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The Media Observatory of Cubadebate, the propaganda section of the Cuban regime's official portal, published an article last Wednesday attacking the American outlet Axios and its journalist Marc Caputo, accusing them of acting as a "privileged channel" to filter and amplify the positions of the State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding Cuba.
The trigger was an exclusive article by Axios published that same day, which revealed new sanctions by Rubio against GAESA and the mining company Moa Nickel S.A., under Executive Order 14404 signed by Trump on May 1.
The Axios article also reported, "according to a source," that the State Department began moving personnel to Southern Command in Miami in anticipation of potential "future hostilities" with Cuba, and that Washington has reinforced its disaster preparedness logistics center in southern Florida.
Cubadebate accused the outlet of creating "a political and media climate conducive to the intensification of aggressions against Cuba," and described Caputo as "a functional piece within a narrative production chain" where leaks from political power are transformed into a public agenda.
The official portal also pointed out that Axios "does not present the sanctions as an isolated measure, but rather as part of a broader discursive architecture: 'regime change,' 'threat to national security,' 'hostilities,' 'foreign intelligence platform'."
It is not the first time the regime has attacked Axios. On April 28, the same Media Observatory had already criticized the portal, accusing it of being a leak channel for the State Department, in response to an article from April 17 in which Caputo revealed historic negotiations in Havana between U.S. officials and Cuban leaders, including Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro.
That article from Axios pointed out that it was the first time in a decade that a U.S. government plane landed in Cuba, information that the regime preferred to keep secret.
The pattern of attacks by Cubadebate on independent or critical media is systematic.
The official portal has repeatedly attacked CiberCuba, elTOQUE, CubaNet, and Diario de Cuba with accusations of "mercenarism" and ties to the CIA, following the same logic of discrediting those who publish information that is inconvenient for the dictatorship.
Regarding the sanctions that triggered the attack, Rubio described GAESA as "the heart of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system" and stated that Moa Nickel "has exploited Cuba's natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people."
The Secretary of State also warned that sanctions against the regime will continue "in the coming days and weeks," as part of the maximum pressure strategy of Trump and Rubio against the Cuban dictatorship.
The day after the second attack by Cubadebate against Axios, the Media Observatory published a new article titled "The White House Sets the Tempo, USA TODAY Stages the Scene," continuing its systematic campaign of attacks against U.S. media outlets covering the escalating pressure on Havana.
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