Center for Democracy in the Americas

On Thursday, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) agreed to make a secret financial payment to Alan and Judy Gross to settle the lawsuit the couple filed against it last year. DAI lured Alan Gross with a lucrative contract to smuggle banned satellite communications equipment into Cuba on a mission that left… read more »

In Revisiting Operation Surf, investigative journalist Tracey Eaton converses with Robert Guerra, former director of Freedom House’s Internet Freedom Project, about the attempt to smuggle satellite dishes into Cuba by disguising them as boogie boards. Cuba’s government says that Guerra was the “handler” for the actual smuggler, Barry Fink, a… read more »

Elisabeth Malkin, New York Times – A Guatemalan court on Friday found Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, the former dictator who ruled Guatemala during one of the bloodiest periods of its long civil war, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Judge Yasmín Barrios sentenced General Ríos Montt, 86, to 80 years in… read more »

Earlier this week, Vice President Biden said Cuba had made some “small encouraging signs of change,” but that the administration still wants to see “real change.” Unsurprisingly, this didn’t make headlines.  It’s a little sad but it’s not news that their two-year-old message about Cuba, “your change isn’t big enough,”… read more »

Just before we hit send, there was an important development in the case involving René González, a member of the Cuban Five. González, who was permitted by U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lenard to travel to Cuba for two weeks under strict conditions pursuant to his probation, will renounce his… read more »

In his aptly named Into the Cuckoo’s Nest, investigative journalist Tracey Eaton provides three great examples of how schizophrenic U.S. policy toward Cuba can be, all drawn from USAID’s program there. Typically, development programs provide access to clean water, food, shelter and medical attention—that is, they seek to alleviate poverty…. read more »

Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times – Cuba’s communist leadership was quick to send condolences to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and to reiterate to Washington that it “rejects and condemns unequivocally all acts of terrorism.” Once a key supplier of arms and training to leftist rebels in… read more »

Victoria Burnett, New York Times - In many ways, it was a typical May Day: Hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers — doctors, sailors, dancers, bank clerks — marched Wednesday toward this city’s vast Revolution Plaza, waving flags, holding aloft banners that proclaimed fidelity to socialism and tooting plastic horns. But… read more »

A PDF version of the El Salvador Update is available here. A PDF version of the April 2013 Peacemaking Chronology is available here. Versión en formato PDF aquí. If you would like to receive the Monthly El Salvador Update via email, contact: ElSalvadorUpdate@democracyinamericas.org.  Summary: In the midst of political bickering, economic… read more »

Office of Rep. Sam Farr, WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) today sent a letter signed by 59 Members of Congress to President Barack Obama, asking the Administration to expand its current policy for travel to Cuba. The letter encourages President Obama to allow all categories of permissible travel… read more »

Former U.S. diplomat Patrick Ryan, The Hill – As a former U.S. diplomat who authored the 2007-09 Country Reports on Terrorism for Nigeria and visited Cuba many times on official business, I believe keeping Cuba on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism is absurd and highly political, particularly given… read more »

Kathy Castor, Tampa’s representative in Congress, has got courage.  Of the twenty-seven members of Florida’s delegation, only five have more Cuban Americans in their districts than she has living in hers.  None but Castor has made the effort, as she did a few weeks ago, to visit Cuba. When Ms…. read more »

At a time when the national news is dominated by talk of deficits, budget cuts and sequestration, at least two Senators are incensed that USAID is proposing a modest 6% cut in its 2014 fiscal year budget. Rajiv Shah, USAID’s administrator, explained to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “We have… read more »

HAVANA TIMES — The following is an extensive analysis and on-the-scene account by the Center for Democracy in the Americas of the recent Venezuelan elections that gave Nicolas Maduro a slight victory over challenger Henrique Capriles and the lingering controversy in the aftermath. Caracas Connect: Photo Finish and a Lingering… read more »

William March, The Tampa Tribune- U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, fresh back from a trip to Cuba, has told President Barack Obama in a letter that the U.S. travel ban and trade embargo against Cuba are outdated, unproductive and harmful and should be reformed. In the four-page letter, Castor… read more »

Since the polls closed in Caracas on Sunday evening, April 14th, bringing a polarizing campaign to an end with a surprising photo finish, events in Venezuela have been fast moving.  While Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner, and sworn in as president, the controversy surrounding the campaign is outliving… read more »

María Isabel Alfonso, Havana Times – “Las mujeres en las Américas tienen mucho que ofrecer para ayudar a sus homólogas en Cuba a alcanzar un mayor estado de bienestar social. Los Estados Unidos apoyan los esfuerzos de las mujeres de otros países latinoamericanos; a esto podría incorporarse un proyecto de intercambio… read more »

This was a violent, disheartening week in the United States.  A town called West, Texas was knocked down by an explosion at a fertilizer plant that claimed at least a dozen lives and injured hundreds of others.  Survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School and other massacres watched with broken hearts as… read more »

In his post, U.S. withholds democracy “trade secrets,” investigative journalist Tracey Eaton reports that the U.S. State Department “paid the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe more than $2 million to promote democracy in Cuba from 2007 to 2011, but refuses to give full details of the group’s work on… read more »

When the ballots were counted in Venezuela on Sunday, April 14, Nicolás Maduro won election to succeed the late president, Hugo Chávez, but by the narrowest of margins.  Dr. Dan Hellinger, CDA’s emeritus president, advisory board member, and author of our monthly update on Venezuela, Caracas Connect, was asked to comment… read more »

The reaction, more precisely, the overreaction was brutal. Just for visiting Cuba, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were serially accused of violating the law, taking a vacation, enriching a dictatorship, even ignoring or subsidizing racism. Vicious words, and a familiar tactic.  Slagging celebrities has long been part of the larger effort to… read more »

It seems that the more we learn about USAID’s democracy promotion programs in Cuba, the less we really know about them.  It’s not so easy to follow the Cuba money trail.  As investigative reporter Tracey Eaton has proved, seeking to track and hold accountable U.S. government agencies that are funding… read more »

Tourists, from the U.S. and around the world, flock to Washington at spring time.  They come to hear echoes of this nation’s past, learn about its founding principles, and think about their relevance today. Visitors to the monuments along the Tidal Basin often stop at the Jefferson Memorial.  Modeled after the… read more »

For over fifty years now, the U.S. has tried to trigger regime change in Cuba – from invasions, to stringent trade sanctions, to democracy promotion programs, to broadcasts of Major League Baseball games. The U.S. taxpayer-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors’ Office of Cuba Broadcasting has long been a part of… read more »

A PDF version of the El Salvador Update is available here. A PDF version of the March 2013 Peacemaking Chronology is available here. Versión en formato PDF aquí. If you would like to receive the Monthly El Salvador Update via email, contact: ElSalvadorUpdate@democracyinamericas.org.  Summary: March was a month of anniversaries in… read more »

Versión en formato PDF aquí. Resumen: Marzo fue un mes en que se cumplieron aniversarios en El Salvador: uno fue de esperanza —el primer aniversario de la tregua entre las pandillas—, mientras que los otros son sombríos recuerdos de la guerra y expectativas malogradas de lograr la verdad y la… read more »

With the start of regular season Major League Baseball on Monday, it’s a fitting moment to talk about the sport which has bound the U.S. and Cuba together since the 19th century. Like everything else, baseball couldn’t escape the politics and propaganda that have surrounded the relationship over the last three… read more »

Baseball has been played in Cuba since the 19th Century, and the people of Cuba and the U.S. have shared their love of the game ever since.  The governments have engaged in “baseball diplomacy” – including an exhibition series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National team in 1999… read more »

There is a scientific consensus that climate change is real.  Not everyone agrees, but the people who don’t believe it are answering to an awfully scornful title: climate change deniers. Since assuming leadership in 2006, following the illness of his brother, President Raúl Castro initiated a gradual process to update… read more »

Documents released by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, hearing a $60 million lawsuit filed by imprisoned USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, describe a broad mission vastly exceeding State Department explanations of his activities. The plan Gross wrote and submitted to his employer DAI, a federal contractor in… read more »