November 14, 2021 – One day before the peaceful march called by the citizens’ initiative Archipelago in Cuba and supported by human rights organizations and activists, we denounce the wave of repression that has intensified in the country against its promoters and the citizens who identify with it. The undersigned organizations ask the international civil […] Read more

Tuesday 13 July 2021- The undersigned organisations condemn the Cuban government’s repression of the citizen protests registered since 11 July 2021 and which continue to date. We also make an urgent call to the administration presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel, to stop all acts of violence and violations of the human rights of citizens through […] Read more

What are the consequences of being a woman activist in Cuba today? What factors contribute to the hostility that directly or indirectly affects all Cuban women, and what specific nuances does institutional violence toward women take on? These are the questions that People in Need raises in EYE on CUBA’s latest report titled “Institutional Gender […] Read more

  Following the attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953, the young Fidel Castro Ruz denounced what he saw as the evils that ravaged the republic. This included, among other things, corruption, robbery, drug addiction, prostitution, and violence. He stated that a new People’s Government was the solution to the problems he listed. Castro laid […] Read more

Cuban artists are determined to save the Guaso River in Guantanamo, the easternmost province of Cuba. The previously clean river has become polluted as people throw garbage in an area lacking public bins as well as environmental awareness. The Cuban authorities do not provide adequate waste removal infrastructure and continue neglecting pollution, environmental degradation and […] Read more

To me, the way to approach this issue, is to see that in Cuba subtle and underhanded repression has been the main instrument in carrying out systematic human rights violations by the Havana regime against peaceful opponents and the population Although it is true that the first period of human rights violations in Cuba took […] Read more

The Cuban Reflection Movement (MCR) has been the target of a range of repressive modalities, on the part of the State security services. Since its founding in 1994, its members have been the victim of arrests, threats, defamation, surveillance, persecution, acts of repudiation, blackmail, and illegal searches among other things, even when, at the beginning, […] Read more

In January 1959, Fidel Castro came to power after having toppled President Fulgencio Batista through an armed insurgency and a terrorist campaign on a national level. That same year Castro declared: “Where there is crime, there is no freedom of the press, where there is crime, what happens is hidden.” He also declared, on several occasions, […] Read more

One of the oldest occupations and, paradoxically one still pursued today, is that of fishing. Despite Cuba being an island in the Caribbean and people having fished here for centuries, Cubans have lacked access to this type of food for decades, and only those who have a diet based on a doctor’s recommendation can count […] Read more

History Guantánamo is the easternmost province of Cuba, its name is of aboriginal origin, which means “Land between Rivers.” Fate would have it that this was where Christopher Columbus landed in 1492 and where the first town was founded, which was named Our Lady of the Assumption, in 1511.  On April 30, 1494, Christopher Columbus […] Read more

For more than sixty years, the totalitarian regime of the Republic of Cuba has violated the human rights of all people in one way or another. On the other hand, it is worth highlighting the efforts of the country’s activists, who have stood up for fundamental rights for more than six decades, under constant repression […] Read more

Cuba: The International Community Must Demand Accountability from the Cuban Government For Its Actions and to Immediately Stop Unlawful Short-term Arbitrary Detentions, House Arrests, Forced Exile, and Smear Campaigns against Dissenting Voices In response to the aggressive acts committed by police officers in recent weeks against Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) activists on hunger strike; […] Read more

In Cuba, being in tune with the truth and sincerity is one of the most dangerous paths to choose, as peaceful opponents or dissidents of the government do on a daily basis.  When a person decides to be in dissent or think differently from the ideology framed by the totalitarian system imposed on the island, […] Read more

Since the start of the Revolution more than six decades ago, the education of Cuban students was practically forced to be atheistic and disconnected from any religion or religious institution. Although the Cuban educational system is free in terms of costs at all levels, the conditions under which it develops the cognitive process of students […] Read more

The year 2020 has proven to be another year full of complexities for Cuba. The COVID-19 pandemic, shortages, increased repression, and persistent sanctions marked the lives of the Cuban population throughout the year, while they simultaneously affected the decisions of the Cuban regime. Despite the arrival of the pandemic, there was no respite from arbitrary […] Read more

There have already been 10 femicides in Cuba this year. Independent organizations from Cuban civil society have requested specific actions to be taken regarding this issue, among them, that a national emergency be declared due to the increase in gender violence during periods of confinement caused by COVID 19; that a law be created where […] Read more

In Cuba, it could be said that the people live in two countries, one in the east (Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Las Tunas, Holguín) and the other in the west (Pinar del Río, Habana, Mayabeque, Artemisa and Matanzas). Although given the subject that I am going to address, the rest of Cuba’s provinces, Camagüey, […] Read more

“In order to have some soup, imagine, malanga costs 25 pesos per pound, pork is at 60 pesos. When I finish my soup, I can’t even pay my electric bill for the month” Since Trump became president of the United States in 2016, the delicate Cuban economy began staggering towards a collapse, as stated by […] Read more

The supposed representatives of the island’s people, boast of saying that Cuba fully complies with Human Rights, when the cruel reality is different For more than sixty years, the Cuban government has done everything possible to hide the delicate issue of Human Rights. Cuba is the founder and signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human […] Read more

From the moment that the José Martí International Airport in Havana restarted services to the public on November 15th with commercial, regular and charter flights, Cuban civil aviation entered into a stage known as “The New Normal.” Earlier on July 1st and coinciding with the opening of the tourist season, the authorization for air operations […] Read more

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You can see the video clicking on the image or here To know more about this topic you check: Pasos para redactar objetivos smart. Ejemplos y esquemas para el análisis PESTAL (o Pastel) Mecanismos para medir impacto social. (Además de indicadores, vienen otras posibilidades como Teoría del Cambio o el EVPA) Guía para descargar sobre […] Read more

You can see the video clicking on the image or here To know more about this topic you check: Administracion recursos humanos – Chiavenato Diagrama de Gantt Gestion de Recursos Humanos Entidades Sin Animo de Lucro Recursos humanos en ONG ¿How to manage HR? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-wRSIDzxWg Claves para gestion de persoans en entidades no lucrativas Read more

You can see the video clicking on the image or here To know more about this topic you check: Lineamientos para la elaboración de un plan de acción de recaudación Base de datos básica para el registro de donantes Base de datos básica para el registro de socios Identificación básica de necesidades Matriz básica de oportunidades Read more

You can see the video clicking on the image or here To know more about this topic you check: Manual de Proteccion para Defensores de DDHH Guia para cooperación sensible al conflicto Capacitación en seguridad digital holística Psychological support: http://publicaciones.hegoa.ehu.es/uploads/pdfs/401/DEFENSORES_SIBRIAN-BERISTAINcast.pdf?1557396644 Security guide: https://modeladoriesgos.asuntosdelsur.org/ IWPR: https://cyber-women.com/es Frontline: https://securityinabox.org/es/ Digital Security Course – Amnisty International: https://aprendergratis.es/ciencias-sociales/curso-sobre-seguridad-digital-y-derechos-humanos/ Digital security and Ciber rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoJsE0A0Yvw […] Read more

You can see the video clicking on the image or here To know more about this topic you check: Plantilla de Actividades Plantilla-presupuesto-marketing Plantilla calendario redes Razón y palabra (redes sociales en Cuba) Read more

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Currently many families across the island, facing the pandemic under extreme conditions, live day to day with the threat that their roof can collapse at any moment The housing situation is one of the maladies that most affects Cuban society. The government has recognized that a million homes are needed to alleviate this crisis, which […] Read more

Before, if you put in the effort and sacrifice, you were able to live perfectly with what you were able to plant…, today even if you work like a slave, to make a profit from a harvest you have to be a magician “It looks very nice and it seems easy, even though the life […] Read more

To buy food you have to become a ninja, when they take out some chicken the queues are endless and there have been people checking for days, I don’t know how they find out Juana María Cortina is an accountant for a subsidiary of the Cuban State Trading Company in Guantánamo, she has a 21-year-old […] Read more

Inequality was institutionalized in Cuban society, since not all citizens are able to access this currency to obtain basic services, most citizens are still left outside of the dollar economy With the expansion of the novel coronavirus surging across the world, the global economy has recently experienced a general crisis, and our country was not […] Read more

All the existing mechanisms to achieve what it means to bring something to the table is more difficult at the moment due to the scarcity of supplies and the increase in the price of basic necessities. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the challenge for the vast majority of Cubans on the island: to figure out […] Read more

Download the bulletin Here As in other countries, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in Cuba resulted in not only impacts on people’s health; it also exacerbated several of the already existing problems. In the case of Cuba, the health crisis added to the country’s pre-existing economic problems, while also triggering a crisis of severe […] Read more

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It is no secret to anyone that the Cuban government has received millions of euros and dollars from countries and non-governmental institutions for projects aimed at preserving the environment. Where have these large sums of money gone? For more than sixty years, the Cuban government has lied to its own people and the international community […] Read more

The undersigned – international and Cuban civil society organizations, members of Cuban independent media, activists, and Cuban citizens – condemn the harassment, police violence, human rights violations, and repressive acts perpetrated by Cuban authorities against artists, journalists, and independent civil society actors in response to peaceful demonstrations against the arrest and subsequent arbitrary conviction of […] Read more

We are deeply concerned about the decision to grant Cuba a new opportunity to have a seat on the Human Rights Council. This not only rewards Cuba’s poor human rights record, but it also undermines the integrity of the Council to hold abusive governments accountable for their actions in the region and across the globe. […] Read more

The economic situation of each Cuban (on the street) is critical, and the majority of them are affected by low salaries and unemployment. There are many people with scarce resources, experiencing critical state neglect, and with untreated ailments. Due to COVID-19, the situation in Cuba is concerning. Although most cases are concentrated in the three […] Read more

In response to the uninterrupted acts of intimidation and violence committed in the last two months by Cuban authorities against members of the dissident organization Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), its leader José Daniel Ferrer, and his family, more than 30 Cuban and international human rights organizations issued the following statement: We call on the […] Read more

The arrival of September is overwhelming in most cases for parents and students, who now have to come up with a new strategy for their children just so they can study. When the school year approaches, the line of parents trying to obtain the paperwork for their school uniforms is enormous. The worst-case scenario is […] Read more

    I still can’t avoid the pain I feel when I see and hear these stories. These are Cuban women, human beings who opt for living and try to take the best that life offers them, or perhaps the only option.     Adelfa puts on her glasses while eyeballing me from top to […] Read more

Zuleidys is located in the east of Cuba and carries out independent initiatives to support and empower women in her community. A large part of the world is facing the fatal COVID-19 pandemic, which is leaving a large number of deaths. Trying to reduce the transmission of this virus, different types of governments have adopted […] Read more

He is a young Cuban doctor and LGTBIQ activist from the city of Cienfuegos. In 2016, he emigrated to Spain, where he still resides in the city of Madrid. There he lives with his partner and (since recently) finally practices medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought hard times for the entire world population. So it […] Read more

Simonne walked around Havana to ask about the situation of several local women and of people working on tourism-related activities. She brings us their testimonies. “The border closure and the immediate drop of tourism has been a disaster for our pockets, fortunately, I asked for the temporary suspension of the license” – told me Odalis, […] Read more

Marlon Martorell and his wife Kenia traveled from Cuba to Central America looking to meet with their family in the United States. They had to flee due to the constant harassment from the State’s authorities as a consequence of their work as political opponents and human rights defenders. Currently, they are in the US-Mexico border, […] Read more

Download the bulletin here.   The global coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by surprise and has caused uneven reactions in different countries. Some had more time to react as it arrived later to their territory, but in any case, little was known about the virus. Cuba seems to be doing relatively well in controlling […] Read more

In Cuba, the crisis existed long before the start of the pandemic, as one Cuban woman related a few months ago: What job does a Cuban need to have in order to achieve the decency of life of their dreams? Well, it doesn’t exist.   Cubans have understood for a long time that we are […] Read more

People in Need signed a joint statement of organizations and media outlets that calls for the protection of human rights and demanding that the Cuban Government immediately ends online surveillance against people who express their opinions on social networks or other platforms and ceases the persecution of journalists and human rights activists. The undersigned organizations […] Read more

In Cuba, you can have the best of jobs, be a professional, have the highest of salaries, have no problems with alcoholism or any other vice, and still not be able to count on having your own house or reliable housing.   Perhaps, a pandemic is the situation that highlights the most the need for […] Read more

Fernando is a transsexual and everybody who knows him calls her Malena […] The bosses force her to dress like a man and they tell her that, if she does not present herself “properly dressed”, according to her sex assigned at birth, she will not be allowed to work   Fernando studied nursing and continued […] Read more

  When we speak of cynicism, contempt, irony and ridicule, what comes to mind for the majority of Cubans is the already accustomed way of reacting on the part of the legion of unpopular figures in every government agency on the island. When you live in Cuba and some misfortune happens to befall you, you […] Read more

Since Decree 349/2018 was sanction by Cuban government, independent artists have taken a leading role through peaceful and courageous actions in their opposition against censorship and the demand for freedom of artistic expression. Decree 349/2018 establishes contraventions on the provision of artistic services that are neither regulated nor recognised by Cuba’s official cultural institutions: a […] Read more

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You will never feel the pressure of there being too much, in a place where there is so little of everything that you don’t have much fabric to cut. Oh well, as is the custom and reality in Cuba, one has to undress one saint to dress another.   Shopping in Cuba doesn’t have to […] Read more

  Repression in Cuba works in a way that sometimes is not easy to understand for those who are not in direct contact with it or with the people who suffer it. Cuba has managed to create an international image of a social country, concerned about the lives of people. It has continuously promoted its […] Read more

  The government of Cuba projects to the world the image that its main raison d‘être originates from the fact that it is a victim of permanent violence at the hands of an almighty enemy, the United States. This image usually provokes sympathy on the international level and provides justifications for arbitrary acts and the lack of […] Read more

I began to experience repression the day my father shouted in my face: “If necessary we will kill, but they will not triumph, we cannot allow it.” My father is a professor of Social Sciences and Master in Cultural Development, and belongs to the Communist Party of Cuba, which he follows with a blind faith. […] Read more

  It all started with several people who simply stopped responding to our greetings, later on they looked at us with hatred and in silence. Others roared with laughter and said that we were crazy, that our salary was low and that we were going to have to go abroad. Then (some people) started screaming […] Read more

  The truth is that I don’t know which story from my life I should tell about psychological repression. Ever since I began taking an interest in our rights and how to assert them, they started calling me a counterrevolutionary and making life impossible for me. They start to make it like a war for […] Read more

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    People in Need presents its report on the psychological repression in Cuba, a compilation of personal stories from people living under an authoritarian regime and the psychological effects faced by them. The report is based on concrete cases and individual life stories, collected over two months from interviews with people based in the […] Read more

Prostitution is the performance of sexual acts for profit. In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to the person who participates in an economic transaction based on sex, usually in exchange for an agreed upon amount of remuneration. In Cuba, prostitution has always generated an internal debate that has resisted going beyond public policies. […] Read more

In the Province of Holguin, there are several communities where its population has very poor means and there is no possibility of gaining access to sources of technical or financial assistance. The worst conditions are found in the north of the province, in the Alcides Pinos neighborhood, known as La Chomba, and the other in […] Read more

When she asked me for a lighter without so much as an excuse me, much less wishing me a good afternoon, I looked her over trying to decipher her age, without even daring to think that this girl might be seventeen years old, if even that. I attempted to connect with her while making a […] Read more

Gender stereotypes play a role as ideology in affecting the behavior of both men and women. Traditionally, Latin American women are imprisoned in the stereotype of being curvy, provocative and sexual objects, rather than subjects with decision-making power and rights. The vast presence of prostitution in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has for […] Read more

  To me, being able to go out to demonstrate means that all men and women who love freedom have the right to change the most unjust aspects of their society, but in Cuba we cannot occupy our streets because they have not been declared free for the sake of marching and demanding our rights. […] Read more

  Empowering the voiceless, increasing the power of belonging and translating people’s power into action represents what citizen participation is in a democracy, but above all, in Cuba, it represents the long-lasting effects two recent protests will have in the collective memory of the country. On April 7th 2019 the first independent march authorized by […] Read more

On March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day, I had the opportunity to be part of a march held in the Czech Republic. It was the first time I was able to do so for a truly just cause and the experience was intense. There I could verify that each person was free to say and […] Read more

Participating in a March in Cuba, like the recently held “No to Animal Cruelty” or for LGBTIQ rights, has led me to question how much my social life and even my own sense of integrity were at stake. After spending so many years in what passes for normality in Cuba, i.e. that almost all of […] Read more

One of the most important political figures of the twentieth century in Cuba is more known for uttering the phrase: “In Cuba women are in charge”, than for his achievement as the first president. However, he said this a whopping 72 years ago. And at least that’s the way it should be, since Cuban women […] Read more

The incognito artists do not stop painting the most dissimilar sketchings on the Havana walls that are on the verge of collapse. The image seen on the corner of Subirana and Avenida Carlos III is without a doubt one of the most mysterious. Is it the way of showing the desire to escape everyday reality? […] Read more

The book entitled Cuban Press and the Machado Era written by Edel Lima Sarmiento, a pro-regime Cuban journalist, was published in 2014 by the Ciencias Sociales publishing house in Havana. Yet, taking into account the current situation of freedom of the press on the island, the title of the book should perhaps read Cuban Press and the Castro […] Read more

A few days ago, the Cuban Police punished a blind street musician by giving him a fine of 6,000 Cuban pesos (about 225 convertible pesos or USD). The man earns his living with his guitar and puppets, stationed in one of the many streets of the Old Havana. Mr. Arsenio Peña Blanco told us that […] Read more

“It’s really something unheard of,” complains Ernesta, resident of the Lawton neighbourhood, who has come to the Fincimex agency in Miramar to ask about her money. Ernesta tells us that she has been to the agency several times this week, awaiting a confirmation of the arrival of money sent by her brother living in Switzerland. […] Read more

A series of events in the Romerillo neighbourhood has caused unrest among the local inhabitants and should draw the attention of both the government and the authorities of the Playa municipality. Embedded in an area close to the 5th Avenue and within the reach of several iconic sites such as the Palacio de las Convenciones and the children’s […] Read more

The clamor for a Press Law that supposedly would solve the manifest and growing crisis of Cuban journalism, is leaked every so often in the articles of the so-called “comunicólogos”. The term was used by Graziella Pogolotti, a member of the Academy of Language in Cuba, in his Sunday column of Juventud Rebelde on March […] Read more

Manolo Cordoví agreed to tell us about his last experience with the money he earns as a street vendor, selling whatever there is: “I earned a couple of pesos by selling processed cheese and eggs, bringing the goods to people’s homes. Some customers pay with Cuban national pesos (CUP) while others give me convertible pesos […] Read more

A few days ago, someone brought to my memory one of the Cuban personalities of the nineteenth century who influenced the most of my adolescence: the poet Julián del Casal. The author of one of the top works of Cuban literature, born in 1863, died one night in October in 1893, while laughing out loud […] Read more

She is a small, fragile woman with signs of premature aging and a palpable emotional imbalance. She arrives at my house with a bundle of leaves in her hand and a cry of pity that overflows. In her town, they told her only that I am the only one who can help her, a sort […] Read more

Santa Fe de Bogotá, with almost ten million inhabitants, is the capital of Colombia, and has a rich cultural and journalistic tradition that distinguishes it from others. Not long ago I was there and I was able to obtain firsthand information about the details of the longest armed conflict in the American continent: the fight […] Read more

On the 1st August 2017, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba (Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba) published Resolution no. 22/2017 by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (the MTSS). The purpose of the new rules embodied in this resolution is to amend, to a certain extent, the inconsistencies that the authorities […] Read more

On July 18th, 2017, Mr. C. Énix Berrio Sardá was supposed to leave Cuba on a Copa Airlines flight bound for South America to participate in an academic workshop. Upon arrival at Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Énix checked his luggage along with other citizens going to the same […] Read more

Despite the alleged high pregnancy rates, the growth of the Cuban population has been stagnant for years. The reason for this may be the high number of abortions that are performed every day in hospitals. Thanks to visits to two maternity clinics in Havana, I was able to verify the number of women who come […] Read more

My memory, which is worth millions of pesos and is subversive, remembers it with a luxury of details. There was the triumph of “the bearded ones” in the Sierra Maestra, and then everything, except for communist ideas, started to be forbidden… even jazz, but not for its musical chords, of course. The Castro brothers saw […] Read more

In all countries of the world, it is difficult to fight against racism. However, in Cuba it is especially difficult. Although racism is a part of reality of today’s Cuban society, the authorities try to avoid any public discussion on this issue. Discrimination occurs for example in access to housing. Afro-Cubans have less contacts among the […] Read more

For a long time, the thinking has been that, in Cuba, censorship was reserved for opponents of the regime: those who wanted to put an end to the Revolution, and those who’s influence the people had to be protected against. Although culture, especially the arts, were used as a means for propaganda, the government initially […] Read more

The tomb of 21st-century socialism is in Caracas. This is the end of the project (hegemonic in several Latin American countries, for a moment) that Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro conceived in the late 1900s. The idea that took form in the premises of the Forum of Sao Paulo, a space that the radical left […] Read more

Niober Garcia Fournier is not a well-known Cuban dissident, nor is he someone used to traveling all the time and giving speeches at European institutions. In his native Guantanamo, almost a thousand kilometers from the capital, he regularly suffers from eastern-style repression and marginalization. An inseparable part of his life is his contact with grassroots […] Read more

The Coney Island amusement park in Havana once ranked among the most famous attractions in Latin America. Located close to the city centre, it covered a vast area from the La Concha beach to the FrutiCuba coffeehouse on 112th Street. Right in front of the Coney Island, there used to be many restaurants offering all kind […] Read more

Getting into debt is one of the most shameful situations one can ever be faced with. Yet, it constitutes a part of the survival mechanism invented and practiced by man for centuries. At present, the Cubans are burdened with crippling debts. I’m not referring to the external debt of the country, but to debts incurred […] Read more

The war waged over the sea around Havana is not a result of a conflict between nations. It’s a dispute among local fishermen and divers concerning the fishing zones created and granted to them by mutual agreement in a meeting of fishermen held in 2012. “The fishermen who participated in the meeting divided the sea […] Read more

26-year-old Nelson Rodríguez Leiva was executed in the La Cabaña fortress in 1971. The same fate awaited his soulmate friend, Angelito de Jesús Rabí. A century earlier, the poet Juan Clemente Zenea was shot dead at the same place. It was of no help that Nelson was a teacher who conducted a literacy mission in […] Read more

A mere glimpse at the Cuban history of the 1940‘s and 1950‘s reveals that the nature of the relationship between Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro was far from normal. There’s evidence that can prove it. The two families became acquainted when Raúl and Fidel were children. The Castro family lived in the town of Birán, […] Read more

Over the last few days, the inhabitants of Havana have seen a higher number of buses circulating through the city. This has helped to lift the mood of passengers and reduced the number of people waiting at bus stops. The situation, however, is just a consequence of recent events. In fact, the sudden expansion of […] Read more

To march through Havana advocating ethical treatment of animals and encouraging local residents to eat more vegetables is an idea so silly that it is quite likely to increase the anxiety of many a Cuban living in the capital and become an object of their ridicule. Yet, that was precisely the goal of PETA, American […] Read more

Several weeks ago, the 26th International Book Fair 2017 took place in Havana, Cuba. This year it was dedicated to Canada and to the Cuban revolutionary Armando Hart Dávalos. As in previous years, the event was held at the former military fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña. Built by the Spanish government in the early […] Read more

Despite the fact that the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro had never paid due respect to any of the Cuban presidents, the one he most despised and criticised was Don Tomás Estrada Palma (1835-1908). Unscrupulously, he had even torn down his statue on the Avenida de los Presidentes in 1961, disregarding the fact that Estrada Palma was […] Read more

A sixteen-year-old Cuban boy who has just started discovering the world cannot believe that back in 1965 it was impossible to freely listen to the Beatles. “If you wanted to do it, you had to lock yourself somewhere or hide in the solitude of a basement, almost always at night, with no witnesses, your only […] Read more

The increase in the number of Cubans suffering from insanity is a consequence of a crisis faced by the affected, which may be due to various reasons. Sometimes, alcoholism is to blame. Great talents have been lost on the island as a result. In Jaimanitas there lives a lady known as Bety, la loca (“Bety, the mad”). […] Read more

The Cuba created by Fidel Castro at gun point, with the help of a network of informers, dozens of patriotic slogans, marches to strengthen the revolutionary spirit, rationing and hollow successes (passed off to the international public as precious jewels) is holding on despite the demise of its chief administrator. Apart from the hired mourners, […] Read more

Back in the early 1960s, Cubans were given an opportunity (perhaps by mistake) to watch the latest films directed by Luis Buñuel (1900-1983), which were shown in the cinemas of Havana. Yet, as soon as the authorities of the Castro regime realized the “evil” nature of the scenes and the dialogues, the films were banned […] Read more

Interview with Malvino Maldonado Iglesias Would you like to tell us about your experience with hospitals over the last few years? My experience with hospitals and polyclinics is rather long and it’s been pretty rough in the last weeks. The streak of bad luck began when I fell from a scaffolding when I was painting […] Read more

Among the books on Cuba which I consider absolutely essential is the monograph entitled Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom written by Hugh Thomas, English historian specializing in Hispanic history. It was written during the author’s stay in Havana between 1964 and 1971. In the preface, Thomas explains that the idea of writing about Cuba occurred to him […] Read more

Although the Cuban political stage may have partially changed after the death of Fidel Castro, the political scenario remains intact. The opposition groups on the island, which have been struggling to restore democracy taken away from the Cuban people by the so-called “revolutionaries”, are soon going to face enormous challenges. In this article, we are […] Read more

Fairly recently, a family of American tourists clashed with a policeman when they were giving out items of clothing to a group of sports fans in their regular meeting in the Parque Central park in Havana. Mr. Eliot Mackenzie with his wife Anna and his son Daniel were just presenting a young man named Yosbani […] Read more

The first round of the municipal elections in Cuba, which were held on November 26, has brought an interesting result. Not in regard to the selected delegates, since their own internal mechanisms prevent any significant change (the delegate lists are aligned with the Communist Party of Cuba which in turn will elect other Party officials […] Read more

  There has never been a woman president of Cuba nor has a woman come close to being an eligible candidate. While other Latin American countries have broken through this “glass ceiling” with women who became the president of their country (Violeta Barrios in Nicaragua, Mireya Moscoso in Panama, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Dilma Roussef […] Read more

Aimara Peña (Sancti Spiritus, 1988) decided to stand as an independent candidate to become a delegate of the National Assembly of People’s Power in Las Tosas, the village of 2,000 inhabitants where she resides, in the province of Sancti Spiritus. She studied to be a teacher, her interest in community politics stems from her experience […] Read more

After the appointment of Miguel Diaz- Canel Bermudez as President of the Council of State and Ministers, the new head of state will have the task of initiating the process to unify Cuba’s dual currencies under the watchful eye of Raul Castro and the rest of old guard of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). One […] Read more

Steve Wakefield was born in England and when he got married, he moved to Australia. A scientist keen on researching Cuban literature, he came to Cuba a few years ago to the Writers’ Congress dedicated to Carpentier to pay a 4-day tribute to the Cuban writer. My husband, who had also been invited to the […] Read more

In April of this year, someone without the surname Castro took over the country’s leadership for the first time since the triumph of the Revolution. However, expectations of change among the Cuban people are almost non-existent. Perhaps, it was because of his inauguration speech, in which Miguel Diaz-Canel made it clear that “Raúl Castro Ruz, […] Read more

Villa America, known as the most elegant of all the inns built in the vicinity of the Coney Island Amusement Park before the triumph of the Revolution, is located only a few meters from the Fifth Avenue, very close to the Playa roundabout. Up until the beginning of the 1990’s, its comfortable rooms used to […] Read more

Not long ago, a Havana family decided to block a street with their belongings in a protest against the government’s failure to help them in need, despite many claims and efforts made by them. The reason? The good old housing problems: their lives and the lives of other residents of the building they were living […] Read more

“Everything is a lie. The State doesn’t protect the victims,” says Reina Ester de la Cruz Ramos, an eighty-something-year-old resident of the municipality of Santa Fe located in the northwest of Havana. In front of her house, the old woman shows us a small room full of junk with some sacks of sand and cement, […] Read more

Williams, a warehouse keeper in a brewery, is holding his labour record in his hand. He boasts it triumphantly as it took him five agonizing months before he finally got what he wanted – five months of paying regular visits to the Human Resources department of the company, leaving empty-handed. “Getting the labour record was […] Read more

The world goes on after Fidel Castro’s death, his ashes preserved for future generations as if they were relics or mummies of the Pharaohs. Yet, it seems that a spiritual universe spread over the Cuban territory during the funeral services, offering all kinds of signs. During these days of grief and mourning I interviewed several […] Read more

The book entitled Cuban Press and the Machado Era written by Edel Lima Sarmiento, a pro-regime Cuban journalist, was published in 2014 by the Ciencias Sociales publishing house in Havana. Yet, taking into account the current situation of freedom of the press on the island, the title of the book should perhaps read Cuban Press and the Castro […] Read more

Despite the fact that journalism in Cuba has changed considerably in recent years, opening up space for the independent press and new alternative initiatives, there are still three distinct blocs. There is the state press, characterized by being more propaganda than journalism and supporting strong censorship; the independent media, which is exposed to constant smears […] Read more

On Saturday, 22 October 2016, around 300 journalists, mainly Cubans, gathered in Miami to celebrate the National Day of Press Freedom in Cuba. Unfortunately, the independent press in our country does not know the date, nor the origin or even the people for whom the independent journalists work. Jesús Díaz Martínez, Vice Dean of the […] Read more

Founded in 1728 by Dominican friars, the University of Havana was democratic for 231 years. When the university reopened on 11 May 1959, it continued to be democratic, despite the revolution that had taken place; it is something that the history still needs to explain and, quite oddly, the press has never covered the topic. […] Read more

Tourists and investors are currently flooding Cuba. Since the new wave of trade and economic liberalization hit the island, foreign companies are keen on coming here to explore new business opportunities. What happens when the local organic farming collides with U.S. agribusinesses? Will Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) flood the island next? The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture […] Read more

Dictatorships, in particular totalitarian, are very much alike. That of Cuba is not an exception. The State is perceived as an absolute entity that covers and understands everything and makes use not only of children, but even of the dead. There are many examples to support this and the best is perhaps the event that […] Read more

Five days after the announcement of Fidel’s death, an atmosphere of grief and mourning could be felt both in Havana and in any other part of the country. The six national TV channels successively transmitted and retransmitted programmes about the “Maximum Leader”, the “Father of the Revolution”, while the body of the deceased was travelling […] Read more

A SYSTEM THAT IS SINKING I n recent months, the role of the official press as a regulatory agency for the Cuban political system has been displaced by the so-called “alternative press” and its young journalists, trained at the university, who have migrated from the state media and are creating new, independent spaces outside of […] Read more

Today one of the most interesting phenomena in Cuban society is the proliferation of alternative, independent media, including those that neither take orders from the government nor from the opposition. This wealth of articulated voices, which can be seen, rather than heard, especially in electronic formats, is a significant improvement of the efforts and experiments […] Read more

Maykel is a new kind of journalist on the Cuban scene. This is the case, because after studying in the university and developing his career initially within the state media, he has carried his critical spirit to the point of being expelled from the radio station in which he worked. He considers himself an “independent […] Read more

For almost seventy years, the death of Jesús Menéndez Larrondo, famous leader of Cuban sugar workers and member and representative of the Communist Party, has never been properly investigated, not even by the most demanding Cuban historians of the era of the Republic and the Castro dictatorship. Jesús Menéndez was killed on January 22, 1948, […] Read more

Hopes that the new Republican administration might exert any major effort to overthrow the Cuban dictatorship are scarce. The only reasonable thing to expect is even more confrontational rhetoric and actions of little or no help to Cuba in promoting the pro-democratic agenda in the country. And that’s exactly what the old guard of the […] Read more

His name was Luis Pérez Perdomo. He was an impressive person and with his beard and olive uniform he looked like a guerrilla member. I met him in a friend’s house at the beginning of 1959. He had just arrived in Havana to participate as an attorney in the revolutionary tribunals against war criminals set […] Read more

And “Velvet Revolution” may not be coming to Cuba any time soon. 17 November reminds Czechs that freedom is worth fighting for, but what about Cuba? When is the Velvet Revolution coming to Cuba? These days, Czechs are celebrating 27 years since they overthrew communism. The velvet revolution brought democracy and freedom to this country after […] Read more

Among the dense green of the Guantanamo province municipality of Bayate, where the penetrating heat can become a relentless enemy of men and women, one can come upon a camp inmates call the Green Hell. Hell because of the heat, hell due to the dense vegetation and hell because life becomes less than human under […] Read more

On 11 July 1997, the National Assembly of People’s Power approved the Environmental Act which stipulates the necessity of “providing for the right to a healthy environment, as the basic right of the society and its citizens, and for the right to enjoy a healthy and productive life in the harmony with nature.” At the […] Read more

Married to Cheo, “the handsome guy”, Milagrito represented joy for the children from our neighbourhood. She lived two houses away from ours, a short run from our patio, there was no need to jump over any fence; in Chincha Coja, a suburb where I was born, all patios were shared. I used to go to […] Read more

I am almost sixty years old and I come from a rural area in Cuba. My parents were labourers, my father’s father was a landless peasant, my mother’s parents were peasants and landowners. I remember there was an intermittent stream flowing through their land forming small pools that provided water for cattle throughout the entire […] Read more

Armando Rey (50), a Havana native, used to belong to those Cubans who thought they would never get to know a different country in their lifetime. While the Cuban government suspended his exit permit, commonly known as the “White Card”, he received an invitation to Buenos Aires; shortly afterwards he was sitting on a plane […] Read more

Halfway through a Congress of the Communist Party which calls for efficiency and organization in the state matters, particularly those related to the national food supplies, nearly one hundred potato sacks had to be thrown away at the nearby farmers’ market Jaimanitas. The head of El Porvenir, a shop that belongs to the Jesús Menéndez […] Read more

In my youth, I was a founding member of The Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and I must say that despite everything, the institution has always strived to foster the cultural development of Cubans. The sad thing is that it has never been allowed to do so. Ever since its foundation in 1961, […] Read more

Many international media have been full of articles about how Cuba is changing. While this is true and there have been some changes that bring Cuba closer to its Latin American neighbors, Cubans still miss on many things that are quite normal in the rest of the region. Ten things that most Cuban’s still cannot […] Read more

When Fidel Castro seized political power in Cuba, one of the first measures he adopted in order to maintain power was to suppress the freedom of expression, regulated by the Declaration of Human Rights since 1948. The first step towards these measures was made by him in the José Martí National Library in Havana in […] Read more

Despite how much we hear about political and social situation in Cuba and changes which have been taking place in recent years, little or almost no attention is paid to the situation of women living in the country. Women´s rights are often overshadowed by a struggle for democracy which seems to be intended only for […] Read more

Caridad Hernández Carlos is an elderly woman who has lived in the Campo Santo Street in the city of Camagüey for over sixty years. Known as Cachita by her friends, Caridad is a plastic artist, a graduate of the San Alejandro Academy in Havana. Facial deformity since early childhood, old dilapidated house with grey walls […] Read more

The tropical totalitarianism has one speciality that has recently gained strength and clearly will recur. I am referring to criminals who enter houses under no disguise and similarly to floods sweep away basically anything, including personal notes, books and testaments. A similar intrusion took place last week in the house of Celina Osoria Claro, a […] Read more

The leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba have once again declared against other political organizations that have nothing to do with Marxism-Leninism or similar doctrines. Apparently, the institutions and organizations that have been in control of the countryʼs destiny since early 1960s want to maintain unanimity in its postulates. The main proves of the […] Read more

The Guantánamo Province located in the Eastern part of Cuba has been affected by intense and lengthy droughts. Local dams are currently filled up to a mere 41%. Francisco Osmali Cusco Matos, head of the local water management company (Empresa de Aprovechamiento Hidráulico) stated a few weeks ago that “due to no rainfall in the […] Read more

We were travelling by a minibus that belonged to the new carrier cooperatives associated with the state. The seats were so close to one another that I could not avoid overhearing a conversation I haven’t been able to figure out till today. At one moment I even turned my head to see the person who […] Read more

Pedro Figueredo Perucho, a citizen of Palma Soriano, was transferred to a hospital in the city of Santiago with acute renal insufficiency, fever, shivering and loss of consciousness. Even though his relatives made efforts to hospitalize him, it turned out to be impossible. Doctors stated he should receive treatment at home and at the location […] Read more

The state institutions responsible for the hygiene and the beautification of the city give individualized attention to the touristic zones, such as the areas where the ruling elite lives. This is definitely a fact. At the recent meeting of the Advice of Ministers, Raúl Castro said: “we have to develop […] we have the possibility […] Read more

  Photography has always been a hobby of mine, and a very enjoyable one – a hobby that I felt could become a passion at a certain moment. As time passed by, I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication and photography was no longer a mere passion – it became a useful tool. Since […] Read more

My dream of earning a Master’s Degree in Latin American Culture almost ended the day my professor of Cuban Film, when evaluating my oral presentation on the history of Cuban cinema, rebuked me for having dared to mention works from the 1990s and the 2000s that were not produced by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic […] Read more

Cuba is not only a beautiful island full of unique beauty and endemic species but also a country with multiple environmental challenges, such as omnipresent illegal dump sites, or aggressive agro-forestry and energy programs. PIN, in collaboration with Cuban ecologists, put together this Report on the Environmental Situation in Cuba which aptly analyses the current […] Read more

Campanario Street, almost at its intersection with Estrella, remains obstructing vehicular traffic from a few days ago due to the accumulation of rubble product of the spontaneous collapse of a building that was over one hundred years old. It is known that when the sun rises after downpours, the heat ends up cracking the structures […] Read more

In recent years in all the Sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power the Minister of Health turns to expose in the Commission of Health and Sports aspects about the situation of national sanitation. In 2015 the Acting Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda said that “the country is well-prepared to confront the growing ageing of […] Read more

The Communist Party of Cuba has to get familiar with the idea of the end of the single-party system in our country, historically legitimized by Fidel Castro. After the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel established two parties: the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Before 1959 he was also an […] Read more

The news about the eventual visit of the North American leader to Cuba before the end of the first quarter of 2016 proves to be as the culmination of a process immune to all reversibility. In principle, it is clear that this tendency towards the possession further continues after the relief of the U.S. President […] Read more

The Spanish publisher Hypermedia just released The Other Cuba (La otra Cuba), available in digital format for free for Cubans through the website of this institution. Gradually it will also incorporate to the independent libraries of our country. In its two hundred pages, the book collects ten reports prepared by an equal number of Cuban […] Read more

The Columbian professor Efrén Delgado, Director of the University of Latin American Workers (UTAL), defines Cubans as one of the most recursive societies thanks to their ability to perfectly adapt to any circumstance and find the most amazing solutions to their problems. Proof of this was the resolution of an extremely complex puzzle, which came […] Read more

If it is true, as well stated by Bohemia magazine November 29, 2013, that “in Cuba for more than 25 years the Cuban Medical Equipment Industry produces hospital furniture of exportable quality”, why then are the beds and stretchers in our hospitals so few or are so scruffy? Often, the mass media supporters of the Cuban government […] Read more

One Sunday morning a few weeks ago, the security forces arrested three people who were offering beef in Nueva Aurora, a town near Santiago de las Vegas, just in the moment when several people were standing in line to buy their meat for the rest of the week. The traders, two men and one woman, […] Read more

If we make a serious reflection about the consequences that the communist experiment has brought to Cuba, we do not find it hard to understand that the Fidel Castro’s revolution was the worst that could occur in our country. Nevertheless, there is no way to justify the coup of Fulgencio Batista in 1952 months before […] Read more

Argimiro Caro was an activist for democracy in Cuba till migrated to other lands in 2005. A long time ago, he swore once he was convinced that in one visit to the dentist, the doctor inserted a chip in one piece to keep him located. “You do not see a dark shadow next to the […] Read more

The institute of art and activism that Tania Brugueras has opened not long ago in Havana came to comprehend that much of the violence that exists in the world is generated from fear and as a response to the things that the people do not know how to handle. Her workplace is located on the […] Read more

Several months ago I thought to write about Evarista, an elderly woman who has gained celebrity for her role of an illegally seller on Cuban television. Aris Teresa Bruzos Nunez, actress who plays Evarista, reminds me Eloisa Alvarez Guedes who long after 1953 played the character of a humble peasant named Simplicia, an ordinary old woman and a […] Read more

Major Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, vice-president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, would definitely feel more comfortable as the head of the Ministry of the Interior (founded indeed by himself at the dawn of Cuban Revolution) than with the job he has been assigned recently, at the age of 84. Perhaps by a […] Read more

Someone not too long ago mentioned to me that an upstart group of homosexual males were marching proudly on a Havana avenue, flying multicolored flags and accompanied by the daughter of General Raul Castro. She asked one of them if they knew who the UMAPs were. Surprised, he could only answer, smiling while he walked […] Read more

That’s how life goes. Readers and other supporters of the blog known as Cartas desde Cuba (Letters from Cuba) continue in their efforts to support Fernando Ravsberg. The Uruguayan journalist, who settled in Cuba 28 years ago, has started a public collection to finance his project that, in his own words, aims to “bring information which reflects […] Read more

A truck loaded with apples to be distributed to private businesses has been recently seized at the La Puntilla store in Miramar, Havana. As a consequence, disciplinary and precautionary measures were taken against the employees of the store. As if it still wasn’t enough, rationalization in the sale of 48 products was also announced. The Diario de Cuba newspaper […] Read more

A few weeks ago, Bernardo Calvino Bayola was arrested while walking the streets of Old Havana, carrying a sign in which he was asking for help from the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Mario Díaz Canel. Bernardo is an HIV patient and lives with his mother in a community centre on Calle Lindero […] Read more

Cuba has a population with one of the highest percentages of the elderly in the world. Despite the Revolution boasting of paying attention to this part of public sector, Cuban seniors actually belong to one of the least privileged groups on the island. Finding a proof is easy: it’s enough to watch the street life […] Read more

On December 17, 2014 the presidents of Cuba and the United States announced a historical change in the relationship between the two countries. Since then some new spaces for Cuban citizens have opened up and Cuban society has been experiencing a remarkable ideological shift not seen in decades. However much less has changed in Cuba […] Read more

Cuba is a country with a very powerful image abroad. Most people have a very clear idea of what the country looks like, although they have never visited it – they have seen posters with the leaders of the Revolution and photos of old cars, smiling people and beaches with crystal clear water. However, many […] Read more

The transition in the Czech Republic, prompted by the Velvet Revolution, occurred peacefully and without any confrontation. The reason was that it was a change that everybody wanted and the circumstances were right. As a result, the country achieved true independence, which helped it to move ahead, develop its economy and establish a democratic political […] Read more

Rolando “the engineer” has spent over 20 years selling so-called used and rare books. “Every day sales are decreasing, it is getting more difficult to obtain books, people accuse us of buying low and selling high because customers are mainly tourists, but the truth is we have to take a risk at the Plaza de Armas.” The […] Read more

  Elías Pérez Bocourt was tortured and humiliated in Cuban prisons. He was put behind bars with 30-years sentence for attempted illegal departure which ended in death of several people. On that 9th of June 1992, three people were killed and one mortally wounded as the police tried to stop the theft of a boat in […] Read more

Cuba is in fashion. And within the last few months, the existence of political prisoners has shifted from being a thorny issue to being a real nuisance. What else could be more bothersome for a country seeking foreign investments and, on the other hand, for states willing to invest in it than recognizing existence of […] Read more

“My 94-year-old aunt keeps asking me: ‘Have they freed the boy with the painted pigs yet?’ and I keep answering in the negative. My aunt just smiles, remembering the performance of El Sexto, and I realize that acts of art live on in people’s minds, which, in fact, may be the best way of recording […] Read more

Reinaldo Cruz, native of Manzanillo with permanent address in the Havana neighbourhood of El Calvario, was deported to Cuba in 2011. Today, he spends all day drunk on the beach, surviving only thanks to the money people give him, occasional thefts or by narrating his misdeeds from the time he lived in Orlando. Another deportee, […] Read more

Sonia Garro (Rancho Boyeros, Havana, 1975), finds it surprisingly easy to find her way in Prague, although she has never travelled abroad before. She believes it’s owing to her ability to quickly remember important landmarks. In Cuba, she’s been often detained by the Police, which first threatened her for a few hours and then took […] Read more

He preferred to sit on a bench at the back. He never missed the Sunday Mass. He had a habit of narrowing his eyes, but his face was serene and emanated a sense of security based on the truth coming from the inner strength. His humble and energetic appearance was clearly perceptible and couldn’t be […] Read more

Over the past few weeks, the international press has been all eager to inform the world that, for the first time in the history of Cuba (after the Revolution), two candidates of the opposition, Hildebrando Chaviano and Yuniel Lopez, stood as candidates in the election of delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power held […] Read more

These days in Prague, as I am pursuing my quest for learning about democracy, I met a group of Cubans who were invited by the Czech NGO People in Need (PIN) and the Human Rights Commission of the Evangelical Church to participate in a march to express support for the Ladies in White, a group […] Read more

The bike taxi is a popular means of transport in Cuba as it is human-powered and helps many people fight their difficult social situation. However, it has recently suffered great harm due to latest government measures, which have put in danger its further existence in the streets of Cuban towns. A survey of several city […] Read more

Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto (The Sixth), was detained on December 26, 2014 on the Malecón esplanade in Havana as he was driving towards the Central Park to make a performance with two pigs whose bodies were painted with the names of Cuban leaders: “Fidel” and “Raúl.“ Today, almost two months later, El Sexto […] Read more

In October 1958, the city of Palma Soriano fell into the hands of the rebel troops commanded by Fidel Castro, who declared it the first capital of the Revolution on that very day. Today it is perhaps the city with most opponents against the communist regime. We spoke with Denia Fernández Rey, representative of the […] Read more

The Czech NGO People in Need¬– which has previously brought public attention to Juliet Michelena’s case through its website monitoring human rights abuses, www.eyeoncuba.org– was pleased to learn last week about the independent journalist’s release. However, she was a victim of censorship and was arbitrarily jailed since April 7th after being accused of an attempted […] Read more

At a time when fleeing the homeland has become one of the most critical social phenomena in Cuba, it seems rather interesting that the media fail to pay any attention to it. Week after week, dozens of Cubans manage to leave the country by sea – often by means of contraptions that don’t meet even […] Read more

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This week we have our first guest post written by Antonella Marty, an independent journalist from Argentina. She shares with us her view on our project and the current situation in Cuba and Venezuela: “Eye on Cuba: Reporting abuse of freedom in Cuba” By: Antonella Marty The “democratic reforms” in Cuba are not only a […] Read more

Agustin Valentin Lopez Canino is the author of the Cuban blog Dekaisone. He is also an independent journalist. Last November he was arbitrarily detained. He has filed a complaint with all the relevant Cuban authorities about this incident. The Czech NGO People in Need was given information about his case and posted it on www.eyeoncuba.org, which […] Read more

A Spanish man born in Toledo, who was visiting Cuba for the first time in his life, told me about the two amazing weeks he had spent on the island. Seizing the opportunity to live like a Cuban, he got a first-hand experience of the Cuban reality. His name was Frank. He said that during […] Read more

The recent release of reporter Juliet Michelena doesn’t imply any significant change in the repressive environment. The one-party regime may have slightly modified its behaviour to improve its international image, but basically, it still keeps using force. Juliet Michelena, member of the Community Reporters Network (“Red de Comunicadores Comunitarios”), spent around seven months behind bars, […] Read more

The young man implored me not to disclose his name. He is scared. He believes that the Political Police has almost godlike powers. When he was interrogated, he realized that they knew his life in detail since the time he went to Primary School; they were even familiar with all his illnesses, his tastes and […] Read more

  We were supposed to meet in December 2013 during his visit to Cuba, which, however, he couldn’t make because somebody decided that he wasn’t allowed to enter the country. If he had kept his job as a tourist guide in his native Prague (of which, by the way, he doesn’t stop talking), he could […] Read more

At times you may have wondered how censorship in Cuba works. One would expect that the government that has been so successful in using fear as a weapon also knows how to employ censorship, which causes less damage, anyway, now matter how elaborate it is. Every time the culture of a country becomes a product […] Read more

Everyday from morning to night, the whole Cuba impatiently waits for a piece of news – a particular one: three numbers, the first of which is called “fixed”, while the other two are known as “consecutive”. For some, the lucky combination of numbers may come as relief from permanent hardship and sometimes it can even […] Read more

2003 was a deadly year for Cuba. In March, the government declared an open war on the citizens. In less than a few hours, the Police arrested over a hundred peaceful dissidents and independent journalists from all across the island. Although the international press nicknamed the most notable of the arrested men and women as […] Read more

Police Violence in Cuba When someone is arrested in Cuba for exercising their civil rights, this immediately means that they can face any number of risks. This goes beyond simply being unjustly deprived of freedom for hours, days, or being sentenced to years behind bars, but also includes being seriously injured. These violations can also […] Read more

One morning at the beginning of March 1989, the engineer Roberto Bahamonde woke up very early. While he was having breakfast with his wife and his three children, an idea occurred to him. He thought he might do something for his nation. He didn’t wait for the next day and went straight away to talk […] Read more

Have you ever heard of the “Pajamas Plan” in Cuba? The term has been used informally for quite some time in Cuba. What does it actually mean? In the past it was mainly used in instances when a politician, who had started to get too big for his britches or that the regime had decided […] Read more

My first and last encounter with Silvio Rodriguez, a great music artist and master of poetic forms, who, thanks God, belongs to our Cuban nation, took place in 1972. We met at our common friend’s place. He was a poorly dressed youngster with sad eyes, arousing pity. In spite of his artistic talent, he was […] Read more

Were they a bunch of looneys? A congregation of relentless romantics? Eccentric dreamers? Did they really believe that they were able to reach the moon by just stretching out their hand? They were a group of Cubans who, armed with courage, stubbornness and love of freedom, tried to start a newspaper in which they could […] Read more

We would like to draw your attention to the ongoing human rights violations taking place in Cuba.  Our project, www.eyeoncuba.org offers proof that these violations happen on a daily basis. The map displayed on www.eyeoncuba.org presents the total number of cases that have been reported according to the geographical location where they occurred, which allows […] Read more

In our country, the dengue had been wiped out by 1940, in spite of the fact that Cuba was surrounded by countries where the evil illness existed (Bolivia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Venezuela, etc.). The reason was that Cuban health authorities, at that time, were exercising strict control to prevent importation of the disease (and many others) […] Read more

Despite the fact that revolutionary slogans keep repeating that the fight against discrimination based on skin colour has been won, the reality is different: black people are still subject to discrimination in Cuba. A neighbour’s daughter got once captivated by the performance of the ballet of Giselle she saw on TV. Full of enthusiasm, she […] Read more

JUANITA, THE “REBEL” SISTER In the context of Fidel Castro’s life, it’s been quite common to keep quiet about women. The anonymity seems neither accidental, nor should it be simply regarded as a manifestation of gender discrimination, since there are a number of other things that haven’t been included in his public image, such as […] Read more

The period of fear in Cuba seems to be over. Or is it just an impression? The “culture of fear”, as Oswaldo Paya Sardinas (1952-2012), founder of the Christian Liberation Movement and a martyr of the regime, described the situation in Cuba, may be, at last, fading away in every corner of the island, hand […] Read more

I heard somebody banging at the front door. Dogs were barking like they never bark at this time of the day. Being well aware of the current situation in the island, I immediately knew that there must be a group of parapolice, who had come to my house to perform an act of repudiation. As […] Read more

Cuban dissidents are often seen as a marginalized minority, isolated from the rest of Cuban citizens, who prefer to keep their distance from them; either because they despise their anti-regime attitude or because they simply don’t want to face the same repercussions as them. Thus, to speak of the Cuban opposition is to speak of […] Read more

Global warming has become one of greatest concerns of our time and Cubans also suffer from its consequences. The official media inform about the retreat of glaciers and the Arctic ice, which has been melting at a speed much faster than expected, leading to natural disasters in different parts of the world. However, the measures […] Read more

One of the weirdest feelings I have ever had was when I took a peek out of the Prague airport shortly after I arrived on the afternoon of March 11, 2014. It was my first trip to Europe and my first big escape from Cuba. After over nine-hour-long flight across ocean and land I finally […] Read more

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Several months ago, the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura said that “there are numerous inconsistencies that have to be resolved before Cuba can again become a normal country.” Since he didn’t specify what inconsistencies he had on his mind, I took the liberty of interpreting his words myself and came to the following conclusion. We are […] Read more

Dilapidation of buildings in Cuba has something in common with the main character of the famous novel the Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s the fact that everybody knew that he would be finished off. Similarly, all residents and authorities of each particular neighbourhood in Cuba know when a house or […] Read more

Several years ago, a soap opera called El balcon de los helechos (A Balcony with Ferns) was broadcast by the Cuban television. It was quite successful and had good ratings. My balcony is not adorned with ferns or any other decorative plants but I still remember the song every time I hang my clothes on […] Read more

The feast of Epiphany celebrated on January 6, which commemorates the visit of The Three Kings to the baby Jesus, and the time of the Christmas when children recieve toys, has embodied part of the Christmas spirit for many Cubans despite the fact that in the early years of the Revolution, the new government stopped […] Read more

Sections: Noticias – Derechos Humanos Destacados: Oposición cubana conmemoró el 2°aniversario del fallecimiento de Laura Pollán, fundadora y líder del Movimiento Damas de Blanco. Decenas de mujeres fueron detenidas ese día en Habana.. Barack Obama y Raúl Castro se estrecharon la mano durante la ceremonia de despedida de Nelson Mandela. La última vez que los […] Read more

Sections: News – Human Rights Highlights: Cuban opposition commemorated the 2nd anniversary of the death of Laura Pollan, founder and leader of the Ladies in White movement. Dozens of women were arrested in Havana. Barack Obama and Raul Castro shook hands at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. The last occasion on which the presidents […] Read more

  Maybe in 2020 Cuba will be a free country and the political organisations and parties of the opposition will be able to take the corresponding legal position. Vladimiro Roca, one of the first people waiting for registering of his Social Democratic Party, will have implemented a project that he has dreamt about for more […] Read more

  Amalia is standing in front of a TV camera, in the background there is the National Capitol Building in Havana. There are crowds of people around, mainly excited young people with banners and mobile phones in their hands. “With the affirmative vote of 85% of the deputies and the support of President-elect and 7 […] Read more

  Although it is possible that in 2020 there will be a different political system in Cuba, it is not clear whether there will be democracy as the Cuban people long for. There is a danger that after so many years of standstill and submission, Cuba will become a vassal of another man or woman, […] Read more

  1. Fidel and Raul Castro will be dead. Cremated. Their ashes scattered in the Sierra Maestra, where the fury of the future won’t disturb them. No mummies will be shown in a mausoleum (except for the doubtful remains of the Argentine leader Che) – that will be the last broken promise. No more pledges […] Read more

Who is El Crítico? Ángel Yunier Remón Arzuaga, known as El Crítico (The Critic), is a 30-year-old Cuban musician, member of the rap duo Los hijos que nadie quiso (The children whom nobody wanted). Since March 26, 2013, he has been held in the Las Mangas Prison in Holguín, where he has been subjected to […] Read more

Cubans still have little knowledge about the civil society in their country, about its members and projects fighting against the political system in Cuba. Yet, it’s perfectly clear now that a great part of it has been gained from alternative sources, which have been spreading information in all possible formats, especially the video. Thousands of […] Read more

  Looking at the small scar on my left shoulder, I imagine that the vaccination given to us when we are babies might contain the virus of fear. The virus then grows in us, penetrates as deep as into our bones, hardly allowing us to breathe. We speak softly, keep looking over the shoulder, and […] Read more

Sections: National – Human Rights Highlights: Cuba marked the 60th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the first armed assault led by Fidel Castro. President Raul Castro headed the ceremony, which was held in the city of Santiago de Cuba and attracted some 10,000 Cubans and foreigners. The North Korean ship Chong Chon […] Read more

Sections: Nacional – Derechos Humanos Destacados: Cuba conmemoró el 60 aniversario del asalto al Cuartel Moncada, primera acción armada dirigida por Fidel Castro. El gobernante Raúl Castro encabezó el acto en la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba que convocó a unos 10,000 cubanos y extranjeros. El barco norcoreano Chong Chon Gang procedente de Cuba fue […] Read more

  By all means, the feat of U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad, who succeeded in swimming across the Florida Straits, is an event deserving global recognition. In her fifth attempt to cross the strait, Nyad has finally fulfilled her dream: she managed to swim 110 miles without a shark cage and having to struggle with jellyfish. […] Read more

A sign painted on the central wall of the University of Camaguey preaches: University is for revolutionaries! The University of Camaguey located in the north-east of my city was the first institution of higher education established by the government of the elder brother – the Big Brother, back in the bleak seventies. At present, we […] Read more

Recent unexpected cancellation of internet accounts of the independent journalists Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina and Anderlay Guerra Blanco has confirmed what we have long known: access to the Internet in Cuba is subject to the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior. Cancellations of paid accounts without any explanation are likely to occur again, every time […] Read more

Sections: Nacional – Internacional – Cultura y Deporte – Derechos Humanos Destacados: Una hora de navegación internacional por Internet cuesta 4,5 dólares estadounidenses. Esta es la tarifa que están cobrando los 118 nuevos centros de conexión estatales que comenzaron a operar en Cuba el 4 de junio. Así, con un mes completo de salario, el […] Read more

Sections: National – International – Culture and Sport – Human Rights Highlights: An hour of international Internet services costs 4.5 US dollars. This is the rate charged by the 118 new state internet centres opened in Cuba on June 4. A full monthly salary of an average Cuban will thus suffice for four and half […] Read more

Already a year has passed since the attack on Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero carried out by a car of the Cuban State Security. It was just one of the cars that had been chasing them since the early hours of July 22 with the intent to stop them, trying to prevent history from taking […] Read more

A year after Oswaldo Paya Sardinas died under dubious circumstances, his legacy lives on among thousands of Cubans who signed the Varela Project – an initiative launched by Paya in 1998, whose purpose was to enforce changes in the Constitution which would allow legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, press and association, as well as […] Read more

On Sunday July 22, 2012, a friend from Madrid phoned and asked me to contact our Cuban friends to inquire after two young people who had gone to Cuba to visit them – Angel Carromero, a Spaniard, and Aron Modig, a Swede. She said that she had unconfirmed information that the two got into some […] Read more

Back in the 1970’s, the years of my Cuban childhood, there were terrible shortages, the country had closed itself off to the world and the United States was seen as a mythical land – a land of the unknown, the beyond, the different, the free, the illusionary; a mirage of hope for people living in […] Read more

Cuba’s ration book – which regulates the sale of food at subsidized prices to Cubans – has been used in Cuba for over 50 years now. NTD report: Read more

The arrival of 2013 in Cuba was marked by immigration reform: the famous white card, hated by all, has been cancelled and all Cubans have finally been allowed to travel anywhere in the world. Since then, queues at offices issuing passports and at various embassies granting visas have grown. Many Cubans have thus been given […] Read more

In the beginning of this year, the new immigration law have opened up new possibilities of travelling for Cubans, who are now finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel after being kept in complete isolation from the outside world for half a century. The changes in the legislation have been […] Read more

Maria Dominguez is standing in front of me. An 80-year-old woman, her small eyes moist and sad. The story of her life is rather common – like many Cuban mothers she has been living separated from her children due to arbitrary and inhuman laws that have been in force for half a century. Yes, there […] Read more

As the world sees it, Cuba seems to have emerged from the realm of surrealism. Why compare it to the literary and artistic movement founded in France at the beginning of the 20th century? Because surrealist works were often reproved for being incomprehensible, irrational expressions of objective reality, just as articles written by Cuban independent […] Read more

Sections: National – International – Culture and Sport – Human Rights Highlights: Madrid Angel Carromero said that a car with a Cuban Government licence plate attacked them and caused the accident in which two Cuban dissidents Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero were killed in Cuba, last July. The Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro (86) appeared in […] Read more

As the main interest of an average Cuban has narrowed down to leaving the country as soon as possible, the pro-democracy movement in Cuba has found it increasingly difficult to find new supporters. To be more specific, there are very few of those who really choose to join an opposition group. A significant part of […] Read more

Debate about human rights in Cuba with Cuban independent lawyer Yaremis Flores and Laritza Diversent (Cubalex) , René Gómez Manzano (Corriente Agramontista), Antonio G. Rodiles (Mathematician) and law students from New York City. Read more

It’s 10:30pm. My wife is sleeping on a station bench. With her head propped up on a bag instead of a pillow and my sweater spread over her face, she doesn’t have to explain anything. It’s obvious that despite her being only 17 years old, she prefers not see things. Perhaps she even doesn’t want […] Read more

After Brazil, the Czech Republic was the second country she had visited while undertaking her eighty-day tour in support of human rights. Read more

Every year when the first winter days come, I think of the women imprisoned in the Manto Negro prison, which is located in the Cuban village of Guanajay, in the Artemisa province. In summer, the small and narrow cells of the prison are like ovens while in winter they turn into real freezers. I came […] Read more

Not long ago, the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde published an article by journalist Maite Maria Jimenez written on the occasion of the 16th Latin American Congress of Nutrition, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention recently held at the Havana International Conference Centre. In this article, Dr. Mercedes Esquivel, senior researcher at the Department of Human Growth […] Read more

All official journalism that there is in Cuba stems from the State and is subject to censorship that filters all information given to the Cubans, providing them only with inadequate, incomplete facts interpreted beforehand. In addition to it, due to the almost total lack of internet access, Cubans cannot compare the information presented to them […] Read more

Slaves are no longer considered “lower sort of men” whom nature wanted to distinguish from freemen, who are “useful for political life in the arts both of war and peace,” as Aristotle said. The lives of slaves are no longer sacrificed to calm the anger of the gods, to celebrate the accession of a new […] Read more

The media circus (or more specifically, all the nonsensical messages sent to my mobile phone by excited, cheerful reporters from abroad, which almost ruined my battery) is simply depressing. Everybody seems to believe that the reforms initiated by Raúl have been reaching deeper and deeper layers of the system (rather resembling metastasis of Marxist materialism) […] Read more

How many Cubans have been put in jail at least once or even several times since 1959 for trivial offences, based on arbitrary decisions of public prosecutors and police officers, or after having committed crimes due to their lacking means necessary for survival? How many of them are still serving sentences in prisons with inhuman […] Read more

In his last public appearances, Fidel Castro has been hardly able to hide the marks of old age. His manly look has become a memory of the past. With his languid movements and whispering, the once strong man seemed to be coming close to the threshold of death. It is not uncommon to hear people […] Read more

My parents always taught me to pay respect to any elderly person I meet on the street, regardless of whether they were well-dressed or poor beggars asking for alms. The number of years that they had lived inspired admiration and love. I’m old now myself and I have realized that there are differences between old […] Read more

It’s Monday, July 23. Oswaldo Paya Sardinas has been dead since yesterday. Agents of the government had promised that this would happen and had even carried out several attacks against him, which he survived without actually noticing. By and large, it seems that there won’t be a Nobel Peace Prize winner in Cuba unless Fidel […] Read more

Thousands of Cubans are dreaming of becoming elite athletes these days. Yet, their desire to join the ranks of the best athletes of the planet is not motivated by the ambition to win a gold medal or to set a new record, leaving half the world drop-jawed. In fact, their longing could be better described […] Read more

The Catholic Church in Cuba has recently been marked by a fierce controversy. Although the relationship between the Church and the State is always conflicting, it is clear that more issues are likely to arise in acountry which has been cradling a communist dictatorship regime since 1959 – the year in which the leaders of […] Read more

Over again, the equation has failed. Once and again, there will be no swap or anything like that. The five Cuban spies will continue serving their long sentences in North-American jails while the American businessman Alan Gross, arrested in Havana on December 3, 2009, will have to find new strength to keep alive the hope […] Read more

The prison guards had a radio on. It was a small transistor radio – an obsolete thing like everything else in the Police Station of La Regla, a town across the Havana bay. The interrogation offices were decorated in an antiquated style typical for Soviet-like political propaganda: Pictures of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, […] Read more

“This is the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen.” These were the first impressions of the Italian admiral Christopher Columbus when he beheld the land, which is now known as Cuba, from the deck of his ship in his first journey, whose purpose was to discover new lands. The paradise-like vegetation made […] Read more

It has been a long time when the social democracy leader Felipe Gonzáles, a former Spanish prime minister announced to the press, not without a reason, something what makes you think: “The capitalism is the best of the bad systems which exist.” After two decades, in Cuba of Castro brothers, it seems that somebody recognizes […] Read more

These days, when so many Europeans pack their luggage and set out for the Caribbean, perhaps with destination Cuba, to escape cold, grey winter days, I can’t help wondering where would the inhabitants of the Pearl of the Caribbean travel for holiday. Yet, the island’s beaches of fine sand merging with the bright blue horizon […] Read more

In the decade of the 80´s, the Chinese discovered something what the Cuban leaders are discovering now: “The communism is the longest way to reach the capitalism.” Later, in the decades of absurd experiments created by Mao C´Tung in China, Deng Xiaoping entered the right way and set out a construction of “decadent capitalism,” though […] Read more

Returning of licenses for business running on one´s own account in Cuba, more than a sign of opening the centralized system of state employment, it is a fact which recognizes a fiasco of the economic model introduced in the country. A half of century of non-productivity, over-employment and corruption, among other bad things generated by […] Read more

The main topic discussed on all the street corners in Cuba and in all the foreign media in recent months was the new possibility to acquire business licenses for the locals. Does that mean that the island embarked on a Chinese model of economy? Due to worsening economic conditions, the Cuban regime was forced to […] Read more

Taking my second trip to Cuba, I was quite amazed to realize how easily one could classify most Cubans into three categories of people who disagree with the still surviving Communist regime. It became clear to me that the problem of the Cuban communism goes beyond the violation of political prisoners’ human rights, regardless of […] Read more

With the dramatically worsening economic situation in Cuba and the accumulation of all types of problems accumulating, the Cuban government has felt obliged to undertake profound set of major transformations, which on the one hand present an opportunity to get out of the crisis, but on the other hand pose great risks in case the […] Read more

Pictures of Ladies in White taken by Petr Bradsky Read more

Damas de Blanco. Fotos tomadas por Petr Bradsky. Read more

At this time on February 23, 2010, the news spread about the death of Cuban patriot Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who did not hesitate to offer his life when fighting for freedom and human rights in his country. He died after a 86-day hunger strike in protest against the Cuban government and its inhumane treatment of […] Read more

This is not a German concentration camp in Auschwitz, 1944. It’s a psychiatric clinic in , 2010. Fernando, a skinny Cuban journalist, jumps to an obsolete computer. “Will you take this to Europe,” he asks me while opening brutal looking pictures taken in a Cuban morgue. “Oh, my God, what is it?” “OK, you don’t […] Read more

There is a story circulating in Havana. On a roof of the Central Committee building Raúl Castro came across an old lamp. He rubbed and polished it and the classic genie popped up. “You can ask me for two wishes”, the creature told him. “Shouldn’t I get to make three wishes?” asked Raúl a bit […] Read more

It has been an eventful six months in Cuba. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans are facing the reality that their guaranteed lifetime employment is likely coming to an end if the planned economic reforms move forward. Tens of political prisoners, including the majority of the remaining “75” prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring, have been released […] Read more

Let’s start with the obvious.  With the Republican takeover of Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes the new Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the authorizing committee with jurisdiction over most of Cuba-related legislation.  This means not only that no engagement-oriented Cuba bills will move through that committee, and that very possibly, Ros-Lehtinen might well choose […] Read more