This Saturday, the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant went out of service, joining four other units, and 93 power generation motors due to a lack of fuel.
The Energás Varadero generating unit is expected to contribute 90 megawatts to the National Electric Power System in early July. / Girón Newspaper
14ymedio, Havana, 22 June 2025 — Cuba’s energy deficit will reach alarming levels this Sunday. According to forecasts by the Electricity Union (UNE), peak availability is estimated at 1,820 megawatts (MW), compared to a demand of 3,500 MW.
The gap between supply and demand will reach 1,680 MW and eventually 1,750 MW. UNE acknowledged that the blackouts affected “services around the clock on Saturday and continued throughout the night.” It also confirmed the “unscheduled shutdown of Unit 1 of the Santa Cruz Thermoelectric Plant.”
The outlook for this Sunday offers no improvement, as five of the 20 thermoelectric generation units (spread across seven plants) are out of service. The UNE confirms outages at Unit 6 of the Mariel Power Plant and Unit 2 of the Felton Power Plant. In addition, Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz Power Plant, Unit 4 of the Cienfuegos Power Plant, and Unit 5 of the Renté Power Plant are undergoing maintenance. In addition, 93 power generation engines are out of service due to a lack of diesel or fuel oil. The 16 solar parks created this year partially compensate for the shortage during daylight hours, but cannot store energy because they are not equipped with batteries.
The island’s energy crisis has worsened since mid-2024, with blackouts now exceeding 20 hours in several parts of the country. Last May, President continue reading
Miguel Díaz-Canel summarized the energy problem as the island’s extremely high demand, contrasting with the limited fuel availability.
The island’s energy crisis has worsened since mid-2024, with blackouts now exceeding 20 hours in several parts of the country.
According to a report published last year by Cuba Siglo 21, repairing the island’s aging electricity-producing infrastructure would take between six and ten years and require a colossal investment of $10 billion.
Furthermore, frequent blackouts are weighing down the Cuban economy, which contracted 1.9% in 2023 and did not grow last year, according to government estimates, EFE reported. According to these figures, the island’s GDP remains below 2019 levels and will not surpass them in 2025, a year for which the Executive branch forecasts a 1% growth.
Four national blackouts have affected electricity service since the end of last year. The last was in March, when most of Cuba’s nearly 9.7 million residents were left without power for an entire weekend.
The energy crisis has reached Isla de la Juventud. The territory, which had been spared from the planned blackouts due to its own grid, suffered power outages this week lasting approximately five hours per block, although many customers report up to 10 hours.
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There is concern about the use of the Canary Islands government subsidy, which claims to have received supporting documents.
“Fernando Rojas has exterminated the Canarian community in Cuba; he has disarticulated the little autonomy we had left” / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, June 21, 2025 — The descendants of Canary Islanders (Canarians) in Cuba have been crossing the desert for more than three years. The accusations of corruption within the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Canary Island Association and the closure of its main headquarters in Havana adds to the despair of many elderly people, who now have more difficulty in receiving the direct aid offered by the government of that Spanish autonomous community.
“The closure of the Casa Canaria has dispersed a lot of people, and the elderly are the most vulnerable,” says José, a descendant of migrants from Tenerife. He believes that with the 2023 closure of the Association’s house at 258 Monserrate street in Old Havana, part of the glue that held the Canarians together in Cuba has been lost.
In 2022, the Cuban government intervened in the Association after numerous complaints of malpractice, and they created a management commission chaired by the then deputy minister of culture, Fernando Rojas, whose grandmother is from Arucas (Las Palmas). The group, which presented itself as a transitional entity, has ended up monopolizing internal decisions, appointed like-minded people to head several local associations and manages, without transparency, the renovation of the emblematic building on Monserrate Street.
“No progress has been made in the electrical system nor have hydraulic improvements been made”/ Courtesy
José Luis Perestelo Rodríguez, deputy councilor of Foreign Affairs for the Canary Islands, tells 14ymedio that the government of the Canary Islands “provided a grant of 90,000 euros for the restoration of the building that housed the Casa Canaria, a grant that, as of today, is currently executed and justified.” However, traces of that money are barely perceived in the interior of the building, according to statements collected by this newspaper.
“No progress has been made in the electrical system, nor have hydraulic reforms been made. So far, the only thing that has been achieved is to demolish some structures, built arbitrarily, and throw away garbage and rubble,” says a source close to the restoration process. “Restoration students linked to the Office of the City Historian helped to clear the rubble but were not paid even one peso,” he adds. continue reading
Walls corroded by moisture, damaged framework and wooden doors, roof leaks and deteriorating pipes, especially in bathroom areas, are still present. “From the outside you do not notice any change but inside is where you can see how little has been done. Three years and 90,000 euros later the place is a ruin, and the schedule of repair and reopening is a mystery. They tell us nothing,” he complains.
Even a musician has joined the complaint and, with the refrain of “return the Canary House,” has recorded and broadcast a theme about the current situation of the property. ” They tricked us with false meetings, empty promises, false choice,” he exclaims in his song. “They occupy our place as if it were their own,” says the young man who identifies himself as a “guanche* and mambí rapper.”
Even a musician has joined the complaint with the refrain of “return the Casa Canaria”
Perestelo Rodríguez, in reply to this newspaper, says that “the government of the Canary Islands at this moment is not interested in the recovery of the building. The priority is to meet the needs of the Canarians and their descendants in Cuba, for which we provide individualized assistance to people directly.” He claims to be “in dialogue with the current management of the Casa Canaria to proceed with the renovation by the governing bodies, in a process that must be open to all members”.
The delay in the renovation of the premises causes problems that go beyond not being able to count on the large rooms where meetings, dances and concerts were organized, and in which a restaurant also functioned.
“Not having a place to meet up has greatly weakened the bonds among the Canarians,” reflects José in reference to the 50,000 migrants or descendants of Canarians who in 2023 were estimated to live in Cuba, a figure that may be lower today due to the mass exodus experienced by the Island. For his part, “Fernando Rojas continues to pressure the government of the Canary Islands to convince them that he is the only one who can handle Canarian matters in Cuba”.
“Rojas is an official and responds to the Cuban government, not to us”
“We cannot meet, because without the Havana headquarters we have to depend on the management commission to provide a place, but they have done very little in all these years,” adds José. “Rojas has exterminated the Canarian community in Cuba, has disarticulated the little autonomy we had left and has turned it into his private estate because he is an official and responds to the Cuban government, not to us”.
In a WhatsApp group, to which this newspaper had access, Dayamí Blanco Jorrín, the right hand of Rojas, announced the celebration on May 30 of the Day of the Canary Islands. In her message she said that “the event will take place during a very difficult time for Cuba, marked by economic difficulties and a constant and escalating aggression that does not know justice”.
As a finale, Blanco wrote that the Canary Islands government had not delivered the funds in 2025 intended for the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Association Canaria, but on the official site of the entity appears an allocated grant of 20,000 euros for that period. José explains that it has not been possible to obtain this money, and the Association remains without a leader after postponing the electoral process in order to elect a government that Rojas has tried unsuccessfully to form with people sympathetic to his policy.
To elect a president, member meetings must first be held, followed by convening an extraordinary general meeting and forming the electoral board. Only that entity can update the membership register. However, the sequence has not been followed, and the association remains without a leader since May 2022, when Lázaro Rivero was removed from the presidency by the management committee due to financial irregularities.
Those who have taken the brunt of the paralysis of the Association, the closure of the Casa and the loss of social activities have been the elderly. Not only do they not now have some of the cultural and recreational events that added some diversion to their lives, but they also don’t receive advice from the institution and other younger Canarians who helped them on important issues, like knowing about announcements and filling out forms for receiving financial aid distributed by the Canary Islands government.
“Most of those who need the aid couldn’t even fill out the application”
The Vice Councilor of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Canary Islands awarded this year “a grant to 149 Canarians resident in Cuba, for a total of 29,800 euros, 200 euros per person, in order to alleviate the precarious health and socio-economic situation in which they are living,” explains the entity. But the number of beneficiaries seems like a drop in an ocean. “Most of those who need the aid couldn’t even fill out the application,” says José. “When the Casa was functioning, the younger people helped the elderly, but now the only ones who can get help are those who have a son or grandson to help them with the paperwork,” says the descendant of Canarians.
“There is very little information on aid, and, with the problems of connecting to the internet, an elderly person who lives here has a lot of difficulty in completing the paperwork for receiving aid,” says a daughter of 72-year-old Canarians living in the town of Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus. “Here, in addition, there are many who managed to get Spanish citizenship and left. There are only a few of us who stayed.”
The woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, obtained a Spanish passport through the Democratic Memory Act but has not left the Island because she takes care of an older sister, who is bed-ridden and in need of constant care. “Most old people cannot fill out the forms and send them in on time, and they don’t want to be kept hanging wondering if they’ll get the money or not.”
“The only thing that has been achieved so far is to demolish some structures, built in an arbitrary way, and to throw away garbage and rubble” / Courtesy]
The problem, however, does not end when the person is approved for financial aid. “The bank gives us the money in national currency, at an exchange rate of 1 euro for 120 pesos, but on the street the euro is worth three times more”, she says, referring to this Tuesday’s informal exchange rate, which is 1 euro for 410 pesos.”You’re supposed to be able to withdraw that money in foreign currency, but in my branch they always tell me that they don’t have it”.
The Canarian descendant lists the process of being attentive to new calls, filling out the forms, printing them for signature, re-digitizing the documents and finally sending them by e-mail. ” Before, the grassroots organizations provided the forms already printed and helped the elderly to fill them in, but now everything is in chaos: the management commission is not fulfilling any role; it does not inform us, does not manage and does not keep the community organized and united”.
“Only four of the basic organizations are functioning, and badly; the rest are deactivated,” says the woman. “Many of those who ran them have gone to the Canary Islands and from there do nothing for us here”, she says. ” The Association has become the private business of some, no longer fulfilling the function of representing all of us”.
* Genre of music in the Canary Islands.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Pavel Giroud talks about his new film, ’Comandante Fritz,’ inspired by Fidel Castro’s gift of a Cuban island to the GDR.
Cuban film director Pavel Giroud during filming. / Courtesy
14ymedio, Jorge Fernández Era, Havana, 22 June 2025 — If any film in recent years starkly depicts the political exclusion following Fidel Castro’s revolutionary triumph, it is The Padilla Case. Despite being a documentary in the technical sense of the word, the suspense of its staging keeps viewers on edge and confronts them with one of the most repugnant events orchestrated against critical thinking and freedom of expression.
From Madrid, its director, Pavel Giroud, continues to delve into little-known chapters of Cuban history, as he recently did with the publication of the novel Habana Nostra . Now he promises to spark new debate with the film Comandante Fritz , which delves into a gift given by a similar leader to the German Democratic Republic in the 1960s, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Eastern European socialism, and the CMEA stepped in to support the Cuban Revolution after the failure of the 1970 Sugar Harvest.
Jorge Fernández Era: Is your novel Habana Nostra [Our Havana] a frustrated film project or the validation of Pavel Giroud as a writer?
Pavel Giroud: To define it as a failed film project is something that could very well appear on my death certificate. As long as I’m alive, I’ll try, because it is a story I’m passionate about. I’m as saturated with the American vision of the mafia in Havana as I am with the official Cuban one. And I don’t want this to be perceived as a disdain for what has already been done—which has also nourished me—but rather as a complement, another approach, with a keen eye on facts and figures that until now had been treated with kid gloves or were merely occasional mentions. I believe I’ve achieved a depth of investigation that, combined with the experience I’ve accumulated over all these years as a filmmaker, could result in an engaging film.
I am as fed up with the American vision of the mafia in Havana as I am with the official Cuban one.
While I’ve enjoyed—and suffered, because nothing has been more exhausting—the process of writing this book, I don’t consider myself a writer in the strictest sense of the word. It’s a profession I respect with the same vehemence with which I demand respect for my own, in an age when anything audiovisual is defined as a film. I feel like a filmmaker who has written a novel. In any case, I feel more comfortable with the term “narrator,” a narrator who switches media to say what is on his mind.
You were one of the first to read and correct it before submitting it to the Azorín Prize, where it was a finalist. I vividly remember the relief I felt continue reading
when you told me how impressed you were, because I’ve never felt the sensation of creative nakedness like I felt it when presenting this book.
Jorge Fernández Era: Is the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry currently a hindrance or a boost to audiovisual creation?
Pavel Giroud: Neither one nor the other, because they no longer know how to do either. In the times of Alfredo Guevara and Julio García Espinosa, they achieved both goals: they promoted a certain type of cinema and, with a certain skill, stifled unconventional cinema.
With Omar González, who was the one who first started filming with the institution, there was an unexpected turn of events. He understood that it was necessary to empower a new generation, as the sacred cows were dying or going into exile; a void was looming. But what happened was that he expected blind loyalty from us, and that didn’t happen. Even so, he drove more than he held back. He deserves credit for creating the Young Film Festival, in whose first edition I participated and which opened the doors to Tres veces dos [Three Times Two], and then to La edad de la peseta [The Age of the Peseta].
Today, the ICAIC lacks the capacity to promote the films it produces or to curb those produced on its margins. In fact, a phenomenon is occurring that, while not new, is stronger than ever: Cuban exile cinema. I myself have made more films outside of Cuba than when I lived there. The score is 4-3. All of them have had a more than decent run, and they haven’t been able to stop it.
Decades ago, a film like El Caso Padilla [The Padilla Case] wouldn’t have won the Platinum Award or been included in university curricula in France. It would have been boycotted at more than half the festivals it has been presented at, because the ICAIC, as an institution, and the so-called Cuban Revolution, as a symbol, held that power.
In the times of Alfredo Guevara and Julio García Espinosa, it achieved both missions: it promoted a type of cinema and, with a certain skill, stifled inconvenient cinema.
Jorge Fernández Era: The Padilla Case revolves around the self-incrimination of an intellectual in the face of harassment by the state’s repressive forces. Your most recent film, Comandante Fritz, is based on another true story from the 1960s: Fidel Castro’s gift to the German Democratic Republic of an island south of the archipelago. To what extent do you find Cuban absurdity obsessing?
Pavel Giroud: The Padilla Case occurred in 1971, and Commander Fritz in 1972, the year I was born. I’m not obsessed with absurdity; I’m obsessed with Cuba. The fact is that Cuban history—especially post-revolutionary history—is full of absurdities.
I remember that when we began the first readings of Comandante Fritz , the team—made up of Germans, Spaniards, some Cubans, and people of other nationalities—called the script surreal. And I told them, “No, it’s 100 percent realistic.” If I have one predisposition as a creator, it is to immerse myself in our history to explain its present.
Jorge Fernández Era: In a recent article, Abel Prieto refers to the so-called Five Grey Years as a period in which “mediocre and dogmatic people betrayed Fidel’s policies.” Could an exclusive cultural policy have been implemented without the Commander’s approval?
Abel Prieto is no fool; he knows this wasn’t a one-off mistake by a few agents
Pavel Giroud: I remember when I read the book Abel Prieto published on the Padilla Case, half a century after the incident, and saw that his thesis was intended to be the final straw on the subject, referring to specific errors by State Security agents, I said to myself: “You have no idea what I’m about to spill.” I think there’s sufficient evidence that Fidel Castro was involved in everything, and it’s not about the cultural policy of the Revolution; it’s about a very well-planned strategy of absolute power.
Abel Prieto is no fool; he knows this wasn’t a one-off mistake by a few agents. He knows this because he’s a conscious part of that Mussolini-style operating system, in which the State is everything and against the State, nothing. If anyone has championed this “cultural policy,” it’s him.
The difference between him and those he accuses isn’t precisely mediocrity or dogmatism; in that, they’re equal. The difference is that he chose to be faithful to that which grants him privileges. He’s as mediocre and dogmatic as the others he criticizes, and I dare say he’s even worse, because many of those he singles out today did believe in the value of the process they defended. And there’s a big difference between defending an ideal—even if it’s out of naiveté—and defending something to preserve the privileges it grants you. His attitude is miserable.
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Bartenders and maître d’s trained in schools such as the Hotel Sevilla or La Ferminia return to oblivion or exile, dragging with them the lost legacy of Cuban cocktail making and hospitality.
Constante Ribalaigua preparing his famous daiquiri frappé at El Floridita, circa 1935. / Historic photograph in the public domain
14ymedio, José A. Adrián Torres, Malaga (Spain), 21 June 2025 — In Cuba, there was a time when serving well was an art. Not a mechanical gesture or a hollow formula, but a form of dignity: serving with elegance, speaking with restraint, presenting a cocktail with precision and courtesy. That art was gradually lost after the 1959 Revolution, marginalized by ideological prejudices that associated professional hospitality with the bourgeois and the foreign.
Decades later, with the rise of tourism in the 1990s, the island attempted to recover this invisible heritage. Hospitality schools retrained service professionals, historic bars were restored, and, with discretion, many anonymous workers restored Cuba to an international standard of hospitality. But today, this rebirth is in danger: the crisis, the exodus, and the lack of succession once again jeopardize the art of serving.
This is a story of loss, recovery, and perhaps, new forgetting.
A shared history: from Ribalaigua and Chicote to the Creole soul of the cocktail
The art of serving—like the art of mixing rum and lime with precision—didn’t come to Cuba through tourism or foreign investment. It was part of its tradition. In the 1920s and 1930s, Havana was one of the world’s epicenters of cocktail making. At El Floridita, a Spanish immigrant with a Cuban heart named Constante Ribalaigua perfected the daiquiri as if it were a work of liquid engineering, creating the famous daiquiri frappé. In Madrid, Perico Chicote founded the bar that would bear his name and which would eventually be considered the world’s first “cocktail museum.”
The two met. They shared ideas, recipes, and even a trip to Varadero in the 1950s to visit the Arechabala distillery, the birthplace of Havana Club rum. The friendship between Chicote and Ribalaigua was more than a professional gesture: it symbolized a brotherhood between two mutually admired bartending cultures. In his recipe books — My 500 Cocktails and The Wet Law — Chicote included versions of the mojito and the daiquiri, helping to preserve Cuban recipes even when ingredients and bartenders — in plain English, or cantineros, in Spanish — became scarce on the island.
This hybrid tradition—Creole in its roots, Spanish in its method—survived for decades in manuals, in technical gestures, in the way of twisting a lemon peel or presenting a wine list. It was this imprint that inspired, in the 1990s, an attempt to recover lost excellence: recovering cocktails wasn’t about importing a foreign fad, but rather about rediscovering the best of themselves.
The rebirth of good service: Hotel Sevilla, La Ferminia, and the discreet masters
When tourism returned to Cuba in the 1990s, it wasn’t enough to restore facades and fill menus with rum and lobster. Something more difficult was needed: recovering the dignity of service, the art of providing good continue reading
service, lost after decades of neglect and official disdain. It was then that hospitality schools re-emerged—with state support, international agreements, and a great deal of individual commitment—especially those at the Sevilla Hotel and La Ferminia in Havana.
The Sevilla Hotel’s Tourism Training School (Formatur), active since 1969, had quietly survived, training generations of waiters and bartenders for formal events, embassies, and official events. Its classrooms taught much more than techniques: they taught a code of composure, precision, and courtesy that contrasted with the neglect prevailing in many sectors. There, service was spoken of as a culture, not as servitude.
Something similar happened at La Ferminia, a former mansion belonging to the wealthy Montalvo family, converted into a state culinary school under the name “Sergio Pérez.” It trained chefs, waiters, and maîtres d’s who would later work at the Council of State, the Convention Center, or in restaurants designated by the government to serve heads of state and distinguished visitors. The standard was high. Many former students still remember with respect the meticulousness of their instructors, their careful presentation, their mastery of languages, and their attention to detail.
From these centers emerged the professionals who would restore Cuba to an international standard of hospitality, especially in emblematic establishments such as El Floridita, La Bodeguita del Medio, the bar at the Hotel Nacional, and the now legendary Café del Oriente, a symbol of the restoration of Havana’s historic center.
And among all these professionals, maître d’ Dionisio Hernández holds a special place. Since arriving in Havana in the 1960s, he worked in numerous iconic restaurants and cabarets—from El Encanto and the Paradise Club to the 1830 and the Tropicana—where he rose from clerk to maître d’. In 1972, he joined the Sevilla Hotel School as a trainer and later joined La Ferminia, where he also served as assistant director of Gastronomic Services. A key figure in the Café del Oriente protocol team, he was responsible for serving state figures—including monarchs, such as the former King of Spain—with quiet, unpretentious elegance. He wasn’t celebrated, nor did he receive any revolutionary merit, but those who trained under his guidance remember him as a true master: for what he taught without raising his voice. Even after his retirement in 2005, he continued to teach at Café del Oriente until 2018.
Like him, many anonymous professionals silently maintained what the system failed to appreciate: the art of attention to detail, of the proper greeting, of a well-poured glass, of a well-explained dish or dessert, of respect for the customer as a guest. Without them, the rebirth of the 1990s would have been a mere facade.
A new blackout: apathy, exodus, and the loss of a legacy
That renaissance of the 1990s, so labored over by discreet figures and institutions that revived the tradition of good service, is beginning to fade again today, the victim of a bitter cocktail: the economic crisis, the collapse of tourism, and the disenchantment of those who professionally sustained it for decades.
It is enough to walk through the rooms of yesteryear to notice the difference. At Café del Oriente—once a beacon of elegance, impeccable service, and the setting for official receptions—today, both customers and trained professionals are scarce. The schools no longer retain the best. Iconic bars survive more out of nostalgia than excellence. And the bartenders and maîtres d’s who once learned to serve kings now wait in lines at consulates or dream of Yuma.
The term is popular on the island: to go to Yuma means to leave the country, to seek one’s fortune in the United States or any other place where the craft has value. Many self-employed workers in the restaurant sector, who once opened small private restaurants, signature bars, or cafes with carefully crafted cocktails, have had to close or reinvent themselves with the bare minimum. Others haven’t even had that option: they emigrated. The dignity of service cannot be eaten, especially when everything else is missing.
In Cuba, serving with care is no longer taught as it once was. Or it is taught, but with resignation, knowing that those who know how to do it well are probably already thinking of leaving. And what was once a symbol of national culture—the impeccable bartender, the elegant waiter, the invisible and efficient maître d’— is once again left out of the official narrative. As if it didn’t matter.
And yet, it matters. It matters because the art of serving is also a form of mutual respect, of civility, of memory. Because Cuba was great not only for its cocktails or its flavors, but for the way it presented them. Because attentive service is also a cultural heritage, and losing it—once again—is letting a country die that could still have proudly served its best drink.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“Right now, it’s full of police officers, and there are 40 informants watching everything.”
New signs against the Cuban regime have appeared on the boulevard of Sancti Spíritus. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 June 2025 — This Friday morning, new posters against the Cuban regime appeared on the boulevard of Sancti Spíritus. Near the shopping plaza, one of those spaces beautified with a brushstroke by the authorities to mask urban decay, two phrases appeared that were impossible to ignore: “Down with Fidel” and “Down with the Revolution.”
The scene, amid the morning shopping rush, sparked a wave of murmurs among the neighbors. And, as expected, it also provoked an immediate response: a spectacular surveillance operation. continue reading
“I thought it was a joke, until I saw what they were saying: ’Down with Fidel and Down with the Revolution.’” / 14ymedio
“I went to the plaza, as I do almost every day,” a witness who preferred not to give her name told 14ymedio. “I saw they were painting a wall and thought it was maintenance. But as I was leaving, I heard a woman say they had put up signs. I thought it was a joke, until I saw what they said: ‘Down with Fidel and Down with the Revolution’.”
The plaza where the slogans appeared sells agricultural products during the day and is padlocked at night, indicating that the author or authors acted early, when the gates are already open to the public. “If it had been nighttime, they wouldn’t have let the people see them,” the woman reflects. On the yellow-painted wall, the marks of the letters scraped with some tool can still be seen. If the original graffiti was precarious, the action of concealing it was more improvised.
Despite attempts to quickly delete the messages, several witnesses managed to read them and, most feared by those in power, comment on them. What followed was almost a caricature of policing: dozens of police officers, plainclothes officers who make no bones about it, and a swarm of cadres and community officials patrolling the area. “Right now, it’s packed with police, and there are 40 informers watching everything,” the source added. “I had to pretend, because they stared at me as if I were the culprit.”
“The funny thing is that they resurrected Fidel Castro… at least to insult him.”
What was scandalous wasn’t just the content of the graffiti—already a deadly taboo in official discourse—but its symbolic audacity. In a country where even mentioning Fidel Castro critically can still be considered heresy, reading his name after “down with” is a mortal sin. “The curious thing is that they’ve resurrected Fidel Castro… at least to insult him,” the witness notes sarcastically.
The appearance of these signs reflects growing popular discontent. It comes amid marathon blackouts, an acute economic crisis, and a clear rise in popular discontent. “A neighbor told me that it seemed incredibly strange to have electricity from six in the morning until ten. Until recently, they were barely given an hour and a half of electricity a day,” she adds.
Sancti Spíritus, traditionally seen as one of the country’s most peaceful provinces—at least on the surface—is no longer immune to the contagion of weariness. And this isn’t an isolated graffiti: just a few weeks ago, another subversive slogan appeared at the intersection of Carretera Central and Avenida de los Mártires. There, on a Jaimanita paving slab, someone wrote “Down with the dictatorship” near the inscription: “Sancti Spíritus continues the march.” It didn’t take long for the people to find the irony: “The stain continues.”
The problem is not a “situation”, as the official script repeats, but a chronically failed system.
Holguín was not far behind. Similar messages appeared in the Lenin neighborhood and on the wall of the Mayabe cemetery. In Guanabacoa, one was written on the wall of a medical post near a military neighborhood. And defiant signs have also been reported at several universities across the country—where protests against the Etecsa rate hike — the so-called ‘tarifazo’ — have been most intense.
But this Friday, the people of Sancti Spiritus didn’t target Díaz-Canel, who for many is merely a figurehead within Cuba’s power structures. They went straight to the ideological heart: to Fidel and the Revolution, as if they were crystal clear that the problem isn’t a “situation,” as the official script repeats, but rather a chronically failed system. A tired model that can’t even cover up the growing crack in the walls with a single stroke.
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“It’s still cheaper to buy a 6GB package on the street for 1,000 or 1,500 pesos, not this 2GB scam for 1,200 pesos.”
The State monopoly recognizes that 38% of users in Cuba consume more than 8 GB / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2025 — The new data plans for web browsing of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa), announced on Thursday — after three weeks of student protests over the price increases — the so-called ‘tarifazo‘ — imposed on May 30 — have not taken long to awaken indignation.
As explained by the state monopoly, one of them is called the Additional Plan, through which you can buy 2 gigabytes (GB) for 1,200 pesos — added to the basic 6 GB for 360 pesos and 30 days — “once a month and with a validity of 35 days.” The second, the Sector Plan, is exclusively for students and offers an additional 6 GB for 360 pesos. Both will be available starting this Friday.
In the report published by official media, Etecsa recognizes that 38% of users in Cuba consume more than 8 GB. They therefore apologize: “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.”
The new rates provide for “extra” plans in dollars at a cost unpayable by the average Cuban
Likewise, they allude, without specifying it, to the discomfort caused by the prices established at the end of May: “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.” The new rates provide for “extra” plans in dollars at a cost unpayable by the average Cuban: 3 GB for 3,360 pesos, 7 GB for 6,720 pesos and 15 GB for 11,760 pesos.
The more than 100 comments on Cubadebate spoke for themselves. Arturo Hernández Valle stated: “My retirement is not enough to eat, let alone buy, with my pension of 1,528 pesos, a similar plan of 1,200. Nor the other ’basic’ plan. Please! If Etecsa is losing, we retirees are lost.” continue reading
Ibrahim pointed out: “I think neither of the two offers solves anything. For the first, they multiply by 10 the plan of 120 pesos for 2 GB. I think it’s still a mockery of the people if we take into account the purchasing level of our wages according to the spiral of rising prices of food and basic necessities, which the State has not been able to control. The second one benefits only a sector of the population and does not include the rest of the professionals in this country who need the internet to work and can’t get recharges from abroad.”
“Do they really call that an improvement”? wrote Alejandro
“It’s a joke, right? 2 GB for 1,000 CUP? Do they really call that an improvement?” wrote Alejandro, who pointed out that the students of the Central University of Las Villas have not been contacted “at all,” and the professors “less.” The rest of the population has been hit by a bolt of lightning.” Lemon added, “They do not realize that 2 GB is nothing.”
User Sachiel observed: “It turns out that Etecsa, after approving the measures and implementing them without 30 days’ notice, now reaches an agreement with the students, who depend on their parents’ salary to approve measures, rates and packages.”
Many of the messages were answered by employees of Etecsa – who called themselves Layla or Lara – somewhat automatically: “We continue to advance in the configuration of the lists and update the ownership of the mobile service in the universities. As this process is completed, each student will be notified by an SMS,” they replied to Alejandro.
For his part, ‘Machete Afilao’ said: “It is still cheaper to buy it on the street, where they sell you a pack of 6 GB for 1,000 or 1,500 pesos and every time you want, not this scam of 2 GB for 1,200 pesos. I think sometimes that these people underestimate the intelligence of the Cuban people.”
‘Machete Afilao’ said: “It’s still cheaper to buy it on the street “
This is a practice that the Government has already warned will have legal consequences. This Wednesday, the spokesman of the regime, Humberto López, gathered guests from the Ministry of the Interior, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the telecommunications monopoly Etecsa on the Hacemos Cuba site, to threaten anyone who participates in “frauds.” They can be accused of the crime of “sabotage,” one of the most serious in the Penal Code.
The most common way to operate in these cases is that a family member abroad buys a recharge through some site where he finds lower prices than those offered by Etecsa. These offers are simultaneous to those announced by the state monopoly with special promotions for recharges from abroad -with benefits such as free night browsing or unlimited WhatsApp, among others – which invites the buyer to believe that the family member in Cuba will receive these advantages. However, they say, the owner of the site keeps the hard currency and deposits the money or balance to an intermediary account on the Island to make the refills in national currency.
According to the explanation of Colonel Marcos Giovanni Rodríguez González, second head of the specialized body dealing with crimes against the economy, networks usually involve “people who have a license as a telecommunications agent of Etecsa,” which allows them to make numerous recharges in national currency without the constraints of customers. At the price of the US currency in the informal market – 370 pesos, they admitted in the program – the recipient of the foreign currency needs only one dollar to make, for example, three refills of 110 pesos.
“They were taking fewer dollars, but only and exclusively because they wanted him to keep taking 25”
In Cuba, the population has a very different view of what the authorities consider “fraud,” and they think that the scam is actually committed by the telecommunications company. “They charge the dollar at 25 pesos, but the dollar is over 370,” explained a user on X. “To avoid being scammed by Etecsa many people began to create a business that, from abroad, could put 20 dollars in their foreign account, and I, from here, use Transfermobile to give you 6.000 Cuban pesos’ worth of recharge on your cell phone.”
His interlocutor asked: “Then it was better to recharge from Cuba with Cuban pesos than from outside. That is, they were really taking fewer dollars?” And he said, “They were taking fewer dollars, but only and exclusively because they wanted him to keep charging 25 dollars and ripping off buyers from abroad. No one is more at fault than Etecsa. That scam benefited from crumbs taking the dollar at 25 when it trades at 15 times that price.”.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Initially created to promote Latino businesses, the app already has more than 100,000 downloads.
“It is helping many of us to be alert and take precautions,” says another of the migrants with Form I220A / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Miami, 19 June 2025 — The maps in the Hack Latino app were originally created to discover places, businesses and restaurants, and to share them with the Latino community in the United States. Happy destinations, very different from what its users are seeing these days as an addition: indications about where raids of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) are being carried out in real time.
The app already has more than 100,000 downloads in the Play Store and in WhatsApp groups among Cubans with Form I220A: it is “the theme of the moment,” says Pedro, from Havana. He arrived in Florida more than three years ago by the “route of the volcanoes,” via Nicaragua. Now awaiting a hearing in the Immigration Court since he arrived in 2022, he is part of a group at risk of detention and deportation, among which the use of Hack Latino is multiplying.
“It was a lot of work and took us so much work to get to a country where we thought we would be safe”
“It is helping many of us to be alert and take precautions,” another I220A migrant who prefers anonymity tells this newspaper. “It took us a lot of work to get to a country where we thought we would be safe,” he says, complaining about the tightening of immigration policies by the Trump Administration, which includes increased surveillance, the ability granted to ICE agents to detain foreigners in any city of the country and the order for mass deportations. continue reading
The man, who gradually managed to bring his wife and children from Cuba, continues: “We are living in a horror movie. I understand that they want to clean up the country, but I think they should do it with criminals, not family people who are working just to bring a put a plate of food on the table.”
Among the “I220As”as they call themselves, there is the same mood, not only of concern but also of disappointment. When Trump took office, the general opinion of those who had this type of permission was favorable to the new president, full of hope that he would regularize their situation. They have been in migratory limbo since Trump canceled the policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden, and now their tone has changed completely.
“This crazy old man is leading the country to chaos and ruin. This is not defending the republic! This is racism followed by oligarchy with a view to forced dictatorship,” says one of the comments that can be read in a group of migrants. “What matters is to satisfy the whim of that madman in the White House,” replied another.
“This crazy old man is leading the country to chaos and ruin”
These are some of Hack Latino’s new clients. Created as “a community of Latinos in the US to connect businesses and highlight the importance of Latin America,” the new use given to its interactive maps actually connects with the story of its founder, Adrián Lozano Jr., a Mexican emigrant to the United States.
In an interview with Factor de Éxito [Success Factor], the entrepreneur, born in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila, recounts how he became aware of the needs of migrants “by performing traditional jobs for the Latino community, from construction to catering.” His app, he explained, “seeks not only to provide critical information, but also to empower the Latino community to actively participate in the economy and be successful in its journey through the United States.”
Lozano also shared “a key experience that marked his commitment to the Latino community”: the deportation of a relative when he was nine years old, which left him with “a deep scar, but also strengthened his determination.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“If they deport him, what future will he have in Cuba?” said Heriberto Rivero Carrera’s partner.
Judoca Heriberto Rivero entered the US through the border with Mexico in 2022 / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 20 June 2025 — Uncertainty reigns in the family of Cuban judoka Heriberto Rivero Carrera, who deserted in 2022 in Mexico. The 29-year-old was arrested last Friday after attending the preliminary asylum court in Miami, and his family fears he will be deported. “The judge didn’t even want to listen to him,” the athlete’s mother told Univision. “They didn’t give him a chance to explain himself, and immigration immediately detained him and took him away”.
Rivero entered US territory three years ago through the border with Mexico. The authorities issued him a Form I-220A, an “order of provisional release” on parole. However, the document is not recognized by Migration as a legal entry, and in the case of the judoka, he could not apply for the benefit of the Cuban Adjustment Law after one year and one day in the country.
The mother of the national judo medalist fears for his safety, as “everyone knows what it means to desert a national team.” The regime considers it a “serious indiscipline,” and athletes are added to the list of “traitors” and “worms” who are prevented from entering Cuba for eight years.
Rivero’s wife, who is four months pregnant, warned about the possibility of the regime accepting his deportation, but “if he is deported, what future will he have in Cuba ?” The woman warned that as part of the harassment, “they are not going to give him work anywhere, nothing,” and he runs the risk of being ’disappeared’.” continue reading
“The judge didn’t even want to listen to him,” the athlete’s mother told Univision. “They didn’t give him a chance to explain himself, and immigration immediately detained him and took him away”
In the US, Rivero has a clean record. Although he has tried to continue in the sport, his most recent competition was in 2023, when he won gold at the US Open in Fort Lauderdale as part of the Mambí judo club.
Last May, lawyer Ismael Labrador acknowledged that “at the present time, Migration is looking for any loophole in the law to be able to detain him.” In an interview with journalist Mario J. Pentón, the lawyer acknowledged that there are ways to get ahead of the “new wave of persecution.”.
“We know that this is definitely a terrible violation of due process and the rights to have a hearing and represent yourself in court.”
However, arrests continue to be reported. Last Tuesday Didie Espinoza, a Cuban with Form I-220A, was arrested by agents of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) on his exit from the courtroom in Miami.
“They don’t care that you have asylum; it doesn’t mean anything to them. It’s random,” Daysi Salvador, the Cuban couple, told Univision. “I have videos in which they (ICE) have a sheet with certain names and are waiting for you,” the woman said. “When I arrived there was no one, but then they send them up. There were six in the elevator; I’m in the waiting room, and they are there hoping to cross you off the list.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A report by Cuba Siglo 21 attributes the decision to increase the tariffs to the military conglomerate Gaesa.
Etecsa office at 19 and C, in El Vedado, Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, 12 June 2025 — It’s not the “US blockade” that “strangles imports” or the “fraudulent websites” that divert international recharges, as the Cuban officials rushed to maintain. The reasons for the dramatic drop in revenues of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) that led to its decree on May 30 are, according to consultant Emilio Morales, three: the effects of the Ordering Task, the migratory exodus and the decline in tourism.
In a report published by Cuba Siglo 21 this Thursday, Morales breaks down the discourse of the State monopoly, which, “although in theory is proclaimed by the State to be a socialist enterprise owned by the Cuban people, in practice is another strategic undertaking under the hegemony and control of the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (Gaesa), the largest and most lucrative super corporation on the Island, which controls about 70% of the country’s economy and just over 95% of its finances.”
The text defends the university students, who have risen in protest against Etecsa’s price increases — the “tarifazo” — and are being harassed by State Security. Hence its title: “Transparency! The Cuban Students against the Mafia State,” as he describes Gaesa’s network, for having “appropriated the most lucrative national companies, their resources, and profits.”
Morales says that the price of 3,360 pesos for three gigabytes is almost three times the value of the minimum wage
Morales says that the price of 3,360 pesos for three gigabytes (GB) of navigation, established by the telecommunications monopoly as an “extra” to the restricted package of 360 pesos for 6 GB per month, is almost three times the value of the minimum wage (1,260 CUP) and “more than twice the pensions of tens of thousands of retirees.” continue reading
Etecsa justified the measure by referring to “a loss of 60% of income from abroad and the high indebtedness of the company,” but Morales offers additional explanations. “When the Government implemented the Task of Monetary Regulation (TOM), or the Ordering Task*, it began to market mobile phones in Cuban pesos at a lower rate than the packages sold in dollars abroad. However, the TOM boosted inflation, and the dollar exchange rate soared. On October 10, 2019, the dollar was traded at 1 x 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) and on May 9, 2024, it was traded at 1 x 395 CUP,, he says.
“At time it was very easy to change dollars on the street at a very favorable exchange rate,” he continues, and buying offers for refills in CUP proved to be very cheap. “This was one of the main factors that caused recharges from abroad to fall.”
Another factor was, he says, “the massive wave of migration that has rocked the country,” with more than one and a half million Cubans having left the Island, which has meant, for many, “a process of family reunification.” In other words, those who left were the ones who recharged the most.
“The roaming service charged to tourists visiting Cuba is another important source of revenue for Etecsa”
The third element is the fall in tourism, by more than half compared to 2019 figures, before the Covid-19 pandemic, which began a debacle from which Cuba has not yet recovered. Also, “the roaming service charged to tourists is another important source of revenue for Etecsa,” indicates Morales.
For the analyst, President of Havana Consulting Group, the tarifazo (price increases) has two fundamental objectives: “T0 increase, at the expense of the Cuban exile, the profits of one of the most lucrative financial channels of Gaesa, especially when its other revenues, through tourism and remittances, have fallen dramatically.” It also aims “to limit the ability to access information,” which contains the “potential for national communication of the Cuban population in the face of the real possibility that a spark will arise” that provokes a mass protest such as that of 11 July 2021.
The report insists that the true owner of the communications monopoly is the all-powerful military conglomerate. “The one who has the last word for Etecsa is not its managers or the Cuban State: it’s Gaesa.” In this regard, at the beginning of 2011, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, former son-in-law of Raúl Castro and now deceased, was then the head of the Business Administration Group and bought the shares held in Etecsa by the Italian multinational Telecom Italia, which had boosted mobile telephony since the 1990s, taking it out of the business.
Similarly, Gaesa took control of other entities with shares in Etecsa
Similarly, Gaesa took control of other entities with shares in Etecsa, such as the Panamanian Universal Trade & Management Corporation S.A. in 2013, which Morales describes as a “a front company commissioned by Fidel Castro,” and in 2016, the Banco Financiero Internacional.
Beginning in 2011, the consultant continues, when Raul’s reforms were approved that would allow a certain openness of the regime, the mobile phone sector grew exponentially. “It was not just the business of cell phones itself, but the number of services that would later be added, such as the Internet and roaming service for foreign visitors, to name the most important. General López-Calleja quickly saw that the telecommunications business was a gold mine that Gaesa should control. With Fidel Castro semi-retired, there was no obstacle in the way for him to take control of Etecsa step by step,” adds Morales.
He provides figures: in 2018, the amount collected for telephone recharges was 317 million dollars, and three years later, it had doubled (650 million dollars).
Etecsa, says the analyst, is not only a “tool of totalitarian control and repression,” which benefits all the “repressive organizations” and “is responsible for the Internet blackouts”; it is also the “tip of the business iceberg that controls Gaesa,” which, to top it off, “does not contribute to the treasury in hard currency.”
This company, says Morales, was created in Panama by order of Fidel Castro in 1978
Morales documents that Gaesa and its shareholders “steal the country’s wealth” with the affidavit of Cimex lawyer Mali Suris Valmaña, which appears in a lawsuit filed by the US oil company Exxon Mobil against the Cuban state corporation and Cupet. In it, Suris Valmaña indicates that she holds the position of secretary of the board of directors of both Cimex-Cuba and Corporación Cimex S.A., “a public limited company organized in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Panama.”
This company, says Morales, was created as a front in Panama by order of Fidel Castro in 1978. Then, he explains, “it was used for illegal trade operations and the transfer of dollars to Cuba. In 1995 it was established that this is the main company and the Cimex entities in Cuba are its branches, and the flow of money is reversed: it is extracted in Cuba and goes to private shareholders (“anonymous societies”) in Panama and from there to banks in tax havens.”
All this, states Morales, “was a lucrative possibility from 1993,” with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Special Period, when dollarization began. The company thus served to capture foreign currency arriving in the country “through remittances, tourists and other channels.”
After summarizing the systemic crisis in which the Island is mired -“in total bankruptcy,” having lost its lines of credit, with its energy matrix “in ruins” and its manufacturing “obsolete,” or its health system “collapsed”- the report calls for transparency “not only for Etecsa, but for the criminals who are becoming rich today at the cost of growing urban misery.” And he predicts “almost certainly” that the “student insubordination” against Etecsa “will have consequences.”
“These protests began by being directed against the abuse of a company and have become in practice a greater understanding that Cuban citizens live under a mafia state where only the profits of an elite count and not national development or the needs of the population,” concludes Morales.
*Translator’s notes: The Ordering Task was a collection of measures that included eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The ousted Freemasonry leader has the support of the Cuban authorities
Filema has refused to hold a meeting at the Grand Lodge on June 14 / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, June 12, 2025 — A new document signed by Mayker Filema Duarte, dismissed as Grand Master (GM) of the Grand Lodge of Cuba (GLC) on May 25, was made public this Wednesday, June 11. During an extraordinary assembly that brought together more than a hundred Masonic representatives from all over the country, Juan Alberto Kessel Linares was elected in his place. Filema had already issued a statement calling those who stopped him “traitors” and announcing a purge within the Order.
In his new statement, he confirmed his intention to remain at the head of the GLC and disqualified his provisional successor, Kessel, whom he branded as a “self-styled leader by and for a group of brothers,” and someone who, according to him, “does not have institutional recognition.” He also denied the legitimacy of the session where his dismissal was voted, which he referred to as a “so-called Upper Chamber session.”
Those who removed him are organizing a meeting for June 14
The main reason for the statement is to oppose a meeting of those who removed him, scheduled for June 14. He accuses them of “promoting and instigating the plan” as well as violating “the sworn principles of discretion and reserve.” “Once again they intend to use our headquarters,” he added, “to offer a message to the world of instability and ungovernability.” He called the scheduled meeting a show and accused the organizers of being responsible for “total destabilization.”
Cuban Masonry is now going through its worst crisis since the 1921 schism. Filema himself has described the situation as an “insurmountable break,” reflecting the depth of the conflict, which combines corruption scandals, internal divisions between the GLC and the Supreme Council of Degree 33, and a growing and undeniable interference of the Cuban State, particularly the Ministry of Justice and State Security. Tensions have been catalyzed by episodes such as the theft of $19,000 in 2024, the imposition of government-like figures and the exclusion of members critical of officialdom. continue reading
In its statement, Filema also attacked the independent media, especially Cubanet, which it accused of “extreme bias.” Without naming her directly, he also criticized the journalist Camila Acosta, stating that “one of the media collaborators,” based in Miami, “maintains close relations with brothers opposed to our principles of Fraternity.”
“Only in dictatorships is it a crime to take sides or defend unofficial positions,” said Camila Acosta
Acosta replied from her personal Facebook account: “The ’bias’ has a viable argument, which is not a crime, but part of the freedom of expression that we defend. Only in dictatorships is it a crime to take sides or defend unofficial positions.”
The “opposing brother” referred to by Filema is none other than Ángel Santiesteban Prats, writer, screenwriter of the film ‘Plantados‘ and partner of Acosta, who was expelled in April from the symbolic degrees of the Order, but not from the philosophical degrees (4 to 33). Santiesteban has repeatedly accused Filema of serving the interests of the Ministry of Justice and has denounced the support he receives from state official Miriam Marta García Mariño, Director of Associations.
To this is added the repetition of the narrative on “economic and logistical support from foreign sources”
Filema’s accusations against the Masonic dissidence and the free press reproduce with disturbing similarity the official speech of the Cuban regime. His constant appeals to “the laws of the country,” “the competent authorities” and the denunciation of “acts of public disorder” do not distance him from the “political nuances” that he himself condemns. According to his critics, these expressions reinforce the perception that he acts as an operator within a state strategy of institutional control. To this is added the repetition of the narrative about “economic and logistical support from foreign sources,” an argument used by the Cuban ideological apparatus to delegitimize any dissident voice.
Government interference has been even more evident in the case of the Supreme Council of Degree 33. The Ministry of Justice not only refused to recognize the re-election of Commander José Ramón Viñas – an uncomfortable figure for officialdom – but also tried to impose Lázaro Cuesta Valdés, a Freemason and Babalawo (Santeria priest), linked to religious structures controlled by the State. Cuesta has been noted for his role in the “moderation” of the Letters of the Year issued by the Miguel Febles Commission, in order to avoid clashes with the government’s narrative.
In 1921, despite the intensity of the conflict, a definitive break was avoided
The intervention of the Ministry of Justice in the interpretation of the internal rules of the Order has been strongly rejected by large sections of Freemasonry, who consider this a violation of their autonomy and a threat to their founding principles.
Cuban Masonic history offers an illustrative antecedent: the schism of 1921. At that time, the GLC experienced a break when it decided to incorporate 16 lodges from the east of the country. However, despite the intensity of the conflict, a definitive break was avoided. Thanks to the publication of manifestos, fraternal debates and the strengthening of institutional mechanisms, the crisis was resolved without external intervention. That episode is remembered as a lesson in maturity, in which Cuban Masonry showed that it is able to overcome its divisions by appealing to its own values, without submitting to political impositions.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The real estate company of the military group Gaesa increases the rent of homes and offices by 15 times by applying the rate of 24 pesos to the dollar
For almost a year now, banks have severely limited how much cash in the form of pesos their depositors are allowed to withdraw. Meanwhile, foreign currency withdrawals have become increasingly difficult if not impossible. / 14ymedio
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, June 17, 2025 — Cuba’s main state-owned real estate company will require its foreign tenants to pay their rents in hard currency beginning on July 1, a move that promises to be a major detriment to international companies. This is the latest step in the government’s increasing dollarization of the economy.
The Cubija real estate agency, a subsidiary the Palco company, has sent letters to foreign tenants, both companies and individuals, informing them that, as of July 1, their monthly rents must be paid in U.S. dollars at the official exchange rate of 1 dollar to 24 Cuban pesos.
This rate was established at the outset of Cuba’s currency unification in 2021, which independent economists warned at the time was unrealistic. Though a lower rate of of 120 pesos to the dollar was later established for individuals, the exchange rate for businesses has remained unchanged. The current street-market rate is currently 375 pesos to the dollar.
The move represents a significant disruption for international companies which, until now, were being paid in Cuban pesos, often by the state itself
The move represents a significant disruption for international companies which, until now, were being paid in Cuban pesos, a currency that cannot be used outside of Cuba and increasingly less so within the country itself.
Secondly, because the official exchange rate is so much higher than the rate on the open market, some foreigners could be paying rents fifteen times higher than what they are paying now. continue reading
For these two reasons, according to EFE, some tenants have — both individually and collectively — written letters to Cubija objecting to the measure, with some even refusing to comply. The company is owned by GAESA, a business conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.
In its initial letters to tenants, Cubija explained that it is taking this step after the Ministry of Economy and Planning approved a “foreign currency financing scheme” for the Palco business conglomerate, citing Resolution No. 20/2025, dated March 31, 2025.
These schemes are being implemented for the benefit of certain foreign companies, allowing them to retain a portion of their hard currency earnings. Currently, Cuban banks do not have the reserves to back up the vast majority of their customers’ deposits and the state banking system does not have the ability to withdraw cash.
The government has imposed what effectively amounts to a freeze on assets. For almost a year, banks have been severely restricting cash withdrawals, especially withdrawals of hard currency, which have become nearly impossible according to several foreign companies.
As EFE reported in April, the Cuban government informed foreign firms with operations in the country that they would not be allowed to repatriate hard currency from their accounts, a move which has caused widespread discontent among the companies, some of which hold millions of dollars in Cuban banks.
Some companies claim their hard-currency bank accounts are not operating as promised
In exchange, some firms were offered the opportunity to open hard-currency bank accounts with the assurance that they would be able to access the funds in these accounts and that these funds would be secure. Some companies have told EFE that the accounts are not operating as promised.
In desperate need of foreign currency, the Cuban government has, in recent months, implemented several emergency measures in an effort to raise it. These include the opening of dollar-denominated stores and requiring payment for certain services and fees in foreign currency.
The Cuban government retains a monopoly on foreign trade. It currently imports roughly 80% of what the island consumes, most notably fuel and food, because domestic production has largely collapsed.
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The distressed messages of a Holguín journalist trapped in Tehran reflect another reality.
Jaime Yoan Batista Peña works as a contributor to HispanTV, the Iranian state channel in Spanish. / HispanTV/caption
14ymedio, Havana, 18 June 2025 — Last Monday, June 16th, while millions of screens around the world showed an Iranian presenter fleeing the set when a missile exploded, a Cuban journalist wrote from Teheran: “Israel attacked the radio and television headquarters; I try to protect myself. Best wishes to all.”
This is Jaime Yoan Batista Peña, a Cuban audiovisual media professional, ex-commentator, journalist and presenter in Holguín province. He started off in radio and moved to TeleCristal, before establishing himself as a contributor to HispanTV, the Iranian Spanish language state channel. Nevertheless, there has not been a single mention of his situation in Noticiero Nacional de Television [Cuba’s official, state-run nightly television news program], nor in official Ministry of External Relations websites. Not even a formal note from the Cuban embassy in Teheran, which limits its public activity to reproducing Chancellor Bruno Rodriguez’ slogans and citations from Miguel Díaz-Canel about the “solid character” of the Revolution.
The newspaper “Ahora”, mouthpiece of the Communist Party in Holguín, is also silent.
The silence also extends to the Ahora newspaper, mouthpiece of the Holguín Communist Party, which has not even once mentioned the prize-winning Holguín reporter who is right now in danger in a conflict zone. And the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba (Upec) [CubanJournalists Union] has also said nothing. But colleagues in the island have inundated his Facebook with messages of support. However, the Party has so far not given an order to issue any comment about him.
Batista has contributed to HispanTV since at least 2015, when his reports began to appear about Latin American politics. Since that time, his face has appeared on that platform, where he is reporting directly from Iran. His work is characterised by an information strategy totally aligned with the official narrative of that theocracy, whose interest in Latin America is as ideological as it is geopolitical.
HispanTV was founded on December 21st, 2011, as part of Iran’s international propaganda apparatus, alongside PressTV (in English) and Al-Alam (in Arabic). The channel is owned by Radiodifusión de la República Islámica de Irán (Irib), a state organisation directly controlled by the supreme leader, Ayatolla Ali Khameneí. Financed by Iranian public continue reading
resources, HispanTV pursues an anti-Western, anti-Israeli agenda, and with links to authoritarian regimes. It has been frequently been sanctioned for putting out conspiracy theories and antisemitic content. Although its declared objective is to “strengthen cultural links” with Latin America, its real mission is to act as the international voice of the Iranian regime.
Financed by Iranian public resources, HispanTV pursues an anti-Western, anti-Israeli agenda, and with links to authoritarian regimes
In his Facebook message on Monday, Batista cautioned: “Do not send me internal messages because I cannot respond. We are in complex difficult circumstances. I am grateful for all expressions of solidarity and love.” It was a dry text, as if written between sirens, with bated breath and barely concealed anxiety.
And on Wednesday morning he wrote another even more worrying message: “The internet is very limited and extremely slow. Messages are not going out. Best from Teheran.” And then, a possibility of escape: “They are making preparations for evacuations through terrestrial borders. The situation remains tricky. I am OK and being helped by our Cuban embassy. Thank you for your messages.”
Several days have passed since the conflict broke out, and the Cuban state response remains the same as ever: hidden in silence. Just as happened in other international crises – Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria – the government seems more concerned about protecting ideological alliances than guaranteeing the safety of its citizens. We haven’t forgotten the names of Assel Herrera Correa and Landy Rodríguez Hernández, two doctors in Kenya, whose bodies have not been recovered. The Cuban regime applied the same strategy to that case: let the silence fester until no one asks any more questions.
The government seems more concerned about protecting ideological alliances than guaranteeing the safety of its citizens
Iran is unsafe during the systematic Israeli offensive, which has destroyed the armed forces chain of command, attacked the underground bases at Natanz and Fordow used for uranium enrichment, decimated the aerial defence systems, and wiped out nearly two dozen scientists who designed the nuclear project. Various Latin American countries – including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and México– are already evacuating their embassies in Teheran.
The Cuban community in Iran is small: diplomats, technicians and some assistants. But their small numbers don’t make them less vulnerable. The lack of official data on how many Cubans live in Teheran, or other cities, increases the risk of being abandoned. In a country where ideological repression is disguised as religious observance, where the use of the veil is compulsory, homosexuality is punished, alcohol consumption is forbidden, and the media are strictly controlled by the state, the safety of foreigners – especially those without firm diplomatic support – is uncertain. A military escalation, as we are seeing now, converts this uncertainty into a direct threat.
( The lack of official data on how many Cubans live in Teheran, or other cities, increases the risk of being abandoned
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran and Cuba have had a relationship sustained by a shared dialogue against “imperialism,” especially against the United States and Israel. High level visits, cooperation agreements on health, energy and biotechnology, and mutual support in international forums have cemented a strategic alliance. But have also sealed a pact of mutual silence over violations of human rights.
The regimes protect each other, that is why Cuba is more interested in declaring support for Iran and asserting in its media that Teheran is winning the battle against Israel, than the plight of its citizens trapped beneath the bombs. Meanwhile, friends and family of Batista know that to find out if he is still alive, can escape and return to his country, they need to keep looking at his Facebook profile.
Translated by GH
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Authorities punish entities that do not participate in the rational use plan with the withdrawal of electricity service for seven days.
The authorities claim that efforts are being made to improve the situation, but the equipment is overexploited, and there are no resources for repairs / Periódico Victoria
14ymedio, Madrid, June 18, 2025 — The only territory that had been kept out of the scheduled blackouts and the electricity deficit thanks to its independent energy system, the Isle of Youth, has also suddenly entered a crisis. On Monday, the electricity company, for the first time, reported blackouts lasting up to five hours per block, although many customers report up to 10 hours. On Tuesday, the authorities went one step further and announced emergency measures, faced with only half the power generation that is needed.
The Municipal Energy Council said that of the 18 generators on the island, only eight are running, providing 11 megawatts (MW), when more than 24 MW is needed. The situation is so critical that the first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Party, Rafael Ernesto Licea, convened a meeting in the Caribe cinema in Nueva Gerona, where representatives of the electric company explained how to deal with the situation.
Starting this Tuesday, a tough savings package comes into effect that includes the suspension of climate equipment in the state and private sectors, with the sole exception of those “considered technological and approved by the National Office for the Control of the Rational Use of Energy in Cuba (ONURE).” continue reading
Starting this Tuesday, a tough savings package comes into effect that includes the suspension of climate equipment in the state and private sectors
“Since Tuesday, we have allowed the use of generators for production and service processes; hence, Alimentaria, for example, will produce bread with a generator and not with electricity from the grid in order to relieve congestion and affect the population as little as possible,” said the official. He stated that there is fuel, and that, in fact, the problem of the engines is not lack of fuel but is related to the “many years of operation” of the equipment and the “lack of resources to reactivate its functioning.”
The leisure sector will be most affected. The facilities of the Gran Caribe are obliged to use generators from 8 pm to 6 am, while the recreational establishments may be open only from Friday to Sunday, whether state or private. In addition, they cannot use air conditioning systems, and in the case of restaurants, they cannot use the ovens from 6 pm to 8 am, directly affecting the meal schedule.
One of the hardest measures is for cooling: refrigerators, storage rooms and containers must be turned off from 6 am to 6 pm, (half a day ), with the risk of spoilage and loss, unless they are powered by generators.
Licea was in the meeting with Yuladis García Segura, president of the Assembly of People’s Power, as well as other managers and representatives of mass organizations, politicians and students. At the meeting, the municipal mayor, Adiel Morera Macías, criticized several entities for not having delivered to ONURE the plan required for the control of the rational use of energy that corresponds to the current month, so “they will be withdrawn from service as of this Tuesday for seven days for violating the established rule.”
The measures -planned by law, said Morera, “now begin in a joint way and will stop as the availability increases and the municipal electrical system is restored, for which it already has the support of the country’s brigades.” The first time that President Miguel Díaz-Canel mentioned the word “joint” to refer to the electricity shortage was in 2019, and a situation began that has become structural and worsened day by day throughout the country.
“The interesting thing is that a few weeks ago it was leaked on the street by people who work in that area that we were going to start having blackouts, said a user of Islavisión about the announcement. I did not believe them at the time because the Isle of Youth operates with a system that is independent of the national one, but today I can see that they are using exactly the same strategies and justifications as in the rest of the country.”
“I did not believe them at the time because the Isle of Youth operates with a system that is independent of the national one, but today I can see that they are using exactly the same strategies and justifications as in the rest of the country”
Several commentators have recalled that in 2023, a group of Japanese came to the Isle of Youth to assemble a generation plant. “Is it already broken?” asked several with discomfort.
In April 2024, the authorities came together to hold an “Isle of Youth Electricity Improvement Project Completion Ceremony.” The work, carried out with a state subsidy, included the installation of the necessary equipment and devices, such as storage batteries, installations for energy reception and transformation, facilities and control equipment” to increase renewable energy from 5 per cent to 18 per cent. However, this has not been able to alleviate the current crisis, and the officials have asked the people to save electricity, pushing their patience to its limit.
“There is no more understanding!” someone commented. “What there is is hunger, heat, mosquitoes. Do not gather anymore and face the people without solutions! We are tired of so much lying and being told to save more than we are already getting. Eynough!!!” Proof of the fatigue accumulated by the citizens of the former Isle of Pines circulates on social networks. There are even demands for independence and calls to form an “autonomous republic” with its own laws, including free trade or
associated with the Government of Cuba through some form of agreement.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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That dark, inquisitorial period lasted much more than five years. It did not, as some would like to pretend, end in 1976.
The work, “1971,” from the series, “Reconstrucción. Quinquenio Gris,’ [Reconstruction. Five Grey Years,” by the plastic artist Alejandro González. Image: MNBA.Cubanet, Luis Cino, Havana, 7 June 2025 – It was the late essayist Ambrosio Fornet who coined the term, “The Five Grey Years,” to refer to the repression of artists and intellectuals during the 1970s–a disastrous time for the national culture.
Fornet first utilized this expression in January of 2007 during his appearance at an event convened by fellow essayist Desiderio Navarro with the blessing of the Ministry of Culture, and by which Fornet attempted to resolve the so-called “email storm.”
That storm, also known as “the little war of emails,” was provoked by the fawning presentations on the TV programs “Impronta” and “La Diferencia” (hosted by singer Alfredo Rodríguez) of Luis Pavón and Jorge “Papito” Serguera, executors of the cultural policies of that period—the former as president of the National Council of Culture (CNC), the latter as director of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).
During his appearance in that roundtable, and in his attempt to do some belated damage control by minimizing the era as much as possible (and above all, by not indicating who bore the primary responsibility for it) Fornet understated matters by employing the term, “five-year period.”
That dark, inquisitorial time lasted much longer than five years. It did not, as some claim, end in 1976, when the National Council of Culture was continue reading
replaced by the Ministry of Culture, with Armando Hart at the helm; several more years would elapse before the darkness would begin to dissipate in the early 1980s.
Nor did it start in 1971 with the Congress of Education and Culture, and the Heberto Padilla affair. For a long while already, dark clouds had been gathering over writers and artists. Before the commissioners, irritated by the homoerotic tone of Chapter VIII of Paradiso, ordered Lezama Lima‘s monumental novel to be removed from bookstores and turned into pulp; before the ordeal visited upon Heberto Padilla and Antón Arrufat for their books Fuera del juego and Los siete contraTebas, respectively, began in 1968; before that Stalinist ectoplasm who would sign his name as “Leopoldo Ávila” (and whose authorship remains unknown, whether it was actually “Lieutenant” Pavón, José Antonio Portuondo*, or both of them in a duet) began to fire mercilessly at writers from the pages of Verde Olivo, the magazine of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Several years before Lieutenant Armando Quesada* ordered the burning of the Guiñol Nacional puppets related to Afro-Cuban traditions in 1971, considering them to represent “backwardness, underdevelopment, the stuff of black santeros,” other figures in official culture, imbued with “revolutionary fervor,” were already setting themselves up as inquisitors.
In October of 1963, one of the most Stalinist cultural commissars of the regime, the scholastically Marxist Mirta Aguirre, declared: “In the hands of dialectical materialism, art can and should be an exorcism, a form of knowledge that contributes to sweeping the dark shadows of ignorance from the minds of men, a precious instrument for replacing the religious conception of the world with [Marxism’s] scientific conception, and a timely Marxist resource for the defeat of philosophical idealism.”
In 1965, a recalcitrant and obtuse extremist like Magaly Muguercia believed she was capable of deciding that Cuban theater had to be “an obligatory socialist expression.”
The writer and folklorist Samuel Feijoo, on April 15, 1965, in order to get in tune with that statement from the Union of Young Communists that screamed “Out with the homosexuals and the counterrevolutionaries from our schools,” and anticipating the UMAP by a few months and the Parametración*** carried out by the Evaluation Commission of the CNC in the early 70s by six years, published in the newspaper El Mundo a commentary entitled “Revolution and Vices,” in which he stated:
“This most virile country, with its army of men, should not and cannot be expressed by homosexual writers and artists. Because no homosexual represents the Revolution, which is a matter of men, of fists and not pens, of courage and not trembling, of integrity and not intrigue, of creative courage and not cheap surprises. Because the literature of homosexuals reflects their epicene natures, as Raúl Roa said. And true revolutionary literature is not and will never be written by sodomites… Destroy their positions, their procedures, their influence. That is what is called revolutionary social hygiene. They must be eradicated from their key positions on the frontier of revolutionary art and literature. If we lose a dance group because of this, we are left without the sick dance group. If we lose an exquisite literary figure, the air becomes cleaner. Thus, we will feel healthier while we create new virile figures emerging from a brave people.”
The witch hunt against artists and intellectuals would reach its climax with Fidel Castro’s speech in April 1971, at the closing of the Congress on Education and Culture. But the scribes of official culture and some of those who suffered from Stockholm syndrome yesterday, when speaking of the Grey Decade, prefer to reduce it to a five-year period and avoid mentioning that the responsibility for that dark and sad period lay with Fidel Castro, beginning with his “Words to Intellectuals” in June 1961**, and culminating 10 years later with the closing speech of the Congress on Education and Culture.
Luis Pavón, Papito Serguera, Armando Quesada, and other anti-cultural henchmen, however extremist they may have been, were merely the underlings with limited authority who, in compliance with “the instructions from above,” were charged with carrying out those aberrant policies to bring artists and intellectuals in line and “within the Revolution.”
**A reference to a speech by Fidel Castro on June 30, 1961, in which he set limits to the free expression of artists and writers: “Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing.”
****Parameterization/ parametración: From the word “parameters.” Parameterization is a process of establishing parameters and declaring anyone who falls outside them (the parametrados) to be what is commonly translated as “misfits” or “marginalized.” This is a process much harsher than implied by these terms in English. The process is akin to the McCarthy witch hunts and black lists and is used, for example, to purge the ranks of teachers, or even to imprison people.
The newspaper ‘El Universal’ has obtained official information through the transparency portal
A group of Cuban doctors in the state of Tlaxcala (Mexico) / @EmbaCuMex
14ymedio, Madrid, June 18, 2025 — In just two years, the amount of money paid by Mexico to Cuba for health services has increased by 70.3 million euros. According to information published this Tuesday by El Universal, the total amount corresponding to contracts signed between July 2022 and May 2025 amounts to 92,525,569 euros, a quantitative jump from the last time data were collected, when the amount was 23 million euros.
The Mexican newspaper has again requested transparency about the available contracts and has analyzed them in a way that can be consulted openly on the Compras MX platform. In 2024, the same media published information corresponding to three contracts -between July 2022 and May 2023- for which the Cuban government would send 610 doctors to rural areas in Mexico, although the new documents indicate that the number was actually 809. Of these, according to an investigation, 48 escaped.
The new data show a very high amount, although not all of the money goes to the salaries. It is not known what part will be paid to the Cuban government’s Service Commercialization Agency, since the amount is the total corresponding to the transportation and maintenance of the health personnel. The service includes chauffeured transportation to medical units, safe and permanent lodging, “special diets delivered three times a day” – presumably for meals – and 24-hour personal care. continue reading
The new data show a very high amount, although not all of the money goes to salaries
The information provided by the Mexican Institute of Social Security for Welfare (IMSS-Bienestar) gives a account of the three known agreements, according to which the doctors were distributed in 15 Mexican states: Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Hidalgo, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Zacatecas.
According to a contract accessible on the Compras MX platform, the IMSS-Bienestar paid in pesos the equivalent of 12.5 million euros to nine Mexican companies for the “services of lodging, food and ground transportation for health personnel.” The number of beneficiaries varies by state, between four and 40 members, distributed in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Mexico, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Sinaloa, Puebla, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán and Zacatecas.
Another contract, starting on April 1 and ending on May 31, 2025, provides for payment in pesos of about 53 million euros more to five Mexican companies for the same reasons, and in this case for doctors assigned to a total of 24 states. What is striking here is the quantity, since the number of healthcare personnel ranges from 1,966 at the least to 4,845 at the most.
El Universal gives details about the entire process of installing the doctors from the time of their arrival in Mexico to when they are transferred to the destination unit. If it is far away, they are expected to have guaranteed transport seven days a week, 24 hours a day, at alternate times and on mixed dates. If necessary, the doctors are relocated.
As for accommodation, it can be temporary or permanent and must be no more than one kilometer from their work center. Lodging includes hotels, houses, single rooms for those who go alone or shared rooms for couples. It also specifies the equipment of the accommodation, which must have supplies – electricity, water, gas and sanitation – in addition to one bed per person, a closet, washing machine, microwave, sofa, TV, sink, bathroom, desk, stove, refrigerator and table with two chairs.
The provider must also guarantee three meals a day and customer care -in person, by telephone or email- for management and the health personnel
The provider must also guarantee three meals a day and customer care -in person, by telephone or email- for management and the health personnel.
The newspaper reports that the US has recently taken measures against officials who facilitate Cuban medical missions, considering them a form of labor exploitation and indentured servitude. This is based on the fact that the Cuban Government keeps between 70% and 95% of the salaries paid out for the health workers. According to the sanctions introduced by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, foreigners who facilitate these contracts will remain without a visa to enter the United States.
These and other measures of pressure have led the Government of the Bahamas to announce the termination of contracts with the Government of Cuba. As announced on Monday by the Bahamian Minister of Health, Michael Darville, Cubans interested in staying will “sign a new employment contract,” a solution that, according to Archivo Cuba, would not be enough if the regime in Havana forces them to “donate” their wages to the State.*
*Note from Translating Cuba: Added clarity on what this might mean, from Reuters: “June 16 (Reuters) – The Bahamas is preparing to cancel contracts with Cuban healthcare professionals after discussions with the U.S. government, Bahamian Health Minister Michael Darville said in a parliamentary address on Monday. Darville said his ministry would enter into direct employment contracts with Cuban healthcare professionals in the Bahamas. ’Those who are not interested in this new arrangement will be given time to wrap up their affairs and return to Cuba,’ Darville said.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Havana, 22 June 2025 — Cuba’s energy deficit will reach alarming levels this Sunday. According to forecasts by the Electricity Union (UNE), peak availability is estimated at 1,820 megawatts (MW), compared to a demand of 3,500 MW.
