the 01 health jurisdiction, which is responsible for managing health resources, confirmed to 14ymedio that there are 82 Cuban doctors in Sinaloa. “In Baca, a community with 323 inhabitants, three were sent; in Choix, where fewer than 700 people live, there are another three; and in Chávez Talamantes, there are two general practitioners.”

At the end of September there were rising levels of violence in the state, where Los Chapitos—sons of drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán Loera, sentenced to life in prison in the US—are fighting for control of the state with a faction of Ismael Zambada, known as El Mayo. The Cuban Embassy in Mexico recalled Cuban specialists who were in the Sinaloa town of Concordia, in the municipality of El Palmito. To date, they have not returned.

The Mexican government has been promoting the hiring of Cuban doctors for more than four years. The administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador paid $5,188 per month to maintain each of the doctors on the island. This figure includes the salary—27,000 pesos ($1,351)—and the costs the government must cover for food, lodging, and transportation for approximately 966 healthcare workers. These travel expenses will also benefit the 2,135 specialists who arrived in the country this year, bringing the total number of doctors to 3,101.

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Exile as a Catalyst, A Cuban Perspective

Cubans on the island, not having full enjoyment of their rights, suffer from a social defenselessness that emigrants from other systems of government do not suffer.

Being away from one’s home country offers a panoramic view of national life, past and present. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 30 June 2025 — Many years ago, I came to the conclusion that leaving Cuba generates very significant personality transformations in many people. I have witnessed such radical changes. I know of heads of families, once strong-willed, demanding, and steadfast in their environment, who have given up the spaces they once zealously defended, having to assume the abandoned leadership role by someone of their own lineage. This reveals the great potential of every human being to rebuild their existence and the inability of others to cope with change.

I had a chance conversation about this with journalist Rolando Nápoles, an excellent reporter. Nápoles told me that these spontaneous changes could be identified as the Miami Syndrome, because he had also observed that people who in Cuba had held a certain position on the island’s reality and a different way of living life, changed completely abroad, regardless of the context in which they worked and regardless of any political commitments they may have had.

“Jumping the pond,” as writer Jose Antonio Albertini calls leaving Cuba, truly exerts a profound influence on expatriates. Life changes radically, the abusive paternalism of the totalitarian state disappears, and individuals fully assume their civic responsibilities for the first time. This demands a remarkable ability for reinvention, especially when a person is over forty and has a family to support. continue reading

The limitations imposed by the control that the system exercises over the person are so intense and unfathomable that the capacity for individual management is practically zero.

Cubans on the island, lacking full enjoyment of their rights, suffer from a social vulnerability that immigrants from other systems of government do not experience. The limitations imposed by the system’s control over individuals are so intense and unfathomable that one’s capacity for individual agency is practically nonexistent.

The relationship between individuals and their environment in a free society is open, with responsibility down to the smallest detail. In Cuba, this is not the case. The island citizen is burdened by the condition that only what is explicitly authorized can be undertaken; a simple thought, let alone an action, can constitute a crime.

There are many other characteristics that can impact Cuban emigrants, regardless of their ideological or political beliefs, such as the change in economic activity to support themselves or their families. Many professionals find themselves unable to perform the duties for which they were trained and are forced to take on tasks they may never have imagined. Others find themselves facing unplanned career and social opportunities, and even unimaginable health changes.

There is no lack of those who, far from their country and despite having been treated like sheep by the regime, are always ready to justify and serve it.

I know individuals who had a sympathetic view of totalitarianism, blaming foreign factors, and even those who had previously left the country, for the corrupt and inept actions of the island regime. However, new knowledge and experience led them to change their minds, taking a position of condemnation and rejection of the system. I have particularly appreciated this profound change of perspective among those who left Cuba for economic reasons and among those sectors on the island who worked in the arts and academia or carried out government activities.

However, there are those who, far from their country and despite having been treated like sheep by the regime, are always ready to justify and serve it. Unfortunately, there are individuals who use their privileges as free citizens to defend the dictatorship and despotism, to justify its depredations, however horrific they may be. However, most, based on the knowledge they have acquired, change their perspectives, no matter how blind they may have been.

On the other hand, and in all honesty, we all change, and most of us feel a closeness to the Island that fuels a nostalgia that never ceases to grow. Being away from one’s homeland offers anyone interested an almost unlimited panoramic view of national life, past and present. The emigrant or exile who loves their country seeks to treasure their homeland’s traditions and strives to ensure that new generations preserve their mother tongue. They love what they left behind, with the Martí-like hope of one day bidding farewell to the shores of exile.

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Cuban Journalist Henry Constantín Arrested in the City of Camagüey

The political police are increasing their repressive actions as the anniversary of 11J approaches.

Constantín was arrested while accompanying Iris Mariño to a police summons. / Facebook / Henry Constantín

14ymedio, Havana, 30 June 2025 — Independent journalist Henry Constantín Ferreiro was arrested this Sunday in the city of Camagüey. Shortly after his arrest the director of La Hora de Cuba was transferred to the State Security Operations Department, known as Villa María Luisa, according to his colleague, reporter Iris Mariño.

Constantín was arrested while accompanying Mariño to a meeting with the political police at the Third Police Unit in Camagüey. When they both arrived, the officers asked the journalist to show his ID and, minutes later, handcuffed him and put him in a patrol car with the number 230, Mariño explained in a video.

Constantín’s arrest comes just days before the country’s Independence Day celebration next Wednesday at the residence of the current U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Cuba, Mike Hammer. The celebration, which annually attracts artists, cultural figures, and dissidents, is taking place this year amid a fierce official campaign against Washington’s representative on the island.

Some colleagues point to an attempt to prevent Constantín from traveling to Havana to attend the commemoration as the reason for his arrest, as well as an intention to neutralize him in view of the fourth anniversary of the Island-wide popular protests of 11 July 2021. Others, such as journalist José Raúl Gallego, a resident of Mexico, point to another motivation behind the arrest. continue reading

The State Security Officer known as “Luis” said that Constantín could be prosecuted for the crime of contempt because of his publication.

“Henry is being held, accused of denouncing a State Security officer in a Facebook post that appeared on the La Hora de Cuba page. They want to continue attacking in the shadows, without their names being known, and then, when push comes to shove, cross the border or become micro-enterprises,” he denounced. A criminal investigator, who identified himself as “Luis,” assured Mariño that Constantín could be prosecuted for the crime of contempt because of that post.

Cuban Opponents Proudly Celebrate Rosa María Payá’s Election to the IACHR

The Council for Democratic Transition in Cuba highlights the “tireless career” of Oswaldo Payá’s daughter as a defender of “human rights, freedom of expression, and human dignity.”

Cuban Rosa María Payá celebrates after being elected as a new member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Saint John’s (Antigua and Barbuda) / EFE/Bienvenido Velasco

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 30 June 2025 — The opposition platform The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) celebrated this Monday with “pride” in the election of Cuban Rosa María Payá as a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

In a statement, the group highlighted Payá’s “tireless career” as a defender of “human rights, freedom of expression, and human dignity.”

“The election of Rosa María Payá reaffirms the independence, credibility, and courage of the IACHR to safeguard fundamental freedoms and promote democratic renewal in the hemisphere,” the opposition group stated.

Payá, nominated by the United States, was elected on Friday as a new member of the IACHR.

Her election occurred in a vote held at the 55th OAS General Assembly in Antigua and Barbuda to select three of the seven IACHR commissioners.

“The election of Rosa María Payá reaffirms the independence, credibility, and courage of the IACHR in safeguarding fundamental freedoms.”

Rosa María Payá, founder of the organization Cuba Decide and daughter of the opposition figure Oswaldo Payá — whose death in 2021 the Commission formally attributed to the Cuban State — was the first person elected, with 20 votes.

The Donald Trump administration had strongly emphasized the need to appoint Payá to the Commission due to his harsh stance toward Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

For its part, the island’s regime called the new member of the IACHR a “mercenary” and claimed that she was elected under “pressure and blackmail” from the United States.

“Multiple pressures and threats, including blackmail claiming the United States would cut budgets for cooperation programs in the hemisphere, narrowly led to the election of notorious mercenary Rosa María Payá Acevedo,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

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The Miami Political Asylum Hearing for Cuban Oscar Casanella Continues Without a Verdict

The defense will submit its briefs for the conclusion of the summary on July 11.

The hearing lasted almost seven hours, from 8:30 in the morning / Courtesy

14ymedio, Miami, June 24, 2025 — Cuban scientist Oscar Casanella, a member of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), had his political asylum hearing in Miami on Tuesday, three years after arriving as an exile in the United States. After the hearing, which lasted almost seven hours from 8:30 in the morning, the activist’s lawyers, Kenia García and Deliane Quiles, of the law firm García & Qayum Law Group, told the press gathered in front of the immigration court that there was still no verdict.

On July 11, the defense will hand in its closing briefs and then, within about two weeks, the judge in charge of the case will communicate her decision in writing, which will be published in the immigration system.

The magistrate “wants to evaluate all the evidence that was submitted in this case”

“The judge has definitely been very generous with her time and the prosecutor with his time, and they have heard all the arguments and all the testimony that Oscar wanted to give,” said García, who also explained that the magistrate “wants to evaluate all the evidence that was submitted in this case.”

Her view was somewhat more optimistic than that expressed by Casanella’s family, who, according to CubaNet, which was covering the case live, had complained that the questions were “a bit tough” for him to “answer yes or no,” without giving him a chance to explain himself at length. “What I told Oscar, who is a little dejected, is that it is not easy to say “yes,” especially in this administration, and it has to be well justified. This in my opinion is not bad news,” explained Kenia García in a first statement published on networks. She thought the process “was smooth” and the hearing “relaxed.” continue reading

If he is denied asylum, Casanella would have 30 days to appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals.

In his statements to the media after the hearing, the activist said that he felt “well accompanied and advised by his lawyers” -who are providing him with services free of charge, as the opponent himself has said- but that “I would have liked everything to go faster and was hoping for an answer today.” The case, he added, “is open,” and no “particular details” can be provided.

If he is denied asylum, Casanella would have 30 days to appeal

Similarly, he referred to the assassination of the Nicaraguan opponent Roberto Samcam by hitmen in Costa Rica as an example to the question of a journalist about the closing argument before the judge, in which he said that he felt safe in the US but not in another country, because the Cuban regime had “tentacles” everywhere, and his life “was in danger.”

Casanella, who entered the US on foot in 2022, received an I-220A form, which, as with other Cubans in the same situation, does not guarantee either asylum in a court or the granting of residence under the Cuban Adjustment Law. According to the same activist in an interview with CubaNet on Monday, immigration authorities did not allow him to conduct a credible-fear interview when crossing the border into El Paso, Texas.

His concern at this Tuesday’s hearing was that the court would dismiss his case and order his expulsion. “To deport myself to Cuba would mean that I would end up in prison, where anything could happen to me. It would also mean that my wife and eldest son would also be deported and left totally vulnerable to the harassment of the Cuban political police.”

Cuban State Security, claims Casanella, has been harassing him since 2013, for his proximity to dissident artists such as the group Porno para Ricardo and Tania Bruguera. In 2016, he was expelled from the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR), where he worked, allegedly for “ethical misconduct”, denied by the activist.

State Security, claims Casanella, has been harassing him since 2013

But the attacks escalated, he said, starting with his participation in the San Isidro Movement in November 2020, when 15 MSI members locked themselves inside their headquarters on Calle Damas 955 and went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention of rapper Denis Solís.

They were forcibly evicted by officers dressed as health personnel more than a week later, on 26 November — Oscar Casanella had already left two days before — which provoked the solidarity of more than 300 artists who gathered the next day in front of the Ministry of Culture to ask for a dialogue with the authorities. This was the origin of the 27N group.

In 2022, says Casanella, he was forced to leave Cuba. Before that, he told CubaNet, for the whole of 2021 — the year of the historic demonstrations of 11 July — he was almost “under house arrest”: surrounded by State Security. The state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa also denied them telephone and mobile data service, “so I was kind of dead in life.”

By then, the opponent also reported, the regime had a file on him “for sedition,” with which he was threatened if he did not leave: “We are going to let you out of the house for a month so that you can do your paperwork and leave the country. If you’re still in Cuba a month from now, you go to prison.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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