Cuban

One balmy October day in Havana, as the Cuban French sister act Ibeyi plotted the video for “Offerings” — an electro-spiritual ballad from the new album “Offering,” released in June — Lisa-Kaindé Díaz unceremoniously asked her twin Naomi Díaz, to ceremoniously shave her head on camera.

Naomi was accustomed to Lisa-Kaindé’s whims long before they became professional artists. But to take a blade to her sister’s voluminous curls would be a bridge too far.

“I was like, ‘Hell no. I’m not doing that!’” Naomi recalled to The Times, over a Zoom call from Paris.

“As always, when I come with my woo-woo stuff, Naomi is eye rolling like, ‘Girl, what is this s—?’” said Lisa-Kaindé. “But this time around, Naomi was like, ‘OK.’”

The music video ended with Lisa-Kaindé releasing her locks into the sea.

At the core of Ibeyi, which translates to “twins” in the Yoruba language, is the polarity between sisters. Lisa-Kaindé is the bleeding heart who whispers divinity into her lyrics, and Naomi grounds them with the beating pulse of her percussion. They sing in unison, both in tension and harmony. This is the synergy that illuminates their atmospheric approach to the Afro-Cuban jazz tradition.

Born into a musical family in Paris — their mother the French Venezuelan singer Maya Dagnino, their father the Grammy-winning Cuban percussionist Anga Díaz (of Irakere and Buena Vista Social Club) — the 31-year-old sisters jump-started their music careers at 18 when they were discovered by British producer Richard Russell, who also helms the indie powerhouse XL Recordings. After releasing a self-titled debut in 2015, the Díaz sisters appeared in the utopian short film for Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” then released two more albums under XL: 2017’s “Ash” and 2022’s “Spell31,” which Lisa-Kaindé admitted underperformed expectations.

For “Offering,” they parted with XL and braved the studio as independent artists, inviting new collaborators into the project such as producer Michael Brun (J Balvin, Victoria Monét)and the famed Cuban conguero Pedrito Martinez.

“Things didn’t go the way you wanted them to go, now what does it free?” said Lisa-Kaindé. “It freed a lot of things, in our personal and professional lives,” she added.

The duo returned to their roots in Havana last fall to film the visuals for “Offerings” — as well as other singles “Aset” and “Hurry Hurry,” which were co-directed by Corry Van Rhijn and Roman Pichon Herrera. Family, friends and neighbors filled the frames with dancing and dominoes; their apartments painted in shades of mint, butter yellow and palomino pink, flecked with a patina cultivated by humidity and time.

As Cuba remains a topic of heated debate in the U.S. — or a political football — the Díaz sisters remind listeners that the island nation is still home to over 10 million people, including their relatives, whom they’ve visited regularly since they were little girls.

In 2027, Ibeyi will embark on a North American tour, which kicks off Jan. 27 at the Fillmore in San Francisco and includes a stop at Pacific Electric in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. (“I want everybody to cry, dance and twerk that ass at our shows!” said Naomi.) The Díaz sisters spoke to The Times about their season of upheaval and the recovery that informed their first independent outing yet.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What has changed for you the most since you released “Spell31?”

Lisa-Kaindé: A lot has changed, personally and in the world. We needed to stop for a little bit and gather our thoughts, reflect on our career and all that we have done. We went from anger to sadness to acceptance. We left XL Recordings, which was our home for 10 years [and] three albums. We also stopped working with Richard Russell, whom we love. He was one of the first people to hear the album. But we really needed to experience something new.

Naomi: We started when we were 18, and now we’re independent and more in control than ever. We tried to find new producers with whom we felt a deep connection. That was like leaving a marriage and going on Tinder and having lots of bad dates… Our sound is so strong that we’d eat them, so we had to find producers whose sound could stay strong with ours.

I hear a lot of heartbreak in this album, but also making peace with that. How do you personally heal from the pain of such endings?

Lisa-Kaindé: We just go through the s—. There’s no other way. I think we should all be courageous to change. Look into the mirror and be like: “Who am I? What do I want to do?” And just live. L-I-V-E. It could also be L-E-A-V-E.

You have a T-shirt that says, “I used to make spells, now I make offerings.” What does that mean to you?

Lisa-Kaindé: “Spell31” [went] hand-in-hand with my high expectations. I felt like we needed to put a spell on the world, so that the world would love us. When “Spell31” didn’t meet the expectations I had, it was painful. I went into a meditation and came out thinking: “I used to make spells. Now I make offerings.” Suddenly it was so obvious I was trying to feed myself from the wrong source of protein. What if I just gave without expecting anything?

Some of your lyrics name orishas from the Yoruba religion, such as Elegua and Olokun. What does your spiritual practice look like?

Lisa-Kaindé: The older we grow, the more religious I’m becoming … but Naomi lives her spirituality in very different ways. For her, twerking in a sweaty club can be one of the most spiritual things ever. She’s getting more and more gangster.

Naomi: It’s how we grew up. We never use the word “spiritual,” but spirituality can be a lot of things. To me, there’s nothing more spiritual than being in [famed Atlanta strip club] Magic City. Some people are gonna light a candle. Everybody can do whatever the f— they want.

Lisa-Kaindé: It’s about living in a way that is aligned with what makes you vibrate, what makes you feel alive.

What was it like for Naomi to cut Lisa’s hair in the video for ‘Offerings?’

Naomi: I was scared that she would not like her reflection. She came [to me] with, “Can you be the one shaving my head?” And I was like, “Hell no. I’m not doing that!” She was like, “Please, [it’s] really important for me as a twin.”

We didn’t have any mirrors. It was tough, but [as] I was doing it, I was like, “I hope she’s gonna love herself.” At one point I looked at her and I was like, “Oh, you’re so beautiful!” And she was like, “If Naomi tells me I look beautiful, I am.” It was really powerful.

In the closing track, ‘Lucky,’ you sing: ‘We can’t manifest for s—; God will always choose for us.’ Be honest, is this in response to those trending videos on social media about manifestation magic?

Lisa-Kaindé: Funny enough, we’ve never talked about this to the press. … But I went kind of cuckoo with the manifestation while making “Spell31.” I started writing three times a day: “It’s gonna do well.” It was the first time I ever did that. And when it didn’t work, I was like, “What do you mean? I did all of the things y’all told me to do!” And that’s why I’m saying we can’t manifest for s—. What happened was exactly what was supposed to happen.

My own outlook changed after a priestess told me to keep an altar to bring offerings to my ancestors. If you want something … you have to give the universe something to work with!

Lisa-Kaindé: You need to give! That doesn’t need to be a religion or whatever. Just be kind. It’s an exchange. There’s always a price — and that doesn’t have to be a terrible thing. It could be a very beautiful thing. I think it’s better if there’s a price. You’re not just demanding the universe to give you something just because you say it enough times.

I sense more thunder in the sounds of ‘Offering,’ especially in Naomi’s percussion. ‘Mosh Pit’ is a storm of trap and acoustic elements. Can you talk about making this song?

Naomi: This was the first song we made for the album. We met Michael Brun, who is Haitian and lives in New York. We wanted a tough energy, we wanted dragon energy in this song. I listen to a lot of rap and trap, so there’s a little more of myself in this. Ibeyi is like a needle between Lisa and I; for 10 years, the needle moved a little more toward Lisa, but now it’s moving toward me. Life is like that.

You shot multiple music videos in Cuba. What made you decide it was time to make these videos in Havana?

Naomi: We recorded the videos in September and October. We wanted to show Cuba because it’s remembering our dad. Home is Paris, London and Havana for us.

Lisa-Kaindé: After having done the visuals from “Spell31” inside the studios … we needed something more personal. We had never done visuals in Cuba, but I think it’s because we’re very protective of Cuba. We’re protective of what the world sees Cuba as, whether it’s the old ladies smoking cigars, or the American cause. We’d go there in the summers [for] our whole lives. We wanted to show something beyond what tourists see. These are the people who actually live there. It’s important to know how people live.

Naomi: We wanted to be with our people and show the real Yoruba, Cuban way of living. Parties full of elderly people, young people … everybody twerking!

This big house party happens in the video for the song ‘Aset.’ Can you tell me about shooting the party scene?

Lisa-Kaindé: Funnily enough, I think our family was more involved behind the scenes. Naomi’s best friend helped with all of the wardrobe because she’s a fashion girlie. One of the directors we’ve known since we were 15 years old, he’s like a brother to us. We also worked with a conguero, like our dad, his name is Karín. We filmed the “Offerings” video in his house. Then we went to La Playita 26, which is not far from our old house, to look at the sea.

Naomi: What’s beautiful is that it was all real. It was also [full of] people we didn’t f— know. But it was raw.

Lisa-Kaindé: The day we filmed “Aset,” when I saw Naomi dance, I was like: “Here we are. Here is that freedom [we’ve been] missing.”

The island has weathered a US oil embargo since January and is enduring one of its worst economic crises ever.

Cuba’s president has accused the United States of carrying out “genocide” against his people and seeking to seize the Caribbean island nation.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel lashed out during a rally on Sunday commemorating the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1953. His anger was a reaction to Washington’s continued pressure, which has included a crippling oil embargo that has produced regular blackouts and economic hardship.

“I denounce that Cuba is the victim of a cold-bloodedly calculated genocide,” Diaz-Canel said in Pinar del Rio at the event marking the 73rd anniversary of the uprising against former dictator Fulgencio Batista.

US relations with the communist-led island have long been tense, but have deteriorated further under US President Donald Trump.

Washington imposed an oil embargo on Cuba on January 29, causing daily blackouts of more than 20 hours.

The US, Diaz-Canel said on Sunday, was engaged in “economic strangulation” through its actions.

Employers have been forced to reduce workdays, industrial production has stopped, and water and medicine shortages are hitting a country already suffering from previous US sanctions and financial reforms that caused inflation.

Payment companies Visa and Mastercard, Spain’s Melia hotel chain, and Air Canada and Air France have all exited the country amid the crisis.

“Cuba is today waging a historic battle … against the walls of a genocidal policy whose objective is to suffocate an entire people in order to appropriate the country,” Diaz-Canel said.

Trump said he would “take over” Cuba, following the US abduction of former Venezuelan president and Cuban ally Nicolas Maduro in January.

Last week, a US State Department report accused Cuba’s government of running an espionage and influence network against Washington and Latin American neighbours.

In May, the US indicted former president and revolution leader Raul Castro – brother of Fidel – of murder and other crimes for his alleged part in the downing of two civilian airplanes operated by Miami-based exiles off the Cuban coast in 1996.

Cuba’s government has rejected the accusations and denounced Trump’s rhetoric. Talks between the two countries have largely stalled, Cuban officials said in June.

The Cuban Revolution, led by brothers and later leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, culminated in the Batista government’s fall in 1959. Former President Raul, 95, was unusually absent at Sunday’s rally.

July 20 (UPI) — Cuban artist and dissident Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara said he cannot return home after arriving in exile in the United States this weekend.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio renewed his call Monday for the Cuban government to release more than 700 political prisoners amid rising tensions between Washington and Havana.

Otero Alcántara, 38, arrived in Miami on Saturday after spending five years imprisoned in Cuba on charges of desecrating national symbols, contempt and public disorder.

His arrival was confirmed by Rubio, who said the artist had been imprisoned for challenging the Cuban government.

In his first public remarks since arriving in the United States, the founder of the San Isidro Movement said prison changed the way he sees people, but acknowledged that exile carries a high personal cost.

“Five years later, I am more human. Prison is a place where you can look into the eyes of people who, even after committing the worst crimes, are still human beings,” he said in videos published by Caraota Digital.

However, he said that being forced to leave Cuba does not represent true freedom.

“I have been expelled from Cuba. This is not right. … I can’t see my son. I can’t return to my home. It’s just not right,” he said.

Otero Alcántara gained international prominence via a collective of artists and intellectuals that called for greater freedom of expression in Cuba and that, according to Amnesty International, has been the target of constant persecution by Cuban authorities.

He was arrested while attempting to join the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, and was sentenced to five years in prison a year later.

After confirming Otero Alcántara’s arrival in the United States, Rubio said on X that the artist’s imprisonment was the result of challenging “the Marxist tyranny of the Cuban regime,” and he demanded the immediate release of “the more than 700 political prisoners unjustly detained” on the island.

Rubio said President Donald Trump‘s administration will continue to support those seeking greater political freedoms in Cuba.

MIAMI — Cuban dissident and Grammy-winning musical artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on condition that he leave his country.

Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — Homeland and Life — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

The United States granted him parole into the country last week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement, named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

He was arrested July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, a designation the Cuban government rejected.

Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released earlier this month. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were unsure of his location or whether he truly had been released.

His said his first stop on American soil would be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami to make an offering.

Other political prisoners remained behind bars in Cuba, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara’s release would lead to Pérez also being freed.

Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.

June 24 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned five Cuban state companies and the wife of Raul Castro‘s son, as the Trump administration continues to apply economic pressure on the Caribbean nation.

Three of the companies blacklisted by the State Department on Tuesday are associated with Grupo de Administracion Empresarial, which the United States initially sanctioned during the first Trump administration on accusations of being a Cuban military-controlled umbrella enterprise with interests sprawling throughout the island nation’s economy.

The two other entities hit are accused of operating in Cuba’s mining sector with foreign investment from Australia as well as working in collaboration with Russia.

Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cadero was sanctioned for being the wife of Alejandro Castro Espin, the son of Raul Castro, Cuba’s former head of state. Alejandro Castro was sanctioned by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media statement that he was sanctioning GAESA network entities for diverting Cuba’s money and assets and the two other companies for exploiting its mineral and metal reserves.

“The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic well-being of the Cuban people,” he said.

Sanctions generally freeze U.S.-based property or interests in property under the control of those designated while threatening foreign businesses with secondary sanctions for doing business with them.

The United States has long imposed a blockade and sanctions on Cuba, but the economic punitive measures have starkly increased during the second Trump administration, exasperating the power and energy shortages in the country, causing blackouts. The supply shortages have forced more than 100,000 people, including 11,000 children, to wait for surgeries, according to the United Nations.

Tuesday’s designations come under an executive order Trump signed in May permitting the sanctioning of those operating in Cuba’s energy, defense, mining and financial services sectors, as well as those complicit in human rights abuses or corruption related to Cuba working or for providing services to the Havana government.

Trump has been increasing the political and economic pressure on Cuba since ousting Venezuela’s authoritarian leader in January, declaring a national emergency with respect to the island nation early this year.

Since signing the sanctions-related executive order in May, he has used it at least five times to designate Cuba-related entities and individuals.

Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of increasing its sanctions regime against Havana, because Havana continues to prove it is “stronger, more capable and efficient than it expected.”

He accused the Trump administration of collectively punishing the Cuban people.

Ernesto Soberon, Cuba’s United Nations ambassador, accused the United States of lying about employing sanctions due to human rights abuses by Havana.

“No government, no person with even a shred of common sense — and certainly not the people of #Cuba, who are suffering the humanitarian impact of the U.S. economic war — can believe that the tightening of the blockade, the energy siege and the newly announced sanctions are intended to support the Cuban people,” he said on social media.

“Anyone who has doubts should ask the parents of the more than 12,000 children currently awaiting surgery in Cuba as a result of the U.S. government’s genocidal policy.”

On a Thursday in early June, under the hot bright lights of the famous Blue Note jazz club in Hollywood, the legendary trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval took center stage with a microphone in hand — and a hip wiggle for good measure. Rocking a silk shirt adorned with rhinestones, and backed by his incredibly nimble band, the Cuban-born virtuoso kicked off his four-night residency at the club with sizzling banter and panache.

“I had to watch what I said in Cuba,” he told the audience. “Now I live in the United States of America, man — I say whatever the hell I want. Do you like it? Well, if you don’t, I don’t care!”

Now 77, Sandoval feels he was liberated by the power of jazz. Released in May, his dynamic new album, “Sangú” — Spanglish for “sounds good!” — is bursting with the free-spirited energy he’s cultivated in the decades since he came to the United States from Cuba. Sandoval maintains a fiery pace throughout the album, commanding not only the trumpet, but the timbales and piano. (He even recorded his own scat singing for the appropriately-titled track, “Scat.”)

Once derided by the revolutionary government as “Yankee imperialism,” jazz music became a staple of Sandoval’s daily diet. As a young trumpet player in Cuba’s national band, he sought refuge in the sounds of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie by tuning into Voice of America: a radio program covertly broadcast from the States. Sandoval eventually served three-and-a-half months in jail in the 1970s when he was caught listening to the program — but with famed pianist and director Chucho Valdés, Sandoval would pioneer a distinctly Afro-Cuban jazz fusion with the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, which was renamed Irakere and won a Grammy for best Latin recording in 1980.

It was in 1990, while touring Europe with his hero Gillespie, that Sandoval finally defected from Cuba with his wife and son — and found the refuge he’d been seeking in the U.S.

“Jazz is synonymous with freedom,” he said. “And I’ve always said the most important word in any dictionary around the world is the word ‘freedom.’”

Inside his Tuscan-style home in the Valley, Sandoval’s shelves are lined with the myriad of awards he’s collected in the time since he arrived in the States: an Emmy award for scoring the 2000 movie based on his own life, “For Love or Country,” which starred Cuban American actor Andy García; 10 Grammy statuettes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was presented to him by President Obama in 2013.

Just last month, Sandoval was also awarded knighthood by the King of Spain. “Does that make me Don Arturo Sandoval?” he audibly asked the ChatGPT application on his phone; indeed, it does. (“My wife gets a little jealous of ChatGPT,” he added with a laugh.)

Come July 4, Sandoval will perform at the America250 concert in Washington D.C., which is a bipartisan celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday. Co-chairs of the event include former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Seated next to his Bösendorfer grand piano, Sandoval spoke with The Times while on break from his world tour to discuss the new album, his collaborations with Karol G and Ariana Grande, as well as his weakness for a good cigar.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

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What keeps you playing the trumpet after all these years?
I have no choice. The piano is not that complicated, but the trumpet is a pain in the butt. The trumpet is merciless. You have to practice every single day, otherwise it sends you a bill.

How do you smoke cigars and stay healthy enough to play the trumpet?
I’ve been a big time cigar smoker since I was 14 years old. I never miss a day. I had a good one already. Every year they put me in the MRI to check my lungs. And the doctor always says, “Man, you have lungs like a person who never smoked.” A cigar is completely different from cigarettes. [With] a cigar you don’t inhale to the bottom of the lung, you know, it’s from here [taps his throat]. That’s the art.

You’ve been knighted by the king of Spain! How does that feel?
Great! We’re having 30 people over tonight. My wife is cooking for everyone. The consul [from Spain] called me three or four days ago [and] said, “Arturo, I got a surprise for you. I just got a package from the king at my house, ready to give it to you.” And I said, “What kind of joke is that?” My four grandparents came from Spain to Cuba — from my mother’s side, they were from Tenerife, Isla Canaria. From my dad’s side, they were Gallegos from Galicia. Even if I weren’t related to my family in Spain, whatever — I love Spain!

Given how restricted music and expression were in Cuba, how did you get into the international jazz community?
We put together a big band called Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna [later called Irakere]. I met a journalist who played the saxophone — he said, “Man, you ever hear any jazz music?” He played for me a compilation or recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. That was in ’67 or ’68. Ten years later, I got a phone call from the guy — there was a jazz cruise going around the Caribbean and they [were in Havana] for 48 hours. I told him, “Pretend we never had this conversation!” But I went to the harbor. When the boat arrived, I saw Maestro Gillespie coming down the stairs. I didn’t know how to say one word in English. But God has always been good to me.

A guy behind him started talking to me in perfect Spanish. He was a percussionist playing with the great Stan Getz … a bunch of good musicians there. Dizzy started asking me questions through him. They said, “You have a car?” I had a Primo 1951, but it was falling apart. He said, “Ok, show me Havana.” He stayed for a jam session that night with Irakere. Gillespie went back to New York and told everybody about those musicians he heard in Cuba. Then one day a guy came to Irakere’s rehearsal and introduced himself with a translator — he was the president of CBS Records. A few months later, he put us on the plane [to New York] and drove us in a little bus straight to [perform at] Carnegie Hall. CBS made a recording of that, [which gave us] our first Grammy.

Many years later, in 2013, you were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What’s something special you remember about that night?
My granddaughter Lola was there, she was 6. It’s customary to take a photo with the president and the first lady. And we did, the whole family. When we got together for the photo, Lola started pulling at Obama’s jacket. He looked her and said, “May I help you?” She said, “Mr. President, I missed school today. I need a note from you.”

I said, “Oh Lord.” But Obama smiled and said, “Of course.” Then he got a paper with the White House [logo] on top and wrote, “Please excuse Lola from the school today … [Signed,] Barack Obama.”

Legendary jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, shown performing at Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles in 2016.

(Courtesy of Timothy Norris)

Your new album is so cinematic. What’s the story behind it?
One day my son and his wife, who’s my manager, came over and said, “Papa, you’re getting old. You have to change your repertoire.” I said to my son, “I’ve been feeding you for 50 years and then you come and tell me what to do? Gimme a break!” But to be honest, when the pandemic happened, I was locked [inside] here. I used to travel a lot, and I was so frustrated and sad. So for two-and-a-half years, I started writing two or three new tunes a day and recorded a few hundred on my own. They picked 100 out of those; I said, “[Now] pick 12.”

When I got with the band, when somebody told me what to play — a little faster, a little slower — I said, “What the heck, man?” But I did it. And they were right. I’m so happy, blessed and grateful because they are amazing musicians. Nobody’s weird. No drugs, no alcohol, strictly into the music.

You joined Karol G’s band at Coachella this year — how did that happen?
As an old man, it’s not every day you have the opportunity to play Coachella. She called me last year to play on a tune in her latest album, “Ivonny Bonita.” So when they invited her to Coachella, she said, “Arturo, we’d like to play with you there.” She’s got great charisma and knows how to put a show together. To play for [more than] 150,000 people each night? That’s not my daily gig. I was nervous, but grateful for the opportunity. And when I checked my followers on Instagram, I got like 5,000 people in a few days — that never happens to me!

Let’s talk about Instagram!
Oh that’s a funny story. [In 2018] I did an album of duets with Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande … big time people. When Pharrell wrote a song for our duet, we were in the studio, cutting the track. He said, “Arturo, I’m producing for Ariana Grande in a studio across the hall. You would like me to call her?” I said, “Of course, man.” They sang together, Pharrell and Ariana. And by the end, I got my phone and said, “Ariana, can we take a photo with Pharrell?” She took my phone out of my hand to take [a selfie] and said to me, “Put it on Instagram.” I didn’t know what that was. She said, “You don’t know what Instagram is?” Sorry, I’m old! But I put it on Instagram, thanks to Ariana Grande. She’s so talented, man.

How do you stay dedicated to music after all this time?
People talk a lot about the word “talent.” What’s that? A lot of people supposedly have big talent, but they don’t have the passion, the discipline, the commitment. See those roses in my yard? If somebody gave you a seed, you put it in a vase with fresh dirt. Add some vitamins and water, and if you’re lucky, you’re gonna have a rose. But if they gave somebody the exact same seed and they left it on a table somewhere, that rose is gonna die! I’m 77 years old and I still practice every day. Nothing goes to my head. All those awards would mean nothing if I didn’t take care of what I had.

Brazilian police have intercepted 108 Cuban nationals in a single day as they were being smuggled into the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, officials noted that the incident was part of a growing trend of undocumented immigration leaving the beleaguered Caribbean island for Brazil.

Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security described the operation as a “rescue”, designed to disrupt human trafficking and irregular migration.

“According to the Federal Highway Police (PRF), this was the largest humanitarian rescue operation ever recorded in a single incident in Roraima,” the ministry said, referring to one of Brazil’s 26 states.

Roraima is situated in the Amazon rainforest, along the border with Guyana and Venezuela. The ministry said that a “large portion” of Cubans are using Guyana as a gateway to enter Brazil.

Some 57.6 percent of the Cuban immigrants living in Brazil are either in Roraima or Amapa, another northern border state.

Cuba has been facing a heightened humanitarian crisis in recent months, as it weathers a de facto fuel blockade imposed by the United States.

Since January, no foreign oil has been allowed to reach the Caribbean island, save for one Russian tanker. The US has threatened steep tariffs against any country that might seek to supply Cuba with oil, a necessary fuel for its fragile energy grid.

The blockade has had wide-ranging repercussions, with public services in many areas grinding to a halt. The country has been gripped by multiple island-wide blackouts, and residents are reporting difficulties accessing basic supplies like food and medication.

Critics fear the pressure will lead to new waves of migration off the island. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, economic decline contributed to a mass exodus, with Cuba’s population dropping by roughly 10 percent or more.

Since 2024, Brazil’s Federal Highway Police say they have “rescued” roughly 297 migrants and asylum seekers in Roraima, most of them Cuban.

Five “coyotes”, or human smugglers, were arrested during Monday’s law enforcement efforts, which come as part of Operation Safe Route, an initiative launched in December 2024 to ensure roadway safety.

Three separate sets of arrests were made. One involved a convoy of three vehicles that attempted to flee federal police after being signalled to stop. Inside the vehicles were 39 Cubans, including children, being “transported in precarious conditions”.

“Many reported having gone without food for at least two days,” the Justice Ministry said.

In another incident, police found eight Cuban immigrants after seizing a vehicle that crossed the border illegally. In a third, law enforcement followed a vehicle suspected of human smuggling to a residence where 61 Cubans were found.

All 108 of the Cubans recovered on Monday were transferred to police officials for “immigration regularisation and subsequent referral to the social assistance network”, according to the Brazilian security ministry.

In its annual migration report for 2025, the ministry described Cuban immigration to Brazil as stable or even descending during the last decade, up until the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Migration flows of Cubans to Brazil were never particularly intense,” the report said. But then, starting in 2022, Cuban immigration into Brazil started to “rebound vigorously”.

“It is important to note that, in 2025, refugee applications submitted by Cubans surpassed those submitted by Venezuelans — not only due to a drop in applications from the latter group but, above all, due to the sharp rise in cases filed by Cubans, exceeding 40,000 requests,” the report explained.

The report also warned that the upward trend could continue, given the conflict between the US and Cuba.

Since returning for a second term, US President Donald Trump has taken an active role in Latin American politics and has suggested he may use military force to initiate regime change in Cuba.

“Should geopolitical tensions between Cuba and the United States of America escalate, migration flows toward Brazil could very well increase,” the report concluded.

June 4 (UPI) — The United States on Thursday leveled sanctions against Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, members of former President Raul Castro‘s family, the Cuban military and other organizations as it continued a crackdown on the country’s communist government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the measures against Diaz-Canel the others in a statement, asserting they are being targeted because they “fund the [Cuban] regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world.”

The Cuban president, Rubio said, poses a threat to U.S. national security, while the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, with its “many majority holdings and subsidiaries,” is also now “considered blocked.”

Other organizations newly added to the sanctions list are the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, Amistur Cuba S.A., Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and Minera La Victoria S.A.

The individuals sanctioned include Alejandro Castro Espin, the former head of the Cuban intelligence services and the son of Raul Castro, and Raul Alejandro Castro Calis, Castro Espin’s son.

“For decades, Cuba has been the world capital for radical left-wing terrorism,” Rubio asserted. “The regime in Havana has recruited, trained and backed violent Marxist and ‘third-worldist’ movements across our hemisphere and beyond.

“Today, we are targeting the network that enables and funds Cuba’s subversive and radical operations.”

In a stated response, Diaz-Canel said the latest sanctions are “illegitimate” and are “aimed at reinforcing the blockade measures and the scenario of conflict between Cuba and the United States.

“This political blindness is added to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people,” he added. “The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will clash with our determination to confront the worst scenarios and resist the imperialist onslaught.”

The newly issued sanctions are the latest in a series of moves designed to ratchet up pressure on the Cuban government.

The Trump administration has set a Friday deadline for foreign companies to sever ties with GAESA, the business conglomerate run by Cuba’s Armed Forces, sparking a mass exodus of tourism-related businesses from the island nation.

Meanwhile, Cuba is struggling with the effects of a January 2026 executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a fuel blockade against the nation on national security grounds.

The move has resulted in shortages of electricity, fuel, medicine and medical supplies across Cuba, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization, which says emergency care, blood banks, laboratories, immunization programs and maternal and child health services have all been “severely disrupted.”

May 22 (UPI) — Federal immigration officials have arrested the sister of a sanctioned Cuban executive on the grounds that her presence in the United States poses a threat to the nation and undermines U.S. foreign policy interests.

Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Adys Lastres Morera in Miami on Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Little information about the arrest was made public. ICE published a photo showing the back of a woman in handcuffs being detained by immigration officers.

The arrest came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement that he had terminated Morera’s lawful permanent resident status under a provision of thee Immigration and Nationality Act that makes non-citizens deportable if the secretary of state believes their presence or activities in the United States “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

ICE said her status had been terminated on Wednesday, paving the way for her arrest.

“Allowing Lastres Morera to remain in the country would send a signal that Cuba regime-affiliated networks could continue to access the U.S.’s financial, education and social institutions — but that is not the case,” acting HSI Executive Associate Director John Condon said in a statement.

Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the executive president of the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate GAESA.

The State Department sanctioned GAESA and Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera earlier this month on accusations of diverting resources from the Cuban people to “fuel the lavish lifestyles of Castro family members and other regime elites and to finance overseas influence operations as part of Cuba’s long-standing ambition of a global communist revolution,” Rubio said Thursday.

According to ICE, Adys Lastres Morera was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident on Jan. 13, 2023.

“For far too long, the family members of terrorist organizations, repressive anti-American regimes and other bad actors who would threaten the national security of the United States have been given a free pass to enjoy the privileges of living in the United States,” Rubio said.

“No longer. Under President [Donald] Trump, we are removing from our country the family members of [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] terrorists and Cuban regime elites.”

The arrest comes amid mounting tensions in the Caribbean.

A day earlier, U.S. federal prosecutors charged former Cuban President Raul Castro on allegations of authorizing the 1996 shootdown of an aircraft operated by the Cuban American exile organization Brothers to the Rescue.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has accused the Trump administration of using the Castro indictment as a pretext to escalate tensions and potentially justify another military operation in the Caribbean, similar to the January U.S. strike that abducted Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, and brought him to the United States to face narco-terrorism charges.

MIAMI — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the socialist government.

The indictment was related to Castro’s alleged role in the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time. The charges included murder and destruction of an airplane.

Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and other top Justice Department officials made the announcement in Miami at a ceremony to honor those killed in the shootdown.

President Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured the Cuban government’s longtime patron, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After ousting Maduro, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power during a surprise military raid in January that whisked the Venezuelan leader to New York to face trial.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.

“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”

Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos F. de Cossío lashed out at Rubio on X, saying he “lies so repeatedly and unscrupulously about Cuba and tries to justify the aggression he inflicts on the Cuban people.” Rubio “knows full well that there is no excuse for such cruel and ruthless aggression.”

Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes

There’s no indication Castro will be taken into U.S. custody anytime soon.

He took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior State Department officials met with the grandson in April.

“The symbolic nature is absolutely crucial,” said Lindsey Lazopoulos Friedman, a former prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami who handled national security cases and crimes involving Cubans.

“Even though Raúl Castro will likely stay and die in Cuba, you can use the indictment as a pressure point, a tactical advantage, to extract other concessions like the release of prisoners or to keep Russia out,” she added.

The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s

Starting in 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded by Cuban exiles, buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.

The Cubans protested to the U.S. government, warning that they would defend their airspace. Federal Aviation Administration officials also opened an investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by George Washington University’s National Security Archive.

“This latest overflight can only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government,” an FAA official wrote in an email to her superiors after one intrusion in January 1996. “Worst case scenario is that one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes.”

But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All four men aboard were killed.

Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment

Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor, uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces.

“The evidence was strong,” Lewis said in an interview.

In the end, the Clinton administration indicted four individuals, including the MiG pilots, the head of the Cuban air force and the head of a Cuban spy network in Miami — the only one to see the inside of a U.S. prison — for providing valuable intelligence about the flights.

The incident led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.

But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration — which had quietly sought to expand relations with Cuba prior to the incident — raised foreign policy concerns about such a high-profile indictment.

“Raúl was definitely one who slipped through the noose,” Lewis said. “The crime is notorious. Three U.S. citizens and one legal permanent resident were killed in a premeditated orchestrated murder. That should never be forgotten.”

Goodman and Richer write for the Associated Press. Richer reported from Washington.