The Latin American Report # 460

Donald Trump's freezing of foreign aid funds, under the direct coordination of Elon Musk, has had victims that did not count on being hit by the still recently installed Republican administration. While most analyses place their focus on the shutdown of economic and health aid programs, which are certainly critical in various regions of the world, it is very interesting to take a look at what is happening to projects and actors that were the spearheads of USAID and the State Department in their global “democracy crusade.” For example, the director of elTOQUE, a Cuban digital media outlet, sent an open letter to its audiences this Monday demanding funds to continue operating. elTOQUE is a news project that I have discussed in this and other posts funded by all U.S. agencies involved in foreign assistance—I include NED here—as part of the regime change efforts advanced by the U.S. government against Cuba.

Mediaplus Experience serves as the front company for channeling the federal funds that ultimately flow to it. It is customary to assume in media matters that “the person/group who pays calls the shots”. In this sense, the Cuban government has been very critical of the U.S.-funded, so-called “democracy programs”, understanding them, correctly from my point of view, as a rude interference in the internal affairs of the Island. Those involved in this defend themselves by arguing—torpidly—that U.S. funding does not influence their work. On the contrary, it is quite obvious that, ultimately, their work contribute to advance U.S. foreign policy interests. Mediaplus Experience, that is, elTOQUE, has directly benefited from four grants and three contracts awarded by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. This support, for example, was granted by the U.S. Embassy in Havana for “providing access to development resources to U.S. programs alumni and independent creators in Cuba”. It is worth 200,000 dollars and potentially ends next August.

This is part of what José Jasán Nieves, the director of elTOQUE, stated in his open letter:

In our case, the freezing of funds affects us, although we did not have contracts with USAID. However, as we have already said, the current interruption has reached 50% of the budget we had planned for 2025 and, as a result, we have had to close 15 contracts of our organization's core staff (half), in addition to dozens of eventual contracts we had with freelance content creators. We are losing very valuable colleagues who have put the body to the repression of the Cuban State and have made elTOQUE deserve the recognition it has today. These are days of enormous sadness.

The anodyne journalist ends his missive by compelling the “Cuban exile” to donate, recognizing that this type of request is not usual in the Cuban sphere but that it is nonetheless “legit”. It is not clear to me that elTOQUE, a media with a certain audience especially inside Cuba—thanks to a critical service it introduced a few years ago that defines daily the value of the U.S. dollar against Cuban national currencies—, has so much traction with wealthy, sound Cuban potential donors. For the moment, we are only clear about its membership in the dependent journalism movement, waiting for Foggy Bottom to refill its bank account.

Tariffs

Mexico is still waiting for the miracle of avoiding the imposition of tariffs by the Trump administration, although the tycoon was very willing this Monday to keep his promise. The Aztec government is doing as much as it can, and this Monday, it imposed trade measures on China and opened anti-dumping investigations against the Asian giant and Vietnam.

NEW ROAD ACCIDENT IN BOLIVIA LEAVES 31 DEAD

The event occurred in the early hours of this Monday when a bus collided with a pickup truck going in the opposite direction, the spokesman for the Departmental Command of Potosi told the media.

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