Ceasing the broadcasts of these entities results in a great lack of information among those fighting against dictatorships.
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 23 March 2025 — This is not the first time I have written about Radio Martí, an entity that for many Cubans is an informational battering ram against the systematic and permanent lies of the Cuban dictatorship and its associates in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. The Voice of America (VOA) and other similar agencies of the United States federal government have also done so for decades.
Transmissions are an expensive service that must be re-evaluated in its management without being eliminated. In any government entity, regardless of the country, mistakes are made and it is likely that acts of corruption are not lacking. However, the solution is never to throw out the sofa*, but rather the subjects who have carried out a bad administration, might be sanctioned judicially if the crime requires it.
Without a doubt, denouncing autocracies is an essential mandate of democracies. Educating in aspects such as citizen freedoms and prerogatives is an obligation for all of us who enjoy the freedoms and rights that make this great nation an example. Radio Martí, despite its inefficiencies, completely fulfilled this function for Cuba.
It is true that its transmissions have not overthrown Castro’s totalitarianism, nor has the VOA destroyed the regimes of Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. However, by duly fulfilling its mission of providing true and balanced news, it cooperates with those who actively, and in different ways, fight the autocrats.
For more than six decades the Castro dictatorship has proven to be the most dangerous and consistent enemy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere
Ceasing the transmissions of these entities generates a great informational helplessness among those who fight against dictatorships. It must be borne in mind that if “knowledge is power,” ignorance on the part of opponents of what is happening in Cuba and in the world leads them to absolute defenselessness.
For more than six decades, the Castro dictatorship has proven to be the most dangerous and consistent enemy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere, promoting throughout Latin America proposals contrary to American democracy.
Its weapons have been propaganda and terrorism, and it is the transmissions of these federal stations that neutralize the string of lies and deceptions that the Castro-chavista regimes manufacture against their people.
Cuban totalitarianism has used its vote in international organizations to favor resolutions against the United States, benefiting the enemies of Washington – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – for at least fifty years.
According to numerous complaints, military and espionage bases of some adversaries of the United States have been installed in Cuba, consistently undermining US national security.
The regime has infiltrated the U.S. with its spies and has captured lackeys in universities and government agencies with the aim of obtaining information, while showing itself as an innocent victim of all kinds of aggression by the White House against its own people. Radio Martí has destroyed those lies for almost 40 years, thanks to a programming that, without being perfect, has always told the truth.
Radio Martí has destroyed those lies for almost 40 years, thanks to a programming that, without being perfect, has always told the truth
I joined Radio Martí in 1998, under the administration of Roberto Rodríguez Tejera, a man who, to my knowledge, completely fulfilled the mandates of his position.
I can assure you that during these 23 years I did not agree with many of the things that happened and even less with some of the executives of the Office of Transmissions to Cuba (OCB). However, I consider that “the Mission,” as the late Cristina Sansón said, is the most important thing, which is why I do not understand those who attack the station with the intention of destroying it. It is true that it had flaws, we all know that, but Cubans on the Island need it to continue to fulfill its functions.
I dare say that, despite its deficiencies and probable improper handling, the OCB has fulfilled its objectives of bringing the truth to Cuba and making many citizens on the Island oppose totalitarianism, because they have known the truth through the radio waves of Radio Martí. Opposition leaders, such as José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, and independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar also request that it not disappear.
*Translator’s note: A common Cuban expression that comes from the following joke: [Briefly]…A man comes home to find his wife and her lover having sex on the sofa. Enraged, he throws the sofa out the window.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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