Fox 21 News
Mon, 01/11/2010 - 12:10pm Federal Government, Wisconsin
By Gil Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio
WASHINGTON (WPR) U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold says it's time to de-fund Radio and TV Marti. The news and cultural broadcast service targeting Cuba began after Fidel Castro rose to power in the late 1950's. Feingold says the propaganda broadcasts are having little effect on Cuban citizens.
Feingold has tried before to eliminate funds for Radio and TV Marti. This time the effort is part of a larger bill aimed at trimming federal spending. Feingold says a recent government report found that less than 2-percent of Cubans tune into the programs that are broadcast from Florida. He says cancelling the project would save tax payers about $300 million, and he also cites a 2006 GAO report which shows operational problems like cronyism, patronage and biased coverage.
Ricardo Gonzalez, director of Madison's sister city project in Camaguey, Cuba, says Feingold is on the right track in trying to chop funding for the broadcasts. He says in his annual visits to Camaguey he's heard one major complaint from Cubans about American's policy towards their country. He says Cuban people don’t want any more interference from the United States and want to end the policy of isolationism. He says TV and Radio Marti is a form of aggression against Cuba.
Gonzalez says he's hopeful that defunding the broadcasts, combined with the easing of travel restrictions for Cuban America's enacted by the Obama Administration may lead to normal relations between Cuba and the U.S. for the first time in decades.
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Information from Wisconsin Public Radio, www.wpr.org
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JG: Radio and TV Marti, are welfare payments departments for the ultra right wing anti-Cuba extremists in Miami and are an insult to the memory of Cuba's Apostle of Independence, Jose Marti. Practically no one listens to them. It is a huge waste of taxpayer money. They should be ended and Senator Feingold should be applauded for his efforts.
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