Cuba, from one very hard year to another

The very tough 2025 is already behind us and 2026 is beginning to move forward little by little. Despite many shortcomings and difficulties, the island’s Cubans once again tested their resilience and will, and tried to have the best possible end of the year, with the hope of future improvement. But the turn of the year hasn’t exactly brought good news.

If the past was a very difficult period —even more so than 2024—, marked by a worsening of the economic and energy crisis, government measures and plans that have so far failed, and a strengthening of pressure from Washington after the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the beginning does not look good at all. At least, judging by its first 10 days.

A man works in a building that suffered a collapse, in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

A mobile coal oven on a street in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

The United States attack on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US forces – in an operation in which, moreover, 32 Cubans lost their lives – has only multiplied the uncertainty in Cuba for the months to come.

The strategic relationship between Havana and Caracas is going through a complicated scenario. Dice the strong demands of the Trump Administration to the post-Maduro Chavista Government and the close bond built over decades between both countries, it remains to be seen how these relations will be reconfigured in practice beyond government statements and political speeches.

A man walks past a closed store in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

A man looks for money to buy food in a private cafeteria in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez.

For the rest, everyday life does not skimp on challenges. Even with a reduction in official figures, the dengue and chikungunya epidemic continues to hit Cubans, as do blackouts, inflation, lack of fuel, and the “fight” for survival that marks daily life on the island. In that sense, the year 2026 has begun as 2025 ended: without respites or romanticism.

The photojournalist brings us closer this Sunday to this harsh daily panorama that has been drawn by the change from one year to the next. Otmaro Rodríguez. His images are a portrait of what just happened and also of what is happening right now in the streets of Havana, just at the beginning of another year that is also supposed to be difficult and challenging for the largest of the Antilles.