Reborn in the Caribbean

Ronald Suárez Rivas | ronald@granma.cu

July, 2026

This Basic Business Unit (UEB) with the best rice lands in Pinar del Río, has been the second structure in the province to join the Cuba-Vietnam project for the production of the cereal. The plantings of the first large-scale campaign have already reached 158 hectares and should reach 295.

Eliecer Silva assures that things are changing and that defaults and extremely low yields are gradually becoming a thing of the past. "The Vietnamese have come to give us great help. They have gotten us out of a tremendous predicament," he says.

Eliecer is head of the lot at the UEB Agrícola Caribe, the second entity in Pinar del Río that is linked to the Cuba-Vietnam project for rice production. Specialists say that here are the best rice lands in the province. A lack of resources, however, had caused the results to plummet. 2024, for example, closed with an average yield of 0.8 tons per hectare, a yield that increased to 0.9 in 2025.

María de las Nieves Sánchez, director of the UEB, confesses the situation became "desperate," the unit's collective was not used to low yields. Nevertheless, she adds, "each season the yields were dropping, we planned a certain number of hectares but we could not comply."  In September last year, and under these circumstances, a first planting was carried out on an experimental basis (21.7 hectares) within the framework of the project we have between our island and Vietnam, and the results were quite surprising: it averaged eight tons per hectare, a figure that had never been reached before in Cuba.

With this precedent, she explains, it was decided to increase the areas inside the current spring campaign. "So far, we have 158 hectares on the flat terraces and we must reach 295." According to her, this is just an intermediate step with the purpose of reaching 2,000 hectares in the cold harvest. In addition to the 473 hectares of flat terraces owned by the UEB, the project would include an additional  group of conventional areas given in usufruct to individual producers who are associated with the entity.

 A new production model

This experience began in Vueltabajo, in the municipality of Los Palacios, were the Vietnamese side received the land in usufruct and is in charge of its exploitation. However, in Agrícola Caribe, territory of Consolación del Sur, the production is carried out in a cooperative manner. That is, "the foreign party provides inputs and technical advice, while we provide land, workforce and machinery," María de las Nieves explains.  When we talk about inputs, we mean fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fuel. For a territory that had not been able to apply a technological package for many years, this is very crucial support.  Reason why along with the plantings, work is currently implemented on the rehabilitation of the main canal, repairing or changing gates, and concrete slabs, to improve the hydraulic infrastructure linked to the project.

With the hand of man

Planting hundreds of hectares in a context marked by the government of the United States’ energy siege and with serious limitations related to aviation, has been challenging for the UEB of Pinar del Río, we faced the challenge of changing the way we do things. Its director recalls that in these large areas, sowing and application of chemical products was always carried out using airplanes. Within the framework of the project, we had to do it manually so it was necessary to recruit about 200 men from the town Alonso de Rojas. In addition, we could not count on dependable energy or carriers, often not available, so the project also contributed to employment in an area where options are often scarce. Osberto Pedroso agreed saying “thanks to this project, today we have work," he is one of the people who has joined the planting on the terraces of Caribe.

The experience has broken the myth that Cuban rice factories cannot work in ways similar to Vietnamese ones, basing the work more on men rather than on technology. "This is the first time it has been done like this. The planting, the fertilization, we have done everything by hand and with Cuban personnel," says Eliecer, head of lot 6-37.

Of the alliance with Vietnam, the specialist highlights first of all the quality of the seeds used and of the technological package, a quality our fields had not received for a long time. It also points to the rigor with which they work, to provide crops with everything required and at the exact moment needed. "When there is no organization and discipline in the work done, there are also poor or no results, regardless of what you use in the field." From the dike that divides two of the 20 terraces under his command, Eliecer speaks proudly of the uniformity of the seedlings growing to his right and the vigour they present, to his left, in an area soon to be harvested.

"The Vietnamese side brings a technological package that we have never had, the reason why rice is almost 1.80 meters high. You cannot even see the personnel who are in charge of fumigating there."  He says this, as if he were beginning to take revenge, after several harvests marked by scarcity and low yields. And to ensure that no one thinks these fields, standing out today because of their vitality, are the work of chance. He also warns that regardless of the resources used today that  were not available before, there is something else to add: "Here we are working hard."

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

Belly of the Beast    ​ English Newsletters Archives

Cuba hosts Russian and Chinese spy bases

Cuba hosts Russia’s “largest overseas signals intelligence facility” in addition to Chinese spy bases. Russia has a spy base in Cuba known as Lourdes while China has a base in a municipality called Bejucal.

FACT CHECK: There is no conclusive evidence that either China or Russia have a spy base in Cuba.

Russia did have a massive spy base in Cuba known as Lourdes — during the Cold War. Vladimir Putin closed the base in 2001, and a year later, it was replaced by a public university. (Stay tuned for our upcoming report from the university, where our efforts to find Russian spies proved fruitless).

Allegations of Chinese spy bases have relied largely on anonymous officials and satellite imagery obtained by the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, which recently acknowledged that there was “no clear publicly available evidence” proving China’s presence at Bejucal.

Two years ago, we traveled to Bejucal and two other supposed sites and found no evidence of Chinese spies or spy bases.

 

While there is no proof that Russia and China are using Cuba to spy on the United States, the Trump administration is openly spying on Cuba. In April, a U.S. military surveillance drone was spotted flying off Cuba’s coast for several hours, circling in holding patterns near Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

The United States operates more than 800 military and intelligence facilities around the world, including bases used for surveillance, drone operations, missile defense and overseas military campaigns.

 Walking the Tightrope and Threading the Needle: Strategic Adaptation Under Siege

 Cuba’s Economic Reforms and Defense of Socialist Sovereignty

by Isaac Saney, published on Black Agenda Report, June 24, 2026

The announcement of Cuba’s new package of economic transformations has generated intense debate both within Cuba and among supporters of the Revolution internationally. Some have expressed concern that aspects of the reforms represent a retreat toward capitalism, a weakening of socialist principles, or even a concession to the relentless pressure of U.S. imperialism. Such concerns should not be dismissed. They arise from a genuine commitment to the principles that have defined the Cuban Revolution and an understandable apprehension about the dangers that accompany any expansion of market mechanisms.

Yet the starting point for any serious analysis must be reality. Cuba confronts one of the most severe economic crises in its contemporary history. This crisis is not the product of abstract policy failures alone, nor can it be understood apart from the unprecedented escalation of the  U.S. economic war against the island. Washington’s objective remains unchanged: to create such hardship, deprivation, and social dislocation that the Cuban people abandon their revolutionary project and surrender their sovereignty.

For more than six decades, successive U.S. administrations have sought to achieve through economic warfare what they could not accomplish through invasion, sabotage, terrorism, diplomatic isolation, or political subversion: the destruction of the Cuban Revolution. The current phase of that assault has reached extraordinary levels. Cuba faces financial persecution, restrictions on fuel imports, obstacles to international banking transactions, sanctions against foreign investors, and a campaign explicitly designed to suffocate the country’s economy.

Under such circumstances, the Cuban revolutionary leadership could not simply stand still. To do nothing would itself have been a decision—a decision carrying potentially devastating consequences for the Cuban people and for the survival of the Revolution. As Cuban economists and policymakers have repeatedly noted, many of the measures now being implemented have been debated for decades. Indeed, part of the current crisis stems from reforms that were delayed, incompletely implemented, or obstructed by institutional inertia. The cost of inaction has been enormous.

The question therefore is not whether changes were necessary. They were. The real question is what kind of changes are being implemented, under whose authority, and for what purpose.

Some critics view measures such as expanded foreign investment, modifications to foreign trade arrangements, greater flexibility for state enterprises, and new forms of financing as evidence of capitalist restoration. Such conclusions are premature and often misunderstand the central issue confronting socialist societies.

Socialism has never been built under ideal conditions. Neither Marx nor Engels imagined that socialist construction would occur in a small developing country subjected to permanent siege by the world’s most powerful imperial state. Every socialist revolution has been forced to navigate contradictions, shortages, external threats, and difficult compromises. The history of revolutionary movements is not the history of advancing under perfect conditions; it is the history of defending emancipatory projects under hostile conditions.

Lenin confronted precisely this reality in 1921. After years of civil war, foreign intervention, economic collapse, and devastation, Soviet Russia introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP). The NEP permitted limited private enterprise, market exchange, and concessions to foreign capital. It was fiercely debated within the revolutionary movement. Yet Lenin insisted that the decisive issue was not the existence of market mechanisms in isolation, but which class held political power and whether the socialist state retained command over the strategic direction of society.

The NEP was not viewed as a surrender. It was understood as a strategic retreat designed to preserve revolutionary power, rebuild productive capacity, and gain time under extremely unfavourable conditions.

History never repeats itself mechanically, and Cuba is not Soviet Russia. Nevertheless, the comparison is instructive. Revolutionary governments occasionally face circumstances in which tactical flexibility becomes necessary to preserve strategic objectives.

The fundamental question remains: who controls the state? The Cuban Revolution has not relinquished political power to domestic capitalists, foreign corporations, or international financial institutions. Cuba remains a sovereign state governed by institutions created through the revolutionary process. The Communist Party remains in leadership. The state retains control over the commanding heights of the economy. National independence remains non-negotiable. This distinction is crucial.

The issue is not whether market mechanisms exist. Markets exist in varying forms in virtually every society. The decisive question is for whom the social product is generated and how the social surplus is utilized.

Is wealth produced for private accumulation by a narrow elite? Or is it directed toward national development, social welfare, public health, education, scientific advancement, food security, and collective well-being?

That is the central dividing line between socialist-oriented development and capitalist restoration. Those worried about the weakening of the state monopoly on foreign trade raise legitimate concerns. History demonstrates that openings to market forces can generate inequalities and social pressures. Similarly, proposals involving greater participation of foreign investment and changes in enterprise structures deserve careful scrutiny.

There are real dangers. No serious revolutionary should deny them. There is the danger of growing inequalities. There is the danger of bureaucratic distortions. There is the danger of the emergence of privileged sectors. There is the danger that market incentives, if left unchecked, could gradually reshape social relations in ways inconsistent with socialist objectives.

But dangers alone cannot determine policy. The alternative to confronting these risks is not some idealized preservation of a previous status quo. The alternative may well be deepening economic collapse, worsening shortages, increased emigration, deterioration of public services, and the weakening of the material foundations upon which the Revolution rests. The challenge is therefore not to avoid all risk—a practical impossibility—but to manage those risks while preserving revolutionary power.

In this regard, an important aspect of the current debate concerns alternatives that deepen worker participation, cooperative development, community control, and democratic forms of economic management. These discussions deserve serious attention. Cuba’s future need not be reduced to a choice between bureaucratic centralization and private capital accumulation. Expanding the role of workers, cooperatives, municipalities, and communities in economic decision-making remains an essential component of socialist renewal.

Indeed, the debate itself demonstrates an often-overlooked reality: Cuba continues to engage openly with fundamental questions about the direction of its development. The Revolution has never claimed infallibility. Cuban leaders have repeatedly acknowledged errors, shortcomings, delays, and bureaucratic obstacles. The current reforms emerge not from ideological conversion to capitalism but from a recognition that existing mechanisms have proven insufficient under present conditions.

Ultimately, however, the principal contradiction remains external. The greatest threat to Cuban socialism is not the ongoing debate among revolutionaries about economic policy. The greatest threat remains the unrelenting campaign by Washington – including the real possibility of military aggression –  to force Cuba into submission. This is why international solidarity remains indispensable.

Those outside Cuba have every right—and indeed a responsibility—to discuss, debate, and critically evaluate developments on the island. But such discussions must begin from an unequivocal defence of Cuba’s right to determine its own future free from imperial coercion.

The Cuban people alone have the right to decide how their society evolves. Not Washington. Not Wall Street. Not the architects of blockade and economic warfare.

The irony is that many of those demanding a return to capitalism for Cuba preside over capitalist societies increasingly incapable of delivering security, equality, or hope for future generations. Across the capitalist world, growing numbers of people face declining living standards, mounting insecurity, precarious employment, and diminishing prospects for their children. The promise and illusion that capitalism would provide prosperity for all has become increasingly difficult to sustain even in its historic centres.

Against this backdrop, Cuba’s struggle remains what it has always been: the effort to preserve national sovereignty and social justice under extraordinarily hostile conditions. The current measures should therefore be understood neither as a capitulation nor as an abandonment of socialist aspirations. They are better understood as an attempt—whether ultimately successful or not—to navigate a perilous moment in defence of a revolutionary project that continues to face the concentrated hostility of the most powerful empire in history.

The debate over the reforms will continue. It should. But the first question must never be forgotten: what would happen if Cuba did nothing? The Revolution was never confronted with a choice between an ideal socialism and imperfect reforms. It was confronted with the challenge of defending socialist sovereignty amid economic siege.

That reality imposes urgent and necessary changes. The task now is to ensure that those changes strengthen rather than weaken the Revolution’s foundational commitment: a sovereign nation in which the wealth produced by society serves the many rather than the few, national development rather than foreign domination, and human needs rather than private profit.

---

Isaac Saney is a Professor and Cuba and Black Studies Specialist in Black African Diaspora Studies and History, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.  He is also a member of the executive of the Canadian Network On Cuba.

  The Nikkei Community in Cuba: Celebrating with pride Japanese legacy

The descendants of Cuban-Japanese celebrated their International Day recently with a compromise to strengthen their link with their historical memory.  

Graciela Lastres | internet@gmail.com and Verónica Nuñez | internet@granma.cu

June, 2026

On Thursday October 2, 2014, a ceremony was held to mark the 400th Anniversary. In 1614, Arrival of the First Japanese to Havana.

The celebration, an opportunity to meet, fortify friendships and exchange experiences. Picture by Massiel Tessa

The first Japanese migration registered in America took place in 1868 and was  towards Hawaii. In commemoration of this event, on June 20 communities of Japanese descendants around the world come together to celebrate.

Japanese migration to Cuba started at the end of the 19 century, divided into five main periods as follows: until 1914, from 1915 to 1923, from 1924 to1926, from 1943 to 1946 and finally after World War II.

Japanese descendants are known as Nikkei, singular, a term that changes from the first to the fifth generation (isei, nisei, sansei, yonsai, gonsei).

Last Census in Cuba, in 2025, showed there are 991 Nikkei living in the island and distributed in Cuba’s 15 provinces and in the municipality of Youth Island. Data showed the origin of the community was Kumamoto in Japan.   

Today Nikkei are part of two main communities: the Society of the Japanese Colony of Youth Island (Sociedad de la Colonia Japonesa de la Isla de la Juventud) and the Management Committee of the Nikkei Association of Cuba (Comité Gestor de la Asociación Nikkei de Cuba) this last in process of legalization.

This year, for fifth time, Japanese descendants celebration together with the Embassy of Japan and included the presence of ambassador Nakamura Kazuhito, as well as the representative of the Agency for International Cooperation of Japan (Agencia de Cooperación Internacional de Japón (JICA) in Cuba, Ashida Tatsuya; the president and vice-president of the Management Committee of the Nikkei Association of Cuba Francisca Arakawa and Ivis Imamura respectively, other members of the accredited diplomatic body and members of the community.

In his speech the Japanese ambassador in Cuba highlighted the increase of younger members of the community among assistants and numerous representation from all provinces, despite the challenging circumstances Cuba is facing in terms of transportation.

This event is an opportunity to get together, strengthen our friendship and Exchange experiences; this is an example of perseverance and dignity, explained the ambassador.

The vice-president Imamura affirmed the pride the community feels regarding their genealogical links with Japan, and their compromise that to them represents the rescue of their legacy. She finalized saying that for them it is crucial not only to be together but to do together.

During the event videos were shown highlighting Cuban participation in the twenty second Panamerican Convention Nikkei (XXII Convención Panamericana Nikkei, COPANI 2026), celebrated recently and where the Antillean community was included in the Nikkei Panamerican Association.

JICA representative, Ashida Tatsuya, mentioned the achievements in matters of cooperation, professional capacitation and the development of cultural activities and she encouraged all to continue with such enriching experiences that contribute to strengthen diplomatic relations between both countries.

In the cultural space of this encounter the art of dancing was highlighted, in particular couple dancing Tsugai Kogarashi, combining elements of traditional and modern dance with elegant movement and the use of the fan.

Childhood was also present in a fashion show of traditional Japanese clothes, like  yukata and kimono. Then, lovers of Japanese culture (Nikkei from the heart) danced Yosakoi, with energetic youth movements. In the end, professor of Japanese language Víctor Coro pleased the public with a show of traditional calligraphy (Shodo) and a humoristic monologue (Rakugo).

The evening ended with karaoke, a shared entertainment of modern Japanese society, in which many Japanese functionaries participated together with the descendants.

Nikkei historian Lidia Sánchez Fujishiro in her book, A Japanese in Santiago de Cuba (Un japonés en Santiago de Cuba), explains that being a Japanese descendant is simply being a Japanese descendant, does not imply additional obligations and that in this sense, there has been no need to build alternatives of identity resistance aiming at social privileges.

In 2028, Cuba will celebrate the 130th anniversary of the beginning of Japanese Immigration to Cuba, with a community of descendants that day by day build links with the legacy of their predecessors. Picture by Hideo Ishii.

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

 

From A to Z: A Countdown of hostility against Cuba

A brief dictionary of U.S. policy toward the largest of the Antilles

Author: Mario Ernesto Almeida Bacallao | internet@granma.cu

The Ñico López refinery in Havana was nearly sabotaged with explosives in 1965 Photo: Juvenal Balán

A

America is a word in conflict over meanings and existences… some strive to maintain the accent mark on the word, to be in, with, from, and for it; and others seek to eliminate it, so that the only way to pronounce and understand the word is through a tongue that doesn't dare touch the roof of its mouth to pronounce the "r."

B
Blockade or Biden, who denied Cuba oxygen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also Bush (for now, only the son), U.S. president between 2001 and 2009, whose "Cuba Plan" limited family visits to the island to one trip every three years and reduced the authorized per diem for such travel. He founded the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, to which he initially allocated up to $59 million over two years, with the express purpose of overthrowing the Cuban government.

C
Sugar mill, the means by which the US gradually took control of the Cuban economy, or crops damaged by bacteriological warfare. Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, who approved the Helms-Burton Act. The "c" also stands for CIA.

D
The Monroe Doctrine was issued in 1823 to warn European powers and the nascent republics of the hemisphere of a succinct and central policy: America for the Americans. It also refers to Donald Trump, who 200 years later has forcefully revived that dogma. In his first administration, he dismantled the process of normalizing relations between Washington and Havana and applied 250 coercive measures to the island, intensifying the embargo. Since 2025, he has resumed his hostility where he left off and today maintains a total oil blockade and the threat of invasion against Cuba.

E
The Platt Amendment, an appendix to Cuba's first Constitution after its independence, guaranteed a republic legally and politically subordinate to the United States. Also, Eisenhower, the US president at the time of the revolutionary triumph of 1959, approved in March 1960 the "Covert Action Program against the Castro Regime," which included the creation of a Cuban exile organization operating in conjunction with the CIA, as well as a clandestine apparatus within Cuba.

F
The Ripe Fruit Policy was formulated in 1823 during the administration of James Monroe and stipulated that, for the time being, it was advantageous for the U.S. for Cuba to remain under Spanish control and that, when the historical moment arrived, the island would break away and fall, by the law of gravity, into the hands of "the Union."

G
The Bay of Pigs was invaded in 1961 by a military force trained and financed by the U.S. government. The action failed in less than 72 hours, although it cost the Cuban Revolution more than 150 lives.

H
The Helms-Burton Act of 1996 "allows" the U.S. to punish non-U.S. companies that trade with Cuba, mandates a series of subversive actions aimed at overthrowing the Revolution from within, and places coercive spotlights on activities related to former U.S. properties on the island.

I
Military Intervention as a Method and Interventionism as a Policy. In 1898, the U.S. intervened in the Necessary War, which would later become the Spanish-Cuban-American War. After Spain's defeat, the U.S. military occupied the island until 1902. Intervention occurred again in 1906, at the request of Tomás Estrada Palma. During the Massacre of the Black Independents, the U.S. threatened to intervene again and also considered the possibility during the War of the Chambelona. Between 1934 and 1935, the U.S. ambassador in Havana, Jefferson Caffery, effectively governed the country.

J
Jefferson (Thomas), U.S. president from 1801 to 1809, declared that the incorporation of Cuba into "our confederation is precisely what we need to advance our power as a nation to the point of its maximum interest." More than a century later, in his 1928 introduction to the book Our Colony of Cuba, historian Harry Elmer Barnes acknowledged that from the island, "we extended our economic penetration and political pressure into other parts of Central and South America, especially Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama."

K
Kennedy formalized the blockade of Cuba in 1962. He also approved the Bay of Pigs invasion and was the leading U.S. figure during the Cuban Missile Crisis. For his part, Henry Kissinger, arguably the most famous diplomat in American history, nearly bombed the island in 1976 in retaliation for its participation in the defense of Angola against South African aggression.

L
Lester D. Mallory, Under Secretary of State. In a secret memorandum, he defined the philosophy of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade unilaterally imposed against Cuba: "The majority of Cubans support Castro… the only foreseeable way to reduce his internal support is through the disenchantment and dissatisfaction arising from economic hardship and material difficulties…"

M
Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State of the neighboring country, has strong ties—and debts—to the Cuban-American mafia. He is the main promoter of the suffocation of the Cuban people, which has intensified at this time from the U.S.

N
Nixon (Richard) was one of the sponsors of the Bay of Pigs invasion and did everything he could to expedite it so that a supposed victory would pave the way for his presidency. When he finally took over the White House in the late 1960s, his policy toward the island was characterized by persecuting Cuban nickel trade operations, kidnapping fishermen at sea, and detaining ships flying the Cuban flag in international ports.

Ñ
The Ñico López refinery in Havana was nearly sabotaged with explosives in 1965. The plot was to be carried out by a CIA agent, Julio Marcelino Acosta Fuentes, Case 116-65. The plan was intercepted in time by Cuban authorities. Had it been successful, the blast wave would have killed thousands of people.

O
Executive Orders of January 29 and May 1, 2026, issued by President Donald Trump, which expanded unilateral coercive measures against the Cuban economy and maximized the extraterritorial nature of the so-called "secondary sanctions." Operation Mongoose, according to the Office of the Historian at the State Department, "was designed to accomplish what the Bay of Pigs invasion failed to achieve." According to this official U.S. website, the program included political, psychological, military, sabotage, and intelligence operations, as well as assassination attempts against political leaders. He fostered and financed insurgent groups throughout most of the country as a prelude to a new invasion. The bulk of his actions took place in 1962.

P
Peter Pan. The operation convinced thousands of families inside Cuba that the Revolution would strip them of their parental rights. Through his network, more than 14,000 children arrived in the U.S. without their parents between 1960 and 1962. Many were never reunited.

Q
Quincy Adams (John) was the main proponent of the Ripe Fruit policy. He would become President of the United States shortly afterward, from 1825 to 1829. In 1823, he wrote to the U.S. ambassador in Spain about the annexation of Cuba as "indispensable for the continuity and integrity of the Union itself."

R
Reagan (Ronald) was in the White House from 1981 to 1989, and during his administration, diseases such as dengue hemorrhagic fever were introduced to Cuba, which claimed the lives of 101 children during those years.

S
Sabotage and terrorist acts in general have been a constant in U.S. policy toward the Cuban Revolution. At least 3,478 Cuban nationals have been killed. One of the most significant incidents was the bombing of the Barbados airliner in 1976.

T
The Torricelli Act was passed in 1992 under the administration of George Bush (Sr.) and prohibited subsidiaries of U.S. companies from trading with Cuba, even if they were located in third countries. Furthermore, ships that docked in Cuban ports were barred from entering the U.S. for the following 180 days.

U

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1961 by Kennedy. It has fostered relationships of blackmail and dependency through its "aid," primarily in countries of the Global South, and has promoted regime change policies against alternative processes to U.S. hegemony, such as those in Cuba and Venezuela.

V
The steamship La Coubre exploded in Havana harbor in 1960, killing approximately one hundred people. From the pain and outrage of that day, the slogan "Homeland or Death!" was born.

W
Wood (Leonard) was one of the military leaders of the U.S. intervention in the Spanish-American War in Cuba, and in 1899, during the occupation, he was appointed Military Governor of the island. It is said that he took with him as a souvenir the first Cuban flag raised after the American flag was lowered in 1902.

X
Xenophobia. Our people are subjected to a series of forms of discrimination outside the national territory, including obstacles to accessing banking services, visas, academic literature, and courses. Furthermore, phenomena such as the lack of recognition of our educational institutions occur.

Y
Yankee. For the national liberation movements of the entire second half of the 20th century, including the Cuban Revolution, it has been synonymous with imperialist siege.

Z
Zunzuneo was an intelligence operation funded by USAID to create a kind of "Cuban Twitter" between 2009 and 2012. Starting with trivial matters, it sought to reach a large audience within Cuba in order to then send large-scale political messages that would catalyze a parallel to the Arab Spring on the island.

 Sunday June 28 to Saturday July 4 2026. Canada

The week of action begins TODAY and I know that many or most of you will be participating in rallies in your respective cities. Take lots of pictures, and be sure to tag the Canadian Network on Cuba on social media. In-person visits to MPs, rallies outside their offices, banner drops, postering nights -- and how we can help you to amplify your local activities.

In solidarity,

 Cuba: economic transformations in the face of the tightening of the U.S. Blockade 

The Prime Minister of Cuba presented 176 proposals during the Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of the Popular Power.

Author: "Estudios Revolucion".

For the first time, foreign investment in private companies will be allowed, as well as the extension of economic partnership contracts. 

During the Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero presented to the deputies a set of proposals for economic and social transformations that seek to redefine the country's development model, in a context marked by the intensification of the U.S. blockade.

Unprecedented foreign investment

The most innovative measures focus on opening up foreign capital to hitherto restricted sectors. For the first time, foreign investment in private companies will be allowed, as well as the extension of economic partnership contracts. To guarantee greater stability to long-term projects, it is proposed to extend the surface right up to 99 years and the right of usufruct up to 50 years.

On the financial front, foreign investors will be able to open accounts abroad without prior authorization – only with notification – and directly access the foreign exchange market to operate with their currencies. In addition, the mandatory use of employing entities is eliminated, which opens the way to direct contracting schemes.

The regulatory package incorporates the principle of "positive administrative silence", reduces procedures and deadlines, and decentralizes the authorization process. Foreign investment is also allowed in specific areas such as Old Havana, and private companies and cooperatives are authorized to import and export directly, as well as to market trademarks and patents.

Banking and financial reform

The project recognizes the need for a profound transformation of the banking system and includes the possible creation of a private corporate bank under the supervision of the Central Bank. It also proposes the establishment of non-bank financial institutions for microcredits, the elimination of restrictions on payments in foreign currency between foreign suppliers and Cuban counterparts, and the updating of interest rates.

It also contemplates the creation of private exchange houses, a digital exchange market and currency auction systems, as well as the realization of successive devaluations of the national currency to adjust the exchange rate.

Tax reform and pricing policy

In tax matters, value added tax (VAT) is introduced with reduced rates in specific sectors, electronic invoicing is generalized and the tax burden for certain economic actors is reduced. The personal income tax is updated, with a modified progressive scale, fewer brackets and an exempt minimum equivalent to the average salary in 2025. In price policy, approval powers are decentralized and the approach based exclusively on costs is eliminated, moving towards a scheme determined by market correlation.

Social protection and subsidies

The proposals include the digitization of social aid through the Sovereignty platform, and establish that all economic actors contribute to the sustainability of social policies through banking agreements. They provide for the creation of a Social Protection Fund and the transformation of the subsidy scheme, moving from a product-centric model to a model focused on vulnerable people.

Tourism, transport and trade

In the tourism sector, the door is open to new business modalities such as leases, usufructs and sale of real estate, both for Cubans living and abroad. Real estate development is authorized in all strategic tourist destinations, the creation of private travel agencies and the incorporation of tourist guides and managers of local destinations. In transport, restrictions on the acquisition of equipment are eliminated and the import of electric vehicles is encouraged. In commerce, non-state forms of management and foreign investment are prioritized, chains of stores and restaurants are created, with the invitation to foreign franchises.

(With information from Cubadebate)

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

 

 When Calabria — one of Italy's poorest regions — faced a severe shortage of doctors, help arrived from an unexpected place: Cuba.

Today, we are proud to share the public release of our latest documentary, From Cuba to Calabria, which follows Cuban doctors as they serve on a medical mission in southern Italy. Rather than hearing about Cuba's medical missions through politicians and pundits, you can see one from the inside — through the voices of the doctors themselves and the patients whose lives they touch.

The Trump administration has claimed the doctors are victims of "forced labor" and pressured governments around the world to terminate the missions.

But the doctors tell a different story.

https://youtu.be/OWuf2I6Xhok?si=a5y_DLIJkNzbA5g5