Where is that Iraqi Propaganda Minister when you need him? Cuba president rejects coverage of unrest as a ‘lie’ Days after anti-government demonstrations, President Diaz-Canel says ‘what the world is seeing of Cuba is a lie’. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...enounces-unrest-as-a-lie-calls-protest-images
Looks like the Cuban protests have been "corrected" by the government. Does not seem to be much happening there. Hope they like the status quo because they have stuck on stupid for decades.
Cuba sent doctors abroad amid pandemic. Now, its own COVID surge has sparked historic protests https://news.yahoo.com/cuba-sent-doctors-abroad-amid-100137136.html As the novel coronavirus began to circulate around the world, the Cuban government ramped up its controversial medical diplomacy program, sending teams of doctors and nurses to Italy, Venezuela and other countries overwhelmed by COVID-19 outbreaks. Now, the island nation is reeling from its own surge in cases – surpassing 6,000 new daily infections last week in a spike that has fueled unrest and anger across the country. The burst of COVID cases seems to have marked a tipping point that – along with food shortages and spiraling prices – prompted thousands of Cubans to brave arrest and violence in the largest protests seen on the Communist island in three decades. "Prior to the protests, Cubans were sharing pictures of hospitals showing complete collapse," said Javier Corrales, an expert on Latin America and the Caribbean at Amherst College. "Lockdowns have been harsh and long. Vaccination distribution has been slow. Cubans feel like they cannot trust authorities in terms of data," Corrales said. Cuba has developed its own three-shot vaccine, which has not been tested outside the country. So far, about 27% of the country's 11 million people have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data tracking. It doesn't help that the government has been sending its “White Coat Army" to help care for those sickened with COVID in other countries. "The coronavirus pandemic has put a spotlight on the failures of many governments around the world," said Daniela Ferrera, a Cuban immigrant who lives in Florida and is co-founder of Cubanos Pa'lante, a group that seeks to send aid to Cubans. "But in Cuba, we have a situation where the Cuban government is sending out their doctors to their allies in Iran, in Russia, in China and other places around the world. And they're not treating the Cuban people," she said. 'Doctor diplomacy' or 'human exploitation'? Cuba's medical missions program, started after the 1959 Communist revolution, has long been controversial, particularly among critics in Washington who equate it to modern-day slavery. Officials in Havana say it is a demonstration of Cuba's solidarity with needy allies across the globe, and they view the program as a key element of its international diplomacy. "Cuba is here to help," Inés Fors Fernández, the country's ambassador to Jamaica, said in March 2020, according to the country's official state media, as Cuba announced it would send 100 nurses to its island neighbor. "The world is experiencing one of the worst possible moments in recent years, so it is very important that there is solidarity between Cuba and Jamaica," the Cuban diplomat said. Among other countries who have cheered the arrival of Cuban doctors and nurses in the pandemic are Nicaragua and Suriname, according to state media. Since the program's inception, Cuba has deployed more than 400,000 health workers to 164 countries to help tackle short-term crises, natural disasters, and now, COVID-19, according to the government. Human Rights Watch says that Cuba has dispatched about 1,500 medical professionals to other countries since March to help fight the pandemic, on top of the estimated 30,000 Cuban health care workers who were already stationed abroad. “Cuban doctors deployed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic provide valuable services to many communities, but at the expense of their most basic freedoms,” José Miguel Vivanco, the group's Americas director said in a June 2020 report on the program. That report says the Cuban government engages in a litany of abuses against its doctors and nurses who serve abroad, including placing them under surveillance, confiscating their passports and barring them from being “friends” with people who hold “hostile or contrary views to the Cuban revolution.” Most notably, the Cuban government takes much of the medical professionals' salaries paid by the host countries. "The Cuban dictatorship has perfected the art of diplomatic manipulation as they continue to send their so-called ‘medical brigades,’ which is more accurately a human exploitation scam," Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, said in a statement to USA TODAY. "The Communist regime exploits these health professionals, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to fill its coffers," the Florida Republican said. In a report on human trafficking released on July 1, the U.S. State Department said Cuba "capitalized on the pandemic by increasing the number and size of medical missions." The government refused to address "labor violations and trafficking crimes despite persistent allegations from observers, former participants, and foreign governments of Cuban officials’ involvement in abuses," the report said. The Cuban government blasted the State Department findings, saying the report was based on falsehoods. "This accusation forms part of a campaign by Washington to discredit Cuba’s international cooperation efforts in the sphere of healthcare, for which Cuba has received recognition by dozens of governments and the gratitude of the populations which have benefited from it," Cuba's ministry of foreign affairs said. Corrales said Cuba likely had to keep sending doctors and nurses abroad during the pandemic, even if that has now come back to haunt them. "The government makes huge profits from these missions," he said. That source of revenue has likely become critical during the pandemic, with tourism and other parts of Cuba's economy shut down. "The pandemic has been devastating in Cuba," said Bob Schwartz, executive director of Global Health Partners, a nonprofit that sends medical assistance to Cuba and other countries. The U.S. embargo However, Cuba's medical missions program and its COVID crisis are not as "black and white" as some critics suggest, Schwartz said. "The reality is Cuba has more than enough doctors in country right now to handle the pandemic," he said. "What they don't have is ... the medicines or the equipment that they need." The economic fallout of the lockdowns has fueled the food and medicine shortages, Schwartz said, and the situation has been "exacerbated" by the U.S. embargo. Although U.S. trade restrictions include exemptions for medical and humanitarian assistance, many American companies don't want to go through the hassle of getting an export license to ship goods to Cuba, he said. As Cuba tries to vaccinate its population, Schwartz said it has run up against a critical shortage of syringes, which is particularly problematic given its vaccine requires three doses. He and others say the protests are an opportunity for the Biden administration to ease U.S. restrictions on trade, travel and remittances. "The irony is that, in the last 16 months, the pandemic has created the necessary conditions for protests against the government that a 59-year, wrong-minded and bone-headed American embargo was never able to achieve," said Rep. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat and longtime critic of the hardline U.S. policy toward Cuba. Corrales said the U.S. embargo certainly has not helped the situation in Cuba. But he said the Cuban government's own restrictions – on everything from freedom of expression to private sector activities – created the conditions for the protests. "Cubans live under one of the harshest dictatorships. People are watched all the time. The state holds a monopoly over the most important jobs. There are horrible restrictions on what self-employed people can do, and who can even become self-employed," he said. The pandemic just provided a spark for Cubans to demand what they've long wanted, he said: Freedom.
Cuban Leaders Have Long Relied on Anti-Imperialist Anger. This Time, It’s Not Working. Many of today’s protesters lack the earlier generations’ loyalty to the revolutionary project — and increasingly have no one but the government to blame for their woes. https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...lame-government-imperialism-revolution-499760
BABYLON BEE Cuba Officially Promoted To 'Not Real Communism' CUBA—After Cubans began protesting for their freedom and over a lack of food and adequate healthcare this week, American socialists announced the country is now officially "not real Communism." "The Communist Party of Cuba, which we once praised as being a shining example of communism, is no longer real communism now that it is apparent that it has failed," said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "We were hoping this would be the communist state that succeeded. I personally, like, had pretty high hopes for them. They have, like, good programs that teach kids how to read good and stuff. But it does look pretty bad over there. So we are forced to take away their communist status." Bernie Sanders said he was "saddened" by the official reclassification but had to acknowledge that Cuba is no longer communist, since it has decayed into a hellscape of misery, hunger, and depression. https://babylonbee.com/news/cuba-officially-promoted-to-not-real-socialism
Bab Bee You Just Don't Understand Socialism Like I Do,' Says College Freshman To Man Who Escaped Socialism On A Raft MIAMI, FL—While on his way to a summer sociology course at the University of Miami, local college freshman Eddard Pollyton noticed a Cuban American man sitting on a bench. He took the time to lecture the man, who had escaped socialism on a raft when he was young, on why socialism is actually good and how he knows a lot more about socialism than people from socialist countries. "Greetings!" Pollyton said. "I'm Eddard, he/him. I see from your skin color—which is the most important thing about you—that you are Cuban. Pretty sad how those Cubans aren't appreciating the great social programs they have right now, am I right?" The man stared dumbfounded as the student went on and on about private ownership of the means of production, the plight of the proletariat, and the need for the workers to unite and work for the common good. He explained to the man who had nearly starved to death as a child and only survived because his parents had put him on a raft and dared a dangerous sea voyage across the Gulf of Mexico that Cubans have some of the best healthcare, free food and medicine, and literacy programs in the world. Finally, the man had heard enough. "Get out of here. You young people have no idea what socialism is like, man." "Wait a minute—did you just assume my gender?"
Dems hesitant to condemn Cuban regime, as many in party agree with socialist policies; WaPo reporter Democrats influenced by progressives don't want to 'go hard' on Cuba, says WaPo reporter AOC echoed Black Lives Matter by blaming U.S. for 'contributing to the suffering of Cubans' https://www.foxnews.com/media/democ...nt-want-to-go-hard-on-cuba-says-wapo-reporter Washington Post political investigations reporter Toluse Olorunnipa observed that Democrats don't want to "go hard" on Cuba because they are being influenced by the more progressive members of their party who "agree" with many of the struggling country's socialist policies. In recent days Cuban protesters have expressed anger over rising prices, shortages of goods and poor health care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "They are really being led by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and the progressive wing does not want to go hard against Cuba, against some of the things that the Castro regime may have been a part of it," Olorunnipa argued on CNN's "Inside Politics" Sunday. "In part because there are some Democrats, there are some progressives who agree with some of those things," he continued. "They agree with universal health care, they agree with some of the programs that were in place in a more socialist kind of society." Progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., while blasting the communist regime's crackdown on media, speech and protest as a "gross violations of civil rights," also blamed part of the unrest on the U.S.'s 60-year-old embargo, which she called "absurdly cruel," as well as "additional Trump-era restrictions." AOC BLAMES CUBAN SUFFERING ON US ‘CONTRIBUTIONS,’ PARROTING BLACK LIVES MATTER "We stand in solidarity with the Cuban people and condemn the suppression of the media, speech and protest," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "We also call for an end to the U.S. embargo and additional Trump-era restrictions that are profoundly contributing to the suffering of Cubans." Some Democrats, however, like former Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, have distanced themselves from AOC's rhetoric, placing the blame squarely on the communist regime. "Cubans young and old are marching in the streets demanding freedom," Mucarsel-Powell said on "Your World." "The only government to blame here, the only culprit of what has been happening in Cuba, is the Cuban government, which has been a dictatorship; a failed Communist regime which has violated human rights for decades." In her statement, AOC also took a swipe at the Biden administration for defending the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Olorunnipa suggested that Biden is trying to "push against" socialism after witnessing President Trump's 10-point bump in Latino support in the 2020 presidential election. Many Latino voters told the press that it was Trump's anti-socialist message that won them over, particularly in south Florida. Republican lawmakers like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have urged President Biden to take action, such as immediately providing uncensored internet access to the Cuban people.
Not sure what Biden Administration will do on this but what you quoted above is just an opinion of a reporter with no inside knowledge of what is being discussed really...
This from Zero Hedge so shrug and tell yourself it is not true. The dem script requires it. ============================================== All the propaganda that whitewashes the Cuban dictatorship is based on two lies: the inexistent “blockade” and the allegedly excellent “public health”. The United States is the largest supplier of food and agricultural products to Cuba, according to the Department of State, with exports of those goods valued at $220.5 million in 2018. The United States is also a major supplier of humanitarian goods to Cuba, including medicines and medical products, with a total value of 275.9 million dollars in 2018. Remittances from the United States, estimated at 3.5 billion dollars in 2017, are the dictatorship’s largest source of foreign exchange. What has destroyed Cuba is communism. A destructive and wasteful dictatorial regime. The Castro regime is a machine for squandering subsidies. It consumed aid from the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1990 equivalent to six Marshall Plans and failed to improve its growth pattern or take advantage of huge subsidies to improve productivity. Between 1960 and 1990, Cuba received more than $65 billion from the Soviet Union, not counting what it received from other socialist countries. The Cuban dictatorship has also squandered subsidies and aid from China, Russia, and Venezuela https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cuba-dictatorship-and-blockade-lie