On just 8 hectares, Finca Marta is reshaping Cuba’s countryside—uniting 100 farms into a community of resilience. 🎬 Part of our short series ahead of Our Agroecology, Our Future. Premieres Oct 8 on: www.youtube.com/@caribbeanag... #Cuba #Agroecology #FoodSovereignty

Cuban athlete Leyanis Pérez won the gold medal at the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championship in women’s triple jump, with a jump of 14.94 meters – longer than any other athlete this year.

Miami Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said earlier this month that he will be “cracking down on businesses that illegally engage in commerce” with Cuba.

Cuba’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Anayansi Rodríguez told the UN that U.S. sanctions cost Cuba more than $440 million in agriculture and food between March 2023 and February 2024. cubaminrex.cu/es/cuba-denu...

Cuba’s FM Bruno Rodríguez presented the country’s annual report on the impact of U.S. sanctions, and accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of pushing a personal, politically motivated agenda tied to corrupt Florida interests.

In case you missed our story last week on Marco Rubio’s war on Cuban athletes, it was republished yesterday in collaboration with Jacobin. jacobin.com/2025/09/trum...

Join our first-ever Cuba trip. Experience Cuba with Belly of the Beast. Upcoming trips: November 1–8, 2025 & December 6–13, 2025. Reserve your spot through our partner Colibrí Travels & Tours: bellyofthebeastcuba.com/join-our-cub...

Cuba faces a food crisis. But farmers are showing a different path: agroecology. This is part 1 of our short series ahead of the documentary Our Agroecology, Our Future, premiering Oct 8 on Caribbean Agroecology Institute. #Cuba #FoodCrisis #Agroecology

The government relations firm Continental Strategy has added dozens of clients to its portfolio since Trump assumed office, including several Latin American governments seeking to influence the administration, Lee Schlenker ​writes in Responsible Statecraft.

Twelve people were charged for their involvement in a smuggling operation that facilitated the entrance of thousands of Cubans to the United States with fake documents, ​according to the Department of Justice.​ www.justice.gov/opa/pr/twelv...

On August 29, President Trump ​renewed​ the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) to Cuba, effectively maintaining the six-decades-old U.S. embargo. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Last week, the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation ​revealed​ it had not been able to submit the national team’s 50-player roster to Major League Baseball for the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) because the Trump administration had not approved Cuba’s participation.

Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the State Department has prevented dozens of Cuban athletes from competing in tournaments in the United States.

Pacemakers mean life or death. In Cuba, shortages put patients at risk. Donations are keeping hearts beating.

In April, the first jury decision in a Helms-Burton lawsuit found Expedia Group and three other booking companies liable for tens of millions of dollars for trafficking in property claimed to have been owned more than six decades ago by the family of a Cuban-American man.

The Cuban women’s volleyball team couldn’t compete in Puerto Rico after their U.S. visas were denied. Watch this story to find out why.

More than a quarter of a million people went to the movies in Cuba during July and August, flocking to the nationwide Summer Film Festival. This is the ninth edition of the festival, which featured thousands of screenings in cinemas across the island.

Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel began an Asian tour last week. His first stop was Vietnam, where he inaugurated a production plant for a Cuba-Vietnam biotech company.

According to a recent article in the @miamiherald.com, the Cuban military has billions of dollars in bank accounts “stuffed with cash” that it has pilfered from the Cuban people.

In Cuba, pacemakers mean life or death. 600 just arrived through donations. Each pacemaker means a surgery, a heartbeat, a future. Watch the story here: www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/sanctions-bl...

Rep. Carlos Giménez sent a letter to president Donald Trump on August 26 urging him to revoke the immunity of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), making it liable to lawsuits in U.S. courts for its role in Cuba’s medical cooperation missions. gimenez.house.gov/2025/8/congr...

A jury in a Delaware federal court has ruled in favor of Expedia Group, Inc. in a lawsuit over the tourism company’s bookings in Cuba.

Two Cuban men living in the U.S. have been indicted by the Cuban government for their role in acts of sabotage, Cuba’s Official Gazette states. The men were given ten days to appear before Cuban authorities or be found in contempt of court. www.gacetaoficial.gob.cu/sites/defaul...

Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) has sent a letter to the State Department and the U.S. Treasury to “take legal action” against south Florida companies providing services relating to Cuba. If she gets her way, it would hit Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.

Cubans have long had a relatively privileged immigration status in the U.S. But that is changing. Trump has revoked the legal status and work permits of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, putting them at risk of deportation. On Thursday, more than 150 people were deported from the U.S. to Cuba.

Over 150 people were deported from the United States to Cuba on August 28. The eighth deportation flight this year. Cuba has honored its bilateral agreement with the U.S. despite the Trump administration's hostile policy toward the island.

Earlier this month, the Miami Herald published an article claiming that it had proof that the Cuban military was hoarding $18 billion. Cuban-American hardliners have since cited the article to justify Trump’s economic war on Cuba and to push for harsher sanctions.

Grenada’s Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall has become the latest government official to have his U.S. visa revoked over Cuba’s medical cooperation missions. Read our article: www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/news/grenada...

Miami billionaire Mike Fernández says he’s willing to spend up to US$30 million to fight Trump’s immigration policies and the Florida politicians supporting them. He called them “cowards” and "traitors" who have abandoned immigrants, as reported in El País. english.elpais.com/usa/2025-08-...

Russia and Cuba are developing a plan to build a tech hub on the island involving BRICS, Cuban state media reported. Though still in design stages, Cayo Digital (Digital Key) could house 15,000 people and offer products and services mainly to Latin American clients.

In Cuba, many families survive by renting rooms to tourists. These rents, known as “casas particulares” create jobs & share authentic culture. But U.S. sanctions have slashed tourism & cut them off from sites like Airbnb & Expedia.

A Salvadorian citizen was released from a Cuba prison last week after serving nearly three decades on charges of terrorism. Otto Rodríguez Llerena planted a bomb in Havana’s Meliá Cohiba Hotel in 1997.

A fundraising campaign led by the Vietnamese Red Cross has raised over US$13 million to “support Cuba,” the result of hundreds of thousands of individual donations. Vietnamese and Cuban state media report.

The U.S. imposed visa restrictions on government officials – and their families – from Africa, Brazil, Cuba and Grenada on August 13 for their role in Cuba’s medical cooperation teams, which the U.S. deems “forced labor.” Read our article: www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/news/rubio-g...

Cuba’s private sector overtakes public sector for the first time, Reuters reports @Reuters. Since 2023 the private sector imports overtook state imports when measured in dollars. The state, however, imports far more food when measured by volume.

U.S. agriculture and food exports to Cuba grew during the first part of 2025, topping 200 million dollars from January to May. La Jornada reports. How is Cuba, under siege from devastating sanctions, importing so much from the U.S.?

Brazil has surpassed the U.S. in Cuban asylum applications. In Curitiba, new Cuban and Venezuelan communities are forming softball leagues—once rare in soccer-mad Brazil, reports @theguardian.com

Cuba is taking steps to ease its energy crisis by strengthening its solar power capacity. Battery energy storage systems are being installed at solar farms in three provinces to help reduce the country’s dependence on petroleum. www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/202...

Cancer meds for Cuban kids – delivered despite the blockade. “If you deny this medicine, you’re killing the children,” Gloria La Riva said. Watch solidarity in action in this video: www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/how-hatuey-p... #Cuba #HatueyProject #EndTheBlockade #CancerTreatme

In a recent Op-Ed on our website, Fernando Bretos writes about how the embargo threatens scientific collaboration and Florida’s ecosystem. According to him, U.S. sanctions unexpected victims are Florida’s coral reefs. www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/embargo-on-c...

“Official figures systematically understate the actual increase in prices,” writes Dr. Emily Morris, who added that inflation in 2021 may have been many times higher than the government estimate. But inflation seems to be reducing: the official annual rate eased to 15% in June.

Former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray criticized the chief U.S. diplomat in Cuba for publishing stage-managed encounters with Cubans on social media. See our take on one of Hammer’s more recent influencer-style videos www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com/why-you-lega...

A Cuban-Chinese joint venture has announced plans to open a solar-powered factory that will produce flip-flops, boots and athletic shoes. www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

In a Miami Herald Op Ed, Álvaro Alba, deputy director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, thanked Cuban-American politicians for having “fiercely defended” Radio TV Martí from DOGE cuts. The outlet has been a sweet deal for hardliners: last year Alba was paid $183,702.

Ten U.S. students graduated from the Latin America School of Medicine (ELAM) last week. Cuba provides students from medically underserved communities full scholarships as well as meals and accommodations. Since it opened in 1999, ELAM has graduated more than 35,000 doctors.

Cuba’s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said the government must resolve "internal difficulties, mistakes, and deficiencies,” during his speech on National Rebellion Day. Denouncing aggression from Washington, he said, does not mean attributing “all problems to the blockade."

The number of tourists arriving in Cuba dropped 25% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, according to official figures. 981,856 people visited the island from January to the end of June – 300,000 fewer than last year.

A local Mexico City mayor’s removal of bronze statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara from a park bench has turned into a national political row. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the move, saying the decision was “illegal” and smacked of “intolerance.”

A local Mexico City mayor’s removal of bronze statues of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara from a park bench has turned into a national political row. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum denounced the move, saying the decision was “illegal” and smacked of “intolerance.”

Cuba is facing a severe medical shortage fueled by U.S. sanctions. Watch how a diaspora-led initiative brought free medicine to the people of Old Havana.