Madrid/President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend cooperation through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has caused an earthquake in almost all countries, where thousands of non -governmental organizations depend, to a greater or lesser extent, on Those funds.
In the Cuban case, the concern is very serious. Only last year, according to the report made by Magnate Elon Musk at Trump’s request, revealed in Congress by the senator John Kennedythe expense to “rebuild the ecosystem of Cuban media” was one and a half million dollars. It is an infinitesimal part of the total USAID budget, of about 60,000 million dollars annually, but represents a substantial part of the expenditure of various independent means, which attempt to compensate for the propaganda of the Cuban regime with plural information.
In addition, dozens of Cuban organizations who work for human rights, free enterprise or freedom of expression benefited from these funds. The Washington Embassy on the island also organizes several programs and scholarships to train Cubans in human rights issues, diplomacy or languages, which could be affected.
Only last year, the USAID spending to “rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem” was one and a half million dollars
The newspaper Cubanetdean of the independent press, has released a campaign to raise funds with an alarming message. In his “SOS”, he denounces that “he is currently in the middle of a crossfire between the repression of the Havana regime and the US decision to cut funds for international assistance.”
He money raised –Donations from three dollars – they indicate, will help “to the press that has been reported truthfully for more than 25 years its extraordinary work continues and can protect journalists who from Cuba are under harassment”.
Luis Cino, collaborator of that medium, already had lashed out against the decision to suspend aid. “Trump is about to get what the state security repressors have not been able to: ending independent journalism in Cuba,” he had lamented in his networks. Explicitly, not commenting on anything publicly until more information about the measure, several NGOs linked to Cuban affairs, including those based in Miami, communicated to their employees the cessation of their payments and collaborations, he said On January 28 Strong coffee.
Hope for organizations and independent media resides in the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The former Cuban American senator for Florida, connoisseur of all those headwaters and activists on and outside the island, was appointed last Monday Usaid interim director.
Hope for organizations and independent media resides in the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio
Although Rubio, who made the announcement during his official trip to El Salvador, said that “the functions of the USAID will continue”, did not position himself on the future of the agency, and denounced that he suffers an “endemic problem” when refusing to align your projects with the interests of American foreign policy.
“Every dollar we spend, each program we finance must be aligned with the national interest of the United States, and the USAID has a history of ignoring that and deciding that, in some way, they are a global beneficial organization separated from the national interest,” he said Then before the press.
That same Monday, the USAID workers in Washington received the order to stay at home and the agency’s offices in the US capital woke up prevented.
Meanwhile, the Cuban regime press makes fallen tree firewoodafter decades of denouncing that both the USAID and the National Endowment For Democracy (NED) only serve to “submit the internal agendas of other countries to the interests of the White House”.
This same Thursday, Cubainformation.TV, a Castro channel financed with Spanish public funds Through Basque entities, returned to the loaddefining the cooperation agency – created in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, by President John F. Kennedy – as a “Ariete of Intelligence Services” of the United States.
In a brief statement published last Tuesday, the chain recognizes that its beneficial organization has been affected
The cut not only affects small organizations and independent media that fight against the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but also colossi such as the British BBC, whose NGO responsible for supporting the freedom of the press in the world –bbc Media Action– has warned to its beneficiaries that the US government financed part of its budget.
In a brief Communicated last TuesdayThe chain recognizes that its beneficial organization has been affected by the “temporary pause in the financing of the United States government, which amounts to about 8% of our income in 2023-24” and claims to be “doing everything possible to minimize the impact on our partners and the people we serve. ”
Similarly, he explains that BBC Media Action “supports local media around the world to provide reliable information to the most needy”, after remembering that 75% of the countries throughout the globe do not have free press.
They also ensure that the NGO is “completely separated” from BBC News, the company’s informative division, and that they depend “totally” on its “donors and supporters” to carry out its work.
