Cuban soldiers and intelligence agents are active in carrying out torture in Venezuela. Listen first hand today what Venezuelans are doing to reclaim democracy in Venezuela from Maduro, and his Castroite enablers. A bipartisan roundtable discussion titled "The Fight for Freedom in Venezuela: A Conversation with María Corina Machado" is scheduled by the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere for the House of Representatives on Wednesday, February 7 at 11:00 am EST in the Rayburn Building.The Biden Administration loosened sanctions on Venezuela under the condition that free and fair elections would be held.  Shortly after Maria Corina Machado won the opposition primary, she was banned from participating in any elections due to supposed “anti-national” activities.

On February 3, 1962 President John F. Kennedy declared in Proclamation 3447 an "Embargo on All Trade with Cuba" in which it was "resolved that the present Government of Cuba is incompatible with the principles and objectives of the Inter-American system; and, in light of the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet Communism with which the Government of Cuba is publicly aligned, urged the member states to take those steps that they may consider appropriate for their individual and collective self-defense."

Lisdany Rodríguez was arrested on July 17, 2021 for participating in the 11J protests in Cuba, and is now being denied food and medical care in reprisal for not undergoing a forced abortion. This CubaBrief provides an international context.

There is a false dichotomy often expressed in the debate about bringing change to Cuba: either you prefer a violent bloody war that precipitates swift political change or you favor a slow and incremental transition launched top down by the dictatorship.

Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time,” and Cuba watchers should believe the Communist dictatorship in Cuba continues to be Leninist, and what that means.

Babalú Blog provided a translated quote by Cuban president Miguel Diaz Canel's Tweet on January 21, 2024 celebrating the communist terrorist and despot: “#Lenin100 is trending on this platform today, a century after the physical disappearance of the leader of the October Socialist Revolution and the world proletariat. #Cuba honors his memory.”

However it was not just the Cuban president, but also the Foreign Ministry, and the Minister of Communications all celebrating the mass murdering dictator Lenin.

The Center for a Free Cuba is a member of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, and John Suarez, its executive director, is among signatories in an open letter calling on Congress “to expedite its proceedings and vote for the national security supplemental, which would provide Ukraine the desperately needed security assistance to thwart Russia’s onslaught.”

The United States government is sharing intelligence on drug trafficking with the Cuban dictatorship, despite its six decade record of attempting to flood the United States with narcotics with the objective of targeting America’s youth, that it views as a soft underbelly.

Cuba's internal blockade is being tightened by the Castro dictatorship, which is making it clear that maintaining a small number of people in absolute power is its priority. preventing Cubans from having the chance to take charge of their own lives and raising living standards through freedom and the rule of law.

A process started during the Obama Administration in 2016 and continued during the Trump Administration has already resulted in the entry of tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of the Cuban dictatorship starting in 2022. With a chunk of the cash probably coming from U.S. taxpayers.

This CubaBrief establishes a new custom, a year-end column devoted to acknowledging meaningful Cuban political leaders who passed away during the year, and those currently imprisoned in Cuba for nonviolently exercising their rights.

"The pot calling the kettle black" is found first in print in Miguel Cervantes's Don Quijote in 1620 as "Dijo el sartén a la caldera, Quítate allá ojinegra."  This idiom came to mind immediately upon reading Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel (X or Tweet ) on December 27, 2023 in which Raul Castro's hand picked president libeled Israel.

Havana continues to weaponize migration in order to obtain more concessions, and now with the help of the Mexican president they are seeking more. The Cuban dictatorship has reason to double down. The Biden Administration in May 2022 provided concessions in the hope of decreasing migration.At that point the number of Cubans who had entered the United States during the Biden Presidency was 180,020, and since then another 322,151 entered.  The number would have been even larger, but in 2023 the Biden Administration took some unorthodox steps to lower numbers.

In 1999, the year Hugo Chavez took office in Venezuela 3,186 U.S. citizens died of cocaine overdoses. In 2021, after 22 years of the Chavez-Maduro regime in power with the assistance of the Cuban intelligence service 23,513 Americans died in 2021 of cocaine overdoses. The Castro regime turned Venezuela into a mafia state, and it has costs tens of thousands of U.S. lives.

Václav Havel passed away twelve years ago this week, on December 18, 2011, and his nonviolent resistance and dedication to truth in successfully resisting totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia remain powerful legacies and examples that are relevant today. In 2002, President Vaclav Havel addressed the Cuban people and offered words that should be heeded now and in the future:

President Barack Obama's rapprochement with Cuba began in 2009 with the unilateral loosening of sanctions, it followed the same failed pattern of other Administrations, opposition leaders killed, increased repression, and hostile actions against U.S. interests abroad. This did not prompt a change in policy, but a doubling down. It did not help that secret negotiations on Washington's side were led by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who is a former fiction writer with no foreign policy experience. Senior U.S. diplomats at the State Department were kept in the dark. His counterpart on Havana's side was Raul Castro's son, Fidel's protege and senior Ministry of the Interior official, Colonel Alejandro Castro Espin. His colleagues in the New York Times profile describe the Deputy National Security Adviser as "having no poker face", leading the negotiations versus some of the most seasoned and manipulative intelligence officials in the world.

The Cuban dictatorship has a double discourse, one for the Cuban populace in the island, and another for the international community to justify its presence on the UN Human Rights Council, but both have had a long term objective to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights irrelevant, and unable to impact it.

Juanita Castro, Fidel Castro's younger sister who passed away on December 4th in the 2009 RTVE Channel 2 documentary "My brothers and I" said,"Fidel himself said that I had betrayed him. I never betrayed Fidel. I have not betrayed anyone. Fidel, unfortunately and with pain that I feel very deeply, betrayed us all, including his own family."   Juana de la Caridad Castro Ruz was born in Birán, Cuba, on May 6 1933 and passed away at 90 years of age in Miami on Monday, December 4, 2023. Both she and her older brother Fidel died at age 90, but their lives could not have been more different..

Warming of relations between Washington and Havana did not begin until the tail end of the Nixon Administration, following the start of detente with China and the Soviet Union. Nixon traveled to China in February 1972 and met with Mao Zedong dropping opposition to Beijing's entry to the United Nations, and in May 1972 Nixon traveled to the Soviet Union and met with Leonid Breshnev and supported a nuclear arms agreement. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had laid the groundwork for both meetings, and the overall detente.

Luis Robles turned 31 years old today, and Luis Manuel Otero turned 36 today. Both are prisoners of conscience jailed in Cuba.

The Department of State issued the 2022 Country Reports on Terrorism (CRT) yesterday on November 30, 2023. The Cuban dictatorship’s official media howled that Cuba was “slandered” for remaining on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, but was silent in explaining Havana’s continuing support of terrorism.