The Foundation believes that this “progress” is the result of the lawsuit it filed in court five days ago.
To our Translating Cuba readers: This article is now 20 days old, in an ever changing reality. We post it here for its ‘historic’ value, and possible relation to future events.
14ymedio, Madrid, 10 March 2025 — The US State Department, led by Marco Rubio, has decided to unfreeze the funds allocated to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) that were frozen by the Trump administration in early February. In a statement released Monday , the institution expressed its gratitude for the decision. “This is a significant step toward ensuring that the NED can continue its mission of promoting freedom around the world.”
Former Congressman Peter Roskam, chairman of the NED Board, added: “These are important steps toward fully restoring our ability to support frontline defenders of democracy in repressive regimes, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia, and elsewhere.”
“We remain committed to achieving a final resolution that will allow NED to support the United States by promoting democracy and freedom around the world,” said NED President and CEO Damon Wilson. “A freer and more prosperous world strengthens U.S. security, drives economic growth, and reinforces American global leadership.”
The “partial restoration” of funding, the NED continues in its statement, allows them to “begin to stabilize operations and resume grantmaking.”
The Foundation believes this “progress” is the result of the lawsuit it filed five days ago in U.S. District Court against executive branch agencies and officials for illegally withholding funds allocated to it by Congress. Monday’s statement recalls the denial of $167 million that had already been allocated and an additional $72 million that Congress directly mandated.
The “partial restoration” of funding, the NED continues in its statement, allows them to “begin to stabilize operations and resume grantmaking.” It also hopes to ensure “access to the full amount of funds allocated by Congress” and that “their funding will not be interrupted again in the future.”
The freezing of NED funds, as well as other federal allocations, particularly those of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has caused shock among thousands of non-governmental organizations around the world that depend heavily on them, including most of Cuba’s independent media and human rights activists on the island.
Several digital media outlets, such as CubaNet, El Toque, and Diario de Cuba, have launched a fundraising campaign among their readers. One of their hopes, however, lies with Marco Rubio himself, who also assumed the role of interim director of USAID on February 3. Although this marks the end of the agency as an independent entity, the former Cuban-American senator from Florida is aware of the pressing needs of the various actors fighting for democracy and freedom of expression on and off the island.