 Hi, this is Sandy Bear, we're back with what's happening after a long, too long hiatus. With me today is Graham Clark, a former principal and an educator, still an educator of course in the state of Vermont, and Kurt Mehta, an attorney in both Vermont and New Jersey. And the three of us are very interested and have been for quite some time in Cuba and what's going on in Cuba, so we're here today to talk about what is happening with all, there have been recurring protests in Cuba against the government of the Republic of Cuba and also pro-government. So we're here today to talk about somewhat about what's happening in Cuba today. And that is a story that has not been covered hugely by the mainstream press, but we think it's very important. And so here today is Kurt and Graham and me to talk about Cuba today. Okay, so Kurt you're the person who has had the most to say on many ways about Cuba, so what's going on? Right, so I think what has been actually covered by the mainstream press, Sandy, is that there were massive protests in Cuba on July 11th and these protests were in with respect to the fuel shortage in Cuba, the food shortage in Cuba, the fact that the Cuban government actually developed an indigenous vaccine, five of them as a matter of fact, and the first non-large industrial country to do such and has been unable to distribute these vaccines because lack of vaccine related paraphernalia that has significantly limited their ability to distribute the vaccine to the people, so numbers of COVID infections have skyrocketed and that's created a great deal of discontent on the streets as to why there's a lockdown still in place, the government down there had originally said that by the end of August the entire island would be vaccinated and back in business and open and free and maskless and open to tourists. That doesn't seem to be happening because of the shortage of syringes and other medical items and it's created some frustration on the streets in Cuba. Now what's interesting is that was seen on the United States as well as Western European television sets and internet as a total frustration with the Cuban government and a weak Cuban government and a Cuban government that was about to collapse and that's been the narrative that we've largely seen here, whether it's in New York Times editorials, whether it's comments made by politicians from the mayor of Miami all the way up to the president of the United States and I think what we I think wanted to have today is a discussion about the fact that these protests as authentic and as real as they appeared on American television sets, there was some external coordination and support that has not really been discussed in magazines and newspapers as esteemed as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal in this country and that's partly what you know what we want to discuss the fact that the this campaign in Cuba was not completely spontaneous independent and not just that that that it was actually financed by external interests now whether those external interests are the U.S. government or if they're independent organizations you know history will tell us what that is there are allegations out there but we don't know for sure who was responsible but the fact that you know a government you know to support Cuban critics critics of Cuba of of how that society is run Cuba is a tightly controlled country it's spontaneous protests can start up in 40 cities and the Cuban government would not know any anything about this in advance reasons and causes for that so that's that's something that's that's important to you know to for people to know that are that are watching yeah Graham do you have any yeah couple couple things so 40 cities and it seems like there's common agreement that that was unprecedented in the last right several decades yeah I'm just you use the word massive can you put how many people were in Havana are they saying great point Graham so interesting thing is the the way it's been mentioned in our press and much of the European and international press is that you would think there were thousands upon hundreds of thousands of people of the cities outside of less than a hundred people were out in protest hundreds of thousands and millions of people on the streets was there were images of protests in Egypt that had taken place how do you know that is that how did you find that out that's something that the Guardian has actually newspapers actually reported Guardian that's in English that's right it's a British yeah as well as celebrations in Argentina for some soccer match and that was often photos of what transpired on July another that the current president of Cuba asked the Cuban people who were supporting the government to come out and show and something like 200,000 people came out to say that we're frustrated with what's happening but we're not trying to discard this government and the society that we have and what happened is in a lot of American mainstream media presentations of those protests favor of the government yeah supporting the government they failed to provide context and show that these were pro-government protesters the the current government so the protests you know like we're kind of going back to the discussion of the size of the Trump inauguration you know okay who's there how many people were there but into making people think it was why did they muddle it or did they deceive us scenario you can say that you know they simply didn't provide the context of who was out on the streets and who are they supporting and who are they against and they're not afraid anymore and that she want this government to collapse and that's the way it's been portrayed in the press as well as you know before from you know mayors to Washington DC exactly acceleration of throughout the island she will but also yes and and then what it appears now is the Biden administration you know having been handed the baton right of being tough on Cuba so we had we had a group of 20 Burlington educators and in Havana April of 2019 and so with with so many things but certainly with Cuba there there are so many things facts that can be true it right it was an unprecedented event it it did have larger people come out much smaller than reported and Cuba has done a pretty remarkable job it seems that while their vaccines have not been all the literature has been submitted to the international scientific community it seems like those vaccines are up to about 28 percent of the country so they were looking to get 70 percent by the end of this month right that was so there you know the mainstream press will talk about you know the incredible vaccine shortages in Cuba and you look around the Caribbean and well Cuba's in the one of the top countries absolutely administering a vaccine for a non-developed western country what the reality you know if you take countries in Asia and Africa as well as the rest of the Caribbean I think they account for something like one percent of the population of these places has received have received the vaccine but although that's good figures but I want to explore a little bit with why is the United States always been so interested essentially in regime change in Cuba and this is another kind of example in other words the United States has always taken the position that it is the right in a way of the United States to interfere with Cuban politics and destroy that regime and that did not alter after the death of the Castro's or the Fidel Castro of Fidel Castro right and then Raul is still alive but he's supposedly no longer in charge he's not the charges right however the press still refers to Cuba Cuban government as the Castro right or the Communist or whatever right and it gives the United States the absolute excuse to operate with impunity in Cuba which is what I've always I mean what I've always felt about Cuba is that the United States should be friendly to its neighbors and that we should be supporting the Cuban people regardless of what government it is and the United States has always taken the position of making Cuban lives miserable right I mean the the our current president right now has made a statement after the July 11th events being careful with what I call them some people call them protests other people call them riots and Cuba cars were overturned rocks were thrown shops were looted now you know you have to look at the context you know on the right and the left in our country you know what we call things yes of course on the left people call the January 6th in quote-unquote insurrection right an insurrection and a riot and they'll call the black lives matter protests right quote protests and the right will call them riots right because shops were looted and there was there was actual violence on the streets right so the events that took place on July 11th in Cuba were were were not precedented in that country and they have been you know they have been portrayed as an attempt to try to bring the government down there and our president our current president right now has talked about being with the Cuban people right however in terms of trying to ameliorate the conditions right for the average Cuban person on the street it doesn't appear that our policies are in line with being with the Cuban people when it comes to food when it comes to the fact that medications for the treatment of cancer forget about covid for children right cannot be ex cannot be sent to that country you know so how is that being with the Cuban people okay so maybe we should talk about that under President Obama the sort of the narrative was is that he opened relations with Cuba he made Cuban lives much better and in fact he did he he at least recognized Cuba as a legitimate country and we began to have diplomatic relations it appeared that there was a new path yeah there was a new opening I've always commended President Obama about that because and I happen to think largely is because President Obama probably recognizes Cuban not only as a poor country in need of our help but also fairly diverse country and largely people of color and I think I think Obama had sympathy for that however as all of us should have I want to you know a nuanced opinion even about Obama all right you know part of what what transpired on July 11th was it showed the power of social media yes as a new weapon of war right right trees and that's what if there was any coordination that took place it was through social media yep now who was behind that social media campaign you know we can talk about that during for the a little bit of the time that we have but even during the Obama administration there were attempts yep yes even prior to his administration of expanding internet accessibility right on that island from an extra exterior source and still are and still are right and that has been part of the you know the dialogue even under under the Biden administration how do we flood that is the dialogue yeah how do we flood that and you know if you go back to the Alan Gross yes yes you know what you wish me some explanation so Alan Gross was a contractor for USAID USAID and he was arrested in Cuba for distributing satellite equipment right to expand internet now before you go into Cuba you know you know there are certain things you shouldn't bring in satellite equipment is one of those things your pornography narcotic drugs illegal narcotic drugs and a host of other things however knowing that he still went in and did that and he was caught and he was arrested and spend time in jail a lot of time yeah fair amount of time and our senator Leahy was instrumental in having him prisoner exchange prisoner exchange and released right to the United States and he has got nothing decent to say about Cuba also Alan Gross maybe the food but right but then then there was another program under the Obama administration it was called Zanzanayo and what it was was it was basically creating a Twitter like platform in Spanish down in Cuba that would originally start out as being focused on music and dancing and people meeting one another and the objective was later to then transition that into a political mechanism like Voice of America right but on the ground in Cuba in Spanish to then create a situation where a mob can be directed and protests can be started in that country but the process was shelved in 2012 now this is right square in the middle you know of the Obama presidency so you know I think the objective was always to have that country change yeah sure it's always been regime change however I think it was using soft power under the Obama administration through dialogue but there's always yeah carrots rather than a stick than a stick approach right right yeah it's never changed you're right has always been to try to get rid of a socialist society you know right Western hemisphere right exactly the Monroe Doctrine well yeah go ahead can we talk about two things that during the Obama years there was the United Nations vote on the 60 year old sanctions yeah right embargo embargo against Cuba right again there was a vote two a month ago or so right recently it was a true that during the Obama years there was one vote where the United States in the UN voted to abstain they they actually abstained in the day they didn't vote no but that was a huge victory for Cuba that broke precedent that broke precedent and I think if I'm not mistaken I could be mistaken but it was the same year perhaps that Obama visited Cuba yeah I went to the baseball game with Raul Castro so I think it would have been there was a year they had Obama the Pope and the Rolling Stones yeah it really did seem like a brand-new day and but I agree with you the policy toward Cuba but not only toward Cuba toward all of Latin America has always been the same which is to not have any socialist regime or I would call it a government a socialist government in all of Latin America period in the West well pretty much all over the world right all over the world as a result of the Cold War sure it's always been Cold War politics but especially now I mean given the fact that we have you know whether you want to call them good relations or poor relations we do have relations with with China we do have relations with Vietnam China right with China we do have to but we do have relations with Vietnam despite a bloody conflict that we were involved in for a long time where a lot of people on both sides were killed I know don't remind right but but with Cuba it's it's a different story right and there I think there are reasons for that but you wanted to say something yeah I did yeah what what I wanted to say escapes me but there was in the US press you hear about the embargo and there's you know it doesn't impact medicines it doesn't impact food right you're talking and you're you're saying well not really it's simply not true yeah I mean the shortages the shortages on the ground that you see in Cuba are largely related to things like food things like fuel and medicines and you know what's interesting is people always will talk to me that you know have a slight familiarity with Cuba not a whole lot but they'll say well why don't they just get those things from the rest of the world you know it is the Cuban government that's poor and efficient because you know we're one country and what people don't often realize is there's a principle behind the embargo which is called extraterritoriality if I said that right and what that means is the what what makes the the embargo really biting the US embargo is the fact that other countries if other countries traded with Cuba and let's say product X that country would be then excluded from the American market so Volkswagen Siemens you know a British company if if they sold their products to Cuba they would have to basically forgo the American market and that's a tough business decision to make and we've seen so much in the last 18 months the interdependence in the global relationships of of the economy of course but that's critical because that's why the Cubans call the embargo the blockade it's a block it's a virtual blockade it's a blockade yeah right and so there you know I've I've had lots of people including people that are friends of ours who say well you know it is the inept incompetent government could be except that how could any tiny island withstand that kind of economic pressure I'm surprised really I'm always surprised at the resistance of Cuba to remain true to itself and be able to even survive in this world it's a non-industrialized country that you know relies heavily on receiving products from abroad even many items of food right from abroad including rice from Vietnam right so right now there's a significant shortage of syringes in Cuba to administer the vaccines which are three shot vaccines correct so the same you need a 33 percent more syringes in Cuba than you would in the United States correct correct not including yeah the Johnson and Johnson vaccine sure correct yeah and I'm not sure Sandy or Kurt how the program works but is it possible to put a tagline in for information relative to the number of organizations in the United States that are working is a global health partners who's fundraised for I think they've already delivered 400,000 syringes today it's okay okay and you know yes I think it's all right to talk about humanitarian efforts to help the Cuban people and that's what you're really talking about but I want to get to something before that because there are other countries that have offered help to Cuba and it's critical to understand that because there are other countries there was a brilliant little sentence in the consortium article today it's poor countries helping poor people poor countries are going to Cuba's assistance which I think is really like heartbreaking in a way that the richest country on earth is making Cuban people miserable while other poor countries are trying to help Cuba which is a poor country like Nicaragua did you see that today right so Nicaragua is you know while we're talking about creating screwing Cuba and a naval flotilla that was going to set sail from Miami to surround Cuba the is that right yes yes and it didn't amount to much a bunch of ships we're going to cross the Florida ships that were what private navies private private vessels yeah you know as Sandy mentioned the government of Nicaragua a poor country too a very poor country under very similar you know difficult situations but not I mean situation but not nearly as bad as Cuba their sending supplies Mexico has sent Vietnam has been yeah China yeah Russia Russia has sent some supplies including a million masks and some other medical products to to help the country so maybe at the end of the show we could share some information yeah if you have it right I don't have it off the top of my head about the organizations that are doing the syringe yeah but I also I also want to say that as far as I know under the current regulations okay let me let me just say something else was Obama did relax some travel to Cuba he made it really pretty easy to go to Cuba to bring money to Cuba they were called remittances to send money to the Cuban people he made all of that a whole lot easier which boy I really commended him for that at the time but when President Tom came into office it was again to buckle down Cuba to the whole policy of regime change came back in force not that it didn't really ever go away ever go away but it did at least it opened up humanitarian aid to Cuba on a on basically on one to one level but Trump made all of that worse he disallowed now remittances from family to family the Cuban economy was basically based on on Cuban families here sending money to their relatives in Cuba he said no or he reduced the amount correct that's yeah okay so he reduced the amount and and they're saying that that amount so it's a major portion of the economy does anyone know any immigrant group that does not send money back to their families worldwide no and it has been going on for centuries it happens in every country it happens you kidding it is the basis for for many third world countries and it's not just money Graham it's not just money being sent it's what's done with that money and people actually invest you know in creating air bnb's as the tourist sector is very important people fix up restaurants there so that they can serve tourists so it's not it's not just you know essentially giving the poor man a piece of fish it is sort of giving them you know fishing lessons so in April of 2019 we're in an air bnb and Armando Villaseca took us to the Francisco who were staying with his grandson had just opened up this phenomenal bakery yeah and it was in the french bakery it was yeah a collaboration he had a friend in the states who he had worked with around ingredients and and whatnot so your your point is well taken that i mean sometimes it's just right and it's up to they're saying that their remittances that went two years ago so trump didn't cut that down until his second or third year i don't remember but it's kind of down which is it which is 700 yes which is a billion to a billion dollars is not going into Cuba right the people's hands right and again you know you've got to remember that we're talking about a small population and island this is a big numbers yeah yeah and and biden just again uh kept that in place and biden the cuban government's you know taking some money will so they charge for america's dollars of course as does western union to transmit as does everyone yeah any international travel i've done you know when you exchange money there's a commission always yeah right but but but i really want to stress that so at a time of covid of course it increased when covid broke out and the pandemic broke out cuba found itself locked down from tourism right you know even though trump had also basically exploited cuba and hurt cuba so did the pandemic because then tourists couldn't go either but so i i want to get behind you know another point i mean is it because trump or biden for that matter really care that much about cuba yes no i think it's about domestic politics in the united states yeah some the importance of florida yeah in that calculation yeah but you're asking two different things yes to those particular politicians and to the politics of the united states florida has always been key correct okay and the florida vote which is and we should talk about florida because that's where a lot where the anti-cuban sentiment comes from but there's something else that goes on historically the united states has always through the munro doctrine wanted to have complete control over all of latin america over it all south america central america the caribbean canada and the united states although canada is well it won't go there we do have a military base on the soil yes and that's really important and i want to talk to you after that one united states in 1904 and after the spanish-american war took control over cuba and established a naval base there which is still there it is the u.s. naval base so it's not just during the right and during the the creation of the the constitution of cuba at the time after they achieved independence from spain we actually pushed a a amendment to their constitution referred to as the plat amendment after a u.s. senator named after a u.s. senator that basically tells cuba to understand that in the event that anything were to happen on the island that could adversely impact american interests the united states essentially had the right to intervene militarily even if necessary on the island for any for anything that needed to be done including the change of a government or an administration correct so that has been long-standing really since 1898 that ever since cuba supposedly got independent from spain okay it's also been true in portorico too i mean that's when the united states of portorico and the philippines and sure and on and on when it basically defeated the spanish empire so it's nothing new although it's an additional twist because when cubans left the island after the revolution largely white people and rich people correct yes a lot of professionals disproportionate you know but it was also racist i mean it was white people who left right it wasn't black people and and they were coming to in america at that time where segregation was the law of the land yes still correct right but they but they came here with the idea always of going back after the communists were defeated um and those play into the politics of florida as you mentioned in fact i heard really rather a horrifying thing in the news that the miami mayor i don't know which political party he is was actually saying that by biden was should bomb havana right so these are people's relatives right he's a did he say that i mean did you hear that yes yeah they really suggested that yeah air that airstrikes commenced against okay so this was a week after um he saw a gigantic building in his city collapse and right kill hundreds of people so he was acutely aware of what happens when when port when building infrastructure right can be you know impacted yeah and i i think as important as florida is to to the equation uh if the democrats continue to win and never win florida they'll never win florida it won't make any difference because this what we're talking about certainly goes way back into the 1800s and the 1900s and not just florida becoming important in the west but i think what sandi mentioned this is just the newest twist yes now that there but there is that twist because after 1959 all these rich cubans largely white cubans came to this country and that's the politics of florida there are other politics of florida of course i'm not meaning to totally uh condom condom florida by any means but that is each party wants to win the florida vote right every each party because it's so crucial right then yeah then the other interesting thing is you know aside from florida as a factor uh in in the current you know policy of our government is whether or not you know so the the july 11th event uh it's been referred to by some people you know uh in a kind of in a comical way as we recall the bay of pigs invasions yeah called the bay of tweets because this was largely social media driven and uh whether or not this was essentially a policy like kennedy took from eisenhower that perhaps biden took from from the trump administration in that uh it doesn't really have much to do with florida politics this was a handover of a policy right biden ran when he ran uh for the office of the presidency talked about returning to the the obama right i know rations tactics with respect to cuba suddenly after he was elected uh there was silence about what the policy with respect to cuba was going to be and all the way through july 10th correct right there was absolute silence and then when uh his foreign policy establishment was asked uh what is going to be the cuban policy because they have explained what the policy was going to be with respect to other countries sort of sort of and if it were going to change and they were met with silence and and essentially the response was at this point cuba is not a high priority in the foreign policy objectives and goals of the country and so there wasn't much said about that at all about cuba and we go from that to then what took place on july 11th and then it seems like we have a firm policy which was to not him yeah which was not only to maintain the 243 measures that trump took against the country but to add to that and to ask for individualized sanctions on different individuals that are part of the cuban government we only have a couple of minutes um but and i want to mention one thing but then i want to you know have you talk about those organizations and that is that according to the consortium article today there's an interesting known shift in foreign policy that's also occurring around cuba and that is cuba is getting very important allies which is going to really bother the united states because the the nations that have been helping cuba are nations which really also will could affect the united states hegemony in the world right there's just a return in 1960 all over again i don't know what do you mean well i mean when you know when the united states and cuba you know traded tit for tat sanctions against one another it basically opened the door for the soviet union yes well right okay okay so that article points out this growing alliance between russia china nicaragua venezuela um iran in iran because iran is now selling oil and vietnam and iran is and that to produce produced of the cuban vaccines the cuban produced vaccines this is important this is really really important anyway for cuba but also for everybody in the world it would seem okay but graham you want to mention some organizations that might be delivering yes which i i don't have off the top of my head so but we could also talk about the cuban american friendship society which is determined to do i would invite anyone to just google cuba vaccine campaigns and i think global health partners is do you remember that name of the organization in the united states that's probably has the largest campaign going and and many members uh of the cuban american friendship society and and vermont uh citizens have been donating you know to to those very well the cuban american friendship society since the 90s have been having humanitarian and educational trips to cuba i would hope that we could do that again soon to deliver humanitarian aid that's always been legal right so for well i'm going to ask both of you folks as members of the cuban american friendship society can americans donate money we're looking into that right right to you know i don't know what i was thinking maybe not violate the embargo we're gonna try i would never do anything illegal right i'm a lawyer so i have to be real careful but we are looking into what is possible and what isn't and uh and i believe that humanitarian aid is still possible and they need it right they really need it so with that thank you for joining us on cuba today and on what's happening and see you in a month or so bye