New American Foundation Receives "Regime Change" Funds

Mauricio Claver-Carone*

How could this be?

According to Along the Malecon, the New American Foundation (NAF) will receive a 3-year, $4.3 million grant from USAID's Cuba democracy programs.

NAF applied for these funds through its Open Technology Institute, which has done great work in promoting Internet connectivity and innovative telecommunication networks for civil society throughout North Africa and the Middle East.

Similar to what American development worker Alan Gross, who has been held hostage by the Castro regime since December 2009, was doing in Cuba.

Yet, hypocritically, NAF also houses the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative, led by Anya Landau-French, which has called USAID's Cuba democracy program a "regime change mandate".

NAF also hosts The Havana Note blog, whose contributors include the USAID Cuba program's most arduous critics and Castro regime apologists.

Can't wait to hear how they feel about their newly-financed parent organization.

A fascinating hypocrisy.

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*Mauricio Claver-Carone is the Executive Director of Cuba Democracy Advocates in Washington, D.C., a non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Cuba. In an independent capacity, Mauricio is a co-founder and Director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, the largest, single foreign-policy political committee in the United States and the largest Hispanic political committee in history.

Mauricio has served as an attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to his work in government, he served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at The Catholic University of America's School of Law and an Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University's National Law Center.

He is also host of the foreign policy show "From Washington Al Mundo" on Sirius-XM's Cristina Radio (Channel 146).

Poder Magazine has recognized Mauricio as one of 20 entrepreneurs, executives, leaders and artists under 40 who are shaping the future of the U.S. and the world.