Information for the national and foreign press, accredited in Cuba shared by Yaira Jimérez Roig, Director of Communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
March 19, 2021
Yesterday, 5 Cuban citizens went to MINREX with the alleged interest of expressing their concern over a Cuban citizen who wanted to travel to Cuba.
The true purpose of that action was revealed when minutes after they were listened to, they conveyed their own version of the events through the social media in front of the Ministry, with the purpose of fueling a campaign that was already underway.
I´m here to explain what happened, to explain to our people how a media show is set up, which according to the soft coup handbook it is fabricated on the social media. It is transferred to the public space and is recycled back on the social media in an exaggerated fashion, causing manipulated and distorted perceptions of the reality.
The first thing to say is that this event was spearheaded by ADN Cuba, a digital news outlet, supported by federal funds from the United States government.
In the last quarter of 2020 alone, ADN received $ 400,000 from the Trump administration to be used in systematic propaganda and provocation campaigns as part of a strategy to demonize and stir up subversion against Cuba.
It is striking how before the timeframe from 12:09 until 15:50 in the afternoon when the first Live was posted from the vicinity of the Foreign Ministry, ADN Cuba had already published 15 notes, with videos, animations and lives, as well as information on the web.
It is interesting that in just a few minutes they obtained statements from Human Rights Watch, a pseudo non-governmental organization that our people know it operates at the service of the United States policy against Cuba.
This organization replies to ADN and goes ahead to condemn events that are in development.
The operation is already set up and the usual actors show up. We are talking about the Cuban-American congresswoman from Miami, María Elvira Salazar; and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who speak with ADN Cuba, in a vulgar and threatening language.
Individuals such as Alex Otaola, Eliécer Avila and Maikel Osorbo are directly associated with this plan, who publicly lead campaigns to intensify the economic siege, encourage violent acts, and even call for an armed invasion against Cuba.
Another digital outlet, Tremenda Nota, from the same media contamination scheme, and another pseudo organization such as New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, are implicated with new threats and warnings to the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
Ready to be put in motion were a set of digital platforms that use lies, misinformation and harassment in their daily practices and that fraudulently pretend to pass for journalism.
All of this is happening even before these citizens were attended.
It was a media show.
It was more important to launch on social media their own version of the events, rather than to wait for a response.
They are representatives, political communication operators, at the service of a foreign government, accomplices of the economic war against Cuba and the most aggressive actions of the United States government against our people.
This is another phase of the soft coup against Cuba, which has in these toxic platforms its main instruments of attack and action scenarios. This time, they used a Cuban emigrant, her name is Karla María Pérez González, with several years outside of Cuba, and who is directly linked to the plans of the aforementioned sectors.
What happened is part of a larger objective. The links of these people with the most reactionary and provocative sectors of the anti-Cuban industry in Florida are known and, with the funding from government agencies of that country, they carry out undermining actions against Cuba.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives, attends and responds to letters, emails and visits from citizens on a daily basis as part of the system of attention to the public. What happened yesterday was not a legitimate citizen claim, but a political and communication operation that disqualifies and delegitimizes its actors.
Our government and our people have never acted under pressure. President Díaz-Canel has already said: Our ministries are not media platforms.
