Blake Burdge

Thoughts on U.S. policy to Cuba, Latin America | Juventus apologist | Words in @jacobin @levernews @truthout @fairmediawatch | Subscribe to Cuba Monitor below

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

As the Trump administration beats the regime change drum in the Caribbean, corporate interests and Cuba hardliners are lining up at the Supreme Court to intensify economic pressure on Cuba.

My latest in @jacobin 👇

https://t.co/Jg3LMzsXGw

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

Marco Rubio is lying about GAESA hoarding $18 billion while the Cuban people suffer.

The number comes from an unverifiable Miami Herald report on "leaked" GAESA documents. MH failed to convert USD transactions to Cuban pesos, the listed unit of measurement in the spreadsheet.

[Department of State @StateDept]

SECRETARY RUBIO: Cuba is actually not controlled by the government. Cuba is controlled by a military holding company named GAESA. GAESA owns virtually everything, and not a penny of that money translates over to the public treasury.

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

Missing here are the thousands of claims from Cuban-Americans seeking control over key sectors of Cuba’s economy. Title III cases & new legislation are already expanding what “property” is. If Trump’s campaign succeeds, Cuba’s economy will be a Wild West for capitalist spoilers.

[POLITICO @politico]

‘Rabbit holes all over the place’: How hard it would be for Trump to rebuild Cuba https://t.co/ZN3pA0Gr1N

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

Nick Shirley is violating OFAC regulations in this video by staying in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which is on the U.S. State Department’s Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List

https://t.co/F9FpPuB2Dy

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

They’re going to devote massive resources to investigating those involved in the Nuestra América Convoy who went out of their way to stay in OFAC-compliant hotels, while conveniently overlooking Nick Shirley who literally filmed himself in a hotel on OFAC’s Cuba restricted list.

[Fox News @FoxNews]

Federal officials have served subpoenas to Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker and CodePink cofounder Susan Medea Benjamin as part of a wider investigation into whether U.S. organizations and leaders violated U.S. laws and sanctions in supporting Cuba's communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned. https://t.co/XVEBN9A5xL

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

The kingpin strategy works so well that the DOJ admitted just three days after capturing Maduro that "Cartel de los Soles" is not a real group

[Benjamin Gedan @benjamingedan]

I guess the kingpin strategy works: since Nicolás Maduro’s removal, you do not hear a peep about the Cartel de los Soles.

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

Hardliners frequently say something like "there is no embargo, Cuba is free to trade with the rest of the world." At best, this is a half-truth.

Yes, Cuba may try to trade with the rest of the world. It needs to for survival. But is the rest of the world free to trade with Cuba?

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

The Supreme Court's ruling yesterday on the Havana Docks case is a huge victory for anti-Cuba hardliners.

Most consequentially, it drastically expands what qualifies as "property" under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the 1996 law intended to scare investors away from Cuba 🧵

[The Epoch Times @EpochTimes]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8–1 on May 21 that a U.S. company can sue cruise lines for using its business assets seized by Cuba’s communist government decades ago.

The case, Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, centers on the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. citizens and companies to sue those trafficking in confiscated Cuban property.

Cuba nationalized foreign assets after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. Title III of the law was suspended by President Clinton but revived by President Trump in 2019.

Havana Docks, a Delaware company, held a 99-year concession for docks confiscated without compensation in 1960. Cruise lines used the docks from 2015 to 2019, paying Cuba at least $130 million while earning over $1 billion.

The 11th Circuit had overturned a $100 million+ judgment, ruling the company’s property interest expired in 2004. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating Havana Docks needed only to prove the cruise lines used confiscated property to which it owns a claim, vacating the lower court decision.

Justice Elena Kagan dissented.

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

The objective with Title III cases is not necessarily to punish the Cuban state directly; Miami hardliners and Washington war hawks have already mastered that.

Rather, the authors and supporters of Title III want to deter the rest of the world from engaging with Cuba at all.

[Randal Sheppard @rc_sheppard]

Pérez makes a strong case here that US framing of intervention in Cuba's independence war as the defence of an oppressed people provided an important template for a language of moral purpose to obscure self-interest in US foreign policy more broadly over the following 100+ years.

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

This is the logic-defying contradiction in Rubio and the Miami Herald’s claim that Cuba’s military-run conglomerate is hoarding $18 billion.

We would see a very well-equipped Cuban military if that much cash is sitting in GAESA accounts, not “ox carts transporting artillery”

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

As the U.S. sends an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a pressure campaign to change Cuba’s Communist government, the island’s military is a ghost of its former self https://t.co/wT0r5CMA52

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

The State Dept’s argument is absurd. It makes no sense that Cuban leaders would hoard “up to $20 billion” in GAESA accounts while the state teeters on collapse.

Those “riches” aren’t spent on the grid or stocking pharmacies because the USA blocks normal global commerce with Cuba

[Secretary Marco Rubio @SecRubio]

Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of the Executive President of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate that steals millions in aid for the Cuban people at the behest of the regime.

Morera was managing real estate assets and living in Florida, while also aiding Havana's communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status.

I am pleased to announce that today, she was arrested and is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There will be nowhere on this Earth - much less in our country - where foreign nationals who threaten our national security can live lavishly.

[Blake Burdge @bburdge]

The irony of a government engaged in lawless military strikes against civilian boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, while relentlessly peddling election denialism, must not be lost in this political charade. This is not who should be lecturing the world on democracy or rule of law

[Acyn @Acyn]

Acting AG Todd Blanche announces the indictment of Raul Castro.

[Orlando J. Pérez @Perez1oj]

The Cuba that "was born free in 1902." It seems @RepMariaSalazar, a Cuban, has forgotten Cuban history! Cuban "independence" from Spain was a function of a US protectorate through the Platt Amendment! That codified the US's right to intervene anytime the US deemed necessary to "preserve the independence" of the island.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Reporter: Are you confident that you can reach a diplomatic deal—

Trump: With Cuba? I think so.

Reporter: You can do that without changing the regime?

Trump: I can do that whether you change the regime or not. It has been a rough regime and they killed a lot of people. They can't turn on the lights or eat. We don't want to see that.