Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Havana Chronicles: The Shipwreck of a Ship Called “Cuba”

On an island that is sinking, the arrival of a Russian oil tanker dominates all conversations in the streets of Havana.

Interior of the abandoned Cuba cinema, on Reina Street, Central Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio,Yoani Sánchez, Havana, March 30, 2026 — “The ship is coming!” a flower vendor on Estancia Street greets me as I pass by his buckets of sunflowers and gladioli. After days of uncertainty, it is now known that the Anatoly Kolodkin has arrived in Cuba with a cargo of 730,000 barrels of oil. The tanker’s arrival has become a topic of conversation on the streets this Monday, in a country where the downpour of bad news hasn’t let up for weeks.

At the traffic light at Boyeros and Tulipán, the energy crisis is more noticeable than in previous days. I cross all the lanes without stopping, while thinking about another occasion when we were waiting for a ship. It was in September 2019, when President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced that we were entering a “juncture” and that we shouldn’t worry too much since an oil tanker was about to arrive. Seven years have passed, and, as a neighbor said, “this doesn’t even have a name anymore.” The ability to assign a bureaucratic label to what we’re experiencing has also been exhausted up there.

Vendors selling items collected from the garbage have scattered their wares on top of the wall of a fountain that hasn’t flowed for years. / 14ymedio

Until yesterday, Cuba seemed like an island perched on an electric tricycle, but today we’ve all climbed onto the bow of the Russian ship that’s coming here. “Do you think they’ll refuel the gas stations?” a friend asks me hopefully. She has a small shop in Alamar where she sells costume jewelry and other imported goods. Last year, this lawyer-turned-shopkeeper and her husband bought a used Volkswagen. “I could only use it for the first three months because the fuel ran out,” she tells me. Since then, the car has been “sleeping the eternal sleep” in the family garage.

For each person, the ship takes the shape of their desires. “It’ll go, and they won’t cut off our electricity so much after it arrives,” I overhear in a doorway on Carlos III Avenue as I venture deeper into Central Havana. Vendors of items salvaged from the trash have scattered their wares on top of the wall of a fountain that hasn’t flowed for years. Are there any working fountains left in Havana? In my long walks, I haven’t seen a single one. This political model seems to have a fight with water and cleanliness.

An ordinary corner with Reina Street, in Central Havana. / 14ymedio

When I was a girl, before leaving the house, my mother would warn us not to use the bathroom or drink water in the street. This strict rule almost gave me a kidney infection, but I eventually came to understand: public restrooms in Cuba are a journey to hell most of the time, and the liquid that comes out of the pipes is best consumed only after being treated or boiled. To this day, I always carry a bottle of water with me to quench my thirst and hold my urine until I get home. The traumas of Castro’s regime last a lifetime.

“Do you think we’ll get any of that oil?” one employee asks another outside a government building, plunged into darkness by the blackout. The response is a grimace of sulking lips and raised eyebrows that sums up the people’s distrust of any official promise of improvement. “Let’s paddle! Let’s see who gets to that boat first,” taunts a cart vendor selling papayas and peppers near the corner of Marqués González.

Everyone wants at least a drop of the combustible brought in by the Anatoly Kolodkin. But skepticism casts a shadow over any celebration. “That oil is all for them; we won’t get a drop,” grumbles an old man in the long line outside a state-run bakery on Reina Street. “Today I’m going to bet big,” says an old woman, her ration book folded in her hands. Anything related to the sea will see a lot of betting these days on the illegal bolita, the lottery. Woe to the bookies if one of those numbers comes up.

Until yesterday it seemed that Cuba was an island perched on an electric tricycle, but today we have all climbed onto the bow of the Russian ship that is coming here.

A few meters from the bakery, the door to the Cuba cinema has been left open. Where the rows of seats once stood, where I used to sit as a child, there is now dust, rust, and the twisted machinery of a makeshift workshop. I can only make out an arch that, on the stage, marked the threshold where fiction began and reality ended. I was captivated by that place, so close to my house, where hardly a month went by without me going to see a movie. Scaffolding blocks my way, right where the lobby used to be .

The ship that the Cuba cinema needed didn’t arrive in time. Part of its structure collapsed, the sewer pipes burst, and one day it closed. Almost all the cinemas of my childhood suffered the same fate: Astor, Negrete, Duplex, and Rex. It wasn’t during this particular crisis. It happened with the previous one, or the one before that. I don’t remember exactly because we’ve spent decades lurching from one crisis to another, a long sequence of setbacks and collapses.

I approach the Aldama Palace. Several street vendors offer me medicine. One enumerates for me that he has antibiotics of every kind, painkillers, and pills to make me feel “nice and sedated.” I run into some friends in Fraternity Park who almost cut me off mid-sentence when they receive a call from home. “They’ve turned the power back on, and I have to go back and do the laundry,” she apologizes. “I have to finish some work on my laptop, now that there’s electricity,” he adds.

What remains of the old Ultra store in Havana. / 14ymedio

To get home, I manage to hitch a ride on a pisicorre, one of the few jeeps adapted for passenger transport that still makes the trip to Santiago de las Vegas. “It’s 400 pesos to Tulipán,” the driver explains. The fare has gone up 100 pesos since the last time I took one of these cars last week. But I don’t complain. Another passenger is going near the psychiatric hospital, and the driver specifies: “To Mazorra it’s one mile (1,000 pesos).” Nobody protests the price increase. There’s no point in complaining now.

Near Quinta de los Molinos, the driver tells us we’re lucky because he’s going to stop driving this afternoon. “I don’t believe that story about the ship,” he says. He says he’s stepping away from the wheel until “everything goes back to normal” and he can go to the gas station to buy fuel without waiting in line or being pushed around. I don’t remember what “normal” means. Was it a period before the current situation?

Previous Havana Chronicles:

Havana Seen From ‘The Control Tower’

In Havana, the Only Ones Who Move Are the Mosquitoes

Reina, the Stately Street Where Garbage is Sold

Searching for Light Through the Deserted Streets of Havana

The Death Throes of ‘Granma’, the Mouthpiece of a Regime Cornered by Crisis

The Anxiety of the Disconnected Cuban

One Mella, Three Mellas, Life in Cuba Is Measured in Thousands of Pesos

It Is Forbidden To Leave Home in Cuba Today Because It Is a “Counter-Revolutionary Day”

Vedado, the Heart of Havana’s Nightlife, Is Now Converted Into a Desert

Havana, in Critical Condition

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Jorge Gómez and the Silence Surrounding His Fall From Grace During Cuba’s Five Grey Years

Jorge Gómez / Moncada group (Photo: Prensa Latina / blogspot)

Cubanet, Luis Cino, Havana, 24 March 2026 — There is much talk about Jorge Gómez Barranco, leader of the band Grupo Moncada, who died on March 23—and it’s almost always good talk, because there is no doubt that Gómez was a good person and much loved by many in the cultural sphere, particularly music and television.

What is not talked about (it seems that few remember or prefer not to remember) is how in 1971, when Gómez, a young philosophy professor at the time, fell out of favor with the regime because of his connection to the magazine, Pensamiento Crítico (“Critical Thinking”).

This publication, which brought together left-wing intellectuals—veritable human think tanks but who differed from the Soviet line, such as Aurelio Alonso and Fernando Martínez Heredia—was shut down shortly after that infamous and misnamed “Congress of Education and Culture” that ushered in, on orders from Raúl Castro, the Five Grey Years. Castro, then-Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, labeled the periodical, along with the University of Havana philosophy department, “a bastion of revisionists and counterrevolutionaries.” All because they dared to dabble in the ideas of Marcuse, Gramsci, Sartre—and, perhaps, even Bakunin and Trotsky—precisely at a time when the Castro regime, still reeling from the failure of the Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest, didn’t want to upset the Kremlin, to whose chariot they had hitched themselves so that the Soviets could pull them out of the crisis.

Jorge Gómez, like most of his colleagues at Critical Thinking and in the philosophy faculty, preferred to forget that time of closed-mindedness and censorship of intellectuals, to downplay its importance. He even ignored the controversy that led a recalcitrant commissioner to accuse him, playing on his second surname*, of wanting to send Marxism tumbling off a cliff.

After all, the end of his foray into philosophy allowed Jorge Gómez, who had learned to play the piano as a child, to return to music, his great passion. In 1972, along with several university students, he formed a group that continue reading

combined Cuban son with Andean music, and which he named Moncada in honor of his uncle, the poet Raúl Gómez García, who died in the attack on the Santiago barracks on July 26, 1953.

Years later, after replacing the influence of Quilapayún and Inti Illimani with more pop and catchy tunes—and the overly serious Alberto Falla and Manuel Calviño, first with Carlos Enríquez and then with other long-haired, handsome and younger singers—Moncada managed to become popular in the 1980s and mainly during the years of the Special Period, when his concerts packed the steps of the University of Havana.

Music lovers, and especially rock fans, have Jorge Gómez to thank for his 80s television program, Perspectiva, where we had the opportunity—unusual at that time when prohibitions on rock music remained staunchly in place—to see groups like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, etc. on the small screen.

Ten years ago, on August 30, 2016, when singer-songwriter Amaury Pérez interviewed Jorge Gómez on his TV show, Con dos que se quieran (“With Two Who Love Each Other”)—a kind of confessional for the singer-songwriter’s big and little friends—Pérez asked Gómez how the philosophy department came to be terminated and why Critical Thinking magazine was shut down.

When asked that question, Jorge Gómez dodged it, sidestepping the issue. He said the magazine “had been gradually losing circulation,” excusing this development by saying that “these things happen in revolutions.” It would have been too presumptuous for the obsequious Jorge Gómez to say more and thus jeopardize his moment in the spotlight as a successful musician within the mainstream culture.

Besides, I would think, why would he look for trouble by stirring up the past? What for? After all, most guests on With two who love each other—when asked this type of confrontational question by Amaury Pérez—far from complaining about grievances and reprisals, evade the issue, choose forgiveness, and almost always end up proclaiming their devotion “to Fidel and the Revolution.”

Jorge Gómez preferred to forget ‘the mistakes of the past,’ to turn the page, as did some of his Critical Thinking colleagues, who after being rehabilitated, became tin-pot repairmen dedicated to reinventing socialism.

* A “barranco” is a narrow, winding river gorge.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Author’s biography:

Luis Cino. Born Havana, 1956. He worked as an English teacher, in construction, and in agriculture. He began working in independent journalism in 1998. He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine De Cuba and deputy director of Primavera Digital. A regular contributor to CubaNet since 2003, he writes about art, history, politics, and society. He lives in Arroyo Naranjo. He dreams of being able to dedicate himself fully and freely to writing fiction. He is passionate about good books, the sea, jazz, and blues.

The Number of Cuba’s Political Prisoners Released Under the Agreement With the Vatican Has Reached 25

The NGO laments that the number is still only half of what they promised: “We are on top of the regime. We will not let them lie to the Church, nor, of course, to the people of Cuba

A group of relatives of those arrested on July 11, 2022 [’11J’], during a peaceful protest on the steps of the Havana Cathedral / Wilber Aguilar/Facebook

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, March 30, 2026 / The Cuban government has released two more political prisoners under the agreement announced by the Cuban regime with the Vatican for the release of 51 prisoners, according to an announcement by the NGO Prisoners Defenders this Sunday.

One of them is Evelio Luis Herrera Duvergel, 25, who was sentenced to seven years in prison – which he was serving in the Quivicán prison in Mayabeque – for participating in the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 [’11J’]. The other, Jarol Varona Agüero, 52, was in El Típico prison in Las Tunas, serving a 13-year sentence for “propaganda against the constitutional order” for calling for a protest on Facebook that never took place.

With these decisions, the number of political prisoners released has risen to 25, less than half. “We demand the release of all political prisoners in Cuba,” the NGO stated. “We are on top of the regime. We will not let them lie to the Church, nor, of course, to the Cuban people,” it added in a publication that included the updated list.

Most of those released so far participated in the Island-wide anti-government protests of 11 June 2021 and were serving sentences of between six and 18 years in prison for crimes such as public disorder, contempt, assault and sedition. continue reading

Most of those released so far participated in the anti-government protests of July 11 and were serving sentences of between six and 18 years in prison for crimes such as public disorder, contempt, assault and sedition

PD criticized, this week, on social media that only some of the 51 beneficiaries of the measure are political prisoners and stressed that something similar happened in the January 2025 process when “only 40%” (219) of the 553 released prisoners were political prisoners, while the rest “were common prisoners.”

He also reported that among the released common prisoners “there is at least one with a murder on his record,” as well as other people convicted of “robbery and other common crimes”.

The first releases in this process coincided with the announcement by the Cuban Executive that it had begun a dialogue with representatives of the US Administration, although Havana has never linked the two issues.

These releases are not pardons, but a benefit that allows the prisoner to leave the penitentiary even though the sentence has not been extinguished (a measure that is conditioned on compliance with certain requirements during the remaining time of the sentence).

Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons, according to PD’s latest monthly report, the highest number since the organization began documenting the prison situation on the island.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Trump Welcomes the Arrival of a Russian Oil Tanker in Cuba: “They Have To Survive”

The U.S. president assures that anyone can send crude to the Island, despite the sanctions in force until now.

The Russian tanker carries 100,000 tons of crude and is already in Cuban waters, Moscow confirmed. / EFEThe Russian Tanker Carries 100,000 Tons of Crude and Is Already in Cuban Waters, Moscow Confirmed. / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, March 30, 2026 – U.S. president Donald Trump downplayed the arrival of the Anatoly Kolodkin, loaded with Russian oil , which arrived this Monday in Cuba. “They have to survive! (…) I have no problem,” he said this Sunday in remarks to the press from the presidential plane. The vessel is advancing loaded with about 730,000 barrels of crude without the U.S. having placed any impediment, as University of Texas expert Jorge Piñón told 14ymedio this Sunday and hours later a Washington source confirmed to The New York Times.

“I told them, if a country wants to send oil to Cuba right now, I have no problem with it. Whether it is Russia or not,” said the president, who added that he even “prefers” that this happen. “People need heating and air conditioning, and all the other things one requires,” he said. Trump considered that this does not affect the situation of the Island. “They have a bad regime, they have bad and corrupt leadership, and whether a ship of oil arrives or not, that does not matter,” he concluded.

The statements are surprising after the White House, which suspended sanctions on Russian crude for a month – until April 11 – added a paragraph to the license a week later specifying that Iran, North Korea and Cuba could not be recipients of that oil.

“People need heating and air conditioning, and all the other things one requires,” he noted

The tanker, which transports about 730,000 barrels of oil and belongs to the Russian government, is scheduled to dock in Matanzas around 6 a.m. Tuesday. Then, the crude will have to be transported to the refineries in Havana and Cienfuegos, where the 730,000 barrels will be converted into about 250,000 barrels of diesel, according to Piñón. This fuel would allow supplying the power generators and transportation or agriculture for a few days, although the specialist also believes that the State may reserve a continue reading

portion.

“Will we be so naive as to think that the Government will not keep a significant amount of diesel for its own reserves, instead of supplying it to those who need it most for their livelihood?” he asked 14ymedio.

The NYT says it has not obtained any clarification on why the U.S. Government has made this decision, after the Sea Horse, flying the Hong Kong (China) flag and heading toward Cuba with 200,000 barrels of Russian diesel two weeks ago, changed course toward Trinidad and Tobago and ultimately docked in Venezuela, coinciding with the addition of the new paragraph to the license that prevented sales to the Island.

The newspaper notes, however, that Trump thus avoids an open confrontation with Moscow, which had spent weeks saying it would look for a way to help Cuba and finally, last week, confirmed that the ship was heading toward the Island as “humanitarian aid” through Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev.

This Monday, at his morning press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Russia considers it its duty not to stand aside and to offer the necessary help to our Cuban friends.”

“The desperate situation in which Cubans now find themselves cannot, of course, leave us indifferent, so we will continue working on this matter,” he said.

Peskov, who welcomed the arrival of the Anatoli Kolodkin in Cuba, admitted that the situation had been addressed “in advance” during contacts with representatives of the White House.

Peskov, who welcomed the arrival of the Anatoli Kolodkin in Cuba, admitted that the situation had been addressed “in advance” during contacts with representatives of the White House

The Coast Guard had two patrol boats in the region that could have attempted to intercept the Russian tanker, but this Sunday, when it was confirmed that they had not moved from their position, it was assumed they would do nothing to prevent the operation, as happened with the Bella 1. That ship, which changed its name to Marinera and its flag to Russian in January, was a sanctioned tanker used for transporting hydrocarbons from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela that began to be pursued by the U.S. in December. Despite being escorted by a Russian submarine, the vessel was ultimately boarded and its crew detained, although an agreement between Trump and Putin facilitated the release of the Russian workers.

The last time Moscow sent oil to Cuba was in 2025, in two voyages carried out by the Akademik Gubkin. The first trip took place in February, with about 790,000 barrels, valued at 55 million dollars at that time. The crude had to be distributed to the refineries in Havana and Cienfuegos using the Cuban ships Vilma and Lourdes, to produce the different types of fuel the country needed.

In September, the ship returned to Nipe Bay (Holguín) with about 740,000 barrels of crude to begin the transfer, since the Matanzas supertanker base, which burned in August 2022, is still undergoing slow repairs. Although the reconstruction process of the four main tanks began years ago, at this point none is yet ready to receive fuel.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuba: In the Bank Line, Customers Live With the Fear That the Power Will Go Out or That the Cash Will Run Out

When retirees collect their monthly pension, the services of the Popular Savings Bank of San José de las Lajas collapse.

Line at the Popular Savings Bank in San José de las Lajas / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mayabeque, Julio César Contreras, March 29, 2026 – At seven in the morning there is already activity in front of the Popular Savings Bank of San José de las Lajas. The line begins to form long before the doors open, and as the minutes pass, it turns into a compact row of tired bodies, canes leaning against the wall, and eyes fixed on the entrance. Some retirees sit on the metal chairs in the entryway; others remain standing, holding their checkbooks as if they were a lifeline amid uncertainty.

The days set for paying pensions to retirees turn into a true ordeal for people who go to the bank in search of other services. Service no longer depends only on there being electricity but on there being employees available to handle the different operations. At any moment the power can go out and paralyze everything: the computers shut down, the fans stop turning, and a murmur of discontent runs through the line like a hot wind.

“The first problem is that it’s the same line for all procedures and, as expected, pensioners are the majority. I have no choice but to come back later,” comments Mayra, who practically has no cash left and therefore urgently needs to make a withdrawal. The woman looks at the door anxiously, aware that time is running against her and that, if she cannot withdraw money, she will have to postpone basic purchases such as bread or medicine. continue reading

Receiving her salary on a card keeps her enslaved to the bank, because on the street no one is accepting payment by transfer

According to the worker from the Commerce Company, receiving her salary on a card keeps her enslaved to the banking institution, because on the street no one is accepting payment by transfer. “Here at the bank the most I can withdraw is 1,000 pesos a day, but not even that small amount is guaranteed. Today, for example, all the money is earmarked for paying out the pensions. That means that until that is finished, the rest of us customers will have to look for other solutions, such as buying things through Transfermóvil at 10 or 20% above their original price,” the woman says.

At a glance, impatience is evident among those who ask who is last, peek toward the door, or leave frustrated at being unable to complete a transaction. An elderly man with a red cap and denim jacket moves forward with short steps toward the entrance, while a woman with white hair rests in a chair and fans herself with a folded sheet. No one wants to lose their place, because everyone knows that the money may run out before noon.

“There are only two tellers working, so they are forbidden from making deposits. All banking activity is concentrated in a single operation, as if they were just learning how to work now,” complains Mario, who urgently needs to deposit 20,000 pesos on his daughter’s card. “It’s true that the elderly deserve priority. However, concentrating the work in a single area goes against all logic,” he emphasizes.

For the accounting professor, his most difficult days of the month are precisely when the bank is paying out pensions. “I have to regularly send money to my daughter, who is studying in Havana. Sometimes when I leave here I have to take a pill because my blood pressure has shot up,” says Mario, after having a brief argument with an employee over the inefficiency of the banking institution.

It is incredible how time is wasted on a procedure that could be resolved with a bit of interest on the part of the bank. Anything in this country costs a lot of effort

Although it has nothing to do with the payment of pensions, Yesenia has been leaning against a column in the entryway for an hour and a half, waiting for her turn to go in. “I am in the process of applying for a loan to finish my house. In the line there is no one for that kind of thing, but they informed me that today only one commercial officer came to work and he is currently busy with other tasks. I don’t understand anything,” says the employee of a private cafeteria who can dedicate herself to these procedures twice a week. “It is incredible how time is wasted on a procedure that could be resolved with a little interest on the part of the bank. Anything one wants to do in this country costs a lot of effort,” she insists.

The atmosphere grows more tense as the morning goes on. Some retirees check their watches with concern. There are those who leave resigned, promising to return the next day, even though that means starting over from scratch.

Pressed by the time, Yasenia feels she is losing the morning without achieving her goal. The discomfort is shared by some people in the line who, sitting on a doorstep or with their hands resting against the wall, channel their frustration by talking. “The bank closes at 12:00 noon, even when there are still customers out here. It doesn’t matter who is left without collecting their money or who has to spend a month just to get a form filled out. I know the bank employees want to leave early to deal with their personal matters, but then, who takes care of ours?” the young woman asks.

In San José de las Lajas, collecting a pension is no longer a monthly procedure but a daily battle. For many retirees, the money they are waiting for is not just income, but the difference between eating or not, between buying medicine or staying home enduring the pain. That is why they return to the bank again and again, wake up before dawn, and endure hours of waiting amid uncertainty, hoping that this time there will be enough cash.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Pays More Than 12 Million Dollars to a Cuban Pharmaceutical Company Accused of Delivering Expired Medications

The administration of Claudia Sheinbaum once again favored Neuronic, from which it buys drugs and finances research.

Warehouses of the Biologicals and Reagents of Mexico laboratories (Birmex) / Birmex

14ymedio, Havana, March 29, 2026 – The Cuban-Mexican pharmaceutical company Neuronic, which in 2023 delivered poor-quality and late medications worth more than two million dollars, continues to be favored by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum. Last year Mexico acquired thousands of doses of cancer drugs such as vincristine, methotrexate, doxorubicin, and ketamine for 227,000,000 pesos (12,516,883 dollars).

The drugs approved by the Mexican health system entered the country under the designation of “generics.” According to a report by the portal Latinus, three contracts were awarded directly in which Tania Urquiza Rodríguez appears as the legal representative of Neuronic, identifying herself as a Cuban businesswoman.

Through agreement DAF/AD-LPI-0052/2025, 19,572 boxes of injectable doxorubicin were acquired, each containing 10 vials, used in chemotherapy processes to treat leukemia, breast, ovarian, and thyroid carcinomas, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In addition, 19,060 packages of vincristine were purchased, used in Wilms tumors and neuroblastoma. The substances have a shelf life of two years.

The payment was made “directly to Neuronic,” through the laboratories of Biologicals and Reagents of Mexico (Birmex), a Mexican company founded in 1999 for the production, importation, and distribution of vaccines and medicines. The Cuban-Mexican pharmaceutical company in turn made bank transfers to Laboratorios AICA and BioCubafarma Treasury.

Mexico signed two other contracts with Cuba, which were entered into by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) to continue benefiting Neuronic. The first, under continue reading

registration 012NEF001I01725-017-00, was for the purchase of 28,200 units of methotrexate, a drug that since August of last year has been supplied to cancer patients and for which 10,575,282 pesos (583,505 dollars) were paid.

The methotrexate drug from the Cuban laboratory AICA. / @NARIZROJAAC

The distribution of the medication began in the state of Querétaro. “It is strange that, with so many national suppliers available, they would go with a foreign one,” Alejandro Barbosa Padilla, spokesperson for the Nariz Roja association, which has more than 15 years helping oncology patients, told 14ymedio at the time.

Cuba was also paid 15,131,250 pesos (834,887 dollars) for 33,600 units of ketamine, an adjunct in pain control that is sometimes administered together with morphine.

The Government of Mexico has favored Neuronic again and again. The National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt) granted it 7,427 dollars three years ago for a pharmacokinetics project aimed at early detection of Alzheimer’s in rats.

Conahcyt received notification in March 2022 of four grants for other projects by the Cuban-Mexican company. It released the funds on September 27 of that same year. For the so-called “validation of the production process and preclinical trials with CNEURO-120”—the drug intended for early detection of Alzheimer’s—3,439 dollars were granted. Later, as part of that same project, 15,037 dollars were delivered and, in another phase of the research, 4,028 dollars.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Cuba Is Next,’ Trump Says From Miami, ‘But Pretend I Didn’t Say It’

Experts in New York argue that the U.S. could accept economic changes on the Island without an immediate replacement at the top of power.

The phrase came during a speech in which he praised the military capacity of the United States. / Screenshot

14ymedio, Havana, March 28, 2026 – Donald Trump once again put Cuba at the center of his speech this Friday by stating in Miami: “Cuba is next.” The phrase came during a speech in which he praised the military capacity of the United States and its recent actions in Venezuela and Iran. Immediately afterward, the president tried to downplay it with an ambiguous remark: “But pretend I didn’t say it.”

Trump linked his comments to the worsening of the Cuban crisis and the deterioration of the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a context in which Washington is holding talks with sectors of power in Havana to avoid a larger confrontation.

It is not the first time Trump has used that tone. Previously, he had said that his plans for Cuba involved a “friendly takeover,” although afterward the head of the United States Southern Command, Francis Donovan, told Congress that the U.S. military is not preparing for a takeover of the Island. Along the same lines, the Treasury secretary stated that a potential regime change in Cuba would be “in slow motion.”

That dual approach—bellicose tone in public and parallel contacts—coincides with the assessment presented this week by several experts in New York

The Cuban government itself eventually acknowledged, after repeatedly denying it, that talks with Washington do exist. Behind the rhetoric of confrontation, therefore, there is a line of political pressure that does not appear aimed solely at a direct clash. Trump’s ambiguity does not reduce the scope of his words. On the contrary, it leaves several scenarios open, ranging from a tightening of sanctions and economic coercion to a forced negotiation under extreme pressure.

That dual approach—bellicose tone in public and parallel contacts—coincides with the assessment presented this week by several experts in New York, at a forum organized by Americas Society and the Council of the Americas on the renewed interest of the White House in Latin America. There continue reading

, Brian Winter, vice president of policy at both organizations, summarized the logic that, in his view, guides Washington’s policy toward Cuba: “Everything points to the U.S. prioritizing its stability and its national security, and that some kind of transition in Cuba’s economic policy could occur without necessarily implying a change at the top of power.”

Winter added that Cuba “has always had a unique importance for U.S. national security,” especially due to two factors: competition with other powers, such as China, and the impact of Cuban migration to U.S. territory. As he explained, around 20% of the Cuban population has emigrated in recent years, a figure that helps explain why the Island’s internal deterioration has also become a security issue for Washington.

Marco Rubio: “Any report about Cuba that does not come from the president or from me is a lie”

The forum also pointed to another key figure in this hardening: Marco Rubio. Winter stated: “I think it is fair to say that Secretary Rubio’s personal history influences U.S. policy.” But he immediately set a limit to that interpretation, warning that the White House’s intentions do not appear to be limited to an operation of political or family revenge against Cuban power. “If it were only about overthrowing the regime in Havana for family reasons, they would be adopting a different policy,” he commented.

For his part, the Secretary of State declared from France, at the end of the G7 meetings: “Any report about Cuba that does not come from the president or from me is a lie.” Rubio also repeated what he had already said days earlier from the Oval Office: “We have to change the people in charge, the system of the country, and the economic model they have. It is the only way Cuba can have a better future.”

The current Cuban crisis did not begin with Trump, nor can it be explained solely by U.S. sanctions. The Island has been burdened for years by unproductivity, centralization, reform paralysis, and political repression. The regime has been unable to offer a credible way out of the deterioration of basic services, food shortages, the transportation crisis, and blackouts, while keeping intact a control apparatus that blocks any real opening.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Anatoly Kolodkin Is Scheduled To Arrive This Monday in Cuba With 730,000 Barrels of Russian Crude

If the U.S. does not intervene, it will be the first fuel delivery since January

The expert Jorge Piñón believes that, at this stage of the journey, a possible interception of the vessel by the U.S. is unlikely. / VesselFinder

14ymedio, Havana, March 29, 2026 – Russia has tested the pressure of the United States on energy supply to Cuba with the dispatch of the tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, a ship loaded with crude oil heading toward the Island and whose arrival in Matanzas is scheduled for this Monday. The tanker carries about 730,000 barrels of crude and is this Sunday north of Haiti, just hours of sailing from the Cuban coast, according to maritime tracking data.

The vessel loaded at the Russian port of Primorsk on March 8. During its passage through the English Channel, the tanker was monitored by the Royal Navy while it was escorted by the Russian sloop Soobrazitelny. After that stretch, both vessels separated and the tanker continued alone toward the Atlantic and then toward the Caribbean.

The Anatoly Kolodkin appears on the sanctions list of OFAC (U.S. Treasury Department) since February 2024, linked to Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest state shipping company, and is also on the British list of sanctioned vessels.

The Havana refinery is an old and inefficient installation, “a relic of the industrial transformation system of Cupet”

The Cuban energy expert Jorge Piñón believes that, at this stage of the journey, a possible interception of the vessel by the United States is unlikely. “In my opinion it is already too late. I am not a military expert, but if there had been a confrontation with the U.S. Navy it would have been in Atlantic waters, with more room for political and naval maneuvers,” he told this newspaper.

For the researcher at the Energy Institute of the University of Texas at Austin, the central question is no longer whether the Anatoly Kolodkin will reach Cuba, but what the Government will do with the limited volume of fuel that could be obtained from that shipment. According to his estimate, from the 730,000 barrels of crude carried by the tanker, no more than 250,000 barrels of diesel could be derived, an amount insufficient to resolve the crisis but still relevant for deciding priorities. continue reading

Piñón notes that the Havana refinery is an old and inefficient facility, “a relic of Cupet’s industrial transformation system.” From there, he outlined two scenarios: that the State distributes that diesel among sectors considered critical—generator sets, transport, and agriculture—or that it keeps it as a reserve in case of a future political or military escalation.

“Will we be so naive as to think that the Government will not keep a significant amount of diesel for its own reserves, instead of supplying it to those who need it most for their livelihood?”

In any case, the expert adds, “the refining process will take between 15 and 20 days and another five to ten days will be needed to distribute the fuel.”

The approach of the Anatoly Kolodkin has been closely followed because, although it will not solve the crisis, it could offer partial and temporary relief.

The arrival of this shipment coincides with a critical stage for Cuba. The Island has not received oil since January—the last delivery of crude came from Mexico with the Ocean Mariner—an interruption that has worsened the energy crisis and made the country’s external dependence more visible. The lack of fuel has affected transportation, electricity generation, the distribution of goods, and the daily life of millions of people.

The fragility of the electrical system, which has gone years without adequate maintenance, has worsened as a result of the oil embargo decreed by the U.S. in January. Cuba has suffered seven nationwide blackouts since October 2024, including two in March of this year, a sequence that confirms the deterioration of the grid and the lack of backup capacity. Havana has tried to contain the impact with emergency measures. The Government has imposed dollar sales to the public and strict gasoline rationing; public transport has been reduced, and some services have been cut. In that context, the approach of the Anatoly Kolodkin has been closely watched because, although it will not resolve the crisis, it could provide partial and temporary relief.

The immediate backdrop to this operation is the breakdown of regular supply from Venezuela. Since January 3, Cuba lost its main regional oil benefactor, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the U.S., and since then it has not received fuel from Caracas.

Although Mexico has maintained donations and humanitarian aid, it has not resumed shipments of oil or fuel to the Island

Mexico has not filled that gap either. Although it has maintained donations and humanitarian aid, with shipments of food, medicine, and other supplies, it has not resumed shipments of oil or fuel to the Island. Mexican caution comes amid threats by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, a warning that has raised the political cost of any supply attempt.

Recent experience also shows that not all shipments manage to complete their route. The clearest precedent is that of the Sea Horse, a tanker flying the flag of Hong Kong (China) that was carrying about 200,000 barrels of diesel of Russian origin initially destined for Cuba. Faced with the risk of seizure by the U.S. Navy deployed in the Caribbean, the vessel changed course toward Trinidad and Tobago and finally appeared in Venezuelan waters after spending weeks adrift in the Atlantic. The case demonstrated how far Washington’s pressure can go in frustrating a shipment even when it is already underway.

If the Anatoly Kolodkin ultimately manages to dock and unload in Matanzas, or stops beforehand in the Bay of Nipe (Holguín) to transfer its cargo to the fleet of Cuban tankers, no one doubts that it will be the result of a decision made by the U.S. and that it will be presented as a humanitarian gesture.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With a 90% Shortage of Medications, the Closure of Several Pharmacies in Matanzas, Cuba Is Being Considered

The collapse is due to the lack of transportation to bring drugs from Havana, explains a Health sector official.

Arrivals are sporadic and, generally, it is not known exactly which medications will be available. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Matanzas, Pablo Padilla Cruz, March 28, 2026 – In the city of Matanzas, a panorama of shortages has become the norm for residents who depend on public pharmacies. Empty shelves, widespread confusion, and endless lines to obtain medicines have marked the reality of many citizens, especially the most vulnerable: the elderly and patients with chronic illnesses.

The day when the arrival of some medication is announced, especially those that require a card, becomes a kind of hope. However, that hope rarely materializes with certainty. Arrivals are sporadic and, generally, it is not known exactly which medications will be available. “It is almost always one Tuesday a month, but it is also almost never known what they will send.” That day, from dawn, patients, mostly elderly, stand in long lines at pharmacies to try to pick up the pills that will relieve their ailments. However, the arrival of medications seems increasingly uncertain.

The situation has gone beyond a recurring shortage crisis. This time, the message spreading by word of mouth among residents of Matanzas is even more alarming: “The pharmacies in Matanzas are going to close permanently.” Although the rumor is widespread, the truth behind this statement remains uncertain, although health workers do not rule out the possibility. continue reading

Measures such as the permanent closure of several pharmacies are being considered, leaving only a few open. / 14ymedio

“We are considering that we may be left without medications and for that reason, interrupted,” stated a pharmaceutical technician at the pharmacy located on Ayuntamiento Street. Surrounded by empty shelves, she explained that although some medications do arrive at times, these are insufficient. In some cases, medications arrive for patients with cards, such as enalapril for blood pressure, metformin for diabetics, or to a lesser extent, insulin. However, the levels of shortage are so high that patients are often sent back home without being able to obtain what they need.

An official from the provincial directorate of the health branch provides more details about the crisis. “In the province there is a shortage of almost 90% of medications in general,” she explains. This collapse is worsened by the lack of transportation, which prevents medications from reaching pharmacies in a timely manner. “Medications must be transported from Havana to the Medicuba warehouses in the industrial zone of Matanzas, and from there to the pharmacies, but currently this logistical movement is almost paralyzed,” the official notes.

As a result, measures such as the permanent closure of several pharmacies are being considered, leaving only a few open to distribute medications on a rotating basis among neighborhoods. In addition, some have reduced their service hours until 2 pm due to the lack of essential products.

“We are considering that we may be left without medications and for that reason, interrupted,” stated a pharmaceutical technician. / 14ymedio

The shortage has also affected specific medications such as insulin, which requires special storage conditions. Frequent blackouts worsen the situation, as they prevent pharmacies from maintaining supplies under proper conditions, further limiting their availability.

In this context of scarcity, residents of Matanzas are forced to resort to other alternatives to obtain the medications they need. Some choose to contact relatives abroad, while others turn to the black market or online pharmacies, which offer imported medications at prices ranging from 500 to 5,000 pesos, depending on the type of drug. However, as Pastrana, a pensioner who must take enalapril twice a day, explains, his monthly pension of 3,106 pesos is barely enough to cover his basic needs, much less to buy imported medications. “The pension doesn’t even cover rice, what am I going to do with medicines from abroad?” he laments.

The situation not only affects medications; medical supplies also suffer from the same problem. At the Ensume warehouse, which distributes and stores medical supplies for the entire province, the shortage of inputs is critical. An employee of the institution comments that they are currently receiving less than 30% of the materials necessary for their operation. “Ten years ago, we received supplies even at night, even on weekends. Now, we have nothing to do at 2 pm,” he recounts. According to him, hospitals sometimes have to divert ambulances to collect supplies, and sending them to places as distant as Cayo Ramona, in Ciénaga de Zapata, becomes a titanic undertaking.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nicaragua Withdraws Its Ambassador to Cuba After Barely 50 Days in the Post

Daysi Torres was dismissed as of Friday, March 27, without explanations from the Ortega and Murillo regime.

Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, co-rulers of Nicaragua’s regime / EFE/Rodrigo Sura

14ymedio (EFE), San José, March 28, 2026 – The Government of Nicaragua, led by spouses and co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, revoked this Friday the appointment of former Managua mayor Daysi Ivette Torres Bosques as Nicaragua’s ambassador to Cuba, a position she held for less than two months, the Official Gazette La Gaceta reported.

Through presidential agreement number 42-2026, the co-rulers annulled the appointment of Torres Bosques as extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the Government of the Republic of Cuba, to which she had been appointed on February 3, 2026.

Her move from Caracas to Havana took place four weeks after United States forces captured Nicolás Maduro

“This agreement takes effect as of March 27, 2026,” Ortega and Murillo indicated in the document, which does not explain the reasons for that decision.

Torres Bosques, who was mayor of Managua for two consecutive terms (2009–2018) and also vice mayor of the Nicaraguan capital (2008–2009), had been serving as ambassador to the Government of Venezuela since March 21, 2023, when she was transferred as Nicaragua’s representative in Cuba.

Her move from Caracas to Havana took place four weeks after United States forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation in Caracas and then transferred them to a prison in New York, where he faces drug trafficking charges.

The governments of Nicaragua and Cuba have been close political allies since the Sandinista Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Guantánamo Naval Base, a Point of Light on an Island in Darkness and in Crisis

The U.S. enclave in Cuba displays, in just 116 square kilometers, the extreme contrast between the island’s isolation and American abundance.

The Guantánamo naval base continues to be one of the strategic points of the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean. / EFE / Marta Garde

14ymedio/EFE, Yeni García, Guantánamo, March 28, 2026 – The century-old naval base that the U.S. occupies in southeastern Cuba, against the will of Havana, is separated from the rest of the Caribbean territory by more than just barbed wire and a strip of land that could still be mined.

The territorial, ideological, and economic gap between the two countries, estranged for nearly 70 years, becomes palpable when visiting the U.S. military enclave, established in 1903, one of the oldest that the U.S. maintains outside its borders and the only one in a communist nation.

On one side, a country immersed in a humanitarian crisis worsened by the recent crude oil blockade imposed by Washington, and on the other, a small portion of about 116 square kilometers with well-stocked markets, that never turns off the lights or stops its cars for lack of fuel.

While last weekend the rest of the Caribbean country experienced its second nationwide blackout in less than seven days, on the U.S. military base daily scenes could, if one ignores the signs prohibiting photography and the uniforms and military buildings, be the same as in any neighborhood in nearby Florida.

The connections between the two cultures are scarce, but the few that a keen eye manages to identify are evident

Despite the fact that the fences at the military base welcome visitors to “Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,” it is very difficult for someone who has walked the streets of Cuba to reconcile images of old cars, smoking trash on street corners, and darkened neighborhoods with an Irish pub, a movie theater showing the latest Hollywood release, or a McDonald’s on island soil, which has been serving its famous hamburgers since 1986. continue reading

At first glance, the connections between the two cultures are scarce, but the few that a keen eye can identify are evident: an altar to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba’s patron saint, streets named after heroes of the independence wars, such as José Martí and Antonio Maceo, royal palms, and endemic iguanas and hutias.

At present, only a small number of Cubans remain on the base and chose to stay as special residents, now very elderly and in fragile health, out of the more than 300 who used to work here decades ago . Five years ago there was a community center with a cultural program to maintain Cuban traditions.

A small museum preserves part of the history of the controversial enclave, which has become an uncomfortable legacy for the Cuban government, which considers it “illegal” and demands its return, something the U.S. has refused, relying on a bilateral agreement from the 1930s that requires joint authorization for its return.

A mural in the gift shop shows one of the few Cuban flags that can be seen on the base, where it is also not common to hear music from the island or find a completa with congrí, roast pork, cassava with mojo, and fried plantains, but where you can get a Starbucks frappuccino or a protein smoothie after leaving the gym.

The base has been “completely self-sufficient” and has “its own sources of energy and water” that serve about 6,000 inhabitants of the base

Since Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, the once close relationship between the two countries cooled. The late Cuban former president cut relations with the U.S. in 1961, stopped cashing the roughly $4,000 rent checks that Washington still pays for the base, and cut off the supply of water and provisions in 1964.

From that moment on, “Gitmo,” as Americans call it, has been “completely self-sufficient” and has “its own sources of energy and water” that serve about 6,000 inhabitants of the base, according to the U.S. government’s military installations directory.

Shipments of fuel and supplies arrive at the enclave, which has its own hospital and airport, and although it is more recently known for housing the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it continues to be one of the strategic points of the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Guantánamo, Cuban Families Juggle To Provide School Snacks for Their Children

With a monthly pension of 3,000 pesos, a grandfather in charge of his grandson, because the parents left the country, cannot guarantee a child’s food.

The responsibility of feeding students during the school day falls exclusively on families. / *14ymedio* 14ymedio

14ymedio, Guantánamo, Dayamí Rojas, March 28, 2026 – The morning bustle gathers every day in front of a primary school in the Caribe neighborhood, in the city of Guantánamo. At that hour, children arrive with their backpacks slung over their shoulders and a small additional bundle in their hands: their snack. Some bring a piece of bread, others a small bag with cookies, and a few barely carry a bottle with an instant drink. Behind each of those portions there is a story of domestic sacrifice and inflation.

In most schools in Guantánamo there has not been a school snack distributed by the educational center itself for decades. That practice, which in other times included a bottle of soda or a portion of sweets, disappeared during the years of economic crisis and was never restored. Since then, the responsibility of feeding students during the school day has fallen exclusively on families, who must figure out each day what to put in the child’s backpack.

But in recent months, the rise in the cost of basic products has turned that daily task into a real obstacle course. The increase in the price of bread, cookies, and all flour-based products has driven up snack costs, while inflation and the devaluation of the Cuban peso continue to erode the purchasing power of salaries and pensions.

Private vendors offer baguette-style bread early in the morning. The loaves are displayed in plastic boxes or improvised baskets, and they disappear quickly. The price changes depending on availability and demand pressure. What used to cost a few dozen pesos has now become a significant expense for any family with school-age children.

“If you add lunch and dinner, each child needs between 300 and 400 pesos daily so that, at least, they do not go hungry” / *14ymedio*

“Ensuring breakfast and a snack for a child today in Guantánamo costs, at a minimum, between 100 and 150 pesos daily,” a father, who also works as a teacher, explains to 14ymedio. “If you add lunch and dinner, each child needs between 300 and 400 pesos daily so that, at least, they do not go hungry.” continue reading

His words summarize a reality that is repeated in many households in the province, where family incomes do not grow at the same rate as prices. In a context marked by inflation and shortages, every purchasing decision
becomes a complex calculation. Parents and grandparents compare prices among different vendors, reduce portions, or substitute more expensive products with lower-quality ones.

On a corner in the San Justo neighborhood, Saúl waits his turn in front of a private sales point. He holds a crumpled bill in his hand and keeps his eyes fixed on the tray where the bread is piled up. He has two children in primary school and every morning he must go out early to secure the day’s snack.

“A baguette costs you 250 pesos, if you can find it at that price, because in my neighborhood they already sell them for 350. Soft drinks have also gone up, everything is very expensive,” the man from Guantánamo tells this newspaper.

What used to be an occasional purchase now represents an expense that many families cannot afford frequently

The increase in prices is not limited to bread. Cookies, sweets, and juices have followed the same trend, driven by the shortage of flour, rising sugar prices, and the higher cost of the inputs needed for their production. Many of these products are sold on the informal market or in small private businesses, where prices constantly adjust depending on the availability of goods.

Around several schools, street vendors have become a common presence. They offer small doughnuts, bread with cheese, and sweet cookies, aimed specifically at students. However, what used to be an occasional purchase now represents an expense that many families cannot afford frequently.

The situation becomes even more difficult in households where children are left in the care of grandparents, an increasingly common reality in Guantánamo due to the parents’ emigration. In those cases, an elderly person’s pension must cover all the child’s expenses, including daily food.

“A grandfather who is in charge of his grandson, because the parents left the country, and who has a monthly pension of 3,000 pesos cannot guarantee a snack every day for that child,” explains a resident of Guantánamo living in the city center.

Insufficient nutrition not only affects children’s physical well-being, but also their academic performance

The figure is revealing when compared with current food prices. With a pension that barely covers basic household expenses, allocating daily money for a school snack becomes an almost impossible challenge. In some cases, children attend classes with a minimal snack or nothing to eat, making it difficult for them to last until the end of the school day.

Inside classrooms, teachers closely observe this reality. Some students share their snacks with classmates who have nothing, while others try to stretch time so that hunger does not interfere with concentration. Insufficient nutrition not only affects children’s physical well-being, but also their academic performance.

In a school in the Los Maceo neighborhood, a teacher comments that it is increasingly common to see students arriving without snacks or with very small portions. The scene repeats itself during recess, when the yard fills with children who open their backpacks and compare what each was able to bring that day. The next day, the family will have to start the same battle again: finding and paying for something the student can eat mid-morning, in the middle of their classes.

Guantánamo: Cuban families and the daily challenge of school snacks

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana Chronicles: Havana Seen From ‘The Control Tower’

I imagine the Russians are tired of bailing out their Cuban comrades, but also in need of allies in this hemisphere.

The “control tower” of the Russian Embassy in Cuba. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, March 27, 2026 / In the mornings, Tulipán Street transforms into a Carthaginian market. I skirt the stalls where they sell everything from peas to soap, aspirin, and cigarettes. I’m lucky to live just a few meters from this commercial bustle, which, although informal, precarious, and with prices driven by inflation, keeps my neighborhood alive and allows me to find basil for pesto or Teflon tape to repair a leaky pipe.

This Friday, Tulipán is my starting point. If public transportation is dying throughout the city, here it’s practically nonexistent. An avenue without almendrones (old American cars operation as taxis), without bicycle taxis, and without tricycles carrying passengers, this street is only for two types of people: those who walk and those who have a car (and managed to find gas or electricity to run it). So I don’t even look to see if anything’s coming to give me a ride. I’m ready to tackle the hill ahead.

A sprawling garage sale has sprung up in the basements of two enormous Soviet-era concrete blocks I pass on my way. There are makeshift stalls, blankets spread on the ground, selling mainly pants, blouses, and shoes. It’s the “clothes of Cuban emigrants,” the countless outfits left behind in closets and drawers after their owners left the island. One of the many flea markets selling the spoils of the mass exodus that have opened up across the country.

A friend, heavily made up, at nine o’clock, at the market, wearing a sequined blouse: “If I don’t wear it to come here, it will get ruined without being used.”

The relatives left behind try to sell a baby outfit here, some little girl’s shoes there, a formal shirt “to wear with a tie,” an old man manages to tell me as he offers his wares near a tree trunk. But the secondhand market in Cuba is drowned under mountains of oversupply. Barely worn sandals, necklaces that were once someone’s jewels, leather wallets that held the money and identity card of someone who now has residency somewhere new or a passport from another country.

Another issue is that there is nowhere to show off your clothes. The other day I ran into a friend, heavily made up, at nine in the morning at the farmers’ market. She was also wearing a sequined blouse. “If I don’t wear it to come here, it’ll just go to waste,” she managed to say. In a city without nightclubs, without discos, with hardly any movie theaters open, and with restaurants that are out of reach for most people, “going-out clothes” have to be taken out for walks in the building’s hallways, to the corner where the garbage piles up, or to the nearest clinic.

In the mornings, Tulipán Street transforms into a Carthaginian market. / 14ymedio

I reach 26th Street. They say that Raúl Castro once lived in a penthouse I pass on my journey. I remember sometimes seeing guards with stern expressions and pistols on their hips when I walked by. Now everything looks neglected. The plants on the rooftop seem a bit withered, and I don’t run into the uniformed men of yesteryear. This neighborhood is no longer safe or glamorous enough for them. Peeling buildings, a ruined cemetery, and a movie theater with no movies complete the picture.

I cross 23rd Street and after a few minutes, I cross the iron bridge. A father and his son, about five years old, are looking at the dark waters of the Almendares River. “Don’t stop, hurry up,” the man tells the little boy. “Daddy, let me watch, I’m not going to jump in,” the child reassures him. “Yeah, I know, you don’t even know how to swim,” the man replies hurriedly. It’s a sad paradox on an island where many can barely stay afloat if they fall into the sea. The lack of swimming pools to learn in and the regime’s fear that we would become Aquaman and escape en masse condemned us to only splash around before they could throw us a life preserver.

Several turkey vultures circle above a garbage dump near the river. They are birds that like refuse. And heights. They are always visiting my building. I respect these birds. They do their cleaning work without complaint, constantly, even though they are often looked down upon for their appearance. They have a stately flight. Once, when I was showing a foreign student the views from the Plaza de la Revolución lookout, several of them landed near the window. “They are attracted to political carrion,” I told the astute German. From a corner, an official tour guide appeared and staged a small protest against me for “denigrating the country in front of a foreigner.” Some people don’t take metaphors well.

The tanker named after Captain Kolodkin set course for this island, but no one knows if it will ultimately dock in our ports.

Speaking of symbols. I continue my headlong Cuban pace, eager to fill my shopping bag, and arrive at the grounds of the Russian Federation Embassy in Havana. I’ve never liked that building. It looks like an airport control tower or a sword plunged into the side of this city. It’s eerie. As I walk past its ugly structure, I wonder what they think of us in the Kremlin. I imagine the Russians, tired of bailing out their Cuban comrades, but also in need of allies in this hemisphere.

A neighbor asked me if the Russian ship was finally arriving or not. The tanker, named after Captain Kolodkin, set course for this island, but no one knows if it will ultimately dock in our ports with its cargo of fuel. My neighbor got up at three in the morning today to, in a brief burst of electricity, do laundry and send a WhatsApp message to her daughter who lives in Madrid. “Don’t even think about coming,” she wrote briefly. Parents have a sixth sense for detecting dangers. “You don’t know how to swim,” one warned his little boy this Friday, looking at the murky waters of the Almendares River. “This is unbearable,” another wrote to her 35-year-old “daughter” when the power came back on in my neighborhood.

It seems we’ve run out of life preservers this time.

Previous Havana Chronicles:

In Havana, the Only Ones Who Move Are the Mosquitoes

Reina, the Stately Street Where Garbage is Sold

Searching for Light Through the Deserted Streets of Havana

The Death Throes of ‘Granma’, the Mouthpiece of a Regime Cornered by Crisis

The Anxiety of the Disconnected Cuban

One Mella, Three Mellas, Life in Cuba Is Measured in Thousands of Pesos

It Is Forbidden To Leave Home in Cuba Today Because It Is a “Counter-Revolutionary Day”

Vedado, the Heart of Havana’s Nightlife, Is Now Converted Into a Desert

Havana, in Critical Condition
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The Cuban Regime Resorts to the Vatican’s ‘Magical Power’ To Ease the U.S. Energy Blockade

‘The Washington Post’ cites several sources and notes that the lack of fuel is affecting the distribution of aid sent by Washington through the Church.

Image released by Caritas of the reception of aid for distribution in the east / Caritas

14ymedio, Madrid, March 27, 2026 – The Cuban Government is trying to get the Vatican to act as a mediator so that Washington eases the fuel blockade, which, among other things, is keeping tons of U.S. humanitarian aid that the Catholic Church itself distributes stalled in ports. A dozen sources have confirmed to The Washington Post both the diplomatic situation and the complexities of distribution, as well as the complications for this option to succeed.

It is not surprising that Havana seeks to involve the Holy See, whose influence has been crucial in various processes ranging from the release of prisoners from the Black Spring to the more than 500 prisoner releases that facilitated Cuba’s provisional removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in January 2025; not to mention the thaw carried out by Raúl Castro and Barack Obama in 2014. In all of these, the Vatican was behind the scenes.

This, along with the fact that Pope Leo XIV is American, motivates Havana to seek his influence, although nothing suggests the result will be productive, since the Trump Administration has ignored two of the pontiff’s main demands in his year on the throne of Saint Peter: the end of the wars in Gaza and Iran and different treatment for migrants.

“Cubans have always believed that the Vatican possesses a kind of magical power and that its support will make Cuba receive more,” John S. Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, told the Post.

But a source familiar with the talks told the newspaper that the White House is reluctant. “The Administration is not going to allow the Vatican to dictate its policy toward Cuba. They can talk, but the answer is: ‘You’re right, there are problems, but we didn’t cause them.’” In his opinion, the Cuban Government already has it in its hands to ease the crisis if it makes the changes Washington demands. “So we’re not too enthusiastic about a quid pro quo, because we really don’t need to do anything for them to do something, since they are collapsing on their own and therefore we will get what we want.” continue reading

“So we’re not too enthusiastic about a quid pro quo, because we really don’t need to do anything for them to do something, since they are collapsing on their own and therefore we will get what we want”

The words of this source seem firm, but the Church has apparently tried to explain to the U.S. Administration that the very aid they send is useless in Cuban ports. “On the one hand, they want to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need through the Catholic Church, since it is present throughout the Island,” said a person familiar with coordinating the delivery of nine million dollars’ worth of products that Marco Rubio announced after Hurricane Melissa in October. “But, at the same time, that aid cannot arrive due to the oil blockade. The sanctions need to be lifted, because the situation has been like this for a couple of months,” he said.

Thomas Wenski, archbishop of Miami, told the Post that the mere fact that the Cuban regime accepted those packages, which very visibly bear the U.S. flag, is no small thing. Most of the supply containers were arriving at the port of Mariel, but the Church, says the archbishop, does not have trucks with fuel to transport them across the Island, and although they painstakingly coordinated a shipment by sea to Santiago, some cooperation from the Government was necessary. Wenski showed the Post photographs of volunteers in Guantánamo distributing the aid on tricycles and wheelbarrows. Another aid worker said that animals had to be used for transport. “It’s like a Mad Max movie,” Wenski added.

Another of the sources who spoke with the Post is Rolando Montes de Oca, a priest in three parishes near Havana, who distributed U.S. food aid among dozens of elderly people and people with disabilities who depend on his area. His volunteers had to cook with charcoal due to power outages, he said. He saves the little gasoline he has to collect and deliver aid, but he has calculated that it will barely last him until Easter Sunday. To celebrate Mass, he travels up to 18 kilometers by bicycle.

All of this was discussed, says the Post, at a meeting that Mike Hammer, head of mission of the U.S. in Havana, held on February 20 with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, number two at the Vatican Secretariat of State. The diplomat also attended, along with Brian Burch, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a meeting with other Latin American colleagues to discuss “how to collaborate with the Church to support the Cuban people’s desire for economic opportunities and freedom.”

Hammer confirmed that the U.S. is in dialogue with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, “El Cangrejo,” and “another person,” according to a source close to the meeting

At that meeting, the newspaper maintains, Hammer confirmed that the U.S. is in dialogue with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, “El Cangrejo,” [The Crab] and “another person,” according to a source close to the meeting. But that while the agreement was taking shape, the U.S. wanted to send humanitarian aid by bypassing the regime. The Church was clear: the oil blockade is harming the distribution of any aid.

Only a few days later, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez traveled to Rome to speak with the powerful Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. Although little has emerged from that meeting, one source told the Post that the minister requested the Pope’s intercession, and on March 12, Havana announced the release of 51 prisoners through mediation by the Holy See.

The Church is not comfortable either. Reluctant to become politically involved, it does not want, according to the report, to see a repeat of what happened in Venezuela with Maduro and prefers a “less traumatic” solution and for the departure of Miguel Díaz-Canel to be agreed upon if it is to occur. Although in their latest statement the bishops asked the regime to make the “political changes that Cuba needs,” they also said that “governments should be able to resolve their disagreements and conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy, not coercion.”

The Vatican has declined to comment to the Post, beyond condemning, since the time of John Paul II, the embargo. But when asked this month about Cuba, Parolin told the press: “We did what we had to do for Cuba. We met with the Foreign Minister and took the necessary steps, always with a view to a solution based on dialogue for the existing problems.” Nothing more.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Prisoners Defenders Raises to 23 the Number of Political Prisoners Released in Cuba Following the Agreement With the Vatican

The NGO denounces that the regime is once again mixing common criminals with opposition members.

Those released receive a prison benefit that allows them to leave prison without their sentence being extinguished. / EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, March 27, 2026 / The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) raised to 23 this Friday the number of political prisoners released in Cuba since the regime announced, two weeks ago, a process agreed to with the Vatican to release 51 inmates.

According to the NGO, most of those released so far are protesters from 11 July 2021, ’11J’, the largest anti-government protest on the island. Many of them were serving sentences of between six and 18 years for charges commonly used by the Cuban repressive apparatus: public disorder, contempt, assault, and sedition.

PD also questioned the true scope of the measure. The day before, the organization denounced on social media that not all of the 51 released prisoners were political prisoners, a situation, it emphasized, that had already occurred in January 2025. At that time, of the 553 prisoners released, “only 40%” – 219 people – were imprisoned for political reasons, while the rest were common criminals.

The NGO went further, asserting that among the released common criminals was at least one person convicted of murder, in addition to others sentenced for robbery and other common crimes. The complaint points to a practice Havana has used before: inflating the figures for humanitarian gestures by including cases unrelated to political repression. continue reading

Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons

The first prison releases coincided with the Cuban government’s announcement that it had begun talks with representatives of the US administration, although authorities have not publicly linked the two moves.

In any case, these are not pardons. Those released receive a prison benefit that allows them to leave prison without their sentence being extinguished. That is, they remain under sanction and subject to compliance with certain requirements for the remainder of their sentence.

The data comes at a time of escalating repression on the island. Cuba ended February with 1,214 people detained for political reasons, according to the latest monthly report from Prisoners Defenders. This is the highest figure recorded by the organization since it began documenting the situation of Cuban political prisoners.

This number once again illustrates the scale of the repressive wave unleashed after 11 July 2021, when hundreds of Cubans were convicted in trials criticized by international organizations and marred by a lack of due process. While the regime presents these releases as a sign of openness, the data suggests otherwise: prison remains one of its primary tools of control.

Most of those who have benefited so far are protesters from 11 July 2021

The list of those released includes Ibrahín Ariel González Hodelin, 26, sentenced to nine years in Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba; Ariel Pérez Montesino, 52, sentenced to 10 years in Guanajay, Artemisa; Juan Pablo Martínez Monterrey, 32, with 11 years in Ceiba 5, Artemisa; Ronald García Sánchez, 33, sentenced to 14 years in Toledo 2, Marianao; Adael Jesús Leyva Díaz, 29, with 13 years in Zone 0 of Combinado del Este; Oscar Bárbaro Bravo Cruzata, 27, sentenced to 13 years in La Lima, Guanabacoa; José Luis Sánchez Tito, 34, with 16 years in Combinado del Este; Roberto Ferrer Gener, 52, sentenced to 15 years in that same prison; Deyvis Javier Torres Acosta, 33 years old, with 10 years in Valle Grande, and Yussuan Villalba Sierra, 35 years old, also sentenced to 10 years in a forced labor detachment of the Combinado del Este; Eduardo Álvarez Rigal, 36 years old, sentenced to 13 years in La Lima, and Wilmer Moreno Suárez, 37 years old, with one of the highest sentences on the list: 18 years in Zone 0.

Also listed are Frank Aldama Rodríguez, 33, sentenced to 16 years in Combinado del Este; Miguel Enrique Girón Velázquez, 29, with 11 years in La Aguada youth prison in Holguín; Hansel Felipe Arbolay Prim, 32, sentenced to 10 years in prison 1580 in San Miguel del Padrón; Jorge Vallejo Venegas, 39, with 15 years in La Lima; Luis Esteffani Hernández Valdés, 34, sentenced to six years in Ho Chi Minh, Bainoa, Jaruco; Franklin Reymundo Fernández Rodríguez, 25, with nine years in the Holguín provincial prison; Yunier Sánchez Rodríguez, 39, sentenced to 11 years in Valle Grande; Carlos Pérez Cosme, 38, with 10 years in Toledo 2; Felipe Almirall, 65, sentenced to nine years in La Lima; Lester Ayala Alarcón, 40 years old, with 10 years in Kilo 9, Camagüey, and Liván Hernández Lago, 51 years old, sentenced to seven years in Ceiba 5.

The list also confirms the weight of Havana and Artemisa in the repression after 11J, with several of the toughest prisons and forced labor camps in the country concentrating a good part of these cases.

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