Writer Ernesto Hernández Busto, a fierce critic of Fidel Castro, edits Penultimos Dias, an influential voice in the blogosphere. He was born in Cuba and studied math in the former Soviet Union in 1986-87. According to his biography: He was expelled for not attending classes, but on appeal he was allowed to study Spanish and [...]
Interview with Frank Calzón
Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba organization in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was Washington director for Freedom House. Both organizations have been major recipients of USAID funds. Calzón was born in Cuba and was 14 when Fidel Castro took power. I was one of the many millions of Cubans [...]
Interview with Aleida Godinez, Part 2
Some Cubans join dissident groups in hopes of building a case for political persecution and obtaining a visa to the United States, former security agent Aleida Godinez said. For more of this interview, see 18-minute video on the Cuba Money Project’s Vimeo channel. Godinez, one of the Cuban government’s star witnesses against dissidents after the [...]
Interview with Aleida Godinez, Part 1
Aleida Godinez considers herself a Cuban patriot and didn’t hesitate when her government asked her to infiltrate the political opposition. Her testimony led to the conviction of dissident Martha Beatriz Roque in 2003. Godinez, whose undercover name was Agent Vilma, is unapologetic. She sees Cuba’s political dissidents as “mercenaries” who work on behalf of the [...]
Interview with Laritza Diversent
Laritza Diversent, 30, is a lawyer who began working as an independent journalist in 2007. She started a blog called Las Leyes de Laritza, or Laws of Laritza, in 2009 after attending a blogging workshop that Yoani Sanchez organized. The blog, Diversent says, “is the way I describe this reality, how I feel, how I [...]
Interview with John McAuliff
U.S. officials should respect the authority of Cuba’s socialist government rather than trying to undermine it, said John McAuliff, director of the non-profit Fund for Reconciliation and Development in New York. U.S. Agency for International Development programs in Cuba are “totally useless” for promoting democracy and “dangerous” for development workers who carry out government-financed work, [...]