Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

[Sandokan]

First There Was Email – Translating Cuba

I feel deep gratitude for being able to contribute, from the press, to the construction of a democratic and free society as the first step towards inevitable political change.

Havana Bay captured at dawn from the editorial team of ’14ymedio’ / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, 21 May 2024 — At first it was email. At dawn on the 21st of May 2014, when the first cover of 14ymedio was published, most of the content that could be read on this digital site had traveled through email. Now, accustomed to having a web browsing service on our mobile phones, and despite the poor quality of the connection, it is difficult to remember how a newspaper was made without being able to connect directly to the Internet. But that is how it all started.

During the months and years following that birth, the alarm clock in our house was always set for three in the morning. At that time, through Nauta’s mailbox, we received the first articles published each day in the official press, the technical and editorial support of our team in Madrid and the headlines from numerous sites that, through RSS [Really Simple Syndication], gave us a vision of which topics and news was going to mark the beginning of the editorial day.

Even for those of us who had created blogs practically offline and posted blindly on Twitter, updating and nurturing this journal was an extremely complicated and exhausting challenge. We had, of course, the compensation of the words of encouragement from the readers, the gradual growth of the audience, the mentions and links to our work in the pages of other media, the enthusiasm of the reporters on the street and the usual insults from Cuban oficialdom, which blocked our website from the first moment.
Click link above for full article.

Congratulation to Yoani and the 14ymedio collective for the courage to keep this window open to the reality of Cuba for many years, so that the rest of the world is aware of the fearful lives of Cuban people. “Over the course of the next 10 years, I hope that the country will have achieved that objective and that 14ymedio will finally be accessible to all Cubans, without interference by the State in the citizens’ right to information.” I hope this will become reality.

 

[Sandokan]

Graduate in Journalism in Cuba? No, Thanks – Translating Cuba

The imposition of military service for young women who want to study the degree reduces the number of students

Journalism students from the University of Havana, on a recent visit to the official newspaper ‘Granma’ / Granma
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 25 June 2024 — It was once a career competed for by students with the best grades, but in recent years its enrollment has been plummeting. Entering University to study Journalism no longer unleashes the passions of yesteryear and the number of potential graduates has decreased significantly. In the most recent 2nd National Plenary Session of the Union of Journalists of Cuba, the despair of the directors of the official press due to the lack of relief was the star of part of the meeting.

The decrease in the number of students, which had begun to be noticed some time ago, has become more pronounced after Active Military Service (SMA) was established as a mandatory requirement for girls who choose to study this specialty from academic year 2024-2025. For the dean of the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana, Ariel Terrero, the implementation of this condition is “a failure” and he questions whether the SMA serves to “educate and ideologically train these young women.”
Click link above for full article.

The imposition of military service for young women, have the effect of a decrease in the number of students. The result of this imposition has the opposite effect of what the regime was expecting. The decrease has been started some time ego. Some of those who graduate from previous years end up emigrating or switching to independent journalism.

 

[Sandokan]

There is a noticeable difference between the independent journalists that practice the type of journalism they want to do and those who graduated that work in official media controlled by the communist regime where they are not able to do it. They have to toe the line.

 

[Hamish Howl]

I see this is another thread of @Sandokan posting to himself.

 

[Sandokan]

Three Years Later, What Has Become of the Repressors of 11J? – Translating Cuba

The change that has taken place in thousands of people has been so profound and rapid that, in other circumstances, it would have taken several decades.
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 11 July 2024 — Three years have passed since the historic protests that shook the Cuban streets on 11 July 2021, but it seems like more time has passed. The change that has taken place in thousands of people on this island has been so profound and rapid that, in other circumstances, several decades would have been needed to achieve a similar effect. If the transformation experienced by the protesters, their families and, especially, those imprisoned for that day has been rapid and significant, a metamorphosis has also taken place among the ranks of the repressors.

Angela was 76 years old on 11J and, when she heard the first echoes of the demonstrations, she wanted to go out with a stick and confront the young people who were shouting their discontent in the streets of the city of Camagüey. A member of the Communist Party, a staunch follower of every official campaign that shaped her life – from volunteer work to missions abroad – she felt absolute contempt for those “ungrateful kids” who wanted to “overthrow the Revolution.”
Click link above for full article.

From Internet cuts, fines and beating to threats of losing the custody of the children or sentences of 15 years in jail, here is what awaits in Cuba to those who dares to claim food, electricity, medicines or any other basic good to lead a dignified life. Yoani is right, those things have affected the ranks of the repressors too, and another July 11, 2021 protest is approaching and them will side with the protestors.

 

[Sandokan]

Voting With Our Feet, Emigration as a Gesture of Rejection of the Cuban Model – Translating Cuba

By the end of the 21st century, there will be nearly half as many people in Cuba as now.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 July 2024 — They could not hide it any longer. The almost empty streets on weekends, the classrooms that are running out of students and the packed airport lounges spoke for themselves. Last week the National Assembly had to recognize what we all knew: the resident population on the Island does not exceed 10 million people, a drop of 10.1% compared to the residents in 2020.

The number could be even more alarming given that many of those who have emigrated in recent months are still considered residents of the country. The age and professional training of those leaving also represents a hard blow to the Island’s aging and professionally devalued labor force. In the main sectors there is a lack of engineers, doctors, teachers and specialists, who cannot be replaced in the short or medium term.

It is ever more common to go to a hospital and find out that the surgeon has emigrated under the Humanitarian Parole Program that the United States implemented since the beginning of last year, or to learn first-hand about the number of vacant positions in the Cuban Electric Union because many of its technicians have become naturalized Spaniards through that country’s Democratic Memory Law. The same situation is repeated in universities, industries, scientific centers and hotels.
Click link above for full article.

The great numbers of Cubans leaving the island, voting with their feeds as Yoani Sánchez says, is a rejection of Castros’ communist regime. A million people left the island between 2022 and 2023. The low birth rate is also a factor in the population decline. According to the article, “By the end of the 21st century, there will be nearly half as many people in Cuba as now.”

 

[Sandokan]

Where Are They? the Desperate Cry of Those Who Contributed to the Horror and Left – Translating Cuba

Anyone who has to confess some collaboration is better off doing it now, no matter how small it is, keeping it in only causes pain on both sides.

Check-in area of Terminal 3 of Havana’s José Martí International Airport / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 27 July 2024 — It is not about revenge but about sincerity. I see them leaving every day, packing their bags, renouncing their ideology in silence and leaving behind the victims of their extremism, those punished by their ideological supremacy and those killed by their silence. No, it is not revenge, it is justice that they at least say something once they get out of the vicious circle in which they chose to be victimizers. Anyone who has to confess some collaboration is better off doing it now, no matter how small it is, keeping it to themselves only causes pain on both sides.

I have no list of names with whom to settle accounts. The accounts have already been settled by life: we have seen so many die crossing the sea, thousands have fallen due to lack of effective medical care, leaving to say goodbye are many more as a result of the malnutrition that has taken over the homes of this Island and we are hanging by a thread, due to the unhealthiness that hits us from all sides. At this point there are no longer winners or losers, only shadows that wander around.

They have left us their dead and their ghosts, their empty houses, their political shells, their lies that cannot be sustained because there is no one left… or almost no one.
Click link above for full article.

The military had control not only of the population but of the Cuban economy too. Those that have contributed to the control and destruction of the county, have never care about anyone but themselves, just looking for their personal wellbeing, leaving behind the victims of their extremism.

 

[Sandokan]

They Confront Us So That We Do Not Confront them – Translating Cuba

Reinaldo’s cell phone rings: someone is stuck in the elevator during the power cut this Thursday

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 22 August 2024 — There is a sudden silence. It is daytime, so the signs of the blackout do not appear through a lack of lighting but through the absence of sound. A deep emptiness that we all know what it means: the power has gone out. Reinaldo’s cell phone rings. Someone is stuck in the elevator with the power cut this Thursday, when the energy deficit in Cuba reaches 39% of consumption. I see him walking down the hall, with his 77 years on his back, and his enthusiasm of a 20-year-old.

On the Facebook account of the Cuban Electric Union, messages are posted in a cascade. People complain that they cannot sleep because of the heat and the mosquitoes, they tell of towns plunged into darkness and faces with large dark circles under their eyes who can barely perform at work. Along with these complaints, another is repeated: Havana is privileged and does not suffer from the same power cuts as the rest of the country. Regional hatred is stoked and divisions are emerging, even though the person responsible for our disaster is the same one.

It suggests that the residents of the Cuban capital are enjoying the darkness of others, while we enjoy our own illumination. Nothing could be further from the truth. Weeks with scarce water supplies and mountains of garbage with their constant flow of flies and rats have made life in this city an ordeal. The tall buildings, converted into prisons for the elderly, because they cannot bring supplies up or down, add to the deterioration of the entire city infrastructure. What we are experiencing is not a privilege, it is a trap.
Click link above for full article.

Reinaldo, a good human being, demonstrates by example what he preaches. To overcome the great number of serious problems that Cubans faces, they need many like Reinaldo. A senior man and independent journalist, who has been marginalized by the communist regime, and call “worm” for many that have report him to the political police, but when they are in trouble getting stuck in the elevator they ask for his help, there he goes to save them regardless of their ideology.

 

[Sandokan]

As Yoani says, “Those who, incapable of managing a country…. Setting us up to fight each other is a strategy that has been effective in the past. They threw us into a fight by region, by political colors and by economic levels to prevent us from facing up to them from a civil perspective. They confront us so that we do not confront them.” Excellent point of view by Yoani that covey her experience to the reader.

 

[Sandokan]

Lack of Security and a Health Crisis, New Reasons for Cuban Emigration – Translating Cuba

They are not driven by the desire for economic improvement, because they have lived for years in the bubble of receiving remittances in foreign currency

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 7 September 2024 — She decided to pack her bags in less than 24 hours. It was a Tuesday. Gladys had gone out with a friend and left her house “as always, tightly locked.” When she returned, the door of the apartment on Ayestarán Street in the municipality of Cerro had been forced and the television, a cordless phone, some food in the refrigerator and other personal belongings had disappeared. “That same day I called my son in Miami and told him to get me the [humanitarian] parole,” she recalls.

After several weeks of police investigation, the pensioner has lost hope that the thieves will be caught and has had to ask a niece to stay overnight with her. “I’m afraid to be at home, that had never happened to me before, but now when I’m alone I even get palpitations. You can’t live like this.” The insecurity that is spreading throughout the island has become, in recent years, a new reason for emigrating.
Click link above for full article.

Never before the Cuban people had lived so badly like now under Castros’ communist regime. What has happened to the CDR, the police and the snitches, it seems that no one wants to get into trouble anymore. This have become a new reason for emigration After 65 years of communism everything is lacking in the island. Seems that the end of the regime is near.

 

[Sandokan]

More Than a Terminal Crisis, Cuba Suffers From Multi-Organ Fragility – Translating Cuba

What can a patient who suffers from all possible diseases die from?

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aquí, Havana, 22 October 2024 — No foreign power has invaded Cuba in October 2024; there has been no earthquake; no devastating hurricane has crossed the island; there is no civil war nor has an epidemic broken out. Parliament has not declared itself in rebellion, disapproving the laws sent to it by the Government for consideration, the military remains in its barracks, there have been no social explosions like those that occurred in July 2021, nor has there even been a disagreement in the ranks of the Communist Party. No forest fires, no plagues, no tornadoes, but nevertheless, the consensus is growing that the current situation is the unequivocal sign of a terminal crisis.

The “current situation” refers to the collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) which in less than 72 hours has left most of the population in a state of calamity accompanied by the uncertainty of not knowing, or even imagining, how and when solutions will appear.
Click link above for full article.

On October 18, the entire country lost electricity after a major power plant failure, and after restoring it 24 hours later the electric grid collapsed ageing. Due to the chronic power outages, the people manifested their frustration on pot-banging protests. Nothing will change until the people protesting in the streets diced to make a general strike to topple the regime.

 

[Sandokan]

How Much More Can the Situation in Cuba Deteriorate? – Translating Cuba

Castroism has shown that the times of greatest scarcity are not the scenarios that most threaten its power

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 September 2024 — The drip drip drip of bad news for Cubans does not stop. Within just a few days, the authorities announced the reduction in the size of the bread rolls sold in the rationed market; the energy deficit has escalated to a point where blackouts in many provinces exceed 12 hours a day; and the lack of water affects more than a million people throughout the island. Faced with such a scenario, citizens are wondering to what extent the situation could deteriorate in the coming months and what the government is willing to do to stop its fall.

Seen from outside, the crisis that Cubans are experiencing could be seen as the final stretch of a political and economic model that will end up imploding. However, Castroism has shown, over the course of six decades, that the moments of greatest scarcity and desperation are not precisely the scenarios that most threaten its power. The most difficult periods for ordinary people are the times the regime takes advantage of to tighten controls and reinforce its authoritarian discourse. This ideological radicalization can be perceived these days and grows in the same measure as do inflation and despair.
Click link above for full article.

Food rationed, blackouts, lack of water, curtail of the transportation system due to lack fuel, have the country on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. Yoani is right, the crisis experiencing by the Cuban people could end up imploding the regime communist system. The continuation of the current situation would be a suicidal path for the regime.

 

[Sandokan]

A Spoon, a Pair of Boots, and a Small Radio: The Political Prison Through Objects – Translating Cuba

Political prisoners cling to those things that give them warmth, courage and strength to continue living.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 22 October 2024 — A Cuban political prisoner, convicted during the Black Spring of 2003, told me that he had managed to obtain a tiny radio in prison, which he hid among his belongings and with which he could find out what was happening beyond the prison walls. One day, during an exhaustive search by the guards, this precious possession was found and confiscated. The prisoner was punished for having this small device with a beating and several days in solitary confinement.

The objects that prisoners hoard are part of the narrow universe in which they have been confined. If the person is also convicted for his ideas, the things that surround him in prison also become an emotional support and part of his growth as an activist. It is not for nothing that books, correspondence and everything that contains words and information are on the list of things most censored by the jailers. A volume with historical anecdotes, a novel about some faraway place or a compendium of reflections by political leaders helps to cope with loneliness and to mentally escape from the rigors of confinement.
Click link above for full article.

These small personal objects give the political prisoners that are subjected to torture, inhumane conditions and other forms of abuse, the strength to keep living with the hope to be free when the Castroist communist regime collapse.

 

[Sandokan]

When You See a Dictator Fall, Put Your Tyranny on Hold – Translating Cuba

From this part of the world, more than one authoritarian ruler must have nightmares since Al Assad fell.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 13 December 2024 — The big news of the end of the year is, without a doubt, the flight to Moscow of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The collapse of his regime, which opens up a range of possibilities and fears about the political direction that Damascus will take, also refreshes lessons about tyrants that, although well-known, should not cease to be repeated and taken into account. Like a paper tiger, the once fierce leader escaped with his family, left his officials in the lurch and abandoned his army. More than one authoritarian ruler in this part of the world must have had nightmares since then.
Click on the link above for the full article.

"When you see a dictator fall, put your tyranny on hold." The Castroist regime has pulled its diplomats from Siria after rebel carried out an assault on the embassy. Fidel Castro many times praised the friendship with Syria dictatorial regime. Cubans' liberation day is coming.

 

[Sandokan]

Chickens on the Balcony and Pigs in the Bathtub: Cubans Go Back to Raising Their Own Food – Translating Cuba

On Monte Street, the smell of improvised chicken coops spreads through the nearby houses and gives the neighborhood a certain rural touch

Chickens on a balcony on Monte Street, in Havana, this Friday / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 28 December 2024 — Cubans have stopped wondering if this crisis is worse than that of the 1990s. The blackouts, food shortages and lack of fuel for public transport during the Special Period — in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of its subsidies to Cuba — have now been surpassed in duration, severity and limitations. The breeding of animals at home like chickens and pigs for eggs and meat has also returned.
Click link above for full article.

The crisis is worse than the one on the 1990s. Cubans are breeding chickens and pigs for eggs and meat at home. They raise pigs in the bathroom and people can hear and smell it[BC1] . The smell of the chicken coops on the balcony, [BC2] spread through the nearby houses. On top of that, it is very difficult to get food for the animals due to widespread food shortages. People are trapped between a rock and a hard place.

---

[BC1]
[BC2]

 

[Sandokan]

A Sash on His Chest Does Not Make Nicolás Maduro President of Venezuela – Translating Cuba

As a good con man, he believes that this new fallacy will work out well for him and will allow him to remain in power for much longer.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 11 January 2025 — Nicolás Maduro has finalized, this Friday, one of the most notorious cases of presidential hijacking in the recent history of Latin America. The sash on his chest, the swearing-in in front of the president of the National Assembly and the few leaders who attended the investiture ceremony, were part of an elaborate script that the Miraflores Palace designed for the occasion. But pomp is not enough to turn someone into the legitimate ruler of a nation. Citizen votes are the legal path to achieve this and the tenant of the Miraflores Palace does not have them. His new mandate is illegitimate, as much so as is the inauguration he carried out on January 10.
Click link above for full article.

Yoani is right, a sash on his is chest does not make him President of Venezuela. Maduro stole last year election. Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest Maduro illegitimate inauguration carried out on January 10. Maria Corina Machado said, Today Maduro didn’t put the sash on his chest. He put a shackle on his ankle, which will tighten every day.” Many governments around the world have rejected his victory claims,..

 

[Sandokan]

Leaving Prison in Cuba Does Not Mean Being Free – Translating Cuba

“They have left the small prison to enter the big prison,” said an elderly woman on Thursday

Dariel Cruz García, with his mother, Yaquelín Cruz García, this Wednesday, after his release from prison 1580 in Havana. / EFE/ Ernesto Mastrascusa
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 17 January 2025 — In the last few hours, more than thirty Cuban political prisoners have been released. The number is just a small part of the 553 people who will be released from their cells after the agreement between the Havana regime and the Vatican which led to the United States removing the island from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. On this side of the bars, the prisoners are awaited by their families but also by a country where dissent continues to be a crime.
Among those who have left the cells are internationally recognized opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, citizens who only protested peacefully in the streets such as Luis Robles, known as “the young man with the placard,” and very poor people from the Havana neighborhood of La Güinera who on 11 July 2021 (11J) demonstrated demanding change and chanting the word “freedom.” It is expected that in the coming days more locks will be removed, and other dungeons will be opened.
Click link above for full article.

Among those that were released is José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba. According to the article “They have left the small prison to enter the big prison.” The releases are not full freedoms, only a partial measure with serious limitations on rights

 

[Sandokan]

The Havana Regime Swallows Hard Before the New Winds Blowing in Washington – Translating Cuba

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 23 January 2025 — Cuba had been removed from the United States’ list of countries sponsoring terrorism for just six days. This Monday, after Donald Trump took office, the island’s regime was once again on a list that carries serious diplomatic and financial restrictions. Havana has barely had time to react to a see-saw that, in less than a week, has caused official spokespeople to go from declaring victory to cursing Washington.

Every time a new president arrives at the Oval Office, speculation about his role in the downfall of Castroism is high. In Trump’s case, there is a fairly unanimous consensus that his four years in office will be a real time in the wilderness for Miguel Díaz-Canel. In the midst of the greatest economic crisis of this century, the dictatorship finds itself in a state of extreme material fragility. The presence of Marco Rubio, son of Cuban exiles, as Secretary of State will be one of the most bitter pills that the Plaza de la Revolución will have to swallow.
Click link above for full article.

Marco Rubio said the U.S. would once again restrict financial transactions with many Cuban military- and government-linked entities and create the "Cuba Restricted List," which prohibits certain transactions with companies under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of the Cuban military.

 

[Sandokan]

When Havana Was on the Posters for Tours by Great Musicians – Translating Cuba

In the vast circuit of world music venues, Cuba no longer competes. It lacks any material attraction.

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 25 February 2025 — Last Saturday, in Miami, thousands of spectators sang along with Joaquín Sabina’s best-known songs. The city of Florida hosted the concert of the Spanish composer on his farewell tour of the stage. Among the audience were many of those Cuban fans who once enjoyed his performances in Havana. Now, they are migrants in a foreign country and it is unlikely that the author of Hola y adiós will be allowed back into the Island.

In 2022, the Úbeda-born artist made his position clear: “I was a friend of the Cuban revolution and of Fidel Castro. But I am no longer, I cannot be.” Those words cost him a place on a list that the Castro regime constantly updates with artists who have dared to criticize its political model, the character of its leaders or the Communist Party.
Click link above for full article.

Since the 18 century the city of Havana was a must visited destination by prominent artist around the world. Havana was a center for music, dance, literature, and visual arts. Sadly, not any more. Actual great artists have no interest to performed on it, due to political reasons and lack of economic motivation.

 

[Sandokan]

New Total Blackout in Cuba Due to “High Fluctuations in the National Electricity System” – Translating Cuba

This is the first outage of this magnitude so far this year and comes after weeks in which the generation deficit exceeded 1,200 MW.

The ’14ymedio’ newsroom is aware of the magnitude of the power outage affecting the entire city of Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 15 March 2025 — Cuba’s National Electric Power System (SEN) suffered a power outage this Friday night around 8:15 p.m., plunging the country once again into total darkness. According to the official press, the blackout was caused “by a high fluctuation in the system” and “the causes and magnitude of the incident are being investigated.”
Click link for full article.

The regime always finds an excused, if it is not the fault of US, it is due to lack of fuel, or for breaks of one of the thermoelectric plants. These justifications are already burned and a new one is provided “oscillation of the electrical system.” Under the Castroist communist regime Cuba has become a fail state. Basically, the country has collapsed.

 

[Sandokan]

Mario Vargas Llosa and Cuba – Translating Cuba

The scene of a toast and libertarian laughter on the Havana coast will no longer be able to materialize.

Yoani Sánchez and Mario Vargas Llosa, at the Casa de América in Madrid, in 2014. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 14 April 2025 — The last time we spoke was in his native Peru. After sharing the stage and reflecting on literature, authoritarianism in Latin America, and the paths of journalism, Mario Vargas Llosa and I parted, joking about a possible lecture he might offer at the University of Havana. I remember telling him that the Aula Magna would surely be too small, Plaza Cadenas would be filled with young people, and all of La Colina would be packed with Cubans who had read him despite the publishing censorship imposed on his books. But the return to the island never happened.

In 2000, while working on my thesis, Words Under Pressure: The Literature of the Dictatorship in Latin America, I received from the Peruvian the greatest literary gift I could have hoped for. The publication of The Feast of the Goat was not only a delight for the ardent reader of his work I had long since become, but also reinforced the hypothesis of my thesis: literature on the dictatorship has not been exhausted on this continent, as the satraps continue to taint our lands with repression and authoritarianism.
Click link for full article.

Great article by Yoani about the famous Peruvian literary Vargas Llosa, one of the grate Latin American novelists and essayists. In 2010, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Yoani says that Vargas Llosa touch her life and gained two experiences that shaped her life, meeting her husband Reinaldo Escobar, and defending her thesis and graduating as philologist. Years later, when she managed to travel to Spain, she was able to meet Mario, who was generous with his literary advice, and his extensive political knowledge. In 2014, when Yoani newspaper 14ymedio was founded, Mario supported it, knowing the importance of a free press in obtaining a democratic opening in Cuba. On April 13, 2025, Vargas Llosa die. Yoani says she will take her philology degree out of the drawer and return to a profession that Mario helped shape.

 

[Sandokan]

With So Much Trash To Collect in Havana, No Street Sweeper Can Handle It – Translating Cuba
Without gloves and without supplies to carry out his task, he is faced with an inhumane task: saving what is the dirtiest city in Cuba.

A short distance from the “fallen” dump, a grotesque ‘landfill’ continues to challenge passersby and hinder traffic / 14ymedio
In a little while, he’ll be walking again, barely recovered, to continue “in the little fight,” a diminutive that doesn’t soften the mountains he’ll literally encounter in his path. In Key West, Central Havana, a short distance from the “fallen man,” a grotesque landfill continues to challenge passersby and hinder traffic.

It is the Hospital Street dumpster, ironic not only because of the name of the street on which it’s located, but also because of its resistance to any sort of cleanup. What person, armed only with a broom and two buckets, could have dealt with such a prodigious accumulation of paper, shells, bags, excrement, and liquids?

The only ones who dare to launch expeditions to such dumps are the divers, dressed and armed with the same precariousness as the street sweepers, who try to make a virtue out of necessity, or if not a virtue, at least food and raw materials. In exchange for a few kilos, the State will pay the divers—usually elderly or needy—for any useful “treasures” they find. This is the closest it has come to taking any real measure in favor of street hygiene.
Click link for full article.

The official press blame the “blockade”, unbelievable. The amount of uncollected garbage on many streets of the City of Havana is pathetic. This impact public health, creating breeding ground for rodents, mosquitoes, and other insects, which carries diseases. The regime blames the shortage of fuel and garbage collection trucks. Where are the 60 garbage collection trucks donated by Japan around three years ago? This also happen in other cities too. Another achievement of the so -called revolution.

 

[Sandokan]

April Rumors: US Snitch Hunt, Cuban Army Purges – Translating Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2025 — Tensions between Havana and Washington continue to drive the rumor mill about Cuba. Readers, commentators, and conspiracy theorists paint a picturesque picture of the island, in which a reclusive Raúl Castro “is left without an army.” In his political retirement, but still holding the reins of the regime, the veteran general wages a relentless war against Donald Trump, and so, they predict, his death will come.

Beyond the imaginary, it is true that a growing procession of deportees is traveling from the US to Cuba. Rumors give the expulsions an ideological tone, and US authorities are being asked to hunt down informers, former leaders and former members of the Communist Party who managed to establish themselves in Miami in recent months thanks to the Humanitarian Parole program.
Click link for full article.

The figureheads, repressors, collaborators and informers of the regime in the U.S., will be deported back to Cuba. The end of the regime is approaching. There are rumors that Raul Castro has launch a purge of the army, several military officers have already been killed. The end of the regime is approaching due to themselves. The shit is about to hit the fan.

 

[Sandokan]

Summer is Approaching and Discontent Among Cubans is Growing – Translating Cuba

Many families feel they have nothing left to lose because they have hit rock bottom.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 May 2025 — Summer has always been the most feared season of the year for Cuban authorities. In addition to the high temperatures that on the island begin in spring, there are the unpopular power outages and school holidays that strain domestic life. This year, the situation is especially complicated due to the fragility of the national energy system and the fuel shortage, which has extended blackouts to more than 15 hours a day in many parts of the country. July and August are approaching, and social anger is growing.

In recent days, street protests have been reported in Bayamo, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba. In images shared on social media, dozens of people can be heard shouting a direct demand: “We want electricity, we want food.” Engulfed in darkness, some banging pots and pans and others using only their throats, the protesters are merely the vanguard of a popular uprising that some feel is just around the corner. That perception that people are going to take to the streets appears every summer, but this one is different. Many families feel they no longer have anything to lose because they have hit rock bottom.
Click link for full article.

Yoani always see very clear the Cuban reality. People are asking for electricity and food, nothing function, even there is a lack of aspiring. Many families have hit rock bottom, they have nothing to lose. A popular uprising is just around the corner. This worries the regime, since this time will be an uprising, not a protest like on July 11, 2021. Hopefully, Cuba will be free, and democracy will be restored.

 

[Sandokan]

Cubans Enraged by the Telecommunication Monopoly Etecsa’s ‘Tarifazo’ – Translating Cuba

Thanks to connectivity, Cubans feel like citizens of the world

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.
Click link for full article.

Under the Castroist communist regime, there are shortages of food, continuous power outages, problems with the distribution of drinking water, inflation, lack of freedom. Now the price rising in the internet connection that make it very expensive, the people are outraged. Very soon again the people, like in the protest on July 11, 2021, around the island, will be protesting on the streets in great numbers and this time will be very difficult for the regime to put down the protest.