From the streets of Cuba
Also in this edition: Essential works of Mexican modern art. Migrants who want to stay in Mexico. Mayors and drug traffickers. Bad Bunny wins the Super Bowl.
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The island is not the only one in danger
For nearly 70 years, Washington and Miami have promoted and predicted the defeat of the Cuban Revolution, yet the people of Cuba have resisted the most powerful country in the world, which has never forgiven their disobedience and now seeks to further tighten the noose. To gain a deeper understanding of current conditions on the island and to hear the voices of its people, La Jornada sent Luis Hernández Navarro and photographer Jair Cabrera Torres to produce a series of reports from the streets of the island.
Conditions are becoming increasingly harsh. “What ordinary people look at is electricity. It is vital to them, whether it’s on or not. This obvious reality is more than evident in today’s Cuba. And the people know it. That’s why they check the status of the national electrical system the way they check the weather. They want to know how long the blackouts will last and what time they will occur,” Hernández reports.
Opponents of the revolution portray the interruption of electrical service as the result of government disorganization and inefficiency, rather than U.S. economic strangulation. But electrical engineer Rubén Campos Olmo, general director of the thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, explains that the embargo lies at the center of this crisis. “In the energy revolution we carried out in 2005, we installed nearly 2,000 megawatts of distributed generation,” but the diesel and other fuel necessary for this electricity generation must be imported.
The oil crisis affects daily life across the island. It disrupts everything: food, health care, electricity generation, work, transportation. “The ones who suffer are the Cuban people,” says Abel Prieto, director of Casa de las Américas, in an interview. “We are facing a brutal colonial attack aimed at provoking regime change.” A few days ago, the Cuban government had to inform airlines that it would no longer have fuel to supply aircrafts. “But we are used to difficult times. We made it through the Special Period. Now we will move forward again, as we have on other occasions,” says Campos, director of the thermoelectric plant.
During a week of conversations with a wide range of Cubans, they all acknowledged the intensification of already serious problems, and at the same time, their resolve to defend their right to self-determination seems to be growing. María Eva Puentes Torres, a proud pastry chef, says: “Imagine what happens when they cut off the power. We have no way to work. I have a daughter who’s in college, studying philosophy. There’s no fuel, no transportation for her to get to the university. And without electricity she can’t charge her phone to access her coursework. All of that affects us. After everything we’ve fought for, we’re not going to let them take it away. We’re going to resist with creativity and look for alternatives to keep moving forward.”
That expression of resilience is repeated. Mario, sitting in a bar, comments: “We’re experts in hurricanes. They arrive with their downpours, but they pass and we go on with our lives. We dance, we drink, we eat, we enjoy ourselves. We’re also experts in baseball and in crises. We’ve been through them all. This one that Trump is causing isn’t special, no matter how tough it is. It’s just another one. It will pass.”
The director of Casa de las Américas, Abel Prieto, a major cultural promoter of his country around the world, a “Marxist-Lennonist” because of his love for the Beatle, stresses that what Washington is doing to the island is part of something larger. “Let’s not forget that it’s not only Cuba that is in danger… I believe Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world are in danger with this rise of fascism. They’re even trying to take over historical memory. They want to whitewash the image of Franco, of Hitler, of Mussolini, of those who committed the genocide of Indigenous peoples.”
Carlos R. Fernández de Cossío, deputy foreign minister of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told La Jornada in an interview that the United States will not achieve the goal it has set for itself. “This miracle is explained by the fact that for 67 years this country has had a socialist revolution, conceived for human beings, for social justice, so that everyone shares the challenges and everyone benefits.”
Since the current threats began, President Claudia Sheinbaum has almost daily condemned the new measures to tighten the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and Mexico has sent two shipments of humanitarian aid. However, faced with the possibility of new U.S. tariffs against any country that dares to send oil to the island, Sheinbaum announced that she will suspend additional oil shipments while seeking a diplomatic solution. Although several other countries proclaim their solidarity with Cuba, for now none are sending oil to the island.
In the United States, expressions of dissent and opposition to Trump’s policy toward Cuba are growing. The petition “Let Cuba Live,” supported by actors Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and Kal Penn, as well as Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker, among others, denounces that “starving a population into submission is not diplomacy; it is a form of terrorism.” In Congress, 18 Democratic representatives have condemned the Trump administration’s efforts to suffocate the Cuban people and have rejected the attempt to revive the Monroe Doctrine. “This is pure cruelty,” Representative Rashida Tlaib declares.
“Despite the damage inflicted and the pain caused, there is great resistance among the Cuban people. For those unfamiliar with their history, their resilience may seem puzzling. It is not. It is an entire nation that lives and breathes to the rhythm and in the spirit of Numantia, in the year 133 B.C.,” writes Hernández Navarro.
The Quote:
“The world is a cemetery of utopias, and of course I get discouraged; when that happens, I take a little nap and then start up again.”
—José “Pepe” Mujica.
Por si se lo perdió
◻️ Essential Works of Modern Mexican Art. After nearly two decades of not being exhibited in Mexico, a collection of 68 foundational works of modern Mexican art, with pieces by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and María Izquierdo, will return to Mexico this year for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
◻️ Migrants Who Wish to Stay in Mexico. What should we do with the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are no longer in transit nor in limbo, because their outlook has changed and they want, or need, to remain in Mexico? We cannot turn a blind eye and do nothing, writes Jorge Durand, recommending a regularization process.
◻️ Intentional homicides decreased by 42 percent in Mexico. As a result of the consolidation of the National Guard six years after its creation, greater use of intelligence, and increased coordination with state governments and prosecutors’ offices, the daily average of homicides dropped from 86.9 in September 2024 to 50.9 in January 2026, the Sheinbaum administration reported.
◻️ Mayors and drug traffickers. The arrest of the Morena mayor of Tequila, Jalisco, Diego Rivera Navarro, along with three municipal officials, for running extortion schemes targeting beer and tequila companies, and being linked to a criminal cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, is evidence that no political party can serve as a “shield for criminal activity,” the President stated. Also this month, at least five mayors in Morelos are under investigation by authorities responsible for combating organized crime. The Tequila case represents an institutional failure, La Jornada writes in an editorial.
◻️ Drug traffickers using Pentagon ammunition. During this administration alone, 18,000 long guns and handguns have been seized, about 78 percent of which originated in the United States. Even more troubling, 47 percent of the 137,000 .50-caliber cartridges seized in Mexico come from the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, which supplies the U.S. Army. The United States is the arms supplier of the drug cartels, La Jornada concludes in an editorial.
◻️ Bad Bunny, winner of the Super Bowl. In the great cultural battle against the right, the Puerto Rican artist triumphed by declaring —in Spanish— on the largest stage in the United States, that America belongs to all of us. The Super Bowl was no longer just a championship between two football teams, but a clash between the right’s jingoism and xenophobia and the multicultural, solidarity-driven future represented by the global Latino American superstar.
