International
Cuba tries to recover two days after the impact of Hurricane Rafael
Brigades of linemen (electrician technicians) fixing laying and fallen poles on the ground, people cleaning the streets and some private businesses operating with generators illustrate this Friday Cuba’s attempts to recover, after two days of the impact of Hurricane Rafael.
There are still roads cut, streets crossed by fallen trees, debris and garbage accumulating, traffic lights turned off and many people on the streets collecting part of the damage caused by the cyclone that hit the west of the country with winds of up to 186 kilometers per hour and rains of up to 195 millimeters (or liters per square meter).
Many areas in the west of the country – including the capital – continue without electricity since Wednesday, despite the fact that the National Electric System (SEN) managed to unify again on Friday morning after almost 48 hours of fracturing in subsystems after the second total blackout in three weeks.
Cuba is recovering electricity after the passage of Hurricane Rafael
The SEN synchronization means that the whole country is already interconnected in a single network, but not all Cubans have electricity because in many places the poles, cables and transformers affected by the cyclone have not yet been repaired.
In Havana, with at least 495 fallen electric poles, only 17% of its almost two million inhabitants currently have electricity, according to official data.
In addition, great effects persist in the provinces of Mayabeque, Artemisa and Pinar del Río. These last two provinces are totally disconnected from the SEN.
In the rest of the country, blackouts are also occurring, but due to the SEN’s inability to produce enough electricity to meet demand, a chronic and growing problem in Cuba due to the frequent breakdowns of old power plants and the fuel deficit, the result of the lack of foreign currency to import it.
Resumption of classes and public transport
Rafael is the second hurricane to make landfall in Cuba in 2024. The previous one was Oscar, who hit the northeastern end of the island for 24 hours between October 20 and 21, leaving eight dead, 12,000 damaged homes and 13,000 hectares of crops affected.
The authorities do not report missing or deceased for the moment due to Rafael, who have recognized “strong damage” in homes, infrastructure and crops of Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana, although without providing specific figures for the moment.
They also reported that the 250,000 evacuated throughout the country by Rafael, most of them in Havana, are returning to their homes as conditions improve.
As part of the recovery, the Minister of Education, Naima Trujillo, assured that next Monday the school year will resume “in most institutions”, after its suspension prior to Rafael’s impact. In the west there are many schools with affected.
In Havana, the local transport company reported on the “gradual restoration” of service in the main arteries, but said that the maritime transport of passengers through the capital’s bay remains suspended.
Damage to housing and agriculture
Rafael made landfall in Cuba as a hurricane of great intensity on Wednesday afternoon and crossed the island from south to north for more than two hours.
In Artemisa, where Rafael made landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a category three hurricane, the houses affected total 2,825, according to the official newspaper Granma, which presented a meeting of the National Defense Council headed by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Artesa authorities detailed that there is damage to 15,000 hectares of banana, cassava, bean and rice crops; and 40 schools suffered damage. In Mayabeque they counted 441 homes with “significant damage” and reported damage to agriculture as in Artemisa. In Havana they reported more than 461 collapses between total and partial.
The most critical situation in the Cuban capital, in addition to the 461 total and partial collapses, is concentrated in the fallen trees, which have torn off electrical and telephone cables, reported the local governor, Yanet Hernández.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
Central America
Nicaraguan Exiles to Mark 7th Anniversary of 2018 Protests with Global Commemorations
The Nicaraguan opposition in exile announced on Thursday that it will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the April 2018 protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, with events in Costa Rica, the United States, and several European countries.
The commemorative activities—which will call for justice for the victims, as well as freedom and democracy for Nicaragua—will include religious services, public forums, cultural fairs, and other public gatherings, according to official announcements.
In April 2018, thousands of Nicaraguans took to the streets to protest controversial reforms to the social security system. The government’s violent response quickly turned the demonstrations into a broader call for the resignation of President Ortega, who is now 79 and has been in power since 2007.
The protests resulted in at least 355 deaths, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although Nicaraguan organizations claim the toll is as high as 684. Ortega has acknowledged “more than 300” deaths and maintains the unrest was an attempted coup d’état.
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Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
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