ISSUE 01 - DECEMBER 2019 -250 COPIES
More Cubans are being deported under the Trump administration
About 5,000 Cubans
have received deportation orders since the new U.S.-Cuba agreement, and 1,300
of them have been deported, according to ICE data.
Oct. 11, 2019, 11:05 AM EDT
By Associated Press
MIAMI —
After seeking asylum in the United States
at the Mexican border, Pablo Sánchez was placed in a detention center and is
now facing what has become an increasingly common scenario under President
Donald Trump: deportation to Cuba.
Since the end of the Obama administration, the number
of Cubans deported from the U.S.
has increased more than tenfold to more than 800 in the past year as the Trump
administration enforces a new policy inked just days before it took over. It is
also imposing its own sharp limits on who is eligible for asylum. That’s an
unwelcome development for growing numbers of asylum-seeking Cubans who had long
benefited from a generous U.S.
approach and their government’s unwillingness to take its people back.
For decades, Cubans fleeing the communist-governed
island had for the most part enjoyed unique privileges. Even after the cold war
ended, they were given a certain path to legal residence once they touched U.S.
soil through the policy known as “wet foot, dry foot.”
But an agreement reached during the final days of the
Obama administration ended that and required Cuba to take back citizens who
receive deportation orders going forward and consider on a case-by-case basis
the return of the thousands of other Cubans who had received such orders over
the decades but remained in the U.S. because their country wouldn’t take them
back.
Since Trump took office, more Cubans arriving at the
U.S.-Mexico border have encountered new limits, including a policy introduced
last month that denies protection to asylum seekers who have passed through
another country before reaching Mexico
and have not sought asylum there.
Despite the new agreement, Cuba
remains reluctant to take its people back, and is one of 10 countries that the U.S.
government labels “recalcitrant.” That makes it difficult for the
administration to enforce its aggressive measures against asylum — and leaves
many Cubans in limbo.
Many, like Sánchez, are baffled by their predicament.
Sánchez is married to Barbara Rodríguez, a naturalized
U.S. citizen who lives in Miami, but was unable to apply for a visa in Cuba to
join his wife in the U.S. because the Trump administration pulled most of its
embassy staff out, outsourcing family-related visa petitions to consular
services in Colombia or Guyana. Rodríguez claims Sánchez was facing increasing
political persecution after having brushes with local authorities over such
episodes as damaging a referendum ballot as a sign of protest.
The couple agreed he had to get out of Cuba,
saying they had learned he was being investigated and could face jail time.
Feeling they had no time to waste — and with no visa services available in Cuba
— Sánchez traveled to Nicaragua
and through Mexico
to seek asylum in the U.S.,
at a port of entry where authorities detained him and later sent him to
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for long-term custody.
“This is plain cruel, despite arriving in this country
and demonstrating that you are persecuted and that you have credible fear.
After all, this gets thrown away,” said his wife, Rodríguez, who talks to
Sánchez on the phone daily. “The worse thing is that now I feel all that is
left for him is deportation.”
It is unclear how the Cuban government treats people
who are deported from the U.S.,
but rights advocates and lawyers say they could face retaliation for claiming
asylum, especially those who claimed they were being persecuted. By contrast,
deportees to Mexico
and Central American countries typically get a warm welcome home.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla told
The Associated Press the increase in deportations stems from the country
“diligently fulfilling its commitments” outlined in the accord with the Obama
administration, but at the same time he blasted the U.S.
for cutting consular services in Havana.
“It is a shame to politicize the human bond between
people and between nations,” he said.
A chartered U.S.
government flight landed in Havana
on Sept. 27 with 96 Cubans aboard, and another with 120 arrived Aug. 30. U.S.
officials say Cuba’s
acceptance of this limited number of deportees is a small step, but they
believe the nation is still largely unwilling to work with the U.S.
on repatriations. They note 39,243 Cubans living in the U.S.
with deportation orders.
Barbara Rodriguez and her son, Nolan
Aragon, 9, in Hialeah, Fla. on Aug.
6, 2019. Rodriguez is holding a wedding
photograph of her and her husband, Pablo Sanchez, who is currently in detention
in the U.S. and is now facing deportation to Cuba.Brynn Anderson / AP file
“Cuba
is kind of a thorn in their side in this area,” said Julia Gelatt, senior
policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Cuba
remains on a U.S.
government list of “recalcitrant” nations with nine other countries: China,
Vietnam, Iran,
Bhutan, Cambodia,
Eritrea, Hong
Kong, Laos
and Pakistan.
About 21,000 Cubans have presented themselves to
officials at U.S.-Mexico crossings since last October; triple the number seen
the previous 12 months, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
statistics.
Thousands more Cubans have been stranded in northern Mexico
cities on wait lists to request asylum and through a program that forces
migrants to wait south of the border for their asylum cases to play out.
Of the Cubans who have been allowed into the U.S.,
many have been released from custody while they await court dates for their
asylum cases, but hundreds have been turned over to ICE custody.
About 5,000 Cubans have received deportation orders
since the new U.S.-Cuba agreement, and 1,300 of them have been deported,
according to ICE data.
Luis Dayan Palmero left Cuba
in April, traveling from Guyana
to Brazil and Colombia,
before passing through Central America and arriving in
northern Mexico
in August.
He crossed the Rio Grande
and surrendered to Border Patrol agents, who sent him to Matamoros,
Mexico. He now has a U.S.
court appearing set this month.
“I plan to ask for asylum, and
whatever happens is what God wants,” Palmero said.
He fled Castro on a cargo ship and became a political player in Miami’s Cuban community
Julio Balsera, who fought the Castro regime and had to take refuge in Caracas before making his way to Miami, died Tuesday night after battling leukemia.Balsera, who was 80, “died quietly surrounded by his family,” said his son, Freddy Balsera, a Coral Gables Democratic political consultant.
The son of Spaniards who immigrated to Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century, Balsera was born in Havana on April 12, 1939. When he was identified as an anti-Castro activist in 1960, he escaped the island hidden inside the kitchen cabinets of a cargo ship bound for Caracas. In 1963, he arrived in Miami and remained here for the rest of his life.
Julio Balsera with his
wife, Esther. In 1967, Balsera, who emigrated from Cuba in the 1960s, founded J. Balsera School Bus
Service, the first private company that offered school transportation in Miami. Courtesy/Balsera
Communications
Go to Pag # 9
==============================
12 Oct 19 ~By Humberto Fontova
“(In Aug. 2015) an unmarked U.S. government plane landed at an airstrip in Havana, carrying…John Brennan, the director of the C.I.A. Brennan was there to meet with Alejandro Castro-Espin (Raul Castro’s son, the KGB-trained head of Cuba’s counterintelligence service, who authored a book titled “U.S.-Empire of Terror”) and discuss increasing intelligence cooperation between the two countries. Brennan considered Cuba’s spy agencies the most capable in Latin America, and hoped to work with them against drug cartels and terrorist networks.” Brennan definitely had a point. Thanks to the CIA’s historic penchant for hiring and promoting people like John Brennan, Castro’s DGI and DI has historically run rings around the CIA, while guffawing.
Presumably the head of the CIA at the time, John Brennan, who had been a close national security advisor to Barack Obama since his 2008 campaign, signed-off on (and maybe even encouraged) Obama’s decision to whitewash and legitimize the Castro-Family-Crime-Syndicate. Never mind that this whitewash required taking one of modern history’s most infamous liars at his word. In February 2015, Colombian authorities found 99 missile heads, 100 tons of gunpowder, 2.6 million detonators, and over 3,000 artillery shells hidden under rice sacks in a ship bound from Red China to Cuba that docked in the port of Cartagena, Colombia. Most Cuba-watchers immediately guessed what was up. And crackerjack Colombian (NOT CNN or New York Times, heaven forbid!) reporters quickly investigated and exposed the Castro-regime’s terror-sponsoring scheme. “Panamanian authorities on Saturday (May, 18, 2019) intercepted 46 suitcases containing an estimated $90 million in illegal drugs on a cargo ship that arrived from a Cuban port and was en route to Istanbul, Turkey. The suitcases contained 1,517 packages of drugs hidden in a container declared as containing charcoal.” Needless to add: no mainstream U.S. media portal (not even Fox!) bothered reporting on this blockbuster embarrassment to the Obama/Brennan “national security” team.
Comment:
I think Brennan is schiitting razor blades right now because investigators from the DOJ are getting close to this closet communist. It's apparent by his tirades against the President and the GOP each time he appears on CNN. I expect that he will do many more interviews where he calls Trump a clear and present danger to our country, of course the clear and present danger is to this traitor.
See: https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy....sm-and-sharia/
Let's assume that everything stated by Mr. Fontova is true. The question for all of us should be - Who IS John Brennan and how did he get appointed to head the CIA?
The guy really seems to be an avowed Leftist. How does he get past some sort of scrutiny or oversight process with his record? Unbelievable.
No doubt, you sometimes have to make a deal with the Devil but far too often, the CIA's "intelligence" seems to have been WAY off the mark - so much so that it almost seems to have been "Fake" intelligence. How could the CIA have been "fooled" into thinking that Castro and Che Guevara were harmless revolutionaries who would bring democracy to Cuba?
Did the CIA really know that Saddam had WMDs? If so, where are those weapons? Were the weapons all shepherded out of Iraq into Syria?
How many times did the CIA have bin Laden pinpointed but were unable to persuade the President to apply the death blow?
Has the CIA been fooled for decades into believing that Pakistan was really helping in our efforts to destroy the Taliban and al Qaeda?
Why did the CIA involve the Five Eyes nations in spying on Trump? How could the CIA possibly think that Trump could have been a Russian agent?
How and why does a former CIA head get a gig on CNN and why? Who could possibly believe anything this man has to say?
GO TO PAG # 9
What 'Marielitos' Say About the Impact of Immigration (US News & World Report)
Director of Migration,
Displacement, and Humanitarian Policy and Senior Fellow
April 19, 2019
U.S. President Donald Trump's consideration of sending immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities represented by Democrats is more than possible retaliation against his political opponents. It also evokes an event nearly 40 years ago that to this day shapes the partisan debates in the United States and other countries about the impact of immigration.
That debate focuses on whether a large influx of low-skilled immigrants hurts native workers. That answer is complicated and depends upon how studies are framed, according to economists and research conducted around the world. Some economists say low-skilled immigrants from poor countries can hurt low-skilled native workers, while others say such an influx can bolster a local economy.
The Mariel boatlift in 1980 is highly instructive about the impact low-skilled immigrants have on native workers, being the focus of numerous studies. The boatlift was a mass migration of Cubans into the U.S. that began on April 20 of that year and lasted through October, and was allowed by then-President Fidel Castro after a severe downturn in Cuba's economy.
In all, an estimated 125,000 people traveled from Cuba to the U.S. and after reports emerged that some of the migrants had been released from Cuban jails, a heated public debate began in America about the merits of allowing large immigrant populations. A sizable portion of those Cubans, called "Marielitos," permanently settled in the Miami area, says economist Michael Clemens, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington.
"Everyone assumed at the time the flood (of immigrants) would have to (adversely) influence the labor market," Clemens says. But that didn't happen, Clemens says, who points to research published in 1990 by economist David Card of the University of California-Berkeley as the lasting standard that examines immigration's impact on a local economy.
Card's study found no changes in wage or employment trends between Miami and other similar-sized U.S. cities in his study. Social scientists have since looked at several factors that may explain Card's findings, and a 2017 study by Harvard economist George Borjas challenged the 1990 research by asserting that low-skilled immigrants do damage the employment prospects for native workers.
But the Borjas study is flawed, Clemens says. In a separate 2017 study that Clemens co-authored with Jennifer Hunt, Clemens says Borjas' study ignored female and Hispanic workers and people who had high school diplomas Additionally, Borjas looked only at male workers aged 25-55, and placed an overly representative weight on African-American workers compared to the overall Miami labor market.
However, Borjas forcefully contested Clemens and Hunt by presenting data in 2017 that showed that even removing African-American workers from his analysis did not alter his findings. "In short, using the increase in the relative size of Miami's black workforce after 1980 to dismiss my Mariel evidence performs the job of obfuscating the debate further, but does little to clarify," Borjas wrote.
The flaw in the argument that an influx of workers will adversely affect native workers is in looking at people as if they are bananas, Clemens says. When the supply of bananas increases, the value of each individual banana falls. That isn't the case with humans, Clemens says, whose research shows that as more people arrive in a local economy, demand for goods and services such as housing and food also increases.
What should policymakers keep in mind when crafting laws to handle immigration? Clemens says it's simple: Countries need to have clear, consistent lawful channels for migration.
"When people have legal status, they make larger financial contributions to society," Clemens says. "It's more beneficial to the country of origin. It's also beneficial to the home country, where people can send remittances. Plus, you're taking money away from smugglers."
Source Location
=====================================
Is Trump Losing The Silent War For Latin America?
OilPrice.com
Oilprice.comOctober 27, 2019
It has only recently
become clear to analysts in the United States
that Russia is
playing a big role in Latin America to destabilize Washington’s
alliance system and threaten US interests. Despite the costs involved in
sustaining Cuba,
Venezuela and Nicaragua,
Russia’s three
main “proxies” in Latin America, President Vladimir
Putin—like his Soviet predecessors—seems willing to bear those expenditures.
The benefits to Moscow
come in other forms. For instance, while Moscow
has stepped away from pressing Caracas
to pay its debts, Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft has been granted ever
greater access to Venezuela’s
oil and natural gas sector. In exchange for a debt write-off Venezuelan
state-run oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) reportedly could be handed
over entirely to Rosneft.
In addition, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has characterized Venezuela—as
well as Cuba
and Latin America more generally—as poster children of
sorts for his regular fulminations against Washington’s
supposed efforts to destabilize the global order. Moreover,
there is ample evidence of Moscow
at least exploring the idea, if not yet openly intending, to establish a naval
and/or airbase in Venezuela,
on the island of La
Orchila. In late 2018, Venezuela
announced that Russia
is obtaining a long-term base on the island
of La Orchila that had been offered
to Moscow a decade earlier by Hugo
Chavez. The island is some 160 miles from Caracas
and is home to a Venezuelan airfield and navy base.
In this context,
statements last March by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the Russian Armed
Forces are now capable of remote combat missions around the world take on a
more sinister potential. And subsequent developments only underscore this
point.
Specifically, on August
15, the Russian and Venezuelan defense ministers signed an agreement
allowing for mutual warship visits. Days later, military expert Vladimir
Bogatyrev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Russian frigates and
submarines had all fired Kalibr cruise missiles at “terrorists” in Syria
from a distance of over 200 kilometers and pointedly indicated that these ships
could perform such missions not only in the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans but also in the Caribbean Sea. Moreover,
Bogatyrev reiterated what has become a standard argument of the Russian
government since the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms control
regime collapsed due to Moscow’s
violations of this 1987 treaty. Namely, according to Bogatryev, “Russia
has legal grounds, in response to the emergence of new weapons from the US
after leaving the INF Treaty, to deploy its submarines and ships with medium-
and shorter-range missiles in relative proximity to US borders.” He also
extolled Venezuela’s
seaports, where Russian ships and submarines can “regularly enter, replenish
supplies, and then perform combat missions off the coast of North
America”.
Furthermore, in July,
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that the Russian
troops who were previously sent to Venezuela
had fulfilled their mission and that Moscow
was, therefore, ready to send more troops on new missions. Meanwhile, it also
appears that Rosneft has brought Russian paramilitary forces to Venezuela
to protect its offices, personnel and installations. Apparently, they may also
be there to protect the Maduro government against popular unrest.
Moscow’s military
ambitions in Latin America do not end there: Maduro, as many Western analysts
and Latin American governments, recognize, has been stirring up trouble with the
governments of Ecuador and Colombia, just as his predecessor Hugo Chavez
did with Moscow’s assistance a decade ago. Russia
has also established a meaningful military presence in Nicaragua,
which has notably signed a naval agreement with Russia
to provide port access and permission to operate part of Russia’s
global satellite system from its territory. Taken together, these steps appear
to form at least the rudiments of a network to monitor all US
naval operations in the Caribbean and South
Atlantic, which would then be under threat from military bases in Venezuela
and potentially Nicaragua.
The
C"I"A Doesn't Need a Watchdog; It Needs a Seeing-Eye Dog
In our anti-talent, pro-conformity times, stupidity leading to FUBAR is inevitably spun as devious intent. But how can there exist "evil geniuses," when genius is despised, neglected, and not promoted? The rulers, all of whose wealth is created by humiliating High IQs into meekly letting the rich get richer off them (through corporate patents, the greatest larceny in history) push the illusion that anyone who rises to a position of power must be among the most capable. This leads to the inevitable failures of these ambitious imbeciles, these no-talent brown-noses who win the silly game, being classified as intentional.
In our anti-talent, pro-conformity times, stupidity leading to FUBAR is inevitably spun as devious intent. But how can there exist "evil geniuses," when genius is despised, neglected, and not promoted? The rulers, all of whose wealth is created by humiliating High IQs into meekly letting the rich get richer off them (through corporate patents, the greatest larceny in history) push the illusion that anyone who rises to a position of power must be among the most capable. This leads to the inevitable failures of these ambitious imbeciles, these no-talent brown-noses who win the silly game, being classified as intentional.
FROM PAG #3
Julio Balsera, who fought the Castro regime and had to take refuge in Caracas before making his way to Miami, died Tuesday night after battling leukemia.
Balsera, who was 80, “died quietly surrounded by his family,” said his son, Freddy Balsera, a Coral Gables Democratic political consultant.
The son of Spaniards who immigrated to Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century, Balsera was born in Havana on April 12, 1939. When he was identified as an anti-Castro activist in 1960, he escaped the island hidden inside the kitchen cabinets of a cargo ship bound for Caracas. In 1963, he arrived in Miami and remained here for the rest of his life.
In 1967, Balsera
founded J. Balsera School Bus Service, the first private company that offered
school transportation in Miami, his family said. A station wagon adapted with wooden benches to
transport the children became the company’s first vehicle. Over the next 40
years, Balsera buses transported thousands of local schoolchildren.
The buses also became an entry point into the growing Cuban-American community, with Balsera turning those connections into his passion for politics.
“The parents of the children that rode in my vehicles did not know the candidates that were running, but they knew me and trusted me when I recommended who to vote for,” said Balsera, according to a family statement.
Balsera played an active role in the mayoral campaigns of Maurice Ferré (Miami) and Steve Clark (Dade County), and in the congressional campaigns of Reps. Claude Pepper and Dante Fascell, according to his family. He allowed political campaigns to use his buses to mobilize voters.
Balsera was also a founding member of the Cuban American National Foundation, which Jorge Mas Canosa and a handful of wealthy exiles formed to lobby U.S. politicians on issues related to Cuba, particularly against Fidel Castro and Cuba’s Communist Party.
During the Mariel exodus in 1980, in which tens of thousands of Cubans arrived in Florida and often had no means of transportation, Balsera lent his buses to the cause.
“For months, Balsera and his team left every day for Key West after finishing their school routes in the afternoon to find newcomers and bring them to Miami during the night,” his family said in a statement.
Balsera sold his company after 40 years and dedicated himself to civic life.
In 2011, Balsera led the Hispanic effort to dismiss then-Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez for raising taxes and increasing his office salary in the midst of the recession. Working with volunteers from an office in Little Havana, Balsera and his wife collected more than 100,000 signatures to call for the recall election. It was held on March 15, 2011, with more than 88 percent voting to recall Alvarez.
In 1983, the Miami Herald recognized Balsera’s activism, publishing a story with the headline, “If Flagami were a city, Julio Balsera would be its mayor.” Flagami is the neighborhood where Balsera lived until he died.
Balsera is survived by his wife, Esther, their children Juliette, Freddy and Esther Maria, and seven grandchildren.
A visitation will be at 6 p.m. Friday at Rivero Westchester Knight Funeral Home, 8200 Bird Road. A Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Dominic Catholic Church, at 5909 NW Seventh St.
Julio Balsera with his
son Freddy Balsera, a Coral Gables Democratic political consultant. Twitter/Freddy
Balsera
Cold War Cuban Spies in the USA in the 1980s – The Case of Ana Montes
From the 1980s American Ana Montes supplied the Communist Cuban government with very valuable information. During the 1980s she helped Cuba support communist insurgencies in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and she continued to help Fidel Castro’s Cuba even after the end of the Cold War. Scott Rose explains.You can read past articles in the series about spies who shared American atomic secrets with the Soviet Union (read more here), the 1950s “Red Scare” (read more here), and the American who supplied the Soviets with secrets in the 1980s (read more here).
Throughout the Cold War and in the years afterward, the United States has had to combat spies who were either giving or selling information to America’s enemies. The majority of the cases involved individuals who were aiding the Soviet Union, as the Soviets had a powerful and proven espionage network around the world. Most observers probably wouldn’t think of the small Caribbean nation of Cuba as a country capable of carrying out successful spying operations against the U.S. However, the Cuban intelligence services were vastly underestimated, and they were able to acquire top-secret information from an American mole named Ana Montes for nearly two decades.
The Makings of a Spy
Ana Montes was one of four children born to U.S. Army doctor Alberto Montes and his wife, Emilia. The family moved several times during Ana’s early years before settling in Maryland, where Alberto became a well-regarded psychiatrist. While Dr. Montes undoubtedly helped many people, he was at times cruel to his children, losing his temper and beating them with a belt. This abuse had emotional effects on Ana, as she became distant and aloof at a young age. Years later, her sister, who was only a year older, would remark that she never really knew or felt very close to Ana. One of the effects of having an authoritarian father was that she seemed to gravitate toward those who were less powerful, or “underdogs.” The parents would divorce while Ana was in her teens.
In spite of her turbulent home life, Montes was an excellent student. During her high school years, she was viewed by her peers as extremely intelligent and perpetually serious, but this paid off as she graduated near the top of her class, with a 3.9 grade point average. She would move on to the University of Virginia, where her academic success continued. While at Virginia, she got to participate in a study-abroad program in Spain for a year.
It was during her time in Spain that Montes began to harbor anti-U.S. sentiments. She began a relationship with a fellow student in Spain, a young Marxist from Argentina. This was her first real boyfriend, and to a certain extent, she fell under his leftist spell. He often told her of American support for authoritarian governments in Latin America, such as those of Somoza in Nicaragua and Pinochet in Chile. Together they attended anti-American rallies, and in time she came to genuinely buy into her boyfriend’s theories and adopt them as her own. Eventually she returned to Virginia, earning a degree in foreign affairs in 1979.
GO TO PAGE # 4
FACT: Cuba Hosted Russian Spy Planes to Use Against America
A forgotten tale of the cold war.
On December 10, 2018, two Russian Tu-160 supersonic bombers with huge condor-like swing-wings swooped down to land at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela. Over the next few days the huge, pointy-nosed bombers flew two ten-hour patrols over the Caribbean, at times escorted by Venezuelan F-16 and Su-30MK2 multirole jets, then flew back to Russia on Dec. 14. Russian media reported that Moscow and Caracas were discussing opening a permanent base on La Orchila island, expanding on facilities already present.
As discussed in this article by Michael Peck, the expense and escalatory political risks for the parties involved make such a move far from assured. In fact, the provocation itself may be more valuable than actually building such a bomber base.
Both Russia and the United States already routinely deploy bombers and spy planes on patrols skirting each other’s airspace for both political and military reasons. For example, Blackjack bombers had previously visited Caracas in 2008 and 2013, on the latter occasion conveying Moscow’s defiance of criticism of the Russo-Georgian War. In 2008-09, the Russian military also loudly aired the idea of basing nuclear bombers in Cuba or Venezuela.
However, the presence of Russian bombers in the Caribbean has a nearly fifty-year-old precedent, as detailed in this article by Ruben Urribarres and later expanded upon in a blog by Miguel Vargas-Caba.
While building up the Soviet garrison that would trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Moscow struggled to find a means to quickly transport high-ranking personnel to the island nation. Its long-range Tu-114 airliners, a civilian version of the Tu-95 “Bear” strategic bomber, needed to layover in Africa, but Washington pressured the governments of Guinea, Senegal and Algeria to deny access to the Tu-114s after only a handful of flights.
Thus Soviet engineers modified three special Tu-114D planes by swapping out 60 percent of the seating for fifteen extra fuel tanks, boosting range for an eighteen-hour-long Moscow-Havana connection, with a layover in Murmansk. The trans-Atlantic flights crossing were difficult: headwinds from the Jetstream could reach nearly 200 miles per hour, adding hours of flight time and gas consumption.
Though Moscow agreed to withdraw nuclear-armed forces from Cuba, the island remained an important Soviet sally on the doorstep of its chief international adversary. Between May 18 and 21, 1970 three pairs of Tu-95s of the 392nd Long-Range Reconnaissance Regiment flew from the Arctic Kola peninsula down to San Antonio airport near Havana. They accompanied a Soviet Navy task force dispatched to the Caribbean to retaliate against increased U.S. Navy patrols.
For the next eleven years, Tu-95RTs or (Bear-D) regularly flew thirty to forty patrols from Cuba a year across the Eastern Seaboard, shadowing the movements of U.S. carriers. Over that time one Bear vanished without a trace in transit, and another experienced a non-fatal landing accident.
GO TO PAGE # 7
FROM PAGE Pag #2
Montes’ brother and older sister both worked for the FBI, and after
graduating, she took a job as a typist at the Department of Justice. At night,
she attended graduate school at Johns
Hopkins University,
and eventually she obtained her masters’ degree in Advanced Foreign Studies.
During her time at Johns Hopkins, one of the main topics of discussion was the
civil war in Nicaragua.
Montes detested the fact the United States
was sending aid to the Contra forces that were fighting against Nicaragua’s
socialist Sandinista government. She performed well at the Department of
Justice, and in 1984 she received a high-level security clearance, passing an
FBI background check in the process.While at Johns Hopkins, Cuban intelligence services identified Ana Montes as a potential spy. A former Cuban agent later stated that the Cubans have often looked to find American students with strong political leanings who appear destined for government jobs. Reportedly, one of Montes’ schoolmates at Hopkins was already in contact with the Cubans, and set up a dialogue with Ana. At first, Montes was asked to help the Cubans with small tasks, such as translations. However, the Cubans knew the passion Montes had for the Sandinistas, and when they asked her for American information about Nicaragua, they had pressed the right button. She dove in headfirst, and by the end of 1984, she had become a major Cuban asset.
No Turning Back
In early 1985, Montes made a secret trip to Cuba to receive intelligence training, and disguised herself by wearing a wig. The Cubans knew that they had an agent with star potential in Montes, and they went out of their way to make sure she got a favorable impression of Cuba and its government while she was there. They even introduced her to a young Cuban gentleman who showed her around the country’s cities, beaches, and countryside. During her training in Cuba she learned how to decipher coding and make information drops. They taught her how to pass a lie detector test if she came under any suspicion.
Ana’s Cuban handlers urged her to begin applying for government jobs that would give her more access to the most highly sensitive American intelligence. Not long after returning to Washington, she was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Cubans could not have been much happier. Other than the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) handles more classified data on foreign governments than any other sector of the American government. The DIA analyzes intelligence and informs American leaders, all the way up to the President, of the military capabilities and intentions of foreign governments, and most of the information is acquired from human spies. From the beginning of her time at the DIA, Montes misled her superiors and much of the government by making Cuban espionage threats seem minimal when they were actually very serious. She also downplayed Cuba’s role in the civil wars taking place in Nicaragua and El Salvador. In truth, the Cubans had thousands of military advisors on the ground in both countries.
Montes seemed to be the perfect employee, for both the United States and Cuba. At her DIA job, she displayed a steely efficiency, and was known for being unapproachable by her co-workers. The intelligence community tends to be very tight, but Montes remained a virtual loner while her superiors recognized her obvious intelligence. She could turn on the charm, but only when it was helpful for serving her purposes. At night, she worked at her other job, as a Cuban spy. Using a radio, she received numeric messages from Cuban intelligence, which she then decoded with Cuban decryption software on her personal computer. She sent information back in the same way, but Montes was too smart to bring classified papers home from the DIA. Instead, she was actually able to memorize the content of highly sensitive documents at work before translating it into numeric codes for the Cubans. Sometimes she would pass information to Cuban agents at crowded restaurants in Washington. All the while, the DIA considered Montes to be the ideal employee, and she received several performance-based promotions.
In time, Montes was named chief DIA analyst for El Salvador and Nicaragua, and at that point she started doing serious damage to American operations. In El Salvador, the American-backed government was fighting a civil war against Marxist rebels who were receiving support from Cuba and the Soviet Union. The United States supplied military equipment to the Salvadoran army, and covertly sent a Special Forces unit to help advise and train the government forces. In early 1987, the DIA sent Montes to El Salvador, where she visited the hidden Special Forces base. After she left El Salvador, Montes gave the location of the base to the Cubans. Shortly thereafter, Cuban-led Salvadoran guerrilla fighters attacked the base, and an American Green Beret was killed in the ensuing firefight. Amazingly, Montes eluded suspicion even though she was one of only a handful of people who had even known the base had existed.
Eventually, the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua ended, and American intelligence efforts in those countries were scaled back. Ana Montes was put in charge of political and military intelligence on Cuba, and her Cuban handlers couldn’t believe their luck. A Cuban spy actually being put in charge of analyzing the Pentagon’s intelligence on Cuba seemed almost too good to be true. She promptly gave the Cubans the names of four American spies in Cuba, and all four were arrested. Still, Montes was not considered as a source for the intelligence leaks. Her bosses at the DIA were dazzled by her knowledge of Cuban affairs, chalking it up to her tireless work ethic. They even nicknamed her “The Queen of Cuba,” never knowing just how fitting the moniker was. During the early years of the Bill Clinton Administration, Montes fed misinformation about Cuba all the way to the White House. She led the American government into believing Cuba’s posture toward the U.S. was purely defensive, and that the Castro regime was nothing more than a harmless annoyance.
In 1996, a DIA co-worker became suspicious of Montes, and reported concerns about her. However, these concerns couldn’t be substantiated, as they were based entirely on the co-worker’s “gut feeling.” Montes was questioned, but in short time, the situation blew over. The next year, she even received a Certificate of Distinction for her performance from George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. However, Ana was approaching mid-life and having thoughts of settling down to have a family. Her role as a spy had made it difficult for her to have relationships, but the Cubans had no intention of letting her retire. They sent her a Cuban lover, but after a few days Montes lost interest in the gentleman.
The Price of Spying
The FBI busted a Cuban spy ring called “Wasp” in Miami in 1998, and one of the arresting agents was Montes’ sister Lucy. Both Ana and the Cubans were horrified, and for several months, she heard nothing from her handlers. Worse, she became paranoid about getting caught, suffering through bouts of depression and panic. She started seeing a psychiatrist, although she couldn’t tell her doctor the true reason for her mental and emotional state. By the end of the year, the situation had died down and she was contacted by the Cubans once again. She even managed to receive a fellowship to the National Intelligence Council, and she was moved to CIA headquarters.
The FBI suspected there was an American government employee helping the Cubans, but the Bureau had little information to go on, other than suspecting the spy was using a Toshiba laptop. Eventually the FBI asked the DIA to look into the files of current and former employees. A DIA agent named Scott Carmichael led the investigation, and became convinced Montes was the spy. At first, the FBI rejected Carmichael’s theory, but in time it was decided to put Montes under surveillance, and she was observed making suspicious phone calls from pay phones. While examining her financial records, it was seen that she had bought a Toshiba laptop at a computer store in Virginia. The FBI obtained search authorization, and went inside Ana’s apartment one weekend while she was out of town. They found the laptop, and copied the hard drive. Later, they were able to sort through her purse while she was in a meeting at work. They found codes and a New York phone number that was traced to Cuban operatives.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI decided it was time to act. It was feared that Montes would supply information that the Cubans could in turn relay to the Taliban. She had completed her fellowship and was back at the DIA, and she was called to a meeting at the DIA Inspector General’s office. When she got there, two FBI agents were waiting for her. When they told her they were investigating a potential Cuban spy, her nerves betrayed her. She began sweating profusely, and her neck broke out in red patches. The agents had expected Montes to try to explain away any suspicions they had, but instead she asked for a lawyer. At that point, they placed her under arrest, charging her with conspiracy to commit espionage.
Ana Montes could have been given the death penalty for her actions, but she accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. She remained defiant, insisting that her actions came as a result of America’s “unfair treatment” of Cuba, and remarking, “ Some things are worth going to prison for.”
The Cubans tried to free Montes by offering an exchange. Years earlier, an American named Assata Shakur had been convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper, but Shakur escaped from prison and somehow made it to Cuba. Fidel Castro’s government gave asylum to Shakur, and she still lives there. However, the Cubans offered to return Shakur to the United States in exchange for Montes, an offer that was rejected by the U.S. State Department. Montes is still serving her sentence at a maximum security prison in Fort Worth, Texas. The prison is the home of some of the most notorious female criminals in the United States, and Montes serves her time in solitary confinement.
References
Pablo De Llano, “No Sign of Release for the Last Cuban Spy in a U.S. Jail” El Pais, March 8, 2017
Jim Popkin, “Ana Montes Did Much Harm Spying for Cuba. Chances Are, You Haven’t Heard of Her” The Washington Post, April 18, 2013
Scott W. Carmichael, True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba’s Master Spy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2007
Brian Latell, “New Revelations
about Cuban Spy Ana Montes” The Miami
Herald, August 2, 2014
FROM PAGE # 3
The supersonic P-6 cruise missile (codenamed SS-N-3a Shaddock by NATO) was mounted on the Juliet and Echo II-class diesel-electric submarines and could theoretically strike ships up to 310 miles away. However, the submarines’ radar couldn’t actually see targets that far away, and approaching close enough to a well-escorted U.S. carrier group while surfaced to provide radar-guidance was a risky business.
Here the Tu-95RT stepped in, using its belly-mounted “Success” radar to track the position of U.S. carriers, then using the data link in its distinguishing bulbous “chin” pod to remotely guide the missiles, or transmit course corrections back to the submarine using the Arfa relay on its tail. Only in the terminal approach would the P-6’s radar activate to home in for a kill.
Urribarres’ article implies the P-6 could also have been used to deliver nuclear strikes on inland North American targets. However, most sources state the P-6 was not designed with land-attack capabilities.
Nonetheless, the Tu-95s were routinely intercepted by U.S. F-4 Phantom and F-15 Fighters, and Canadian CF-101 Voodoos armed with Genie nuclear-tipped rockets. However, the Bear crews and their NATO escorts typically just took photographs of each other over international airspace. Cuba-based Tu-95s did occasionally intrude into American airspace, though, eliciting diplomatic complaints, and in one 1980-incident, an escort of F-15s had to lead away a Bear close to Langley Air Force base in Virginia.
Urribarres claims that the NATO interceptors performed dangerous, harassing maneuvers while shadowing the Soviet patrol planes. However, in exchanges published by the Aviationist, Robert Sihler, back-seat weapons-systems officers of an Iceland-based F-4, gives the impression that the routine intercepts were not so hostile.
“At that time, we probably averaged two intercepts of “Bears” per week…Generally, the intercepts occurred on Fridays and Sundays, at the “Bears” flew from Murmansk to Cuba on training and, we guessed, “fun” missions. Generally, we did these barrel rolls at the request of the Soviet crewmembers. They gave us hand signals to let us know they wanted us to do it. They photographed us as well. The Cold War was winding down and the attitudes on both sides had improved,” Sihler explains.
You can see a remarkable photo of an upside-down F-4C barrel-rolling around the Tu-95 in that article.
In 1973 the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force also dispatched MiG-21F fighters to intercept Bears executing a mock raid on Cuba at an altitude of 40,000 feet. The Bears were standing in as proxies for high-flying U-2 spy planes. The FAR found that its MiGs were able to make the intercept only by using fuel-gulping afterburners.
In November 1981, Moscow decided to permanently base up to twelve Tu-95RTs at San Antonio and even began building facilities to repair the bomber’s fan blades. Predictably, the Bear’s “Oriental Express” deployment to the Caribbean was popular with Bear crews and mechanics, who could enjoy a break from deployment in the Arctic circle residing in full-service hotel rooms in Havana.
In March 1983, the Tu-95s were joined by Tu-142M Bear-F patrol plane variants with a very different mission: tracking the position of U.S. submarines by lacing dozens of sonar buoys across the Caribbean. According to Urribarres, Tu-142s detected six submarines on their first ten flights alone. Later, the Bear-Fs combed the southern Atlantic Ocean, shuttling back and forth to a base in Luanda, Angola. Presumably, the Tu-142s were armed with anti-submarine torpedoes.
The Soviet Navy dispatched 756 Bear patrols from the Cuban base before it was finally shut down in 1989 as the Soviet empire began dissolving. The Tu-95 flights had gathered useful intelligence and generated military pressure on the U.S.’ Atlantic coastline. However, Moscow could no longer afford the economic assistance needed to maintain the distant Cuban base.
That calculus would
need to change for Russian bombers to permanently return to the Caribbean in the present day.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Cuba shows video of detained dissident in agitated state
The video released Wednesday night appears to show Ferrer banging his head on a metal table, throwing furniture and shouting.
The television presenter suggested that Ferrer is harming himself, and that allegations that he is being abused in prison are false.
The video included declarations by a man identified as Sergio García González who says he was attacked by Ferrer. Cuba has said Ferrer was detained Oct. 1 on suspicion of kidnapping and assault — allegations his supporters dismiss as false.
Cuban Government Allegations of Political Interference Against U.S. Chargé d’Affaires
The U.S. government strongly condemns the Castro regime’s
accusations against our Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana,
Mara Tekach. The regime has launched these baseless allegations
against her in an attempt to distract the international community from
its abysmal treatment of the Cuban people, especially the ongoing
arbitrary detention of dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer. Nevertheless, our
Chargé d’Affaires and her team at the U.S. Embassy in Havana remain
steadfast as they carry out the President’s mission to defend human
rights and advance the cause of democracy in Cuba.
A key part of this work is to call out the Castro regime’s reprehensible human rights violations and abuses. The dedicated U.S. diplomats at Embassy Havana also meet with human rights defenders in Cuba, as U.S. diplomats do throughout the world.
Cuba’s Ambassador in Washington enjoys freedom of expression here in the United States and uses it to publicly criticize our government. We only wish other Cuban citizens, including the over 100 other political prisoners currently incarcerated by the Cuban regime and the hundreds of other dissidents subject to official harassment, could enjoy that same right to freedom of expression and the ability to criticize their own government in Cuba, as they could if Cuba honored its international human rights commitments.
Instead, the Castro regime’s first recourse is to dust off obsolete talking points from what should be a bygone era and describe any independent voices as mercenaries, subversives, and spies. The reality is that it is the repression of the Cuban people, the stifling of their dreams, and the denial of their dignity that discredit the communist regime and their revolution.
The United States has, and will continue to, openly and transparently express our grave concerns about the treatment and condition of human rights defenders in Cuba. The United States stands for the fundamental freedoms of expression, religion, association, and assembly – and we will stand by those in Cuba who desire the same.
A key part of this work is to call out the Castro regime’s reprehensible human rights violations and abuses. The dedicated U.S. diplomats at Embassy Havana also meet with human rights defenders in Cuba, as U.S. diplomats do throughout the world.
Cuba’s Ambassador in Washington enjoys freedom of expression here in the United States and uses it to publicly criticize our government. We only wish other Cuban citizens, including the over 100 other political prisoners currently incarcerated by the Cuban regime and the hundreds of other dissidents subject to official harassment, could enjoy that same right to freedom of expression and the ability to criticize their own government in Cuba, as they could if Cuba honored its international human rights commitments.
Instead, the Castro regime’s first recourse is to dust off obsolete talking points from what should be a bygone era and describe any independent voices as mercenaries, subversives, and spies. The reality is that it is the repression of the Cuban people, the stifling of their dreams, and the denial of their dignity that discredit the communist regime and their revolution.
The United States has, and will continue to, openly and transparently express our grave concerns about the treatment and condition of human rights defenders in Cuba. The United States stands for the fundamental freedoms of expression, religion, association, and assembly – and we will stand by those in Cuba who desire the same.
From: https://www.state.gov
Zika virus fumigation may have caused 'Havana Syndrome': Leaked study
Fumigation fog fills the Vedado neighborhood after soldiers sprayed to kill mosquitos in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)
Jonathan Forani, CTVNews.ca Writer
Published
Thursday, September 19, 2019 4:34PM
EDT
The new research presents a more mundane cause for the so-called “Havana Syndrome” which counters previous reports that some 40 Canadian and U.S. diplomats may have been victims of a targeted “sonic attack.”
“If it is fumigation, at least we can stop it or change how we do it. We can do something about it,” said lead author Dr. Alon Friedman in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca from Winnipeg.
“Diplomats had lower activity of the enzyme, suggesting that they had a toxin in the blood,” said Friedman. “We collaborated with a toxicologist, and measured the level of the toxins in the blood. We detected neurotoxins in most of them. We shouldn’t have them usually in our blood.”
Friedman said the team actually used a simple Google search to determine that pesticides were used extensively in Cuba during a fumigation campaign against the Zika virus in 2016. “We learned that (the diplomats’) houses and their areas were fumigated,” said Friedman.
The team believes they can rule out “warfare chemical agents” as the neurotoxin source, because that would result in a more intense level of exposure. “Usually they cause a much more severe intoxication,” said Friedman. Instead, the researchers hypothesized that the diplomats and their families experiences “recurrent, low-dose exposure to neurotoxins.”
In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson John Babcock said that the research is a “significant contribution” to ongoing efforts to further the investigation, including environmental assessment and addressing health concerns.
“While we are exploring all avenues, including the research at Dalhousie, no definitive cause of the health incidents has been identified to date,” he wrote. “An environmental assessment was completed at our mission in Cuba in late 2017. Pest control measures were documented within that report and an additional complementary environmental assessment was recommended and completed in late spring 2019.”
Earlier this year, diplomatic families spoke with CTV News under the condition of anonymity to explain the severity of their symptoms, which included dizziness, confusion, headaches and nosebleeds. “My brain just doesn't work the way it used to,” one woman said, adding that she sometimes suddenly loses her balance. “My kids are having nosebleeds,” said another. “My youngest son is passing out for no reason.” In February, 15 people including five diplomatic staff members, their spouses and children, who worked in Cuba filed a statement of claim in federal court, suing the government for $28 million.
Havana has been designated an “unaccompanied post” since April 2018, meaning families no longer accompany diplomats there. “This has been a harrowing experience for these diplomats and their families and we will continue to take all steps necessary to help them,” said Global Affairs spokesperson Babcock.
If fumigation is the cause, the case may go far beyond the Canadian diplomats and their families. “This is a global health issue,” said Friedman. “To what extent you want to kill all mosquitos because of diseases, versus how much you expose people to toxins. Very little is known how much toxins we can be exposed to as human beings.”
Friedman and his team have initiated a joint study with the Cuban Neuroscience Center to look at the local population.
Cuba cries foul as doctors head home from Bolivia
HAVANA
(Reuters) - The first of around 700 Cuban doctors were scheduled to fly
home from strife-torn Bolivia on Saturday as officials railed against
what they charged was slander and mistreatment by Bolivia’s conservative
interim government.
Cuba said Saturday that 10 doctors, including the coordinator of its medical mission, were detained this week and four remained in custody.
On Friday, the foreign ministry said it was terminating its medical mission as officials were fostering violence against the doctors by claiming they were instigating rebellion.
The Communist-run island nation was a key ally of former leftist President Evo Morales, who resigned under pressure on Sunday and fled to Mexico after weeks of protests and violence over a disputed Oct. 20 election.
Cuba has backed Morales’ assertion that he was toppled in a foreign-backed coup.
Protests by Morales’ supporters have continued in capital La Paz, nearby El Alto, and the central city of Cochabamba, where at least five protesters were killed on Friday and hundreds reportedly detained.
GO TO PAGE # 15
FROM PAGE # 12
The four doctors still in custody were picked up on Wednesday after withdrawing a significant amount of cash from the bank, which the government charged was to finance protests.
The Cuban foreign ministry countered the doctors withdrew the same amount of money every month to cover expenses of 107 doctors working in the La Paz area.
“Cease the irresponsible anti-Cuban expressions of hate, lies, defamations and instigations to violence against Cuban cooperators,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted on Friday.
Bolivia’s interim Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said Friday upon announcing Cuba would fly home its doctors that “there have been a number of accusations that Cuban citizens have been involved in these aggressive acts that have tormented our country in recent days.”
Brazil and Ecuador have acted similarly against Cubans in recent months as they aligned themselves more closely with the United States.
The Caribbean island nation has a respected health service and generates export earnings by sending more than 30,000 health workers to more than 60 countries.
The United States has accused Cuba of mistreating its doctors and pressuring them to take part in political activities. It has asked governments to stop contracting them.
Cuba denies the charges and says they are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slander the country even as it applies new sanctions on top of old to deny it revenues used in part to provide free health services to its population.
Cuba said Saturday that 10 doctors, including the coordinator of its medical mission, were detained this week and four remained in custody.
On Friday, the foreign ministry said it was terminating its medical mission as officials were fostering violence against the doctors by claiming they were instigating rebellion.
The Communist-run island nation was a key ally of former leftist President Evo Morales, who resigned under pressure on Sunday and fled to Mexico after weeks of protests and violence over a disputed Oct. 20 election.
Cuba has backed Morales’ assertion that he was toppled in a foreign-backed coup.
Protests by Morales’ supporters have continued in capital La Paz, nearby El Alto, and the central city of Cochabamba, where at least five protesters were killed on Friday and hundreds reportedly detained.
GO TO PAGE # 15
Future vice president of Brazil: there is a spy among Cuban doctors
A future high Brazilian
official suggests that among the more than 8300 doctors sent by Cuba to
Brazil, there are some who act as spies for the island.
The
future vice president of Brazil, Antonio Hamilton Martins Mourão, said
that there may be spies sent by the Government of Cuba among the more
than 8,300 Cuban doctors who participate in Brazil under the "More
Doctors" social program,the newspaper reported Monday. localO Globo .
"That
is possible (the existence of camouflaged spies among doctors); when
you speak in the language of intelligence you have the true, the
probable and the possible, that comes in the line of the possible, "said
Martins Mourão.
These statements
were made by the retired general of the Brazilian Army who in a few days
will be sworn in as the second strongest man in Brazil after Deputy
Joice Hasselmann, of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) of the formation
ofPresident-elect Jair Bolsonaro , launched said possibility.
The
deputy said she had received information that the Cuban government "
wants to withdrawstrategic people infiltrated in the Más Médicos
program, who work with espionage and related issues," according to the
local magazineIstoé .
While this
sanitary evacuation materializes, the National Confederation of
Municipalities (CNM) of Brazil warned that the end of the participation
of Cuban doctors in the social program "More doctors" will leave without
health coverage more than 28 million people in the country Portuguese
speaking.
"The departure of these
doctors without the guarantee of other professionals can generate basic
health assistance to more than 28 million people," the organization said
last week in a statement.
In fact,
the CNM counted 1575 municipalities throughout Brazil where the only
assistance was provided by a Cuban doctor, 80% of these municipalities
are populated by less than 20,000 inhabitants.
With
these data, the Brazilian entity warned that this situation is of
"extreme concern" and that a "short-term" solution must be found for the
imminent departure of Cuban doctors.
The
"More Doctors" program was created by the government of ex-president
Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) in 2013 to offer health care to poor and
difficult-to-access regions, especially in the north and northeast of
the country.
HISPANTV
FROM PAGE # 12
The four doctors still in custody were picked up on Wednesday after withdrawing a significant amount of cash from the bank, which the government charged was to finance protests.
The Cuban foreign ministry countered the doctors withdrew the same amount of money every month to cover expenses of 107 doctors working in the La Paz area.
“Cease the irresponsible anti-Cuban expressions of hate, lies, defamations and instigations to violence against Cuban cooperators,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted on Friday.
Bolivia’s interim Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said Friday upon announcing Cuba would fly home its doctors that “there have been a number of accusations that Cuban citizens have been involved in these aggressive acts that have tormented our country in recent days.”
Brazil and Ecuador have acted similarly against Cubans in recent months as they aligned themselves more closely with the United States.
The Caribbean island nation has a respected health service and generates export earnings by sending more than 30,000 health workers to more than 60 countries.
The United States has accused Cuba of mistreating its doctors and pressuring them to take part in political activities. It has asked governments to stop contracting them.
Cuba denies the charges and says they are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slander the country even as it applies new sanctions on top of old to deny it revenues used in part to provide free health services to its population.
Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Nick Zieminski
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden on Friday blamed his staff for not warning him about the potential conflict of interest stemming from his son Hunter's position on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.
"Nobody warned me about a potential conflict of interest," Biden said in an interview with NPR released Monday.
"I never, never heard that once at all," he added. "They should have told me."
Biden also stressed to NPR host Rachel Martin that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify before Congress's ongoing impeachment inquiry. He argued that there is not "one scintilla of evidence" he did anything corrupt while working on the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.
During her interview with Biden, Martin mentioned that impeachment witness George Kent testified that he had raised concerns with then-vice president Biden's office about Hunter's position on the board of the Ukrainian firm Burisma. Kent said his concerns were ignored.
Kent is not the only person thought to have told Biden about the potential conflict. A July New Yorker profile of Hunter Biden said that Amos Hochstein, the Obama administration's special envoy for energy policy, raised concerns with Biden about Hunter's position at Burisma, although he did not recommend that Biden's son leave the board.
Hunter's board position has become a central component of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Trump asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce the opening of an investigation into the younger Biden's potential corruption, allegedly promising to release military aid in exchange.
Graham is a media analyst at the Free Beacon. He graduated from Georgetown University in 2018 and was a staff reporter for the College Fix. Follow him on Twitter at @graham_piro or reach him at piro@freebeacon.com.
Biden Blames Staffers for Not Warning Him About Hunter’s Board Position
Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden on Friday blamed his staff for not warning him about the potential conflict of interest stemming from his son Hunter's position on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.
"Nobody warned me about a potential conflict of interest," Biden said in an interview with NPR released Monday.
"I never, never heard that once at all," he added. "They should have told me."
Biden also stressed to NPR host Rachel Martin that he would not comply with a subpoena to testify before Congress's ongoing impeachment inquiry. He argued that there is not "one scintilla of evidence" he did anything corrupt while working on the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.
During her interview with Biden, Martin mentioned that impeachment witness George Kent testified that he had raised concerns with then-vice president Biden's office about Hunter's position on the board of the Ukrainian firm Burisma. Kent said his concerns were ignored.
Kent is not the only person thought to have told Biden about the potential conflict. A July New Yorker profile of Hunter Biden said that Amos Hochstein, the Obama administration's special envoy for energy policy, raised concerns with Biden about Hunter's position at Burisma, although he did not recommend that Biden's son leave the board.
Hunter's board position has become a central component of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Trump asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce the opening of an investigation into the younger Biden's potential corruption, allegedly promising to release military aid in exchange.
Graham is a media analyst at the Free Beacon. He graduated from Georgetown University in 2018 and was a staff reporter for the College Fix. Follow him on Twitter at @graham_piro or reach him at piro@freebeacon.com.
Trump keeps the pressure on Cuba and Venezuela with new sanctions | Opinion
Tony Shaffer
President Trump knows
that rapprochement with the brutal tyrants in Cuba and Venezuela is not an option, writes the op-ed author, who
praises the president’s tough policies toward both countries. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Trump is committed to ending the tyrannical regimes in Cuba
and Venezuela —
and he’s finding ways to turn up the heat on their socialist leaders without
adding to the misery of the people suffering under their rule. This requires
foreign policy finesse, not brute force.When former National Security Advisor John Bolton was fired, some worried that it would result in reduced pressure on the repressive communist dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela. As I pointed out in these pages, though, Trump has a firm grip on the reigns of American foreign policy, and his desire to bring the Castro and Maduro governments to heel just happened to be one of the few subjects on which Bolton enthusiastically supported his Commander-in-Chief’s vision.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just proved my point, authorizing sanctions on Cuban dictator Raul Castro and members of his family for their “gross violations of human rights” and military support for the embattled and illegitimate government of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro. In doing so, the Trump administration is sending a clear message to the thugs enslaving the Cuban and Venezuelan people: the United States will not tolerate the continued oppression and human rights violations perpetrated by your regimes.
The Cuban and Venezuelan governments have been in cahoots for years, united by their shared Stalinist ideology and blind hatred of the United States. What began as a trading relationship soon evolved into a sort of criminal cartel, with the two governments assisting each other in the suppression and exploitation of their respective people.
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer
is a retired senior intelligence operations officer and President of the London Center for Policy Research. (Courtesy)
Cuba has
famously supplied doctors to the Maduro regime in exchange for Venezuelan oil,
for example, but even this seemingly humanitarian deal was turned into a tool
of repression by the Maduro regime, which used its control over medical care to
coerce the sick and dying into voting for the ruling party. The arrangement was
also plagued by the rampant fraud that goes along with the ham-fisted communist
regime, with doctors grossly over-reporting the number of patients they treated
and then destroying life-saving medical supplies to cover up their lies.U.S. officials estimate that 10,000 Cubans hold “sensitive roles” in the Venezuelan political-military apparatus, helping to facilitate torture and other atrocities against countless Venezuelan citizens, including members of Venezuela’s opposition party.
The Castro regime may be able to fool lifelong apologists for communist dictators such as Bernie Sanders, but Donald Trump sees right through the charade. Raul Castro isn’t exporting doctors to Venezuela; he’s exporting butchers — and Venezuela is importing pain and suffering.
Unlike President Obama, who lifted sanctions against Cuba in a deluded effort to establish friendly relations with a regime that once threatened America with nuclear weapons, President Trump is determined to make the Castros endure real consequences for their crimes.
By sanctioning the Castro family, the Trump administration has chosen the proper target for economic pressure. President Trump is being careful to punish the leaders of the rogue regimes, not the citizens of Cuba and Venezuela, who have already suffered far too greatly at the hands of their oppressors.
This President knows that rapprochement with the brutal
tyrants in Cuba
and Venezuela
is not an option. As the many Cubans and Venezuelans in Florida
who have had to watch their families suffer at the hands of tyrants can attest,
there’s no compromising with pure evil.
President Trump deserves a great deal of praise for ensuring that the
well-being of the Cuban and Venezuelan people is the guiding principle of U.S.
policy actions as his administration works to liberate them from the Castro and
Maduro regimes. Communism and socialism can only redistribute pain and
suffering on an unfair basis, not produce prosperity — and it is prosperity and
freedom that we wish to see restored in Cuba
and Venezuela.Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer is a retired senior intelligence operations officer and President of the London Center for Policy Research.
U.S. Has Presidency Of UN Security Council For December; Expect Focus On Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua
With the Trump Administration assuming the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of December 2019, expect an aggressive and highly-visible focus upon Venezuela, Republic of Cuba, and Nicaragua, as well as Iran, according to a senior-level official at The White House.
Although aggressive resolutions are expectantly to be vetoed by the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China, the United States may have a numerical majority of eight to seven, allowing at least some resolutions to have an electoral legitimacy.
With The Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, spending considerable time during the month of December 2019 in the State of Florida, the focus on resolutions and speeches at the United Nations which focus upon the Republic of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will be highlighted for political purposes.
The White House
Washington DC
29 November 2019
Washington DC
29 November 2019
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the Visit of the Permanent Representatives of the United Nations Security Council
“President Donald J. Trump will welcome the Permanent Representatives of the United Nations Security Council to the White House on December 5, 2019. This visit will coincide with the United States assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council for December. President Trump will highlight the United States leadership of the United Nations Security Council and will urge Permanent Representatives to work together to address challenges to international peace and security.”
The Security Council is composed of 15 Members: There are five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, and United States.
There are 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly (end of term year): Belgium (2020;) Cote d’Ivoire (2019); Dominican Republic (2020); Equatorial Guinea (2019); Germany (2020); Indonesia (2020); Kuwait (2019); Peru (2019); Poland (2019); and South Africa (2020).
President Trump has confirmed meetings with heads of state and heads of government on 3 December 2019 and 4 December 2019 while in London, United Kingdom, to participate in a leadership gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The meetings will be with representatives of Germany, France, Poland, and United Kingdom- four of the fifteen members of the United Nations Security Council for December 2019.
From the United Nations: “The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 Members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members). Each Member has one vote. Under the Charter, all Member States are obligated to comply with Council decisions. The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security. The Security Council has a Presidency, which rotates, and changes, every month.”
Some [in bold] of the fifty-eight (58) countries who recognize Juan Guaido as Interim President of Venezuela are members of the United Nations Security Council: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Parliament recognized Mr. Guaido; the European Union (EU) recognized the National Assembly of Venezuela.
Countries expressing support for President Maduro of Venezuela: China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey.
Countries with a position of neutrality: Mexico.
