{"id":208822,"date":"2019-11-07T16:56:44","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T21:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=208822"},"modified":"2019-11-07T16:56:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T21:56:44","slug":"trump-cuts-cultural-funds-to-cuba-that-were-never-used","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/trump-cuts-cultural-funds-to-cuba-that-were-never-used\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump cuts cultural funds to Cuba that were never used"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Donald Trump administration decided to cut federal funds that are used, among other things, in cultural exchange programs that the government promotes abroad. Cuba is on the list of those \u201caffected.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>an ordinance published in the Federal Register<\/span><\/a>, Trump justifies the decision because the countries included in this sanction have not met the minimum standards for the elimination of the trafficking in persons, and during fiscal year 2020, Cuba, North Korea, Russia and Syria will not receive a penny for cultural exchange programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The document emphasizes that the United States \u201cwill not provide non-humanitarian, nontrade-related assistance to, or allow funding for participation in educational and cultural exchange programs by officials or employees of the governments of Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Russia, and Syria\u201d for fiscal year 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement coincides with the cut of about 897 million dollars that the administration made to the <\/span>federal budgets related to arts and humanities, public television and radio, libraries and museums<\/span><\/a>. Some of these cuts <\/span>have political connotations<\/span><\/a>, because since the 2016 election campaign, the then candidate had been advocating he would cut federal funds in that sector. And since then it has been like this and this fiscal year is the third consecutive year that the cuts have been made effective, with the consent of the Senate and House of Representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

What cultural exchange?<\/strong><\/p>\n

But in the case of programs abroad financed by the federal government the matter is different. The president has the authority to cut and end at his free will cultural exchange programs with whichever countries he wants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultural exchange programs rely primarily on bilateral agreements and this is where the case of Cuba is an exception to the rule because, at least since 1961\u2015when relations were broken\u2015the two countries have not signed any cultural agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April 2016, when the air traffic agreement was being discussed in Havana, <\/span>a cultural delegation from the United States<\/span><\/a> visited Cuba to recommend to Obama that he design a cultural rapprochement with the island. They held a series of meetings with Cuban authorities and intellectuals and designed exchange protocols that promoted the sending of Cuban academics to the United States and vice versa. But that was never approved by Congress, in addition it happened a few months before the end of that Democratic administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

When relations between the two countries resumed at the level of interest section in 1997, the press and culture office in the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana was unable to promote American culture in the absence of a bilateral agreement and the rejection of the local government in the face of everything that sounded like \u201cideological and diversionary penetration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A U.S. diplomat who was stationed in Havana in the late 1990s told OnCuba<\/strong> that they were never able to carry out anything rigorously; they were always denied permits and any activity they carried out with people who were not from the regime was sabotaged; and the magazine they published had a small circulation and at times the Cubans would complain about its contents. Moreover, they reached a point where his office had a budget cut because Washington, seeing that the funds for the promotion of U.S. culture were not used, took them away.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of \u201ccultural exchange,\u201d whose definition basically consists of the exchange of information, in trying to understand and get acquainted with one culture and the other, the two countries never had an official relationship; just specific cases that occurred more by a personal will of those involved in the improvement of relations than by a mutual government agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, the <\/span>National Endowment for the Arts<\/span><\/a><\/em> brought several Cuban musicians to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington. It was a big gala. But there was the Obama administration and things were opening,\u201d said the director of the <\/span>Cuban Research Institute<\/span><\/a> of the Florida International University, Jorge Duany.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was also the case of several administrators of the <\/span>Smithsonian<\/span><\/a> who traveled to Havana and established scientific exchange agreements with their peers on the island. But there was nothing official that would go beyond the political will to facilitate contacts with the granting of visas. \u201cIn this case the exchange itself is a movement of intellectuals, writers, painters, who traveled between the two countries, although more to Cuba,\u201d Duany emphasizes to OnCuba<\/strong>. In fact, \u201cthere are very rare cases in which federal funds are used to bring people from Cuba. Musicians, writers and painters, travel with private invitations,\u201d he emphasizes.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not my fault! The anguish and triumphs of Cuban music in Miami in the 1990s<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n