Madrid/The dollar rose again this Wednesday to 440 pesos in the informal currency market, after several days stagnant (at 435) in a decline that began with the arrival of Hurricane Melissa and in the midst of the strongest campaign of attacks against The Touch of those undertaken since the independent media began publishing exchange rates daily in 2021.
The climb has reached the highest levels. This Thursday, the pro-Castro media Cubainformation –following the steps from the official website Reasons for Cuba– post the images of the 18 people that the regime is investigating for their links with The Touch. In the purest style far west, The note is a succession of posters with their face, name, the position they hold in the independent media and their country of residence.
The string of names is made up of managers, coordinators, advisors, editors and even designers of The Toucha list made up of the following people: José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas, Beatriz Valdés Mariño, Alejandro Ulloa García, Melissa Cordero Nova, Jessica Castro Burunate, Glenda Caridad Boza Ibarra, Sadiel Mederos Bermúdez, Enrique Torrez Zamora, Laura Roque Valero, Ana Lidia García Hernández, Eloy Viera Cañive, Abraham Calás Torres, Julio A. Fernández Estrada, Yerisleydys Menéndez García, Jessica Domínguez Delgado, Henry Alfredo Pérez Mora, Roberto Pablo Jiménez González and Janet Aguilar González.
All of them are identified with their face and job position. Regarding their residences, 13 of them reside in Spain, two in the United States, two in Mexico and one in Canada
All of them are identified with their face and job position. Regarding their residences, 13 of them reside in Spain, two in the United States, two in Mexico and one in Canada. This last issue is not trivial: the ruling party has extended its attacks against them since a media based in Spain and that receives financing from the Basque government.
The question is related to an article published this wednesday in Cubadebate which takes the opportunity to point out the accounts of various media – including 14ymedio– and journalists or communicators for being located outside the Island, as if it were a revealed secret, when it comes to public information. The majority of the accused have also been pushed into exile due to ideological persecution and companies cannot have headquarters on the Island because media that do not defend the communist model and do not belong to the single party are prohibited.
Cubainformation refers to what was said last week in the Reasons for Cuba programwhere Humberto López interviewed a colonel from the Ministry of the Interior in charge of the “criminal investigation against the digital platform”, where the number of people who are linked to criminal acts whose criminal type is still clearly unknown, but who seem to want to associate with “terrorism” and “mercenarism”, both very serious, were cited.
“The evidence shows that this platform is more an instrument of the cognitive war against Cuba than an independent press medium. Its actions, investigated like that of an organization, are directly linked to entities and agendas destined to subvert the constitutional order on the Island,” it says today. Cubainformation.
The note warns of “serious legal consequences for these individuals” and threatens them with the possibility of being extradited “if they travel to a third country, requested by law enforcement agencies, or, in the event of a change of Government in their country of residence, also face extradition. If they travel to Cuba, they can go directly to prison.” Despite the grandiloquence, it does not seem possible that any of them face the risk of extradition in any of the countries mentioned.
In the case of the majority, the 13 who live in Spain, the Constitution guarantees – precisely in its article 13 – that only people may be extradited “in compliance with a treaty or the law, taking into account the principle of reciprocity.” The first criterion is not met and, as for the second, there are several terrorists with blood crimes claimed by Spain to whom the Island gave shelter.
This article, furthermore, belongs to the Title of Fundamental Rights and its modification does not even depend on the Government in power but on the very complex aggravated reform of the Constitution, for which very large majorities are required.
The same text indicates that “political crimes are excluded from extradition, and acts of terrorism are not considered as such,” but no judge in Spain would consider the work of The Touch and rather I would think that the motivation is ideological. This article, furthermore, belongs to the Title of Fundamental Rights and its modification does not even depend on the Government in power, but on the very complex aggravated reform of the Constitution, for which very large majorities are required.
The ruling party does not stop the propaganda machinery for a single day. There are several examples of supposedly informative or opinion notes every day. On November 17, the economist and former Cuban spy imprisoned for years in the United States Ramón Labañino accused The Touch in an interview with the Cuban News Agency of being harmful for promoting “speculation, inflation, illegality and mistrust, thus attacking the efforts of the State and the Government to organize the economy.”
The state media is trying to convince the population that the fact that their bread – which has decreased – is costing them more and more is the fault of the platform, which they accuse of currency trafficking, tax evasion and money laundering. “Consequences? Long lines at banks and ATMs due to lack of physical money. At the same time, the rise of illicit activity has a negative impact on the reduction of the fiscal deficit, with latent expression in the domestic economy,” he said. this tuesday the official press in another of the numerous texts dedicated to this purpose.
However, the discourse has cracks. This same Thursday, the main propaganda organ of the Communist Party, Granma, publish an analysis that, although it maintains the thesis of attack on The Touchalso admits that “the absence of a formal market with sufficient liquidity has forced the population to be guided by ‘alternative’ signals, such as the rate published by the digital portal.”
However, the article closes with a plea to take control of the economy through the Central Bank, which it urges to launch a formal exchange market.
Adds the author – the Cuban economist Lui Mok–, who The Touch “has an obvious political agenda” and that “Although it is not the cause of the crisis, it does contribute to intensifying it”, while demanding: “a part of those who react against any questioning of The Touch insists on presenting these criticisms as if the portal were being blamed for all of the country’s problems. “This interpretation is false and serves only to divert the conversation: denouncing information manipulation does not imply denying the root causes of the crisis, but rather pointing out an additional factor that aggravates it.”
However, the article closes with a plea to take control of the economy through the Central Bank, which it urges to launch a formal exchange market, clarify how prices are formed and what information is reliable, and provide “concrete data about the economy.”
“The only real solution: a formal, floating, transparent and liquidity-backed exchange market,” he recalls. The Government’s problem is, precisely, that this support is not there. It’s not even expected.
