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Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
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16 Jul, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Let's set the record straight, @GeraldoRivera: The Cuban regime decided months ago not to allow any outside vaccines enter the country.

This is the head of Cuba's vaccine initiative in April:

"We wanted to solely rely on our own capacities to vaccinate our population..."
Why did the Cuban regime do this?

THEY ARE A COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP.

They want to control everything that happens inside their country. It's the only LatAm country that hasn't signed up for COVAX, a global vaccine effort with 190 countries.
elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo…
According to this @elnuevoherald article from February: The Cuban government is not even purchasing vaccines from its allies, like Russia.

Medicine is a huge business and propaganda talking point for the Cuban dictatorship. They don't want to signal their system is inadequate.
One more thing:

Through propaganda, the Cuban regime has convinced its people they enjoy one of the best health care systems in the world. This is a lie. It has always been a lie.

One of the reasons why they didn't want to rely on US vaccines is because it would debunk that.
When you went to Cuba pre-COVID, people would complain about the economy and then say, "hey, at least we have medicine." They were brainwashed.

Now they're seeing their health system collapse. COVID may be the straw that broke the camel's back, but frustration has been building.

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More from @GiancarloSopo

Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
17 Jul
THREAD: "Revolución" was trending, so I thought I should help my fellow Americans understand how the Cuban regime requires and pressures its people, particularly students, to attend these fake pro-dictatorship rallies.

And yes, it's absolutely insane. #SOSCuba #PatriaYVida Image
Despite the propaganda, the first thing Americans need to understand is that the demonstrations are organized by the regime.

They are not organic.

They are not "student led."

The government stages them to project legitimacy internationally and to control the population.
University students are *required* to attend the rallies.

At minimum, students who refuse can get expelled or see their class rankings drop.

This article details how some are refusing to participate in today's rally and the consequences they may face. noticuba.tech/cuba/Estudiant…
Read 15 tweets
Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
15 Jul
.@krystalball and @esaagar seemed genuinely surprised that there are many Cuban Americans who would be willing to risk their lives to free their homeland if it came to that. They may want to try Googling: "Brigade 2506."
The use of force should always be a last resort, but if we're speaking in hypotheticals, of course many would support such an effort if needed.

It's easy to be dismissive of this when you've never lost your country to communism or when you haven't had family members executed.
That said, there's a lot that should be done short of boots on the ground, but it seems like @krystalball, @esaagar and @ggreenwald (who's a mouthpiece for LatAm leftists like Lula, Morales, etc.) know little about U.S. policy toward Cuba. So, let me walk you through it:
Read 11 tweets
Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
15 Jul
It’s worth noting that a lot of Cuban Americans were smeared as “racists” and “conspiracy theorists” by members of the media for correctly noting last year that BLM the org is a Marxist group. They will never receive an apology.
Here’s an article by @wlrn that labeled @alexotaola a racist for pointing this out. I’m sorry @TimPadgett2, but you owe Alex an apology. wlrn.org/commentary/202…
Here’s another example where @WLRN attacked @MaElviraSalazar and assured its readers that BLM is not a Marxist organization.
Read 4 tweets
Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
14 Jul
The idea that the Cuban regime is going to voluntarily transfer power is a fantasy. Regime topplings in Cuba have happened in the following ways:

1) Outside forces (1898, US help)
2) Military / Coup (1933 & 52, Machado & Batista)
3) Mass Uprising (1933 & 1959, Machado & Castro)
2021 Cuba is very different than 1959 & 1933 Cuba.

The biggest diff is that the Cuban people are unarmed. In 1933, the student groups that led uprisings resulting in Machado's ousting by the military had guns.

Castro had both guns and international $$$ (thx to the NYTimes).
There is strong support on the island now for toppling the Castro regime. Cubans are tired of living in misery and the only thing they thought (bc of propaganda) they had going for them (health care) has collapsed.

But an unarmed popular uprising faces serious hurdles.
Read 9 tweets
Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
14 Jul
The images that are coming out of Cuba are, in fact, being amplified by Cuban Americans — but they're coming from Cubans who live on the island. None of us do this for money.

Also, at this point, disillusionment with the regime is widespread.
It's difficult to gauge public opinion on the island. Polling is strictly banned. It's been done clandestinely before, and even in 2015 (when econ was better), Raul Castro was divisive and a plurality of Cubans had a negative view of Fidel Castro.

That's only gotten worse.
There are good people on both sides of the Cuba policy debate in South Florida.

The notion that exiles' interests in Cuba are driven by $ is just silly. If anything, the economic interests that support normalization far exceed the traditional Cuban exile community's.
Read 4 tweets
Giancarlo Sopo Profile picture
14 Jul
I'm often asked about "Wet Foot Dry Foot," and in discussing it, I find misconceptions, so here's a quick recap:

WFDF was a policy of the Clinton Administration in the 1990s to address the Cuban rafter crisis of 1994. It was supposed to be temporary but lasted until 2017.
Here's how it worked: If a Cuban stepped foot on US soil, regardless of how they entered, they could stay.

Pres. Obama ended this policy in his final days in office in 2017; Pres. Trump did not reinstate it.

Cuban Americans are divided on it. This is from FIU's 2020 poll:
The law provided relief to many Cubans fleeing Castro, but it had unintended consequences. It incentivized human trafficking, thousands died at sea, and it inadvertently relieved internal pressure on the Cuban regime. How? Bc those most likely to flee are most likely to dissent.
Read 5 tweets

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