Translating Cuba – Page 87 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

The Presbyterian Church Calls for a Shift From ‘Resignation’ to ‘Activism’ for a Change in Cuba

In 2024, a total of 624 violations against freedom of religion were committed on the island, according to a report.

Presbyterian-Reformed Church event in Cuba last May / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, June 4, 2025 — The Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba has issued a strong message on the occasion of the Pentecost holiday in favor of change on the island. In a text made public this Tuesday, the congregation, which represents several dozen evangelical churches, bases its statement on the deep and successive crises that the country is suffering.

“The crushing of these crises has placed Cuban society in a narrow alley, perhaps, where the government’s appeal to ’resistance’, ’resilience’, ’creativity’, ’patience’, ’confidence’ have become irrelevant formulas for the people, a symptom of the exhaustion of the ideological reserve that supported the Revolution under the assumption of the construction of a real socialism”, says the brotherhood, which then attacks the higher echelons of the regime.

“The confusion of official discourse becomes increasingly evident when, for example, so many families today live in fear in homes that are in danger of collapse, while huge hotels stand in front of them like inert and arrogant ghosts scraping the sky; or when the laws, decrees and measures do not address the most basic needs of the people, but add to ever greater poverty for them.”

“A society that has been dollarized earns wages in depreciated national currency. A society that has been taught to think cannot freely express what it thinks”

And they list the problems almost in a litany: “A society that was electrified by an energy revolution today lacks electricity. A digitalized society lacks access to the virtual world. A society that has been dollarized earns wages in depreciated national currency. A society that has been taught to think cannot freely express what it thinks. A society in such condition needs profound changes if it is to be functional, if it is to be just, if it is to express fully the values of God’s reign.”

Therefore, they address not only their parishioners, but the “leadership of the country” and all ordinary Cubans. They ask the Government to continue reading

“establish a genuine, secure and transparent dialogue with the people,” with the aim of “making progress along a path of necessary changes in legal, institutional and any other structures that require transformation.”

They also urge “the review and correction of the punitive measures and sentences” of those who “because of their ideas, today suffer imprisonment or police harassment,” as well as “the holding of forums for democratic participation with plural concurrence of visions” and “the recognition and public apology for the damage caused to sectors of Cuban civil society that have been affected by exclusionary and discriminatory policies.”

The message for ordinary Cubans is also convincing, urging them to “move from resignation to perseverance, from apathy to social and political activism, in order to establish a new and restorative moment that heals hatred and removes resentment.” Thus, they encourage the citizens to “exercise the right to participate in processes of constructive change in our country, voluntarily, honestly and transparently; choose as a priority the peaceful path for building a new country”; and “look to the future with hope.”

This includes arbitrary detention, intrusive surveillance, repeated interrogations, threats, harassment, and in some cases physical abuse

The Presbyterians’ message is published just days after Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) issued a report on the situation of religious freedom in the island. A total of 624 violations were committed in 2024. This includes arbitrary detention, intrusive surveillance, repeated interrogations, threats, harassment, and in some cases physical and verbal abuse of children in school settings because of their beliefs.

The report, entitled “No Respite: Systematic Repression of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Cuba,” highlights that both registered and unregistered religious groups, including Afro-Cuban communities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants and Roman Catholics, have been targeted by the Government. In addition, there has been an increase in the imposition of fines on religious leaders for conducting unauthorized activities or worshipping in places that are not officially recognized.

One emblematic case is that of the pastors Luis Guillermo Borja and Roxana Rojas, arrested on May 19, 2024, after invoking their religious beliefs in a military court where their son was tried for intent to evade compulsory military service. Both are facing charges of disrespect and contempt of the authorities. Their son, Kevin Lay Laureido Rojas, who holds a medical exemption for a psychiatric condition, remains in a military prison.

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom has also pointed out that the Cuban regime uses a repressive legal framework to strictly control religious institutions and criminalize activities considered contrary to its ideology. Since 1959, no independent religious group has been legally registered, and those who operate without such registration are subject to surveillance, harassment and confiscation of property.

The Cuban Human Rights Observatory reported at least 996 acts against religious freedom in 2024, including impediments to attending masses, fines for religious leaders of unrecognized churches and harassment of Christians with civic commitment. In addition, there were documented cases of denial of religious assistance to political prisoners and threats against religious leaders to expel relatives of political prisoners from their congregations.

Organizations and human rights defenders have urged the international community to express its concern over these continuing violations and to seek ways to support independent civil society in Cuba, including religious groups. The current situation shows a systematic pattern of repression that undermines fundamental freedoms and human rights on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Witchcraft is Forbidden’

In the Old Cemetery of Guanabacoa, grass invades the graves, which are looted by thieves.

Thefts and religious rituals have forced the cemetery authorities to put a warning on the wall / 14ymedio

14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, May 31, 2025 — Among the rules governing the Old Cemetery of Guanabacoa in Havana, workers have been forced to immortalize one: “Witchcraft is forbidden.” Painted with black ink on a wall to try to scare away grave robbers, the poster unashamedly announces the main evil of the cemetery, stripped even of the copper rings that adorn the tombstones.

Construction began in 1814, and the cemetery was declared a National Heritage Site in 1997, but it “is abandoned because no one wants to work there for 2,400 pesos,” says Antonio, who was a gravedigger for eight years in the Old and New cemeteries of Guanabacoa, separated by the old road. “Conditions are pretty bad. It is full of weeds, and everyone knows that remains and copper rings have been taken away,” he says.

An open, rust-eaten fence welcomes the few visitors who dare to walk through the cemetery under the strong sun and high temperatures of May. Broken crosses lay on the ground, and the raised sidewalks and bushes growing at will cause doubt about the functionality of the cemetery, or whether there is anyone in charge of its care.

This same abandonment is what has attracted those who seek bones for rituals or metals to sell. / 14ymedio

That same abandonment is what has attracted unwanted visitors, and the apparent calm of the cemetery is often disturbed by those who seek bones to perform rituals or metals to sell. continue reading

When there is a theft, it is rarely reported,” continues Antonio. “Some family member must see that something is missing from the tomb. The last case that happened was when they caught someone who stole some tomb rings. They detained the person as he drove through a traffic light, took him to the police station, took his bag of rings and let him go.”

Rodrigo is 50 years old, of which 30 were dedicated to being a graveyard keeper. Years ago, a stone of which he never knew the origin or the intention left him unconscious and unfit for work. Now, with difficulties in speech as a result of the blow, he resides in the back of the same cemetery to which he dedicated his life, retired and with barely 1,500 pesos in his bank account. “There is no graveyard that still has the rings,” he says in reference to the essential accessories for lifting the heavy grave lids. “They’ve caught people stealing from them, but I don’t know if the police knows that they’re selling the copper. They picked up a guy about a month ago. He said that he had found them, and they released him,” he says with regret.

More than the graves, the vaults dilapidated by time and torn apart by theft look like heaps of rubble. The accumulated garbage, the weeds that grow in any corner, even on top of tops and walls, and the remnants of Yoruba offerings accompanied by bottles of rum complete a desolate landscape. “Here people pass by and throw garbage into the cemetery, and everything is full of witchcraft. Although that happens in all the cemeteries.”

In addition to the Old Cemetery, the quintessential example, Guanabacoa has six other cemeteries, making it the municipality with the most graveyards on the island. In its interior is the Chapel of Potosí, founded with the name Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Holy Christ of Potosí and considered the oldest architectural work of Guanabacoa, dating from the seventeenth century.

“This, statistically, is heritage, but look how it is. The wall and the church have been rebuilt, but the last time was five years ago. At any moment they will collapse again,” says Rodrigo. “There has been no quality restoration.”

The wall that marks the boundary of the cemetery and separates it from the houses is low and irregular / 14ymedio

The wall that marks the boundary of the cemetery and separates it from the houses is low and irregular. In several sections it is leaning, and the bars that should be on top have also been stolen. The recently repaired bell tower of the church shows obvious signs of poor work due to its rapid deterioration, in addition to the shoddy finish that doesn’t go with the rest of the work.

According to Antonio and Rodrigo, the responsibility lies with the Comunales of Guanabacoa, although they recognize that the incentives for workers also leave something to be desired: “They pay very little and give nothing. If you work at the Colon Cemetery [in Havana], they give you shoes, pants, everything. Not here.”

The accumulated garbage, weeds and remains of Yoruba offerings complete a desolate landscape / 14ymedio

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Students, Teachers and Official Musicians Attack Cuba’s State Communications Monopoly Etecsa Over Its ‘Tarifazo’*

A faculty at the University of Havana protested the new measures, which it considered “a huge lack of respect for the Cuban people.”

The Council is particularly concerned about the “mass of students” who “depend almost entirely on internet access for study and research” /CC

14ymedio, Havana, May 31, 2025 — Indignation at all levels has been caused by the measures that the communications monopoly Etecsa implemented this Friday for mobile telephony. The tension has been unanimous in the country, from universities to the regime’s unwavering supporters, who have defined the announcement as “an enormous lack of respect for the Cuban people.”

This phrase was expressed, hours after the announcement, by the Council of the FEU (Student University Federation) of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing of the University of Havana. The fact that Etecsa claims “challenges in its financial, technological and operational situation” is not justification for the tarifazo* [rate increase] announced by the company.

The Council is particularly concerned about the “mass of students” who are “almost entirely dependent on internet access for study and research. We think the attitude of Etecsa is inopportune and reckless, setting prices that more than anything increase the inflation in which our nation is increasingly immersed.”

The statement rises in tone when it alludes to the alleged “legal right of the company to make such changes in the service without prior notice,” something it only “vaguely” obtained from Prime Minister Manuel Marrero. This lack of notice is “an aggravating factor,” they conclude.

“We urge Etecsa to review the decision taken, because we believe that it is a mistake and that more reasonable measures should be sought to address existing problems in its business management,” they conclude. “In the continue reading

current situation of the country, with constant and prolonged problems with electricity and water services, low availability of public transport and rising food prices, to mention just some of the problems that are already part of our daily lives, internet access remained one of the last resources available to the population and students.”

The pro-regime spokesman known as El Necio also posted a review of Etecsa on social networks

The pro-regime spokesman known as El Necio [The Fool] also posted a review of Etecsa on social networks, saying that the managers on State TV’s Round Table program “did not really respond to the specific dissatisfaction and concerns at the moment.” The company’s measure, he explained, “does not solve much” and has been “highly unpopular.”

“I do not recall any other measure which has generated such a high level of immediate and widespread dissatisfaction, even among the sector of people most committed to the Cuban Government and to the socialist process. Analyze the impact and listen to the citizenry that is being expressed. If the measure goes against the interests and needs of the people it is against the Revolution,” he said.

Using the meager excuse of the embargo, El Necio said that Etecsa “will have no choice but to rectify this commercial strategy and find a balance between the need of the companies to collect dollars and the population’s need for connection to communicate, study, work, inform themselves in the face of so many blackouts and also entertain themselves.” Bypassing needs and claims of the people, he noted, “is very harmful.” He also placed the task in the hands of the Party and the Government “to instruct the managers of Etecsa to rectify [the price increase] as soon as possible.”

María del Carmen Hernández, a professor at the Universidad Central de Las Villas and mother of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s official journalist, Leticia Martínez, said she understood “Etecsa’s need for foreign exchange to improve its service, but unfortunately I can’t contribute a dollar. Today I shall watch the Round Table, but most certainly I will not pay these prices.”

For her part, Mariana Camejo, director of the online medium La Joven Cuba – almost always in affinity with the regime – demanded that Etecsa think about “the students; the teachers who send, receive files and search for resources for their classes with their own data because the connection in universities does not allow them to do so; and the retirees who enjoy watching videos, etc.”

“The prices of the ’extra’ plans are prohibitive wherever you look. Etecsa is trying to highlight the ’cheap’ basic plans, but there is no way that people will not notice that their wages are falling and life’s precariousness is rising. No, the policy cannot be that the macro accounts balance the loss, at the expense of the people.”

Also added to the call was musician and writer Ernesto Limia, who highlighted that “university students and their teachers, doctors, journalists and intellectuals – a journalist at the ICRT earns just over 4,000 pesos, to cite an example – have been harmed. Also affected are artists and writers who work in the public sector without internet connection; professionals who without a connection don’t have the opportunities of their counterparts abroad; and pensioners whose checkbooks do not give them enough to survive without family or social security assistance.”

The musician and writer Ernesto Limia also added that “university students and their teachers have been harmed”

This Friday, Lidia Esther Hidalgo Rodriguez, commercial vice president of Etecsa, explained that customers of the prepaid mobile service will be able to make recharges to their main balance up to a total amount of 360 pesos over the course of 30 days. This restriction contrasts with the ability that Etecsa customers had, until this Thursday, to carry out refills in national currency without restrictions.

With this recharge of 360 pesos for 30 days, consumers will be able to purchase, at most, a package with 6 gigabytes (GB) of web browsing, 60 minutes for making calls and the possibility of sending 70 text-only messages (SMS). Below the package of higher price and capacity, there are 4.5 GB of internet connection for 240 pesos; another 2 GB + 15 min, 20 SMS for 120 pesos and 4 GB + 35 min, 40 SMS for 240 pesos.

Since this Friday, an extra package of 3 GB of web browsing requires 3,360 pesos, while to obtain 7 GB you have to pay 6,720, a figure that exceeds the average monthly salary, which in 2024 stood at 5,839 pesos. As for the package of 15 GB of data to connect to the internet, it amounts to 11,760 pesos, a price that has caused a flurry of indignant comments on the official pages of the company.

Even so, several users have complained about the inability to access new offers, supposedly available since yesterday. Many even associate it with the possibility that Etecsa, in a rapture of lucidity, has decided to “rectify its error.”

*Translator’s note: The “azo” ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’’magnifier.’ ‘Tarif’ is ‘rate’ or ‘price’. Thus, ‘tarifazo’, translates roughly as: “the gigantic price increase thing”

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba Rumors of May: A Parade Modified by Artificial Intelligence and a Major National Blackout Is Coming

Putin’s disregard for Díaz-Canel and preparations for a simultaneous US invasion of Cuba and Venezuela.

Some YouTubers believed the May Day images could have been faked. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, 2 June 2025 — When some YouTubers and computer experts saw the images of the May Day parade published by Cubadebate, they ventured a hypothesis: the University of Computer Sciences had retouched the images of the parade and “placed” more people than actually were in the streets and squares of Havana.

To demonstrate this, they reproduced step by step—using digital editing tools and artificial intelligence—how the impression of a crowd could have been created in the photos. This, coupled with the recent fondness of the official press for using AI-created images, raised suspicions about the legitimacy of the parade coverage.

However, official press reports proved that, despite the country’s situation and given that many workers are required, under threat of sanctions, to attend the march, thousands of people did attend May Day, both in Havana and other cities across the country. In fact, in a month of constant blackouts, the regime only granted a brief respite, and it was just before the event.

It is also stated that the average blackout will last from 24 to 48 hours, depending on the circuit and its “strategic” importance for the leaders.

Since then, rumors about power outages have intensified, and many internet users predict a new wave of nationwide shutdowns. It is also claimed that the average blackout will last 24 to 48 hours, depending on the circuit and its “strategic” importance to the authorities.

The extensive itinerary in Spain of Gabriela Fernández, co-host of the propaganda program Con Filo, generated multiple rumors. First, the information circulated that she had “stayed” in Europe, a fact whose denial was the focus of an entire broadcast on the program hosted by Michel Torres Corona, Iroel Sánchez’s ideological heir and one of the regime’s continue reading

informal spokespeople.

Since then, images of the trip have been published, which has been filled with closed-door meetings, censored events, and a frenzied apology campaign by media outlets aligned with Havana.

A great part of the rumors circulating in May describe the deterioration of Cuba’s relations with two of its historic partners, Russia and China. Vladimir Putin’s disregard for Miguel Díaz-Canel during his trip to Moscow has been highlighted, a city the Cuban president left, it is claimed, empty-handed. Others speculate about the signing of an agreement whereby Cubans will be able to pay with pesos when in Russia.

Other rumors claim that the Cuban Army has appealed to Beijing for help regarding the Chinese spy bases the US discovered on the island. It is also claimed that missiles are already installed at these bases, and others installed by Russia are aimed at Florida, a rumor that has become common.

On the island, reports of violence, corruption of cadres, robberies in broad daylight and shortages of supplies continue to be recurrent.

Meanwhile, rumors are circulating again of a simultaneous US invasion of Venezuela and Cuba, to which some military operations—such as the rescue of members of María Corina Machado’s team—are supposedly the prelude.

Reports of violence, corruption among officials, daytime robberies, and shortages of supplies continue to be common on the island. Reference has been made to the existence of a gang in Santiago de Cuba, made up of young men with knives, who “terrorize” those passing between the Trocha and the Carretera del Morro. Some claim that the police have already arrested several of its members.

Another gang, they claim, periodically raids the Cabacú special school in Baracoa to steal supplies and food. In one of their raids, they seriously injured the school’s custodian, the reports add. The same thing happens at a juice company in Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba, where the robberies occur—according to several users—with the complicity of the school’s director.

The rumor of the death of repertoire singer Chocolate in a Florida prison, circulated by the singer himself and his team, met with little success. The report was suspected almost from the start, and within hours, the official “explanation” was released, coinciding with the release of a new album by the musician.

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Despair in Cuba’s Gas Lines After Five Months Without Supply

In Guanabacoa, propane had not been sold for five months / 14ymedio

14ymedio, José Lassa and Mercedes García, Havana / Sancti Spíritus, 2 June 2025 — The arrival of liquefied gas (propane) in the Cuban capital has brought anything but tranquility. It had been three months since many customers could get it, but they were not even concerned: the sale was for those who had been unable to buy since December; that is, for five months.

“There are huge lines, people are almost beating each other up, it’s hell,” said a resident from Boyeros on Sunday. “I got February 14; who knows when it’s my turn, because they are now selling it for December. I have a neighbor who had to leave the line because she says it was infernal. A real fight must have happened.”

In Guanabacoa, the despair was total. The managers were trying to organize a line in front of a population that was desperate for the 199 tanks they had to sell, making it clear that most would leave empty-handed. There, at the point of sale of Fuente and Obispo, chaos was the word that defined the situation.

The organizers read the names of the people who could come and buy and tried to coordinate so that no one would sneak in. The day was marked by discomfort, arguments, screams and an overwhelming heat from which some protected themselves with umbrellas while others tried to shelter from the sun by gluing themselves to nearby buildings.

The Cuban Petroleum Union (Cupet) had announced the start of the sale of propane in the western provinces for this Saturday, through all channels on social networks and the official press. Cupet stated that the process would begin on May 31 and would be carried out daily in an organized manner, delivering a single cylinder per customer to those who couldn’t buy in February.

But organization has been impossible in Havana, although almost half the population (more than 280,000 households) receive gas service through pipelines. These customers are supplied by natural gas coming from the continue reading

plants in Puerto Escondido, Varadero and Boca de Jaruco, all part of Energas, a joint venture managed by Canada’s Sherritt International and Cuba’s state-owned Cupet.

It was unfortunate that on the very same day that the chaotic sale of propane began, the plant at Boca de Jaruco went out of service due to a breakdown in one of the Energas outlet lines, disrupting the flow of the other two. This affected generation and “increased the impact,” according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines in a message on social networks calling for calm and assuring that four turbines had already been recovered.

Protests over the disorganization have multiplied in all the municipalities of the capital. Those who paid 10 pesos on Ticket to secure a digital place in line complain that it isn’t applied. They demand that priority be given to those who have not bought since 2024, something that is not always true, or they claim that corruption among organizers is taking place.

“I call on the managers to organize lines at the points of sale and not leave it in the hands of corrupt coleros* [people paid by others to wait in line for them] and delegates. I hope the police and the army will support me,” shouted one customer.

The sale is limited, for the moment, to one tank of propane / 14ymedio

The situation contrasts with the tranquility in Sancti Spíritus, where calm reigns thanks to a good functioning of the Ticket application. “There have been no lines or fighting, because it is organized by Facebook and other networks,” says a resident of the capital city, where the sale also began on December 31 for the physically disabled, vulnerable and those who had not received it since December. On Sunday, it was reserved for those who paid 10 pesos for the virtual line. “Here everyone knows when it’s their turn. I should get it next week because I have number 33 on Ticket.”

Of the 150 days in the year that they had the propane, on 117 there was none on the island, according to the minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, last Thursday on Miguel Díaz-Canel’s podcast “From the Presidency.” They both admitted that it happened when the ship carrying the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) that is being sold now has arrived but had not been unloaded, because there was no money to pay for it. They stated that the conditions for doing so in advance and the banking problems arising from the US embargo also complicate the operation.

These same problems, they said, are being repeated with a second ship that was “hired and paid,” which makes it foreseeable that the gas shortage will be repeated, with repercussions for the population.

In addition, as Díaz-Canel and De la O Levy notes, the lack of LPG influences the electricity demand, which increases by 200 or 250 megawatts the daily power required. But this is not the only problem. Many people are likely to buy the gas ‘on the left’ (the informal market), either from outsiders or by underestimating the serious consequences that can occur; or they are forced to cook with fire, even having to sacrifice their furniture if they cannot afford the high price of coal.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Environmental Destruction, a Consequence of the Crisis That Is of Little Concern to Cubans

Environmental destruction, a consequence of the crisis that is of little concern to Cubans

Cuba has 71 species of amphibians identified, and 94% are indigenous / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, 1 June 2025 — Jorge has not seen a parakeet since he was 16 years old. Today, at almost twice that age, he could say the same about the tocororo [Cuban Trogon], the cartacuba [Cuban Tody] and other endangered species. The loss of flora and fauna in Cuba has been as dramatic as it has been silent in a country that could boast – thanks to its poor industrialization – of preserving its natural areas in good condition.

This Friday, Cubadebate put a number on the environmental crisis. Among the most serious data is that, of the 36,700 species of animals and plants that have been cataloged in the country, 35% are endangered. In addition, there is a risk that 75 per cent of the known mammal species will disappear. Among those that will survive the extinction are the bats.

Plants bear the greatest losses. Some 580 plant species are critically endangered, as well as 20 species of mushrooms and 16 of amphibians. Six types of sharks that inhabit the Cuban coast are also on the verge of extinction, as well as two classes of mammals, five of reptiles and four of fish and birds.

The situation is alarming, since “Cuba ranks fourth in the world among islands for the richness of its flora, and first for the number of species per square kilometer.”

Jorge remembers the shady business dealings with parrots and other tropical birds in the environs of the Hanabanilla reservoir, in his native Villa Clara

The main cause is illegal hunting, according to the official press. Indeed, Jorge remembers the shady business deals with parrots and other tropical continue reading

birds in the environs of the Hanabanilla reservoir, in his native Villa Clara. “Once, in the area of Rio Negro, we saw a parakeet chick, which had apparently been dropped by traffickers. We picked it up, and my cousin raised it.”

With mammals, he explains, the same thing happens. “Before there were people who raised hutías in the yard and had parakeets or other birds in the house. Now that world is very rare.” The statistics are unknown and fragmentary, regrets Cubadebate, which, by way of example, says that in only one month of 2021, bird theft was reported in 98 municipalities of Cuba.

In addition to hunting, “extensive agriculture, mining, deforestation and pollution” have led to habitat loss in Cuba.

Cuba is a signatory to all the conventions published by the United Nations on the protection of natural diversity, but it’s another matter for them to comply. In everyday life the Cuban has an almost non-existent environmental culture. He does not have the means to recycle, and the huge trash dumps in the cities say everything about the state’s neglect of hygiene.

Measures against hunting, buying and selling of species has never been a priority problem for the Ministry of the Interior, whose squalid corps of rangers can do little against the bird and crocodile thieves at critical points, like the Zapata Swamp or the Northern Keys.

Cubadebate claims that the loss of biodiversity in Cuba is part of a global phenomenon

Cubadebate claims that the loss of biodiversity in Cuba is part of a global phenomenon. The island is, together with Haiti and the Dominican Republic (Hispaniola), a point of high concentration of biodiversity, where 40% of the species are endemic, so their loss constitutes an irreparable damage.

On May 26, at a meeting of Cuban botanists in Havana, scientists warned that much of the biodiversity of Cuba’s flora remains to be discovered. In 20 years, only 152 new species have been identified.

As for amphibians, whose great variety made Cuba famous in the scientific world, there are 71 species identified, of which 94% are indigenous, a phenomenon only surpassed by Hispaniola. For Cuba, 70% of the island’s amphibians are at some degree of extinction.

Another disturbing fact, although it does not have to do with biodiversity, is the lack of urgency that Cubans feel about the loss. At the bottom of the Cubadebate article, and despite the harshness of the figures, there was only one comment from the readers.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Rum Industry Is in Crisis Due to Lack of Sugar

An operator checks a bottle from the production line at the Havana Club rum factory / EFE / Alejandro Ernesto

14ymedio, Madrid, June 2, 2025 — The sugar debacle in Cuba threatens to bring down with it one the few remaining exportable products that remains: rum. Not even a month ago, the official press itself was putting forward the worst portents, talking about the state-owned company Derivados de Amancio in Las Tunas. “The current crisis of the Cuban sugar industry hit them very hard, since the drop in the production of molasses deprived them of an essential input for the manufacture of alcohols and consequently of rum, two products with which they have gained prestige inside and outside the country,” said an article published on May 13 in Periódico 26.

Now, it is a foreign newspaper, The Guardian, that has revealed the extent of the crisis, which, it says, “would have shaken Ernest Hemingway”: “The Cuban communist government has difficulty processing enough sugar to make rum for his beloved mojitos and daiquiris.”

According to the British newspaper, an industry executive who asked for anonymity said “there will be no alcohol” in the fourth quarter of the year, which will be “particularly difficult.” The foreign companies that have formed an alliance with the Cuban government for the production of alcohol – the British Diageo, the Norwegian Island Rum Company and the French Pernod Ricard and LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) – will not be spared says the extensive report published last Friday, though they “have invested heavily in their respective brands”: Ron Santiago, Black Tears, Havana Club and Eminente.

Cuban rum producers cannot import because “the regulations state that all liquids must come from the island”

Luxury firms, the same source claims, are concerned. The text of The Guardian notes that Cuba, in a generalized economic crisis, has had to import sugar in recent years for the population’s consumption. However, says the executive, the rum producers cannot import because “the regulations state that all liquids must come from the island.” continue reading

The British newspaper describes the atmosphere at the Enrique Varona sugar mill in Ciego de Ávila on a recent visit: “The workers looked exhausted while turning a heavy piece of metal in the hope of keeping the large mill running.” Then they contrast it with the distillery of Pernod Ricard, south of Havana, which is “modern and elegant.”

The French beverage company was the first of the large foreign companies to arrive, recaps The Guardian, after signing an agreement with the state-owned Cuba Ron Corporation in 1993. “In exchange for an agreement not to allow entry of other competitors for 20 years, it acquired the brand Havana Club, increasing sales from 300,000 boxes to more than four million,” reports the newspaper. Luca Cesarano, former president of Ron Santiago S.A., the joint venture created between the British company Diageo and Cuba Ron to produce Ron Santiago, a competitor of Havana Club, declared: “They made a great investment at a time when nobody dared to invest in Cuba.”

Diageo arrived on the island in 2013, when he signed an agreement with Pernod Ricard. Unlike the French firm, explains the Guardian, the British one did not have its own distillery, but employed rum masters to make the drinks in the state distilleries.

The sugar harvest of 2025 is coming to an end these days, and the information published in official newspapers makes us fear the worst

“They also used historical rum collections that the masters had been storing in oak barrels for years all over the country, even as the cellar roofs were filled with holes,” says the report. Thus, “high-end products” – such as LVMH’s Eminente rum or Black Tears from the Norwegian Island Rum Company (which is named after the Lagrimas negras bolero) – have “boosted the international resurgence of rum.” With the shortage of molasses, concludes The Guardian, “all this work is threatened.”

The 2025 sugar harvest is coming to an end these days, and the information published in official newspapers makes us fear for the worst. Of the 56 sugar mills in the country, only 13 are operational, according to a recent report by Azcuba, and only six of them mill cane for sugar production. The rest is devoted to the production of molasses, just to make brandy.

In Sancti Spíritus, the authorities welcomed the fact that the only mill in operation in the territory, the Melanio Hernández, fulfilled the “sugar production plan corresponding to the present harvest, this April 30,” but a very different panorama is offered by the province of Granma. There, reported La Demajagua, just a few days ago, the Governing Council addressed in a meeting the “alarming situation of the sugar sector in the province, marked by a critical failure to comply with the established program and the approach of the hurricane season.”

Granma province produced 5,262 tons of sugar out of the more than 19,000 tons planned; that is, only 26% of what was predicted, “due to lack of fuel and industrial breakdowns.” There was also the loss of almost 150 million pesos from “fires in unharvested fields, loss of fields by invasions of weeds and non-payment to workers in several cooperatives and companies.”

It remains to be seen when the data of the present harvest will be known in the country. Last year’s was jealously guarded by the Cuban government for months and months. Finally, well into 2025, the former Minister of Economy José Luis Rodríguez let it escape in a text published by the official press: the 2023-2024 harvest totaled only 160,000 tons of sugar, an unusual figure.

The island’s once-star product, which reached 8.5 million tons in the 1980s, had fallen dramatically in 2022-2023, when 350,000 tons of sugar were achieved. That figure, which was already the worst harvest in a century, was more than double that of the most recent harvest.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Serious Crash in Mayarí, Cuba, Leaves Five Young People Injured, Two Critically

Drivers and passengers point to structural factors as indirect causes of crashes in Cuba / Facebook.

14ymedio, Havana, June 2, 2025 — Five young people between the ages of 18 and 34 were injured this Sunday in a traffic accident in the municipality of Mayarí, province of Holguín.

The crash took place around 6:30 pm at the Yaya Uno descent, in the vicinity of the community of Guanina. According to preliminary reports, the vehicle in which they were traveling, a black private car, veered off the road, for reasons that are still under investigation. All occupants were injured.

According to a post on Facebook by the official journalist Emilio Rodríguez Pupo, the car was going from Mayarí in the direction of Guanina when the crash occurred. The National Revolutionary Police (PNR) is in charge of investigations to determine what caused the crash.

Two of the youths remain in critical condition

The management of the Martyrs de Mayarí hospital reported that two of the youths remain in critical condition: Anyelo Antonio López Beltrán, 20, and Abdiel Alejandro Campos Céspedes, 18.

Two others have serious injuries. Ariel Sánchez Batista, also 20 years old, suffered a traumatic brain injury and was transferred to a hospital in the continue reading

city of Holguín. The fourth injured, 34-year-old Yulio Quiala Sánchez, was also reported to be in serious condition.

The fifth injured, 18-year-old Odel Emilio Magaña Chacón (known as “Chopo”) remains under medical observation

The municipal director of public health, Anika Lao Texidó, confirmed that three ambulances were activated for emergency transfers, and a specialized vehicle was mobilized to reinforce logistical support.

The number of fatalities in Cuba has increased, with drivers representing the most affected group

This crash adds to a worrying national trend. In the first four months of 2025, 2,377 traffic crashes were recorded in Cuba, a decrease of about 150 incidents compared to the same period last year. However, the number of fatalities increased, with drivers representing the most affected group.

Official statistics indicate that young people between 21 and 25 years of age, as well as those over 70, account for the largest number of crashes and victims. Monday and Wednesday are the days with the highest number of crashes, while Sunday and Tuesday are the deadliest. The most critical time is between 3:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon.

The most critical time is between 3:00 and 6:00 pm

According to the National Road Safety Commission, 91 per cent of crashes are due to human factors. The main causes identified are lack of attention when driving, failure to respect the right-of-way and speeding.

However, drivers and passengers point to structural factors as indirect causes of the problem: the deplorable condition of roads with potholes; dips and lack of signage; and an aging fleet with thousands of vehicles circulating with improvised parts, home-made adaptations and forced repairs due to chronic shortages of spare parts.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Mexican ‘Coyote’ Is Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Transporting 14 Cubans

Edgar “N” appealed to a summary trial to avoid a heavier sentence and pay a $78,000 fine.

The National Institute of Migration moved the Cubans to a farm in the state of Puebla / INM

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, June 2, 2025 — Mexican smuggler (“coyote”) Edgar “N” had an abbreviated trial to reduce his sentence for the crime of “human trafficking” that he was charged with last Friday. For the transfer of 14 migrants of Cuban origin and 10 migrants from India, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of 648,375 Mexican pesos ($33,730),” said an official from the Puebla State Attorney General’s Office who requested anonymity.

The coyote avoided “under this legal ploy a sentence of 18 years in prison and the payment of almost 1,500,000 pesos ($78,000),” regretted the same source. “It may seem illogical to us, but there are cases like this, where a judge considered human trafficking a misdemeanor. There are loopholes in the law; it must be accepted.”

The evidence provided by the authorities indicates that Edgar “N” contacted the “14 Cubans through messages and agreed to transfer them in a van” for $2,500 per person. The migrants were handed over by a truck driver after crossing a military checkpoint on the road. “Unfortunately one of the Cubans told the officers that he had a photo of the deposit he had made continue reading

through Western Union but later backed out as a witness,” said the official.

Edgar “N” contacted the “14 Cubans through messages and agreed to transfer them in a van” for $2,500 per person

The van with the migrants was intercepted by the National Guard at kilometer 112 of the Mexico-to-Puebla highway, in the municipality of Coronango. The coyote said they were part of “a group of tourists and that they were supposed to be in Mexico City.”

However, “they did not present their documents,” and the driver eventually acknowledged that they were migrants. He was paid 5,000 pesos ($260), which would be given to him upon arrival in the State of Mexico. “The whole story changed after he was put in a holding cell and asked for a lawyer. At that point he changed his mind and requested a summary trial,” the same source said.

The migrants were handed over to the National Institute of Migration, and, according to the authorities, they were transferred to the headquarters in Puebla.

“The state is a forced crossing point for migrants, but the flow has decreased considerably. Since two years ago, the shelters installed in the La Asunción and San Juan de los Lagos parishes stopped receiving mass arrivals of people who came to sleep, rest for two or three days and continue on their way.”

Also, “the movement of migrants hidden in trucks and vans was reduced, and a time came when motorcycles were used to avoid detection.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Enraged by the Telecommunication Monopoly Etecsa’s ‘Tarifazo’

Thanks to connectivity, Cubans feel like citizens of the world

No one has been unaware of the impact on wallets of the reduction and increase in web browsing gigabyte (GB) prices in local currency. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 3 June 2025 – Cuba hasn’t felt this much popular outrage since the economic shock at the beginning of 2021 that buried the convertible peso, sent food costs through the roof, and plunged wages. Now, with internet connection prices rising as of last Friday, social outrage has erupted again, this time against the state-owned telecommunications monopoly Etecsa. In a country already starved for food due to prolonged blackouts, making the escape represented by connecting to social media more expensive has been too much for people to bear.

The discontent is not limited by age or economic class. Complaining are teenagers, digital natives, who find social contact in WhatsApp groups, which is so difficult for them on nights without electricity and overpriced recreational venues. Anger is knocking on the door of university students, who are forced to consult most of their bibliography online, given the decrepitude of school library archives. The unease extends to working-age adults, who, through remote work, have found a way to contribute to their diminished family coffers and also to apply for scholarships, courses, or visas to leave the island. Retirees have also expressed their discomfort, as many of them are forced to maintain contact with their emigrated children and grandchildren through weekly video conferences.

Retirees have also expressed their discomfort, many of whom are forced to maintain contact with their emigrated children and grandchildren through weekly video conferences.

No one has been blind to the impact on Cuban wallets of the reductions in service and increases in web browsing rates per gigabyte (GB) in national currency. Neither the explanations from Etecsa officials nor the calls for understanding the infrastructure crisis facing the state monopoly have served to silence the critics. The company is among Cubans’ most poorly continue reading

rated entities, a sad privilege it shares with the Electricity Union, State Security, and the Ministries of Transportation and Domestic Trade. Just mention the six letters of the telephone company’s name and its customers’ faces transform into grimaces of disgust and rejection.

The official explanation for increasing the price of per gigabyte by 1,229%, or, in other words, multiplying it by 13, lies in the need to raise foreign currency to invest in the country’s disastrous telecommunications infrastructure. By favoring top-ups paid for abroad, the state monopoly seeks to raise dollars that will allow it to buy cables, new telecommunications towers, and backup batteries to maintain service when the power goes out. The argument might have worked a few years ago, but Cubans have grown weary of their depreciated currency, of the privileges accorded to those with those greenbacks bearing the faces of Washington or Lincoln, and of a state that increasingly ignores those who only have access to the national peso.

“Soon they’ll be putting a portion of the electricity bill to be paid by the exiles from abroad,” reads the caption of one of the many Etecsa posts on Facebook that have sparked thousands of comments, most of them rejecting what has already been popularly dubbed the tarifazo*. “All this has happened because the money raised hasn’t been invested in telephone service, but in repression,” warns another internet user, who complains that in his small town in the province of Pinar del Río, he has to climb onto his roof in the early hours of the morning to get a precarious internet connection. “New cars for the police, but few resources to improve the connection,” he added with annoyance.

“New cars for the police but few resources to improve the connection,” he added with annoyance.

A distant observer of the Cuban situation would soon wonder why the rise in internet access prices has managed to mobilize citizens in a way that prolonged power outages and paltry salaries have not. In a country where official propaganda remains suffocating and the regime tries to control every aspect of daily life, access to the web has become a balm and a way to escape the daily crisis. Thanks to connectivity, Cubans feel like citizens of the world. Social media is that window that lets them know that there is something beyond the empty markets and the surveillance of the political police. It helps them to believe that there is hope.

On 11 July 2021, a few months after the Ordering Task was decreed, the island’s streets were filled with thousands of people shouting “Freedom!” We must be attentive to the reaction, in the short-term, of Etecsa’s current whim, which is already generating so much indignation.

*Translator’s note: The “azo” ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’magnifier’, in this case, roughly: “the gigantic price increase thing”

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on DW and is republished with the author’s license.

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Recent Weeks Have Not Been Good for Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and the Future Looks Bad for His Regime

Chevron’s license expired Tuesday as planned, although the company will continue to maintain Venezuelan refineries.

As Venezuelan oil production disintegrates, other neighboring countries begin to stand out / EFE

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 31 May 2025 — At the beginning of May, Nicolás Maduro flew to Moscow, where Bashar al-Assad, the deposed Syrian satrap and his wife have been residing for months.

The details of Maduro’s talks with Vladimir Putin have not been revealed, but it is to be assumed that, in view of the serious situation in Venezuela, the alliance between the two dictators was part of the agenda. Venezuela and Syria are very different countries in different parts of the world, but the truth is that when the critical moment came, neither the Russian naval base at Tartus nor the alliance with Russia could prevent the overthrow of Assad.

A week ago, several media reported that the Trump administration would extend the license to Chevron to operate in Venezuela that had been approved by President Biden. For Maduro it was good news because of the millions of dollars it meant at a time when Caracas is facing difficulties. But it was not to be.

The US government is composed of three independent branches: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. In the House of Representatives, a law of extreme importance to President Trump was being discussed, and several Cuban-American Republican members of Congress pressed for the non-extension of the license that was so important to the Venezuelan dictator. continue reading

The law was approved by 215 votes with the support of the Cuban-American members of Congress. The license to Chevron expired on Tuesday, as scheduled, although Chevron will continue to service Venezuelan refineries; but the US administration plans to impose high tariffs on countries that buy Venezuelan oil in the future. Things look bad for Maduro.

What happened offers a perhaps little-known insight into the functioning of American democracy: in mid-May, El Nuevo Herald reported on a 60-day extension that was to allow Chevron’s operations in Venezuela. The president of the oil company, Mike Wirth, warned in an interview with Fox Business that, if the license is not renewed, China and Russia could fill the void left by the US company, which would represent a strategic loss for the
United States.

Wirth did not comment on the benefits that this operation could represent for the government of Nicolás Maduro

However, Wirth did not comment on the benefits that this operation could represent for the government of Nicolás Maduro, nor on the situation of human rights in Venezuela or the national interest of the US in the matter. Probably he is not familiar with the popular saying that warns that “capitalists will sell the rope that hangs them.” Cuban and Venezuelan communities in south Florida expressed concern about this possibility.

A few days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio settled the controversy by announcing on his X account: “Biden’s pro-Maduro oil license in Venezuela will expire as scheduled next Tuesday, May 27.”

The decision was not favorable for Maduro nor for his ally Miguel Díaz-Canel in Havana, especially if President Trump, as reported, increases tariffs by 25% on countries that buy Venezuelan oil.

To understand why Chevron’s license has become a strategic issue, it is useful to review recent history.

At the end of the 1990s, Venezuela produced more than three million barrels per day, consolidating itself as an energy power. However, after years of expropriations, erratic decisions and a state-run oil industry turned into political booty, production plummeted.

When Hugo Chávez died in 2013, oil production was already showing signs of deterioration.

With Nicolás Maduro, the fall was even more severe: in 2023, the average production was just 783,000 barrels per day. Although it rebounded to 921,000 in 2024, the country is still far from the almost three million that it pumped at its best times, according to OPEC figures.

In this context, the presence of Chevron in Venezuela ceased to be merely economic and acquired a political nuance.

Its permanence offered the regime a minimum of international legitimacy and, above all, a source of foreign exchange that was difficult to obtain by other means.

It is not surprising, then, that Chevron’s possible departure would cause anxiety among those who depend on this operation to keep the state apparatus afloat, at least symbolically.

As Venezuelan production disintegrates, other neighboring countries begin to stand out. One of them is Guyana, whose Atlantic coast has revealed important oil deposits. Companies like ExxonMobil have already started exploiting them, sparking the interest and annoyance of the Venezuelan government.

Caracas insists on claiming Essequibo, a region that appears on its official maps as part of the national territory, despite the fact that the international community recognizes Guyanese sovereignty. It is no coincidence that in 2023, tensions increased when Venezuelan troops were seen near the border.

Response from Georgetown was immediate, with calls to the international community.

Washington backed Guyana with clear statements, reaffirming its commitment to regional stability.

All this is happening while Maduro is losing space.

The non-renewal of Chevron’s license, the pressure on Venezuelan oil buyers and the support for neighboring countries with stable governments and clear rules suggest a new stage. And in it, the margins to sustain an exhausted model are narrowed, with or without rope in between.

Washington backed Guyana with clear statements, reaffirming its commitment to regional stability

Meanwhile, in Cuba the blackouts continue, and the European oil companies that invested millions of dollars in search of the Cuban black gold unfortunately did not find it.

It is difficult to understand the priorities of President Díaz-Canel’s government, which has allowed the lack of maintenance and deterioration of the Cuban oil industry. There is no other country in Latin America with the continuous blackouts suffered by Cubans. Let us hope that in the future, as we have seen in Washington, the Assembly of People’s Power will not approve millions of dollars for the construction of hotels for foreigners, where there is never a lack of electricity, and will focus instead on the maintenance and repair of the country’s electrical system.

Frank Calzon is a Cuban political scientist and human rights activist.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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María Corina Machado Says That Maduro ‘Is on the Ropes’ After the Last Elections in Venezuela

In a column published in the Argentine newspaper ’La Nación’, the opponent described the event as “an orchestrated farce”

Stock photo of Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado / EFE/ Ronald Peña R

EFE (via 14ymedio), Caracas, 2 June 2025 — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Sunday that the government of Nicolás Maduro “is up against the ropes” and suffered a new political defeat as there was a large abstention in the elections called for on 25 May, ahead of schedule, to renew the National Assembly and the regional governments.

In a column published in the Argentine newspaper La Nación, Machado described the event as “an orchestrated farce” to try to “turn the page on the humiliating defeat he received in the presidential elections of July 28, 2024.”

According to Machado, more than 85 per cent of citizens refused to participate despite threats of retaliation for not voting.

“What happened on May 25 was an act of massive, militant, conscious and courageous disobedience, one of the greatest in our history,”said Machado. She pointed out that this abstention is a reaffirmation of the sovereign mandate that was expressed in last year’s presidential election when Maduro was defeated, 70-30, in favor of the opposition. continue reading

“What happened on May 25 was an act of massive, militant, conscious and courageous disobedience, one of the greatest in our history”

Machado said that the regime has resorted to repressive measures to try to curb the rise of the opposition, including forced disappearances, torture and killings.

“More than 2,000 people have been subjected to forced disappearances and torture; more than 30 have been killed,” she said. She added that “the president-elect, Edmundo González, was forced to leave the country because of risk to his personal integrity.”

The opposition leader also targeted the National Electoral Council (CNE), accusing it of not having submitted the results or the minutes of the May 25 process. “In ’elections’ like these, the votes are the least of it; they aren’t counted,” she maintained.

For Machado, this day marks the fourth major victory of the Venezuelan democratic movement, along with the primary elections on October 22, 2023, the presidential elections on July 28, 2024, and the so-called “Operation Guacamaya,” in which she says hostages were released from the Argentine embassy.

“We’re at 4-0 and going into the final round,” she wrote in a defiant tone. She also highlighted the growing isolation of Maduro and the impact of international measures.

“Never as today have all the vectors in favor of the democratic transition in Venezuela been so aligned,” she said, warning that the only resource Maduro has left to stay in power is violence.

“Disobeying, resisting pressure and not going along with this farce is an immense demonstration of the courage and intelligence of the people of Venezuela”

“Disobeying, resisting pressure and not going along with this farce is an immense demonstration of the courage and intelligence of the people of Venezuela,” she affirmed.

According to the CNE, 42.63 per cent of all voters took part in the May 25 elections. Some 21.4 million citizens were called to participate in this process, and 15,736 polling stations were set up throughout the territory.

However, the anti-Chavista leader María Corina Machado said last Sunday that more than 85% of the people did not vote, and, in a video released on X, she called on the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to “open the way to transition, with order and security,” fulfilling their constitutional duty” and being “guarantors of the people’s sovereignty.”

Machado rejected the call for voting from the beginning, after denouncing the fraud in the presidential elections of July 28 last year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Despite the ‘Tarifazo’* Etecsa Maintains Poor Telecommunications Service in Cuba

“The worst thing is the internet connection, although the calls are also of poor quality and hard to hear”

The under-25 group is among the most affected by the measure announced last Friday by Etecsa / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, June 2, 2025 — A single line at the top of her phone tells Mariana that she has very little coverage. Although she is outside and in a central location, the call has been cut off twice, and the voice on the other side of the line seems to come from inside a cave. Despite the new price increases announced by the state monopoly Etecsa, telecommunications are going from bad to worse in the city of Matanzas.

“They can’t provide an efficient service,” the woman, who lives in Reparto Iglesias, told 14ymedio. “The worst thing is the internet connection, although the calls are also of poor quality and hard to hear. They are cut off or simply can’t communicate with another number,” she says, listing the problems that Cubans must overcome every day to contact family and friends.

With blackouts lasting up to 20 hours a day, making calls has become an ordeal due to the lack of power backup from most telecommunications towers installed in the city. ” I change the frequency of my phone to 2G, I go up to the roof of the house, but the most I can do is send an SMS and, if I’m lucky, make a short call,” adds Mariana. Like many of Etecsa’s customers, the woman wonders whether the money raised from the new data packet prices will eventually be used for investments in the monopoly infrastructure. continue reading

“I change the frequency of my phone to 2G, I go up to the roof of the house, but the most I can do is send an SMS and, if I’m lucky, make a short call”

Román Paz Cabrera, head of the commercial department of the territorial division of Etecsa in Matanzas, was categorical in statements to the newspaper Girón about the bad moment that the company is going through. “The equipment we use is high-tech, fully imported and rapidly obsolete. Communications are affected in the country, many of them related to the electro-energy situation, because radio base stations are shut down because they do not have the necessary backup, and this affects mobile telephones.”

“I didn’t even know about the price increase, I realized when I tried to check my balance and a message arrived saying that the service was not available,” laments one young man who is among the 560,000 customers who have mobile service in the province. “I am very concerned because I need internet for almost everything, to consult the books that I’m sent to review at university, for video games and to watch movies or series.”

The young man believes that Cubans under 25 are one of the groups most affected by the measure announced last Friday by Etecsa. “Most of my friends still depend on their parents to pay for data packages, because they are studying and do not earn money.” With rising prices, “many families will no longer be able to afford to give their children access to literature or entertainment.”

Despite not being digital natives and the challenges that the use of new technologies implies, the price increase has fallen on the elderly like a jug of cold water. With an aging population due to low birth rates and the exodus of younger people, older people often rely on web connectivity to maintain a link with their children and grandchildren who have emigrated. With a monthly pension of 2,500 pesos, Ernesto, 78 years old and living in the neighborhood of Versalles, has been doing his homework since last Friday. “From now on I will only send text messages by WhatsApp,” he explains to this newspaper. If he maintains the video conferences that bring him several times a week to his daughter’s home in Hialeah, the costs would be too high, and he would not be able to afford that link that gives him “the strength to get out of bed every day.”

If he wants to have video conferences that bring him several times a week to his daughter’s home in Hialeah, the costs would be too high

For local entrepreneurs, the new costs are a real challenge. In Liberty park, Luis managed this Sunday to distribute a list on WhatsApp with offers from appliances to baby clothes. The informal trade network is increasingly using instant messaging tools to offer its products and services. “There are customers who ask me to send more photos of the goods or make a video to see how something works, but with these internet prices I find it difficult.”

In a nearby coffee shop, the employee stretches up her arm to try to improve the signal that reaches her mobile phone. The gesture has some despair because on the counter, a chocolate and vanilla cake is waiting to be moved to a birthday party, but the message with the delivery address has not arrived on the phone. “It’s bad for a business that depends on Etecsa,” concludes the woman who, after several attempts, manages to obtain the information. By the time the messenger is ready to go, the cake is already suffering from the ravages of heat and delay.

*Translator’s note re “Tarifazo.” The “azo” ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’magnifier’, so here, roughly: “the gigantic price increase thing”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Versalles Bridge in Matanzas, Cuba, Is Screaming for Urgent Repairs

“You only have to meet a heavily loaded truck on the way and you can feel it shudder,” says a resident of the city.

The metal structure of the bridge, also known as Lacret Morlot, was cast in the United States. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 31 May 2025 — The Concordia Bridge over the Yumurí River, a link that connects a large part of the city of Matanzas with the Versalles neighborhood, is essential for vehicles and pedestrians traveling in both directions. Complaints on social media about its deterioration have escalated, prompting authorities to take action and announce repairs that have yet to begin and are expected to be superficial.

Under the scorching sun, a high school student walked along the structure this Friday, avoiding the cars traveling across the bridge built in 1878. The yellow tape blocking one of the pedestrian paths forces him to step down onto the roadway with its moving traffic or cross to the other side, where the sidewalk is also in poor condition. “I try to cross quickly because if the driver is distracted, you’ll get a scare,” the teenager, who makes the same trip every day, told 14ymedio.

After images of the structure, damaged by the passage of time and lack of investment, circulated widely online, the newspaper Girón attempted to quell rumors of a possible bridge collapse by announcing a restoration process. Guillermo López-Calleja Pérez, head of the Comprehensive Project Management Department of Empai Matanzas, emphasized that vehicular access would not be affected by the construction, but pedestrian access has been severely reduced, hampering traffic flow.

Photos of its structure, damaged by the passage of time and lack of investment, circulate widely on the internet. / 14ymedio

“Walking on the road is dangerous, as everything from bicycles to buses and trucks constantly circulates,” explains Ileana, a Versalles resident who also uses the road daily. “But if I take the pedestrian crossing, it seems like one of the planks forming the walkway could come loose at any moment,” she says, pointing to the metal structures covering part of the sidewalk, which tremble as soon as she steps on them. continue reading

The metal structure of the bridge, also known as Lacret Morlot, was cast in the United States, while its four cylindrical stone columns are the work of architect Pedro Celestino del Pandal. “It looks like they’ll only be doing a little work on the roadbed and the railings, which are about to fall off,” laments Ileana, who had hoped for a more extensive intervention on this symbol of the city of Matanzas. The saltpeter, combined with the passage of heavy vehicles and the negligence of the authorities, have seriously affected the structure.

“You only have to meet a heavily loaded truck on the route and you can feel it shudder,” the woman explains. “Many trailers loaded with merchandise from the port pass through here,” she notes, a movement of products that was unthinkable in the nineteenth-century when Concordia was founded. From the horse-drawn carriages, fruit carts, and the occasional war artillery, we have moved on to a more industrial use that has left its mark.

Cracks, accumulated rust, dead streetlights, and deteriorating pavement are just the most visible scars. / 14ymedio

Cracks, accumulated rust, dead streetlights, and deteriorating pavement are just the most visible scars of this accumulated damage. Matanzas residents fear that the wounds left by time and neglect may become deeper and more dangerous.

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Cuba’s Foreign Ministry Summons US Chief of Mission Mike Hammer for “Inciting Cuban Citizens To Commit Criminal Acts”

Hammer is accused of using diplomatic immunity “as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country.”

Mike Hammer, head of the U.S. mission in Cuba, in front of the defaced anti-government sign in the Lenin neighborhood of Holguín. / Courtesy/14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 30 May 2025 — The Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Mike Hammer, received a verbal note from the Cuban Foreign Ministry on Friday accusing him of inciting Cubans to commit serious crimes against the state. The diplomat was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his “interventionist and unfriendly behavior,” as the regime describes his extensive schedule of visits to opponents and entrepreneurs.

In statements to Martí Noticias, a U.S. State Department official backed the diplomat’s actions: “Chief of Mission Mike Hammer and the U.S. Embassy proudly represent President Trump implementing an ’America First’ foreign policy and holding the Cuban regime accountable for its malign influence in the Americas.”

“We will continue to meet with Cuban patriots, religious leaders, and those fighting for Cuban freedoms,” the State Department added, emphasizing that the regime’s “corrupt, inept, and failed” policies are causing unrest among Cubans.

Alejandro García del Toro, a diplomat in Washington for several years and now director of bilateral affairs with the US, was in charge of reading Hammer the riot act “once again.” The Foreign Ministry argues that the US representative has violated the Vienna Convention and the Agreement on continue reading

the Restoration of Diplomatic Relations signed between Havana and Washington.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry stated that the conversation was “emphatic” and that Hammer was accused of “inciting Cuban citizens to commit serious criminal acts, attacking the constitutional order or encouraging them to act against the authorities, and demonstrating in support of the interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power.”

García del Toro told the US representative that he could not use diplomatic immunity “as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country” and could not sustain “provocative and irresponsible behavior.”

He also criticized Hammer’s allusions to José Martí, which the Foreign Ministry considers a sign of “public and insulting manipulation.” In a video of his visit to the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba on May 19—the anniversary of the hero’s death in combat—the diplomat referred to Martí as “the Apostle of the homeland.”

Hammer quoted a phrase that the regime finds problematic: “Respect for the freedom and thoughts of others, even those among the most unhappy, is in me fanaticism. If I die or am killed, it will be for that.” The verbal note asserts that the diplomat is unaware, in quoting this thought, of Martí’s “anti-imperialism” and emphasized—with arguments valid in the 19th century, but in no way applicable to the current situation—that the US is a “danger” to the island.

As a kind of symbolic counterattack, García del Toro gave Hammer a copy of Martí’s unfinished letter to Manuel Mercado, cited countless times to justify Fidel Castro’s hostile stance toward Washington.

Since his arrival in Cuba, Hammer has been a stone in the shoe of the Foreign Ministry.

Since his arrival in Cuba, Hammer has been a a stone in the shoe of the Foreign Ministry. Untouchable due to his position, affable in his dealings with the country’s inhabitants—opponents, but also entrepreneurs and all kinds of Cubans—and accurate in his assessments of the crisis on the island, the diplomat’s popularity on the streets is directly proportional to the regime’s animosity.

Last week, Hammer held a press conference in Miami in which he made clear the US position on Cuba and, furthermore, his willingness to support the Cuban people. One of his statements that most resonated in Havana was this: “The Administration is determined to sanction the repressors. There will be consequences for their actions, and I cannot anticipate further measures that will come, but they will come, I can assure you of that.”

Knowing that State Security is following him wherever he goes, he took the situation with humor. “Obviously there’s a lot of traffic; you see Ladas everywhere. If we turn right, they turn right. I don’t like going left, but hey, if we go left, they go with us. They’re constantly filming me.”

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