The second month of 2025 ended with imports from the island of the order of $47,636,633.
The second month of 2025 was ranked as the month with the highest volume of US agricultural and food product purchases by Cuban authorities in that country since 2014, experiencing a 75.1% year-over-year increase.
Downloading in Cuba a U.S. ship with tons of frozen chicken.
According to figures published by the US Department of Agriculture, February closed with such a significant increase that imports from the island totaled approximately $47,636,633, more than $20 million above the $27,204,788 recorded in February 2024 and also much higher than the $24,592,601 recorded in the same month in 2023.
Official US figures indicate that in February 2014 these purchases reached $44,080,044, although the following month they soared to $53,021,705.
According to the New York-based Cuba-US Economic and Trade Council, which promotes increased business with the island, the February 2025 shopping basket includes $856,836 worth of rice purchased in the northern nation; $1,067,383 worth of used vehicles; $46,700 worth of trucks; $969,546 worth of motorcycles; and $7,468 worth of solar cells.
Regarding automobiles, from January 2023, when the US issued licenses for vehicle exports to Cuba, until last February, buyers on the island have spent $76,475,523 on new and used gasoline and electric cars, as well as trucks, motorcycles, and scooters.
Also in the second month of this year, Havana continued its purchases of medical supplies and healthcare products from the US, spending $19,848 on them.
Cuba is now the 44th largest market globally by volume of US food and agricultural purchases.
Despite the embargo, all exports are authorized under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSREEA) of 2000. Since Havana made its first purchases under these regulations in December 2021, it has spent more than $7,638,295,560 in the US.
However, both the ruling elite and its media continue to blame the hardships suffered by Cubans on Washington's embargo against Havana.
Millions of people in Cuba remained without power Saturday after a failure of the nation’s electric grid left the island in the dark the previous night.
The massive blackout is the fourth in the last six months as a severe economic crisis plagues the Caribbean country. The Ministry of Energy and Mines, in a statement on social media, attributed the latest outage to a failure at a substation in the suburbs of Havana, the capital.
Internet and telephone service were intermittent about 18 hours after power went out around 8 p.m. local time Friday.
Lázaro Guerra, director of electricity at the ministry, said on national television that power was already being generated to support vital services such as hospitals.
A statement from the Cuban Electricity Union released Saturday said the strategy was to create “microsystems” that will connect to each other to gradually restore electricity across the country. Several of these were already operating in the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.
In Sancti Spíritus, the provincial energy company reported on its Telegram channel that more than 200,000 customers in that area had electricity thanks to these microsystems.
Many Cuban families use electric equipment to prepare their meals. The outage could cause food to thaw in refrigerators and possibly spoil due to the island’s tropical climate.
“When I was about to start cooking and making some spaghetti, the power went out. “And now what?” Cecilia Duquense, a 79-year-old housewife who lives in the working-class neighborhood of Central Havana, said Saturday.
In Havana, people were shopping for food Saturday. Businesses were open, although some were operating using batteries or small home generators.
Gas stations were also open, but the tunnel that runs under Havana Bay and connects the city to the outskirts was dark.
Cuba suffered similar blackouts in October, November and December. The latest was the first of 2025 but in mid-February authorities suspended classes and work activities for two days due to a shortage of electricity generation that exceeded 50% in the country.
Experts have said the electricity disruptions are a result of fuel shortages at power plants and aging infrastructure. Most plants have been in operation for more than 30 years.
The outages come as Cubans are experiencing a severe economic crisis that analysts have blamed on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a program of domestic measures that triggered inflation and, above all, the tightening of sanctions by the United States.
Source: AP News
Let me clarify from the very beginning to avoid offending sensitivities. When it comes to blackouts, Havana sets the reference point because the rest of the country lives a very different policy.
For about two years now, most of Cuba has been receiving roughly six hours of electricity per day. The only exceptions are circuits connected to hospitals that do not have operational backup generators.
When those generators are repaired or acquired, those locations immediately return to the standard routine of at least 18 hours without electricity.
In contrast, Havana is treated much more leniently. Blackouts there are shorter, scheduled whenever possible, and occur mainly during daylight hours.
From mid-December until last week, there were relatively short blackouts only in some neighborhoods in the capital, which is why we refer to their return now. However, we must reiterate that Havana is an exception, as those in other regions of the country saw no improvement in their harsh daily reality.
Having clarified that, let’s talk about the attempt to schedule the blackouts. Until last year, the planned schedules were mostly adhered to. However, in 2025, the situation has turned into complete chaos, with announced outages rarely being followed.
Additionally, the hours without electricity have increased. Whereas last year they typically lasted four hours on alternating days, they first went up to five hours, and this week, they reached six. These six hours are now divided into two three-hour segments, including nighttime outages (until around 8:00 p.m., though in some areas, even early morning hours were affected).
The latest “experiment” wasn’t repeated, leading me to believe it was just a trial run. However, in this country, experiments of this kind tend to become permanent.
When authorities announced the suspension of non-essential educational and work activities for this Friday, we feared the worst. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as that weekend in October when the entire island suffered a total blackout for three days.
As was stated when the economic plans for this year were presented, it will be impossible to meet the population’s energy needs due to insufficient power generation capacity.
At that time, it was projected that 18,606 GW would be generated in 2025, but achieving this would require a significant increase in renewable energy sources. The daily average availability would need to remain at 1,400 MW—far below the average demand of 3,000 MW.
Experts estimated that between $8 billion and $10 billion and more than ten years would be needed to fully restore the National Electro-Energy System. As a result, hopes were not high.
In response, the government is resorting to barrio-debates, a term that seemed obsolete for years but now appears to be making a comeback. As of February 18, officials from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) announced that “specialists” from various ministries would “explain the impact of the criminal US blockade policy against Cuban families” as the cause of the blackouts.
Honestly, I don’t know if this move will help or hurt them, because people are really upset. But it does show their fear of another July 11. While the presence of government officials, including police representatives might be intended as a form of intimidation, it could just as easily serve as the perfect setting for protests.
Amid this situation, several protests have gone viral in different parts of the country, with particular attention drawn to one in the Santiago de Cuba town of Palma Soriano, organized by the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu).
The demonstration was small, with around a dozen participants, but what stood out was that it was led by an organization rather than just random individuals. It was also significant that the protest was headed by Jose Daniel Ferrer, the regime’s most feared political opponent, who was recently released from prison.
Ferrer remains “under tight control,” as Cubans say, but his influence and ability to mobilize people—even with just a cellphone—are undeniable. He has earned respect from both supporters and critics for his unwavering stance against the dictatorship.
Since his release on January 16, after spending three and a half years in prison, he has faced constant harassment. On January 27, he refused to respond to a police summons, and this month, he was summoned again by the Municipal Court of Santiago de Cuba.
He has also denounced ongoing surveillance by state security, including the use of drones to monitor his home. From there, he communicates daily with victims of the regime, either in person or by phone, while his wife uses their home as an independent medical clinic.
This example of resistance has left a mark on public consciousness. Despite strict state security controls, Ferrer makes the most of every minute of his freedom, knowing that it could end at any moment. This week, he called for Cuban exiles to support independent media.
His appeal was backed by other dissidents, including:
Felix Navarro Rodríguez of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy
Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White
Manuel Cuesta Morua, vice president of the Council for the Transition in Cuba
Ivan Hernandez Carrillo of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba
Juan Alberto de la Nuez Ramirez of the Citizen Reflection and Reconciliation Movement
Former political prisoner Ángel Moya
This is highly delicate work, especially when carried out from within Cuba. The dictatorship consistently harasses journalists and cracks down on the funding of independent media. Many of these outlets survive under extremely precarious conditions as a result.
Thanks to the digital era, however, these independent media sources have become known to a significant portion of the Cuban population, who for decades had only the official state media as their sole source of information.
Ask the island’s rulers and they’ll say the revolutionary dream lives on. But to ordinary Cubans stricken by rocketing food prices, it has never felt further away
The road turns into a dirt track entering the town of San Felipe, home to those who can’t leave. In the main square, the only people around are a woman sitting on a bench in the shade of the ruined church and a group of five men hunkered down in the porch of a once-great mansion, trying to fix a bicycle with a hammer.
Sixty-six years after rebels led by Fidel Castro overthrew the brutal government of Fulgencio Batista, many Cubans say their lives are worse than ever, and that the island’s Communist rulers are growing ever more paranoid and repressive.
San San Felipe
This time the threat to the Cuban revolution is not a US-backed invasion or the collapse of the Soviet Union, but a slow gutting of Cuba’s future as young people give up on its prospects. For decades, Cubans needed to apply for permission to leave the island, but since 2013 those restrictions have been lifted.
Between 2022 and 2023, one in ten Cubans — nearly a million people — left the island, mostly for the United States. In small towns such as San Felipe, an hour and a half from Havana, with a pre-pandemic population of 2,000, the only ones left are the very poor, the infirm, the elderly and the especially patriotic.
The exodus is primarily due to an economic crisis that has driven prices to impossible levels — a 5lb bag of pork now costs $16, as much as a junior doctor’s monthly wage — while incomes remain incredibly low. Institutions including Cuba’s once-famous health and education systems are imploding under the burden of international sanctions and endemic state mismanagement. The island’s jails hold hundreds of political prisoners. Anyone publicly criticizing the government, including on social media, risks joining them. More...
Alexis Castro Soto del Valle with his family and Sandro Castro
The Castro-Soto del Valle family bid farewell to 2024 with a lavish dinner at Punto Cero in Havana, where an abundance of meat, cigars, and fine wine was enjoyed. Photos shared by a great-nephew of Raúl Castro depict an atmosphere of opulence, highlighting a stark disconnection from the reality faced by most Cubans.
The same disconnection contrasts sharply with the deep poverty that persists, teen prostitution, crumbling houses, food rations. Political opponents are executed or sentenced to decades of hard labor. However, the Castro’s continue their lives of luxury without remorse.
(Source: In part -CiberCuba and New York Post Wednesday, January 3, 2025 - 1:55)