Free Cuba Foundation leader predicts end of Castro regime during Trump's first term if President follows through with campaign promise

Trump vs. Hillary 2016, Cuba policy, predictions and promises to keep.

30+ precincts in MDC with highest CA voters concentration show Trump won by 58% and Rubio won by 69%

The Free Cuba Foundation made bold predictions during the 2016 election that were proved true and now a founding leader of the group has made a bold and new prediction. "If Trump keeps his pledge to roll back the Obama Administration's Cuba policy replacing it with one that prioritizes U.S. interests, greater freedom and human rights for Cubans then Cuba will be free without the Castros during President Trump's first four year term," said Augusto Monge of the Free Cuba Foundation. This founding leader of the Free Cuba Foundation went on to say that the New York businessman's initial lukewarm support for the Obama Cuba policy had Cuban American support bottom out at 33% earlier this year. However Mr. Trump's support grew to at least 58% on election day after he had promised to roll back the Obama Administration's Cuba policy and reached out to Cuban American leaders.

If as some claim 570,878 Cuban Americans voted in the 2016 election and Mr. Trump saw a 25 point shift in support that correlates with his announced change in Cuba policy translating to 142,719 additional votes. A total of  331,109 Cuban Americans voted for Mr. Donald Trump on November 8, 2016. 

Considering that President Elect Trump's margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in Florida was just 119,970 votes and the argument is not just that Cuban Americans were critical to the New York businessman's victory but that the dramatic increase in support was linked to U.S. Cuba policy and its rejection by a large number of Cuban American voters according to exit polls. The shift in that vote alone, possibly by Cuba policy single issue voters, provided the margin for taking Florida and exceeded it by 22,749 votes.

Throughout 2016 Free Cuba Foundation members challenged the conventional wisdom on Cuba, the Cuban American vote and the 2016 Presidential election in the United States.

There was an attempt by some in the media to explain the low level of support for Donald Trump among Cuban Americans mentioning almost everything else but Cuba policy.  There were also attempts to push the idea that if Mr. Trump rejected the Obama Cuba policy his numbers among Cuban Americans would go even lower. It was a Free Cuba Foundation member that reminded readers of The Miami Herald in May of 2016 that the Republican nominee's troubles with the Cuban American vote had little to do with immigration but a lot to do with his support for the Obama Cuba policy.

However on September 16, 2016 the argument citing the FIU Poll that Cuban Americas supported new Cuba policy was shown to be false when the New York businessman announced that he would roll back the Obama Administration's Cuba policy replacing it with one prioritizing human rights and freedom in Cuba for Cubans. Donald Trump's polling numbers among Cuban Americans began to rise dramatically, despite some Cuban Americans remaining skeptical that this was a late election conversion.

On September 17, 2016 the Free Cuba Foundation reported what the situation had been before the September 16th announcement:

"For the first time ever in a presidential election both major party candidates were backing normalizing relations with the Castro regime. This position would have hurt Republicans more than Democrats because part of their base of Cuban American voters, in Hialeah for example, are working class and vote Republican out of their anti-communism, not economic interests. Until yesterday Cuba policy was going to be a wash in the 2016 presidential election with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump supporting Obama's failed Cuba policy."  

If GOP strategists had bought into the FIU Cuba Poll's claim that the Obama Administration's Cuba policy was supported by a majority of Cuban Americans and adopted a new position then the Cuban American vote would have gone the way of the Chinese American vote from reliably majority Republican to reliably majority Democrat. 

However with Donald Trumps rejection and pledge to roll back the new Cuba policy it was clear that this was a game changer in the Cuban American vote because now there was a clear contrast on this issue. 

“The last time there was a clear choice, a referendum, on U.S. Cuba policy took place between two presidential candidates in 1980, where Jimmy Carter decided to open the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, lifted the travel embargo on Cuba and began direct negotiations with the Castro regime only to be defeated by Ronald Reagan who promised to reverse the policy,” explained Augusto Monge, co founding member of the Free Cuba Foundation. Augusto, also observed that “As in 1980, like today in 2016, the fruits of the normalization policy with the Castro regime are decidedly rotten. The human rights situation in the island has worsened; the regime's subversive influence in Latin America expanded threatening democratic governments friendly to the United States.” 

The Free Cuba Foundation also predicted that this difference between the two candidates on Cuba policy would place the FIU Cuba poll under greater scrutiny:

"This new contrast over Cuba will test the FIU poll of Miami Cubans that claims strong support for Obama's Cuba policy among Cuban Americans.  In stark contrast, Marco Rubio who repudiated the Obama Cuba policy won the Cuban American vote in Miami-Dade County handily even though he lost the rest of Florida in the Republican primary. Trump's about face on Cuba policy is good news for the GOP in South Florida where Cuban Americans upset over the the administration's December 17, 2014 announcement now potentially have a candidate that they can support." 

The results on November 8, 2016 found candidates that rejected Obama's Cuba policy winning their elections in Miami-Dade County. Furthermore statewide Senator Marco Rubio, a tough critic of Obama's Cuba policy, decried by the anti-Embargo lobby as out of touch with his electorate won the state by a larger margin than Mr. Trump and got 69% of the Cuban American vote.

Those who advocate continuing Obama's failed Cuba policy are doing all they can to minimize the role Cuban Americans played in Florida in the November 8, 2016 elections but the emerging facts make it more difficult each day that goes by.  However it is important to recall that these same people in 2014 downplayed how Cuba policy negatively impacted Charlie Crist in the Florida governor's race after he too initially bought into the anti-embargo lobby's siren song and contributed to Rick Scott's second term as the Governor of Florida. 

There is an attempt to look at the vote in Florida and claim that it was the white non-hispanic vote with its increased turn out that won the state for Trump, but that does not negate that if President elect Trump had not courted the Cuban American vote and vowed to roll back the Obama Administration's failed Cuba policy it would have impacted the result. Like it or not facts are facts and the Republican nominees victory margin in Florida was 119,970 votes and the shift in the Cuban American vote for Mr. Trump from 33% support to at least 58% supports translated into at least 142,719 additional votes that made history on November 8, 2016.

FIU students organized protest against Hillary Clinton and in support of keeping sanctions on Castro regime

Cubans have a right to their rights!

FIU students organized protest against Hillary Clinton on July 31, 2015

 On Friday, August 31, 2015 facing the Wertheim Performing Arts Center (WPAC) at Florida International University students, alumni and members of the community protested Candidate Hillary Clinton's and the Obama Administration's Cuba policy with a nonviolent protest. Efforts were made by the University authorities to corral us in a remote location in order that we not be seen or heard, but they failed.


Young voices spoke out for a human rights first policy in Cuba and the maintenance of sanctions. It will be interesting to see what the electoral results will be for Hillary Clinton, and other candidates who call for engaging in commerce with the dictatorship in Cuba.

Meanwhile will have to see how the entertainer Pitbull who has engaged in doublespeak on when and how he will play in Cuba while apparently calling for the lifting of the embargo on a bottle of vodka, he is trying to market, will be received.

Inside of Cuba, the musical group Aldeanos produced a track blasting Saavedra of Vigilia Mambisa who held a protest in which he "symbolically" destroyed Pitbull CDs in Little Havana and posted it on youtube it has over 113,000 hits as of today.

This just serves to underscore as we have said all along that attacking artists or destroying music symbolically or otherwise is in contradiction with the full embrace of human rights. However, specifically criticizing what we are in disagreement with using nonviolent means (such as a boycott) is a morally consistent exercise.

Hillary, Pitbull and the Embargo on the Dictatorship in Cuba

 The Question: Will Cuban exiles boycott Pitbull and punish Hillary Clinton at the voting booth?

Free Cuba Foundation (FCF) has a long tradition of defending human rights generally and taking the controversial stand that many may find unpopular while exercising our freedom of expression. Six years ago we defended Colombian musician Juanes's freedom of expression, denounced death threats against him while at the same time criticizing aspects of the concert he put on in Cuba.

FCF has also been out front in denouncing the concessions made by the Obama administration to the Castro regime in order to upgrade diplomatic relations from the previously existing interests sections to the current embassies.

While recognizing that people of good will can differ on the issue of economic sanctions on Cuba the Free Cuba Foundation finds problematic the manner in which Cuban American musician Pitbull has apparently called "to end the embargo on Cuba" on a bottle of vodka. The musician's apparent support of President Obama's Cuba policy is not a surprise because he campaigned for him in 2012. However tying the embargo to his vodka venture is surprising and could lead to a Boycott Pitbull effort taking off in social media.

Alcoholism in Cuba is a terrible problem in the populace and one of the tools that the dictatorship uses to maintain power. James Kirchnik, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative and a correspondent for the Daily Beast, in the May 14, 2015 issue of National Review wrote about his experience traveling to Cuba and met with Lady in White leader Berta Soler who addressed the role of alcohol:

"'The government sells a lot of alcohol to occupy the minds of the people,' Soler tells me, an observation that makes a lot of sense once you’ve spent a few days in Cuba. Alcohol is plentiful and cheap. In the poor provincial city of Pinar del Rio, about a two-hour drive west of Havana, I saw a boy no older than 13 walking the streets with a half-empty bottle of beer. A discotheque there was, on a Saturday night, full of people ranging in age from mid teens to 40s; a bottle of Havana Club sets you back $6. Subsidizing the production of cheap alcohol so as to keep the population inebriated (and therefore distracted) is one of many tools that the Cuban regime learned from its erstwhile Soviet benefactor."

This reality combined with the commercial calculation and self promotion is disappointing. However the timing, coming so close to what is expected to be Hillary Clinton's July 31, 2015 attack on sanctions on the Castro regime, presents an opportunity to express dissatisfaction in former Secretary of State's jokes about the Cuban American community and Little Havana that appeared in an email exchange from 2009 now made public in 2015.

Candidates for public office in 2014 such as Charlie Christ who openly campaigned against the embargo and initially said he would visit Cuba, but then backed out of it lost in the governor's race in and Joe Garcia who had a double discourse on the matter did not get re-elected.

Just because Cuban Americans and Cuban exiles are not going to Versailles in large numbers to break Pitbull records doesn't mean that many are not upset and will boycott the artist in the future. For example, FCF has always rejected attacking artists or destroying music and will continue to do so. This is not an abandonment of principle but its full embrace as human rights defenders.

This does not mean that we cannot be critical.  FCF members joined together with hundreds of Cuban exiles in demonstrating their opposition to Obama's Cuba policy in December, January and June. This community has shown that we believe in freedom of speech, the right to dissent and now has a history of embracing nonviolent tactics, such as protests, boycotts, and the voting booth to respond in what we perceive as the best way to support the aspirations of the Cuban people to be free.

Continuing that tradition we hope to see you this Friday at 9:30am at Florida International University's Wertheim Performing Arts Center (WPAC) to greet Candidate Clinton who will be making her speech there at 11:00am with a nonviolent protest.