Havana, Cuba (Photo: Wikimedia)
(Source: VOA News)
Cuban President Raul Castro is urging the U.S. government to stop radio and television broadcasts that Cuba considers harmful, while also saying that his government is willing to keep improving relations with the United States.
In a speech broadcast on state television Friday, Castro said that his government will “continue insisting that to reach normalized relations, it is imperative that the United States government eliminate all of these policies from the past.”
He noted that the U.S. government continues to broadcast to Cuba, including transmissions of Radio Marti and TV Marti, despite Cuba’s objections. Radio Marti and TV Marti are overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is also the parent organization of the Voice of America.
Castro also criticized U.S. immigration policy that allows Cuban migrants to live in the United States if they reach U.S. territory.
“A preferential migration policy continues to be applied to Cuban citizens, which is evidenced by the enforcement of the wet foot/dry foot policy, the Medical Professional Parole Program and the Cuban Adjustment Act, which encourage an illegal, unsafe, disorderly and irregular migration, foment human smuggling and other related crimes, and create problems to other countries,” Castro said.
Here’s my proposal. We’ll end Radio Martí and TV Martí on condition that we are allowed to broadcast VOA News in Spanish to Latin and Central/South America, with Cuba promising not to jam those transmissions they way they do Martí.
Martí is heard by few on SW or AM because of the jamming so it’s just a huge waste of energy for both countries. We don’t jam Radio Havana’s obviously biased propaganda so they should offer an olive branch and not jam ours.
Our socialist-in-chief will kowtow to the Cubans as well.
Perhaps not end Radio Martí and TV Martí, but reduce the above-mentioned vilification and acid attacks. Then again, here in East Tennessee, we have a hard time picking up Radio Martí, so we here have little to gauge the Martí broadcasts on.
I hear Radio Martí clearly most nights but don’t speak Spanish, so I have no idea what they are saying. Maybe it’s blind patriotism on my part but it doesn’t sound quite as harsh in tone as some of the RHC broadcasts do. The RHC propaganda makes me feel like I’m being scolded by a mean uncle or something.
I do have to wonder how effective the jamming of Martí is in the first place. If the jamming originates from Cuba, the people near the transmitter site(s) probably don’t hear much of the jamming itself. But in parts of the US it can be downright un-listenable because of the noise. I have also noted there are nights where they don’t jam Martí at all, like during the All-Star games that were carried on Martí this year. I guess baseball trumps political differences!
Seems like a more effect way to keep Radio Martí from the masses would be banning shortwave radios completely and jamming the Martí broadcast on 1180, which is probably a lot more effective.
That would be the worst if Cuba and the US dial back their radio propaganda efforts! The RHC vs BBG rivalry is the only game left in town in recent years.
It was bad enough when Voice of Russia packed it in. http://t.co/NVIRPeKy5Y
And VOA cut back its schedule to not much.
Don’t take away the last of the great shortwave state broadcaster rivalries.
Somewhat agreed. That’s one reason that the inspection of each others country and style of course should remain — both peoples and eventually governments typically benefit.
However, just the vilification , the “acid attacks” that have typified Radio Havana ( RHC for short) for so many decades, and it’s still heard daily on RHC….that needs to tone-down, as would the potentially vilifying if not acid words and messages coming from the U.S. and mainland.
As both a long-term SWL, amateur earlier than that, and world participant, I have already written both the U.S. to Cuba and the Cuban Ambassador to the U.S., and almost-pleading them to tone down the still-pretty-intense anti-American rhetoric heard on the likes of Radio Havana and elsewhere.
If the two countries are becoming “more peaceably known and inter-operating to each other” — to put it mildly — this rhetoric, slander, scolding attitude needs to be moderated. No, don’t stop retrospective or asking each countries pertinent questions entirely or be docile, just realize relations ARE improving, NOT getting worse or more strained.
Thanks for passing this along, Thomas. It’s a shame shortwave radio is so ineffective and such a waste of government money! After all, it must be ineffective if our new friend in Cuba wants to help us save money by ending these needless broadcasts! Okay, enough sarcasm for the moment! As always, your posts are inspiring, and I couldn’t resist a comment.
Thanks too for the new fodder for my blog!