Influencer or U.S. political agent?
On Friday July 30,2021, President Joe Biden held a meeting to discuss how his government would continue to “support the Cuban people.”

Author: Daily Pérez Guillén | informacion@granmai.cu
september 20, 2021 15:09:54

Yotuel, obviously at the service of those who encourage hate against the Cuban people. Our people always love and create. MEME FROM THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF CIBERCLARIA
On Friday July 30,2021, President Joe Biden held a meeting to discuss how his government would continue to “support the Cuban people.” The website of the White House has reported on the meeting. One of the questions about whether the sanctions would continue or would stop after the ones announced the day of the meeting, asked to the president by one of the attendees, is included in the report. According to the news reports, the attendees were Cuban-Americans whose profiles were politicians, businesspeople and a rapper.

Biden, who called those summoned “experts on the matter,” carefully handpicked his guests to attain the expected results. A few days ago, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez denounced in his twitter account that to please a reactionary and extortionist minority, Washington is able to multiply the damage to 11 million human beings, ignoring the will of most Cubans, U.S. citizens and the international community.

In line with the event, the corporate media called attention to the attendance of one of the authors of the song that is assumed to be directly linked to the protests on July 11, 2021 in Cuba. Previously, Yotuel had gone live on his social media with the director of National Security for the Western Hemisphere and advisor to Biden in Latin American topics, Juan González. With his physique and demeanor, the rapper confidently embodies the “followed one” in communities of young black Cubans, vulnerable given their underprivileged social condition and who the government of the United States have identified as targets in its regime change operations on the island.

Shortly after the meeting, and through a show on social media, the rapper became a “spokesperson” and answered questions asked by the most notorious influencer of Trump’s policies and the Florida-based Cuban hard line rightwing. Otaola, who has spread the idea of a dead stop in the island and publicly demands the U.S. government to condition the granting of visas to Cuban artists to their political leanings, was very interested in the sanctions Biden could issue in the future.

Yotuel’s inclusion in White House guestlist is part of the communication strategy conceived to bring the Cuban people closer to Washington’s discourse, especially the younger generations. This strategy is not new neither it is used for the first time in Cuba, it has been successfully rehearsed in other scenarios, including Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020, and it is still used a year and half into his presidential mandate.

An article originally run in The New York Times explains how the communication team of the Democrat campaign took a turn to widen its reach in social media when Trump seemed to occupy most of the space. For that purpose, Biden shook hands with influential personalities who endorsed his strategy on those platforms. Scholars, minority leaders, social causes activists, influencers and YouTubers shared content in favor of Biden. “Our goal was really to meet people where they were,” said Christian Tom, the head of then Democrat candidate’s digital partnerships team. Following this horizon, they defined their target with precision as well as the contents that may be of their interest.

Canciller cubano responsabiliza al Gobierno de EE. UU. de inaceptables acciones injerencistas
El Canciller cubano, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, se refiere durante su intervención a las más recientes declaraciones de la administración de Joe Biden

Nuria Barbosa León22 de julio de 2021 18:07:03
Canciller de Cuba comparece en vivo en la televisión nacional

Foto: Tomada de Twitter
El miembro del Buró Político del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba y ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, denunció este jueves la falsedad de los argumentos del Gobierno de Estados Unidos para sancionar a personas e instituciones cubanas y desenmascaró las pretensiones de manipular la opinión pública en contra de la Revolución Cubana.

En conferencia de prensa, el Canciller se refirió al comunicado del presidente Joseph Biden, mediante el cual informa de sanciones de su Gobierno para el ministro de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Cuba, el general de Cuerpo de Ejército Álvaro López Miera, y para la Brigada Especial Nacional del Ministerio del Interior, medidas unilaterales a las que calificó de irrelevantes en su sentido práctico, pero relevantes en su carácter político y de injerencia.

«El Presidente de los ee. uu. anuncia que continuarán las sanciones contra los responsables de lo que él llama represión contra el pueblo cubano, y que yo rechazo de manera categórica y absoluta. Aquí no ha habido un acto de represión contra el pueblo cubano, de la misma manera que no ha habido un estallido social, como ya he denunciado, a pesar de la persistente mendacidad de algunos medios bien establecidos de prensa internacional», expuso.

Cuestionó el cambio de opinión del mandatario estadounidense, quien ahora declaró que Cuba es una prioridad absoluta para su gobierno, contrario a lo dicho con anterioridad, pero que le suministra argumentos para mantener el injusto bloqueo y justifica acciones prácticas para imponer más sanciones.

Rodríguez Parrilla sentenció: «El Presidente de los ee. uu. y su Gobierno podrían ocuparse mejor del patrón racial diferenciado, de los errores judiciales, del racismo sistémico, de la represión brutal a la protesta social dentro de su territorio, de aquellas que se produjeron legítimamente con motivo al frío asesinato de ciudadanos afrodescendientes. Podría ocuparse también de la situación de sus más de 400 periodistas que sufrieron lesiones o violencia cuando cubrían las manifestaciones raciales».


Aseveró que la administración de la Casa Blanca carece de autoridad moral para pedir que se libere a personas detenidas en Cuba, lo cual es considerado un acto de injerencia e intervención: «Mienten cuando se refieren a manifestantes pacíficos, eluden reconocer que hubo actos violentos, evitan las denuncias que se han hecho por parte de nuestro Gobierno, primero de la persistente instigación al terrorismo, organizada desde territorio de los ee. uu.», y añadió que aún falta por refutar acusaciones que hizo personalmente días antes.

Defendió que las autoridades cubanas y, en particular las de orden interior, actuaron con estricto apego a la ley, con absoluto respeto a las normas que rigen su conducta, con el mínimo de fuerza frente a actos vandálicos y violentos que ocasionaron lesiones a oficiales de la Policía, a civiles y ciudadanos cubanos que proclamaron su apoyo a la Revolución y al Gobierno cubano.

«Actualmente, el país está en absoluta calma, los servicios funcionan con entera normalidad y convocó a la prensa a caminar por las calles del país y atestiguar, con objetividad, las condiciones de tranquilidad, pese a las condiciones adversas provocadas por el azote de la pandemia», dijo.

«Emplazo a cualquier autoridad del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos, que supuestamente se preocupa por los llamados manifestantes, o a las entidades de cualquier país, a que presenten un caso de un desaparecido. Me comprometo a, en pocas horas, desmentirlo con evidencias suficientes», enfatizó el Ministro, al referirse a las falsas listas de supuestos desaparecidos que circulan en medios de prensa y redes sociales.

Aludió a que en países de Sudamérica se han producido miles de asesinatos de defensores de derechos humanos, de activistas sociales, de líderes comunitarios, de personas que se sumaron a procesos de paz o casos terribles, de los cuales Washington ha sido muy tímido para referirse a ellos como el de los llamados falsos positivos, o los asesinatos de civiles, para presentarlos como beligerantes.

Hasta en Nueva York se denunció, en una pantalla lumínica, la política de asfixia de la administración de EE. UU. contra Cuba. Foto: Captura de pantalla de video que circula en redes sociales
«No es en Cuba donde se utilizaron medios de represión sofisticados, equipos mecánicos, sustancias químicas, explosivos aturdidores, lanzadores automáticos de bombas tóxicas». Subrayó que ello ocurre en Europa y en Estados Unidos, sin que la prensa hable mucho del tema.

Biden Must Reprogram US Funds Assigned for Subversion in Cuba, Analysts Say
By Alejandra Garcia on March 3, 2021

Photo: Bill Hackwell
Of the never-ending list of U.S. measures against Cuba, much is said about the six-decade economic blockade. However, less attention is paid to the former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to maintain the program that has allocated over $250 million in the last twenty years to covert subversion operations against the island.

On March 2, during a Zoom meeting called by Code Pink, the women-led organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, the Cuban attorney and political analyst Jose Pertierra focused on what he called, “one of the most disgusting components of the Helms-Burton Act: The Regime Change Section, also known by its euphemistic name of “Democracy Promoting Projects.”

Pertierra cited an article written by former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America Fulton Armstrong in which he described these ‘Cuba programs’ as those that were designed to identify, organize, train, and mobilize Cuban citizens to demand a political change in the island. “Those programs have an especially problematic heritage, including embezzlement, mismanagement, and systemic politicization,” the lawyer said, quoting Armstrong.

“The funds of about $20 million a year are used effectively and in a manner consistent with U.S. law. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) fought us at every turn, refusing to divulge even basic information about the programs, citing only a document of vague ‘program objectives.” Armstrong wrote.

According to Pertierra, those millions of dollars have created an industry of dissidents in both Miami and Havana.

Using the proceeds of the regime change programs, Miami-based dissidents have established themselves in cushy offices and earn inflated salaries. Their job is to instigate dissent in Cuba.

A tiny fraction of those millions make it to Cuba. What does that money buy? Pertierra said “it is used to pay people to march and protest. It creates amateur journalists who are on the payroll of US regime change projects. And it rewards those who, pretending to be artists or performers, use social media to express their dissatisfaction with the government. One so-called artist sat on a toilet with a Cuban flag draped across his shoulders, as he defecated on Facebook Live.” This individual is now a cause celebre on social media, Pertierra explained.

There is no accountability for the millions of dollars that are being spent on regime change programs because they are clandestine and covert.

“Some in Congress would have you believe the President has no discretion in how to spend those millions of dollars. However, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) decides how to use those funds. It can reprogram them, for example, to stimulate the Central American economies and thus dissuade potential immigrants from coming to this country. The White House could also ease the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and Trump’s mishandling of the health emergency,” the lawyer said.

“How would struggling Americans, who are facing possible eviction from their homes because they have lost their jobs in the midst of this pandemic, feel when they find out that their government is spending more than $20 million a year to pay Miami Cubans a salary to be professional dissidents against the Cuban government?” asked Pertierra.

The U.S. hostility is no news

For almost a century, “the successive administrations have created a tremendous hardship for the Cuban people. Trump just made it worse,” recalled Code Pink leaders during the Zoom meeting, as they regretted that President Joe Biden has not done anything to change the course of the relations between the two countries.

“How can we put pressure on the administration to take action via executive order? Code Pink asked Congressman Jim McGovern.

“We have a lot of work to do,” recognized McGovern. “I’m frustrated because Biden could do a lot more than what he has already done. There are some decisions he could make that don’t need congressional approval. For example, re-opening up our embassy in Havana.”

McGovern has been traveling to Cuba for decades. “In all these years, I never saw so much activity, excitement, creativity, innovation, in the Cuban people than during the last two years, after then-Presidents Obama and Raul Castro normalized relations in 2017. That year, Obama did what we had wanted the U.S. to do a long time earlier,” he explained.

Many people took advantage of those changes building stronger partnerships, collaborating with small businesses and artists, joining researches and studies, strengthening local farmers, urging U.S. people to explore Cuba’s opportunities and beauty.

“The possibilities seemed endless -McGovern said- until Trump came along to show us that everything could be worse than it once was. We realized that all could be undone, that the U.S. could go back to Cold War ideology.”

When asked to comment on Pertierra´s argument that the $20 million a year in regime change funds for Cuban dissidents could be reprogrammed to attend to the needs of the American people, Congressman McGovern agreed that it was something that should be done.

The U.S. must turn the page, said the Congressman. Trump is no longer president, and those who want to re-establish relations with Cuba are writing a new chapter. Now, with a new administration, “we have another chance to create a better future for both of our countries,” he said.

This is possible, Jose Pertierra added. “We just need to answer the following questions: What danger does Cuba really pose to the U.S.? Has Cuba ever tried to storm the Capitol? Have they spread lies about a presidential election? Or encouraged American citizens not to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic that has killed over half a million U.S. citizens?”

Cuba poses no threat to the United States, and everyone knows it. Now they need to act on that knowledge.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English