Havana/The United States Embassy in Havana has been involved in a controversy for hiring the services of a Cuban communications SME for $31,530 (almost 11 million pesos at the current informal exchange rate), spread across some 13 projects. The information was published by the digital Cuba DNA which ensures that the business, MadWoman Agency, not only has ties to the regime, but that it even fired one of its employees for sharing anti-government slogans on their social networks.
Cuba DNA He had access to documents on the link between the diplomatic headquarters and the Cuban company, in which it is clarified that the amount corresponds to several projects that have been commissioned from MadWoman. “Six were for migration-related campaigns/messaging, five for strategic program designs (Black History Month 2023 and 2024, Pride Month 2023, a music exchange with local university students, and a film diplomacy program), one to promote bilingualism and one for a campaign related to Ukraine in 2023,” the outlet quotes.
Last February, a letter sent by Republican congresswoman of Cuban origin María Elvira Salazar to US President Joe Biden requested the cessation of the contract between the embassy and MadWoman and the delivery, before April 1, of “all communications” held between both parts. She also reminded the president that the SME had been in the news for firing Álvaro Hernández, one of his network managers, in September 2023, for publishing the message “Down with the dictatorship” on his X account.
A letter sent by María Elvira Salazar to Joe Biden requested the termination of the contract between the embassy and MadWoman
“This MSMEMadWoman, is clearly a cover for the regime,” Salazar wrote. “It is completely unacceptable that our embassy works with a ‘company’ that fires people for criticizing the Cuban dictatorship,” he added.
This week, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs responded to Salazar in a letter in which it defended the link with the Cuban company and explained that MadWoman denies having fired for political or ideological reasons one of its employees who, it adds, abandoned the company by its will. “(MadWoman Agency) assured the State Department that ‘it did not fire the employee in question and has not penalized any employee for his personal opinions,’” the document reads.
The letter also assures that the SME is an independent entity, which has no connection with the Cuban Government. According to Cuba DNAwhich asserts that it had access to a “document from the State Department itself, prepared for the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee,” the Washington Embassy in Havana maintains its commercial relationship with the company.
MadWoman, a private project –MD Creativa SRL– converted into an SME in 2022, was the subject of debate after the dismissal of Hernández, who emigrated with his partner, also a former employee of the company, to the United States. Cuba DNA He offered the Cuban version, which claims that, after its publication, the directors of the SME called him to account. “When I got to the meeting, they showed me my post on X and asked me, ‘What is this?’” Hernández recalls. “That’s what I think,” he says he replied.
According to Hernández, Disley Alonso, one of the owners, told him that the entity was part of the Cuban “government apparatus.” “They gave me several reasons why they had to ‘indefinitely separate me from my duties at the agency,’ since they were a government company and couldn’t have employees making those comments,” she argued.
Hernández’s partner, Alberto Góngora, also spoke to ‘ADN Cuba’ about the payments that the SME makes to its collaborators
Hernández’s partner, Alberto Góngora, also spoke to Cuba DNA of the payments that the SME makes to its collaborators. As he clarified, the company paid him 1,000 pesos ($2.87) for developing the Black History Month campaign for the embassy.
The digital also reported that, according to a MadWoman manual for dealing with contractors, collaborators and employees that it was able to consult, the company asks that they “refrain from making publications or sharing content that may go against the policies established in the country.” ”. Hernández also mentioned similar company policies in an interview with Cuban Diary.
Since the creation of the MSMEs In 2021, the new businesses have been the target of criticism from the Cuban population and exiles, including politicians like Salazar, who consider them a “gray area” in Washington’s treatment of the Island. They also accuse the regime of Havana to take advantage of the “supposed private and free market” to import goods and do business with the United States without being sanctioned by the embargo laws.
14ymedio He has pointed out on numerous occasions the links of the Cuban rulers with some private businesses and their owners, whom many describe as figureheads of the regime. This is the case of Diplomarket, a mysterious supermarket that imitates the American franchise Costco and appeared last October in Havana. Regarding its owners, it is only known that it belongs to a company registered in the United States by Frank Cuspinera Medina, a Cuban businessman.
Other businesses noted for their links with the regime are the shoemaking SMEs of Camajuaní, in Villa Clara, to which Miguel Díaz-Canel dedicates, along with a farm dedicated to raising pigs, numerous hours of his frequent visits to the municipality.
