What they’re saying

A sampling of references and links to Cuba Money Project-related articles and research from December 2010 to June 2012:

What they’re saying home page

2012
June 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
2011
December 2010
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
2010
December 2010

June 2012

June 5 – CubaInformacionTV produced a video based on Iroel Sanchez’ blog post.

June 2 - Iroel Sanchez, whose blog is called La Pupila Insomne, cited the Cuba Money Project’s FOIA effort and a post on USAID’s plans to hire a specialist to oversee Cuba programs.

April 2012

April 15 – Luis Miguel Rosales cited Cuba Money Project research in a post in Miradas Encontradas. It was republished on Las Razones de Cuba and other sites.

April 6 – Anya Landau French, director of the New America Foundation’s U.S. – Cuba Policy Initiative cited the Cuba Money Project in the Havana Note. She wrote:

If a US government program funds democracy-building work in Cuba, but no one is allowed to learn the details, did the work actually happen? Tracey Eaton, a Florida-based journalist investigating U.S. government democracy-building programs in Cuba to see who receives the money and what U.S. taxpayers get for it, has shared USAID’s response to one of his many FOIA requests, this one on 11 years worth of USAID work in Cuba carried out by its grantee, Freedom House. You might ask, why does a journalist need to submit FOIA request when USAID’s Mark Lopes recently insisted that, “Nothing about USAID’s Cuba programs is covert or classified in any way.” The heavily, er, almost totally, redacted FOIA response you see above (which Eaton scanned and posted on his blog, Along the Malecon) presents the real conundrum – what’s a reporter to do when even a Freedom of Information Act request fulfilled yields no actual information?

March 2012

March 24 – David Brooks cited Cuba Money Project statistics in a story in La Jornada.

February 2012

Feb. 7 – Cuban writer Zoé Valdés – shown at right in a photo by Spain’s ABC newspaper – wrote that it would be worthwhile to start a “Castroism Money Project” to explore who finances the Cuban government. She wrote:

I am deeply grateful to Tracey Eaton for those videos that have allowed us to know opposition figures with all their angles, ideas and lines of thought, although there are still many others to interview, and the question of economic aid could be reversed and put to Castroites as follows: Who pays you to be a Castroite? Does the Castro dictatorship support your families, and provide your employment and welfare, and travels? I think the question could be extended to those writers who live in Cuba and have ties to the Castro regime and are authorized to be fairly critical without going outside the lines imposed by the Castro regime.

Another question that should be put on the board, which would require deeper investigative research, is: who in the United States contributes toward maintaining Castroism, who sends money to continue to prop up the dictatorship? Who maintains the Castsroites who make a living repressing Cubans and hating exiles? Who pays so that the flames of the Castro regime are kept alive and burning?

January 2012

Jan. 25 – I am posting transcripts of as many of my interviews as possible – no matter the ideological point of view of the interviewee. I am also re-posting videos that have new English subtitles. I am putting all these on my Cuba blog, which is called Along the Malecón.

Translating Cuba, a website featuring more than three dozen independent Cuban bloggers, set up links to the transcripts and subtitled videos. A screenshot showing one of those interviews is at left.

Jan. 16 – Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo, creator of the Ciudadanos de Cuba website, translated a Cuba Money Project status report on goals for 2012.

Jan. 12 – La Joven Cuba posted a four-part interview I did with the blog’s creators. That prompted a flurry of comments – 260 at last count, which is not unusual for the site. In one comment, Gabriel del Pino noticed that La Joven Cuba joined a wide variety of others who I have interviewed. He wrote:

I’m so glad that La Joven Cuba shares a platform with – wow! the list is enormous – Martha Beatriz Roque, Antunez, Berta Soler, Ivan Garcia, Orlando Luis Pardo, Reinaldo Escobar, Antonio Rodiles, Laura Pollan, Ernesto Fernandez Busto, Oswaldo Paya, Claudia Cadelo, and … of course, Yoani Sanchez.
It is a pity that they only share a virtual space. But it is an important first step.
Soon the day will come when they share the same space in representative Cuban bodies … when those political bodies represent all the people of Cuba.

Jan. 10 – Cuban writer Emilio Ichikawa cited a Cuba Money Project investigation of the secretive {think} Cuba summit.

Jan. 9 – Miami-Dade Dems recommended the two-part Cuba Money interview with Joe Garcia.

Jan. 7 and 8 – The Cuban Liberty Council, the popular Babalu blog, writer Zoe Valdez and others cited the Cuba Money interview with Ninoska Perez.

Jan. 6 – Edmundo Garcia, host of an alternative radio show called La Tarde de Mueve in Miami, broadcast a 24-minute Cuba Money interview with members of La Joven Cuba blog. Garcia called blog’s three creators the true face of Cuban youth and said the interview marked the first time they would be heard in Miami. After the interview was broadcast, a lively debate followed. One man called the show and told Garcia that the video “bulls–t.” Several others criticized Garcia, saying he is supporter of Cuba’s socialist government. And one caller to the show called for the release of Eduardo Arocena, an anti-Castro Cuban found guilty in 1984 of first-degree murder of a Cuban diplomat, two conspiracies to murder diplomats and 22 other criminal counts, including numerous bombings. Garcia defended himself vigorously and said he was simply telling a truth that many Cubans in Miami don’t want to hear.

Jan. 6 – Iroel Sanchez, creator of the blog La Pupila Insome, printed an interview with me entitled, Tracey Eaton: “Los grandes medios de comunicación de los EE.UU. dan una visión incompleta de Cuba.” I appreciate Sanchez’s interest in my research. I would like to point out that a reader asked if I provided the Internet links that are tied to some of my responses in the Q&A. I did not provide the links, which may give the mistaken impression that I am taking a position on the linked content. CubaDebate and dozens of other websites reprinted the interview.

December 2011

Dec. 27 – Many blogs and websites reprinted or commented on the Dec. 25 post about USAID’s lackluster response to my FOIA request for details of an audit of Cuba programs that cost taxpayers at least $1.47 million. These sites included Cuba’s Granma newspaper, Cambios en Cuba, Cuba-L Direct and many others.
Dec. 5 – Baracutey Cubano cited Cuba Money Project reporting in a post called, “CUBA: un gran momento de negocios para alguien. Sobre el supuesto mal uso de fondos para la liberación y democratización de Cuba”

November 2011

Nov. 21 – Pedro Pablo Arencibia of Baracutey Cubano translated and posted a Nov. 1 article called, “How much aid reaches Cuba?”

Nov. 16 – Cuban writer Emilio Ichikawa wrote an article in Spanish about Cuba Money Project interviews with young pro-government bloggers.

Nov. 16 – Ernesto Hernández Busto, creator of the Penúltimos Días blog, disagreed with Frank Carlos Vázquez, who told the Cuba Money Project about his experiences as a secret agent.

Nov. 13 – Journalist Jose Calvet cited the Cuba Money Project in a post about the Cuban blogosphere.

Nov. 9 – Jose Steinsleger cited Cuba Money Project research in a column called, “USAID y la “democracia” en Cuba in Mexico’s La Jornada newspaper.

Nov. 9 – Contrajerencia published an article entitled, “Miami Cuban-American mafia live the dream and pocket tens of millions from USAID,” which cites Cuba Money Project statistics.

Nov. 7 – Cuba Money Project is starting to show up in footnotes in Wikipedia entries, such as this one in German about the Cuban American National Foundation.

La Joven Cuba posted photos of the interviews I did with founders of the blog in Matanzas. Several other websites – including Global Voices – also cited the interviews.

Nov. 2 – Investigative reporter Lise Olsen cited the Cuba Money Project’s effort to obtain USAID documents through the FOIA. She said it reminded her of her four-year-long push to get State Department records on Americans killed in Mexico.

Nov. 1 – Ciudadanos de Cuba translated into Spanish a Nov. 1 Cuba Money post that quoted a Washington, D.C., lawyer who believes USAID programs in Cuba should be classified and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Nov. 1 – End the Embargo cited the Cuba Money Project’s October roundup.

Nov. 1 – Cuba’s Granma newspaper gave its take on an Oct. 29 Cuba Money post about new grants awarded to Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba.

Nov. 1 – Cuban writer Emilio Ichikawa published an interview with me and was kind enough to use a picture that makes me look 10 years younger (that’s because, alert readers point out, the photo is 10 years old).

October 2011

Oct. 31 – Miami Beach blogger Belkis Bigles translated and posted Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 articles on the use of USAID grant money. She wrote:

Seeing with my own eyes the figures received by these organizations, led by Cubans and the justifications they give the IRS on their expenses, I feel sad, very sad and yet at the same time I see why the Castro tyranny has lasted so many years. There are many factors, but one of them – and I find this unforgivable – is the existence of people who have been profiting at the expense of pain and enslavement of the people who survive on the island.

Oct. 21 – The stir continued over an Oct. 10 Money Project story about U.S. government plans to send encrypted TV signals into Cuba. State-run media in Cuba had said the encryption was surely tied to espionage, subversion or both. But Juan Tamayo of the Miami Herald said there was a simpler explanation: Baseball.
Encryption allows Major League Baseball to broadcast games from an airplane to Havana and the surrounding area, Tamayo quoted Radio/TV Martí director Carlos García-Perez as saying.
If the signal weren’t encrypted, then receivers in many other parts of the world would pick up the games for free, depriving MLB of revenue. Tamayo wrote:

And that’s why the need for encryption — usually referred to as scrambling the signal — so that unauthorized audiences cannot watch the games.

Oct. 21 – Anya Landau French, director of the U.S.–Cuba Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation, cited the Cuba Money Project in a post entitled, “Cuba Roundup: The Politics of Intimidation and Hypocrisy.”

Oct. 20 – Greg Weeks, editor of the academic journal The Latin Americanist, cited the Cuba Money Project’s Oct. 14 interview with Gerald Hyman. He wrote:

For a great visual check out this sample page of a declassified USAID project for Cuba:
The sad thing, of course, is that the hard core group of Florida lawmakers make it impossible even to shed some needed light on these projects, much less shut them down.

Oct. 17 – Channel 41 in Miami led its 8 p.m. news program with an excerpt of the Laura Pollán interview. Oscar Haza, host of the show “A Mano Limpia,” said the interview was the last video interview of its kind with Pollán before her Oct. 14, 2011, death. The interview was recorded on July 21, 2011, at Pollán’s home in Havana.

Oct. 16 – A Cuba Money Project video of Laura Pollán and Hector Maseda was shared on YouTube.

Oct. 16 – Cuban blogger Norelys Morales Aguilera translated and published Cuba Money Project interview with former USAID official Gerald Hyman. Headline: Confirman que programas USAID para cuba son “muy celosamente guardados”. The story was also cited on the Center for Strategic and International Studies website and other sites.

Oct. 14 – Cuban writer Emilio Ichikawa posted USAID’s Oct. 7 letter in which the agency declines to turn over details of a $2 million Cuba project. The Cuba Journal posted a page from the redacted document.

Oct. 14 – Writer, activist and teacher Karen Lee Wald also cited the Cuba Money Project’s reporting on new Cuba grants. Wald, who moderates a Google Group called Cuba Inside Out, wrote:

What’s interesting is that Tracey Eaton, whose project this is, is no great fan of Cuba’s revolutionary government. But he’s even less of a fan of spending our money in an attempt to topple it.

Oct. 13 – Cuban writer and blogger Emilio Ichikawa cited the Oct. 13 story about $8.6 million in new grants. Headline: Por encima de Miami, y en instituciones que exceden el tema cubano, recaen casi 9 millones del “2011 Cuba grants”

Oct. 13 – Reporter Jean-Guy Allard cited an Oct. 13 Cuba Money Project story about the awarding of $8.6 million in Cuba grants to nine U.S. organizations. His story appeared on Contrainjerencia and Aporrea.

Oct. 12 – Cuba’s state-run Granma newspaper ran Jean-Guy Allard’s story citing the Oct. 10 blog post about plans to test broadcast signals into Cuba. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry posted the story on its website.

Oct. 11 – The Pulitzer Center reprinted the Laura Pollan interview and embedded the video from the Cuba Money Project’s Vimeo channel.

Oct. 11 – Proyecto Ciudadano Cubano translated and published the Oct. 10 story on the Israeli broadcasting contract. Headline: Empresa israelí obtiene contrato de transmisión satelital para Cuba.

Oct. 11 – Canadian journalist Jean-Guy Allard cited an Oct. 10 Cuba Money Project story on an Israeli company that won a U.S. government contract to test broadcast signals into Cuba. TeleSur and others picked up the story.

Oct. 10 – Miami-based CubaNews (subscription only) followed the Oct. 2 texting story. CubaNews editor Larry Luxner wrote:

Washington Software Inc….has just won a lucrative U.S. government contract to set up a system capable of sending up to 24,000 text messages to Cuban cellphone users — in what the Castro regime calls a blatant violation of international law. The base contract between Washington Software and the Broadcasting Board of Governors is worth $84,000 during the first year, says CubaNews contributor Tracey Eaton, who writes the Cuba Money Project blog.

Oct. 10 – Radio Rebelde cited the Oct. 2 texting story.

Oct. 10 – Janine Mendes-Franco of Global Voices cited the Laura Pollan video, interview and photos.

Oct. 10 – Babalu blog linked to a gallery of photos of Laura Pollan.

Oct. 10 – CubaVerdad, Damas de Blanco, Derechos Humanos en Cuba and other websites reprinted the Laura Pollan interview. CubanosUSA posted the video interview.

Oct. 10 – CubaEncuentro posted an interview and video of Damas de Blanco leader Laura Pollán.

Oct. 8 – Latin Daily Financial News cited the Oct. 2 texting story.

Oct. 7 – Cuba Central, of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, cited the Oct. 2 texting story. It said:

At a time when social movements across the world are seeking to protect their authenticity – and make great efforts to be independent from outside forces –a project that seeks to send 24,000 text messages per week from the U.S. to cell phones in Cuba seems like a colossal mistake.
The depth of the error is only magnified by the continued imprisonment of Alan Gross, the U.S. subcontractor who was convicted of crimes against the Cuban state, for distributing highly regulated satellite communication equipment in Cuba paid for by similar regime change funds.

Oct. 8 – Latin Daily Financial News cited the Oct. 2 texting story.

Oct. 7 – W.T. Whitney Jr., writing in the People’s World, described U.S. government efforts to undermine Cuba’s socialist government and cited the Cuba Money Project. He wrote:

Former Dallas Morning News Havana Bureau Chief Tracey Eaton has studied the recipients of $85 million since 1997. He estimates that $150 million have been spent in all on influencing the politics of a sovereign nation.

Oct. 4 – Versions of Cuba Money Project’s Oct. 2 texting story continue to circulate, appearing in Milenio in Monterrey, Mexico, El Diario de Las Americas, InterAmerican Security Watch, Argenpress, Radio Reloj in Cuba, the Cuba Study Group, Italy’s Altrenotizie.org and other websites.

Oct. 3 – The Miami Herald cited the Cuba Money Project’s Oct. 2 report on the U.S.-financed text-messaging plan. Reporter Juan Tamayo wrote:

… the details of Radio/TV Martí’s effort came to light only after the contract for the computerized SMS services was published in Cuba Money Project, a Web page that tracks U.S. government spending on Cuba-related programs.

The Money Project report, based on U.S. government documents obtained by journalist Tracey Eaton through the Freedom of Information Act, noted that one of the companies that was considering bidding on the contract had asked if the SMS campaign was legal.

Miami’s El Nuevo Herald, CubaSi, Mexico’s La Jornada, Radio Taino, Spain’s CubaEncuentro and many other websites.

The debate over the text-message campaign also appeared on Facebook, where Pablo Pichardo Zamora wrote:

Todos los dictadores le tienen un miedo horrible a la comunicacion o la exprecion libre de la prensa. El dia que en Cuba tengamos la oportunidad de tener acceso a la informacion, hasta ese dia estan los Castros de duenos de Cuba.

Translation:

All dictators will have a horrible fear of free communication or expression of the press. The day that in Cuba we have the opportunity to have access to information, until that day the Castros are the owners of Cuba.

Oct. 2 – CubaDebate, TeleSur TV and other websites picked up a Cuba Money Project story about a U.S. plan to send tens of thousands of text messages to cell phone users in Cuba.

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September 2011

Sept. 30 – CubaDebate cited a blog post on the Top 10 recipients of U.S. funds for democracy projects in Cuba. Title: “Programas para la subversión en Cuba: Jóvenes e Internet en la mira de EEUU”

Sept. 30 – CubaNews, a Yahoo! Group, cited the Cuba Money Project’s coverage of U.S. democracy programs. Quote: “Let’s all give around of thanks and praise to Tracey Eaton for his following through on this extremely significant element in the Cuban story.”

Sept. 18 – Secretos de Cuba debated the origins of the Cuba Money Project.

Sept. 10 – A blog called Agencia Rodolfo Walsh cited Radio and TV Marti expense reports posted by the Cuba Money Project.

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August 2011

Aug. 17 – Heriberto Leyva follows up on a State Department document that said USAID was behind a rap festival in Cuba. Organizers deny the accusation.

Aug. 17 – John McAuliff mentioned the Cuba Money Project in an opinion piece published on the Progreso Weekly website. He wrote:

USAID’s planned programs almost sound innocent, except that they are designed to carry out the regime change agenda of the Helms Burton law and are part and parcel of 50 years of unremitting economic warfare, as reported by Tracey Eaton in his invaluable Cuba Money Project blog.

• $6 million for programs aimed at increasing free expression among youth ages 12 to 24.
• $6 million to expand Internet use and increase access to information.
• $9 million to support neighborhood groups, cooperatives, sports clubs, church groups and other civil society organizations.

Imagine how Americans would feel if an overtly hostile country undertook similar unauthorized projects in our country despite explicit U.S. laws to the contrary. Wouldn’t we be morally outraged at targeting children as young as 12?

Aug. 9 – Canadian journalist Jean-Guy Allard wrote about the State Department’s refusal to turn over documents related to the case of jailed subcontractor Alan Gross. Allard wrote, in Spanish: “USAID, negó a Tracey Eaton, copias de las propuestas presentadas por los contratistas, entre ellas la firma empleadora de Alan Gross, para participar en un programa injerencista dirigido contra Cuba.”

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July 2011

July 6 – CubaNews, a Yahoo! group, posted a Cuba Money Project story with the message:

The Cuba Money Project, directed by journalist Tracey Eaton, is an immensely useful resource.

July 4 – Emilio Ichikawa reprinted a portion of my interview with Cuban journalist Reinaldo Taladrid, who had said there were more prostitutes in Miami-Dade than in Cuba. Periodico Guama, a spoof newspaper, ran the same excerpt of the interview.

July 4 – Anibal Garzón of Aporrea cited the Cuba Money Project.

July 2 – La Jiribilla, a magazine based in Havana, cited my interviews about USAID progams in Cuba.

July 1 – The Center for Democracy in the Americas cited the Mauricio Claver-Carone interview.

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June 2011

June 30 – Al Kamen of The Washington Post cited my interview with Mauricio Claver-Carone.

June 29 – Anya Landau French, director of the U.S.–Cuba Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation, cited my interview with Mauricio Claver-Carone.

June 29 – CubaEncuentro published my story about The National Security Archive’s lawsuit aimed at forcing the CIA to disclose its official history of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Headline: “They want the CIA to disclose the secret history of the Bay of Pigs”. Numerous websites – including Blogs de Cuba and Cuba Verdad – picked up the story.

June 29 – CubaEncuentro published my interview with Peter Kornbluh, director of The National Security Archive’s Cuba Documentation Project. Headline: “Develando los secretos de la historia Cuba-EEUU”. Numerous websites – including El Ultimo Congreso and El Polvorin – picked up the story.

June 28 – John McAuliff, director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, cited my interview with Mauricio Claver-Carone.

June 24 – Capitol Hill Cubans reprinted my interview with Mauricio Claver-Carone. Babalu blog linked to the interview.

June 22 – El Nuevo Herald cited my blog posts related to Cuba grants and a government notice about Cuba program job openings.

June 20 – Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, along with state-run Granma newspaper, Prensa Latina News Agency, Juventud Rebelde and others, reprinted Allard’s June 15 story or versions of it in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Russian.

June 20 – CubaEncuentro translated and published my story about an American delegation’s meeting with Alan Gross. Headline: “Caminando en círculos: la vida cotidiana de Alan Gross”

June 17 – Ellery Biddle, who created the blog half-wired, wrote a post about the Cuba Money Project.

June 17 – Inter Press Service in Cuba cited the Cuba Money Project.

June 17 – The Pulitzer Center mentioned the Cuba Money Project on its Tumblr page.

June 16 – Cubainformacion, a website sympathetic to the Cuban revolution, cited the Cuba Money Project in this video.

June 15 – The Pulitzer Center ran a version of my post announcing $21 million in new Cuba grants.

June 15 – A Pulitzer Center published a post entitled, “Impact of Cuba Money Project.” The Pulitzer Center wrote:

Tracey Eaton’s Cuba Money Project investigates the effectiveness of USAID funding for democratic programs in Cuba. His reporting has stoked a lively debate in the blogosphere.

June 15 – Cambios en Cuba responded to Ernesto Hernandez Busto’s June 15 post. Headline: “Ernesto Hernández Busto alecciona a Tracey Eaton”

June 15 – Canadian journalist Jean-Guy Allard’s take on the U.S. government’s announcement of the $21 million in grants. Headline: “Cuba: la USAID propone millones para infiltrarse entre los menores de edad“.

June 15 – CubaEncuentro translated into Spanish and published portions of a Cuba Money Project post. Headline: “Washington anuncia nuevos fondos para Asistencia a la Democracia en Cuba.”

June 15 – Ernesto Hernandez Busto wrote a piece questioning the journalistic value of quoting anonymous sources who say the CIA would do a better job than USAID in operating democracy programs in Cuba. His post is entitled, “Tracey Eaton, USAID y la CIA.”

June 14 – Cambios en Cuba cited the CubaEncuentro piece.

June 14 – CubaEncuentro translated a Pulitzer Center piece, “Beyond Fake Boogie Boards: Promoting Democracy in Cuba.” Headline: “Afirman que programas de EEUU en favor de democracia funcionan en Cuba”

June 14 – Rich Haney, author of the book “Celia Sanchez: The Legend of Cuba’s Revolutionary Heart,” wrote in response to the GlobalVoices article:

Professor Eaton has the best forum on modern-day Cuba because he depicts it as it is — a two-sided topic. He is correct to present the views of dissidents such as Oswaldo Paya and Martha Beatriz Roque as well as the equally important contrasting views. The subject of Cuba has been plagued for too many decades by ignorance, complacency, and the total dominance of self-serving anti-revolutionary benefactors in the U.S.

June 13 – Ellery Biddle of GlobalVoices wrote a story about the Cuba Money Project’s Vimeo channel.

CubaEncuentro, a popular Spanish-language website based in Madrid, has translated numerous articles I’ve written about democracy programs. Three examples:

• June 13 – Pulitzer Center story, “Cuba Pro-Democracy Programs: Leave it to the CIA?” Headline: “Algunos funcionarios estadounidenses favorecen que la CIA maneje programas pro democracia en Cuba“
• June 9 – Interview with Cuban dissident Jorge Luis Garcia Perez. Headline: “Es una vida difícil, pero la causa es justa” (“It’s a difficult life, but the cause is just”).
• June 7 – Interview with Frank Calzón, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba. Headline: “Calzón dice que prisión de Gross fue una bofetada a Obama” (“Calzón says prison for Gross was a slap at Obama”).

June 13 – Cambios en Cuba, a prominent pro-Castro website produced in Cuba, cited an interview I did with a congressional source.

June 13 – A Venezuelan website called Abrebrecha picked up a blog post on questionable spending in democracy programs

June 9 – Havana Journal, a well-trafficked Cuba website based in Massachusetts, linked to the Herald story that cited the Cuba Money Project and said:

Be sure to read the Cuba Money Project to ‘follow the money’ as they say.

June 6 – Babalu Blog, one of the most popular Cuba blogs, reproduced the Pulitzer Center story “Beyond fake boogie boards: Promoting democracy in Cuba.”

June 6 – Capitol Hill Cubans, an influential conservative blog that supports the Cuban embargo, also linked to the Pulitzer Center story.

Numerous websites and blogs of all persuasions linked to the State Department document I had exclusively on June 3. Four examples:

• June 4 – Penultimos Dias, one of the most popular Cuba blogs written in Spanish
• June 5 – Cambios en Cuba
• June 6 – The Cuban Triangle, an even-handed blog by Phil Peters, a former State Department official
• June 3 – CubaNews, a Yahoo! group

Left-of-center blogs and newspapers in Cuba and Venezuela picked up a related Q&A I published on my blog quoting congressional sources. Four examples:

• June 2 – Diario Universal
• June 3 – Rebelion
• June 3 – El Blog de Carlos Tena
• June 3 – Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, or AVN

June 1 – The Havana Note cited the Cuba Money Project in a post called “All Detained Americans are not the same.”

June 1 – Alberto de la Cruz, of the Babalu blog, reproduced a post on the Damas de Apoyo and linked to the Vimeo videos.

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May 2011

I began uploading Cuba Money Project videos to a Vimeo channel on May 1. Some 72 websites had embedded videos as of June 13. Vimeo statistics showed they had 7,813 plays and 138,247 loads. Penultimos Dias drove about 20 percent of the traffic.

Other websites embedding videos include CubaEncuentro, a popular Cuba website based in Madrid. It has embedded at least four of the Vimeo videos, including interviews with:

• Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, nicknamed Antunez
• Oscar Espinosa Chepe
• Oswaldo Paya
• Miriam Leiva

May 30 – Cuban writer and blogger Emilio Ichikawa wrote about the Damas de Apoyo videos I posted.

May 23 – Marc Masferrer’s Uncommon Sense blog, dedicated to Cuban political prisoners, reprinted an article from the Cuba Money Project website and linked to the Vimeo channel.

May 20 – Emilio Ichikawa noted my reporting trip to Washington, D.C.

May 19 – Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor who studies the Cuban blogosphere, cited the Cuba Money Project website in an interview. He writes a blog called El Yuma, which lists my Cuba blog – Along the Malecon – as one of his Lucky 13 blogs.

May 16 – Marc Masferrer, of Uncommon Sense, wrote:

I just discovered a collection of Cuba-related interviews produced on video by veteran Cuba-watcher Tracey Eaton. Here’s one with one of my favorite independent bloggers on the island, Claudia Cadelo.

May 11 – The Miami Herald quoted me and cited the Cuba Money Project in a story about democracy programs in Cuba.

May 9 – Ted Henken wrote:

…freelance journalist Tracey Eaton is inundating us with a treasure trove of video interviews from Cuba’s dissident and blogger community. Most of these interviews were filmed last summer – 2010 – in Havana. There are also a host of videos of panels and some interviews of attendees at the Bildner Center’s recent symposium, “Cuba Futures” (in NYC in March-April, 2011).

May 6 – Ernesto Hernandez Busto, of Penultimos Dias, wrote:

In addition to the Martha Beatriz Roque interview that appears in the right column, journalist Tracey Eaton filmed interesting statements by the dissident Elizardo Sanchez, Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), Oscar Espinosa Chepe, and others, commenting on the government Obama and the characteristics of the aid they receive from the U.S., and non-governmental organizations worldwide.

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April 2011

April 19 – Ernesto Hernandez Busto wrote:

The Cuba Money Project, Tracey Eaton’s project, has made an important contribution toward the aim of fiscal transparency regarding the Cuban issue by uploading a file (813 pages in PDF!) which lists contract payments made by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio / TV Martí) to its employees from 2003 to 2010, more or less.”

April 16 – An article posted on Rebelion cited a USAID Q&A I posted.

April 12 – A pro-Castro website in Cuba picked up a post on questionable spending in democracy programs.

April 10 – CUBAPOLIDATA, a popular Cuba blog, linked to a document I created and posted on U.S. government payments to journalists who write about and comment on Cuba. Title of post: “Who’s Who in OCB payments?”

April 8 – Dawn Gable of the Havana Times, which is edited in Nicaragua, cited my presentation at the Cuba Futures: Past and Present symposium in New York City.

April 6 – Changes in Cuba, the English-language version of a pro-Castro blog called “Cambios en Cuba,” cited Cuba Money Project statistics in a post called “The PADF against Cuba.”

April 4 – A blog called Ciudadanos Cuba wrote about a Cuba Money Project post about U.S. companies linked to top secret work in Cuba.

April 2 – Ted Henken posted photos taken at the Cuba Futures: Past and Present symposium where I presented some of my findings.

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March 2011

March 28 – Cuban Colada, the Miami Herald’s Cuba blog, cited the Cuba Money Project’s post on the mysterious Panama summit.

March 28 – Cuba’s state-run Granma newspaper wrote about a Cuba Money Project post.

Cuba-L Direct, a non-profit research organization, has reprinted several of my posts. Two examples:

• March 26: U.S. activist: “Toppling dictators is something I really like”
• March 4: 10 Reasons why USAID’s Cuba programs are controversial

March 19 – Progreso Weekly, an online magazine that gets nearly 3 million hits per month, reprinted a Cuba Money Project post entitled “U.S. paid billions to company that hired Alan Gross.”

March 19 – The Cuba Journal called a post on democracy spending “required reading.”

March 18 – Phil Peters, creator of The Cuban Triangle blog, cited Cuba Money Project reporting in a post entitled, “The democracy-industrial complex.”

March 18 – A prominent pro-Castro website, CubaDebate, translated a Cuba Money Project article about U.S. government spending on democracy programs.

March 18 – Alberto de la Cruz, of Babalu blog, reproduced a Capitol Hill Cubans post that criticized Lexington Institute blogger Phil Peters and I for our description of democracy programs as “covert.”

March 18 – A Yahoo group called the Los Angeles Alternative Media network cited a post about democracy spending.

March 15 – In a post entitled, “Why Keep Funding Failure?“, The Havana Note said:

For more on the U.S.-Cuba money trail, visit Cuba Money Project, an exciting new venture from former Dallas Morning News bureau chief in Havana, Tracey Eaton.

March 11 – Prensa Latina cited Cuba Money Project statistics.

March 5 – Capitol Hill Cubans cited a post I wrote about Alan Gross, the jailed American development worker.

March 2 – Cambios en Cuba cited a blog post about the U.S. Interests Section budget.

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December 2010

Dec. 30, 2010 – Phil Peters, of the Cuban Triangle, wrote about the Cuba Money Project in a post entitled “New USAID Monitor.” Peters said:

This is a job no one else has taken on in a systematic way, and it promises to be a project that has value regardless of our opinions of the USAID programs, past or present.

Dec. 3, 2010 – The Havana Note linked to a story I wrote about the programs in the Miami Herald.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

- Tracey Eaton

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