‘CubaNet’ launches a campaign to raise funds to continue its work and “protect journalists who are under harassment” on the Island
14ymedio, Madrid, 7 February 2025 — President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend cooperation through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has caused an earthquake in almost all countries, where thousands of non-governmental organizations depend, to a greater or lesser extent, on those funds.
In the case of Cuba, the concern is very serious. Last year alone, according to the report made by business magnate Elon Musk at Trump’s request, revealed to Congress by Senator John Kennedy, the expenditure to “rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem” was one and a half million dollars. It is an infinitesimal part of USAID’s total budget of 60 billion dollars annually, but it represents a substantial part of the expenditures of several independent media, which try to compensate for the Cuban regime’s propaganda with unofficial news.
In addition, dozens of Cuban organizations working for human rights, free enterprise and freedom of expression benefited from these funds. The US Embassy on the Island also organizes several programs and scholarships to train Cubans in human rights, diplomacy and languages, which could be affected.
Last year alone, USAID’s expenditure to “rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem” was one and a half million dollars
CubaNet, dean of the independent press, has launched a campaign to raise funds with an alarming message. The money raised – from donations as little as three dollars – will help “so that the press media that has truthfully informed you for more than 25 years can continue its extraordinary work and protect journalists who are under harassment from the regime.”
Luis Cino, a collaborator of CubaNet, attacked the decision to suspend the aid. “Trump is about to achieve what the repressors of State Security have not been able to achieve: ending independent journalism in Cuba,” he said on his networks. Explicitly asking not to comment on anything publicly until they have more information about the measure, several NGOs linked to Cuban affairs, including those based in Miami, communicated to their employees the cessation of their payments and collaborations, Café Fuerte said on January 28.
Hope for the independent organizations and media lies in the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The former Cuban-American senator for Florida, aware of all those headlines and activists inside and outside the Island, was appointed interim director of USAID last Monday.
Hope for the independent organizations and media lies in the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio
Although Rubio, who made the announcement during his official trip to El Salvador, assured that “the USAID functions will continue,” he did not take a position on the future of the agency, saying that it suffers from the “endemic problem” of refusing to align its projects with the interests of US foreign policy.
“Every dollar we spend, every program we finance must be aligned with the national interest of the United States, and USAID has a history of ignoring that and deciding that, somehow, they are a global charity separate from the national interest,” he said to the press.
That same Monday, USAID workers in Washington were ordered to stay at home, and the agency’s offices in the American capital were sealed shut.
Meanwhile, the Cuban regime’s press makes fuel from the fallen tree, after decades of denouncing that both USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) serve only to “submit the internal agendas of other countries to the interests of the White House.”
This same Thursday, Cubainformación.tv, a Castro channel financed with Spanish public funds through Basque entities, returned to the charge, defining the cooperation agency – created in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, by President John F. Kennedy – as “a front for the intelligence services” of the United States.
In a brief statement published last Tuesday, the BBC acknowledged that its charitable organization has been affected
The cut not only affects small organizations and independent media that fight against the dictatorships of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but also colossal ones such as the British BBC, whose NGO in charge of supporting press freedom in the world – BBC Media Action – has notified its beneficiaries that the US Government was financing part of its budget.
In a brief statement published last Tuesday, the BBC recognized that its charity has been affected by the “temporary pause in funding by the United States Government, which amounted to 8% of our income in 2023-24.” The BBC assures that it is “doing everything possible to minimize the impact on our partners and the people we serve.”
Likewise, it explains that BBC Media Action “supports local media around the world to provide reliable information to the most needy people,” recalling that 75% of countries around the globe do not have a free press.
They also explain that the NGO is “completely separate” from BBC News, the company’s information division, and that it depends “totally” on “donors and sympathizers” to carry out its work.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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