Imperative to break ‘Cubazuela‘ nexus

Imperative to break ‘Cubazuela‘ nexus

Communist-run Cuba has imposed sweeping price controls on all state and private businesses as it battles a deepening economic crisis and mounting U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports….

The U.S. is open to engagement with Cuba, but only if the regime “renounces its oppressive behavior,” said U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. “We’re doing everything we can here to support the Cuban people,” although “the list of challenges is long,” he said in a telephone interview with DIARIO DE CUBA, specifying the regime’s human rights abuses…..

It is also imperative to break the ‘Cubazuela‘ connection, Pompeo added. “Any new leader in Venezuela must get the Cubans away from the security apparatus,” he told Pablo Díaz Espí, Diario’s director…..

Pompeo’s comments come at a time of escalating repression of civil society activists and independent journalists. The regime’s actions are generating an atmosphere of tension similar to that preceded by the raids of the Black Spring (2003), when 75 dissidents were convicted to long sentences in Castro prisons, Miriam Celaya writes for Translating Cuba….RTWT 

Michael Allen

Special Assistant, Government Relations and Public Affairs

Editor, Democracy Digest

National Endowment for Democracy

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