Cuban human rights groups fear shutting down due to lack of U.S. funding under Trump administration
The cuts have shocked pro-democracy groups that monitor prisoners in Cuba, which have been the sole providers of information about political prisoners, including their health conditions.
When Cuba announced in January it would begin releasing 553 political prisoners as a plan negotiated with the Vatican — which also included removing Cuba from the states sponsors of terrorism list — the U.S. based human rights organization Cubalex went straight to work.
In the absence of an official list of prisoners or announcements by the communist-run government, groups like Cubalex used a database put together years ago to contact relatives of prisoners on the island and be able to confirm who has been freed.
The group, which monitors political prisoners on the island and has long been a source for news outlets and rights groups, felt the impact when the U.S. withheld $239 million in congressional appropriations to the nonprofit National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in late January. For instance, a two-year project that was supposed to launch in February to provide legal help for political prisoners and document human rights violations in Cuba was abruptly cancelled and Cubalex was forced to lay off 10 of their 26 staff.
“It has been a hard blow,” said Laritza Diversent, who founded Cubalex in 2010. She and 10 other members were forced into exile in 2017, she said, after being threatened with jail for their activism. “At first it was a profound shock ... but I’m determined to forge ahead.”
Pro-democracy groups that monitor prisoners in Cuba have had their funding cut at a critical time, as the Trump administration continues to withhold tens of millions of dollars in funding from NED, which has longstanding bipartisan support to promote democracy overseas. Recently, following a lawsuit against the U.S. government, part of the funds were restored. But many projects on Cuba have been hard-hit. The funds cuts have sent shock waves among the small groups that depend on NED, and for years have been the sole providers of information about the circumstances surrounding political prisoners, including their health conditions.
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