Free Republic

Just when you thought the mainstream media’s partnership with Stalinist, terror-sponsoring Cuba’s propaganda ministry could not possibly get more blatant or outrageous we get this from CNBC:“Why Cuba’s extraordinary Covid vaccine success could provide the best hope for low-income countries; Cuba’s prestigious (italics mine) biotech sector has developed five different Covid vaccines to date…all of which Cuba has said provide upwards of 90 percent protection against symptomatic Covid….The tiny Communist-run Caribbean island has achieved this milestone by producing its own Covid vaccine, even as it struggles to keep supermarket shelves stocked amid a decades-old U.S. trade embargo. (italics mine.)”In fact,...

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday shortened the prison sentence of a truck driver convicted in a deadly crash to 10 years, drastically reducing his original 110-year term that drew widespread outrage. The decision on Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence was among several year-end commutations and pardons issued by Polis. The move comes days after a judge scheduled a hearing for next month to reconsider the sentence at the request of the district attorney, who planned to ask that it be reduced to 20 to 30 years. Around 5 million people signed an online petition seeking clemency for Aguilera-Mederos,...

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday commuted the prison term of a truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years after a fatal accident in 2019, reducing the sentence to 10 years. The man, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, killed four people on April 25, 2019, after, he said, his brakes failed on the downhill grade on Interstate 70 eastbound outside Denver. Prosecutors argued that Aguilera-Mederos acted recklessly and made a series of poor decisions before the wreck

Morocco's ruling party is conspiring with Israel against Algeria's security and stability, the secretary-general of the Algerian National Liberation Front warned yesterday. Abu Al-Fadl Baadji told reporters that the Makhzen alliance and the Zionist entity aim to "influence Algeria's principled stances in support of just global causes, especially the Palestinian and Saharan issues." Baadji's remarks came during his meeting with the Cuban Ambassador to Algeria, Armando Vergara Bueno. On his part, Bueno stressed that his country was on the "same page as Algeria regarding the Palestinian and Saharan issues, as well as other international and regional matters." He explained that...

Cuba and China have signed a cooperation plan to push forward construction projects under Beijing’s controversial overseas infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has saddled many participating countries with heavy debt loads. The Chinese Embassy in Cuba announced the agreement on its website on Dec. 26, saying that the deal was inked two days earlier by He Lifeng, head of China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, and Cuban Vice Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas. The agreement implemented a memorandum of understanding the two nations signed in 2018, when Cuba agreed to become a...

A U.S. Navy warship has paused its deployment to South America due to a COVID-19 outbreak among its “100 percent immunized” crew, the Navy announced on Christmas Eve. “USS Milwaukee (LCS 5), a Freedom variant littoral combat ship, remains in port as some Sailors test positive for COVID-19,” the U.S. 4th Fleet said in a statement. “The crew is 100 percent immunized and all COVID-19 positive Sailors are isolated on board and away from other crew members. A portion those infected have exhibited mild symptoms. The vaccine continues to demonstrate effectiveness against serious illness.” The ship currently remains in port...

In November New York City voters sent a message by electing former NYPD officer Eric Adams as the next mayor. Adams' tough on crime stance solidified his victory. He has repeatedly vowed to restore order to the city, which is riddled with violent crime under outgoing Democrat Mayor Bill DeBlasio. But during an event Wednesday night, ironically to appoint the new NYPD commissioner, Adams stood in front of a mural glorifying convicted cop killer Assata Shakur. .... Shakur murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 and was sentenced to life in prison. She escaped from prison in 1979...

When Desi Arnaz first set eyes on Lucille Ball in the commissary of RKO Pictures in Hollywood in early 1940, it was not an auspicious beginning to their relationship. The Cuban bandleader-turned-fledgling actor made a derogatory remark about the then-B-movie actress’ appearance. “He wasn’t impressed at all, calling her a ’10-cent whore,’ a ‘p–a’ — the Spanish word for prostitute,” author Darwin Porter told The Post, noting that the 28-year-old Ball, five years older than Arnaz, was dressed for a role as a cheap burlesque dancer in the film “Dance, Girl, Dance” with Maureen O’Hara.

Five years ago this week a 90 year old Fidel Castro died peacefully in bed—a longevity and manner of passing he denied tens of thousands of his subjects. Naturally the big guns of the Democrat Party and Mainstream Media tried to give “balance” to his Stalinist regime’s “achievements” vs. its methodology. And some of them paid dearly—made to look like total jackasses—for their asinine commentary, Soledad O’Brien in particular. The Castro regime (many of the same people running Cuba today) jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin did during the Great Terror. They murdered more Cubans...

DEL RIO, Texas — Border Patrol agents in Del Rio apprehended more than 250 migrants crossing the Rio Grande in a single group. The group, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) crossed the river into the United States on Sunday near the Del Rio International Bridge where more than 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants were held in a makeshift detention camp in September. The source says the nationalities of the migrants were a mix of mostly Venezuelan and Cuban migrants. The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says the nearly 300 migrants are being held under...

Washington (AFP) – The United States on Monday announced new sanctions against Nicaragua government officials and the public prosecutor over recent "sham" elections that saw long-time leader Daniel Ortega win a fourth straight presidential term. Advertising The US Treasury "designated the Public Ministry of Nicaragua (the federal public prosecutor's office)... as well as nine officials of the Government of Nicaragua in response to the sham national elections," a statement from the department said. In the months ahead of the November 7 election, Nicaraguan authorities detained nearly 40 opposition figures, including seven would-be presidential challengers, virtually assuring victory for Ortega and...

Havana (AFP) – Cuban police deployed in large numbers on the streets of Havana Monday ahead of a rally the opposition has vowed to hold despite it being banned by the one-party state. Along the city's seaside esplanade, armed police in uniform gathered on nearly every corner, while others in civilian dress patrolled the city's squares and parks. Cuba's opposition has said the "15N" (November 15) gathering would go ahead in the face of the official ban, and the risk of criminal prosecution with hundreds still in jail after earlier protests that were put down by the armed forces. The...

A Navy captain who as head of a jury in a war-crimes court wrote a damning letter calling the C.I.A.’s torture of a terrorist “a stain on the moral fiber of America” said his views are typical of senior members of the U.S. military. Capt. Scott B. Curtis, the jury foreman, said it is just that he had the opportunity to express his thoughts in a letter proposing clemency for the prisoner Majid Khan, a Qaeda recruit who pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder charges for delivering $50,000 from his native Pakistan to finance a deadly bombing in Indonesia. But...

More than three dozen Democrats are taking heat for voting against a House resolution sponsored by a fellow Democrat calling for solidarity with Cubans after historic anti-government protests in the summer led to a brutal crackdown by authorities. The 40 Democrats, mostly from the progressive caucus, voted "no" Wednesday to “expressing solidarity with Cuban citizens demonstrating peacefully for fundamental freedoms, condemning the Cuban regime’s acts of repression, and calling for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained Cuban citizens.”...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. In the 80s, the Sandinista Marxist terrorists were hotter than pastel suits and shoulder pads. Sandinista! by The Clash was eating up the music charts and Hollywood celebrities like Ed Asner and Mike Farrell bypassed Cuba for the exciting new socialist nightmare in Nicaragua. When Marxist butcher Daniel Ortega appeared at a New York Athletic Club reception in 1984, CBS' Mike Wallace, Michael Douglas, and the entire media showed up to give the terrorist and his...

“'My Cuban Missile Crisis tryst with JFK': When the United States stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy sent his wife and children away to stay at the family's summer farm in Virginia. But he pulled his 19-year-old mistress (Mimi Alford) close, summoning her from her college while he stared down the Soviet Union.” But don’t take this appalling datum from me. After all, I’m an “embittered right-wing-Cuban exile with an axe to grind.” Fine. Take it from JFK’s mistress-of- the-minute herself. Details here. Presidential mistress (while a teenager) Mimi...

"The biggest defeat in our nation's history!" bellowed Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay while whacking his fist on his desk upon learning the details of the deal President Kennedy cut with Khrushchev regarding the missiles. Aaw come on, Humberto!' Some amigos retort. 'Gen. LeMay was a serious war-monger and NUTCASE!—the model for Gen. Ripper in Dr Strangelove! Are you saying we shoulda started a worldwide nuclear war with tens of millions incinerated to liberate a two-bit Caribbean island of barely 7 million people?!'Nothing of the sort. In fact, the choice at the time was never between nuclear...

On the face of it, America has little to fear from China's new deal to upgrade Cuba's power grid. The countries are already firm allies via their Communist leaders, Havana is under a diplomatic and economic embargo from Washington, and all efforts to mend ties between the two ended when Obama left office. But scratch the surface and what emerges is a picture of Chinese economic dominance in America's backyard that would be enough give any president sleepless nights. In fact, the deal with Cuba - signed this week as part of China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative - is...

Saab was charged with money laundering in the US One of President Nicolás Maduro's closest aides has been extradited from Cape Verde to the United States, where he's been charged with money laundering. The US Treasury says Alex Saab worked as a front man for Mr Maduro's regime. The Venezuelan government suspended talks soon afterwards with the US-backed opposition. The talks were to resolve a political crisis that has led to violence and the collapse of the economy

The police chief in Miami has been ousted after only six months on the job amid intense clashes with City Hall and accusations of bizarre antics. Art Acevedo — once called “the Michael Jordan of police chiefs” by Miami’s mayor — was suspended Monday with “the intent to terminate his employment,” City Manager Art Noriega said in a statement. Acevedo had quickly fallen out of favor with Miami’s top officials since his April hiring, accusing them of corruption and sparking outrage by referring to police commissioners as “the Cuban Mafia,” according to The Miami Herald. “The relationship between the Chief...