Cuba. Closing the opposition radio Marti. The effect of Donald Trump's administration cuts in the USA

Radio Marti, opposition to the Cuban communist regime, closed in Cuba. “This is a thing that failed to make Castro brothers, and which Donald Trump did in a few days”- this is how the situation was commented on by the New York Times. According to journalists, closing the radio station is another effect of limiting American financial assistance.

Station employees informed the editors of “New York Times” (“NYT”) that the Radio Marti website at Cubaas well as his television and radio signals. According to the Director for Digital and Social Media, Abel Fernandez, who lost his job last week, the message of the station still reaches the residents of Cuba through social media.

President's advisor USA For Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, he expressed the hope that “something like Radio Marti would be saved.” – I think that the historical importance and role of the station can be appreciated, but at the same time it must be considered that it should be adapted to the world in which we live – he said.

One of the three Cuban-American members of the Congress, Mario Diaz-Balart, announced that he would cooperate with the US President to restore Radio Marti.

Journalists “NYT” pointed out that the station was fought by the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and later his brother Raul, who in 2015, after the presidency of Barack Obama, the relations of Havana with Washington improved, said that the US “still maintains programs harmful to the sovereignty of Cuba, promoting changes in our political, economic and social order.”

Another closed station

Radio Marti was founded in 1983 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. One of the leaders of Cuban anti -communist emigration in the USA, Jorge Mas Canosa, appealed for the creation of the station. Two years later, the station broadcast a signal until sometimes expanded its activity with television.

In 2019, an audit commissioned by the US Global Media Agency, to which Radio Marti belongs, accused its employees of low -level journalism, “ineffective propaganda”, as well as corruption actions and employment of relatives. The station was referred to as the “Red War Rellic”, and the Marti television effectively blocked in Cuba was called invisible television (“No See TV”).

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“NYT” emphasized that, unlike other closed stations, such as Radio Free Europe or the voice of America, Radio Marti is directed against a specific dictatorship that remains in power. – Radio Marti was designed during Reagan's fight with the Soviet Union and communism, but the fact is that Kuba has never undergone a transformation, and today we live in the digital world – Professor Ted Henken from Baruch College, who studies the media market in Cuba, said.

In the expert's opinion, after a few shocks and scandals related to Radio Marti, employment at the station was reduced and the television channel was liquidated. Henken added that in the last two years her audience began to grow rapidly, as did the number of users in her social media. According to the data “NYT” quotes, about 80 percent of the recipients Radio Marti comes from Cuba.