Brother Raul Castro is finally going to be released from prison in Venezuela. Will the United States do the same thing with his brother, Fidel Castro? Ezra Levenkamp explains why this is a good thing. Plus, a great interview with the Taxpayers Federation.
00:04:38.080And then we we scrambled the video to hide the identity of the people talking to us because they could be thrown in jail talking that way about the Castros.
00:04:45.480We saw the wreckage of Cuba, not from any war, but from more than 60 years of communist neglect.
00:05:06.460We blurred people, but many were very brave.
00:05:09.400Now, I mentioned Nicolas Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, the chief enabler of Cuba in many ways, including by supplying them with cheap oil.
00:05:19.460But in one of the most stunning military special operations ever in history, he was simply snatched out of the military base upon which he had lived.
00:06:12.880Because if you have Cuban nationals reporting to the Cuban army being Maduro's bodyguard, yeah, maybe.
00:06:19.140But another way of looking at it is that they were more his prison guards.
00:06:23.660They made sure he didn't do anything contrary to Cuba's interests.
00:06:27.820Anyways, it took less than two hours for them to swoop in, get him, get his wife, get him on a ship, and then sail back to New York where he now sits in prison.
00:07:16.980And I don't think we talk about it enough because we're distracted by everything else.
00:07:20.200But I bet they talk about that raid and what has happened in places like Iran, Moscow and Pyongyang and Beijing and Ankara, Turkey, what America can do, what America could do.
00:07:32.120And it just got through all the Russian and Cuban and Chinese air defenses and just snatched them.
00:07:39.520And it all started with a criminal indictment, which in the States basically means charges being issued, criminal charges, a policing matter.
00:07:50.200not a military matter. Keep that in mind. I'll come back to that in a second. You see, the U.S.
00:07:54.260never recognized Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. It was pretty much
00:07:59.040universally acknowledged that he stole the elections. Even Canada believes that, even the
00:08:03.840U.S. Democrats say so. So he was a fake, a usurper. And so when he was indicted as a drug cartel boss,0.98
00:08:12.620it was sort of normal for the police to arrest him, even if they needed hundreds
00:08:16.260of military troops to assist with the arrest.
00:08:19.760Well, I tell you all of this because I'm so full of hope
00:08:22.780for Venezuela and their people, and it's so miraculously
00:09:14.660Pero sé que hoy ustedes, quienes llaman a la isla a su hogar, atraviesan dificultades inimaginables.
00:09:21.900Hoy quiero compartirles la verdad sobre el motivo de su sufrimiento.
00:09:25.700Y quiero contarles lo que nosotros en los Estados Unidos le ofrecemos para ayudarlos no solo a aliviar la crisis actual, sino también a construir un futuro mejor.
00:09:35.620La razón por la que se ven obligados a sobrevivir 22 horas al día sin electricidad no se debe a un bloqueo petrolero por parte de Estados Unidos.
00:09:45.880Como ustedes saben, mejor que nadie, llevan años sufriendo de apagones.
00:09:50.560La verdadera razón por la que no tienen electricidad, combustible ni alimentos es porque quienes controlan su país han saqueado miles de millones de dólares, pero nada ha sido utilizado para ayudar al pueblo.
00:10:02.940Hace 30 años, Raúl Castro fundó una empresa llamada GAESA.
00:10:07.780Esta empresa es propiedad de las Fuerzas Armadas y está operada por ellos
00:10:12.180y cuenta con ingresos tres veces superiores al presupuesto de su gobierno actual.
00:10:18.360Hoy, mientras ustedes sufren, estos empresarios tienen 18 mil millones de dólares en activos
00:10:24.660y controlan el 70% de la economía de Cuba.
00:10:29.200Obtienen ganancias de hoteles, construcciones, bancos, tiendas
00:10:33.360y incluso del dinero que sus familiares le envían desde Estados Unidos.
00:12:47.920Hoy en Cuba, solo aquellos cercanos al élite de Gaesa o que forman parte de ella pueden tener negocios rentables.
00:12:55.260Pero el presidente Trump ofrece una nueva vía entre Estados Unidos y una nueva Cuba.
00:13:00.360Una nueva Cuba donde ustedes, los cubanos de a pie, no solo Gaesa, pueda ser dueño de una gasolinera o de una tienda de ropa o de un restaurante.
00:13:09.700Una nueva Cuba donde ustedes, no solo Gaesa, pueden abrir un banco o tener una constructora.
00:13:15.180A new Cuba, where you, and not only the Communist Party of Cuba, can be owner of a television station or a newspaper.
00:13:24.180A new Cuba, where you can quit a system that fails, without fear of going to jail or being forced to go to their island.
00:13:32.180And a new Cuba, where you have the real opportunity to vote for those who govern their country and vote for them if they are doing a good job.
00:14:00.180¿por qué no es posible para ustedes dentro de Cuba?
00:14:04.180En Estados Unidos estamos listos para abrir un nuevo capítulo
00:14:08.180en la relación entre nuestra gente y nuestros países.
00:14:12.180Y actualmente, lo único que se interpone en el camino hacia un mejor futuro son quienes controlan su país.
00:14:20.840So what is he talking about? He's talking about a proposed new relationship between the United States and Cuba.
00:14:27.380The truth that Cuba is run as a kleptocracy, where all the foreign money is stolen by a corporation called Gaeza,
00:14:35.620a super conglomerate that literally owns everything of value in the Cuban economy.
00:14:40.920All the tourism. It's owned by this corporation. All the retail stores. All wholesale trade. The entire financial sector. Imagine if there was one company in Canada that had every store, every wholesale supplier, all the tourism, every hotel, every airport, every spa, every resort, and every bank.
00:15:04.180one company. It is the majority of Cuba's GDP. It is a corporation run by the military. Tens of
00:15:12.780billions of dollars a year. Hey, where's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders and Canada's
00:15:17.900Jagmeet Singh and Abbie Lewis? Where are all those communists to denounce billionaire monopolies0.98
00:15:23.260when you need them, eh? But here is the part that, oh, it's chef's kiss. Raul Castro, that's
00:15:33.600Fidel Castro's surviving brother, has now been indicted in the United States. And what did I
00:15:39.960just tell you about being indicted? That is the legal basis upon which the United States
00:15:44.540snatched Nicolas Maduro, put him in handcuffs from Broadway, New York. Well, now Raul Castro
00:15:49.600has been indicted. The figurehead of the regime has been indicted. Here's the charge. Raul Castro
00:15:55.700directed Cuban fighter jets to shoot down little Cessna airplanes flown by Americans
00:16:02.660in international waters and they were doing this to look for Cubans so desperate to flee Cuba
00:16:10.500that they would get on little homemade rafts made of anything, just so desperate to cross the 90
00:16:17.680miles to Florida to escape from the prison island. And there are sharks in those waters. That is a
00:16:22.240dangerous stretch of water. So Cubans would make anything, just a homemade raft and start paddling1.00
00:16:29.180towards Miami. Well, these American civilians in Cessna airplanes in international airspace were0.94
00:16:35.620looking for people, and then they would call the Coast Guard to rescue them. Well, Raul Castro
00:16:41.860sent a fighter jet to shoot down the American rescuers. This was a few decades ago. He murdered
00:16:48.340them. He's a Cuban-American congressman describing the history. I just want to follow up on what my1.00
00:16:55.500colleague Mario Diaz-Balart has said and reiterate again what this is really
00:17:00.420all about the number one job of a government is the protection of its
00:17:04.560citizens and for far too long this incident has gone without any
00:17:12.180repercussions for any of the people or at least the person most responsible for
00:17:17.580this act which was Raul Castro and so to reiterate again exactly what this was
00:17:24.540this was a flight of three civilian aircraft Cessnas they're on a
00:17:31.800humanitarian mission they were looking for Cuban rafters in the Florida
00:17:37.740Straits now mind you we don't know how many hundreds if not thousands of Cubans
00:17:42.600actually died in the Florida Straits trying to make the crossing from Cuba
00:17:48.100to Florida to find freedom now think about that these Cubans that were fleeing the island where
00:17:56.280would would get on anything that would float an inner tube makeshift rafts some even converted0.94
00:18:03.460pickup trucks into boats to get away from this murderous regime and all these these these
00:18:13.260These gentlemen and women in one of the planes that she was lucky she wasn't shot down were doing,
00:18:20.340were just looking for these rafters in the middle of the Florida Straits so that they wouldn't die.
00:18:25.680And then they would report the position to the Coast Guard.
00:18:32.360And they were international waters and they were American citizens.
00:18:36.060Why it's taken 30 years, I don't know why.
00:18:40.780But again, the number one job of any government is to protect its citizens.
00:18:43.660And finally, this administration, the Trump administration, has finally taken notice of that and said, yes, we will protect American citizens.
00:18:52.020And yes, maybe justice comes a little late in this case, but justice will be served.
00:18:57.680And there will be consequences to pay if you harm American citizens in international waters, international airspace, for no reason at all.
00:19:06.740And believe me, this was no reason at all.
00:19:09.020And so Mario de la Peña, Pablo Morales, Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandro Jr., their families can get a sense of justice today if, in fact, Raul Castro is indicted for murder down in Miami, which is what we expect.
00:19:28.680I'm very proud to have signed the letter on February 13th, along with Mario and Maria Salazar and Nicole Maliotakis, asking the Trump administration to do exactly what we expect is going to happen this morning.
00:19:45.160um you know it is justice delayed but at least it's justice and it's something that we've been
00:19:53.460looking for you know a long time in my community down in south florida the people i represent
00:19:59.280uh have been looking for this day i'm praying for this day for a very very long time one of
00:20:06.280the pieces of evidence against real castro is a recording of him talking about ordering the head
00:20:13.120It's in Spanish, but apparently it's damning.
00:20:15.720Here's just a moment, just to, you can hear the quality of the recording.
00:20:32.580What is exciting about this isn't just that justice might finally come.
00:20:39.760it's that this is so clearly an echo of how they went after maduro in my speculation this is really
00:20:47.440a way to telegraph to the cuban regime itself that either they do a deal right now or raul
00:20:55.620castro gets snatched like maduro was snatched and how are you going to stop that buddy here's acting
00:21:01.020attorney general todd blanche he put this on twitter he said over the three decades later
00:21:06.340We are committed to holding those accountable for the murder of four brave Americans, Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales.
00:21:16.840For the first time in nearly 70 years, senior leadership of the Cuban regime has been charged in the United States for alleged acts of violence resulting in the deaths of American citizens.
00:21:26.040President of the United States and this Justice Department are committed to restoring a simple principle.0.61
00:21:30.180If you kill Americans, we will pursue you no matter who you are, no matter what title you hold.
00:21:45.420Well, I remember a couple of weeks ago when the CIA director himself flew down to Cuba for a meeting and he flew in an enormous jet, not Air Force One, but a pretty big jet.
00:21:57.480And he landed right there in Havana so everyone could see.
00:22:00.700He didn't go in in some tiny plane, low profile.
00:22:03.520He wanted everyone to see that the CIA boss was coming and you're darn right he's going to show off his big plane.
00:22:10.820And he met with the leadership of Cuba.
00:22:13.040Now, he didn't say what he told them, but that's a real signal, isn't it?
00:22:17.580And now the indictment of Raul Castro, I think the CIA director went down there to basically outline the different paths things could go.
00:22:29.460The full Maduro model, the Iran model, a military campaign.
00:22:34.640I think Cuba doesn't have much military left.
00:22:48.160The Cuban-Americans in Congress seem thrilled.
00:22:51.260I mean, Trump would pick up a quick win, especially to contrast the slower pace of Iran, which is now almost at 90 days.
00:22:58.380Now, I like it. Of course, I care about Canada. Of course, we've got plenty of problems here at home. I care about free speech in countries like the UK and Ireland. I look for trends around the world. But wow, wow, wow. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the last Stalinist regime in the Western Hemisphere went for freedom, especially if all it took was arresting some old fascist fossil who just wouldn't get with the program? Stay with us. More ahead.
00:23:28.380Well, there's lots of different kinds of entertainment.
00:23:37.300Some of it in the world is subsidized.
00:23:40.480Symphonies, ballets, they're sometimes subsidized by the government,
00:23:43.460but you often find philanthropists who are willing to close the gap
00:23:46.760between what they want and what the market can bear.
00:23:50.140I guess my point is there have always been patrons of the arts
00:23:54.560because if you relied on ordinary people to spend their own money,
00:23:57.200maybe they wouldn't make a ballet or an opera. That's where philanthropy comes in. For more
00:24:03.400street-level taste, movies are profit-making in the main. Hollywood was built not on philanthropy
00:24:10.340or patrons of the arts, but on the fact that people genuinely felt entertained enough that
00:24:15.820they were willing to pay for the movies, and some movie makers became very wealthy. Which brings me
00:24:21.840to sports. Soccer or football, as it's called in most of the world, is the most popular sport
00:24:28.180around because all you need is a ball. It's just in terms of equipment and where you can play. It's
00:24:34.080a lot easier to find a patch of land or grass to kick a ball around than to have a skating rink
00:24:40.880and an ice hockey rink, which brings me to the World Cup, which is coming in part to Canada.
00:24:47.060And here's the shocking news. The world's most popular sport that requires less infrastructure than, say, a frozen rink needs one billion, with a B, one billion dollars of government money to make it go.
00:25:03.940How on earth is that possible? Joining me to talk about this now is Carson Binda of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:25:11.800He's out there in British Columbia. Carson, great to see you.
00:25:14.920Ezra, thank you so much for having me on today.
00:27:50.740You don't need to take my word for it. Look at the BC government's own fiscal data on hosting the World Cup. Even after all the tax revenue that's coming in, even after all those tourist dollars, the BC government is still projecting this is going to come at a net cost of up to $145 million for Vancouver's seven games alone, not including the big cost to taxpayers for Toronto's games.
00:28:18.880So we're seeing it with the tourism numbers. We're seeing it with the provincial government's own forecasts. This is coming at a huge cost without that promised economic gain.
00:28:30.480You know, I saw news the other day that the big Saudi backed golf world, like they were trying to compete with the PGA. They were building a rival league. They were paying premier players huge signing bonuses to go play in Saudi. And I thought, OK, well, I mean, good for them.
00:28:47.520they are a opec trillion dollar country with you know it's run by a authoritarian regime um maybe
00:28:56.660they think this is good pr or whatever reason i mean they just abandoned that five billion dollars
00:29:04.260into it and the thing is they have so much oil they're they're they have these huge sovereign
00:29:10.380wealth funds because they're just pumping more oil than they know what to do with even the rich
00:29:15.720Saudi princes can't afford it but at least the five billion that they spent it their hope was
00:29:24.080it would be an ongoing asset a league it would eventually grow on its own like they were trying
00:29:30.320to incubate a permanent thing it wasn't oh man wasn't that a great game that's it like even the0.99
00:29:38.240Saudis it was too rich for them and they got out of it but at least they had some sort of a plan to0.94
00:29:43.600own a valuable asset yeah no and that's not what's happening here with these canadian world cup games
00:29:51.600a lot of the money that's being taken from taxpayers and spent hosting these 13 international
00:29:58.000soccer games a tiny fraction of the overall tournament is money that's being spent and not
00:30:04.520coming back to taxpayers it's one-off costs things like road closures and security escorts
00:30:11.340for FIFA VIPs and dignitaries. Here in Vancouver, they're tearing up the artificial turf field at
00:30:19.000BC Place, replacing it with a temporary grass field per FIFA's regulations, only to tear that up
00:30:26.780and re-roll the turf out once the FIFA executives go back to Switzerland. So we're not seeing those
00:30:32.520kinds of investments, as government likes to say. We're just seeing a lot of money wasted on one-offs
00:30:38.600that won't benefit the taxpayers being left with the bill it just makes no sense i mean just
00:30:44.320the sheer quantum of the number look if it was a hundred million it would still be a disaster if
00:30:49.680it was 10 million it would be a terrible mistake but i just can't believe a billion dollars it's
00:30:57.520just unfathomable i mean it goes back to my earlier point this is the most popular sport in the world
00:31:03.040watched and played by more people than any other and and for it to lose it takes a phd
00:31:11.200to figure out how to lose that much wow hey carson what are you working on at the taxpayer
00:31:17.320federation we normally have some of your colleagues on franco teresano great guy
00:31:20.960chris sims great guy noah jarvis like we love to meet you too give me 30 seconds about your beat
00:31:26.300what are you working on these days besides this soccer scandal well one of the things i love doing
00:31:32.040of the Taxpayers Federation is digging into government spending through freedom of information
00:31:36.360requests. I spend a whole lot of time asking government for documents showing how it spends
00:31:42.620your money. And let me give you a rundown of some of the stories we've caught really quickly here,
00:31:47.200Ezra. We caught BC bureaucrats giving themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of secret
00:31:53.820gift card bonuses. We caught David Eby secret gift card bonuses. We caught David Eby spending
00:32:00.740three hundred thousand dollars on wood leather soccer balls for a photo op in japan so we're
00:32:07.500keeping government's feet to the fire digging through those records and finding out exactly
00:32:12.240how politicians and bureaucrats were spending your hard-earned tax dollars well you're doing great
00:32:18.180and you know what you gotta laugh because the alternative is to cry uh i mean holy smokes well
00:32:23.940keep up the great work thanks for coming on the show today i just can't believe i just can't
00:32:29.120believe a billion dollars i mean that's like bringing the olympics to town i but just oh my
00:32:35.660god but just one sport all right i gotta go carson or i'll just start ranting again great to see you
00:32:41.180thank you for coming on the show thank you so much for having me there he is from the bc wing
00:32:45.660of the canadian taxpayers federation carson binda stay with us your letters to me next
00:32:59.120Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me with my chat with the good professor and author from Ireland.