Tag: cuba

A US Bank Closed Our Accounts Because I’d Visited Cuba Six Months Ago

For years, World BEYOND War and other peace groups from around the world had been attending peace conferences in Cuba. When I visited Cuba this past January it was with a visa for that purpose. I published here the remarks I made at the conference. We shouted as loudly as we could about January’s conference in websites, social media, emails, and media interviews. The notion that there could be anything wrong with it — or that some institution could punish us for it — never entered our minds.

Legally, you’re allowed to go to a peace conference in Cuba. Nobody has so much as hinted that I’ve done anything illegal. But on Thursday June 5th I got a bunch of letters in the mail telling me that on Monday June 9th the U.S. bank accounts of World BEYOND War and the private accounts of all of my family members would be closed without explanation. This was the action of a particular bank called First Citizens, with no indication of any involvement by any government. (The explanation, it would be made clear, was my visit to Cuba.)

Morally, it seems a useful thing to do — attending peace conferences in Cuba. As at similar conferences in many other countries, one can meet diplomats, authors, activists, and politicians from all over the world to discuss peace education, disarmament, negotiations, and cross-cultural understanding. Videos of the entire conferences in Cuba, like most others around the world, are posted online for all to see.

World BEYOND War works to abolish all war, and opposes all sides of all wars — an unusual position even at peace conferences. We are constantly working to persuade some people not to support the Russian side of a war and other people not to support the Ukrainian side. We oppose any and all war-making by the U.S., Cuba, or anyone else, without equating disparate sides or blaming victims in any actual wars. Some groups try to shut down weapons programs because the weapons don’t work well; we start with opposing those that kill the most. When Trump sends troops into Los Angeles, we don’t join the Governor of California in asking that soldiers and Marines do their work abroad; we ask people to think about whether such armed forces should invade anyone else’s city either. The nice thing about peace conferences is that we can advance these views nonviolently, disagreeing amicably.

The problem, apparently, for a U.S. bank, with Cuban peace conferences is that, as with many things in Cuba, the Cuban government is involved. The president of the country wanders into the panel sessions. While that has the potential to cause censorship, it also has the potential to educate decision makers. I’d like to see presidents wandering in at peace conferences in Washington and other capitals.

Of course, the U.S. government has been sanctioning and blockading Cuba for generations, for the stated illegal purpose of overthrowing the government but — as usual — with the result of strengthening it instead, and the actual illegal impact of impoverishing the Cuban people — whose impoverishment is then blamed on the Cuban government and used as an excuse to overthrow it. This cruelty from the North provides a handy excuse for all sorts of repression and awful governance by the Cuban government, just as with the Iranian government and several others.

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Carlos Lehder reveals: Fidel and Raúl Castro facilitated Medellín Cartel drug trafficking from Cuba in the 1980s.

Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medellín Cartel and former ally of Pablo Escobar, has dropped a bombshell that the left and progressives don’t want to hear: the Cuban regime, led by Fidel and Raúl Castro, was a key ally in trafficking cocaine to the United States in the 1980s.

This truth, revealed exclusively by Martí Noticias, shatters the image of Cuba as a supposed revolutionary model and exposes the corruption and cynicism of a government that conservatives have always denounced.

While progressives in the U.S. and Europe were busy praising Castro, this regime was helping flood the streets with drugs, lining their pockets and betraying their own people.

Lehder is direct in pointing out the culprits. In his memoirs and interviews, he states:

I met with Raúl Castro and Colonel Antonio de la Guardia to negotiate the logistics of these operations.

He details how Cuba opened its doors to the Medellín Cartel, setting up airstrips in Cayo Largo and charging for every kilo of cocaine that passed through the island. And he leaves no doubt about who was in charge:

Fidel Castro had to know; he was the orchestra conductor.

This isn’t gossip; it’s the testimony of a drug trafficker who lived the business from the inside and now exposes the hypocrisy of the Castros.

For Republicans, this comes as no surprise. We’ve always seen the Cuban regime as a nest of opportunists who crush their people while engaging in dirty business. While the left romanticizes Fidel and Raúl, Lehder reveals the reality:

I was allowed to use facilities in Cayo Largo, where airstrips were set up and a payment was agreed upon for each kilo of cocaine transported.

That drug made its way to the streets, killing young people, all under a government that progressives defended as a «victim» of imperialism. What irony.

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Reports: Castro Regime Propagandist Living in Florida Thanks to Biden Parole Program

Narciso Amador Fernández Ramírez, a known propagandist of Cuba’s communist Castro regime, is allegedly living in the United States thanks to the Biden-era “Humanitarian Parole” program, Cuban-American journalist Mario Pentón reported on Thursday.

The outlet Cubanet described Fernández Ramírez, 65, as a former deputy director of Vanguardia, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in the central province of Villa Clara, who also served as columnist for the state propaganda outlet Cubahora. 

The communist propagandist is known in Cuba for vehemently insulting the Cuban diaspora in the United States, branding its members as “rats,” gusanos (“maggots”), and “mercenaries.”

Most notably, Fernández Ramírez appears listed as the author of two pieces published on the official website of late murderous dictator Fidel Castro. One such piece, dated 2019, in which Fernández Ramírez is listed as an author refers to the veterans of the Bay of Pigs liberation attempt as “rats.” In another piece, dated 2017, Fernández Ramírez praised late murderous communist dictator Fidel Castro and claimed that Castro is “seated, vigilant, next to [Cuban founding Father Jose] Martí, in the sacred Olympus of the heroes of the Homeland.”

Pentón reported that Fernández Ramírez has resided in Homestead, Florida, since March 2024 after he became a beneficiary of “humanitarian parole,” a now-extinct and fraud-riddled program launched in 2023 by the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden that allowed up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitiaians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans per month to request entry to the United States by means of a “sponsor,” granting them legal stay and work permits for a period of “up to two years.”

“He is waiting for a green card to apply for benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. He, who was the most unconditional communist in Villa Clara, is now enjoying his old age in the country he despised so much,” a source told Pentón on condition of anonymity.

According to Pentón, Fernández Ramírez presently lives in Homestead with his wife Elizabeth Leal and their daughter, who already resided in the United States.

“A simple Google search was enough to know that this man was a propagandist for the Communist Party of Cuba. That makes him ineligible for immigration benefits,” Florida-based immigration attorney Ismael Labrador told Pentón.

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Sweden leads the offensive in the EU to curb financial support for the Cuban Regime.

The Swedish Government’s has taken the decision to review the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with the Cuban regime and cut funding to Havana.

The Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) between the European Union (EU) and Cuba was signed in 2016 and aimed to normalize and strengthen diplomatic and economic relations between the two parties. Its main objectives were to promote dialogue on political issues, human rights, and economic development while enhancing cooperation in areas like trade, investment, sustainable development, and governance.

However, Sweden insists that it is not a good idea to have European funds diverted to support a regime that tramples on human rights.

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LA Mayor Karen Bass’ past in communist Cuba revealed… as insiders say her political career is ‘over’

She rose from being a doctor’s assistant to running one of the largest cities in America. 

But today, embattled Karen Bass, 71, is a lightning rod for anger over her handling of historic wildfires that turned huge swaths of Los Angeles into a charred hellscape.

And now her alleged missteps have imperiled her political career and further damaged her crumbling reputation with millions of Angelenos. 

Last night, in yet another on-air embarrassment, she was taken to task in front of millions by none other than President Trump. 

He admonished her for her poor handling of the fires disaster, telling her to use her power appropriately to get people the help they need.  

So far, 27 victims are known to have perished in the fires, fanned by dangerous Santa Ana winds, as authorities continue to sift through mile after mile of horrific devastation searching for human remains.

‘I don’t think she’ll ever be reelected… I think her political career is over,’ former LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley tells DailyMail.com of the city’s 43rd mayor.

‘The perception of her from residents at this point is such that she can no longer effectively lead the city of Los Angeles. She’s lost the public’s trust and importantly, their respect.’

Cooley, who served as DA from 2000 to 2012, states that there is an understandable wave of sentiment to have Bass ejected from the Mayor’s office but that such a move would be an uphill battle.

He added there was already a wave of city-wide antipathy towards Bass before the historic fires which he blames on her decision to prioritize DEI issues rather than focusing on hiring qualified candidates to key departments.

Moreover, he adds that Bass’ focus on her two signature issues – keeping LA a sanctuary city and the ceaseless homeless crisis – have bee a major detriment to the city and its residents.

‘She’s operating against the law when it comes to sanctuary cities, and the other issues of homelessness – she has not accomplished her goals, and it has been a failure,’ said Cooley.

Before becoming Madam Mayor, Bass served six terms as a Democrat in Congress and was a potential running mate in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for president. She entered Congress in 2010 and was chair of Congressional Black Caucus.

Meanwhile, the current wildfire disaster is only the latest controversy to damage Bass.

She praised Fidel Castro and had close associations with Cuba in her youth, traveling to the country in 1973 with an organization called the Venceremos Brigade and seeing the communist leader speak.

In 2016, when Castro died, she referred to him as ‘commandante en jefe’ (commander-in-chief) saying his passing was a ‘great loss to the people of Cuba.’ She also reportedly gave a eulogy for a senior member of the Communist Party USA.

‘And now you have the fires that destroyed (the city) and there is mismanagement. People feel that she let them down. To a certain extent, some people feel the city was set up for this disaster.’

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Exit stage left: Biden’s curious Cuba move

President Joe Biden’s January 14 removal of sanctions imposed on Cuba during the first Trump administration could have been a major step toward restarting Barack Obama’s policy of engagement if Biden had done it in his first week as president instead of his last.

But done at the last minute, they are unlikely to have much impact. Two of the three will not even take effect until after Trump’s inauguration.

Senior members of Trump’s incoming foreign policy team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy for Latin America Maurico Claver-Carone, have criticized Biden’s actions, noting that they can be quickly and easily reversed by the incoming administration.

“No one should be under any illusion in terms of a change in Cuba policy,” Waltz said.

Nevertheless, within hours of the White House’s announcement, the Cuban government announced that, in response to appeals from the Vatican, it would gradually release 553 prisoners, many of whom were involved in the nationwide protests on July 11, 2021. The deal was the culmination of three years of Vatican shuttle diplomacy.

Biden’s package includes three measures: (1) It rescinded Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) 5, of June 16, 2017, the basic framework for Trump’s policy of regime change; (2) It suspends Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which gives U.S. citizens, including naturalized Cuban Americans, whose property was nationalized by Cuba’s revolutionary government the right to sue in U.S. Federal Court anyone making beneficial use of that property; and (3) It initiated removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of International Terrorism.

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Senate Intelligence Report Criticizes CIA’s Mishandling of ‘Havana Syndrome’ Cases

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report released Friday sharply criticized the CIA for its mishandling of the mysterious illness known as “Havana syndrome.” The report highlights major failures in the agency’s care for individuals affected by the condition. 

The committee’s findings point to problems like delays in care, unclear policies, and a lack of preparation for future incidents. The report outlines 11 key recommendations aimed at fixing these issues and ensuring better care for CIA employees who report such health concerns.

What Is Havana Syndrome?

Havana syndrome first emerged in late 2016 when U.S. diplomats in Havana, Cuba, began experiencing strange symptoms that seemed similar to brain injuries, like dizziness, headaches, and trouble with memory and concentration. 

Since then, cases have been reported in other parts of the world, including Colombia, Austria, and the U.S., affecting diplomats, spies and soldiers. Last year, around 1,500 cases had been reported across 96 countries. 

While there’s been a lot of speculation that this could be the result of a targeted attack using some new weapon, U.S. intelligence has found no evidence linking it to a deliberate strike. The cause of the illness is still unclear, and researchers are still working to understand both what’s causing the symptoms and how to treat them.

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Communism Fumbles Again: Cuba Importing Resource It Was Once Famed For Producing

It’s undeniably one of economist Milton Friedman’s most famous sayings about the failures of central planning: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

This was, of course, a stroke of hyperbole. Not even a billion Keynesian ditch-diggers could empty the Sahara.

However, we have seen the closest thing to Friedman’s vision coming true: In Cuba, an island practically made of sugarcane, the communist government now needs to import sugar.

It’s bad enough that, according to CiberCuba — an expatriate-run outlet which is critical of the government — a pound of sugar now costs 600 pesos on the island, or about $25 USD.

“Despite efforts to revive the sugar industry, the sector continues to face serious challenges, including failures in the last harvest,” CiberCuba reported earlier this month.

“During the session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recalled when Raúl Castro remarked that ‘it would be an embarrassment to have to import sugar.’ He then stated, ‘and well, we are experiencing that embarrassment because we are importing sugar.’”

Cruz “emphasized that the crisis in the sector is such that the country has also stopped exporting sugar, which was a key component of the economy,” according to CiberCuba.

And it’s not just dissident outlets like CiberCuba that are reporting on the failures of Cuba’s sugar industry, either. Earlier this year, the BBC’s Cuba correspondent, Will Grant, filed a piece about the failures of the system.

Shocker of shockers, you know what’s to blame? Communism!

“Cutting cane is all Miguel Guzmán has ever known. He comes from a family of farm hands and started the tough, thankless work as a teenager,” the May piece began. “For hundreds of years, sugar was the mainstay of the Cuban economy. It was not just the island’s main export but also the cornerstone of another national industry, rum.”

“Today, though, he readily admits he has never seen the sugar industry as broken and depressed as it is now – not even when the Soviet Union’s lucrative sugar quotas dried up after the Cold War,” Grant noted. “Spiraling inflation, shortages of basic goods and the decades-long US economic embargo have made for a dire economic outlook across the board in Cuba. But things are particularly bleak in the sugar trade.”

“There’s not enough trucks and the fuel shortages mean sometimes several days pass before we can work,” Guzmán said under a “tiny patch of shade” while he waited for Soviet-era trucks to arrive.

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Operation Northwoods

Operation Northwoods was a covert plan proposed in 1962 by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operation was intended to create a series of false-flag events to justify military intervention in Cuba. It was conceived during a period of heightened tension between the United States and Cuba, following the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s rise to power. The primary goal of Operation Northwoods was to fabricate acts of terrorism and aggression that could be attributed to the Cuban government, thereby providing the U.S. government with a pretext for invading the island and ousting Castro.

The plan included various possible scenarios, such as staging attacks on American military installations in Guantanamo Bay, sinking boats carrying Cuban refugees, and orchestrating fake hijackings of civilian airliners. These incidents were to be designed in such a way that they would appear to be carried out by Cuban operatives. The hope was that these provocations would lead the American public and international community to support military action against Cuba. The operation’s proposals went as far as considering the possible loss of American lives, which would have been falsely blamed on the Cuban government to rally support for intervention.

Operation Northwoods was never approved, and President John F. Kennedy ultimately rejected the plan. The proposal was part of a broader effort by the U.S. government during the Cold War to contain the spread of communism, particularly in Latin America. This rejection is often viewed as a critical moment in Kennedy’s presidency, demonstrating his reluctance to escalate military conflict in Cuba, especially in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion the previous year.

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Ex-diplomat’s Cuban Espionage Case Isn’t the Biggest U.S. “Spyfail”

Mainstream media outlets reacted with astonishment when they reported earlier this year that a former American diplomat had confessed to being a Cuban spy for more than four decades.

It was indeed shocking when Victor Manuel Rocha, U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, suddenly came clean to FBI investigators that he had been covertly gathering intelligence for the island since the early 1980s.

Fewer than six months after his arrest in December, Rocha was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison following a plea deal where he admitted to conspiring to act as an illegal foreign agent to defraud the United States.

According to court documents, the Bogotá-born envoy was first recruited by Cuba’s main state intelligence agency, the Intelligence Directorate or Dirección General de Inteligencia (DGI), as a student at Yale University in 1973.

Shortly after graduating, Rocha reportedly traveled to Chile around the time the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ousted the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and was radicalized by the experience.

Cuba’s KGB-trained intelligence service has long enjoyed an esteemed reputation as one of the best in the world, famously having thwarted hundreds of attempts on the life of Fidel Castro by the CIA. The DGI has also become known for its effective operations abroad, such as the case of double agent Ana Montes who penetrated the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as an analyst for 17 years.

With the Rocha case closed within a few short months, it is unclear precisely what actions he took while in diplomatic service that could have benefited Havana. If true, not only did he have privileged access to classified information but the ability to directly impact U.S. diplomacy with tradecraft. However, many have noted that, while serving as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Rocha made a name for himself during the Andean nation’s 2002 election when he publicly threatened the withdrawal of U.S. aid if then-underdog candidate Evo Morales were to win the presidency.

In hindsight, what was perceived as a controversial gaffe at the time, which inadvertently increased support for Morales, could have been deliberate if Rocha was truly an infiltrator

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