In images of the arbitrary arrest, anyone can see how the police dragged him into a van, despite the protests of colleagues.

Is this not a clear violation of the free exercise of journalism and why does Reporters Without Borders (RSF) remain silent about this violation of free press rights?

A fallacious report by this organization recently ranked Cuba no.171 in terms of the existence of conditions for the exercise of press freedom, placing the island in last place in Latin America and the Caribbean.

RSF is a Paris-based organization and an unconditional supporter of the U.S. government, which has for years been characterized by its obsessive opposition to the Cuban Revolution, Bolivarian Venezuela, and Sandinista Nicaragua.

In 2005, the group participated in the campaign promoted by the George W. Bush administration to prevent tourists from traveling to Cuba. It should not be forgotten that the Bush Plan included a budget of five million dollars for NGOs to “carry out activities to dissuade tourists from travelling to Cuba.” Part of this ” booty” went into the coffers of the RSF.

For years, these “reporters” have devoted themselves to financing pseudo-journalists who work in the service of U.S. interests.

Their manifest bias in favor of Washington’s interests in Iraq, Libya, Haiti, Iran, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile is more than clear: year after year, in their fallacious reports, they condemn countries considered “enemies” of the U.S. or simply those who do not follow the dictates of the White House to the letter.

Where do these gentlemen, supposed defenders of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, acquire the substantial funding the organization has at its disposal?

Mr. Robert Ménard, one of the organization’s founders, a few years ago openly admitted having funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Ménard was very clear: “We do indeed receive money from the NED. And that poses no a problem for us.” [1]

RSF has never hidden its relationship to the world’s powerful. “One day we had a financial issue. I called the industrialist Francois Pinault to help us…. He immediately responded to my request. And that’s all that matters,” because “The law of gravity exists, dear friends. And also the law of money,” Menard stated callously. [2]

Reporters Without Borders is funded by the Dassault Group, by Hewlett Packard and the Overbrook Foundation, founded by Frank Altschul, which promotes Radio Free Europe; by Lagardère Publishing, the Hachette Foundation, the Open Society Institute and by the French daily Libération, and pockets substantial resources from the world’s largest media conglomerates.

RSF benefits from the money the U.S. government allocates every year to subvert the internal order in Cuba, through NED, USAID, Freedom House, the Center for a Free Cuba, the Cuban-American National Foundation, the Czech NGO People in Need, and other organizations that among the collection of institutions that serve to screen U.S. government and CIA attacks on the Cuban Revolution.

In a report dated January 15, 2004, the group exonerated the U.S. military from any responsibility for the murder of Spanish journalist José Couso and his Ukrainian colleague Taras Protsyuk at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. These “reporters” offered apologies for the invasion of Iraq on August 16, 2007 during the radio program “Contre-expertise,” and Robert Ménard, then the organization’s secretary general, legitimized the use of torture.

During the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez in April of 2002, they openly supported the plotters, as well as the coups against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Zelaya in Honduras, and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

The French daily Libération itself, the organization’s sponsor, noted that Reporters Without Borders does not say a word about the abuses of the Western media: “From now on, press freedom will either be exotic or won’t exist. Many reproach the group for its ferocity against Cuba and Venezuela, and indulgence toward the United States, which is not false.” [3]

Reporters Without Borders has an owner and has no borders when it comes to receiving money from the transnationals, the oligopolies, the rich of this world.

How can anyone be independent, as they proclaim, who subordinates their work and auctions off its morals and ethics to the dictates of the powerful? RSF is an organic part of the empire’s global apparatus, providing pretexts to justify aggression and demonize the enemies of capitalist hegemonic power.

In Context

-Between 1998 and 1999, the USAID Cuba Program devoted more than six million dollars to internal subversion in our country.

-In 2001 alone, there were more than 200 personal deliveries of funds to “activists” and “independent journalists,” estimated to be more than 100,000 dollars.

-Between fiscal years 2001 and 2006, the USAID allocated 61 million dollars to Cuba for some 142 projects.

-The Cuba Program was allocated more than 120 million USD between 2007 and 2013.

-The programs with the “Freedom of Information” label sponsored, between 2014 and 2017, some 39 projects, with an amount of more than six million dollars. NED contributed another two million.

-In 2018, NED gave Cubanet News Inc. $220,000 to promote “Freedom of Information,” $60,000 to Hypermedia Publishing Inc, $72,000 to the Institute of Communication and Development, and $65,000 to “integrate” Cuba with regional media networks (targeting young journalists).

-USAID and NED subversive programs against Cuba in the last fiscal year 2018-2019, include an estimated 70-plus projects promoted inside and outside the country, with an allocation of more than 14 million USD.

(Sources: Razones de Cuba, Cubainformación, writings by Salim Lamrani & Jean-Guy Allard)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba strongly rejects the disrespectful statement issued by the US State Department, attributed to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, which intends to question the constitutional referendum that was freely and sovereignly held by all Cubans on February 24 last.

The text of the statement is an expression of the imperialist ideas which are deeply rooted in the foreign policy of the current US administration. It is also a reflection of the already announced desire to impose once again, in the western hemisphere, the Monroe Doctrine, accompanied now by some McCarthyist intolerance.

The Cuban people spoke loud and clear this February 24; they did it with overwhelming eloquence. Through their vote, they freely pledged their commitment to the construction of socialism, and they did so by expressing their will in a massive way, despite the pernicious campaign launched by the United States which was intended to influence their vote. It’s been long since we Cubans decided to frustrate every US attempt to govern our country’s destiny.

The US State Department should put an end to the practice of interfering in the internal affairs of other States and the electoral or voting processes of other nations. This is a weird habit that is contrary to International Law, with which the US government defies the norms that govern relations among sovereign States.

Havana, February 26, 2019.

Given this situation, the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, sent a message to the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, expressing our condolences to the government and people of Colombia, in particular to the families of victims of the attack, and reaffirming that Cuba rejects and condemns terrorist acts, methods, and practices in all their forms and expressions. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla issued a similar message via his official Twitter account, and a press note was released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Friday, January 18, the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, publically reported his decision to end the peace talks process between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which had been taking place in Havana, Cuba, by activating orders to arrest members of this guerrilla organization’s peace delegation, which makes the holding of peace negotiations impossible.

As a consequence, faced with the rupture of the peace talks, what is indicated is the implementation of the document entitled “Established Protocol in Case of Rupture of the Colombia-ELN Peace Talks Negotiations,” which establishes, “If the peace talks are broken off, the countries and parties will have 15 days following the announcement to plan and conduct the return to Colombia of members of the delegation representing the ELN.”

In this context, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeals to the government of Colombia and the ELN to take pertinent action to allow implementation of “the procedure for the return of the ELN delegation,” in accordance with the text of said protocol.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that, in accordance with our responsibility as Alternate Site and Guarantor of this peace process, a verbal note has been sent to Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recalling the commitments assumed by the Colombian government and the ELN, and it has sent a copy of this note to other guarantor countries.

Cuba has honored the commitments it assumed as Guarantor and Alternate Site of the peace talks between the Colombian government and the ELN, at the request of both. Cuba assumed this responsibility as a gesture of good will in an effort to avoid that this process end in frustration, as established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the heads of state and government of our region.

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to report that the presence of the ELN delegation in our country, as well as the holding of two cycles of the peace talks negotiating table, between the government of Colombia and the ELN, came in response to an official request on the part of both parties, under the auspices of the “Colombia Peace Talks Accord between the National Government and the National Liberation Army,” signed March 30, 2016, in Caracas, by the parties and six guarantor countries.

Said agreement establishes that, “The negotiation sessions will take place in

Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, and Cuba. These countries, along with Norway, will be guarantors.” Thus our country was awarded the category of Guarantor and Alternate Site of the peace negotiations process.

Beginning February 7, 2017, through April of 2018, the peace talks were held in Ecuador. However, on May 4, 2018, Cuba received a joint request from the Colombian government and the ELN, stating, “With the idea of resuming the dialogue immediately, we request that the Republic of Cuba become the site for what remains of this fifth cycle.” In this same communication, both parties indicate, “We are ready to travel as soon as possible. In principle, we are thinking of resuming the conversations, with the presence of guarantor countries, this coming May 8.” Cuba responded very promptly, and the talks were resumed May 10, of that same year.

Since then, the ELN peace delegation has remained on the island, with the government of President Duque, according to the press media, deciding on November 21, 2018, to maintain the hold on arrest orders for the ten who were in Cuba awaiting the resumption of negotiations, which was revoked this past January 19.

Cuban authorities expressly established, as a condition of the ELN delegation’s presence here, that its members solely and strictly keep to the exclusive purpose of their presence in Cuba: negotiating peace in Colombia. This was confirmed by Pablo Beltrán, head of the ELN peace delegation in Cuba, during interviews with press media in Havana, this past January 22.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates that Cuba has never permitted, and will never permit, that its territory be used for the organization of terrorist acts against any state, and reaffirms Cuba’s historic position against terrorism and against war, in defense of peace, with the authority of having been a victim of state terrorism for decades.

Our country has conducted itself in this process with the strictest respect for the consent and specific agreements reached between the Colombian government and the ELN, on the basis of official requests received from them. Cuba has acted in strict adherence to our condition as a Guarantor and Alternate Site, in an impartial, responsible, professional, and discreet manner, in the interest of a political solution to the conflict in Colombia, to achieve the peace its people longs for.

Cuba has acted the same way it did during the peace process undertaken with the FARC-EP, recognized internationally as a contribution to peace in Colombia, an agreement that the region and the international community hope to see fully respected.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba reiterates its profound conviction that the Colombian people deserve peace and will find the route to achieving it.

Havana, January 25, 2019

The true objectives of actions against Venezuela are to control the vast resources of this sister nation and destroy the value of its example, as an emancipatory process defending the dignity and independence of Our America.
As President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said: “The sovereignty of our peoples is expressed today in one’s attitude toward Venezuela. To support the legitimate right of the sister nation to define its own destiny is to defend the dignity of all.”

Other coup attempts should not be forgotten, such as the military coup of 2002 and the 2003 oil lockout; the aggressive U.S. Executive Order describing Venezuela as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy” of the superpower; unilateral coercive measures; the call for a military coup against the constitutional government of Venezuela; the President of the United States’ threat to use “a possible military option” and the August 4 assassination attempt against President Maduro.

The acts of a group of countries and the shameful role of the OAS constitute a new, desperate attempt to implement an unsuccessful policy of regime change, which has not been imposed due to the unwavering resistance of the Venezuelan people and their determination to defend national sovereignty.

Havana, January 23, 2019

The Cuban Ambassador in Serbia, Gustavo Tristá del Todo, made a courtesy visit to LjubiÅía Stojmirovic, president of the Friendship Group with Cuba in the National Assembly (parliament).

The interlocutors, stated the press release, agreed to soon organize a meeting with the Group, composed of about 40 deputies from various parties, to address ideas and initiatives of mutual interest.

They also highlighted the positive relations between the two States, which celebrate 75 years of existence in 2018, which they considered favorable to explore new initiatives in the fields of medicine, health and science.

In particular, the Serbian legislator expressed interest in stimulating the exchange of university students.

(Prensa Latina)

The two leaders held a cordial encounter, discussing the positive development of bilateral relations and expressing their intention to broaden economic cooperation and strengthen academic and cultural exchanges. They additionally addressed several issues of current interest internationally.

Accompanying the distinguished guest were Carlo Calenda and Mario Giro, deputy minister of Economic Development and undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, respectively; as well as Italy’s ambassador in Cuba, Carmine Robustelli.

Participating on the Cuban side were Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; Marcelino Medina González and Rogelio Sierra Díaz, interim minister and deputy minister of Foreign Relations, respectively; as well as the country’s ambassador in Italy; Alba Soto Pimentel.

(Granma)