Cuba's political development has been marked by its closeness to the United States, generally for the worse. I recall a television interview a few years ago with the current Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was asked why he did not apply the same rationale to countries like Saudi Arabia as he did to Cuba when criticizing its human rights record. The Cuban-origin former senator responded that the island was 90 miles away, so the behavior of its political regime had a direct implication for U.S. national security. There is a lot of post-truth in the discussion of Cuba as a real threat to U.S. national security, and where it is, primarily on immigration, Washington is very much to blame. Rubio is an expression of the impact of Cuban émigrés after the disturbing victory of the Cuban Revolution, building on controversial but in any case strong and historical links between both nations.
The so-called Cuban-Americans gained a foothold in South Florida. They began to accumulate power to manage by remote control or directly—with a short but influential and feared delegation on Capitol Hill—all Cuba-related issues that emerged in real-time or were forced by them. In any case, when Ronald Reagan came to power that lobbying influence was not yet as mature, and to a large extent demanded steroids from that hawkish administration to forge as the interests of both converged dynamically. In his seminal book “That infernal little Cuban republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution,” Lars Schoultz recounts that some among the new owners of Pennsylvania Avenue then saw the Caribbean nation as a good shot for a first foreign policy victory. “It was as though Haig had come into office thinking, 'Where can we make a quick win?' and judged that place to be Cuba,“ reflected years later an advisor tasked with making then Secretary of State Al Haig´s intention to go "after Cuba" a reality.
Related to this historical account 👇
Today, @RFERL sued the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to block their attempted termination of RFE/RL's federal grant.
— RFE/RL Pressroom (@RFERLPress) March 18, 2025
Read our full release and statement from President & CEO @SteveCapus: https://t.co/PbNeCdcaci pic.twitter.com/LfjgHDPnX7
By then, thousands and thousands of Cuban "refugees" had become voters, a representative part of them with wealthy pockets, and were ready to storm the political scene. It is always said, and Schoultz also reports, that Reagan's transition team promoted the creation of the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful lobby that for the rest of the 20th century seized control of the Cuba policy—the Cuban Democracy Act was drafted in a yacht with direct inputs from it. In those years the main initiative that brought the two forces together was the establishment of the so-called Radio Marti, which would later also have a television component. The idea was to offer a way for Cubans to have access to reliable and unbiased information, but in practice, it always broadcasted plain propaganda following the style of Radio Swan, the station that from an island in Honduras was in the core of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation.
There is some Reagan´s footage here 👇
The foundation's founder and chairman Jorge Mas Canosa—his son Jorge Mas Santos holds that honorary position now but also owns Inter Miami where Messi plays—urged Reagan to abandon his doubts about Cuba's response and on May 20—a date not celebrated in Cuba since the Castro´s revolution—1985, the station began broadcasting. “We're ready to go with Radio Martí... Cuba, however, threatens retaliation... jamming American radio stations all the way to the Midwest. ... What to do? Right now, I don't know,” the Republican president had written in his diary in late 1984, according to Peter Kornbluh and William LeoGrande in their critical "Back Channel to Cuba: The hidden history of negotiations between Washington and Havana".
Neither Radio nor TV Martí ever managed to establish itself as a popular source of information in Cuba. While Washington put more than $900 million in propaganda-like content against Cuba since 1985, the AM signal was effectively blocked, television was never seen, and the U.S. government was never able to objectively measure its audience on the island. In a recent report, for example, USAGM claims to have achieved a global audience record but in the Cuban case points to “Marti audiences outside Cuba”. Still in the last decade, when it was doing a less crude “journalism”, a group of experts elaborated an official report harshly criticizing its standards and contents. Just now I have just listened via web a program that does not exudes journalism at all, but Cold War-sourced propaganda, in which the "regime" will end tomorrow. That program ended with a commentary on the history of Alcatraz and the famous movie starring Clean Eastwood. Miami loves American taxpayers.
So it is clear that Radio and TV Marti never withstood an objective analysis, yet keeping them on the air was a sensitive issue for the "Cuban exile". But last Monday it was confirmed that the transmitters of Radio Marti in Marathon Key—a historical location immersed in the radio wars since the Missile Crisis—had been turned off. From Miami, Cuban-Americans are pushing to keep this Cold War candle lit, but Trump has torn to shreds more important things, with real and sometimes good impact. Although radio broadcastings to Cuba are written into law, from my understanding the administration has room to implement it with minimal levels of funding and deployment in the sense of this executive order. But let us not take for defeat a powerful force like the Cubans in South Florida whose late leader Mas Canosa banged his fist on the table while negotiating directly with former President Bill Clinton. The one that enjoys a unique Cuban Adjustment Act and does not want to give up the privilege of having communist Cuba as the only country to which the old Trading with the Enemy Act still applies, or Havana as the only destination to which by law an American cannot travel for plain tourism.
A lot of references to Cuba in the last JFK Assassination-related files release. This deposition is very interesting so far.
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The Venezuelan saga 👇
U.S. Files Civil Forfeiture Complaint Against Aircraft Used by Nicolás Maduro Moros in Violation of U.S. Sanctions and Export Control Laws
— US Attorney SDFL (@USAO_SDFL) March 18, 2025
🔗: https://t.co/483Hk9Fslx@HSI_Miami -Santo Domingo, &@BISgov-Miami are investigating the case. pic.twitter.com/DMxS0rzZuK
A bad time to be Venezuelan and to have a tattoo in America 👇
Flights by U.S. immigration authorities set off a scramble among families after hundreds of immigrants vanished from ICE’s online locator. https://t.co/LByrYrJY5v
— PBS News (@NewsHour) March 18, 2025
A good opportunity for Maduro to show muscle 👇. Let´s see.
Venezuela is obligated to accept its repatriated citizens from the U.S. This is not an issue for debate or negotiation. Nor does it merit any reward. Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) March 18, 2025
The Panama Canal saga
Beijing moves 👇
Hong Kong’s leader has waded into a controversy over a prominent conglomerate’s decision to sell its Panama Canal port assets to a consortium including American investment bank BlackRock Inc., a deal that has angered Beijing. https://t.co/QzUvjuZihM
— PBS News (@NewsHour) March 18, 2025
Brazil
Lawfare discussion 👇
Federal Deputy in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies and son of the former Brazilian President @BolsonaroSP BREAKS THE NEWS to @MattGaetz that he is considering seeking asylum in the United States because he “cannot go back to Brazil,” citing threats from “crazy” Brazilian Supreme… pic.twitter.com/odQSItL1y8
— One America News (@OANN) March 19, 2025
Lula is trying to reemerge in the polls, which have marked his worst records recently since he first set foot in Planalto.
WRAPUP Brazil unveils broader income tax exemption plan as Lula seeks to regain popularity https://t.co/foLkroi1Xb pic.twitter.com/eBMGo1PI73
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) March 19, 2025
