In this CubaBrief we focus on recent statements by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Cuba and Venezuela.
“My Administration has also imposed tough sanctions on the communist and socialist dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela.” President Donald Trump, State of the Union, January 30, 2018.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady “It’s instructive that Venezuela’s dictatorship chose to kill former police pilot Oscar Pérez and six other counterrevolutionaries in an extrajudicial execution last week. …He pleaded on social media for a chance to surrender to police. Instead the military dictatorship eliminated the celebrated dissident and his cohorts. It was front-page news.”
In this CubaBrief the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) condemns threats by state security against independent journalist. Also five former American diplomats call on world leaders to come to the assistance of the Venezuelan people suffering under Nicolas Maduro and Frank Calzon, the Center for a Free Cuba executive director is featured among answers to the latest Inter-American Dialogue publication.
Earlier this week, Josefina Vidal, Raul Castro’s chief negotiator with Washington during the Obama Administration, objected to the testimony of Francisco Palmieri, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America before a Senate subcommittee about the American diplomats who suffered serious health issues, including mild brain trauma while working at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Ms. Vidal, quoted [on January 9, 2018] by the Miami Herald’s Mimi Whitefield, said that “the “irresponsible statements” by Palmieri were “unacceptable.”
Reuters reports [December 14] that Venezuela’s “crippling economic crisis already forced it to slash cheap oil shipments to Cuba.” Significantly, “Venezuela has pulled out of a partnership with Cuba in its Cienfuegos oil refinery.”
The headline on a well-documented article by The Miami Herald’s Nora Gamez Torres is true: “Raúl Castro’s economic reforms were supposed to make life better in Cuba. Didn’t happen.” Cubans are facing increased shortages, and the disastrous two currency system continues to exploit Cubans. Raul Castro, despite many efforts by the Europeans who forgave tens of millions of dollars of Havana’s debt, might not be able to make Cuba’s expected payments, negotiated as part of the debt restructuring.
We publish in this issue Carlos Alberto Montaner's "A Year without Fidel," and Diario de Cuba's "Those who refused to mourn" about some Cubans who remain in jail because they refused to join the collective bereavement a year ago. And the good news that Radio Marti is increasing its broadcasts to Cuba.
En este Cuba Brief/ Cuba en Breve: tres tema extraordinarios:
· El derecho al trabajo y a la no discriminación de los trabajadores cubanos del informe reciente de Amnistía Internacional que acaba de distribuir el blog de ASCE, la Asociación para el Estudio de la Economía de Cuba;
· un magnífico ensayo del Profesor Rafael Rojas: “ Breve historia de la censura en Cuba (1959-2016).
· y “Cuba and North Korea in the same line of combat", un analisis muy importante de Alvaro Alba, Senior Research Associate en el Cuban Studies Institute (CSI).
Yesterday, the Cuban regime held municipal “elections” in which no candidate independent from the Communist Party was allowed to run. The Associated Press reported that “the man widely seen as Cuba's next president delivered a defiant rejection of demands for change in the island's single-party system as he participated Sunday in the first in a series of elections expected to end with his taking over from Raul Castro next year.”
For sure, Raul Castro knows the old Spanish adage that says “If you see your neighbor’s beard on fire, immerse yours in water.” Today, is not a good day for the General-President. The United States returned Pyongyang to the list of state sponsors of terrorism and Robert Mugabe, longtime friend and accomplice of the Castro dynasty is no longer in power. We are reprinting in English an article by Yoani Sanchez on the relationship between Mugabe and the Castros. It is very much worth reading.
The Washington Post, November 17, 2017 reports that “North Korea falls back on close ties with Cuba.” Relations between Havana and Pyongyang have been very strong for more than half a century. A big difference today is that under the Trump Administration Washington is not likely to sweep under the rug hostile actions by either regime.
General Raul Castro awarded Cuba's Order of Solidarity to Puerto Rican terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera, responsible for more than one hundred bombs throughout the United States and millions of dollars in damage. He was to remain in prison until 2051 but his sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama shortly before the end of his Administration.
Alaska Airlines will end its flights to Cuba in January, a year after launching a daily Los Angeles-Havana route that began with great fanfare but was fading even before President Donald Trump last week imposed new restrictions on travel to the island nation.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal today, Mary Anastasia O’Grady focuses on how “[t]he Russians used their experience at home to annihilate [Cuban] dissident peasants.” Months after Castro’s coming to power a peasant uprising ensued due to the regime’s efforts to confiscate farmland and the farmers’ production, in a fashion that resembled Soviet experiences earlier many years earlier.
In this issue: The Wall Street Journal reports that some see a silver lining under the Trump administration's new mesures reversing parts of Barack Obama's opening to Cuba.
In this issue: "Russia renews talks of a military base in Cuba," a release from the Cuban Studies Institute, "What Trump’s Cuba crackdown will look like," published by The Miami Herald, and "Regime forces arrest artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara" in Cuba, published by Diario de Cuba, an independent online newspaper.
The Trump Administration releases new regulations promised by the President to curtail millions flowing to Cuban military and security services. It is a good beginning but some Cuban government companies have been left out. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says it is a good first step.
As reported earlier the House of Representatives approved a bill entitled “Cuban Airport Security Act of 2017.” The bill instructs the Administrator of the Transportation and Security Administration to submit a report to the Congress assessing “the ability of known or suspected terrorists to use Cuba as a gateway of entry into the United States,” and “the vetting practices and procedures for airport employees,” as well as “any other information determined relevant to the security practices, procedures and equipment at such airports.”
Panampost just published an article: “Castro Regime Sends Scarce Items to Dominica while Cubans Struggle to Recover from Hurricane.” Unfortunately, not only is General Raul Castro sending elsewhere tons of assistance that are urgently needed by Cubans after the havoc of Hurricane Irma, but assistance donated to Cuba by several countries is not distributed but sold by the government to desperate families. Cuban customs continues to place obstacles on the importation of food and medicine needed by thousands of homeless Cubans.
The St. Kitts & Nevis Observer published on the Eastern Caribbean island of the same name runs today [October 23, 2017] an article: " Cuba, Caribbean ties to U. of Miami in New Online Report.” U.M. president Julio Frenk says “We look forward to more opportunities to strengthen academic bonds, increase research and welcome diverse discourse on the humanities, politics and culture.”