The official newspaper ¡Ahora!, the official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba in Holguín, criticized this Saturday that several state entities in the province systematically fail to fulfill their legal obligations to respond to journalists and citizens.
The admission is particularly significant because it comes from the official media apparatus itself, not from independent outlets or opposition sectors.
The article argues that "the problem is not the lack of regulations, but that the regulations are systematically violated and no one is held accountable for it."
Among the entities identified as repeat offenders before the section, the following appear: the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder), Aqueduct and Sewerage, the Commerce system, Traffic, Roadway, and Community Services.
Also piling up unanswered requests are the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Railways, the Cultural Complex Plaza de la Marqueta, Finance and Prices, the Video Room Directorate, the Health services of Gibara and Holguín, the National Institute of Territorial Planning and Urbanism (Inotu), and Housing.
The newspaper presents specific cases that illustrate the extent of this institutional silence. Yuliana Rosabal Castillo, a resident of the Nuevo Llano neighborhood in Holguín, reported in 2025 the overflow of a septic tank onto the public road, paid 280 pesos for the service, and never received a solution or response.
Neighbors who inquired about the disruption of the intermittent light located at the top of Loma de la Cruz also received no explanation for months.
The problem arises despite the fact that the Cuban legal framework establishes specific deadlines and obligations. Law 162/2023 on Social Communication stipulates that public servants must manage communication "with immediacy, timeliness, transparency, and veracity."
The Law 168/2024 on Transparency and Access to Public Information, effective since July, establishes a deadline of 15 business days to respond to requests.
This is complemented by Law 167/2023 of the Complaints and Requests Attention System, in effect since March 2025, which establishes a period of 30 calendar days to respond to citizen complaints.
That is to say, the very legal framework cited by ¡Ahora! leaves little room to justify that an institution simply decides not to respond.
However, the weekly describes this practice precisely as a widespread behavior. According to the article, "the entities, sheltered by the lack of effective control mechanisms, have turned silence into a management tool."
Faustino Fonseca, president of the Institute of Information and Social Communication in Holguín, acknowledged that the legislation allows media outlets to report to the courts those who hinder access to information, although no specific measures were announced against the entities mentioned.
For his part, Germán Veloz Placencia, president of the Journalists' Union in the province, stated that any information not classified as national security can be published legally.
The complaint exposes a contradiction that is hard to ignore within the institutional discourse itself. Cuba has recent laws that promise transparency, access to information, and attention to complaints, while an official publication acknowledges that numerous entities repeatedly fail to meet those same obligations without facing any consequences.
In relation to the deep crisis of credibility faced by the Cuban state press, official journalist Abdiel Bermúdez admitted in July that it has "a huge debt to the everyday history" of the country. Similarly, in March, actor Luis Alberto García criticized the media's silence in the face of social protests.
None of these self-criticisms, however, address the root of the problem: the absolute control of the Communist Party over what is published and what is silenced, further reinforced by Decree 160, which prohibits journalism outside the state apparatus.
Cuba ranks 160th out of 180 countries in the press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders 2026, the second worst in the Americas.
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