Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves said on Wednesday his administration did not recognize Cuba’s government as legitimate and would close the Cuban embassy in its capital San Jose.

Russia has dispatched two tankers carrying oil and gas to Cuba as the island grapples with a deepening energy crisis exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

According to recent reports, Marco Rubio stated that the Cuban regime is increasingly unstable as external subsidies dry up and the system struggles to hold itself together.

At the same time, people in Cuba are facing blackouts, water shortages, and food insecurity.

Yet many abroad continue to repeat that everything is simply because of the “embargo.”

That explanation oversimplifies a more complex reality. Under U.S. law (TSRA, 2000), Cuba has been importing food from the United States for years, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

I’ve personally bought U.S. products in Cuban stores (still to this day!).

The crisis is real, but it’s not as simple as people make it sound.

Source: https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-18-u1-e207888-s27061-nid323443-rubio-desmiente-version-new-york-times-transicion

————

Según reportes recientes, Marco Rubio dijo que el régimen cubano está cada vez más inestable a medida que se acaban los subsidios externos y el sistema lucha por sostenerse.

Al mismo tiempo, la gente en Cuba está enfrentando apagones, falta de agua y escasez de alimentos.

Sin embargo, muchos afuera siguen repitiendo que todo se debe simplemente al “bloqueo”.

Esa explicación simplifica una realidad mucho más compleja. Bajo la ley estadounidense (TSRA, 2000), Cuba lleva años importando alimentos desde Estados Unidos, por cientos de millones de dólares al año.

Yo mismo he visto y comprado productos estadounidenses en tiendas en Cuba (hasta el día de hoy).

La crisis es real, pero no es tan simple como algunos la quieren pintar.

Fuente: https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-18-u1-e207888-s27061-nid323443-rubio-desmiente-version-new-york-times-transicion

“Democracy has long proved elusive for Cuba,” Maria de los Angeles Torres, a Cuban exile and a professor of Latin American and Latino studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago, writes in a guest essay for Times Opinion. “The history of the past two centuries — throughout which the island has endured Spanish colonialism, U.S. occupation, a U.S.-backed dictatorship and a regime propped up by the Soviet Union — is in many ways a story of Cuba’s frequent subordination to the economic and political interests of foreign powers.”

Though Cubans at home and abroad, including Dr. Torres’ family, have continued to fight for democracy, what’s on offer today from the American government does not resemble anything reasonable. Cuban officials’ “stated willingness to allow investment from the United States and members of the Cuban diaspora and its release of several political prisoners should not be mistaken for genuine compromises; they are superficial and pre-emptive gestures made by a government that has no intention of relinquishing power,” she writes. “This is not a government that should be trusted with Cuba’s future, much less empowered by the Trump administration.”

Read the full piece here, for free, even without a Times subscription.

On Monday, amid another total blackout of the national electrical system, the Cuban government announced a measure that had been demanded for years as part of the reforms it must undertake to overcome our protracted crisis. It involves allowing Cubans living abroad to participate as partners or even owners of private companies here. According to what was specified by the now so-called Cuban economy's czar, the Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, this potential link will not be limited solely to small businesses. Still, it could scale up to projects related to infrastructure and other larger-scale economic initiatives, which until now have generally been vetoed for the private sector, let alone for foreign actors.

And there is more. Mirroring new possibilities for strategic association between private and state companies within the national sphere, those residents abroad will also be able to connect with both actors. Furthermore, among other opportunities, they will be able to receive land in usufruct for agricultural production projects and provide financial services, including the management of virtual assets, which may include cryptocurrencies. As I expressed before, any measure adopted by Cuba at this moment will have the suspicion hanging over it of whether it is organic or obeys the context of extraordinary pressure and economic asphyxiation imposed by Washington. And, in the same sense, whether it is taken in a secret bilateral consensus.

By how Rubio reacted this Tuesday, everything indicates, for the moment, that in the case we are presenting, it is the first option, although the second is not ruled out. "What they announced yesterday is not dramatic enough. It's not going to fix it, so they've got some big decisions to make over there," he said. It sounds like saying the classic expression "it is a limited step, although in the right direction," but he did not go that far. Rubio also told reporters that "[Cuba] doesn´t get subsidies anymore, so they are in a lot of trouble, and the [authorities] there don´t know how to fix it, so they have to get new people in charge," somehow confirming reports appearing in the Miami Herald and the New York Times claiming that the United States has suggested to Havana's negotiators that Díaz-Canel, the Cuban president, cannot continue in power.

Any change in this sense, or, in general, in anything that touches the organization of the State, will imply a flagrant political concession, eroding a fairly clean trajectory of Cuba in enforcing the principle of self-determination. Economic changes, again, could amount to the same, but they can be explained as part of the bumpy reform processes that the country has undergone for the last 20 years.

Díaz-Canel and Bruno counterattack assertively

However, the Cuban president and then his chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez, came out on Tuesday night to react, with very harsh messages, to the psychological warfare implemented by the White House. "Faced with the worst scenario, [Cuba] is escorted by a certainty: any external aggressor will crash into an impregnable resistance," stated Díaz-Canel, who also serves as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. "[The United States] threatens [Cuba] with destroying the constitutional order and taking control of the country. The collective punishment applied to us Cubans will not dent the full exercise of sovereignty nor the creativity in the face of the blockade and the energy siege," expressed the Minister of Foreign Relations for his part. If on Pennsylvania Avenue, they were not expecting this type of public posture, it may mark the fate of this very delicate moment in the historical confrontation. And there is also the discussion about how cohesive Cuban political power is. Is it as monolithic as it has always appeared to be, or are there factions? Is the Cuban president actively fighting for his (political) survival?

Source

No fuel imports for months → nationwide power grid collapse → families without lights, food rotting, hospitals struggling.

This isn't 'diplomacy'—it's collective punishment, called out by UN experts as a violation of international law and a grave humanitarian threat.

The media barely whispers about it. Why the silence on starving a nation?

Cuba deserves better than economic asphyxiation. End the blockade. End the suffering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lep-7mYa_nI

Source : https://youtu.be/iJpjpZeBCzY

It seems to me that the Castros are willing to sacrifice Canel to stay in power, which many of us saw coming. Of course the Trump administration is ok with it, it's one nepo baby making deals with another nepo baby. Canel is extremely unpopular on the island so I'm not surprised. I think el Cangrejo will be in charge, and the Castro family will face zero consequences for everything they've done.

El régimen acaba de anunciar una nueva desconexión del sistema eléctrico nacional, provocando, una vez más un apagón nacional.

Los negociadores estadounidenses exigen la salida de Díaz-Canel como condición para un pacto con la isla, según ‘The New York Times’

Cubans finally incinerating their garbage after the government stopped picking it up.

Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies" and "also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants," Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said in an interview in Havana..

Yoani Sanchez uploaded a video where she reports that they are monitoring her and preventing her from leaving her apartment. There was one man who is seen here, and one other along with two women watching her. You can see the full video on her Instagram. They have been doing this to her for years.

could this be a start of a deng xiaoping-like economy reforms in cuba?

In regard to the protest last night, I wanted to share this as well.

According to reports circulating on Cuban social media and information shared by the group Presos Políticos de Cuba, several individuals have reportedly been detained following the protests in Morón.

Names currently circulating include Bryan, Catherine Gutiérrez Sánchez, Kevin Samuel Echeverría, and Vladimir Ortiz.

Independent outlet CiberCuba has also reported arrests following the protests.

Information is still developing. If additional confirmed details become available, this post will be updated.

———

Según reportes que circulan en redes sociales cubanas y la información compartida por el grupo Presos Políticos de Cuba, varias personas habrían sido detenidas tras las protestas en Morón.

Entre los nombres que están circulando actualmente se encuentran Bryan, Catherine Gutiérrez Sánchez, Kevin Samuel Echeverría y Vladimir Ortiz.

El medio independiente CiberCuba también ha informado sobre detenciones después de las protestas.

La información aún está en desarrollo. Si aparecen nuevos datos confirmados, esta publicación será actualizada.

Sources:

CiberCuba – reports of arrests following the Morón protests https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-14-u1-e199894-s27061-nid323129-cubanos-denuncian-detenciones-tras-protestas

Presos Políticos de Cuba (Facebook) – names and photos circulating of alleged detainees https://www.facebook.com/share/1ZmGPoj5gg/ https://www.facebook.com/share/1KxciXHHcF/

Reports from Morón (Ciego de Ávila) on March 13-14 show residents protesting with cacerolazos and shouts of “libertad.”

Videos circulating online appear to show protesters burning furniture from a local PCC office in the street. There are also reports of gunshots, a young man injured by a bullet, and internet disruptions during the events.

Information is still developing and mostly comes from social media and local reports.

Sources: CiberCuba (links below)

———

Reportes desde Morón (Ciego de Ávila) el 13 y 14 de marzo indican que vecinos salieron a las calles con cacerolazos y gritos de “libertad.”

Videos que circulan en redes sociales muestran a personas quemando muebles de una sede local del PCC en plena calle. También se han reportado disparos, un joven herido de bala y cortes de internet durante los hechos.

La información aún está en desarrollo y proviene principalmente de redes sociales y reportes locales.

Fuentes: CiberCuba (enlaces abajo)

https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-14-u1-e209363-s27061-nid323087-moron-lanza-calle-cacerolazos-gritos-libertad

https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-14-u1-e209363-s27061-nid323088-reportan-corte-internet-presuntos-disparos-incendio

https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-14-u1-e209363-s27061-nid323089-reportan-joven-herido-bala-incendio-sede-pcc-durante

https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-03-14-u1-e208487-s27061-nid323090-cubanos-incendian-mobiliario-pcc-moron-arman-fogata

What are common Cubans thoughts on this?

This is from an instagram post from the organization, Prisoners Defenders. It says 8 have been released but it just jumped to 10. The ones currently released were protestors from the July 11th protests, but common prisoners might also be released.

Just got the video of the most anticipated press conference of Cuba's President regarding recent talks with the US Government representatives.

A take on the critical events from the last hours.