The repressive communist government of Cuba held an event this weekend in New York under the guise of strengthening ties to the global Cuban diaspora – which exists almost entirely as a result of the regime’s human rights atrocities – in which it encouraged Cubans abroad to “participate in the economic development of the country.”
The event featured the appearance of Cuban External Relations Minister Bruno Rodríguez Padilla and several high-ranking communist regime bureaucrats, visiting New York to participate in the United Nations General Assembly. The Assembly’s “general debate,” in which the heads of state of all member governments are invited to address the body on topics of their choosing, is set to begin on Tuesday. Cuban dictator Raúl Castro, 93, is not expected to attend, nor is his figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The Castro regime often uses the General Assembly to promote its interests in the United States, holding events in New York for its radical leftist sympathizers. This year, the Cuban External Relations Ministry (Minrex) detailed in a press release on Saturday, rather than focusing on celebrities or American activists, the regime focused on cultivating ties to leftist Cubans in America.
The event, according to Minrex, was the “Fifth National Meeting with Cubans Residing in the United States” and was held at Cuba’s permanent U.N. mission. The goal of the event, the agency claimed, was to help Cubans in America “reaffirm their commitment to the defense of their nation and identity.”
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“The interest of co-nationals [Cubans abroad] in participating in the economic development of the country and the growing opportunities for businesses in Cuba was also discussed,” Minrex claimed.
Rodríguez reportedly addressed the sympathetic crowd to “recognize the work of the solidarity of co-nationals in this country,” attempting to give the impression that Cubans in the United States support the regime. In reality, decades of polling shows Cuban-Americans have consistently been anti-communist and conservative in large numbers, seeking exile in the United States often due to opposition to the regime’s ideology and fleeing its consistent abuse of human rights.
The Minrex chief went on to claim that the attendees at the event were “confronting manifestations of hate and aggressions on the part of representatives of the anti-Cuban extreme right,” by which Minrex means the mainstream Cuban-American population.
Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, reported that Rodríguez additionally claimed that Cubans in the United States were conducting “humanitarian projects” in Cuba, without elaborating or citing examples. Rodríguez reportedly claimed that the event was part of an extended series of “debates” to help “strengthen the democratic [sic] Cuban system.” In reality, the Castro regime violently represses its citizens’ freedom of expression at home and often attempts to silence dissent abroad, including at United Nations events in which the regime has repeatedly deployed mobs of diplomats to shout over anti-communist speakers at official events. At other international events, Cuban agents have physically assaulted human rights activists in public.
Cuban regime accounts on social media published photos of the event, stating that the topics touched upon included “the updating of migratory policy and essential aspects of immigration law,” as well as the alleged “humanitarian” work.
As a communist country, Cuba’s economy is highly unproductive and has reached unprecedented levels of crisis in the last year, calling nationwide shortages of basic foods and medicine, power blackouts, water shortages, and other deplorable circumstances for citizens. The worsening economic conditions are a direct result of over half a century of communist policies in which the government does not allow private businesses to functionally exist and has failed to maintain the country’s basic infrastructure or government services. The situation has declined to such an extent that the Communist Party declared that it would impose a “war-time economy” situation in July intended to “save socialism.” The policies announced, however, were an expansion of the extreme communist mandates that created the disaster, including strengthened price controls on the few goods available on the island.
As a result of the lack of productivity of the communist economy, the Cuban regime relies heavily on foreign cash to subsidize the lavish lifestyles of the Castro family and perpetuate itself in power. In addition to tourism and selling slaves to friendly regimes, the Communist Party relies on remittances sent to Cubans from their relatives abroad. In 2022, leftist American President Joe Biden greatly expanded the remittances allowed to flow into Cuba from the United States, lifting measures imposed under predecessor Donald Trump to support the anti-communist cause on the island and starve the regime of resources it uses to brutalize its subjects. The Biden changes removed a limit on remittances sent to the island of $1,000 per quarter imposed per sender-receiver under Trump, allegedly to help “support independent Cuban entrepreneurs.”
“Independent entrepreneurs” do not exist in Cuba, as it is a communist totalitarian state. Some individuals loyal to the Communist Party are allowed to run regime-controlled “small businesses,” often catering to tourists, to give the appearance of a functional market.
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Enid Magari / LOCAL NEWS X / TMXAccording to the Havana Consulting Group, a firm headquartered in Florida, Cuba received the highest number of remittances per year in 2019, estimated at $3.7 billion. Remittances began to fall as the number of Cubans escaping the regime grew dramatically in subsequent years. The firm estimated that remittances fell to about $2 billion in 2022 and $1.97 billion in 2023.
In May, the Agence France-Press (AFP) reported that many Cubans, facing difficulties finding food, were urging relatives abroad to ship food to the country instead of wiring money, describing the new method as “alimentary remittances.”
Luis Manuel Méndez, a Cuban father in Florida, told the outlet that his children on the Island “don’t want money, what they want is to send them … the primary necessities.”
In July, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) published a study that found nearly 90 percent of Cubans are living in conditions of “extreme poverty.” Those who cannot rely on “alimentary remittances” are increasingly digging through piles of trash to survive. Among the many government services the Communist Party has essentially stopped providing citizens is waste disposal, leaving Havana drowning in growing piles of trash that “divers,” as they are commonly known, scavenge for sellable or edible material.
“Now life is very expensive,” an older man who identified as a “diver” told the independent outlet Cubanet. “A loaf of bread with ham alone costs 100 pesos [$4.16]. What money do you have to have to survive? You have to be a potted plant [to survive], because here nobody lives on 500 or 600 pesos [$20.82 – $24.99].”
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