The U.S. government is spending $100 million to send emergency aid to Cuba while ramping up efforts to strangle the island’s economy. The State Department awarded Catholic Relief Services $60 million to send boxes of food and supplies to around 200,000 households. Samaritan’s Purse received a $40 million State Department grant. It hasn’t announced a … Read more
Not long after taking office, Donald Trump gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling it “incompetent and corrupt.” More than 80% of USAID programs were cancelled. The agency ceased operations and the State Department took over its remaining programs. On Sept. 15, the State Department reported spending $58,494,305 in legacy USAID funds in Ukraine, … Read more
Human blood, nearly $10 million in chicken and a staggering $882,752 in communion wafers are among the latest U.S. monthly exports to Cuba. The Discalced Carmelite Nuns at the Monastery of St. Teresa and St. Joseph in Havana produce almost all the communion wafers for the island’s 304 Catholic parishes. But the cloistered nuns have … Read more
I was immersed in thoughts about information warfare today when someone reminded me that relations between the U.S. and Cuba weren’t always so tense and adversarial. “Obama and Rául showed the way,” he said. I was in Havana on Dec. 17, 2014, when Raúl Castro and then-President Barack Obama announced a new agreement to restore … Read more
During the Cold War, the CIA plotted all kinds of ways to try to kill Fidel Castro. Lethal weapons included everything from poisoned milkshakes and exploding cigars to booby-trapped seashells and toxic wet suits. The National Security Archives and other sites seek declassified documents revealing plans aimed at toppling the Cuban government. These revelations are … Read more