Rebel News Podcast - February 06, 2026


EZRA LEVANT ｜ What we saw during our secret mission in Cuba

Topics
Rebel News Cuba Project regime change in Cuba Cuba regime change prospects Diaz-Canel rock by Trump operation Cuba crumbling Cuba regime change propaganda
Mentioned
Donald Trump Nicolas Maduro Fidel Castro Efron Monsanto Marco Rubio Alexa Lavoie British Somaliland Miguel Diaz-Canel Abraham Accords Margaret Atwood Zoran Mamdani Estrella Tita Alex Alavoie Javier Malay Air Transat Laura Leú Al-Shabaab Hablando Nashtube Castros and 4 more
SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alexa Lavoie on Cuba, Caracas and Quebec conservatives Have you ever read a Canadian treaty？ It might surprise you. Let’s do it together.

Episode Stats


Length

45 minutes

Words per minute

156.47

Word count

7,136

Sentence count

586

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

29

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Rebel News goes to Cuba, and it's a trip with serious risks. Here's a sneak peek of what's in store for our undercover reporters, Alex Alavoie and Efren Flores Monsanto, as they cover the trip.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends.
00:00:00.660 Oh, there's so much going on, but I want to talk about the domino effect that Donald Trump
00:00:04.720 is creating in Latin America.
00:00:07.100 First, it was Venezuela.
00:00:08.720 Next, it's Cuba.
00:00:10.240 Wouldn't you know it?
00:00:11.240 Colombia's president came to visit the White House and basically to apologize.
00:00:15.280 Costa Rica just elected a new freedom-oriented leader.
00:00:18.740 Panama just kicked out China.
00:00:20.860 Donald Trump is doing more for freedom in this hemisphere well than anyone since the
00:00:25.840 Monroe Doctrine.
00:00:26.840 Again, I'll take you through it and show you some video, including from our undercover
00:00:31.700 reporters.
00:00:32.300 I'm so excited about today's show.
00:00:34.060 So if you don't have the video version of this podcast, please do yourself a favor.
00:00:37.960 Go to rebelnewsplus.com.
00:00:39.880 Click subscribe.
00:00:41.120 It's the video version.
00:00:42.100 Eight bucks a month, so it's pretty affordable.
00:00:44.540 And frankly, even if you think that's not a lot of dough, it's a lot to us because it
00:00:50.220 adds up.
00:00:50.620 That's how we pay the bills.
00:00:51.440 We don't get any money from the government, which is precisely why we're independent enough
00:00:55.500 to criticize Cuba.
00:00:56.840 So that's rebelnewsplus.com.
00:01:03.180 You're listening to a Rebel News Podcast.
00:01:14.380 Tonight, Rebel News goes to Cuba.
00:01:17.360 It's February 5th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:19.400 You're fighting for freedom!
00:01:22.540 Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.88
00:01:25.700 Oh, hi, everybody.
00:01:35.560 Just a huge journalistic project that we completed.
00:01:39.540 We gave a teaser trailer a few days ago.
00:01:43.080 As you may know, Rebel News sent two journalists to Cuba posing as tourists.
00:01:48.160 But in fact, they had cameras and recording devices, and they interviewed more than 20 ordinary
00:01:54.240 Cubans about communism, regime change, Donald Trump, and even Venezuela, and how that country
00:02:01.000 has been de-radicalized and de-communistified, if that's a word I can make up.
00:02:07.220 Here's the trailer that we aired the other day, just to remind you.
00:02:12.960 Military operation to capture the illegitimate president of Venezuela has put Cuba in the
00:02:17.360 crosshairs for regime change.
00:02:18.700 Cuba is really a nation that's very close to family.
00:02:32.980 Will you make a public commitment today to rule out U.S. regime change in Cuba?
00:02:38.580 Regime change?
00:02:39.220 Yes.
00:02:39.660 Oh, no, I think we would like to see the regime there change.
00:02:41.920 Do they want freedom from the West, or stay with the Castros? 1.00
00:02:50.360 There is no freedom of expression there.
00:02:59.980 And speaking out against the regime can result in five to ten years in prison.
00:03:06.720 We want to provide a megaphone for the world to hear.
00:03:27.880 We will reveal how the real Havana looks like.
00:03:36.720 under their current dictatorship.
00:03:38.720 Alex Alavoie and Efren Flores Monsanto.
00:03:41.720 Here for Rebel News, today we are announcing that we went on a special mission with serious
00:03:49.060 risks.
00:03:50.060 We traveled to an authoritarian state in order to break through the propaganda media machine
00:03:57.200 and the fear tactics used to suppress the locals and bring you the truth from those on
00:04:04.880 the ground.
00:04:05.880 If you want to support this important mission, we have launched a website, thetruthaboutcuba.com.
00:04:20.880 Share this to people who want to see the truth.
00:04:25.880 Also, while you're at it, please consider making an donation to help offset the cost of this
00:04:29.880 assignment.
00:04:30.880 Thank you for following us, and thank you for your support.
00:04:33.880 You know, it was dangerous sending journalists down.
00:04:36.880 They're dangerous for our journalists.
00:04:38.880 Based on my research, the worst that would happen to them, though, would be they would
00:04:42.880 be jailed for a couple days.
00:04:44.880 Their stuff would be rifled through, probably seized, including any cameras.
00:04:48.880 And then they would be deported.
00:04:50.880 I wouldn't want to be in a Cuban prison. 0.98
00:04:52.880 That's for sure.
00:04:53.880 But I don't think the penalty would have been much worse for that.
00:04:56.880 The trouble is the people we were interviewing for them talking to journalists in a manner
00:05:01.880 critical of the regime could land you five to ten years in prison, which is why we were
00:05:06.880 blurring the faces of the people we spoke to.
00:05:08.880 Anyways, we released the trailer last week.
00:05:11.880 Today, we released the full thing.
00:05:14.880 Almost an hour.
00:05:15.880 Here's a taste of it.
00:05:17.880 A wave of hope is sweeping through exile communities across the Americas.
00:05:23.880 Now, the spotlight turns to the next domino in the region.
00:05:28.880 I think we're going to make a deal with Cuba. 1.00
00:05:30.880 Cuba's an invention.
00:05:31.880 Cuba has a humanitarian problem.
00:05:33.880 Welcome to Cuba, an island frozen in time where the 1959 revolution promised paradise 1.00
00:05:38.880 but delivered decades of communism, oppression, and unimaginable hardship.
00:05:42.880 I'm Alexa Lavoie, alongside...
00:05:44.880 And from Flores Masanto.
00:05:46.880 Reporting for Rebel News.
00:05:48.880 After Maduro's fall, we traveled to Miami to speak with locals of the vibrant Venezuelan
00:05:55.880 and Cuban exiled communities, where families who fled Tirani now dare to dream.
00:06:02.880 Could Cuba be next? 0.99
00:06:04.880 What do you think will happen with Cuba?
00:06:06.880 Well, I will hope that it happens the same to Cuba. 1.00
00:06:10.880 I think it's a domino effect, and if Venezuela is free, Cuba will be free next. 0.93
00:06:15.880 So I hope that now it happens.
00:06:17.880 Cuba will pass through a long process in which I ask the Cuban brothers to trust,
00:06:21.880 like we trust, and even though they have been 60 years, more than us.
00:06:25.880 For over 65 years, the Castro regime has held Cuba in an iron grip.
00:06:29.880 What began as a socialist experiment quickly descended into full-blown communism.
00:06:33.880 After Fidel Castro's death in 2016, his brother Rahul plunged the island deeper into despair,
00:06:38.880 a place where people rummaged through overflowing garbage piles just to survive.
00:06:43.880 A nostalgic charm masking a tragic reality.
00:06:47.880 Once poised to become one of the hemisphere's most prosperous nations,
00:06:53.880 it now stands as a stark symbol of failed ideology.
00:06:59.880 President Donald Trump, fresh from the Maduro victory,
00:07:03.880 has declared that Cuba is ready to fall,
00:07:06.880 and that the regime poses a grave threat to freedom in the region.
00:07:12.880 Cuba is a failing nation, and you have to feel badly for Cuba.
00:07:17.880 Will you make a public commitment today to rule out U.S. regime change in Cuba?
00:07:22.880 Regime change? Yes.
00:07:23.880 Oh no, I think we would like to see that regime change.
00:07:25.880 Venezuela was the island's most critical trading partner through its oil,
00:07:32.880 and now, with its supply cut off, there are constant blackouts, food shortages and lack of medical supplies.
00:07:42.880 Recent reports indicate that the Trump administration is actively pursuing regime change in Cuba by the end of this year.
00:07:49.880 Cuba is really a nation that's very close to failure.
00:07:52.880 Citizens are indoctrinated in schools to view the revolution as their salvation from U.S. imperialism.
00:07:57.880 Freedom of expression is non-existent.
00:08:01.880 Social media is heavily censored, monitored and restricted,
00:08:06.880 with severe punishments for anyone who dares criticize the regime.
00:08:12.880 That's why we went undercover.
00:08:15.880 We spoke directly to everyday Cubans, capturing their unfiltered voices.
00:08:21.880 Faces blurred for their safety because speaking out can mean five to ten years or more in prison.
00:08:31.880 The last times Cuban protested for their rights, access to food and medicine supply during the pandemic in 2021,
00:08:54.880 saw heavy crackdown and many sent to prison.
00:08:56.880 Open Rihanna Du
00:09:05.600 People who went to street to the protest of P off,
00:09:08.880 during jail, in prison, and food,
00:09:11.880 It's like maintaining the terror for those who save lives,
00:09:17.980 This was a great risk to ourselves and the people we spoke to.
00:09:22.880 Our cameras and equipment could have been taken by the Castro thugs and, at worst, jailed and deported. 0.99
00:09:33.880 But we did it anyway.
00:09:36.160 Because in a place where speaking the truth can cost you years in prison, someone has to give ordinary Cubans a voice.
00:09:46.660 That's exactly why Ribbon News exists, to go where the mainstream media want and to shine a light on the realities dictators try to hide. 0.65
00:10:00.020 This mission gave Cubans the chance to speak freely for the first time in decades.
00:10:03.300 And if you believe in giving a voice to the voiceless, if you believe in real, fearless journalism, please help us cover the cost of this assignment and keep these stories coming.
00:10:18.920 You can support us right now at thetruthaboutcuba.com.
00:10:23.700 Join us as we walked the real streets of Havana, beyond the tourist facade, to reveal the truth of a life under communism.
00:10:34.180 And a growing hope that freedom may finally be on the horizon.
00:10:38.040 I'm very excited by it.
00:10:40.040 I think the timing is perfect.
00:10:42.420 I really do think that Cuba will be the next domino to fall. 0.98
00:10:46.200 What's interesting to me is, you know, how the algorithm works.
00:10:48.900 If you start searching for certain things, you get more of that kind of stuff.
00:10:53.400 And so pretty soon I discovered the U.S. ambassador to Cuba.
00:10:58.580 I have to be honest, I didn't know that they had any diplomats active in Havana, but they do.
00:11:04.080 And the U.S. ambassador is actually doing the same kind of thing that we were doing.
00:11:08.980 Not just in Havana.
00:11:10.340 He was driving around Cuba, meeting ordinary people, talking to them about the economic crisis,
00:11:16.020 the power blackouts, the shortages of food and fuel.
00:11:20.620 But he's doing something very interesting.
00:11:22.620 He is not blurring their faces.
00:11:26.220 Take a look at the ambassador from the United States to Cuba.
00:11:30.180 He speaks very good Spanish.
00:11:32.100 He's just going around, meeting people every single day, filming it, publishing it.
00:11:39.200 Very interesting.
00:11:40.040 Take a look.
00:11:40.460 Tengo que decir, yo me reuní con el secretario de Estado, Marco Rubio, el 9 de enero.
00:11:47.240 Y lo primero que me dijo es cómo van las cosas en Cuba, obviamente.
00:11:51.720 Y que no quiere ver sufrir al pueblo cubano, no quiere que pasen hambre.
00:11:57.620 Entonces, por eso me envidió, o sea, que viviera.
00:12:00.380 Y por eso me recuerdo toda la isla, ¿no?
00:12:02.560 Hablando con las diferentes comunidades.
00:12:04.440 Y bueno, especialmente aquí, por lo del huracán Melisa, de inmediato ofreció esos los 3 millones de dólares en la asistencia.
00:12:13.620 Y ahora estamos hablando con el obispado, obviamente al convertir a Cuba, cuáles son las necesidades para incrementar, para anunciar.
00:12:25.460 Y yo creo que de aquí a poco día, usaremos un voto adicional.
00:12:29.760 Y mientras nos permita aquí el régimen distribuir a través de ustedes, vamos a seguir haciendo, ¿no?
00:12:36.340 Now, some of the people who the ambassador has spoken with have been arrested.
00:12:43.660 And the ambassador himself was assaulted by a gang, obviously, sent by the government regime.
00:12:50.440 But he keeps at it.
00:12:51.440 He seems like an awfully nice guy, I have to say.
00:12:54.180 And he's got a little bit of courage, although I suppose it's easy to have courage when you're backed,
00:12:58.220 not only by your diplomatic immunity, but by the might of the U.S. State Department.
00:13:02.500 And in fact, the Pentagon, as you know, the aircraft carrier and the rest of the flotilla
00:13:06.920 that were used to take out Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela a few weeks ago, it's still in the Caribbean.
00:13:12.540 It is very close to Cuba.
00:13:14.540 In fact, new kinds of aircraft have been deployed over Cuba, including some electronic sensors and jamming aircrafts.
00:13:22.700 Very interesting.
00:13:23.740 I think that things are imminent there.
00:13:25.700 The pressure is on.
00:13:26.840 One of the things that you can see in the video that our journalists, Alex Lavoie and Efron Monsanto,
00:13:31.980 put together, is actually, I think it's the dominant feature of at least Havana.
00:13:37.780 I don't know about the smaller centers. 0.92
00:13:39.800 It's the garbage piles.
00:13:41.280 I mean, one thing is the buildings look like they were in a war zone.
00:13:44.620 It really does look like some scenes out of Ukraine with destroyed buildings.
00:13:48.980 That's just the communism.
00:13:50.860 There's something else that you see throughout is piles of garbage in the streets.
00:13:56.020 And apparently that's because of a shortage of gasoline or diesel.
00:13:59.860 They've simply decided that there are higher priority things that need gas than garbage trucks.
00:14:05.700 So the garbage is piling high in Havana. 0.86
00:14:09.720 Super gross. 0.98
00:14:10.920 Imagine the quality of life there. 0.85
00:14:12.860 It's so low.
00:14:15.100 There's no gas or diesel and neither for power.
00:14:17.980 There are blackouts several times a day.
00:14:19.920 Now, I've been searching for things on social media for Cuba.
00:14:25.180 I discovered that U.S. ambassador.
00:14:26.880 Very interesting.
00:14:28.120 I think he's trying to stress the regime.
00:14:31.500 I think he's trying to taunt them in a good way.
00:14:33.860 And he's trying to build courage amongst other Cubans.
00:14:37.080 One of the things I've also stumbled upon, besides that U.S. ambassador, are Cuban hotels.
00:14:42.580 As you know, there are embargoes on certain states, like the United States.
00:14:46.380 It does not allow tourists to go to Cuba.
00:14:48.860 I think those rules might have been varied slightly during the Obama years.
00:14:52.820 But it's basically Canadians who vacation in Cuba.
00:14:56.660 I myself have never gone to Cuba.
00:14:58.040 I would just feel too uncomfortable, like I'm going to party in a prison or something.
00:15:03.140 And people say, well, you're at least enriching the waiters and the hotel staff.
00:15:07.780 Yeah, and those are very elite people.
00:15:10.320 Those are considered the lucky ones because they get the tips and U.S. cash and they get better food and better housing.
00:15:17.600 And that's true.
00:15:18.140 Even that would make me deeply uncomfortable.
00:15:22.500 But I want to show you just a little bit, because there are still Canadians going down there, even though the weather lately has been terrible.
00:15:30.100 The hotels are nearly empty.
00:15:32.840 And one of the things you see, because a lot of these are hotel packages, both Air Canada, WestJet, and I think Air Transat, and other charter airlines, have super cheap deals to Cuba.
00:15:43.320 I think that's why people go to Cuba.
00:15:45.220 I think most people don't think about the fact that it's like a prison island.
00:15:48.300 It would be like partying in North Korea. 0.95
00:15:50.460 I think they don't think about politics.
00:15:52.300 They just want a cheap vacation.
00:15:53.920 And it is a super cheap vacation.
00:15:56.860 Most of the vacations are all inclusive.
00:16:01.460 So you're staying at a hotel resort that gives you food in buffet form.
00:16:06.500 And looking at these buffets in these sort of citizen TikTok videos, it's really depressing.
00:16:13.760 I'm not depressed for the tourists.
00:16:14.880 I mean, they got a really cheap hotel deal.
00:16:17.460 What did they expect?
00:16:18.500 But if this is the finest and best food served to the foreign currency tourists, imagine what it is to be an actual Cuban person trying to survive.
00:16:27.520 They really are like Venezuela, where the average citizen lost more than 20 pounds.
00:16:35.020 There was such malnutrition from basically a famine.
00:16:38.840 You know, one of the old communist mottos was bread and land.
00:16:43.040 And there's no bread.
00:16:45.280 Or actually, there's bread, but there's no meat and there's no other food stuff.
00:16:49.540 So it's actually very sad.
00:16:50.720 And if these tourist videos show what the elites are eating, you can imagine how bad it is for ordinary Cubans.
00:16:58.080 And you don't have to imagine because, of course, Alexa and Efron spent their time talking to real Cubans.
00:17:04.000 And it's a humanitarian disaster.
00:17:07.480 You know, I just want to say that these resorts, they actually remind me of prisons.
00:17:11.280 And the entertainment staff, the dancers, the singers, they look like prisoners to me.
00:17:19.160 And, of course, they are.
00:17:20.540 Anyways, I'm not the only one interested in Cuba.
00:17:23.080 In fact, my interest is because of Donald Trump's interest.
00:17:27.020 Taking out Nicolas Maduro was the first domino in a domino effect around the region.
00:17:32.220 And Trump has been talking a lot about Cuba lately.
00:17:35.440 You might know that, especially in the Miami area where there are so many Cuban exiles, they are very strong Republicans, very strong anti-communists. 0.99
00:17:44.200 Some other Latinos vote Democrat, although these days a majority of all Latino background voters are for Trump because of what he's doing.
00:17:52.640 But Cuban Americans are extremely pro-freedom and pro-Republican.
00:17:59.080 And they voted for Trump, obviously.
00:18:00.980 And Trump has been talking a lot about Cuba.
00:18:03.440 Here he is saying what we can see with our own eyes, that it is a failing country falling apart.
00:18:10.280 And it's not long before it will tumble.
00:18:13.140 Here's Trump saying that.
00:18:14.420 Well, Cuba is a failing nation.
00:18:15.900 It has been for a long time.
00:18:17.180 But now it doesn't have Venezuela to prop it up.
00:18:20.500 So we're talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba.
00:18:24.340 We'll see what happens.
00:18:25.540 I want the people that came here that were horribly treated by Cuba to be taken care of, to be able to go back and do what they have to do.
00:18:34.820 You know, they have their family there.
00:18:36.360 They haven't been able to see them in years.
00:18:37.900 Many, many years.
00:18:39.760 So I think we're going to make a deal with Cuba. 1.00
00:18:42.180 Speaking of falling, Marco Rubio was, I think he was in the Senate the other day, where he was asked questions.
00:18:47.640 As you know, their cabinet ministers go before committees and answer questions for a while.
00:18:52.680 And one Democrat was saying, will you rule out regime change?
00:18:56.500 And Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, who is a descendant of Cuban emigres himself, said, are you kidding?
00:19:03.620 We want regime change.
00:19:04.920 Take a look at this.
00:19:06.040 Will you make a public commitment today to rule out U.S. regime change in Cuba?
00:19:11.340 Regime change?
00:19:12.180 Yes.
00:19:12.420 Oh, no.
00:19:12.720 I think we would love to see the regime change.
00:19:14.860 We would like to.
00:19:15.460 That doesn't mean that we're going to make a change, but we would love to see a change.
00:19:18.200 There's no doubt about the fact that it would be of great benefit to the United States if Cuba was no longer governed by an autocratic regime.
00:19:25.260 But you know what we mean by regime change?
00:19:27.040 We don't mean, I wish someone else were in charge.
00:19:29.600 When we talk about regime change, we're talking about using the power of the United States, usually kinetic power, but often other kinds of coercion.
00:19:38.260 And I'm not even saying that that's always not in our interest.
00:19:42.380 I'm just saying I'm not asking you whether we would prefer a different kind of government.
00:19:48.300 I'm asking whether you are trying to precipitate the fall of the current regime.
00:19:52.440 Yeah, but that's statutory.
00:19:53.780 The Helms-Burton Act, the U.S. embargo on Cuba is codified.
00:19:58.160 It was codified in law, and it requires regime change in order for us to lift the embargo.
00:20:01.920 I think the most interesting development of the past week is that Trump says he is talking to the bosses of Cuba, which is not that surprising because Trump will talk to anyone, a good guy or a bad guy.
00:20:17.140 With Trump, there's always an angle that he thinks there can be a deal to be made.
00:20:21.640 I'll get back to Venezuela in a moment, but I think that Trump, he didn't say names, but one of Castro's successors first was his brother, Raul.
00:20:32.120 And for the past five years or six years, it's been Miguel Diaz-Canel, not as famous, of course, doesn't have the famous last name.
00:20:40.740 He's the new dictator of Cuba.
00:20:43.140 And today, this morning, actually at 10 a.m., he gave a very rare speech saying that Cuba is for peace, but they're going on a war footing and also acknowledging they are talking to America and noting that they're pretty much out of energy.
00:21:02.680 They're pretty much out of fossil fuels and electricity and that Cuba has to go through a kind of austerity revolution.
00:21:11.160 So it was a bit of a mishmash.
00:21:14.300 I mean, obviously, I don't speak Spanish, but I read a lot of the translations of the speech.
00:21:18.660 And I think that he's in the stage of what they would say in a 12-step program is he's in denial.
00:21:24.760 He doesn't yet realize that he will be tumbled.
00:21:27.720 I think he, one of the problems about dictators is that they're surrounded by yes-men. 0.99
00:21:32.100 There is no critical opposition, including in the media.
00:21:36.060 And so you start to believe your own propaganda.
00:21:38.580 And I think that this Diaz-Canel might be that kind of guy.
00:21:41.780 I mean, I think that he would be surrounded by flatterers. 1.00
00:21:45.720 And he surely and should be rocked by how Donald Trump extracted Nicolas Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, without losing a single man, dispatching more than 100 bodyguards, two hours on the ground, came in, grabbed him and his wife and left.
00:22:01.940 Like, that was one of the most stunning raids in military history.
00:22:06.200 Frankly, it reminded me of the kind of style of some Mossad or Israeli military operations.
00:22:12.960 But this, I think, was over such a large geographical distance from America.
00:22:17.520 It was an amazing thing.
00:22:19.780 Surely Diaz-Canel ought to know that he could be plucked out of there just as easily as Maduro was.
00:22:25.340 By the way, the United States has dispatched a diplomat to Venezuela, too, and she has been welcomed.
00:22:32.320 Here's a video of her arriving on the scene.
00:22:34.340 Hola, Venezuela. Mi nombre es Laura Leú. Me siento muy honrada de ejercer el cargo de encargada de negocios de los Estados Unidos para Venezuela.
00:22:44.640 Es un momento histórico para ambos países.
00:22:48.260 Como dijo el secretario Rubio, queremos una Venezuela amigable, estable, próspera y democrática.
00:22:55.920 Para lograrlo, mi equipo y yo vamos a trabajar mano a mano con los venezolanos, representantes de una variedad de sectores y perspectivas.
00:23:06.400 Vamos a ejecutar el plan de tres fases.
00:23:09.760 Primero, la estabilización del país y la restauración de la seguridad.
00:23:15.440 Segundo, la recuperación de la economía para el beneficio de todos los venezolanos.
00:23:20.740 Y tercero, la transición hacia una Venezuela amigable, estable, próspera y democrática.
00:23:28.640 She's there to manage Nicolas Maduro's deputy, who Trump is dealing with and Marco Rubio are dealing with,
00:23:36.180 and basically said to her, I mean, I wasn't on any phone call, but it's sort of evident,
00:23:39.840 they said, you saw what we did to Maduro. 0.95
00:23:42.200 You can run the country in the manner we tell you to, or we'll arrest you, or I don't know if they would have said that they'll kill you. 0.73
00:23:49.260 But that deputy is doing what Trump tells her to do.
00:23:52.540 And one of the things that they told her to do, which I think is astonishing, is they arrested one of Maduro's senior henchmen.
00:24:00.160 So understand this, Maduro's deputy, who is now sort of the de facto dictator of Venezuela,
00:24:05.960 but she's really a puppet of the United States now doing exactly what she's told.
00:24:09.680 She had authorized a joint operation, American and Venezuelan, to arrest basically the point man for Hezbollah and Iran in Venezuela.
00:24:24.020 Just absolutely stunning what's going on there.
00:24:26.060 I really think Cuba is going to fall in a matter of days, or maybe weeks.
00:24:30.820 It is so weak, it is so demoralized, and you can see that.
00:24:34.680 I mean, the people there are physically hungry.
00:24:37.580 Like, they must be distracted and in pain from, I would almost call it a famine.
00:24:42.740 The country is literally crumbling.
00:24:44.640 That's not just a metaphor.
00:24:45.780 It is falling apart.
00:24:47.240 And you can see others in the region looking around and realizing things are a little bit different now.
00:24:53.800 I mean, Colombia's president, his name is Gustavo Petro.
00:24:57.180 You might recall a few months ago, he was just on Twitter insulting Trump, calling him a white slaver, just disparaging him.
00:25:05.780 This Gustavo Petro threatening Trump in his own way.
00:25:09.160 Well, I think he realized that he could be next.
00:25:13.100 So he actually visited the White House.
00:25:16.900 He flew to meet Donald Trump.
00:25:18.720 Trump let him in a side entrance, not the main entrance.
00:25:22.320 And you know what?
00:25:23.800 He got along famously with Trump.
00:25:25.780 That's the thing about Trump.
00:25:26.660 You have to understand that he may look ideological.
00:25:29.380 He may look hardline, but really he's a dealmaker.
00:25:32.660 He's very transactional.
00:25:34.400 And I'm not saying that as a criticism.
00:25:36.420 That's how you get deals.
00:25:37.580 That's how you get the Abraham Accords peace deal in the Middle East. 0.65
00:25:40.680 That's how you get a trade deal.
00:25:43.340 So when he meets someone who hates him, I think Trump sees that as an advantage because he said, oh, this guy has bad-mouthed me.
00:25:50.680 Like there's a lot of people, politicians, even ambassadors, who in previous times, before Trump was reelected, said what they felt about Trump.
00:26:00.560 They hated him. 0.99
00:26:01.420 They thought he was a fool, whatever. 0.99
00:26:03.160 And then Trump was reelected in 2024. 1.00
00:26:05.440 Now they have to deal with him.
00:26:06.960 And that goes for a lot of people in the UK Labor Party.
00:26:09.780 And that certainly goes to Gustavo Petro.
00:26:12.160 So all these people who have said vicious things about Trump, you and I would feel uncomfortable with that.
00:26:17.600 But I actually think that Trump loves that because he knows someone is coming to meet him who has an obligation to him, an apology for him.
00:26:26.980 There's a debt to pay, a moral debt to pay.
00:26:29.200 I think there's no better thing for Trump than to meet someone who has bad-mouthed them.
00:26:34.840 Because Trump, he'll take that as a leverage on the other side.
00:26:40.500 It's why Trump got along so well with the new communist mayor of New York, Zoran Mamdani.
00:26:46.980 Anyway, my point is that Colombia is coming around.
00:26:50.300 They've agreed to actually rein in some of the drug cartels.
00:26:56.380 We'll see if they mean it.
00:26:57.280 And Costa Rica just elected a new freedom-oriented leader.
00:27:02.100 Panama, I don't know if you saw this news, their courts recently ruled that China does not have the right to run the Panama Canal, which it had been doing.
00:27:13.540 So look at the domino effect here.
00:27:15.440 You had El Salvador, which is a key friend and ally to Trump now.
00:27:20.080 You've got Javier Mille in Argentina.
00:27:23.040 You've got this wave of freedom-loving pro-American leaders sweeping Latin America and ousting Iran and Russia and China from all these places.
00:27:34.100 It's actually beautiful to see.
00:27:35.640 It's a domino effect in a good way.
00:27:37.760 I remember during the Cold War, the domino effect was, oh my God, if we allow Vietnam to fall, then the rest of Southeast Asia will fall.
00:27:46.440 That's the domino effect in a bad way.
00:27:49.260 But the domino effect in a good way is happening in Latin America.
00:27:52.620 I think Cuba will be free, probably Nicaragua after that, and hopefully Brazil soon.
00:27:59.280 Imagine an entire hemisphere free of communism, free of Russian and Chinese and Iranian meddling. 0.99
00:28:08.500 I think it's amazing.
00:28:10.560 And who cares that Donald Trump didn't get the actual Nobel Peace Prize?
00:28:13.860 He is creating more peace and ending more dictatorships than anyone else other than, I suppose, you could say that FDR in the Second World War helped crush fascism on a larger scale.
00:28:28.280 That was, I suppose, a joint effort with other allies.
00:28:31.040 What I'm excited about is that Cuba, unlike Venezuela, unlike Nicaragua, Panama, has such a mass of exiles in Florida, some of whom have been there their entire lives.
00:28:46.300 I mean, remember, it was 60 years ago, 60 plus years ago that Castro took over.
00:28:52.860 So, so many Cuban Americans have become amazing successes in commerce and industry, in politics.
00:29:01.120 Like, the Cuban American community is so successful, and they love Cuba so much, and they haven't been able to properly visit their families or contact them.
00:29:12.040 Imagine if Cuba falls, which I really believe it will in, here's my prediction, within two weeks, maybe even sooner. 0.88
00:29:18.460 And you will see this rush of heart-warm Cuban exiles going home, and they will want to revive and resuscitate and rebuild and renew their country.
00:29:34.940 And I think it's going to happen so quickly and intensively.
00:29:38.200 I'm so excited.
00:29:39.860 And I think that the U.S. government might give some aid money, but actually, why?
00:29:46.680 Why not allow in all these Cuban American entrepreneurs?
00:29:50.600 Like, if you were a banker, if you were an investor, and you knew that Cuba, which was once a star vacation getaway, like in the 50s, it was the place to go, from Florida, for example.
00:30:04.020 If that gem, that jewel, was back and open for business again, you wouldn't need any government money.
00:30:12.740 You wouldn't need any foreign money, but you wouldn't want it.
00:30:15.520 You wouldn't want to give money to politicians.
00:30:17.460 You would want to just clear the way for investors on everything from rebuilding the basic infrastructure, electrical power plants and water and sewage, but also housing, cars.
00:30:33.420 You know, when you see those old-fashioned 1950s cars, it's not a style thing.
00:30:38.060 It's because they had no cars come in, and they had to maintain those cars for 60 years.
00:30:42.600 Isn't that incredible?
00:30:43.760 So I think you're going to see so many successful Cuban Americans basically going to hug their country and rebuild.
00:30:51.320 And, of course, tourism will come back.
00:30:53.420 Housing will come back.
00:30:54.440 It's going to be a miracle.
00:30:56.560 Trump is moving so fast on foreign affairs.
00:30:58.940 I really think there's going to be a regime change decapitation in Iran as soon as this weekend.
00:31:05.880 I mean, the second aircraft carrier is arriving shortly.
00:31:09.040 There's all sorts of other air assets coming.
00:31:11.260 I mean, that's going to be the hardest of all.
00:31:13.480 Iran is a very large country, 90 million people, very large geographically.
00:31:17.880 But the people hate the ayatollahs.
00:31:20.760 In some other places like Gaza, people have become brainwashed. 0.88
00:31:25.420 It's a cult, a cult of anti-Semitism, a cult of Islamic extremism. 0.91
00:31:30.840 Not so in Iran. 0.86
00:31:32.760 In Iran, it's run by the religious extremist mullahs. 0.53
00:31:36.380 But ordinary people, it's actually one of the most secular countries in the world.
00:31:40.160 Young people despise the ayatollahs and their rules that women have to cover up and wear a veil
00:31:46.360 and can't show their hair in public and no music and no dancing.
00:31:49.260 And there's morality police called the mutawin. 0.98
00:31:51.780 Remember that the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood was actually based on Iran.
00:31:58.060 And they've been around for, you know, since the 1970s.
00:32:02.120 So I think that it's a massive country.
00:32:05.280 But I think it's ready for change.
00:32:07.020 And that change might come quickly, too.
00:32:10.120 I think that Canada isn't that important to Trump.
00:32:14.600 I mean, in some ways, obviously, it's very important in terms of two-way trade and, of
00:32:19.000 course, sharing a border.
00:32:20.620 But I don't think he's obsessed with us because things with Canada are going pretty well.
00:32:24.880 There's some war words going on and some tariffs going on.
00:32:27.680 But I really think Donald Trump is focused on doing generational things.
00:32:33.020 He will be the man to free Cuba, just like he was the man who freed Venezuela.
00:32:37.500 And he could be the man to free Iran, just like he is the man who he believes can build
00:32:43.180 a new Gaza.
00:32:45.420 Imagine that legacy.
00:32:47.380 I really think it would be unparalleled.
00:32:49.200 I mean, Trump uses a lot of hyperbole.
00:32:51.360 But this really will be the greatest foreign affairs legacy of any president, I think, in history.
00:32:56.240 Now, the irony, I guess, is that Trump has low domestic approval ratings.
00:33:03.860 I mean, he's a dozen points below 50%.
00:33:07.660 And it looks like if things continue on this path, he'll lose the midterms.
00:33:11.960 The midterm elections, of course, are for Congress.
00:33:14.820 And right now, Congress is in the hands of the Republicans.
00:33:18.140 But if it goes in the hands of the Democrats, you bet they're going to have all sorts of
00:33:22.140 shenanigans trying to impeach him all the time, distract him, block him.
00:33:27.220 There will be all sorts of battles to frustrate the final two years of his term.
00:33:31.360 But what he's accomplished in the first year would have been a big to-do list for a president
00:33:35.820 in 10 years.
00:33:37.600 It's interesting to me because the U.S. economy is breaking records.
00:33:41.980 For example, the other day, they have set a new record for the amount of steel produced
00:33:47.520 in a given month.
00:33:48.620 They have real, bold economic growth again.
00:33:52.700 And it's on a per capita basis, not just as in Canada, where we bring in so many foreign
00:33:57.920 migrants to make it look like our economy is growing. 1.00
00:34:00.040 In the States, actually, the population is shrinking a bit because they're deporting so
00:34:04.200 many illegals.
00:34:05.900 They have low inflation.
00:34:07.420 They have low gas prices.
00:34:08.920 Food is going down in price.
00:34:11.320 I mean, those are all things that are important to Americans who really don't care about foreign
00:34:15.840 affairs.
00:34:16.140 I mean, obviously, we're in a foreign country.
00:34:18.780 So when we think of the United States, immediately, it is a foreign affair. 0.98
00:34:22.840 I don't know how things are going to go in the U.S. midterms.
00:34:25.620 Obviously, nobody does.
00:34:27.040 And maybe those domestic matters and maybe the ICE enforcement is not popular in certain
00:34:33.560 states.
00:34:34.000 I don't think it would be in a Democrat state.
00:34:36.720 But I think no matter what happens, Trump's major legacy will be what he does to free the
00:34:43.380 people of the world.
00:34:44.100 It's so incredible.
00:34:45.160 And whether you're a lefty or a righty or a Democrat or a Republican, how can you not
00:34:48.860 cheer if Cuba is free? 0.99
00:34:51.300 How can you not cheer when Venezuela became free?
00:34:53.540 And how can you not cheer if the people of Iran are allowed to take their country back? 0.99
00:34:57.740 But hey, elbows up.
00:34:59.960 Am I right?
00:35:01.020 Stay with us.
00:35:01.780 I have a video for you after the break.
00:35:07.100 I forgot to mention one more thing that Donald Trump has done or looks like he's about to
00:35:12.240 do.
00:35:12.480 He hasn't done it yet.
00:35:14.040 Somalia is one of the world's failed states.
00:35:16.420 It ranks at the bottom basically by any measure.
00:35:19.940 Really, all Somalia does is export terrorism and pirates, actual pirates that raid ships.
00:35:28.260 And of course, we've recently learned about all sorts of Somali welfare fraud in the state 0.99
00:35:32.460 of Minnesota.
00:35:33.600 And hey, do you really think we're immune to that here in Canada?
00:35:36.860 But there is part of Somalia that is broken away.
00:35:40.360 And its name sounds very similar.
00:35:42.580 It's called Somaliland.
00:35:43.940 Somaliland, and believe it or not, that was the original name of British Somaliland, which
00:35:48.880 was a colony of the British Empire.
00:35:52.320 And for reasons of history and culture and language and empire, Somaliland, unlike Somalia,
00:35:59.600 is not a terrorist hotspot.
00:36:01.880 It's actually much more moderate.
00:36:04.060 It is Muslim, but it's much more moderate.
00:36:06.740 It's not viciously jihadist.
00:36:09.420 In fact, it's friendly towards Israel.
00:36:11.580 Israel being one of the first states to recognize Somaliland as an independent country.
00:36:16.320 Well, we recently sent, like in the last few days, we sent Abiyamini to Somaliland.
00:36:21.880 Here's how that looked.
00:36:25.480 Right now, I am standing in the capital of an African country that has something almost
00:36:30.800 unheard of in this region.
00:36:33.440 It's stable.
00:36:34.600 It's peaceful.
00:36:35.700 It holds regular free and fair elections.
00:36:37.980 It has its own currency, its own army, its own courts, and real rule of law.
00:36:44.980 Yet, for more than three decades, it's been treated by the world as if it doesn't exist.
00:36:51.600 Welcome to Somaliland. 0.76
00:36:54.020 A 100% Muslim, self-governed democracy that has just formally been recognized by only one country.
00:37:03.760 Israel.
00:37:04.120 I'm here to find out why no one else has recognized Somaliland and why the world should. 0.72
00:37:12.740 Over the coming days, we'll travel across the country, speak to everyday people, business
00:37:17.080 owners, and political leaders.
00:37:19.020 And you can follow the entire journey at thetruthaboutsomaliland.com.
00:37:23.960 I'll be honest, a month ago, I didn't know the first thing about this place.
00:37:28.280 Like most people, if you said Somaliland, I would have assumed you meant Somalia, the failed
00:37:34.180 state associated with al-Shabaab, piracy, kidnappings, endless instability, and of course, exports
00:37:40.440 like Ilanoma and leering centers.
00:37:43.380 But that assumption is completely wrong.
00:37:45.580 And understanding why starts with history.
00:37:49.060 What we now call Somaliland was once British Somaliland, a formal protectorate created during
00:37:54.140 the European Scramble for Africa.
00:37:56.340 Just across the border, southern Somalia was ruled by Italy, becoming Italian Somaliland.
00:38:02.520 Same people, same language, similar cultures, but two completely different colonial rulers.
00:38:08.840 Two different legal systems, two different political traditions.
00:38:11.940 That distinction matters.
00:38:15.020 On June 26, 1960, British Somaliland became independent.
00:38:19.200 For five brief days, it became a sovereign country, recognized by around 35 countries,
00:38:25.260 including Australia, Canada, the UK, and even America.
00:38:30.420 Then came a fateful decision.
00:38:33.180 Driven by the dream of uniting all Somali people under the one flag, Somaliland voluntarily
00:38:38.360 joined Italian Somaliland on the 1st of July, 1960, and the Somali Republic was born.
00:38:46.680 That experiment failed.
00:38:49.120 Badly.
00:38:50.080 The former British territory quickly became marginalized, underrepresented politically,
00:38:55.520 economically neglected, and treated as a junior partner in its own country.
00:39:00.380 That resentment exploded in the late 1980s.
00:39:04.740 In 1988, Somalia's dictatorship launched a brutal campaign against Somaliland's civilian population.
00:39:12.860 Hargesa and other cities were indiscriminately bombed by their own government,
00:39:16.840 as an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people were massacred.
00:39:21.240 Hundreds of thousands more fled.
00:39:22.900 But this city was flattened.
00:39:26.980 Less than three years later, the Somali regime collapsed entirely,
00:39:30.520 leading to Somaliland reclaiming the sovereignty it had voluntarily given up decades earlier.
00:39:36.280 Since then, something extraordinary happened.
00:39:40.460 While Somalia descended into chaos, terrorism, and endless foreign interventions,
00:39:45.360 Somaliland went in the opposite direction, rebuilt from the ground up,
00:39:49.040 held elections, transferred power peacefully, disarmed militias, and kept radical Islamist groups out.
00:39:56.460 For more than 34 years, Somaliland has functioned independently as a de facto state,
00:40:01.800 with no UN recognition, no foreign troops, and no international aid lifeline like Mogadishu receives.
00:40:08.780 And until just over a month ago, not a single country was willing to formally recognize that reality.
00:40:14.940 Israel has now done so. 0.87
00:40:16.720 And this is actually the second time Israel has been first to recognize Somaliland.
00:40:21.020 The first was way back in 1960.
00:40:23.760 The hope here is that, once again, the rest of the world follows.
00:40:28.140 Over the next few weeks, we're going to show you why this matters, both strategically and morally.
00:40:33.460 It's about rewarding societies that defeat extremism, not funding those that fail.
00:40:38.420 About counter-terrorism partnerships that actually work.
00:40:41.760 About recognizing democracies that already exist.
00:40:44.900 There are no active terrorist groups operating here.
00:40:48.200 No Al-Shabaab control.
00:40:50.120 No ISIS territory.
00:40:51.640 This isn't about regime change.
00:40:53.600 This is about recognition of reality.
00:40:56.880 You can follow our full series across this country at the truthaboutsomaliland.com.
00:41:01.140 And I'm going to ask you to do three things.
00:41:02.880 Bookmark the site.
00:41:03.520 Make sure to share all the content that comes from that page so the world wakes up to what's really going on here.
00:41:09.820 Then, sign the petition to ensure and call for the recognition of Somaliland.
00:41:15.460 And finally, if you support our mission, consider chipping in to help us cover the cost.
00:41:19.620 Getting here wasn't easy because officially Somaliland is still treated as part of the failed Somali state.
00:41:25.800 That meant special charter flights, security arrangements, and significant costs just to travel and operate safely on the ground.
00:41:32.700 Food, hotels, travel.
00:41:33.960 It is enormous.
00:41:35.080 But I think it's worth it because the time has come to tell this story.
00:41:38.400 What do you think?
00:41:46.340 I don't think I would take a vacation to Somaliland, but I would be very happy for Somaliland to be the new norm for an African country that is anti-terrorist, friendly to democracy, multi-party democracy, some civil liberties, and not a failed state.
00:42:05.000 So, go Somaliland. 0.89
00:42:06.560 Hey, let me read you your letters to me.
00:42:09.300 Exeter on the Cuba mission says,
00:42:12.040 How ironic that unlike in Free Canada where half the citizens who hate Trump get to travel for cheap to Cuba, most of the poor struggling citizens loved Trump.
00:42:20.520 You're exactly right.
00:42:21.280 And you can see this in the video that we're just releasing, the full almost hour-long video that Efron and Alexa released.
00:42:26.680 They see Trump as the only person willing and able and powerful enough, and some of them say crazy enough, to topple the Castro regime, and they couldn't be happier about it.
00:42:38.360 Estrella Tita says,
00:42:41.600 Thank you, Rebel News, for showing the reality of my country.
00:42:44.600 I'm a Cuban woman living in Toronto, Canada, and it's long past time to strip away the propaganda from the TV networks here that portray Cuba as a tourist destination, with Canadians traveling there for vacations without realizing that Cuba is a failed state.
00:42:57.400 That Cuba is a country in ruins, and that what we need is freedom, not handouts or suitcases filled with items bought at Dollarama.
00:43:04.540 Thank you for that.
00:43:05.400 Cuba will be free.
00:43:06.160 You're so right.
00:43:07.580 And I know some vacationers there, the reference to the suitcase, people bring toothpaste and toothbrushes and aspirin and deodorant and all sort of the little things that make life better that would be hard to get in a place like Cuba.
00:43:20.840 And that's sort of their penance for going for a prison vacation, but you're still going to the prison, and most of the people you encounter in the tourism industry are sort of friendly with the regime.
00:43:33.320 It's sort of a perk they get to be exposed to Westerners, and I don't know, there's a temptation.
00:43:39.060 I mean, even our team made some donations to the people they encounter, but that's just a drop in the bucket.
00:43:44.900 You need regime change.
00:43:46.280 You need to liberate the people of Cuba, and I believe Trump is going to do that, and I believe he's going to do that.
00:43:50.660 Very soon.
00:43:52.900 Nashtube says, when communism got to Cuba, it was a rich and prosperous country compared with Latin America.
00:43:58.000 The Cuban peso and the U.S. dollar was one to one.
00:44:00.620 I didn't know that.
00:44:01.840 After a few years with this devil ideology, Cuba started going down the road to the destruction of poverty.
00:44:07.500 Today it is in the ninth circle of Dante's Inferno.
00:44:10.520 If Canada continue voting for liberal, it won't take that long to be in the same situation.
00:44:14.400 Well, God forbid.
00:44:16.240 But you're right.
00:44:16.960 I mean, I just couldn't believe the images that Efron and Alexa sent back.
00:44:21.260 I mean, I thought, well, what happened to that building?
00:44:23.320 Was it bombed?
00:44:25.400 And that's what communism does.
00:44:28.720 That's what government ownership of the means of production does.
00:44:33.560 There are some beautiful buildings.
00:44:35.160 They're almost exclusively government buildings or for heads of the regime.
00:44:39.220 There is such a desperation.
00:44:43.820 I mean, I didn't know the poverty was that bad.
00:44:47.380 I didn't know the crisis.
00:44:49.320 And we didn't cherry pick.
00:44:50.960 I mean, we sent them to a hotel in Havana as opposed to a beach resort.
00:44:55.880 And just, Efron said, just a block away from the hotel were these ruins.
00:45:01.420 I mean, the regime truly is in its last legs.
00:45:06.020 The thing is, the people are so poor and they're unarmed and the police are spying on them.
00:45:10.520 They need the help from a Donald Trump.
00:45:12.920 And I think they're going to get it.
00:45:14.640 Anyways, I really recommend you watch the whole video.
00:45:17.300 It's about 48 minutes long.
00:45:18.940 At least the last version I looked at it may be a couple more or less than that.
00:45:22.960 Go to thetruthaboutcuba.com or you can find it elsewhere on our website.
00:45:28.080 Well, that's our show for today.
00:45:30.420 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,
00:45:34.200 good night and keep fighting for freedom.