The Decomposition of Cuba’s Communist Regime
Martha Bueno’s organization, People 4 Cuba, smuggles food and medicine directly into the hands of suffering Cubans to help undermine an oppressive dictatorship.
https://reason.com/video/2022/03/16/the-decomposition-of-cubas-communist-regime/
Excerpt:
A massive protest movement broke out in Cuba on July 11, 2021. Food, medicine, and electricity shortages exacerbated by the COVID pandemic were pushing an already desperate, oppressed, and impoverished nation to the brink of rebellion.
Demonstrators used the internet—which has only been legally available in the country since 2018—to coordinate action in large and small cities across the island.
“Freedom…I felt free. I have never experienced in my life something so spectacular and wonderful. You had to have lived it to understand,” one Cuban citizen, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the Cuban government, told Reason.
In the face of widespread protests, the Cuban government arrested hundreds of protesters and shut down the internet.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel appeared on state TV to call for the violent suppression of the protests against “counter-revolutionaries.”
In Miami, members of the sizable Cuban-American community planned to load their own fishing boats with supplies to make the 90-mile journey to the island themselves but were deterred by the U.S. Coast Guard.
...”I think what people don’t understand is that the problem in Cuba stems from the fact that people can’t do anything for themselves,” says Martha Bueno, a Cuban-American activist. “You’re only allowed to make money if the government says it’s OK. And that’s how the government throttles people. They’ll throw you in jail if you decide to try and feed your family on your own.”
Bueno started the group People 4 Cuba following the protests. They assemble packages of dry foods and medical supplies and then pay people $35/pound to smuggle them onto the island. They’ve shipped more than 800 pounds so far, but she says it’s become more difficult in recent months as the Cuban government has cracked down harder on smuggled medical supplies.
“The big reason that we have to smuggle it into Cuba is because if I send it legitimately… the Cuban government will take that and then sell it in the stores,” says Bueno. “I wanted people to receive it, people who needed it to be able to receive it without paying. And I especially won’t help the Cuban government. I refuse to fund raise, pay for, and then give it to them so that they can sell it in the stores. I’m not that kind of girl.”
In one of her most popular tweets, Bueno, an outspoken libertarian, wrote this: “When my Father was 21 he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempting to leave his country (Cuba). A year into his sentence my fearless mother broke him out of jail. You might want to trade your freedom for safety, but I sure as hell don’t.”
Daniel Lugo, who helps Bueno with shipping logistics, came to America from Cuba 22 years ago. He says that even though the communist dictatorship has survived for 63 years, the courage and independence of Cuba’s youth give him hope that change is finally coming.
.....”Right now, no one believes in the Marxist ideology in Cuba, not even the people in the regime,” says Arcos. “They say they believe it. But they drive BMWs…They are practicing capitalism while they preach socialism or communism to the rest of the population. No one believes in [Marxism].”
.....”The regime is now engaged in pure naked repression…what they’re trying to do is trying to rebuild the terror, the state terror that Fidel Castro successfully built in the early 60s,” says Arcos.
The Cuban government blames the dire situation on the trade embargo the U.S. has on the country, which Bueno says is a scapegoat.
“It’s not the embargo that causes Cubans to face these problems. It’s the Cuban government that causes them to to face these problems. Cuba’s an island, and yet people are banned from fishing,” says Bueno.
.....”Every time they arrest a 16-year-old and sentence someone to 25 years in jail, they are creating entire final families and neighborhoods of opponents,” says Arcos. “They are feeding the opposition by increasing the repression.”
An American who fought in Ukraine warns others “Do not go, it’s a trap”
https://republicbrief.com/an-american-who-fought-in-ukraine-warns-others-do-not-go-its-a-trap/
Excerpt:
.....transcript of what he said: (can view video at link)
For anyone who is wondering what is going on, we were part of the Georgia National Legion, a hundred-second Ukrainian territorial defense, ok? Our base got Fed up, the base next to us got Fed up. Americans, British, tons of people- British dead, alright? They are not saying nothing, they are counting our dead and they’re dead and they are trying to send us to Kyiv with no Fing weapons, no kit, no find plates. The people who are lucky enough to get weapons are only getting magazines with like ten Fing rounds, ok? When they wanted to send us to Kyiv , we said no. Our whole group, a bunch of Americans, Canadians, British.
So they told us that we had to get the F out or they would shoot us in the back, alright? So me and this British guy and another American, we Fing hid in the back of an ambulance to get out.
We got to the border and it was a whole other mess. When you get to the border anyone who has kit, anyone who has any military, they are fing pulling you out of the line and sending you back to the front. We got dropped off about 5 cliffs from the fing border and we walked- and we got to the border, and a bunch of humanitarian groups, with veterans from England, pulls us to the side and say you need to get out- they pulled us out and fing hit us, and were like- you need to dump all your kit.. and they were pulling people out, cutting up passports, sending them back, so we dumped out sh*t and we got all of our fing red crosses and they had fing humanitarian passes to get us through the Ukrainian border.
People need to stop coming here. It is a trap. and they are not letting your Fing leave. The best way to leave is like is like in a VIC or a car or something. People who get on by vehicle, have a better chance of hiding in the back, doing whatever the fu*k they can- but do not come to Ukraine if you are a volunteer.
It is a mess. And it is a trap And I have multiple people who can confirm this story for me. I am getting.
******
Waiting for him to go on the Oprah circuit and get a book deal./s