The Latin American Report # 509
The Cuban state telecommunications monopoly opened Pandora's box on Friday with a controversial reorganization of mobile data service marketing. The narrative is that the company is unable to maintain the current pricing dynamics, largely subsidized, in the face of the decapitalization of its infrastructure. The company's main source of income, and indeed a very important one for the country, is the balance top-ups made by Cubans living abroad for their relatives on the Island, but they say that this has lost momentum. Now, with a considerable increase in the cost of accessing plans and offers in national currency, authorities hope that a large portion of mobile balances will once again be replenished from this external source. The measure has been widely rejected by the population, mainly because there is not much talk about how a potential increase in foreign currency income will have a positive effect on their lives. The purported goal is to improve technological infrastructure that supports the company's services, something that is not at the center of popular priorities right now. The “political” communication performance around the new way of managing mobile data services is certainly the antithesis of what it means to govern and communicate well.
RIP CHNV parole forever?
The US top court gave Donald Trump a strong boost by reactivating his ability to massively revoke more than 530,000 humanitarian paroles granted by former President Joe Biden to Nicaraguan, Cuban, Haitian, and Venezuelan citizens. The humanitarian parole program was part of Biden's two-pronged immigration policy, which on the one hand instituted harsh consequences for irregular asylum seekers, and on the other promoted so-called “legal pathways” for arriving in an orderly but, according to Trump, unvetted manner. Another component of the latter point was the disbanded CBP One mobile app. Many see that targeting these programs is unfair to people who believed they were acting by the book. By revoking parole, the administration may attempt to get rid of these migrants through “expedited removal” proceedings. In a dissenting opinion, a liberal justice wrote that the decision “undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”
“Once again, the Trump administration blatantly proves its disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented. We have already seen the traumatic impact on children and families afraid to even go to school, church, or work,” said the executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. (Haiti, incidentally, remains mired in an insurmountable crisis, with a recent UN report noting increased violence in the departments of Centre and Artibonite, where more than 67,000 people were displaced in the last month.) The Supreme Court's decision was naturally applauded by Kristi Noem's department. A top official there said that it “will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First.” “We complied with all the requirements the United States government asked for,” said, in turn, a Latam son delivering Amazon packages in Austin, Texas. “Now I'm left without security because we don't know what will happen. We're without anything after so much sacrifice. It's not fair.” The disruption caused by Trump's harsh immigration policies has led migrants to decide between continuing to try their luck in an uncertain scenario or returning to their countries. “If I have to work triple in my country, I will,” said a man of Venezuelan origin who works in an Atlanta-based restaurant. “I won't risk staying here undocumented with this government.”
From X
Insane piece of reporting
Reuters spoke to 10 current and six former child assassins, as well as four senior cartel operatives, who said Mexican criminal cartels are increasingly recruiting and grooming young killers. Most came from homes wrecked by violence and drugs https://t.co/jIQK1D5Pa4 pic.twitter.com/2Ouxfcc281
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 28, 2025
