Without electricity, without water, and now without the last fuel to which part of the capital’s population still had access.
In Guanabacoa, where several residents had experienced more than 28 hours without electricity by Tuesday, the day also began without power or water. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, June 30, 2026 – This Tuesday, the 14ymedio newsroom, located in Nuevo Vedado, woke up without a supply of manufactured gas. It was not an isolated situation: from several parts of Havana, residents quickly confirmed the same problem. “No electricity, no water, no connection, and no gas,” repeated a resident of Luyanó like a mantra.
A brief statement from the Manufactured Gas Company confirmed the interruption early in the morning. “Due to an unforeseen force majeure technical issue detected in the natural gas delivery and reception system, a pressure drop has occurred that has affected the distribution network,” the entity explained.
The company added that its specialized technical personnel were already “carrying out diagnostic and repair work on the issue as quickly as possible,” without providing an estimated time for restoring service.
The lack of information has left tens of thousands of Havana residents wondering how long the outage will last. The interruption affects one of the few energy services that had still been functioning with relative stability in part of the capital. Liquefied gas in cylinders has disappeared from the state supply system and can only be found for foreign currency, making it inaccessible to most Cubans.
“People can’t take it anymore. Those who ask you to ‘endure’ have electricity, water, food, everything”
In Havana, manufactured gas also powers small generators that many residents have purchased to cope with continue reading
power outages. It was the solution they had found by taking advantage of the only fuel still available. A resident of the Cerro municipality told this newspaper what consequences the sudden popularity of these generators could have: “That means that at any moment they are going to raise the price of gas on the street or simply cut it off.”
In Guanabacoa, where several residents had already gone more than 28 hours without electricity by Tuesday, the day also began without power or water. Among residents, complaints and a sense of abandonment predominate, but today any possibility of protest is being watched by police and military personnel, who patrol at night and circulate through the neighborhoods.
“There is nothing left: the only things there are are blackouts and police in the streets,” says one resident, adding: “People can’t take it anymore. Those who ask you to ‘endure’, they have electricity, water, food, everything.”
Videos recorded by 14ymedio show crowds engaged in what has become their daily routine: long lines in front of basic services. Many of those residents are simply waiting to collect their monthly salaries, which average around 3,000 pesos—approximately five dollars—at a time when a liter of cooking oil can cost as much as 2,000 pesos.
“There is nothing left: the only things there are are blackouts and police in the streets”
“Everything bad that can happen is happening,” summarizes another resident waiting in line, visibly exhausted.
Another explains how the crisis is deepening economic differences. “There are people investing thousands of dollars in solar panels. Installing a system with batteries to have electricity all day costs about $5,000. Who can afford that?”
The sustained accumulation of shortages gradually wears down the resilience of any human being. A blackout, a water outage, or a gas shortage may be bearable as isolated events. But the prolonged accumulation of these simultaneous hardships is exhausting the population’s patience.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Didier Reinoso, 19, will join Veraguas United FC in that country’s First Division.
Didier Reinoso has a one-year contract, according to sources consulted by 14ymedio. / Didier Reinoso/ Instagram
14ymedio, Matanzas, Andy Lans, June 30, 2026 / Cuban soccer player Didier Reinoso, known as Bodoque, landed in Panama this past Sunday, June 28, to join Veraguas United FC in that country’s First Division. According to information obtained by 14ymedio, he has signed a one-year contract, and his incorporation into the first team is expected.
Bodoque, as he is nicknamed, is a skillful left-footed player born in 2007, capable of playing as a winger or attacking midfielder. He also stands out for his good dribbling, vision of play, and long-range shooting. With his native Havana, he won national championships at both junior and senior levels; however, the greater weight of his resume comes from his performances with Cuban national teams.
With Cuba’s under-17 team, he took part in the CONCACAF U-17 Championship held in Guatemala in 2023, where he scored three goals on eight shots, with one assist, eight key passes, and seven fouls drawn in 351 minutes across four matches. The following year, he again wore the jersey of the Caribbean Lions in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship held in Mexico. From that event, it is remembered that Reinoso scored the decisive penalty in the quarterfinal shootout against Honduras, settling the match 5-3 after a 1-1 draw in regulation time. That penalty secured qualification for the 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile, since by reaching the semifinals, Cuba earned one of the four available berths to the world tournament, in which Reinoso also saw playing time.
Although Bodoque received offers to play in European soccer, those around him favored this option in Panama so that the player could complete his development in a mid-level league. At the same time, the young Cuban forward will look to build up his physical strength. He is represented by the agency IDUB Global, the same agency that manages renowned figures such as Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Martin Zubimendi and Cuban international Jorge Aguirre.
Translated by GH
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The Rampa People’s Council will charge 100 pesos per month per household to collect waste at fixed points and at two times of the day
21st Street in Vedado is littered with trash on every corner, like most streets in Havana. / 14ymedio
The tireless Pedro Garcés never stops. President of the Rampa People’s Council, organizer of the service stations in El Vedado, coordinator of the Gente de Barrio social group, and now, at the helm of El Rampeño, a local development project for much-needed solar-powered garbage collection that will launch this Wednesday in Havana. The initiative is funded with public money, although residents who wish to benefit from the promised service will have to contribute 100 pesos as a starting point.
“Here, a facility is being built that will assume, based on the intention of the Party and the central Government, the allocation of 30 electric tricycles for the collection of solid waste in the Rampa People’s Council, as well as for the recovery of raw materials,” the official enthusiastically tells Cubadebate, which this Tuesday publishes a very partisan report on the project.
El Rampeño is located at the corner of 23rd and J streets, a key point in the Cuban capital where El Quijote Park is situated, one block from Coppelia ice cream parlor and the giant Torre K. The goal is to improve “not only the neighborhood’s cleanliness, but also the quality of life for those who frequent this central area of the city.” Tourists are not abundant at the moment, but if the project is successful, they will be among those who benefit most from the removal of the current mountains of garbage that mar the landscape. continue reading
Tourists are not plentiful at the moment, but if the project works, they will be among those who benefit most from the removal of the current mountains of garbage that mar the landscape.
Cubadebate points out the urgency of resolving this problem, exacerbated by fuel shortages since the US oil embargo began in late January of this year. However, it admits: “Hygiene in Havana is not a recent problem.”
The ‘solinera’ (solar-powered) waste collection system, inspired by those already operating in Santa Clara – and similar to the private one in Holguín – will use solar energy to power the electric tricycles that will collect the garbage, as well as private vehicles and appliances, in addition to contributing to the National Electric System. The project will begin as a pilot program in Rampa with the intention of expanding to the rest of the municipality. According to the report, five of the thirty tricycles that will make up the fleet are currently available, and the service is scheduled to begin with two collection times, 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., with the possibility of adding more times depending on demand.
“We’ve been sharing this through our digital networks—Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and the Gente de Barrio group—and the response has been tremendous. People have contributed ideas that have enriched and perfected what we initially envisioned,” says Garcés, who is instructing residents on how to proceed.
“You don’t need to be waiting for the truck with your bag,” she clarifies, but urges everyone to be punctual. “You put your bag there and they’ll pick it up. We just ask that you come on time, so the waste doesn’t stay on the street for long.” She adds that you don’t need to buy a new one; you can take your bin down to where the garbage is being emptied, leave the contents, and leave: the usual procedure.
At the corner of 17th and F, one of the many garbage dumps in El Vedado, was found on fire this Tuesday morning. / 14ymedio
In addition to the government’s contribution of tricycles, there is the territorial contribution—the well-known 1%—a tax levied on the gross income of public and private companies that goes directly to the municipal budget and is used to finance these projects. Cubadebate points out that private companies have been contributing to this tax since 2024 and that their participation has made the 1% “a significant source of funding.” In the case of El Rampeño, these funds have gone toward the construction work and the installation of the panels.
The other pillar supporting the project is the monthly fee of 100 pesos per household, from which vulnerable families are exempt. According to the official version, those who will benefit from the free service will be identified by the “delegates and representatives of each district,” which, a priori, leaves the selection in the hands of the party and without public or transparent criteria.
In any case, the media outlet emphasizes, the most significant revenue will come from charges levied on companies—both state-owned and private—which will pay more for the collection of waste and raw materials. There will also be tiered rates for those requesting nighttime collection, and large clients will be charged more than small businesses. Finally, El Rampeño will also profit from the sale of recyclable materials.
The most significant revenue will come from charges to businesses, which will pay more for waste and raw material collection. There will also be tiered rates for those requesting nighttime collection, and large customers will be charged more than small businesses.
According to reports, the project is expected to generate around 70 direct jobs, with priority given to local residents. The salaries sound promising, especially considering what’s currently paid at Comunales (the municipal services department). El Rampeño promises an average of 15,000 pesos, though this will depend on the specific role. In a report published by 14ymedio last December, street sweepers in Havana told the newspaper that their salary was around $10. While currency volatility is currently very high in Cuba, at Tuesday’s informal exchange rate, a worker at El Rampeño would earn more than double what they would earn working for Comunales.
The memo suddenly mentions fines, though it offers no details. However, Garcés warns that if there is a repeat offense—it doesn’t specify exactly what kind—”there could even be criminal charges for disobedience or spreading an epidemic.” The official, who dedicates the final paragraphs to educating and raising awareness among the population, starting with children, believes the project is defined by the word “success,” though he then admits it’s more of an aspiration. “We are obligated to succeed in this project because the people demand it.”
While waiting for the initiative to begin, questions like those raised by entrepreneur Yulieta Hernández are on the table: “Vedado, tall buildings, power outages, aging population…? Will residents go down stairs during a power outage to comply with the garbage collection schedule?”
______________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The call for workers to applaud the list of 176 bets on capitalism closes the cycle
Trade unionists at the 22nd Congress of the Cuban Workers’ Federation, held at the Havana Convention Center last Friday. / Presidency of Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, June 30, 2026 / The first death was quick. That of 1962, the one that left the democratic restoration behind. The second was slower and just as traumatic: it liquidated both the microfaction’s Bolshevism and the heterodox Marxism of the journal Pensamiento Crítico, while pulverizing, along the way, small and medium-sized businesses in 1968. The third occurred in the early 1990s, when the country began to get pregnant with frontier capitalism through Sun City-style tourism (that pleasure resort in the middle of apartheid South Africa), in alliance with friendly capitalist enterprises from the old West. And it remains curious that this capitalism entered through luxury and leisure – Batista’s last project – rather than through Fordismmaquiladora capitalism.
The fourth death occurred when, after 2006, this capitalism of luxury, warehouses, and leisure was captured by the military and extended into the world of ports and finance – rumor has it, against Fidel Castro’s vision – in a crude reproduction of the colonial model of our 19th-century patrician, José Antonio Saco. We will not easily recover from this strategic wreckage.
The Revolution’s fifth death, in June 2026, occurs because, under pressure from the United States, capitalism becomes structural and intrinsic, in one of its worst variants, to the daily life of all Cubans: some to be included, and the rest, the majority, to be excludable. A small nod to Javier Milei. continue reading
This is its definitive death: when the narrative of revolutionary survival takes on capitalist productivity, which it always regarded as its negation
This is its definitive death, its clinical death: when the narrative of revolutionary survival takes on capitalist productivity, which it always regarded as its negation. When it no longer has command of the word – the Revolution’s fundamental asset – nor an organic discourse of equality, nor the coherent support of the distant left. Its acceptance is unfolding with much mourning, but its first phase consists of denying it.
Since the Cuban Revolution has always had problems with memory, codification, and the systematization of its own “thinking,” official discourse will now seek to dissolve, hide, and erase from the hegemonic discourse – the one that became cultural and shaped mental habits and reflexes – every reference that placed capitalism at the antipodes of the Revolution.
But there is no need to return to dense reading material, in an era when the attention economy stretches only as far as TikTok, a couple of Instagram videos, and some instant polarization on Facebook, to finally seal the Revolution’s end. The call for workers to applaud the list of 176 bets on capitalism – among them the sale of shares in the very companies they are supposedly owners of – now sets the closing tombstone on the harsh historical and existential vicissitudes that began in 1959, today into the void.
A round of applause, with which the working class commits suicide with North Korean-style energy at an emergency meeting of the Cuban Workers’ Confederation, is worth more than a thousand words.
The Party’s workers welcoming capital definitively closes the cycle of the Cuban Revolution. We may be glimpsing a Caribbean version of Rhenish capitalism, in which businesspeople and workers reach agreement on and for many things – except that German unions aren’t controlled by a politburo.
Then there’s the rhetoric. What those in power are saying, in their narrative poverty and lack of conceptual and dramatic force, falls squarely into the realm of schizophrenia and cognitive dissociation, with its parallel worlds, its alternative facts, and its processes of thawing old words, re-indoctrinating into new meanings, and freezing the poor new discourse. According to this account, the Revolution gets pregnant with capitalism in order to better give birth to communist society. So, on June 16, Cubans went to bed under the repression of the State of workers and peasants, and woke up on the 19th of that same month under the repression of the State of future shareholders. Why bother with democracy?
Faced with any scenario of ridiculous tragedies, we usually say of them that they would be laughable if they weren’t so tragic. But we Cubans find ourselves within the first global scenario in which the tragedy of real life and the guffaw provoked by the words of those in power appear simultaneously.
Translated by GH.
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Wi-Fi zones are disappearing, mobile coverage is failing, and customers are chasing an increasingly scarce signal.
I manage to climb into a bright blue classic car. Next to me, an old man with a cane is carrying a huge plastic water bottle. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, June 29, 2026/ Galiano and San Rafael Park is packed this Monday with people staring at their cell phone screens. “I got lucky,” I say with relief after passing through several Wi-Fi zones where there’s neither signal nor antenna left. But the joy is short-lived on the Island of the disconnected, and a young woman explains to me that there’s no longer any wireless internet service installed at that central corner. “We’re here chasing a 4G signal because in Central Havana there’s almost no coverage.”
Without saying it, without prior announcements nor public justifications, the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa has been dismantling those parks that, for many Cubans, were the first place they encountered the vast global internet. “People come early because it seems there’s still tower nearby that still functions,” adds the woman, hurrying through the conversation so as not to miss a single second of connectivity. The internet has once again become a scarce and hard-to-obtain commodity, so we have to take the maximum advantage every time the messages start downloading, the web pages open, and the notification sounds return to our phones.
The scene reminds me of 20 years ago, when the only internet cafes in Havana accepted only foreign customers.
The scene reminds me of 20 years ago, when the only internet cafes in Havana accepted only foreign customers. In one of them, located in the Capitol building, passing myself off as a tourist, I published the first post of my blog, Generation Y. But now, no foreign passport is worth anything. When travelers leave their hotels, they’re just as disconnected as we are. Their cell phones, with the Cuban SIM cards they bought at the airport or at some Etecsa office, also remain silent for most of the day.
I decide to walk up Galiano Street, meanwhile thinking about how long it’s been since I last checked social media. I’ve been abandoning my profiles on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, only accessing them in the early morning to post my podcast, reply to a few comments, and occasionally wish a friend a happy birthday. I watch the people sitting in doorways along the central avenue, selling trinkets, begging, or scrolling through their phones trying to refresh a frozen page.
I pass by the Moure building, my favorite in Havana. It’s shaped like a ship, and at its base, a mountain of garbage already spills out toward the entrance. A man is rummaging through the trash. continue reading
I pass by the Moure building, my favorite in Havana. It’s shaped like a ship, and at its base, a mountain of garbage is already spilling out towards the entrance. / 14ymedio
At the top of Reina Street I flagged down a tricycle. The back was packed with passengers, but the driver offered me a seat so I could sit next to him. Necessity multiples the spaces in these vehicles. “If they let me, I’ll add a second level to carry more people,” he joked. A classic Ford, in use as a private taxi, honked loudly nearby. The rivalry between the classic American cars and the recentlyarrived tricycles was evident. Some accused the others of constantly taking up the middle of the road. Others insisted that the old cars from the beginning of the last century move around the city with arrogance because “they’re tougher than a tank and can crush these sardine cans.”
I avoid taking sides. I’m one of those walkers who tries to go everywhere on foot, and when tiredness or haste gets the better of me, I feel just as blessed whether a nearly hundred-year-old Chevrolet stops for me, or an electric scooter with a seat so narrow I have to hold on tight to the driver to avoid falling off. Finally, I get off in front of Plaza de Carlos III. As a child, I loved this place. There was a shop window with mannequins that reproduced the inside of the human body: models of livers, lungs, and a face, made of plaster, half normal and half skinned.
All those objects belonged to a state-owned company that, in the upper floors of the Plaza, produced supplies for medical schools and the high school or pre-university classrooms where biology was taught. I was fascinated, staring at them while my mother hurried me inside to buy sweet potatoes or some green papaya, which were the only things sold outside of the ration book in those years. Then came the 90s, and the market was dollarized. They named it after a king of Spain, like the street that runs in front of its entrance, although years earlier the authorities had renamed the avenue Salvador Allende.
Today, when I enter the Plaza, I’m hit by the heat from the air conditioning set to its lowest setting. The store has switched back to dollar-based pricing, but there’s very little to buy.
Today, when I enter the Plaza, I’m hit by the heat from the air conditioning on its lowest setting. The store has switched back to dollarization, but there’s very little to buy. The smell of dampness and mold is everywhere. In the food market, there are only a few products, and the sporting goods store barely displays a single bicycle. Looking at the household goods section, it seems that we Cubans only need curtains and pillowcases. And don’t even get me started on the frozen food section, with its empty freezers.
I continue climbing the spiral ramp by inertia , the one I loved running up as a child. The cell phone signal inside the Plaza is minimal, and the data service is practically nonexistent. When I reach the top, I come across Raúl Castro’s face on a wall. He’s clasping his hands in a victory gesture. An employee is watering the plants near a sign that says one should dedicate oneself “modestly and without fanfare” to one’s assigned role. I leave the market with an empty bag.
I manage to climb into a bright blue almendrón, a classic American car. Next to me, an elderly man with a cane is carrying an enormous plastic water jug. “In my neighborhood we haven’t had a drop of water for almost 20 days,” the main justifies, unable to prevent the jug from resting partially on one of my legs. A tricycle passing nearby cuts in front of our car. The driver’s curse echoes inside. Every time we stop at a traffic light, some passengers automatically swipe their thumbs across their phone screens to see if they’ve gotten a signal. But not a single notification pops up.
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The World Food Programme obtained 135,000 liters of fuel through partnerships with private individuals authorized to purchase in the United States.
Logistics for the arrival and distribution of UN humanitarian aid are becoming impossible, the organization says. / Unicef
14ymedio, Madrid, June 29, 2026 – More than three months ago, Francisco Pichón, the United Nations resident coordinator in Cuba, told the international press that he was negotiating with the United States to bring fuel for humanitarian purposes to the Island so that aid from the agency could be transported. The situation remains stalled at that level (“Up to this moment, there has been no solution”), although the official said this Monday in an interview with elDiario.es that some quantities have been obtained through Cuba’s private sector.
“It is not enough for the implementation of our action plan, but it has allowed us to move many containers that were already at the port or in warehouses around the country and that had arrived as part of the response to Hurricane Melissa,” he explained. The World Food Programme (WFP) first obtained 15,000 liters of fuel through partnerships with private businesses, thanks to authorization from the Cuban regime allowing them to buy fuel and from Washington allowing U.S. companies to sell only to private individuals on the Island.
Now, Pichón added, a second and much larger shipment has been secured, “120,000 liters that are already in the country.” The official said this allows work to continue, but that a “broader” solution is needed, with access to a minimum and predictable fuel supply, something he continues to advocate and negotiate for from UN offices in New York and Geneva.
The official added that this allows work to continue, but that a “broader” solution is needed, with access to a minimum and predictable fuel supply, something he continues to advocate and negotiate for from UN offices in New York and Geneva.
Pichón said that the UN plan for Cuba has a target of $94.1 million, one-third of which has already been secured, although some areas are better funded than others. He also stressed that without fuel, whatever funding is obtained is of little use, which is why he insists on reaching agreements. He said Mexico was one of the countries most interested in contributing, as was Brazil, but these and other states are waiting for the outcome of the talks with the United States, in which, he says, continue reading
he is not personally involved.
“The implementation of the action plan depends on access to fuel, and the plan is essential for identifying the fuel needs required in the humanitarian sphere, not to stabilize the country’s economy, but solely for humanitarian purposes,” he added. The priorities are health, food security, water and sanitation, education, housing, and protection of vulnerable populations.
He also said that the WFP has an estimate of the fuel required to maintain those services and the needs of other international NGOs operating on the Island. Everything depends on the solutions that can be reached.
“We know there are political differences among member states, and governments are the ones that have to work to resolve those differences. But we, as the United Nations system, are focused on people, and our humanitarian action is about people’s rights to life and dignity,” he argued.
In the interview, the official provided some indicators of the humanitarian crisis affecting the Island and how living conditions continue to deteriorate. When asked whether it would technically help if Cuba declared an emergency, he avoided going into detail. “We see that there is recognition of the severity of the situation, and there has also been talk about the resilience of the Cuban population, but due to the accumulated impacts of previous disasters and the contraction of the economy by 15% in recent years, that resilience also has its limits, especially with no fuel solution in sight,” he lamented.
In fact, the official complained that virtually all countries and companies are “overcomplying” because of the threat of being penalized
Pichón believes that if the United States facilitated humanitarian fuel shipments, other countries would be less fearful of sanctions. In fact, the official lamented that virtually all countries and companies are “overcomplying” due to the threat of penalties. “Faced with the threat of sanctions from the executive orders, especially the one issued on May 1, these companies avoid exposing themselves to the risk of being sanctioned. This is reflected in contracts and deliveries that are already underway but suffer delays or uncertainty,” he explained.
According to Pichón, the WFP has purchased 2,900 tons of food, but now it must renegotiate how to bring it into the country. “One thing is for suppliers or shipping companies to face restrictions because of the executive order, but another is for them to apply measures that are not part of the restrictions out of fear of being sanctioned, because that shrinks the space for humanitarian action,” he said, while recalling that international law protects humanitarian activities, which cannot be punished.
Unicef has seven affected shipments, Pichón added, valued at $630,000 and consisting mainly of emergency medical kits, supplies for newborns, and nutritional products for pregnant and breastfeeding women. “Some of these supplies have had to be rerouted along alternative routes, which are always longer and more expensive. In the health sector this is especially delicate because there are medicines that require refrigeration,” he lamented.
Regarding the psychological effects of the situation, the official also expressed concern. The shortages of electricity, water, and other vital services, combined with speculation on social media, are generating feelings of psychological distress and exhaustion among the population, especially among children, adolescents, older adults, and their caregivers. “People are increasingly focused on their day-to-day survival.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Leonel Tristá García was detained on June 16 under an order revoking an extrapenal license obtained in 2025
Leonel Tristá García was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the protests of July 2021 / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, June 29, 2026 / Political prisoner from the 11J protests Leonel Tristá García reached his 13th day on hunger strike this Monday while in custody at the Third PNR Station in Santa Clara. The fact was reported by the legal advice center Cubalex, which denounced that the 40-year-old man is at “risk to his life.”
Tristá García, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison for taking part in the mass mobilizations of July 2021, was released from prison in January 2025 thanks to the agreement announced by the Cuban regime with the Vatican. However, on June 16 he was detained at his home in Santa Clara under an order revoking his extrapenal license.
At his home in the El Condado neighborhood, police officers arrived with an alleged search warrant. According to ADN Cuba, Tristá García refused to allow his home to be searched “because he realized that the documentation was not complete.” The police left, but returned in the afternoon to arrest him on alleged charges of breach of public order and contempt.
The hunger strike began that same day. A week later, he suffered two blackouts after stopping the intake of water. Following this, “he was confined to a sealed cell with no adequate medical attention,” Cubalex noted.
A week later, he suffered two blackouts after stopping the intake of water. Following this, “he was confined to a sealed cell with no adequate medical attention.”
Three days later, last Saturday, “he lost consciousness due to his advanced state of weakness.” He was transferred as an emergency to the Arnaldo Milián Castro Provincial Hospital to be hydrated, “but the political Police ordered his immediate return to the sealed cell,” the NGO denounced.
“As he is under state custody, the Cuban State bears a heightened duty of protection over his life, health, and physical integrity,” it stressed. It further indicated that his detention “under aggravated conditions and incommunicado constitutes evidence of cruel, inhuman, or degrading continue reading
treatment.”
In its statement, the organization demanded that the authorities “guarantee specialized and continuous medical attention, respect his dignity without resorting to threats or isolation, and allow immediate access to his family and legal defense.”
The hunger strike has become the most extreme form of protest that various political prisoners on the Island have turned to. In May alone, at least 14 inmates carried out hunger strikes in Cuba, according to a Cubalex count.
In May alone, at least 14 inmates carried out hunger strikes in Cuba, according to a Cubalex count.
One such case was that of political prisoner Daniel Alfaro Frías, who began his hunger strike in Guanajay “while being subjected to psychological torture and constant threats.” Another was that of Walfrido Rodríguez Piloto, “whose strike lasted for weeks; he was transferred to the prisoners’ ward of the National Hospital of Boyeros, where he was handcuffed to his bed until State Security pressured him into ending the protest,” the center sets out in its most recent monthly human rights report on Cuba.
“These actions are not isolated incidents, but rather the desperate response of political prisoners to mistreatment, isolation, and the absence of legal guarantees within the Cuban penal system,” the report stated.
In an analysis published in 2024, the NGO noted that hunger strikes “are an extreme form of protest against the lack of guarantees, abuses, and the absence of effective channels for complaint” in the face of “systematic human rights violations and the direct responsibility of prison authorities.”
It also noted that hunger strikes are a form of protest regulated under various international legal instruments. “Although not specifically mentioned in all cases, the right to protest and freedom of expression are internationally recognized fundamental rights, and the hunger strike may be considered a manifestation of those rights,” it stated.
Translated by GH
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
A tourism professional estimates that Meliá, Iberostar and others will prove “indispensable for managing the sectoral transition”
Facade of the Iberostar Selection Parque Central, Havana.
14ymedio, Madrid, June 29, 2026 / At 81 years of age, Ignacio Vasallo is one of the foremost authorities on tourism in Spain. Not only does he have an in-depth knowledge of the private sector – he has served on the boards of countless companies in the industry – he has also held numerous public positions, founded Turespaña in the late 1980s, and was the first director of the World Tourism Organization. For this reason, the analysis of the future of the tourism sector in Cuba that El Economista publishes today cannot be overlooked.
The expert does not confine himself to offering his views on what has happened and what lies ahead for the island – he also provides figures that were not previously known. The most significant is his estimate that Spanish hotel companies have lost between 80 and 100 million euros in Cuba as a result of the impossibility of repatriating hard currency, a measure imposed last year that generated enormous frustration among foreign companies. The funds, trapped in the banking system, are considered lost “in the balance sheets of the Spanish parent companies. For them, Cuba has ceased to be a strategic priority,” Vasallo concludes, noting that interest has shifted to the Riviera Maya, Cancun and Punta Cana, currently the undisputed leaders in the Caribbean.
However, the Spanish hotel companies are not going to leave Cuba either, he says categorically, as better times will come. “They have accumulated a body of operational knowledge and institutional relationships that North American corporations – which will want to establish themselves there – simply do not have. When the system changes, no authority or investor will do without the Spanish hotel chains, which will prove indispensable for managing the sectoral transition, replicating the process already seen following the fall of the Soviet bloc in Eastern European continue reading
countries,” he adds.
“They have accumulated a body of operational knowledge and institutional relationships that North American corporations – which will want to establish themselves there – simply do not have”
Vasallo was there at the beginning. His article opens with that memory: in 1990 he was present for the opening of Meliá’s first hotel in Cuba, the Sol Palmeras. He had traveled to Cuba two years earlier and there he enlightened a Fidel Castro who was resistant to tourism, explaining what the sector had meant for Spain’s economic development in the 1960s and how it had helped open the country up. “Castro was reluctant, but the economic situation was forcing him to take measures he would not have taken under normal circumstances,” he recalls.
He also had dealings with Gabriel Escarrer Julia – predecessor and father of the current CEO of Meliá – who had reached an agreement with Cubanacán to bring the Sol chain to the island. The businessman calculated that he would recoup his investment in just two years and believed the risk was offset by extremely high returns. Vasallo gave him a favorable opinion, and the relationship began, paving the way for other Spanish companies. “The cumulative direct investment by these corporations stood at around 160 million euros, a third of the total invested by Spanish companies. During the first two decades, the return on these investments was extraordinary. The profits earned and repatriated far exceeded the initial capital outlay,” he explains.
The expert explains how that partnership worked – the arrangement under which around a hundred hotels were built: the Spanish side held a 49% stake in the joint venture, which became the owner of what was built for an agreed period of between 25 and 50 years. Once that period expired, ownership reverted to the State. “Under this model, the companies contributed the capital for investment in fixed assets, renovations and furnishings, taking on the operational management of the business,” while the land remained in the hands of the Cuban State.
Then came the military conglomerate GAESA which, he explains, had by that point accumulated “sufficient capital to begin building new hotels on its own account.” Gaviota was then created, with which the companies agreed a remuneration structure based on two components: “a fixed percentage for hotel management and a variable incentive linked to profits.”
Gaviota was then created, with which the companies agreed a remuneration structure based on two components: “a fixed percentage for hotel management and a variable incentive linked to profits”
The management-only model and the original joint-venture model coexisted and flourished for years, until the onset of Cuba’s economic difficulties, which were aggravated by the pandemic. After that came the current major crisis, with the accumulation of sanctions – some specifically targeting GAESA – that have forced the current withdrawal of the foreign hotel chains associated with Gaviota. In the specific case of Meliá, following the abandonment of the management of 14 hotels, it is left with just 19. Iberostar, also Spanish, relinquished 6 of 12, and other companies have reduced or eliminated their presence on the island entirely.
Vasallo is unequivocal. The overall balance has been positive, and now all that remains is to wait and see what happens. “The Cuban market has completed its cycle. Today it represents a latent asset managed under damage-limitation criteria, pending the inevitable bright tourism future of Cuba – which appears closer following the reforms set in motion by the regime, including the dismantling of GAESA and its replacement by public limited companies, planned devaluations of the peso, and the authorization of private banks, all of which amounts to a complete overhaul of the economic system.”
Translated by GH
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Malnutrition is also present in 125 infants, 4.5% of the 2,807 registered in the province.
Of the 1,393 pregnant women registered in Ciego de Ávila, 351 have some nutritional problem, including 88 with anemia.
14ymedio, Madrid, June 29, 2026 — A pioneer in Cuba’s unprecedented worsening of infant mortality, the province of Ciego de Ávila continues to struggle in maternal and neonatal care. Of the 1,393 pregnant women registered in the province, 351—25.2%, or one quarter—have some form of nutritional problem, including 88 with anemia. The figures were provided by the official press itself in a report published this Monday.
The province is not only above the national average for malnutrition among pregnant women—which is already a significant 22.5%—along with Guantánamo, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba, but also exceeds the national average for infant malnutrition. Of 2,807 children under one year of age, 125—4.5%—suffer from it, placing Ciego de Ávila third in the country for this problem, behind only Granma and Santiago de Cuba. Among these infants, Invasor reports that 260 have an “associated social risk,” the official term used to indicate extreme poverty.
The province also lags behind in the number of maternity homes, with only 11 facilities for its 10 municipalities, two of which have “structural problems.” In three municipalities, the provincial newspaper continues, there is not even a maternity home, and pregnant women must instead be admitted to polyclinics. In fact, the article is illustrated with one of these centers, in Florencia, which remains closed and half-built, despite, in Invasor’s words, having been “scheduled for completion in the first quarter of the year.” continue reading
The province also lags behind in the number of maternity homes, with only 11 facilities for its 10 municipalities, two of which have “structural problems”
In the municipality of Primero de Enero, the maternity home is only 60% complete, according to the official media outlet, while Bolivia municipality “has a designated site but has not begun construction.”
In addition, Invasor reports that Ciego de Ávila “is among the provinces with the largest number of municipalities—all of them—that do not guarantee the delivery of all products stipulated in Diet 06.02,” the medically prescribed diet for pregnant women.
Shortages extend to cribs, mattresses, and even adult scales in medical offices. The province lacks 137 scales, “with no possibility of immediate replacement because they are imported equipment,” according to the provincial newspaper.
The figures do not clearly describe the situation regarding teenage pregnancy, but Invasor does report that 10 pregnant girls aged 15 or younger “refuse admission to maternity homes.” It is of little comfort that authorities report 29 pregnant women and two infants still awaiting layette packages, or that efforts are underway to “resolve” the situation of 48 pregnant women, 10 infants, and two children “without a registered home address” who are receiving neither diet supplements, layettes, cribs, nor mattresses.
The number of people “in preparation” to receive Home Social Assistance Services illustrates the scale of hardship: only 456 across Ciego de Ávila, Havana, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Holguín, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba.
This precarious situation will undoubtedly affect maternal and child health indicators. According to the Ministry of Public Health, Cuba ended 2025 with an infant mortality rate of 9.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 7.1 the previous year, an increase of nearly three points in just 12 months.
During the last session of the Cuban Parliament in December, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero had already outlined the problem, reporting that the rate had reached 9.7 and acknowledging the “deterioration” of this health indicator.
The speed at which this figure has worsened nationwide is alarming. The trend was already evident by mid-2025, when the infant mortality rate rose to 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, nearly one point higher than during the same period in 2024. At that time, the arbovirus epidemic—chikungunya and dengue—which claimed most of its fatalities among those under 18 years of age, had not yet spread throughout the Island.
Cuba recorded 68,051 births last year, 3,108 fewer than in 2024, according to official figures.
Far removed is the situation in 2018, when the infant mortality rate was considered a model for the region. That year, the country recorded 3.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, the best figure in the entire Americas.
The same applies to maternal mortality figures for 2025. Health authorities reported a rate of 44.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with 40.6 in 2024, noting that “the increase from one year to the next amounted to one additional maternal death.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Drying the grain is done outdoors due to “the current challenging energy conditions”
The Fernando Echenique Agroindustrial Company aims to plant 240 hectares. / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, June 29, 2026 — The province of Granma, once among Cuba’s leading rice producers, has launched a rice-planting program using drones in an attempt to improve its diminished production. The project is being carried out by the Fernando Echenique Agroindustrial Company, which aims to plant 240 hectares of the grain in areas belonging to the binational TB Agri Connecting Vietnam-Cuba project, in the Granma municipality of Yara.
At the beginning of May, according to a report in the state press, the project’s first planting was carried out, covering 160 hectares as part of the spring campaign, which began in March and ends in August. The process was even attended by Lehuy Thang, deputy director of the TB Agri project.
In a post, the company stated that it will use drones to optimize the cultivation process and achieve more efficient results. “The combination of innovation and experience promises to transform our agricultural practices and maximize productivity in the fields,” it said.
State media emphasize that collaboration with the Vietnamese company makes possible “the introduction of high-quality rice varieties, technological packages, equipment, and the modernization of industrial grain-processing infrastructure, particularly drying and milling facilities.”
The company itself has revealed on social media that it must perform juggling acts in the face of “the current challenging energy conditions”
Nevertheless, the company itself has revealed on social media that it must perform juggling acts in the face of “the current challenging energy conditions.” One of the crucial processes in harvesting seeds and grains is drying. Although methods such as hot-air drying or intermittent drying are used, both require a facility powered by electricity. continue reading
Fernando Echenique stated in a post that it is carrying out natural rice drying, “which not only allows available resources to be optimized but also contributes to the sustainability of the final product.”
The publication is accompanied by three images showing grains spread out on plastic sheets in the open air. The message concludes by assuring that the initiative reflects the company’s commitment “to adaptation and resilience in difficult times.”
Although the use of drones is innovative, the number of hectares involved pales in comparison to Granma’s historical contribution to national production. Just last year, there were plans to plant 41,000 hectares of rice out of the country’s total 200,000 hectares, although producers were not optimistic.
One reason for their pessimism about reaching that goal was the absence of a package that included imported fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, all essential for certain crops, including rice.
The yield from these lands barely reaches two to 2.5 tons per hectare, compared to the five tons achieved in the past.
Last December, Odisnel Traba Ferrales, agricultural director of the Fernando Echenique Agroindustrial Company, stated that they had gone “practically four years without having that technological package.”
As a result, lands that were once highly productive no longer deliver the same results. Yields now barely reach two to 2.5 tons per hectare, compared to the five tons achieved in the past. The figure looks even more modest when compared with the success the Vietnamese are achieving in Pinar del Río, where the company Agri VMA, which holds land under usufruct, exceeds 7.2 tons per hectare.
If one looks at the data from Vietnam’s state-level cooperation, yields are even higher, according to recent figures published by the Cuban Institute for Seed Plant Research, which recorded up to 9.14 tons per hectare in the winter campaign (7 tons in spring) for one of the varieties being cultivated, Viva76.
To the rice harvest process must also be added transportation, which is likewise affected by fuel shortages
Although the state media report does not mention it, transportation is another necessary part of the rice harvest process, and it too is affected by the fuel shortage.
The difficulties in producing the grain have led the regime to propose taking advantage of the shortage to stop eating potatoes and rice. Roberto Caballero, a member of the National Executive Committee of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians, and José Carlos Cordobés, general director of Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Food Industry, argued that achieving food sovereignty would be easier by changing habits that conflict with the reality of Cuban soils and eliminating some products from the regular diet.
“We are not Asians; that is not a Cuban habit,” Caballero emphasized last December on the program Cuadrando la Caja, before suggesting that, although it has become an established tradition, that too could change. “With the shortages that exist, anything you put in the local market will sell,” he assured.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Cuba’s banks have run out of money, and authorities are carrying out these confiscations supposedly to pay pensions
Long line to withdraw cash at the Banco Metropolitano branch located at the corner of O’Reilly and Compostela in Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, June 28, 2026 — “Some inspectors arrived and demanded that all the cash in the register be handed over,” a witness to one of these operations told 14ymedio. Similar incidents have reportedly occurred in several provinces across the country. He witnessed it in Holguín, but other sources describe comparable situations involving private small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Matanzas and Camagüey. “In exchange, they make a bank transfer to you, but when you go to withdraw the money from the bank, you can’t get any cash,” he said of one of the operations. “They give you a transfer, but when you try to withdraw the money, there’s no cash available.”
Authorities, who publicly accuse mipymes of hoarding banknotes, have begun forcibly removing the cash accumulated in private business registers and replacing it with bank transfers. Witnesses describe an almost identical procedure, carried out by inspectors, bank officials, and police officers, leaving businesses without money to make change, pay suppliers, or restock merchandise.
Another complaint circulated on Facebook this Friday describes a similar situation in Matanzas and attributes the measure to the inability to pay pensions. “Banks in Matanzas have run out of cash and have not been able to pay retirees,” continue reading
the post begins. It was later shared across numerous profiles and groups.
The text claims that the Provincial Government, the Communist Party, executives from Banco de Crédito y Comercio and Banco Popular de Ahorro, together with police officers and inspectors, are “invading private businesses to seize all the cash on hand at that moment.”
Businesses are left “without cash to operate, not even money to give change”
“Without prior notice to the businesses, they close them down, enter them, count all the cash in the registers, and force them to hand it over,” the complaint states. Afterwards, it adds, officials make “a bank transfer to the business’s fiscal account for the same amount of cash that was taken.”
The post maintains that businesses are left “without cash to operate, not even money to give change,” and attributes the decision to the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Matanzas and the provincial governor. It also claims that some owners who resisted were threatened with fines, the closure of their businesses, or even detention.
The account from Matanzas matches a complaint made by Katia Castello Morgade, a self-employed entrepreneur in Camagüey, who said that Finance inspectors, accompanied by police officers and bank employees, were removing money from private establishments after conducting cash audits.
“During the inspection they count the cash and immediately deposit or transfer it into the banking system, leaving businesses without liquidity,” summarizes one of the videos posted on Instagram.
The entrepreneur clarified that officials do not directly appropriate the money but instead force businesses to deposit it into the bank. The result, however, is that the business loses the banknotes it needs to operate and receives in return an electronic balance that is difficult to use in an economy where many suppliers accept only cash. Added to this are the difficulties of making electronic payments, since power outages prevent such operations for long periods.
The State requires businesses to deposit cash, but the banks do not guarantee that it can be withdrawn later
For years, Cuban authorities have been trying to force the banking of commercial operations. Resolution 111 of 2023 by the Central Bank established limits on cash collections and payments, as well as rules governing the deposit, withdrawal, and possession of cash. The regulation requires economic actors to deposit their daily income but does not explicitly state that inspectors and police officers may remove all the money found during an inspection without leaving even a cash reserve.
The problem has worsened because banking works only in one direction. The State requires businesses to deposit banknotes, but banks do not guarantee that the money can later be withdrawn. State media itself has reported complaints for years about the lack of cash in ATMs and bank branches, restrictions on withdrawing funds—including wages—and the refusal of many establishments to accept transfers.
The reported operations appear to respond to a more immediate need than fiscal discipline. Faced with a shortage of banknotes to pay pensions, salaries, and benefits, the Government appears to be turning to the cash registers of mipymes and self-employed workers as a source of immediate liquidity.
So far, neither the Central Bank, the provincial governments mentioned, nor the Ministry of Finance and Prices has publicly reported on these operations. Nor have they explained what regulation authorizes the temporary closure of a business, the counting of its cash, and the mandatory replacement of banknotes with a transfer that, in practice, cannot be converted back into cash.
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Bruno Rodríguez demands that the German Foreign Minister and the OAS attribute the crisis on the island to the US blockade.
Image of German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. / EFE/EPA/Flip Singer
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, June 25, 2026 / The Cuban government responded Thursday to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul after the Christian Democratic politician attributed the island’s crisis to mismanagement by its authorities. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused Wadephul of being unaware of US sanctions and invited him to learn more about Washington’s policy toward Havana.
“How can we not recognize the imposition of an energy blockade in serious violation of International Law, which constitutes collective punishment, causes humanitarian damage and impedes free trade and freedom of navigation,” Rodríguez wrote on his social media.
The regime’s reaction came after Wadephul stated last Sunday, during a German government open house, that he did not see the blockade described by one of the citizens participating in the meeting. “I don’t see the kind of blockade you describe,” responded the minister, who went further by stating that a “regime of injustice” prevails in Cuba.
For Wadephul, the “decisive prerequisite” for improving the living conditions of the population is that the country be “better governed,” a direct criticism of the responsibility of the Cuban authorities in the deep economic and social crisis that the Island is going through. continue reading
“I don’t see that kind of blockade you’re describing.”
Rodríguez avoided responding to that part of the statements and focused his rebuttal on his favorite narrative: US sanctions. The foreign minister recommended that the German minister familiarize himself with the measures applied to companies and citizens of his country under the Helms-Burton Act. Passed in the United States in 1996, this legislation allows lawsuits to be filed against foreign companies that benefit from properties confiscated by the Cuban government after 1959.
The response to Wadephul comes on top of another protest issued a day earlier by Rodríguez against the Organization of American States. The foreign minister was reacting to a statement from the organization’s General Secretariat, which had expressed concern about the democracy situation in Cuba.
“The OAS General Secretariat claims to be concerned about the situation facing Cuba. However, it is scandalous that it makes not the slightest mention of the escalating US aggression against our country,” Rodríguez stated.
According to the minister, the organization should focus on the impact of US sanctions, which he described as a “ruthless and unjustified” policy and which he blamed for the deterioration of living conditions for Cubans.
Under pressure from the US, Cuban authorities approved a package of reforms aimed at easing some of the obstacles that Cubans often describe as the “internal blockade.”
Havana attributes almost all of the country’s economic problems to the US embargo and, more recently, to restrictions on oil supplies. However, the government avoids mentioning the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises, the lack of structural reforms, the collapse of national production, and the economic decisions made by the regime itself.
Cuba has been experiencing a severe energy crisis for years, with blackouts that in many provinces can last for more than 20 hours. The situation has worsened due to fuel shortages and the deterioration of thermoelectric power plants, affected by decades of explotation, constant breakdowns, and lack of maintenance.
Since the beginning of this year, the Trump administration has intensified economic pressure on Havana, particularly targeting oil supplies and businesses linked to Cuban state entities. Under this pressure, authorities approved a package of reforms aimed at easing some of the restrictions that Cubans often describe as the “internal blockade.”
________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The military conglomerate has also divested itself of the joint venture that managed the Miramar Business Center in Havana.
The reorganization seeks to protect the commercial operations of the Port of Mariel from the sanctions imposed by the United States. / Canal Caribe
14ymedio, Madrid, June 28, 2026 — Terminal de Contenedores Mariel S.A. (TCM), owned by the military conglomerate Gaesa and operator of Cuba’s main commercial port, has transferred its assets to Coral Marítima S.A., a state company attached to the Maritime-Port Business Group (Gemar), which falls under the Ministry of Transportation. The move aims to remove a key piece of Cuba’s foreign trade infrastructure from the reach of U.S. sanctions.
The operation was announced through a letter sent on June 25 to the terminal’s clients, a copy of which was obtained by 14ymedio. In the communication, the company states that “Terminal de Contenedores Mariel S.A. sold its assets to the Cuban commercial company Coral Marítima S.A., which established the subsidiary Terminales Portuarias CORAL S.A. to take over the business previously conducted by TC Mariel,” and specifies that the operation is “in the final stages of the corresponding legal procedures.”
The company indicates that the new corporation will assume contractual relationships with clients and that they will be invited to sign new contracts, “ensuring commercial continuity.” It also seeks to reassure customers by stating that “the terminal will continue operating fully throughout this process” and that daily activities will proceed “with complete normality, guaranteeing the execution of the services normally provided.” continue reading
The reorganization is a response to efforts to protect the operations of the Port of Mariel and prevent international companies from being exposed to sanctions
Coral Marítima S.A. develops investments and operations related to maritime transport and port activities. Unlike Terminal de Contenedores Mariel S.A., the company is not part of Gaesa’s corporate network. The reorganization is specifically intended to protect the commercial operations of the Port of Mariel and prevent international companies operating there from being exposed to U.S. sanctions.
Gaesa also recently divested itself of the joint venture that managed the Miramar Business Center in Havana. British investment fund CEIBA Investments Limited announced on June 5 that it had acquired 100% control of Inmobiliaria Monte Barreto S.A., which operates the Miramar Trade Center. Until then, the real estate company had been jointly owned with Cimex S.A., Gaesa’s largest commercial and financial conglomerate. Negotiations for the transaction began in 2017 and were finalized in April 2026.
The decree signed by Trump on May 1 expanded U.S. sanctions on trade with Cuba to include “any foreign person” operating in the sectors of “energy, defense and related materials, metals and mining, financial services, or the security of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”
The consequences of the sanctions began to be felt just weeks after they took effect. Two of the world’s largest shipping companies, the French CMA CGM and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, suspended their services to Cuba in May. The decision paralyzed a significant portion of international cargo traffic and forced many operators to review or cancel contracts. The latest transfer appears intended to facilitate the resumption of operations by removing the terminal from Gaesa’s corporate structure.
“The situation in Cuba continues to deteriorate while the Island’s corrupt, brutal, and anti-American communist regime continues to prioritize its absolute control over freedom”
The U.S. sanctions package against the economic pillars of the Cuban regime has also prompted the withdrawal of foreign companies such as the Canadian mining firm Sherritt International and the Australian company Antilles Gold. The tourism sector also suffered a major blow with the departure of foreign hotel chains associated with Gaviota—the tourism group controlled by Gaesa—including Blue Diamond Resorts, Iberostar, Meliá, and Archipelago International.
The measures also affected Financiera Cimex S.A. (Fincimex), another Gaesa-affiliated entity, with the suspension of Visa and Mastercard operations on the Island. On June 11, the inclusion of the state-owned oil company Cupet on the list of sanctioned entities maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) derailed plans by Florida-based Vanguard Energy, which had hoped to complete one of the largest private fuel sales to Cuba in recent years.
On June 23, OFAC added five more Cuban companies belonging to the military conglomerate to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List: Almacenes Universales S.A., Banco Financiero Internacional (BFI), Geominera S.A., Empresa Siderúrgica José Martí (Antillana de Acero), and Rafin S.A.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio then posted on X: “The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic wellbeing of the Cuban people.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The dollar went on a wild run in June, climbing from 600 to 700 pesos before falling back to 660 this Friday.
Long lines at the Banco Metropolitano branch on Galiano Street in Havana
14ymedio, Madrid, June 26, 2026 / The informal foreign currency market is going through turbulent times. Just three days ago, the dollar hit 700 Cuban pesos [CUP], crossing a new psychological threshold and triggering an immediate rise in prices of goods denominated in national currency. The celebrations among currency traders were short-lived: within hours, a sharp drop was recorded, followed by several more, bringing the exchange rate down to 660 CUP this Friday.
It is not the first time the currency market has acted like a yo-yo in response to the extreme volatility of supply and demand in an economy devastated by crisis and producing almost nothing. The energy crisis and the absence of any prospect of improvement have contributed to accelerating the fall of the national currency while simultaneously generating sharp recovery movements driven by cautious behavior on the part of currency buyers.
“A few days ago, when it was rising fast, I had a hard time making exchanges, because the MSMEs [Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises] had put buying on hold,” a Havana-based seller told 14ymedio. “Along with the dollar’s rise in recent days, food and other products also went up. Now I’m seeing they say it’s come down – I hope essential goods come down a bit too,” he added, trying to find a silver lining in his trade.
“The bad thing about this is that now the dollar falls and prices stay where they were when it was at 700.”
Most people are skeptical. “The bad thing about this is that now the dollar falls and prices stay where they were when it was at 700,” one social media user commented. Speculation is keeping the conversation very much alive. Some argue that the speed of the drop is due to the 176 economic reform measures announced by the Government. Others mock the very idea that the regime’s proposals could have any effect. “Nobody invests their money without guarantees. There can be 15,000 measures for change, but if you don’t change the law where it needs to be changed nobody comes. Nobody is going to put their money somewhere where continue reading
the judge is also a party to the case,” another user replied.
Just 24 days ago, the dollar reached what was then seen as an unthinkable record: 600 CUP. Looking back even further — though not that far — it is easy to confirm the relentless depreciation of the national currency. On May 2, one dollar was exchanging for 535 CUP.
US economist Steve Hanke, who frequently updates informal inflation rates and currency depreciation figures for various countries, placed the Cuban peso three days ago as the third most devalued currency in the world at present, having lost 45% of its value over the past year. Although the ranking is volatile — as recently as June 16, the CUP was in fourth place — a persistent presence in the top five has been maintained for some time. On that same day, the expert noted that inflation reached an annualized rate of 84.5%, the third highest rate of price increases in the world. “Socialism and Uncle Sam’s sanctions have proved to be a lethal cocktail,” the expert stated.
“Socialism and Uncle Sam’s sanctions have proved to be a lethal cocktail.”
The official market, meanwhile, continues to operate in its parallel world, today buying the dollar at 585 — a price at which few, if any, are willing to part with a currency that has become far too precious.
In December 2025, the Government launched a floating rate in an attempt to compete with the informal market rate, which had established itself through sheer economic reality among the population. After years of open war with El Toque for publishing an exchange rate far higher than the State’s, the official buying and selling price was set at 410 pesos to the dollar — in addition to the other existing rates of 24 pesos, for state enterprises, and 120, for entities capable of generating foreign currency. Beyond being an attempt to recapture the lost currency market, the regime was trying to contain inflation that continues to climb, albeit more slowly than in 2023 and 2024 — not because the economy has improved, but due to widespread poverty and the scarcity of goods at affordable prices.
At the time the initial rate was approved, the authorities noted that it was not going to please anyone, and so it proved — the US dollar was trading on the informal market for around 440 pesos, a far closer relationship than the current one. The regime’s efforts to contain monetary instability have proved futile, as economists had already warned. To achieve that, they noted, five factors difficult to bring about on the Island would need to be in place, starting with a better macroeconomic environment that today is much further away than it was just a year and a half ago.
Translated by GH.
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The Cuban Workers’ Federation wants to bring private-sector workers into its ranks and is studying the draft of the new Labor Code, which the minister responsible described as “revolutionary, novel, and up to date”
The Government wants private actors to invest, generate wealth, and take on risks, but does not appear willing to legally limit the power that determines who may operate and under what conditions / Facebook / CTC
14ymedio, Havana, June 27, 2026 / “It is not a neoliberal package, nor is it a return to capitalism.” With that warning, Deputy Prime Minister – and great-grand-nephew of Fidel and Raul Castro – Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga presented the 176 economic and social reforms to the 22nd Congress of the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC) this Friday. The CTC is the island’s only legal trade union and one of the Communist Party’s main transmission belts.
The Government needs to expand the space for private business, attract foreign capital, decentralize decision-making, and allow new financial operations, while insisting that none of this alters the political foundations of the system. According to Perez-Oliva Fraga, the reform does not require amending the Constitution either.
The official, who also heads the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, stated that “if wealth is not generated, we cannot build the just society we want.” The statement amounts to an acknowledgment that the State no longer has sufficient resources to sustain its social policies, while avoiding any examination of the internal causes of the country’s productive collapse.
Among the standing priorities are control of the fiscal deficit, inflation, price regulation, and banking. The state plan projects a deficit of 74.5 billion pesos for 2026, of which 29.219 billion had already accumulated by the end of May. The Government has also authorized 91 foreign-currency self-financing schemes – a succession of exceptions that benefits companies able to generate hard currency without resolving the broader exchange-rate chaos. continue reading
The state plan projects a deficit of 74.5 billion pesos for 2026, of which 29.219 billion had already accumulated by the end of May. / Cubadebate
Some of the reforms will begin to be implemented within the next 30 days. The timetable includes measures covering economic actors, the Central State Administration, the energy sector, agriculture, prices, wages, trade, catering, services, and the partial dollarization of the economy.
The program also envisages expanding private-sector participation in tourism, foreign trade, and the real estate sector, as well as facilitating foreign investment by Cubans living outside the island. Cooperatives will be permitted to import and sell fuel for their operations, seek external financing, and open bank accounts abroad.
The fine print will depend, however, on numerous regulations still pending. The Government has created a legal working group headed by Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly, and a separate “political and communications support” group led by the Party. While the former will be tasked with accelerating the drafting of implementing provisions, the latter will manage the public explanation of measures that may prove unpopular.
Perez-Oliva summed up the philosophy of the process as “unified direction with decentralization of responsibilities.” Havana will retain political command and strategic decision-making, while businesses, municipalities, and workers will be required to generate income and be held accountable for results.
The union, which represents 2,069,285 members, also aims to extend its presence into private-sector companies.
“The implementation of these reforms will not achieve the results we aspire to if our workers are not actively involved,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the delegates. The CTC will be expected to transform the government’s program into a political movement, explain it in workplaces, and accompany processes of “labor reorientation” – a term that may encompass layoffs, reassignments, workforce reductions, and the closure of unproductive entities.
The union, which represents 2,069,285 members, also aims to extend its presence into private-sector companies. The unionization of their employees was among the issues debated, alongside wages, productivity, support for retirees, and protection of workers’ rights. No explanation has been offered as to what capacity the CTC would have to stand up to a state or private employer, but it seems clear that workers will not be able to organize outside the Party-controlled federation.
The energy crisis even left its mark on the organization of the congress itself. Of the 759 delegates, 561 participated via videoconference and only 198 gathered in person at the Havana Convention Center. Nearly three in four union members were unable to attend in person the gathering convened to debate the country’s economic recovery.
Delegates also reviewed the draft new Labor Code, which will be submitted to the National Assembly in July. The Minister of Labor and Social Security, Jesus Otamendiz Campos, described the proposal as “revolutionary, novel, and suited to the present day.”
Monreal noted that the verb “to permit” appears 29 times in the document.
Among its new provisions are the exceptional admission to employment of adolescents aged 15 to 18, multiple job-holding, so-called “combined work,” and the possibility of setting workdays of less than eight hours with proportional pay. The authorities did not specify what types of work minors would be permitted to carry out, nor what safeguards would prevent poverty and family breakdown from pushing young people prematurely into the labor market.
Cuban economist Pedro Monreal questioned whether the list can be regarded as a coherent reform at all. The 176 measures are a “monster,” or “perhaps more of a misshapen hybrid,” he wrote on X. In his view, the Government is attempting to incorporate elements of a market economy without recognizing private property as a right protected against state power.
Monreal noted that the verb “to permit” appears 29 times in the document. “‘To permit’ is a permissive stance of power,” he observed, because it preserves the notion that private activity is a concession that the authorities can modify or withdraw.
“Nowhere in the 176 measures is it possible to identify any substantive recognition of the right to private property,” he added. Nor do any clear guarantees appear regarding commercial arbitration, claims, compensation, or dispute resolution.
The Government wants private actors to invest, generate wealth, and take on risks, but does not appear willing to legally limit the power that determines who may operate and under what conditions. The CTC will now be charged with bringing those entrepreneurs and workers into its ranks, while ensuring that the economic opening is not mistaken for a return to capitalism.
Translated by GH.
______________________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, June 30, 2026 – This Tuesday, the 14ymedio newsroom, located in Nuevo Vedado, woke up without a supply of manufactured gas. It was not an isolated situation: from several parts of Havana, residents quickly confirmed the same problem. “No electricity, no water, no connection, and no gas,” repeated a resident of Luyanó like a mantra.
