The Center for Democracy in the Americas: New revelation on USAID democracy promotion in Cuba shows efforts are dangerous, wasteful, and lack transparency

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The Center for Democracy in the Americas

Apr 03, 2014, 12:30 ET

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- USAID's version of Twitter - designed to incite protests in Cuba - had very real and counterproductive consequences. Without telling the Cubans who used and shared it, this effort put Cubans at risk; it gave tens of thousands of dollars in text fees to the Cuban government it was trying to undermine; and because it was concealed from the Congress and the US public, information about the waste and deceit was secret until the program failed and disappeared.

The idea that USAID could do something so dangerous, wasteful, and contrary to the democratic principles it says it is trying to advance in Cuba - and do it off the books - is a clear demonstration of how dangerous its approach to "democracy promotion" and regime change can be.

How many times do we have to go down the regime change route until we recognize that ending the embargo and freeing Americans to travel is the right way forward?

Original AP article found here: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-secretly-created-cuban-twitter-stir-unrest

SOURCE The Center for Democracy in the Americas