Diaz Canel admitted that his government’s price caps failed to contain inflation and often led to the disappearance of products.
Ernesto Eimil
The Government of Costa Rica announced the closure of its Embassy in Cuba, a decision that, according to Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo Andre Tinoco, responds to the sustained deterioration of the human rights situation on the island.
The measure also includes requesting that Cuba’s Foreign Ministry withdraw diplomatic personnel accredited in San Jose, leaving only consular representation to attend to citizens.
Since early March 2026, the name of a newly created company in Cuba has been circulating among U.S.-based remittance businesses. The company, Antilla Capital, presents itself as the country’s first private financial institution.
According to a 2023 World Economic Forum report, deepfake videos on the internet are increasing at an annual rate of 900 %.
They offer contracts in US dollars and work visas for the island of Grenada to Cuban masons and carpenters.
A new investigation by El Nuevo Herald has revealed the financial power of GAESA, the business conglomerate controlled by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). El Nuevo Herald gained access to secret documents showing that as of March 2024, GAESA held current assets worth $18 billion, $14.5 billion of which was kept in bank accounts belonging to financial institutions within the group.
Amid rising mobile data costs from state-run Etecsa, eSIMs—virtual SIM cards that enable internet access via smartphones—are gaining attention in Cuba. Though they still rely on Cubacel’s network, some users say the connections are more stable. But the option comes with several limitations.
In a recent interview on Cuban state television, ETECSA president Tania Velázquez was asked a question on the minds of many Cubans: What happened to the money collected by the country’s telecommunications monopoly? Rather than answering directly, Velázquez deflected, focusing instead on the company’s dwindling access to hard currency. Over the past two decades, Cuba earned billions from exporting telecom services. And yet, with one of the slowest internet connections on the planet.
In April 2025, elTOQUE received a disturbing report: a group of young Cubans lured to Russia with false promises of legal work and a better life. Instead, they faced detention, forced labor, and threats.
Lázaro’s story is just one of many.
A Ukrainian government channel has revealed the names of 39 Cuban citizens killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine, raising fresh questions about foreign recruitment and the Cuban government’s silence.
Two years after the Arimao cable’s debut, Cubans are still waiting for meaningful improvements in their digital lives. While the infrastructure may be in place, real change won’t come without serious investment and transparency.
If you visit Starlink’s website—the satellite Internet service owned by Elon Musk—and search for Cuba, you will see that the service is unavailable. However, the situation on the ground seems to tell a different story. Some Cubans residing in the country have been using Starlink for months.
On February 26, 2025, Cuba’s telecommunications monopoly advised its customers, as a temporary measure, to set their phones to 2G frequency. “This way, the connection will be more stable, and you will be able to receive calls and SMS, and also use Transfermóvil,” a payment gateway.
During the onset of the current session of Cuba’s National Assembly, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero spoke about the results of the government’s management in 2024, a year when Cuba’s crisis worsened significantly, and the measures they plan to implement in 2025.
On December 3, 2024, an investigation by journalist Nora Gamez Torres published in El Nuevo Herald uncovered the links between the company Orbit S.A. and the Cuban regime. Since March 2023, Orbit —partnered with the multinational Western Union— has been managing a portion of the remittances sent to the island.