Belly of the Beast

Senator Bob Menendez was indicted today on bribery, corruption and extortion charges, and per Senate Ethics rules will step down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez is accused of providing sensitive information and taking other steps to secretly aid the Government of Egypt in exchange for money & gifts for him and his wife. What does today's indictment of Senator Bob Menendez mean for Cuba? Our report ⬆

🚨Witnesses are testifying before a grand jury as to whether NJ developer/admitted felon Fred Daibes gave Senator Bob Menendez’s wife up to $400K in gold bars in exchange for help on his case with the DOJ, which could lead to corruption charges against Menendez. For more info, link in bio 🔗

Cuba’s Foreign Minister reiterated his country’s opposition to—and strict laws against—mercenary activity and the human trafficking of Cuban citizens to fight for Russia in the Ukraine War, after his ambassador to Moscow said Cuba's not opposed to Cubans legally enlisting to join the war.

The U.S. is at war, legally, with Cuba. Last week, President Biden extended for another year the "Trading with the Enemy Act" with respect to the island. The WWI-era law underlies much of the vast web of punitive laws and regulations—the embargo—toward Cuba. For more info, link in bio 🔗

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío met top U.S. officials last week at the State Department and National Security Council, reporting progress on issues of mutual concern such as migration, law enforcement & healthcare. Yet regarding the main issues defining U.S.-Cuba relations—like the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and the sixty-year-old trade embargo—no progress was made, Cossío said, citing a lack of political will. For more info, link in bio 🔗 📸: @aleyro96

"Next week, the Biden administration is expected to announce new measures allowing Americans to assist Cuban PYMES directly, including long-awaited specific guidelines for loans to these independent companies from financiers in South Florida and beyond," reports the @pbpost after meeting with Cuban entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in South Florida last week. For more info, link in bio 🔗

Barbados' Prime Minister @mamottley at the G77+China Summit this weekend in Havana, Cuba: "No one has ever been held accountable, despite the mountain of evidence available" for the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere pre-9/11. Mottley decried the United States' "callous and brutal blockade" of Cuba, which has "crippled its economy" and has been exacerbated by the "unacceptable and unjustified" designation of Cuba as a sponsor of state terrorism.

The U.S. government tends to portray Cuba as a pariah state in the international arena. Much of the world doesn’t see it that way. Cuba is currently presiding over the largest negotiating bloc of nations at the UN, the G77+China. This weekend, high-level delegations from nearly all 134 member-states—including more than 30 heads of state and government—met in Havana to discuss science, technology and innovation challenges before next week's UN General Assembly in New York. Belly of the Beast’s Liz Oliva Fernández reports from the G77+China Summit in Havana.

Over the next month, every hour, a video advertisement will be shown in Times Square highlighting Cuba's advancements in the arts, sustainable agriculture and biotechnology. The effort was organized by the recently formed Cuba engagement group Voz de Tampa, led by local Cuban-American businessman Vicente Amor.

An immigration judge ruled Monday that tens of thousands of Cubans stopped at the border and then allowed into the U.S. with an I220-A form—an “Order of Release on Recognizance”—can't apply for a green card under the Cuban Adjustment Act, and will either have to appeal their case, apply for political asylum or be deported. For more info, link in bio 🔗 📸: @aleyro96

U.S. sanctions on Cuba fuel migration from the island to the U.S., Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) told The Intercept’s Ryan Grim after returning from a congressional delegation to Latin America. "[R]ight now we’ve been dealing with some of the largest waves of Cuban migration in decades. I was recently sitting in the Agriculture Committee asking our U.S. trade representative, why is it that rice farmers in Texas can’t sell their rice to people in Cuba who are hungry?" Casar said. For more info, link in bio 🔗

September is International Literacy Month! Together with our friends at @maestra_productions we’re sharing these informative slides about Cuba’s historic 1961 Literacy Campaign, which in just one year wiped out nearly all illiteracy on the island. #literacy #cuba #literacymonth #globalliteracy