The Daily Signal - What's Really Going On Inside Cuba

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

Tens of thousands of Cubans are protesting in the streets because of dire conditions brought about by the Caribbean nation's communist regime. What is going on there, what will be the repercussions for protesters who have had the courage to gather in the streets, and how should the U.S. respond? "It's a very dark moment right now," says Mike Gonzalez, a Cuban native who is a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal. Gonzalez joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the situation. "The state police is out there. They were called out by the puppet president, Miguel Díaz-Canel," Gonzalez says. "They're rounding up people, beating people up. I know of at least one pro-democracy priest—Castor Álvarez in the city of Camaguey in the east ... of the island of Cuba—who was severely beaten up and I think stripped naked. And his whereabouts are unknown. This is from dissident sources. For all we know, Father Castor could be dead." We also cover these stories: President Joe Biden issues a statement of support for Cubans who protested Sunday across the country. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asks the National Security Agency's director to investigate allegations by Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson that the NSA is spying on him.  Ben Carson, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, calls out critical race theory in an interview with Fox.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, July 13th. I'm Doug Blair. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. Thousands of Cuban citizens have been protesting in the streets due to the dire conditions that the communist regime has brought about there. What is going on there? What will repercussions be for the protesters who have had the courage to gather in the streets face? And how should the U.S. respond? Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation, joins me on the podcast to discuss.

And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. And now on to today's top news. President Joe Biden issued a statement on Monday on the thousands of Cuban citizens that have been protesting in the streets due to the dire conditions that the communist regime has brought about there. We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of oppression and economic suffering, to which they have. been subjected by Cuba's authoritarian regime, Biden said in a statement. Biden added, the Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. These rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment,

rather than enriching themselves. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio was critical of Biden's remarks, tweeting Monday, the protests in Cuba began over 24. hours ago. And you forgot something, Rubio said, indicating that Biden called the Cuban regime authoritarian and not socialist and communist. On Friday, Senator Rand Paul sent a letter to National Security Agency Director General Paul M. Nakasone, asking for an investigation into allegations made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the NSA was spying on him. I write to you to demand that you investigate the national security agencies, or NSA's, alleged spying and unmasking of Tucker Carlson, as well as any leaks of his private emails from the NSA to other reporters,

wrote Paul. He continued, I am open-minded enough to believe, if given convincing evidence, that the NSA may be telling the truth. But when a long train of abuses conducted by the NSA evinces a consistent design to evade the law and violate the constitutionally protected liberties of the people, the NSA must do more than tweet a carefully worded denial to be trusted. Paul's letter comes on the heels of statements made by Carlson on Wednesday when he claimed that the NSA had leaked his private messages to the press. According to reporting from Axios, Carlson was in talks with members of the Kremlin to arrange an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Carlson's comments prompted a response from the NSA denying the allegations. Quote, Tucker Carlson has never

been an intelligence target of the agency, and the NSA has never had any plans to try and take his program off the air. NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target. foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions, e.g. an emergency, NSA may not target a U.S. citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting. Along with Paul, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Florida Congressman Matt Gates have also called for an investigation into the NSA over Carlson's accusations. Ben Carson, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Trump administration called out critical race theory in an interview with Fox News on Monday.

Here is what Carson had to say. Well, it was obviously the left who did this. And, you know, they're basing this on some of the things that were said by people like Vladimir Lenin and various Marxists. Lennon said, give me your children to teach for four years. And the seeds that I plant will never be uprooted. What they're trying to do is actually indoctrinate the kids. And this is not a new thing. This has been going on for a while. I think we saw the fruits of it last summer in Portland and Seattle. These are people who are coming to age who have been taught to hate the United States of America. And a lot of it is based on slavery. The 1619 project, many of the things and critical race theory, everything looking at race and going back to race and making.

the children think that that's the primary indicator for success or failure in their life. And, you know, it's interesting because we're a Judeo-Christian Foundation nation. And what does the Bible say? It says, man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And isn't that the same thing that Dr. King was saying? You know, judge people on the basis of their character, not their external characteristics. So they're really turning a lot of our foundational beliefs on their head. And I'm actually, this is going to sound funny, I'm kind of glad they're doing it because they're pushing it so hard that it's actually waking people up. You know, we were sort of like the frog and the saucepan slowly being

cooked. And now, you know, they turned the burners up. And people are saying, Ouch, and they're getting active. And that's going to help us as a nation. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Mike Gonzalez on what's really happening in Cuba. Do you have an interest in public policy? Do you want to hear lectures from some of the biggest names in American politics? The Heritage Foundation hosts webinars called Heritage Events Live. These events are free and open to the public. To find the latest heritage events and to register, visit heritage.org slash events.

I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Mike Gonzalez. He's a senior fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy. at the Heritage Foundation. Mike, it's great to have you with us in studio at the Heritage Foundation. It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks a lot for having me. Well, thanks for coming on the podcast. Mike is a veteran of the Daily Signal podcast, so we appreciate having you on. I want to talk about what's happening in Cuba right now. There are thousands of Cubans protesting in the streets due to the dark conditions right now that the communist regime has brought about. Mike, can you bring us to speed on what is going on?

Yeah, it's a very dark moment right now. The state police is out. They were called by the puppet president Miguel Diaz-Canel. They're rounding up people, beating people up. I know if at least one pro-democracy priest, Kastor Alvarez, in the city of Camagway, in the east of Cuba, of the island of Cuba, who was severely beaten up and I think stripped naked and his whereabouts are unknown.

This is from dissident sources. For all we know, Father Kastor could be dead. He's a very well-known pro-democracy voice on the island. But this, so there was a list of 57 people missing that are well-known dissidents, probably hundreds or thousands more are missing. The Diaz-Cannell, who's really a puppet for the Castro family, which is still calling the shots in Cuba? Well, this puppet figurehead president, Miguel Diazcanal, went on TV yesterday and called on all communists, quote-unquote, to come out of their houses and quash the protests. So he's calling for bloodshed. And, you know, it's a police state.

The state of terror works. Yeah. I actually wanted to ask you about what he was saying, calling people to basically counter the pro-freedom protesters. What is your take on this? And what do you see happening with this call of him to bring out other people to quell this? Well, this is what communists do. They, the communists are all activists. He is saying to them, I have my eye on you.

Don't stay in your house. turn out, you know, stop the demonstrators. He called on all revolutionaries, but especially communists. Then, which is the tired, the most tired trope of all, he blamed it on the U.S. government. He said that this is the U.S. was organizing this. Most people, first of all, for goodness sakes, the Biden administration only came out with a statement just before noon on Monday. It waited forever.

The Heritage Foundation had a statement before. the Biden administration had a statement. Members of the Senate had statements. Even people on the left are criticizing Biden for the lateness, the positive of a reaction. He needs to have a tear down this whole moment. And if he could only bring himself to do that, he would actually gain some of the popularity he's losing every day. But he's afraid of the left of his own party. The squad, Black Lives Matter, the congressional black caucus, all of them have always supported the Castro dictatorship. The only predictable thing here is that BLM is going to come out with a statement supporting the communist government, not the people. Well, right now Cuba is going through

one of their worst economic crises in decades. Can you break down what this crisis is and how has that contributed to what's going on right now? Well, the government has completely mishandled COVID-19. People who said to me, I had an exchange with a major journalist. It was a private exchange I will not reveal her name. And she said to me that totalitarian governments are better equipped to deal with pandemics. No, actually, it turns out the liberal democracies with the free flow of information are better equipped at dealing with pandemics and crises. Every time the Castro government has tried to open up the economy a little bit, it has realized

it was losing control. So it steps down, it steps on small enterprises. So you cannot have economic growth without an enterprise. You cannot have economic growth without free markets. You only have stagnation. This is why communists had never produced bread. They only produce breadlines. So it's been 62 years of crisis.

The Cuban economy was so successful in the first half of the 20th century that it attracted European immigrants, including my grandparents. Can you think of a European in his right mind that it would have been? great to Cuba today? No, Cuba produces its only product. It's immigrants. It's refugees. It's utter failure. Why? Because it's socialist. It's Marxism is perfect and only one thing at failing each and every time. Well, Fox News had reported that a lot of the protesters in the town of San Antonio de los Spanios were very young or young people and that they were speaking, you know, unfavorably of the Cuban president and they also were shouting they're not afraid. What is your take on this and especially the fact that they're saying publicly in the streets of their country or they're not afraid?

Maybe they're having a Poland-1984 moment when John Paul II, the Pope, went to Poland. Poles came out. I mean, it makes me sad but also proud to say this. They looked at each other and they lost their fear. The polls lost their fear. Within six or seven years, not only was Jaroselsky gone, the Soviet Union was gone into the dustbin of history. If the Cubans lose their fear, then the Castro dictatorship will be gone. But we have to be very careful here. Their fear is real, and they have reason to fear. When you step out of line in Cuba, you don't get just thrown into prison.

You get thrown in a dungeon with rats, real rats and feces and excrement, and things will happen to your family. And before you get sent to prison, mobs will turn out. to your house and stone your house, stone your family. So this is what the cast, what Diazcanal is calling for. The Cuban people have a well-grounded reason to be afraid. When we ask them to lose their fear, we have to understand it's a big ask. And in the courage that they have displayed yesterday, Sunday, July 11th, was astonishing.

Well, you had mentioned earlier, Mike, that the castros, still playing the strings right now, even though the current president is not a Castro. What does this mean for Cuba, for the president right now, just given the situation that a Castro isn't in charge, but you're saying, in theory, they still are. Well, it's a new generation waiting to take powers. There's Raul Castro's son. There is his daughter, Mariela. They, you know, they're very, very much it's still in play. Castro's son-in-law owns Gaesa, is the chief of Gaesa, which is the military holding company that controls about 90 to 90% of the Cuban economy. We don't have good figures for this.

These are U.S. government estimates. So the Castro are still benefiting materially from whatever takes place economically on the island, and they would expect to pull the strings politically as far as the eye can see. They will use every lever of state terror they want in order to maintain their hold. Because what happens if Cuba goes democratic? The future is not going to be good. Well, you mentioned, Mike, that people who tend to go against the government are thrown in jail. There's thrown into places with rats, and it's a terrible situation.

What do you think the repercussions will be for protesters right now on the streets? We're shouting, not afraid. What are they going to face? It's very bad. I already described what happened to Father Castor. There's 57 dissident leaders missing. Nothing good. They will stop.

nothing. The situation is unpredictable. The other thing that is predictable is that BLM will come out in support of the Castro government, that the squad will say nothing and will come out in support of the Castro government. That's the only thing we can predict. Probably Bernie Sanders as well. On the island, we cannot predict what will happen. The next few days will be key. So you mentioned how President Biden issued a statement very late in the game. What is your perspective of the statement? I know we talked about how late it was, but the statement itself, what do you think? It was short. Well, the fact that it was late is really important.

It was short. It called the government authoritarian. No, it's totalitarian. We have lost sight of the distinction between authoritarian governments and totalitarian governments. The Cuban government is totalitarian. There was no word of it to be Marxist or communists. Biden administration, Biden Harris, are very afraid of their left flank of their own party. That's where all the energy is right now.

So it's like they're like, they're frozen. in place. They're deer in the headlights. What should be happening? What should Biden be doing on the high level? He should be going on TV and siding with the people of Cuba morally. He should be warning President Diaz-Cannell not to banish the dissidents, not to create a flotilla of refugees. This is not the way you deal with dissent in your own country. If your people are telling you they don't want you in power, leave power. Well, Biden's acting assistant secretary for U.S. Department of State Bureau of Western Hemisphere

Affairs. tweeted on Sunday, peaceful protests are growing in Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases, deaths, and medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people, mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need. And then Congressman Dan Crenshaw tweeted a reply to her and said, know they're chanting Libertad, stop playing cover for communists and support the Cuban people. My God, why is that so hard for you? I thought it was such an embarrassing tweet by

Assistant Secretary Chung. The most charitable thing we can say about is that she misread the room. Good call. Last question, Mike. I know you have to go soon. What is your perspective on the next generation? Is the next generation in Cuba waking up? Well, I'm very hardened to hear that as young people saying, screaming, we have lost our fear.

Again, it's very easy from our air-condition offices in the Washington, D.C. area to call in the Cuban people to lose their fear. they have a real reason to be afraid. For 62 years, they have been oppressed. The least we can do is give them moral support. Biden can galvanize moral support. He can have his tear down this wall moment. I don't think he will. He's not capable of it.

And I think he's too afraid of the left flank of his own party. I hope that I am wrong. Well, Mike, thank you for joining us on the daily single podcast. It's always great having you with us. Thank you very much. And that'll do it for today's episode. for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeart

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