Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Preventive Detention Ordered for Henry Constantín, Detained at State Security Headquarters in Camagüey

His defense filed a habeas corpus petition for the journalist, who has been detained for five days, and denounces the lack of access to the case file.

Constantín was also arrested a year ago while accompanying Iris Mariño to a summons with the political police. / Facebook / Henry Constantín

14ymedio, Madrid, September 22, 2026 – Independent journalist Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba and vice president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in the region, remains detained at Villa María Luisa, the State Security headquarters for operations and interrogations in Camagüey. According to the investigator in the case, preventive detention has already been ordered for him. His defense, which has denounced not having access to the case file, filed a habeas corpus petition this Monday to guarantee the reporter’s rights after he had been detained for five days.

Constantín’s lawyer went this Monday to Villa María Luisa, where she was able to speak with the investigator in the case, whom she identifies as Juan Pablo. He told her that preventive detention had already been approved and that the case file was with the Prosecutor’s Office. The lawyer went there and requested access to the documentation—as provided for by law—in order to learn the details of the charges Constantín is facing and provide him with a legitimate defense, including a possible appeal or legal challenge. However, she “found no officials available,” which prevented her from learning the accusation.

It is known only that Constantín is accused of an alleged offense of disobedience for failing to attend a summons issued for September 9 at the Identification, Immigration and Foreigners Directorate, in the Vista Hermosa neighborhood. Shortly afterward, on the 16th, the journalist received another communication instructing him to appear at the Second Unit of the Revolutionary National Police, located on the Carretera Central, where he was arrested, supposedly, for the events that occurred the previous week. continue reading

It is known only that Constantín is accused of an alleged offense of disobedience for failing to attend a summons issued for September 9

Constantín’s defense argues in the habeas corpus petition that the Criminal Procedure Law provides only for a “fine of up to one hundred installments” for failing to attend a summons without justified cause, while detention would be imposed in the event of failing to appear for a second summons. Since the journalist did appear on that occasion, the lawyer argues that the offense of disobedience with which he is charged is not valid. Nevertheless, the impossibility of viewing the case file leaves the lawyer in the dark.

“Administrative obstacles have been repeated during the five days he has remained detained,” La Hora de Cuba denounced when reporting what happened. “On September 17, after a criminal defense lawyer was hired, she sent a colleague to Villa María Luisa, in the Garrido neighborhood, at around 2:30 p.m. to inquire about Henry’s situation, but he was told that investigator Juan Pablo had already left because he lives in Nuevitas, a different municipality,” they stated.

The statement, posted on its Facebook page, highlights the words of IAPA President Pierre Manigault, who denounced days ago that this is “a new and serious episode of harassment against the independent press.” “The summonses, detentions, surveillance and house arrests against Constantín are part of a pattern of pressure aimed at obstructing his journalistic work,” Martha Ramos, chair of that organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information for Cuba, also said.

La Hora de Cuba has insisted on the importance of any judicial process being “transparent and without obstacles that block access to fundamental rights. The demand for the release of our director and an end to the persecution of those who practice independent journalism remains.”

This detention has already surpassed in length the longest detention the journalist had previously experienced in June 2025, when he spent four days, also at Villa María Luisa, after accompanying journalist Iris Mariño to a summons. On that occasion, he was accused of an offense of “contempt” over a publication about the actions of a State Security agent. The case was never brought to trial.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubalex Reports 115 Deaths of Prisoners in Cuba’s Prisons Between 2024 and 2026

At least 21 deaths were documented as resulting from “severe malnutrition or starvation,” another 12 linked to communicable diseases, and nine to violence.

The prisons in Guantánamo and Granma rank fourth and fifth in deaths in custody. / EFE

EFE/(via 14ymedio), Havana, September 22, 2026 – The NGO Cubalex reported in a special report published Monday that between February 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026, it recorded 115 deaths in state custody at Cuban penitentiary facilities, involving people deprived of their liberty by judicial ruling.

According to the analysis, negligence or denial of medical care constitutes the predominant mechanism, identified in at least 80 cases, approximately 70% of the total.

Cubalex notes that the records describe delays in assistance, interruptions or absence of treatment, and a lack of response to situations involving known risks.

Cubalex notes that the records describe delays in assistance, interruptions or absence of treatment, and a lack of response to situations involving known risks

“Their recurrence and concentration in certain establishments point to serious deficiencies in the provision of food, health care, and the prevention of collective risks, which go beyond the isolated actions of certain officials,” the text emphasizes.

The report, which does not specify which cases involve political prisoners, also documents “lethal violence” attributed to “prison agents, prolonged use of means of coercion,” as well as deaths of “particular suspicion” in which “official versions of suicide coexist with indications of violence.”

In cases of deaths attributed to suicide, the analysis reveals a history of “neglected depression, previous attempts without follow-up, and degrading treatment.”

Regarding deaths caused by other inmates, the report raises questions about supervision and protection against third parties. continue reading

Cubalex warns that attributing a death to self-harming behavior or to another inmate “does not rule out examining the actions or omissions by the state that may have contributed to the outcome.”

It also reports that three Cuban provinces show a marked concentration of prison mortality, accounting for more than half of the cases: Santiago de Cuba (29 deaths, or 25.2%), Havana (21 deaths, or 18.3%), and Mayabeque (16 deaths, or 13.9%).

They are followed by Guantánamo, which ranks fourth with 11 deaths (9.6%), most of them occurring so far in 2026 and associated with malnutrition, starvation, and tuberculosis, along with Granma with 7 deaths (6.1%).

The NGO cites cases of death in the Island’s prisons due to “medical denial or negligence,” a mechanism it considers “dominant,” having been identified in at least 80 of the 115 recorded deaths (70%).

Three provinces show a marked concentration of prison mortality, accounting for more than half of the cases: Santiago de Cuba (29 deaths, or 25.2%), Havana (21 deaths, or 18.3%), and Mayabeque (16 deaths, or 13.9%)

It also adds that at least 21 deaths were documented due to “severe malnutrition or starvation,” another 12 linked to communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, and 9 from extrajudicial execution, characterized by the direct use of force by state agents or by indications of physical violence.

It also mentions 7 cases identified under a “specific pattern,” which is “the granting of releases or extrapenitentiary leave” shortly before the prisoners’ deaths.

In particular, it states that of the 115 deaths, 112 involved men and 3 women, which in its view constitutes a “strongly masculinized” context.

It adds that the overall average age is 41.9 years and, in the section concerning “racial bias,” indicates that people of African descent represent 27% (31 cases).

This situation is taking place amid the profound economic crisis affecting Cuba, the worst in recent decades, evident in shortages of basic necessities such as food, medicine, and fuel, high inflation, economic contraction, growing dollarization, and prolonged daily blackouts.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An External Company Will Manage Visa Documentation for the Spanish Consulate in Havana

The service, which already existed in nearly 60 countries and is now arriving in Cuba, costs 17 euros and removes workload from consular staff

Line for paperwork alongside the Spanish Consulate in Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, September 22, 2026 / The Spanish Consulate General in Havana announced this Monday a change in the handling of visa applications for Cubans. Starting next Monday, October 5, public service will move from the historic consular headquarters to a new Visa Application Center run by an external company. The office is located on Avenida 31 between 18 and 14, in Miramar, in the municipality of Playa.

The measure seeks to speed up the numerous files piling up at the consular headquarters by gradually transferring some of its functions to this system, which was already in place in nearly 60 countries but had not yet reached the island. The measure will nonetheless entail a cost for users, since the company charges 17 euros for processing, on top of the usual consular fees. The information repeatedly clarifies that this will not change the criteria for granting visas, which will remain solely in the consulate’s hands.

Although the company’s name has not been specified, it can be assumed that management falls to BLS International Services Limited, which won a tender from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2016, taking the service away from the previous operator, VFS Global, also an Indian firm. The company recently renewed its contract to raise the fee to the 17 euros it now charges users worldwide. That money goes not only toward renting the offices but also toward processing documentation, collecting biometric data and returning documents once they have been processed.

The rollout will begin on October 5 with the handling of short-stay Schengen visas; it will continue on October 12 with the inclusion of national study or work visas; and it will conclude on October 19, when applications from family members of EU citizens will be added, thereby completing the full transfer of visa services. continue reading

The rollout will begin on October 5 with the handling of short-stay Schengen visas

The Consulate has warned that the reorganization will bring the definitive closure of the old booking system through the Bookitit platform and the suspension of receiving credentials by email, a service that ended this past September 18. The authorities add that those who already had a confirmed appointment will keep it on the confirmed date and time, but at the new Miramar address. In addition, those who submitted their application before the September cutoff will receive their appointment assignment directly by email between October and November through the official address info@spainvisa-cuba.com.

Those who did not already have a reserved appointment, however, will be able to start testing the online booking platform on December 1. Until that date, the consulate will only handle extremely urgent cases duly certified electronically. The new center will also offer VIP services, payment for which is voluntary and includes personalized assistance ranging from help filling out forms to taking photographs and photocopies. The Spanish Administration has stressed, in so many words, that paying for these options has no bearing on the final decision on a case nor will it speed up the resolution of the visa.
The Spanish Administration has stressed, in so many words, that paying for these options has no bearing on the final decision on a case nor will it speed up the resolution of the visa

The transfer of the logistics for these procedures in Cuba to an external company right now is no coincidence. The Havana Embassy has been overwhelmed for years, as officials must handle a vast number of files – not only those related to visa applications, but now, very particularly, grants of nationality – so sparing them time on the mere processing of visa documentation was key to letting them focus on other procedures, as well as on the analysis and decision for each case.

The Spanish Administration has emphasized, literally, that choosing these options does not influence the final decision on the application nor will it expedite the visa process.

The Spanish Consulate in Havana has received a flood of applications, second only to those from Argentina, although outsourcing of the visa service has already been running there for years. Sources at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed to 14ymedio late last year that more than 600,000 Cubans have applied for or begun the process to obtain Spanish nationality under the Democratic Memory Law at the Havana Consulate. The figure includes both those who have already formally filed their case and those who requested an appointment before the deadline closed on October 22, 2025.

In that context, it emerged that Palco’s services had been contracted – for more than one million euros – to reinforce office and domestic staff at the consulate itself. The president of the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad, Violeta Alonso, had repeatedly called for consular services to be strengthened for this and other procedures, arguing that, in addition to resolving nationality applications, the demand for other services sought by the new population also had to be addressed.

This latest shift of the visa procedure is one more step toward unclogging the bottleneck that the Spanish diplomatic mission on the island remains.

Translated by GH.

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Havana No Longer Finds the Support in Spain It Once Had

An initiative by the governing parties in Congress against US sanctions fails to gain the support needed to move forward.

El diputado de Sumar Enrique Santiago defendió la iniciativa. / EP

14ymedio, Miami, Frank Calzón, September 22, 2026 / The unthinkable has just happened. In the Spanish parliament, the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Sumar – both in government – have failed to push through an initiative asking the Executive to reject United States sanctions against Cuba.

As the Madrid newspaper El País reported, the initiative was championed by Enrique Santiago, secretary general of the Communist Party of Spain and a former lawyer for the FARC in Colombia, who clarified that defending the Cuban people does not mean supporting its Government, although in speaking of interference the sponsor neglected to mention the central role played by the Cuban regime in coordinating, financing and providing armed training to dozens of terrorist organizations around the world.

With the backing of the Popular Party (PP), Vox and the Navarrese People’s Union (UPN), the Congress of Deputies struck down the proposal put forward by Sumar and later amended by the PSOE, which condemned the new tariffs ordered against Cuba by US President Donald Trump and called for an end to the embargo, in addition to urging closer cooperation with the island.

Both the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Junts per Catalunya – which voted in favor of Pedro Sánchez’s investiture at the time – chose not to back the text and opted to abstain, arguing that the political situation inside Cuba must be taken into account. The proposal under debate originated from an initial, far harsher initiative, which called for an “immediate, total and unconditional” lifting of the embargo and denounced “aggression” against the island. continue reading

Likewise, the original demand that Spain promote “concrete initiatives” within the European Union to end these economic pressure measures was dropped.

Likewise, the original demand that Spain promote “concrete initiatives” within the European Union to end these economic pressure measures was dropped

During the debate in Congress, Sumar spokesman Enrique Santiago argued that the new measures adopted by Trump “have worsened” the island’s economic, energy and humanitarian situation. For its part, the PSOE, which also voiced its opposition to the embargo, explained that defending the Cuban people does not mean supporting its Government, denouncing the existence of arbitrary detentions, mistreatment and persecution of human rights defenders on the island.

PNV MP Maribel Vaquero described the Cuban Executive as a “totalitarian government,” and Junts MP Isidre Gavín rejected the initiative, arguing that it “whitewashes the left-wing dictatorship.”

The spokespeople for the PP, Vox and UPN focused their remarks on denouncing repression and the lack of freedoms on the island. The other left-wing political organizations, however – Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Bildu, Podemos and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) – aligned themselves with the proposal and voted in favor.

This development coincides with a further series of setbacks for the Cuban foreign ministry: the expulsion of Cuban diplomats from Santo Domingo for attempting to abduct several Cuban athletes who did not want to return to the island; the closure of the Dutch, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian and Ukrainian embassies in Havana; the elections in Bolivia, where Havana’s friends lost power; and voices within the European Community seeking to make the flow of millions of euros to the island conditional on the withdrawal of the Cuban contingent that, alongside North Korean troops, serves in Putin’s army in Ukraine. To that must be added the vote against the embargo at the United Nations, where, although the resolution so important to Havana was approved, the number of votes against that condemnation of the United States keeps rising. In the Plaza de la Revolución, the authorities must also weigh the uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump’s policy toward Cuba.

Translated by GH

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Entrepreneurs Close to and Opposed to Trump Compete to Be the First to Arrive in Cuba

The exile community has watched as changes they considered imminent have been postponed, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the exile community’s plans is to invest $8 billion to renovate eight airports on the Island. / Invasor

14ymedio, Madrid, September 21, 2026 – With November in sight, the halfway point of Donald Trump’s second term is approaching, and Cuban Americans continue to wait for a change in Havana that once seemed imminent but has not arrived. “They haven’t changed the goal, but they have moved the goalposts,” says Tony Costa, a businessman, president of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, and one of the best-known faces of the historic exile community in Miami.

At 86, he is one of the wealthy men now sketching out the future of Cuba on the other side of the Florida Straits together with Juan Omar Sixto and Jorge Mas, all of them close to the Republican Party and featured in a report that The Wall Street Journal is dedicating this Monday to the plans of those anxiously awaiting the moment of a power vacuum in Havana.

“We have waited 67 years. We have to start,” Sixto, president of the new Cuban-American National Chamber of Commerce (CNCCA) said at a group meeting in June. Their plans encompass all kinds of areas, from the political — a provisional government with two years to lay the groundwork for free elections and the temporary application of the 1940 Constitution — to the economic.

In the latter area, the needs are endless: engineers have been recruited to analyze the reform of the energy infrastructure, banks, and companies. Investment funds have been contacted to provide money for reconstruction and architects to remodel the Island’s eight airports, a project estimated to cost $8 billion. Lawyers are available to pursue claims for confiscated properties.

Engineers have been recruited to analyze the reform of the energy infrastructure, banks, and companies. Investment funds have been contacted, along with architects and lawyers to pursue claims for confiscated properties

“Anyone hoping to take a bite out of the Cuban piñata is hiring lawyers and lobbyists, particularly within Trump’s inner circle,” Ric Herrero, director of the Cuba Study Group, told The Wall Street Journal. “People are lining up for a transition that is by no means guaranteed, preparing for a friendly takeover or simply wasting their time,” he said. His statements highlight the quiet competition between businessmen close to and opposed to Trump, all ready to position themselves to land on the Island at the first opportunity. continue reading

Among the fervent Republicans is also Jorge Mas, president of the most powerful organization in the exile community, the Cuban American National Foundation and co-owner of the Inter Miami soccer club, who says that Trump once asked him how much it would cost to rebuild the Island. Some $90 billion for the first three years of the transition was the businessman’s answer, adding how easy it would be for them to raise the money.

Time is passing, however, and nerves are beginning to fray. Mas is a personal friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Like most of those cited in the report, he expected to see a change in Cuba by summer, one they had anticipated ever since January 3, when U.S. troops captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Washington has, in practice, taken political and economic control of that country, although Chavismo remains, one of the greatest fears of these exiles.

“However, Havana has proved resilient, and with Trump’s attention consumed by the war in Iran, any plan to focus on Cuba has taken a back seat,” The Wall Street Journal noted. The newspaper says that senior administration officials are already talking about timelines so long that they could extend until the end of Trump’s term in 2028. It also recalls that Rubio was very annoyed this summer when he was asked for an approximate timetable for the end of the regime. “Global affairs are not a miniseries where you go through three episodes and it’s over. Global affairs are difficult,” the Secretary of State snapped at reporters, after saying they were prepared to be “very realistic and patient about how” that change would come.

The Wall Street Journal explains that Rubio has ordered sanctions to be maintained as a constant trickle, less for their actual effects than for the psychological pressure they create and the permanent sense that something could happen, without anything actually taking place. Something the newspaper adds that is also perceived by Mike Hammer, the head of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

People close to the diplomat’s circle told The Wall Street Journal that, after months of saying in the U.S. and Europe that change was imminent, he has stopped mentioning 2026.

People close to the diplomat’s circle told The ‘Wall Street Journal’ that, after months of saying in the U.S. and Europe that change was imminent, he has stopped mentioning 2026

Similar ambivalence can be perceived in the words of Bryan Calvo, the young mayor of Hialeah. “I don’t think we have ever been this close. But at the same time, if it doesn’t happen now, it will never happen,” he said.

The approaches are, the newspaper report insists, at a standstill. The exile community opposes the dialogue route through Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, El Cangrejo, the general’s grandson. The demands made by U.S. officials on the regime have had very limited success: yes to economic reforms, nothing in the way of political changes.

The Wall Street Journal cites a survey published by The Miami Herald that concluded, after questioning 800 Cuban Americans, that four out of five see military action as the only option, since the Cuban population is not going to protest enough. “The country is completely paralyzed. People walk around like zombies,” says economist Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva. Other analysts told the outlet that it is highly unlikely that Cubans will rise up: they have done so only twice before in 70 years; the opposition is disorganized; young people have emigrated; and older people can’t take it anymore. “We are children of mistreatment. You try to survive and get by,” admitted a day laborer from Havana who was interviewed.

Meanwhile, the CNCCA is not giving up on its efforts and is seeking, through volunteers, to teach the Cuban population how modern capitalism works.

Marcell Felipe, president of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, sums it up: “This is our Berlin Wall moment.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Live and Let Live: The Uprising of the Canary Island Tobacco Farmers and Cuba’s Future

Today as yesterday, Cubans continue to fight against a state monopoly that stifles the natural growth of their own land

‘Reprisals against the Tobacco Farmers,’ engraving by Cuban artist Juan Emilio Hernández Giró. / Public domain

14ymedio, Madrid, Rolando Gallardo, September 20, 2026 / On February 23, 1723, eleven bodies hung from the trees on the hill of Jesús del Monte, on the outskirts of Havana. They were not thieves or murderers. They were tobacco farmers of Canary Island descent who grew tobacco in the fertile fields surrounding the capital, defeated three days earlier in an armed clash in Santiago de las Vegas. Their crime had been refusing to keep selling their harvest at a price that was not enough to live on. The Crown left them hanging for several days, as a warning, so that no one else would dare defy the State.

That scene, almost forgotten, is the origin of one of the oldest and most enduring struggles in Cuban history: that of the peasant against the state apparatus that seizes the fruit of his own labor.

The tobacco farmers were not rich, nor did they aspire to be. Many had come from the Canary Islands fleeing an island where the land was concentrated in a few hands, with no assets other than their willingness to work. Unlike the great sugar planters, they settled in the rural areas around Havana to grow tobacco and minor crops. In Cuba they found something they had not had in their homeland: a plot of their own, a piece of land where they could sow and live off what they sowed. They were not asking for privileges. They were simply asking to live and let live.

That balance was broken on April 11, 1717, when Felipe V decreed the tobacco monopoly in Cuba and created the Havana Factoría, an institution with a single purpose: to buy the entire harvest at a price fixed by the Crown itself, prohibiting any sale that did not go through it. The tobacco farmer ceased to be the owner of what he grew. continue reading

He became the captive supplier of a single buyer that, moreover, paid late, paid poorly, and sometimes paid in vouchers that no one accepted at their real value.

They achieved something that would never happen again in the entire history of Spanish Cuba: they forced the resignation of the governor and Captain General, Vicente de Rajá, and put him on a ship back to Spain

The response was not long in coming. That same August, hundreds of tobacco farmers armed with their farming tools marched on Havana. They achieved something that would never happen again in the entire history of Spanish Cuba: they forced the resignation of the governor and Captain General, Vicente de Rajá, and put him on a ship back to Spain along with the Factoría’s officials. It was an act of extraordinary boldness, proof that an organized people can stand up to an authority that has lost all legitimacy.

But for history to be useful, it must be told in full. The victory was short-lived. The Crown sent Gregorio Guazo Calderón as the new governor, who arrived on the island in 1718 with regular troops brought from Spain and the express order to restore the monopoly by force and punish those responsible. In 1720 there was a second uprising, fueled by continuing discontent and the governor’s pressure to enforce the monopoly; this time it was quelled through the mediation of the clergy itself, led by Bishop Jerónimo Valdés. And in 1723 came the third, the most desperate: the insurgent tobacco farmers began destroying the fields of those farmers who had complied with the Factoría’s orders, which unleashed the military repression that ended in the massacre of Jesús del Monte.

The lesson of that 1717 expulsion is not that it is enough to drive out one man to change a system. It is that a people can have the courage to stand firm, but if it fails to transform the structure that produces that governor, those in power simply send another, with more soldiers. It is worth remembering before turning a gesture into a fable.

That is what the tobacco farmers were denouncing before the word existed to explain it: that the fruit of the land belongs to whoever works it, not to the apparatus that stands between the furrow and the market

The most revealing thing about this story is that the enemy of the tobacco farmers was not Spain as a nation, nor Cuba as a subjugated territory. It was mercantilism, a system that squeezed the Cuban peasant, the Canary Islander, and the Castilian alike. That same year, 1720, the people of Santa Cruz de Tenerife rose up and killed the intendant Bartolomé de Ceballos, who was trying to impose on the Canary Islands the same kind of fiscal control over tobacco that the Cuban tobacco farmers suffered. On the mainland, monopolies on salt, brandy, playing cards, and gunpowder had existed for centuries. The tobacco monopoly was not a punishment designed against Cuba: it was the revenue-collection method of an entire empire, applied without distinction to any producer without political power of his own.

And here something remarkable happens: without knowing it, without even being able to name it, the tobacco farmers were defending almost to the letter what the Frenchman François Quesnay would formulate as economic doctrine forty years later. In his Tableau Économique of 1758, Quesnay argued that land was the only real source of wealth, and that trade, when it becomes a forced intermediary, is a sterile activity that merely appropriates what others produce. That, exactly, is what the tobacco farmers were denouncing through their actions before the word existed to explain it: that the fruit of the land belongs to whoever works it, not to the apparatus that stands between the furrow and the market.

Today as yesterday, Cubans continue to fight against a state monopoly that stifles the natural growth of their own land

Today as yesterday, Cubans continue to fight against a state monopoly that stifles the natural growth of their own land. Sugar production has fallen to levels not seen since the Ten Years’ War in the 19th century. Rice and pork production have plummeted by more than half in just a few years. And meanwhile, official data show that the real-estate and hotel sector – led by the military conglomerate that runs tourism – absorbs as much as 40 percent of state investment, compared to less than 3 percent received by agriculture. Tourists may not arrive. The potatoes and malanga have to arrive, because the daily subsistence of every Cuban depends on the land, not on tourism run by those who control power.

Three hundred years after Jesús del Monte, the question remains the same one those peasants armed with their farming tools asked themselves: who has the right to decide the price of another man’s sweat. The tobacco farmers did not win that war. But they left a lesson that Cuba’s future cannot afford to forget: no country prospers by squeezing those who sow their own bread. Live and let live was never a slogan. It was, and remains, a condition for the survival of the nation.

Translated by GH.

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Costa Rica Brands Cuban Regime a “Vile Tyranny That Has Denied Freedom and Prosperity toIts People”

During a visit to the US in which he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar reaffirmed the break in relations with Havana

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar Rivera (l.) with Secretary of State Marco Rubio (r.), during his recent visit to the US. / EFE/Lenin Nolly

EFE (via 14ymedio), San José, Costa Rica, September 20, 2026 / San José/Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Manuel Tovar Rivera, branded the Cuban government a “vile tyranny” that has denied freedom to its people for six decades, and reaffirmed the end of diplomatic relations, on Saturday.

“Costa Rica is not indifferent to a vile tyranny that for more than six decades has denied freedom and prosperity to the Cuban people, who today live in the most despicable misery,” Tovar said on his account on the social network X.

The head of Costa Rican diplomacy added that “we are firm and clear in our severing of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime.”

On Friday, a source at the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry confirmed the break in relations to EFE, adding that it dates back to last March, when then-President Rodrigo Chaves and his foreign minister Arnoldo André announced the closure of the embassy in Havana due to the deterioration of human rights on the island, and asked Cuba to close its own embassy in San José.

“We are firm and clear in our severing of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime”

However, the Costa Rican government had not publicly referred to that decision as a total break in relations. continue reading

In an interview with the US outlet Miami Herald this week, during a visit to the US in which he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, current Foreign Minister Tovar said that his country broke off relations with Cuba and that the decision was not limited to the closing of embassies and the withdrawal of personnel.

The Costa Rican embassy in Havana had had no diplomatic staff since this past February 5, and, according to what the Costa Rican government said in March, the closure constituted a “firm signal of concern and an invitation for significant changes to take place that would allow for the restoration of the conditions necessary for an eventual reestablishment of full diplomatic relations.”

The Cuban government described the Costa Rican foreign minister’s statement on the break in relations as “surprising” on Friday, since, it claims, it “has never been formally notified by the authorities of that country.”

Costa Rica broke off its diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, but ties were restored in 2009 by then-Costa Rican President Óscar Arias

Cuba claims that on March 17, 2026, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship informed the island’s Foreign Ministry, “through a Diplomatic Note and without offering any argument, of the unilateral decision to close that country’s Embassy in Cuba.”

And it adds that the Costa Rican government also requested that Cuba, “without any kind of justification and invoking an alleged and unfounded reciprocity,” withdraw the diplomatic staff from its Embassy in San José and “retain only consular and administrative personnel.”

It stresses that on that occasion, the then-Costa Rican foreign minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco, informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry that those decisions “did not signify a break in diplomatic relations.”

Costa Rica broke off its diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, but ties were restored on March 18, 2009, by then-Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias.

Translated by GH.

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Two People Die When the Entranceway of Their Lawton Home Collapses in Havana

The victims were sitting in front of their home when part of the structure collapsed on top of them.

According to García, the house was left uninhabitable, with visible cracks and a single column supporting what remains of the entranceway. / Geovanys F. García Vistorte

14ymedio, Havana, September 20, 2026 – Two people died this Sunday in the partial collapse of a home located at the corner of 8th and San Francisco, in Lawton, a Havana neighborhood in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, according to Geovanys García, who reported the incident on Facebook. The victims, two elderly people whose identities had not been disclosed at the time of writing, were sitting in the entranceway when part of the structure fell on their heads at around 10:30 am.

“Her name was Regla, everyone in the neighborhood knew her, and she was about 70 years old,” a local resident told 14ymedio. “The other person who died is her 58-year-old brother-in-law, but the nephew who was in the house was miraculously saved because at that moment he was not in the entranceway.” The bodies of the deceased were laid out at the Mauline funeral home on María Auxiliadora Street in Arroyo Naranjo, this newspaper confirmed.

“Regla had been worried about the condition of her house for some time, running around from one place to another trying to get it repaired and obtain the materials, but she had not managed to accomplish anything,” the nearby resident added. “The roof leaked every time it rained, and with the downpours in recent days, that got much worse.”

Firefighters and medical personnel took part in the rescue efforts, which were complicated by “the jumble of concrete and metal that came down” and by the risk that other parts of the building might give way. According to Geovanys García’s account, the house was left uninhabitable, with visible cracks and a single column supporting what remains of the entranceway. continue reading

A front column also ended up leaning against an adjoining home of more recent construction, which apparently did not suffer any visible damage.

The building had a beam-and-slab structure and a tall support, more than five meters high, a circumstance that may have worsened the impact of the collapse on the victims. The recent rains and the deteriorated condition of the building are cited in the post as factors that may have contributed to the tragedy, although so far no technical assessment of the causes is known.

Geovanys F. García Vistorte / The building had a beam-and-slab structure and a tall support, more than five meters high, a circumstance that may have worsened the impact of the collapse on the victims.

Neighbors, distressed by the two deaths, also expressed concern about another resident who remained inside the house after the collapse, presumably a child of the deceased.

The accident once again draws attention to a problem that has affected Havana residents for years and that worsens during the rainy season. Braced roofs, cracked balconies, beams cracked by humidity, and façades threatening to collapse are part of the everyday landscape in numerous neighborhoods of the capital, not only in municipalities with the oldest homes.

Diez de Octubre has recorded several serious incidents. In March 2025, two people, a woman and a 15-year-old girl, were injured when a family building collapsed at 552 Calzada de Diez de Octubre, near Santa Irene. Four months later, another building in the municipality that was “in the process of being demolished” collapsed with three people inside, and one of them died. That same day, the collapse of a building on Monte Street, in Old Havana, caused three other deaths, including that of a seven-year-old girl.

Last September, another elderly man died after the partial collapse of a building on Sol Street, between Egido and Villegas, in Old Havana. Authorities acknowledged at the time that the building had been in an unsafe structural condition for years. A neighbor then told 14ymedio that the three metal beams supporting the roof were rotted by moisture and that the wooden supports were unable to prevent the structure from giving way.

Official data released in 2025 put Cuba’s accumulated housing needs at 805,583

A month earlier, the partial collapse of the former headquarters of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, on Reina Street in Centro Habana, had left an elderly woman injured and some 15 families, nearly 50 people, unable to return to their homes. In February of that same year, ten families lost their homes after a three-story building collapsed in San Bernardino, between Durege and General Serrano, in Santos Suárez, another neighborhood in Diez de Octubre. The building had been declared uninhabitable years earlier.

The scale of the deterioration goes beyond individual cases. Official data released in 2025 put Cuba’s accumulated housing needs at 805,583: 398,364 homes required rehabilitation and another 407,219 had to be rebuilt.

Rain often accelerates the collapse of structures weakened over decades by humidity, lack of maintenance, and the difficulty of obtaining materials. In June 2024, after several days of storms, at least 19 buildings suffered partial or total collapses in Havana, according to a source consulted by 14ymedio at the time.

This Sunday, however, those statistics once again took on a tragic dimension in Lawton.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Group of Newly Graduated Ghanaian Doctors Reports That They Have Been Stranded in Cuba Since August

The doctors, who were supposed to return to their country almost two months ago, are also demanding payment of overdue stipends.

Oteng Boakye also said that they have gone six months without receiving their stipends. / Citi News Digest

14ymedio, Havana, September 20, 2026 – A group of newly graduated Ghanaian doctors reported that they have been stranded on the Island for almost two months. According to the president of the doctors’ association, Raphael Oteng Boakye, the professionals, whose number he did not specify, are part of the nearly 2,000 who graduated last July. Among them are Cubans, Colombians, Palestinians, and Jamaicans. The young man called for the intervention of Ghana President John Dramani Mahama to “order their return home.”

According to what Oteng Boakye told the newspaper Citi News Digest, the delay could affect the protocols for “obtaining a medical license” in his country. According to the doctor, they must complete “six months of clinical practice before taking the medical licensing examination,” which is scheduled for next March.

The doctors were scheduled to travel on August 28, but the date was changed to September 3, 4, and then to September 7, September 9, and September 15 and 17. “We have not received any concrete information about a definitive schedule for our departure,” he said.

“They tell us stories over and over again. So right now we don’t even know what to believe,” says one of the graduates

The doctor said he had been deceived by representatives of the Ghana Scholarship Authority and the Ghanaian diplomatic mission in Cuba. “They tell us stories over and over again. So right now we don’t even know what to believe.” continue reading

Oteng Boakye also said that they have gone six months without receiving their stipends. Although they were informed that the money for four months had been deposited, they have received nothing. “We have not received what corresponds to these months, and very little or nothing is being done to ensure that we receive it here before we leave,” he said.

The doctors have also not received the annual $360 allowance for books during the past five years. In addition, some of the graduates’ health insurance has expired.

“We are suffering a great deal of psychological stress and would greatly appreciate being taken out of this country as soon as possible,” Oteng Boakye said.

During the last week of July, this group took part in the graduation ceremony held at the Karl Marx Theater. The rector of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, Yoandra Muro Valle, highlighted representatives from 73 countries: Colombia, Ghana, Palestine, and Jamaica, as well as 389 from the Latin American School of Medicine and 193 from other training programs.

“Make way for your future, fight every day, every second of your life; that is the best message of love and confidence.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘She Has a Craving for a Salad’

A retiree walks around the city of Matanzas, appalled by the prohibitive prices of tomatoes, avocados, and green beans.

En Matanzas, un plato con tomates o aguacate se ha convertido en un lujo para un jubilado que recibe 4.000 pesos mensuales. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, September 20, 2026 – As if he were fulfilling his wife’s last wish, Anselmo went out into the street on Friday with an errand that years ago would have been simple in Matanzas: to find some vegetable so they would not have to repeat the same old meal over the weekend. “She has a craving for a salad,” he says. But a dish with tomatoes or avocado has become a luxury for a retiree who receives 4,000 pesos a month.

A block and a half from his home, on San Luis Road, a private stand displays enough vegetables to delight the eye and sadden the pocketbook. Anselmo preferred to keep walking in search of a street vendor, one of those who still have a reputation for having lower prices than the market stalls.

In San Juan de Dios he found tomatoes. “I cleaned my glasses because I thought they were fogged up,” he recalls. A pound, with small, poor-quality fruit, cost 800 pesos. “I took a picture to show my wife, so she won’t think I didn’t want to make the effort.”

El problema comienza cuando el cliente pregunta el precio. Entonces se mira, se calcula y, muchas veces, se sigue de largo. / 14ymedio

Tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, green beans, and carrots have been disappearing from the tables of numerous residents of Matanzas, victims of an inflation that turns the recommendation to eat vegetables every day into a nutritional fantasy. The contrast is particularly painful in a province traditionally known for producing fruits, root vegetables, and green vegetables. continue reading

The market stalls can still look splendid. Green peppers, red tomatoes, citrus fruits, potatoes, and pumpkins form mountains of color that seem to announce abundance. The problem begins when the customer asks the price. Then they look, calculate, and, many times, keep walking.

“Every day they come by my house selling avocados for 250 pesos. My mouth waters, but I have to choose between pleasure and necessity,” laments Anselmo, who after working for the State for more than half a century has gone months without serving one of these fruits at his table.

On the way to Camilo Cienfuegos Avenue, he found a truck from an agricultural cooperative in Jovellanos. A line of customers quickly formed around it, several with carts to carry their purchases. Some thought they would find price-capped goods. “They were just as expensive as the offerings of any private seller.”

Cuando el dinero escasea, la dieta se encoge: primero desaparecen los extras y después alimentos que deberían ser cotidianos. / 14ymedio

Anselmo counted ten-peso bills until he had gathered 120 to buy a bunch of green beans so meager that he calculates it will be enough for two small portions. There were also bunches of plantains and pumpkins on some sacks. He looked at them, but did not even ask how much they cost.

The crisis hits retirees especially hard, although not only them. In a city closely tied to tourism, many families have lost income because one of their members became unemployed or barely retains customers in activities related to a sector that has fallen on hard times. When money is scarce, the diet shrinks: first the extras disappear, and then foods that should be everyday staples.

After almost two hours walking under the sun, Anselmo finally accepted that his wife was right when she recommended buying three or four cucumbers at the stand near their home. “They’re the same price here as there, 60 pesos a pound,” he complains. It also bothers him that seven carrots can cost 850 pesos.

With the bunch of green beans in his bag, he headed home. His wife was waiting for him there with flour and Creole seasoning for lunch. As he crossed Maceo Park, he discovered an agricultural stand he had not seen before. He did not ask whether it was state-run or private. He did not ask about the prices either. What for?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Havana Chronicles: In Cuba the Electrical System Fails, But the Repressive System Never Does

Police in the building’s basement, accumulated garbage, lack of gas, and a Friday when even going to the market becomes impossible.

Friday has just become another day of repression. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Yoani Sánchez, September 18, 2026 / Beans, onions, an avocado. I’m making a list to head out early to the Tulipán Street market, before the sun gets too hot and the inspectors start chasing away the vendors. As I walk down the hallway toward the stairs, a neighbor catches up to me. “There’s an operation underway down there. There are some men in civilian clothes, two women with backpacks, and at least one patrol car,” he details. Friday has just become another day of repression.

From the rooftop I confirm that a police car is parked on Conill Street, but not on the corner, under the leafy tree where they traditionally position themselves when they’re watching my house. The trash pile on Factor Street has grown so large that parking under those branches is now an assault on the nose and a danger to the immune system. A little further on, two uniformed officers are standing next to a vehicle with the number 059 painted on its body.

Today I really needed to get out of the house. The garbage has piled up in the apartment because of the long power outages that keep the elevator out of service. There is no salad left for lunch, and a friend had promised to copy a current affairs documentary onto a USB drive for me. But in Cuba, keeping a schedule and trying to accomplish even a few daily tasks is nearly impossible. When the day ends and I’ve managed to complete at least one thing, I feel lucky. Today, too, I’ll have to rethink my plans.

“But you have to come and get them because they won’t let me leave the building.”

Luckily, we have water in the sinks, but there’s no gas for cooking. I wash up a little take the opportunity to water the plants. A friend calls to ask if I have any oral rehydration salts. After the virus I had, I had a few packets left over that I can give her.

“But you have to come and get them because they won’t let me leave the building.”

I don’t need to say anything more. She doesn’t need any explanations either. Repression in Cuba is something everyone knows about, and a police operation around the home of an independent journalist sounds more like routine than anything new.

I put three envelopes in a nylon bag, and when my friend rings my cell phone, I go out onto the balcony and throw the small package from the 14th floor. I’ve added a stone so the wind won’t blow it too far away. The two police officers are still down there. They look bored.

A neighbor comes to my door and asks if I want him to bring me anything from the market. I give him the list I started writing this morning. I’m not sure how much money to give him because the prices change from day to day. continue reading

“With one of the new bills you can solve everything,” he jokes.

I don’t know anyone who has seen those colored papers worth 10,000 and 20,000 pesos yet.

Yesterday, when I passed by the bank on Marino Street, a retired woman told me that the new bills hadn’t arrived at that branch yet and that, in any case, the maximum they were giving out per customer was 5,000 pesos, so “nobody knows who they’re going to give the new ones to.” The woman has been trying to withdraw her pension for two weeks now, and nothing. “The day I was supposed to go, they didn’t have any cash and they rescheduled me for later, but every time I come, there’s no electricity.”

The whole house smells like garbage. I don’t know if it’s the stench coming up from the corner or if our own trash has started to rot after three days of not being able to take it out.

How many months’ salary for the police officers who watch over me down there could fit on a 20,000-peso bill, I wonder, as I try to light the stove for the umpteenth time. The gas company says they haven’t been able to finish the repairs and the service outage is getting worse and worse.

The whole house smells like garbage. I don’t know if it’s the stench coming up from the corner or if our own trash has started to rot after three days of not being able to take it out.

The phone rings. It’s my friend again. I imagine she’ll want some painkillers now, or that the rehydration salts haven’t been enough for her children and husband, who are sick with a viral diarrhea. But she doesn’t mention any medication.

“The national power grid has crashed,” she tells me, annoyed.

I look out again.

Down below, the police patrol with the two uniformed officers is still there.

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Read the Havana Chronicles series here.
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Generation Y: Artificial Intelligence Will Have to Wait for the Power to Come Back On

The new collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) leaves businesses closed and hits entrepreneurs already struggling with shortages and high costs.

This Saturday, many businesses woke up with their doors closed, their refrigerators empty, or their offerings reduced to a minimum. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez / “Closed” is the most prominent word this Saturday in the window of a private bakery on Ayestarán Street in Havana. Below, another sign promises much more ambitious hours: 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. in the glass the is also displayed the price of a bag of bread. There are hours, there is a price, and even a door waiting for someone to open it. What there isn’t is bread.

The image could serve to refute some of the many official meetings that have recently discussed Artificial Intelligence, digital transformation, innovation, and new technologies as tools to revive Cuba’s ailing economy. All that would be missing is a rather less sophisticated question at the bottom: with what electricity?

While officials and academics debate algorithms, automation, and the possibilities of AI, the average Cuban small business owner is waging a far more elemental technological battle. They need the freezer to cool, the oven to heat, the mixer to turn, and the lights to come on. Before ChatGPT, there’s the kilowatt; before the digital future, they have to make sure the milk doesn’t curdle. continue reading

For the proprietors of these businesses, every hour of blackout means merchandise at risk, reduced income, and lost customers.

The latest collapse of the national electrical grid (SEN) this Friday has once again dealt a severe blow to small businesses. This Saturday, many woke up to find their doors closed; others opened to empty refrigerators, warm drinks, or a selection of goods reduced to a minimum. For these proprietors, every hour of blackout means merchandise at risk, reduced income, and lost customers.

For the bakeries, the blow has again been double. In the face of the collapse of the national electrical grid (SEN), the lack of manufactured gas, due to the repairs announced by Cuba Petróleo (Cupet), have already compromised the production of bread in havana this friday. Without gas and then without electricity, the margin for performing miracles is considerably reduced.

Perhaps one day Artificial Intelligence will help forecast sales, manage inventory, and make these businesses more efficient. For now, in Ayestarán, the crucial technology remains much older: a switch that, when flipped, turns on a light bulb.
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Cuba’s New Labor Code Buries the Euphemism ‘Available Worker,’ but Avoids Talking About Dismissal

The regulation extends social service to the private sector, establishes a guarantee of six salaries for certain job terminations, and expands the powers of the Labor Inspectorate

Although it includes principles related to trade union freedom, workers still lack this instrument of collective pressure against employers. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, September 19, 2026 / The new Labor Code, published this Friday in the Official Gazette and set to take effect next September 25, eliminates the terms “available workers” or “interrupted” – euphemisms used for decades for those who lost their positions as a result of a reorganization – and replaces it with a more technical and longer formula: “termination of the employment relationship for economic, technological, and structural reasons.”

The change does not mean that employment could not previously be lost for these reasons. The former availability regime already provided for the elimination of positions, relocation, and, ultimately, termination of the employment relationship. What is new is the wording, the new financial guarantees, and the obligation of both state and private employers to establish mechanisms to protect the income of those affected.

Law 189/2026 first provides for measures aimed at avoiding termination. If an entity’s difficulties are temporary, new hiring may be restricted, workers may be sent to retraining courses, or a provisional reduction in the workday may be agreed upon. In this last case, the employee is paid only for the time actually worked. The measure must be agreed with the worker and adopted by mutual agreement with the trade union organization.

Except for budget-funded institutions, all employers must protect their workers’ income in the event of work interruptions

When a reorganization permanently affects a position and no other placement can be found, the employment relationship may be terminated. If the worker is also unable to find employment through his or her own means, he or she is entitled to a guarantee equivalent to six basic salaries for the position held. The amount must be paid in a single installment, within 30 days following notification of the employer’s decision. continue reading

Protection is drastically reduced if the worker rejects a relocation proposal without justification. In that case, he or she receives only the equivalent of one month’s basic salary.

The new Code regulates the conditions under which an entity may reduce its workforce, but it does not incorporate the right to strike. Although it includes principles related to trade union freedom, workers still lack express recognition of this instrument of collective pressure against employers.

The legislation also introduces an obligation that fully applies to MSMEs (micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises) and other private employers. Except for budget-funded institutions, all employers must protect their workers’ income in the event of work interruptions, terminations for economic reasons, the dissolution of MSMEs or cooperatives, and other situations that halt operations.

The private sector also appears in another of the legislation’s important changes: the social service of recent graduates

To do so, they may take out an insurance policy or use other legally provided mechanisms. The regulation allows up to 90 days from its entry into force to establish that coverage, although workers affected by a termination during that period retain the right to the salary protection provided for under the Code.

The private sector also appears in another of the legislation’s important changes: the social service of recent graduates. When placement in a state entity is not possible, municipal Labor departments may arrange agreements with private companies and other private entities so that young people fulfill this obligation there.

The assigned position must correspond to the training received and to the needs of production or services. If a graduate assigned to the private sector believes the position does not match his or her studies, he or she may file a claim with the courts. Placement, however, is not voluntary. If the graduate fails to report, rejects the assignment, or interrupts the social service without a cause considered justified, he or she may be barred from practicing professionally.

When a young person has been placed in the private sector, his or her employer may file a request for disqualification with the institution that approved that entity as an economic actor. The file then goes to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, whose Legal Department makes the decision. Administrative appeals, and subsequently judicial recourse, may be filed against that ruling.

An inspector may order the temporary closure of an establishment as a precautionary measure for a period of up to 180 calendar days

The legislative package also strengthens the tools available to the Labor Inspectorate. Decree 179/2026 establishes a new system of violations applicable to employers in any sector and allows for the imposition of fines, the halting of equipment, and the ordering of the total or partial closure of establishments.

Even before the sanctioning procedure concludes, an inspector may order the temporary closure of an establishment as a precautionary measure for a period of up to 180 calendar days, when the conditions provided for by the regulation are met. During that time, all activity is prohibited at the closed premises. The measure may be lifted once the causes and effects of the unsafe conditions that prompted it have been eliminated. If the irregularities persist, the sanction may end in permanent closure.

The new framework also affects MSMEs when they cease to exist. Before dissolving a micro, small, or medium-sized enterprise, the labor and salary treatment provided for these processes must be applied to its workers, so that the disappearance of the business does not automatically eliminate obligations to the workforce.

Law 189 replaces the Labor Code approved in 2013 and was passed by the National Assembly on July 30. Its seventh transitional provision makes the change in language clear: all legal references to “available workers” must now be understood as referring to those who undergo a “termination of the employment relationship for economic, technological, and structural reasons.”

Translated by GH.

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The New Assignment for Cuban Children: Finding Somewhere To Charge the Fan

The electrical collapse makes any device capable of storing a few hours of energy indispensable.

A child walks along the arcades of Reina Street, in Centro Habana, carrying one of the most precious objects in Cuba today: a rechargeable fan. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 19 September 2026 / He is not carrying a ball, a backpack filled with books, or a bag with the day’s bread. This Saturday, a child walks along the arcades of Reina Street, in Centro Habana, carrying one of the most precious objects in Cuba today: a rechargeable fan. His destination is some outlet that still has power to charge the battery and guarantee a few hours of air when he returns home.

The scene sums up the Havana morning following the collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) that occurred this Friday. More than 17 hours after the total disconnection, large areas of the capital remained without service, while others that had recovered electricity during the early morning hours lost it again.

Electricity ceased to be something that came from an outlet and became a treasure that is stored, sought out, and even carried under one’s arm

In Cuba, the question “do you have electricity?” has displaced many other forms of courtesy. Knowing where to charge a phone, a lamp, a power bank, or a fan can determine a family’s daily schedule. Rechargeable devices have entered everyday conversations, solar panels occupy balconies and rooftops, and words such as inverter, amperage, battery, and photovoltaic cells have already become part of the household vocabulary. Electricity ceased to be something that came from an outlet and became a treasure that is stored, sought out, and even carried under one’s arm. continue reading

The boy on Reina Street is also walking through a very Havana-like setting. A few meters away, on the sidewalk of the arcade, several vendors have laid out used shoes, bottles, clothes, household odds and ends, and electrical parts salvaged from the trash. There is probably a piece of an old fan among the objects, one that could not withstand the long hours without electricity or the back-and-forth journey from one house to another.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Much of Cuba Remains in the Dark After the Nationwide Blackout

The recovery of the electrical system is progressing as far as Camagüey, but a new breakdown in Guiteras is complicating the restoration of service.

In the gloomy panorama of the Cuban capital, the lights of a few generators and priority circuits were barely visible. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, September 19, 2026 / More than 24 hours after the nationwide blackout that occurred this Friday, caused by the eighth total shutdown of the national power grid (SEN) so far this year, recovery was proceeding unevenly and unsteadily this Saturday. he National Electric Union (UNE) reported that the system was now connected from Pinar del Río to Nuevitas, in Camagüey, although it had not yet confirmed the connection with the easternmost provinces of the country.

In Havana, shortly before 7:00 a.m., large areas were still without power, 14ymedio confirmed. Amid the darkened landscape of the Cuban capital, only the lights of a few generators and priority circuits could be made out. Many residents who had regained service overnight lost it again a few hours later.

The situation had not stabilized during the afternoon either. Havana’s Electric Company reported that it had restored service to 411,765 customers, 47.7% of the total, but clarified that numerous restored circuits had lost power again. Although 134 circuits had been energized since the outage, at the time of the update only 57 had service, due to the still incomplete recovery of the National Electric System (SEN) and blackouts caused by generation deficits.

The recovery is further complicated by a new breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant in Matanzas.

The instability also affected the water supply. Although the capital’s 18 main pumping systems had regained power at some point during the crisis, only nine were operational when the company released its update. All 46 Havana hospitals had their water supply restored, according to official data. continue reading

The recovery is further complicated by a new breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant in Matanzas. Its general manager, Román Pérez Castañeda, reported that the disconnection from the National Electric System (SEN) caused mechanical stress that damaged the boiler, where specialists suspect there are perforations in several points of the steam generator.

The facility needs about 72 hours to cool down, so technicians won’t be able to begin the inspection until Monday afternoon. Only then will they be able to determine the extent of the damage and set a timeframe for repairs. The plant, which had been operating for 44 consecutive days since its restart on August 4, remains offline and there is still no confirmed date for it to resume generating electricity.

Outside the capital, the recovery continued to depend largely on isolated microsystems, according to reports in some of the official newspapers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported that the Boca de Jaruco combined cycle power plant was generating power steadily, along with five units using companion gas, two units at the Mariel thermoelectric plant, and two more at the Santa Cruz del Norte plant. The two units at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes power plant in Cienfuegos were in the process of starting up.

The total shutdown occurred at 1:57 p.m. on Friday. The UNE explained that the 220-kilovolt Matanzas-Cienfuegos transmission line tripped first, followed by the Matanzas-Santa Clara line. The system was divided between eastern and western zones before collapsing completely. The state-owned company also noted that unstable weather conditions had been identified in the area.

The 14ymedio newsroom in Nuevo Vedado had its power restored around 3:00 a.m., but was plunged back into darkness at 5:23 a.m. From there, it could be seen that large areas of the Cerro, Playa, and Plaza de la Revolución municipalities were still without service, while other parts of the city barely showed the lights of some buildings and generators.

The same instability was repeated in other Havana municipalities. A resident of Central Havana told this newspaper that electricity returned around 11:30 pm and was cut off again at 2:00 am. In Plaza de la Revolución, another resident received service around 10:30 pm and lost it again at 3:00 am.

A resident of Las Tunas told this newspaper that he had been without electricity for 40 hours, due to a blackout that had begun before the disconnection.

The situation outside Havana is much worse. A resident of Las Tunas told this newspaper that he had already gone 40 hours without electricity, due to a blackout that had begun before the shutdown.

Although UNE announced on Saturday that the national grid connection had progressed as far as Nuevitas, the restoration of power in numerous towns continued to depend on generation capacity and the condition of the distribution networks. During the first hours after the blackout, several provinces had to rely on isolated microsystems to supply essential services.

In Pinar del Río, the provincial power company reported, in a note published by Guerrillero, the creation of a generation island through the Pinar Oeste substation to supply the Abel Santamaría Provincial Hospital and other priority centers.

In Matanzas, Girón reported, citing the power company, on the gradual recovery of several circuits through micro-systems overnight. In Sancti Spíritus, Escambray reported, citing the provincial load dispatch center, that hospitals continued operating on generators and that the process was constrained by low fuel availability.

In Santiago de Cuba, Sierra Maestra reported at around 6:15 a.m. on the activation of micro-systems supplying circuits 7, 10, 15, 17, and part of 18, with priority given to vital centers. The publication warned that these are “isolated and vulnerable” systems, prone to failures and sudden interruptions.

Venceremos, of Guantánamo, reported at around 9:00 p.m. on Friday that the territory was operating through island micro-systems and that the circuits serving the General Hospital and the Children’s Hospital already had service.

Translated by GH.

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