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Welcome to the Free Cities podcast. My name is Timothy Allen and this is the official podcast

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of the Free Cities Foundation.

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Hello and welcome to this episode number 173 of the Free Cities podcast.

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Hello indeed, welcome from me. It's been a busy week so far.

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I'm off to London tomorrow.

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I'm going to record some interviews and guess what?

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Pick up my Honduran visa from the embassy there.

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Yes, very 1990s.

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That trip starts the week after.

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I've got a weekend at the Freedom Festival here in the UK.

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Then straight on a flight to Honduras via Austin in the US to attend the Liberty Acceleration Summit in Prospera.

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That's organized by Infinita City, Nicholas Anzinger's project in Prospera.

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He's been on the show, episode 139.

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Fun fact about that show, it's the only episode that I've ever recorded online.

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all 171 other ones were recorded in person just the way i like it i'll certainly be bringing you

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a new episode with nicholas once i get to prosper though and an in-person one this time after my

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nearly a month working out of prosper i'll then be traveling back to austin in the u.s for the

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running remote conference that's the biggest gathering of remote workers in the world

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apparently organized by another previous guest, Liam Martin. That was episode 133 on this podcast.

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Certainly going to bring back loads of great new interviews from people you've probably never heard

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of before. I hope that's the plan for that one. Right, by the way, lest we not forget,

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this episode is lovingly brought to you by the wonderful Veritas Villages. They're our lead

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sponsor and you know they're building off-grid freedom-oriented communities in latin america

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and they have a new 340 acre acquisition that just got the go-ahead in costa rica for 400

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residences in one of their villages can you even call that a village 400 yeah i suppose you can

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i know people that live in villages of 400 click on the link in the show notes to inquire about

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their other projects in Nicaragua and Panama, especially if you're a Bitcoin because you can

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buy your property with Bitcoin and spend Bitcoin at communities, even though it's down 50% off the

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highs. But you know what that means, don't you? I hope you're DCA-ing guys right now. DCA, DCA,

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DCA all the way. I've been here before. I recognize this time in the cycle. Right.

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www.veritasvillages.com forward slash free cities for more info tell them we sent you

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and while you're there don't forget our other sponsor ark pad they're planning a second

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iteration of their groundbreaking reef resort in the philippines this time off the coast of

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prospera in honduras so much going on in prospera hey one of the most important free city projects

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in the world without a doubt you can purchase ownership in the prosper reef resort and then

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share in the profits and you can do it as a fractional share so however much you want to invest

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you can do it from as little as one percent up to full ownership that link is tinyurl.com forward

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slash arc pad you'll also help the podcast out with a little commission doesn't add to the price

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of what you're doing. It's just something that we get a little kickback for, so be sure to mention

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us. Right, today's guest is Maylin Salabarilla, good friend of the Free Cities podcast. I met her

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in the US last year. She's a Cuban-born American by choice since 2001. That's right, she escaped

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Cuba. Now works as a public speaker and bilingual outreach engagement consultant,

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amongst other things. Also very frequent English or Spanish media commentator on everything liberty

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and I don't know anti-communism let's say. I mean who's not? Some people aren't. Strange but true.

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In this episode Maylin argues that Cuba shows what system collapse and psychological collapse

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looks like. That's institutions, infrastructure, trust, morals, everything. She draws an uncomfortable

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parallel with the US, which she says can drift towards similar incentives via the administrative

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state party theater and learned dependence. What's the escape hatch in her view? Well,

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as you would imagine, it's voting with your feet, even within the US and in her case,

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potentially out of the US. Plus, watch for Latin America's pro-market political turn as the next

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frontier of hope. Something we talk quite a bit about on this podcast. FYI, we recorded this

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conversation just before Maduro was taken out by the US. So bear that in mind while you're listening.

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It's interesting that we talked about Maduro and Myelin was basically talking about the possibility

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of this thing happening and she predicted its effect on the region. Many thanks to Mylin for

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paying us a visit again. Noster comments and Bitcoin donations now. Everyone seems to be

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talking about last week's episode with Joe Quirk. Many thanks for all the donations. The comments,

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Piaz says, thank you, gentlemen. No problem, mate. Justin Bianchi, can we get Joe on once

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a month. He's such a great speaker. I sent that to Joe in a private message. His reply? Tell him yes.

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I'll have to think about that one and how it might work. Anyway, let's get on with it. Those

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were the only comments, but thanks for all the streaming sats and the Bitcoin donations without

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comments. Time to listen to Mylin. Grab your favorite rum. Get in your chair as you whisper

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to yourself, Viva la Libertad, and just sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation with

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Mylin Salabarilla.

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Okay.

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So yeah, I think we should just free bowl, as they say.

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Free bowling.

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Mylin Salabarria.

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Yes.

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Am I saying it right?

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Salabarria.

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Yeah, Salabarria.

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Salabarria.

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Roll the R's a little bit.

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I can't do that.

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Salabarria.

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There you go.

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See?

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Yeah, but it doesn't feel very natural.

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So, yeah, last time we spoke was in the U.S.

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Yes.

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And we talked about your experience of voting with your feet, leaving Cuba.

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um and so we don't need to go there but you did actually say to me afterwards oh there was so

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or actually i think it was when i played when you played it back to yourself about a few months about

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a month later you said there's so many things that i didn't say that i wish i'd said i don't

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know what they were and you probably don't know what they are now either i don't know i can not

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remember very well we will we will discover anyway but i like i think a good place to start would be

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First of all welcome to the Free Cities Conference Thank you What did you think of it Oh it was amazing It was a great experience I think it was a great group of people

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And for me personally, it was like somebody pinched me

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because I cannot believe that I'm standing in this stage,

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you know, talking to this many people

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about how was my life in Cuba the night before Titus was laughing

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because I told him, I think you guys made a mistake.

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I'm just like a simple Cuban girl, just, you know, trying to build up my life.

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What can all these people learn from my experience?

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But yeah, I think it was a fantastic, it was a fantastic moment.

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And one that made sink in my head in a way better the idea that this is not more,

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this is not survival mode in my life anymore.

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this is now like the phase of purpose and doing what I feel I'm meant to be doing so it was great

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in that sense just move do us a favor move the mic up like that again so it's pointing towards

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you yeah that's it okay you were just speaking over the top of it and what about your I mean is

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it what you expected I mean some people come into this world like the the free cities world is is

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really hidden from your average person and a lot of the projects are quite experimental and there's

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lots of unusual people here um it's and i think if you come in like fresh off the boat you can

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look around and go what the hell is is actually going on here i know you've had access you've

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dipped your toes you know about a few things you know but was it what you expected it was yes i

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mean i was it was exactly what i was expecting in the sense of meeting people and gathering new

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information like you said about cutting edge technologies new projects and overall living

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concepts that the majority of the people around us where we are or where we spend significant

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amount of times uh are not familiar with so i think yeah i think in that sense it was it was

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really great to hear and see about all those things happening and i had to unfortunately i

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saw you just before your talk but then i had to go because i was recording an interview but

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But what was, I know it was like this is the whole conference.

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The theme was vote with your feet.

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You've got the greatest vote with your feet story probably.

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But what did you talk, what was the main bulk of your speech?

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The main bulk was in a certain way like joking but not joking.

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is doing the chronological description of how I voted with my feet when voting with your feet

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was not even a thing, or at least a thing in the way that the majority of the people in the audience

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in this conference consider it today. It was one of the main points that I did at the end,

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which was closing with the encouragement of after everything that I've told you about that

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happened when I left Cuba and how I literally had to learn how to be free when I moved to the United

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States. And with that closing message that if I was able to do it 25 years ago, like I said,

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with two suitcases, $200, not knowing where I was going to stand. Today, people in these audiences

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and those that we can share and share the information outside with about it, with the

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resources, the education, everything that we have at our disposal, even the technology nowadays,

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voting with your feet should be a no-brainer because we're not in the predicament that I was

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25 years ago. But do you ever think about voting with your feet out of the States? I mean...

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Of course, yes. I felt like even though it was an important phase of discovery and awakening in my

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life when I came to the United States, because you have to remember that when you're back in Cuba,

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you see the United States as your literal path to freedom. It is the only place where you can

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have the potential to realize and make happen that concept of the American dream. And fast forward

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time, 25 years in the United States, then the more I learn, the more I get involved with the

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liberty movement, the more I start seeing more and more of the same red flags that I have to

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escape from in Cuba. So yes, absolutely. Maybe it's my personal view of life. I think that I will

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never be tied to one place. Maybe in another life I was, I don't know, a pirate, a mermaid,

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or something like that. But yes, absolutely, to the point that I already voted with my feet

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between one state and the other three years ago in the United States, mostly based on real estate

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property prices, taxation levels, and whatnot. And I am totally ready to do it again.

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At the same time, when I think about it, I'm like, well, maybe for me, it's a little bit easier

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because I already survived probably the worst and more archaic version of voting with your feet.

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So you would think that that, you know, already got me ready to do it again at any other point in

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any other circumstances and I understand that for people that have never had to do what I did

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might be a little bit harder like uproot yourself from everything that you know from everything that

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your family know it might take you know more time more consideration more thinking about it but in

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my case it's a no-brainer it's just tell me where to put my my carry-on suitcase and I'll be ready

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to do it but what's the line in the sand in the U.S. then because most like you say most people see

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the US as one of the freest places on the planet. And when you compare it with other countries, yes,

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still is. But the problem is that the more you learn freedom, the more you raise your expectations

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about freedom. And I think that's the way that it has happened to me. I think in the United States,

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for me, was a very similar process to what happened in Cuba. It was like a million little

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cracks in the narrative that made me realize, wait, hold on a second. This is not exactly

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what I was told or what I thought it was.

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So it was a combination of realizing

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how big the administrative regulatory government is,

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how the whole idea of the political parties

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is the same dog with a different leash,

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no matter where you go,

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including the Libertarian Party, by the way.

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And obviously you have COVID and the lockdowns.

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And I was just like the only crazy Cuban

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in the Rock Mountain states,

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getting blue on my face,

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telling Americans that I consider very smart people, telling them in their face, how come you

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don't see what is happening? Oh, no, that's never going to happen here. We have the Second Amendment.

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We have this and that. I'm like, they might not show up wearing the green fatigues on the AK-47

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like it happened in Cuba, but they're doing to you the same slowly in a longer timeline and just

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using the increased size of the government and the regulatory state to basically infringe in your

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individual freedoms and in your rights exactly the same way that happened in Cuba with a military

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guerrilla. It's the same goal and the same process. They're just using a different method.

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So I like that term, same dog, different leash. Did you think that when you're in Cuba?

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like was there was the like the the political because that's quite a that's quite a an advanced

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thing to acknowledge like not many people get there i've got there myself as well but it took

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a long time to realize that you know choosing a political party was not the right idea because

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they're it's like two mafia groups fighting against each other and you're just in there in

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the crossfire but in Cuba do you even contemplate that you just think the

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government's bad and I'm just gonna get the head out of it yeah in Cuba you

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don have because you sorry did you think it was did you think democracy was the future anyway did it did people in Cuba think wow the democracy is in America and we would get the essay and the vote and all that Is that part of it It is When you are in Cuba and you have never

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been able to leave and you don't have nothing to compare with. I mean, that's one of the main

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reasons why the dictatorship have kept the censorship and all the information and even the

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entire population so isolated because it works towards them staying in power the less people see

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the less people know the less people can compare oh i saw this in this country or i saw this in the

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other one in that sense the ignorance of the populace helps the tyranny in power when i was

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in cuba no when you are in in a place like like you at least in the generation where i was that

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there was not that much exchange like there is right now I didn't have anything to compare it

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with I only knew that the only choice would be to get out of there and then I'll literally build

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the plane as I'm flying it you know I'll figure the rest out but the first step is to get out of

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here so what's the line in the sand in the states then for you because I think that's a pretty bold

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I think statement it's a it's a little it a little bit of that same combination you know

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what happened with COVID, what happened when I started working in political advocacy and this,

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I would say, mostly libertarian, classical liberals, somehow conservatarian groups.

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And I realized that they are, from the specific topic or the view of political parties,

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they are in a chronic circular firing squad. They are shooting themselves in the foot on a daily

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basis. And they don't realize that all that, there is like a little puppet string in the background

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creating all that on purpose. Why? Because every time that you have a political party or any group

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that comes in with a philosophy or some idea of change in the society, they represent a threat

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to the state that has the power. And then they don't realize that the more Republicans and

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libertarians and Democrats fight among themselves, we're just so busy here in fighting between

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political groups that then the big state, this like overgrown government in the United States,

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keep entrenching in power and keep entrenching in power. It's like the oldest saying of divide

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and conquer. While we're busy here, you know, debating who is a real libertarian or if my

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libertarian is with capital L or the little L while we are here you know chasing the shiny

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mirror of the day they keep up there growing regulations that infringe on our freedoms on

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our daily basis and nobody's paying attention that literally Rome is burdened in the background

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while we're fighting here the size of the L behind our libertarian philosophy. So if you when you if

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you look at um cuba and the trajectory that you go on to get to the state that cuba was in even

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when you left or now i don't really know i don't know much about cuba um where does it end like

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i mean does does does the does the freedom ever come does it collapse in the end because cuba's

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been cuba for a pretty long time right yes over 66 years now that the communists have been in power

209
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Why? Like normally, normally you would expect that in the end there's some kind of, I don't know, maybe, maybe are some people happy with the state of Cuba, inside Cuba?

210
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Only the ones on the elites of the government, the military and the party, because those are making millions.

211
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They have invested in buying property and farms all over Latin America.

212
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They send their kids to do PhDs in universities in Spain.

213
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So yeah, for that elite, it's the definition of animal farm.

214
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It is exactly the definition of the characters and the stories that you see on animal farm.

215
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The pigs are drinking the milk and they're happy with it.

216
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They don't care about anybody else.

217
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Everybody else, it's literally dying of hunger.

218
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The situation of Cuba, like right now, is why we are sitting here.

219
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I was talking to somebody last night after the panel that we finished.

220
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we were talking a little bit about this and I was explaining them that the situation with Cuba

221
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went beyond the point of a crisis right now team the country is disintegrating the entire society

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is disintegrating right now right now and the sad part and the infuriating part is that the rest of

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the world is choosing to look to the other side but describe how society is disintegrating I mean

224
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do you mean culture do you mean buildings everything imagine i'm talking literally not

225
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only about the imagine a picture where the literal image that you have is entire country

226
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country disintegrating you have the society disintegrating the mindset of the younger

227
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generations at the same way that the buildings are disintegrating right now for example there

228
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is like an outbreak of four or five different type of mosquito carrier viruses. There are more

229
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than five children hospitals collapse with kids laying on the on the hallways on the floors because

230
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they don't have enough beds to get them there with the IVs and the medications. When we say

231
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that the country is disintegrated, I think at a human level, you usually start seeing that when

232
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the children and the elderly are the first ones that are going down. And that's exactly what is

233
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happening now in Cuba. What about crime? Is that a symptom as well? It is. And in Cuba, it's also

234
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completely off rails. It's just that part of the censorship that the government and the Communist

235
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Party is that they don't want those news to get out of the island. They don't want to be reported.

236
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There is a high incidence of violent crime.

237
00:22:54,276 --> 00:22:58,576
There is like domestic violence crimes against women.

238
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There is like the crimes in the big cities, especially where they have few tourists that are being mugged, people stealing from the house, whatever little thing you can steal from the house of a neighbor.

239
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The crime is really bad.

240
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The criminality, a lot of people tend to think that when you don't have guns, everybody is happy and well behaved.

241
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Well, I have good news for you and they're not good.

242
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That is not what happened.

243
00:23:23,776 --> 00:23:30,236
Especially when society has reached this point of disintegration at the level, not only physical, but also moral.

244
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There is a moral disintegration of it.

245
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It's like everything is off limits.

246
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And that always increases the levels of criminality and delinquency and violence and all that.

247
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So, and where do you get your information from?

248
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from like are people is everyone on social media in cuba and a lot of people are i have my own

249
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sources that i cannot disclose obviously but a lot of things get put on social media uh and still

250
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some of the people that are doing in the independent reporting on social media are facing

251
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the retaliation and the consequences of the government when when something gets exposed

252
00:24:08,736 --> 00:24:13,516
and they are you know it's something that they want to literally just like sweep under the rug

253
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but yeah I have I have friends I have some you know relatives still there and we get information

254
00:24:20,796 --> 00:24:26,836
from from all of them too. And what do you think the result will be in the end I mean how long can

255
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they kick the can down the road how long can this happen? That's the million dollar question team we

256
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have generations of Cuban that have died in exile with that bottle of champagne or that bottle of

257
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rum hidden in their closet because it's the one that they have been saving since they left Cuba

258
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and they have been saving that one to do a toast the day that the dictatorship is

259
00:24:48,056 --> 00:24:54,116
not there anymore and it's countless of generations of Cuban Americans not only

260
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in the United States but all over the world that have died without being able to pop that bottle of champagne I mean in Europe we hear almost nothing about Cuba

261
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I mean, the most I've ever heard about Cuba really is you get a few adventurous travelers

262
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who go there on holiday and they always say, oh, it's really quaint.

263
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There's loads of old cars around.

264
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There's always a guy with a cigar who looks really interesting.

265
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I'm always ready to go Cuban nuclear every time that somebody tells me, oh, it was so quaint.

266
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And I love the old cars and the cigars and the beaches.

267
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And I'm like, that's not the reality of Cuba that you saw.

268
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And I think there is like a two-part component of it.

269
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Number one is the fact that you mentioned that there is not a lot of information about Cuba.

270
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It's not a coincidence.

271
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It's by design.

272
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That's the way that the Communist Party and the government have designed it to be since day one.

273
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So they operate like on a perennial crisis management plan, if you will.

274
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We're communicators.

275
00:26:01,974 --> 00:26:04,914
That's part of what we do when we work with communications and PR.

276
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You establish your crisis management plan, and when something blows up, those are the steps that you follow.

277
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You have to imagine something like that.

278
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That's exactly what the government has been doing since day one.

279
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And they just pick up the crisis when something leaks.

280
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That's the number one factor.

281
00:26:22,234 --> 00:26:28,814
The number two factor is that they have sold a reality to the rest of the world of Cuba.

282
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That is not the one that your average Cuban person lives on a daily basis.

283
00:26:33,794 --> 00:26:40,214
That's one of the reasons why when I encounter people, like you mentioned that, and they ask me, oh, I want to go to Cuba.

284
00:26:40,754 --> 00:26:44,294
Do you have recommendations or tips or this and that?

285
00:26:44,294 --> 00:26:51,894
And my question always takes them by surprise because I answer back with a question asking them, well, it depends.

286
00:26:52,014 --> 00:26:54,434
It depends of which Cuba do you want to see?

287
00:26:54,874 --> 00:27:01,434
Do you want to see the one that the government propaganda have been marketing to the rest of the world for more than 66 years?

288
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Or do you want to see the real Cuba where I live, where I grew up and where I still have friends and family suffering on a daily basis?

289
00:27:09,934 --> 00:27:18,114
and then depending of that i can tell you my tips or my recommendations how i mean but in in country

290
00:27:18,114 --> 00:27:25,534
if i was to go there i'm not kept away from real cuba am i like the the government it's not like

291
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you know like like in what you call it north korea have you ever seen what happens when you

292
00:27:30,614 --> 00:27:35,614
go to north korea you get shadowed by by a government official and all this kind of that

293
00:27:35,614 --> 00:27:41,574
doesn't happen right not that often anymore but it still happens when i was in cuba it was like that

294
00:27:41,574 --> 00:27:47,254
really yeah it was like that now there is like you might have i would say a little bit of leeway

295
00:27:47,254 --> 00:27:53,894
but you cannot think about it from from the western standards or from the standards of the

296
00:27:53,894 --> 00:27:59,314
rest of the world because it's not like that there is oh the government and the government

297
00:27:59,314 --> 00:28:05,834
information and the political police is embedded in every fabric little piece of Cuba's life and

298
00:28:05,834 --> 00:28:11,414
society. And one of the main reasons is that you have to understand in Cuba, we don't have

299
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private property. So even if you have one of the 222 small private business authorized by the

300
00:28:20,194 --> 00:28:25,474
government, at the end of the day, the way that you get your supplies and where your money goes

301
00:28:25,474 --> 00:28:31,034
when you're doing the closing of every day in your business ends in the same place, which is

302
00:28:31,034 --> 00:28:37,794
the pockets of the government. So they have probably extended the loop a little bit, but at the end,

303
00:28:37,854 --> 00:28:43,714
the loop starts and ends in the same place. And I know it's very hard for people that have

304
00:28:43,714 --> 00:28:49,474
been born and raised in free societies to understand how that works. It's hard to even

305
00:28:49,474 --> 00:28:54,634
visualize it in your head, but it's like that. It's like a vicious cycle where at the end of the

306
00:28:54,634 --> 00:28:59,434
day, let's say that you go and you're thinking that you're staying in an Airbnb and eating in a

307
00:28:59,434 --> 00:29:05,834
little small restaurant in a rooftop in Central Havana in the capital. Yes, they are selling that

308
00:29:05,834 --> 00:29:11,514
to you as a private little restaurant, as a private little hotel. But the actual concept of

309
00:29:11,514 --> 00:29:16,854
private that you and I have when it comes to property is not what is happening in there.

310
00:29:16,854 --> 00:29:22,774
How does it work then if there's no private property? And say you run a restaurant,

311
00:29:22,774 --> 00:29:28,334
do you pay rent to the government and and you make what happens to the money you make in the

312
00:29:28,334 --> 00:29:34,374
restaurant and stuff in the in most in most cases you have to pay rent uh whatever rent you pay is

313
00:29:34,374 --> 00:29:41,254
always to the government because houses or spaces you know real estate it's all owned by the

314
00:29:41,254 --> 00:29:48,554
government even even like after you finish supposedly paying it you you still have to pay

315
00:29:48,554 --> 00:29:53,694
the taxes exactly as in the United States. By the way, that was another land in the sand to go back

316
00:29:53,694 --> 00:29:58,594
to your question in the United States when I realized that, oh, I bought the house,

317
00:29:58,674 --> 00:30:05,194
but I still have to pay property taxes every month. I mean, every year. And I was like, hold on,

318
00:30:05,374 --> 00:30:10,494
wait a minute. Then this is not real private property. I'm just renting this space from the

319
00:30:10,494 --> 00:30:15,014
government. And then if I don't pay the taxes, they're going to come and repossess it and kick

320
00:30:15,014 --> 00:30:19,614
me out of it. Okay, hold on a second. Somebody explain me the concept of private poverty again,

321
00:30:19,614 --> 00:30:24,754
because I think I missed something on it. It's the same, it's the same system with the little

322
00:30:24,754 --> 00:30:29,594
Airbnbs and the little hotels and the little restaurants in Cuba. And then now in the last

323
00:30:29,594 --> 00:30:35,834
10 years, the crisis, like I said, it's gone beyond the point of crisis is now a disintegration of

324
00:30:35,834 --> 00:30:39,514
everything is even worse. Do you think it's coming to a head then?

325
00:30:39,514 --> 00:30:49,094
I think it is. I think it is, but I think that 99% of the people around us are not ready to understand what is going to be the tipping point.

326
00:30:49,374 --> 00:30:50,334
Why? Go on then.

327
00:30:50,674 --> 00:30:53,374
The tipping point is going to be taking down Maduro in Venezuela.

328
00:30:54,934 --> 00:30:55,494
Why?

329
00:30:55,994 --> 00:31:04,214
Because the little oils and supplies that are coming to Cuba right now are coming from Venezuela.

330
00:31:04,214 --> 00:31:17,014
And that's what keeps Gaesa and the military junta company that is running the little hotels and whatever little, you know, the power paraded economy we still have running on the island.

331
00:31:17,174 --> 00:31:18,214
That's what they control.

332
00:31:18,474 --> 00:31:20,154
That's literally their pipeline.

333
00:31:20,434 --> 00:31:26,174
But what makes you think Maduro is going to disappear or lose power?

334
00:31:26,914 --> 00:31:32,574
Well, because he has been tied with all these drug trafficking and human trafficking operations

335
00:31:32,574 --> 00:31:39,054
that have been directly impacted the United States and all the countries surrounding Venezuela,

336
00:31:39,374 --> 00:31:41,014
in Latin America and Central America.

337
00:31:41,014 --> 00:31:46,514
It's a really, really bad crisis what is happening with the drugs and the human trafficking

338
00:31:46,514 --> 00:31:50,094
and the women and children trafficking in borders in different countries.

339
00:31:50,194 --> 00:31:51,994
At some point, all that has to stop.

340
00:31:52,394 --> 00:31:54,334
I don't know anything about any of this.

341
00:31:54,334 --> 00:31:56,154
I'm so out of touch with what's going on.

342
00:31:56,174 --> 00:32:04,434
And there is the U.S. Department of State is doing a big operation against the drug trafficking in the Caribbean now.

343
00:32:04,654 --> 00:32:09,034
So we're kind of like closing our fingers like nobody wants a war.

344
00:32:09,374 --> 00:32:14,074
Nobody wants, you know, soldiers to die or anything like that.

345
00:32:14,074 --> 00:32:24,854
But at least survivors of communism like myself, we know, especially in places like Venezuela, that you can vote your way into socialism, but you can only shoot your way out.

346
00:32:25,054 --> 00:32:26,494
They're never going to leave power.

347
00:32:27,514 --> 00:32:37,094
I did an interview a few weeks ago where we basically concluded that democracy always ends in socialism.

348
00:32:37,474 --> 00:32:38,054
Of course.

349
00:32:38,434 --> 00:32:41,194
But that's a big, that's a red pill of red pill.

350
00:32:41,194 --> 00:32:41,934
It's the tyranny of the majority.

351
00:32:41,934 --> 00:32:43,674
You only need plus one.

352
00:32:44,074 --> 00:32:47,594
to be either in the wolf side or in the cheap side.

353
00:32:47,814 --> 00:32:50,934
So it is the tyranny of the majority, yes.

354
00:32:51,614 --> 00:32:56,614
So do you think that if Maduro was overthrown,

355
00:32:57,534 --> 00:33:03,234
people would see that in Cuba and then act?

356
00:33:03,234 --> 00:33:09,074
Or do you think that the oil, the trade, as you said, would...

357
00:33:09,074 --> 00:33:12,634
I think it would be at least one component of it.

358
00:33:12,634 --> 00:33:15,414
I mean, all the military operations,

359
00:33:15,414 --> 00:33:17,734
the special securities, the special forces,

360
00:33:17,734 --> 00:33:19,934
private police, everything in Venezuela now

361
00:33:19,992 --> 00:33:22,052
It's being run by the Cuban state security.

362
00:33:22,272 --> 00:33:24,732
And it's been running like that since Chavez was in power.

363
00:33:24,912 --> 00:33:31,692
Maduro was trained in the Communist Party Leadership School in Havana before he took power.

364
00:33:31,792 --> 00:33:34,832
And they did the same with Hugo Chavez.

365
00:33:34,832 --> 00:33:43,412
So a lot of people in the world don't understand the intricacies of how close connected the political,

366
00:33:43,632 --> 00:33:48,532
the repressive machine in Cuba was implemented in Venezuela.

367
00:33:48,532 --> 00:33:58,992
So I think that, yes, definitely if Maduro is out of power and a transition, a democratic new administration comes in Venezuela, it's going to make a big impact in Cuba.

368
00:33:58,992 --> 00:34:11,112
But at the same time, I don't think that the solution to Cuba getting out of this disaster of communism for so many years is going to come from only one way.

369
00:34:11,112 --> 00:34:23,452
I think it has to be like a series of little cracks that make that communist apparatus implode from within.

370
00:34:23,732 --> 00:34:27,032
There are so many other economic factors that play a role with it.

371
00:34:27,152 --> 00:34:38,832
Cuba, for example, I believe that the remittances that Cuban refugees and exiles in the United States and other countries of the world represent last year or the year before,

372
00:34:38,832 --> 00:34:45,732
represented like the second largest revenue stream that the government have like the most

373
00:34:45,732 --> 00:34:51,792
money that the cuban government is getting i think i believe number one was a trade with the united

374
00:34:51,792 --> 00:34:58,712
states and i think number two was the remittances which is the money that cubans and cuban americas

375
00:34:58,712 --> 00:35:03,792
that escape and live out of the country are sending back to help their families yeah but

376
00:35:03,792 --> 00:35:04,972
Why did the government get it?

377
00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:11,232
Because the government owns the banks and owns the entire currency circulation.

378
00:35:11,832 --> 00:35:13,152
What's the currency?

379
00:35:13,272 --> 00:35:14,532
Let me give you an example.

380
00:35:14,932 --> 00:35:20,392
Let's say that I have a cousin living in Kamaui now and I send her $100.

381
00:35:20,812 --> 00:35:24,032
When she goes and gets to change it, she doesn't get $100.

382
00:35:24,032 --> 00:35:27,752
I think she gets like $70 or $75 and the government keeps the rest.

383
00:35:28,212 --> 00:35:31,132
And when I say the government keeps the rest,

384
00:35:31,132 --> 00:35:33,892
Yeah, it's the little bank or the little exchange office.

385
00:35:33,892 --> 00:35:37,132
But who owns that bank and who owns that exchange office?

386
00:35:37,292 --> 00:35:38,372
It is the government.

387
00:35:39,312 --> 00:35:39,792
Wow.

388
00:35:40,692 --> 00:35:47,132
So that must be a bitter pill to swallow, sending money home to the government.

389
00:35:47,132 --> 00:35:47,672
I don't.

390
00:35:47,972 --> 00:35:48,232
No.

391
00:35:48,412 --> 00:35:49,492
No, I'm sorry.

392
00:35:49,612 --> 00:35:56,092
I refuse to keep feeding the monster that forced me to leave my entire life behind 25 years ago.

393
00:35:56,472 --> 00:35:57,112
I don't.

394
00:35:58,032 --> 00:35:59,012
And what's the currency?

395
00:35:59,592 --> 00:36:00,632
It's the Cuban peso.

396
00:36:00,632 --> 00:36:05,472
All right. So you have they have their own currency. There's no other way to get pesos.

397
00:36:05,752 --> 00:36:09,112
No. And obviously Bitcoin would be a great dollar to.

398
00:36:09,272 --> 00:36:14,752
And now the dollar a few years ago was legalized again, because that's the other thing.

399
00:36:14,852 --> 00:36:24,512
When I was in Cuba in the early 90s, the possession of dollars was a crime and it was penalized up to four years in prison.

400
00:36:24,512 --> 00:36:30,152
the name was illegal possession of foreign currency you know because they give them like

401
00:36:30,152 --> 00:36:38,612
really scary names to keep people from doing it then the crisis got so bad that the party had to

402
00:36:38,612 --> 00:36:45,612
you know backtrack that they supposedly liberated the dollars and the euros a little bit and now

403
00:36:45,612 --> 00:36:49,992
they are starting to climb down back on it the levels of inflation with the cuban peso

404
00:36:49,992 --> 00:36:54,252
and the dollar exchange in Cuba now is at the same levels of Venezuela.

405
00:36:54,872 --> 00:36:59,272
I believe the last week or the week before we came here to Prague,

406
00:36:59,272 --> 00:37:03,452
I was talking to someone and they were telling me that $1 was like

407
00:37:03,452 --> 00:37:08,492
nearly 1,000 Cuban pesos or something like that.

408
00:37:08,712 --> 00:37:11,272
And then the government did all this propaganda of,

409
00:37:11,392 --> 00:37:13,872
oh, we're increasing the minimum salary and this and that.

410
00:37:14,172 --> 00:37:15,052
It was a lie.

411
00:37:15,152 --> 00:37:19,272
They just changed the numbers so the inflation rates weren't so evident.

412
00:37:19,992 --> 00:37:22,272
and to people that can do some math.

413
00:37:22,992 --> 00:37:24,952
So when you send dollars back to Cuba,

414
00:37:25,432 --> 00:37:30,352
they have to go into, obviously, a bank,

415
00:37:30,592 --> 00:37:32,792
is it the central bank of Cuba or whatever?

416
00:37:33,872 --> 00:37:36,032
And they hold the dollars

417
00:37:36,032 --> 00:37:38,632
or they convert them into pesos straight away?

418
00:37:38,832 --> 00:37:41,052
They convert it into pesos straight away

419
00:37:41,052 --> 00:37:42,612
and they give the person the pesos.

420
00:37:42,852 --> 00:37:43,672
And they keep the dollars.

421
00:37:43,672 --> 00:37:45,312
Yeah, there are some methods

422
00:37:45,312 --> 00:37:49,192
where they don't give the person the pesos,

423
00:37:49,192 --> 00:37:52,692
they just put the equivalent in a, like in a debit card.

424
00:37:52,892 --> 00:37:54,872
I mean, in Cuba, the whole thing with debit cards

425
00:37:54,872 --> 00:37:57,972
and electronic transactions started after I left.

426
00:37:58,092 --> 00:38:00,972
So I'm not very familiar with how it works.

427
00:38:01,392 --> 00:38:06,132
But yeah, it's something they are holding into the literally hard cash.

428
00:38:06,232 --> 00:38:09,952
Like I imagine that it's just like piles under their mattresses

429
00:38:09,952 --> 00:38:13,512
and all people that are holding that obviously are the privileges

430
00:38:13,512 --> 00:38:16,012
from the government that have easy access to it.

431
00:38:16,012 --> 00:38:18,992
Do you ever get any, like you say, you probably don't know this,

432
00:38:18,992 --> 00:38:23,432
but do you get many alternative economies rising up?

433
00:38:23,712 --> 00:38:27,772
Like I'm thinking precious metals, gold, silver,

434
00:38:28,092 --> 00:38:30,072
or Bitcoin or any of that stuff, is it?

435
00:38:30,272 --> 00:38:33,652
No, there is no technology for doing that.

436
00:38:33,712 --> 00:38:35,372
There was some guy in Miami,

437
00:38:35,532 --> 00:38:37,432
I cannot remember the name of the group,

438
00:38:37,492 --> 00:38:39,092
that he was trying to do some Bitcoin

439
00:38:39,092 --> 00:38:41,972
with the small libertarian groups of Cubans

440
00:38:41,972 --> 00:38:43,212
that are still on the island.

441
00:38:43,932 --> 00:38:45,132
How are you going to do that

442
00:38:45,132 --> 00:38:46,712
when you don't have the technology team?

443
00:38:46,712 --> 00:38:51,012
Right now, they have power, electricity, two hours a day.

444
00:38:51,172 --> 00:38:55,392
And this is Havana, the capital that usually have been the one that they prioritize

445
00:38:55,392 --> 00:38:59,792
because they know they run the risk that people are going to riot on the streets faster.

446
00:39:00,272 --> 00:39:01,372
How are you going to do that?

447
00:39:01,412 --> 00:39:02,292
You don't have internet.

448
00:39:02,472 --> 00:39:04,912
You don't have safe connections for anything.

449
00:39:05,112 --> 00:39:06,232
You don't have power.

450
00:39:06,412 --> 00:39:07,172
There is no way.

451
00:39:07,452 --> 00:39:10,952
You have to imagine the situation in Cuba like, I don't know,

452
00:39:10,952 --> 00:39:18,712
a deserted island in the middle of the ocean where people are still, well, I mean, not imagine,

453
00:39:18,832 --> 00:39:24,532
in reality, they're cooking now with wooden stuff outside. They're using locks and all that to cook

454
00:39:24,532 --> 00:39:30,332
because they don't have electricity. They don't have gas. Let alone internet that is not even

455
00:39:30,332 --> 00:39:35,932
openly and readily available for everybody, albeit being heavily censored by the government.

456
00:39:35,932 --> 00:39:42,152
and what do people think about that like what's the like what i know it's we when we're always

457
00:39:42,152 --> 00:39:47,552
looking from the outside in right i get that we it's funny in the uk right now we're getting this

458
00:39:47,552 --> 00:39:52,872
lot from americans a lot of americans are looking at the uk and saying what the hell is going on in

459
00:39:52,872 --> 00:39:58,932
england you know getting put in jail for tweets blah blah blah all this kind of stuff so i know

460
00:39:58,932 --> 00:40:03,752
what it feels like to be judged from abroad because i disagree with all this stuff about

461
00:40:03,752 --> 00:40:05,472
going to jail for tweets and stuff.

462
00:40:05,712 --> 00:40:06,852
But what am I doing about it?

463
00:40:07,132 --> 00:40:08,112
Nothing really.

464
00:40:08,432 --> 00:40:09,472
What can I do about it?

465
00:40:09,972 --> 00:40:14,032
So us looking into Cuba and people having no electricity

466
00:40:14,032 --> 00:40:16,752
and everything crumbling around you and everything being old,

467
00:40:17,532 --> 00:40:19,872
what is going through their minds?

468
00:40:19,872 --> 00:40:24,992
Because that seems an extreme version of what we're seeing.

469
00:40:25,112 --> 00:40:28,012
Is it just the same or is it just completely they've given up?

470
00:40:28,392 --> 00:40:31,552
It is a stream scene, definitely.

471
00:40:31,552 --> 00:40:38,832
it's part of that description of the disintegrating of the country that I was mentioning earlier.

472
00:40:39,432 --> 00:40:44,672
I believe that there is a combination of responses. Number one, you have a lot of

473
00:40:44,672 --> 00:40:52,492
children, malnourished children, malnourished senior citizens that basically have given up.

474
00:40:53,092 --> 00:40:57,352
But it's very hard when you are in Cuba because you don't have access to information,

475
00:40:57,352 --> 00:40:58,592
You don't have firearms.

476
00:40:58,832 --> 00:41:01,132
You don't have support from anywhere.

477
00:41:01,472 --> 00:41:04,112
I was briefly explaining this yesterday, too.

478
00:41:04,192 --> 00:41:07,812
You have to imagine the situation of the country being an island.

479
00:41:08,432 --> 00:41:12,352
We are, geographically speaking, a natural prison.

480
00:41:13,012 --> 00:41:22,312
And then if you only have a military junta controlling all the firearms, all the resources, all the vehicles, what choices the citizens have?

481
00:41:22,312 --> 00:41:27,492
What choice does an average Cuban, you know, in a rural town in the middle of the island have?

482
00:41:27,812 --> 00:41:33,952
When something happens, some people get out in the street with pots and pans in the middle of the blackout, making noises on the street.

483
00:41:34,192 --> 00:41:47,770
And that their way to protest But you tell me what else can be done when you don have anything at your disposal You don have internet or power to get organized to share information That why I always say that

484
00:41:47,770 --> 00:41:54,910
all that scarcity of access and vehicles of information, it is by design. It is not a

485
00:41:54,910 --> 00:42:00,270
coincidence. The government has kept it like that on purpose. So people cannot get real information,

486
00:42:00,270 --> 00:42:05,710
People cannot get organized. People cannot protest. That's part of it. The other part,

487
00:42:05,790 --> 00:42:11,870
which is the one that deeply, deeply saddened me, I think that at the society level, when you look

488
00:42:11,870 --> 00:42:18,670
at human beings, I believe that Cuban has been broken down. They have been broken down and they

489
00:42:18,670 --> 00:42:24,570
are in such a sense of despair that the majority of them, especially if you don't have anybody

490
00:42:24,570 --> 00:42:28,650
living abroad that can help you send you some food or medications or this and that,

491
00:42:28,650 --> 00:42:35,810
the level of despair, it's completely, you know, out of control into the sense that they say,

492
00:42:35,930 --> 00:42:40,270
what can I do? There is nothing that I can do. If I get out on the street and try to do something,

493
00:42:40,370 --> 00:42:43,490
they're going to shoot me and I have no way to defend myself.

494
00:42:44,770 --> 00:42:49,070
I'd like to take a couple of minutes just to tell you about what I think is one of the most

495
00:42:49,070 --> 00:42:53,710
interesting real world freedom projects that we've come across recently. If you've been listening to

496
00:42:53,710 --> 00:42:58,190
this podcast for a while, you'll know that I'm always looking for things that actually exist,

497
00:42:58,190 --> 00:43:03,150
not the concepts, not the renderings, but real projects where people are already building the

498
00:43:03,150 --> 00:43:08,350
future. And this brings me to the Reef Resort, developed by the seasteading company ArcPad,

499
00:43:08,590 --> 00:43:13,430
founded, of course, by Mitchell Suchner, who, many of you will remember, was the winner of the

500
00:43:13,430 --> 00:43:18,990
Innovation Award at the 2025 Free Cities Conference. The Reef Resort, as far as we're

501
00:43:18,990 --> 00:43:24,770
aware, is the world's first operational seasteading resort. It's located just off the coast of Samal

502
00:43:24,770 --> 00:43:30,470
island in the philippines where arc pad currently operates 14 floating units available through

503
00:43:30,470 --> 00:43:36,290
airbnb and other platforms a project that has already hosted thousands of guests in both their

504
00:43:36,290 --> 00:43:41,630
accommodation and floating restaurant now here's the development that will be especially interesting

505
00:43:41,630 --> 00:43:48,350
to listeners of this podcast arc pad is planning a second reef resort this time off the coast of

506
00:43:48,350 --> 00:43:53,650
prospera in honduras one of the most important free cities projects in the world and construction

507
00:43:53,650 --> 00:43:59,610
is intended to align with the 2026 Free Cities Conference. So this is where the opportunity

508
00:43:59,610 --> 00:44:05,490
comes for you. You can now pre-purchase ownership in the Prospera Reef Resort. Ownership is available

509
00:44:05,490 --> 00:44:10,590
either outright or through fractional shares, allowing you to purchase from as little as 1%

510
00:44:10,590 --> 00:44:16,330
up to full ownership. Your ownership percentage determines your usage rights, your share of rental

511
00:44:16,330 --> 00:44:21,770
income from the eco-resort operations and your voting power in property decisions. This also

512
00:44:21,770 --> 00:44:27,150
gives you the opportunity, of course, to be part of a pioneering ocean-based development within the

513
00:44:27,150 --> 00:44:33,530
Free Cities ecosystem. Full units at the Prospera site start from $95,000, but with fractional

514
00:44:33,530 --> 00:44:38,690
ownership available, you can participate at whatever level suits you. If you'd like to explore

515
00:44:38,690 --> 00:44:43,410
this opportunity, I've included a link in the show notes where you can register your interest

516
00:44:43,410 --> 00:44:48,310
and access the pre-purchase information. If you're interested in Free Cities, Frontier Living,

517
00:44:48,310 --> 00:44:50,810
and the future of ocean-based communities,

518
00:44:51,070 --> 00:44:54,370
then this is a chance to get involved at the ground floor.

519
00:44:54,650 --> 00:44:56,970
Seasteading is no longer just an idea.

520
00:44:56,970 --> 00:45:00,650
It's happening and now it's coming to prospera.

521
00:45:02,390 --> 00:45:07,530
Is it true as well that the chance of something like an uprising

522
00:45:07,530 --> 00:45:12,270
is very difficult because there are so many people embedded in society

523
00:45:12,270 --> 00:45:14,150
who are going to snitch on it?

524
00:45:14,210 --> 00:45:16,290
Yeah, who are snitches, yes.

525
00:45:16,290 --> 00:45:23,390
and that that's the history of the cuban communist party in power they have infiltrated everybody and

526
00:45:23,390 --> 00:45:27,770
their mother and that's how they have crushed all the things that they do i think they have been

527
00:45:27,770 --> 00:45:34,770
for 66 years the best implementators of all the kgb and stasi techniques that we have read in books

528
00:45:34,770 --> 00:45:40,050
and watching movies and they are still being used and implemented on a daily basis in cuba

529
00:45:40,050 --> 00:45:43,450
and do you know who the snitches are like if you live in a community

530
00:45:43,450 --> 00:45:50,930
surely like i'm thinking about where i live i i i hope i would know who the dodgy people are you

531
00:45:50,930 --> 00:45:55,810
know we you usually can't see they i mean we have the committees for the defense of the revolution

532
00:45:55,810 --> 00:46:01,270
which is like a little neighborhood watch usually the people that are in in you know in charge of

533
00:46:01,270 --> 00:46:07,510
that committee have like the connections to be like the snitches level one and level two you find

534
00:46:07,510 --> 00:46:13,750
them in your places of employment, you find them in schools, they're everywhere. And the most

535
00:46:13,750 --> 00:46:23,010
enraging thing, it's not the snitching attitude itself. I mean, we're human beings, we know human

536
00:46:23,010 --> 00:46:28,090
nature, you're going to find that kind of people everywhere. It's the fact that there are like the

537
00:46:28,090 --> 00:46:36,050
cheapest snitches in the world, because they do that in exchange for a plastic bag with a bottle

538
00:46:36,050 --> 00:46:42,470
of cooking oil, a tube of toothpaste and some shampoo and conditioner. That's the situation

539
00:46:42,470 --> 00:46:49,190
that the country has been, you know, in such a level of misery and despair that people are

540
00:46:49,190 --> 00:46:55,730
literally selling their souls for a plastic bag with those items. I mean, is it, is this,

541
00:46:55,890 --> 00:47:02,850
this probably not true, but is it true that the people in charge are living lavish lives or they're

542
00:47:02,850 --> 00:47:07,610
just living good lives or is it that bad?

543
00:47:08,070 --> 00:47:10,270
Or are they struggling as well because of...

544
00:47:10,270 --> 00:47:11,290
Who are struggling?

545
00:47:11,330 --> 00:47:13,790
The people that run the country, the people in charge.

546
00:47:13,910 --> 00:47:13,990
Oh, no.

547
00:47:14,210 --> 00:47:14,930
They live.

548
00:47:15,010 --> 00:47:18,770
The people in charge live like millionaires live in our countries,

549
00:47:19,050 --> 00:47:21,590
in the United States and the rest of the world.

550
00:47:21,890 --> 00:47:23,410
But in Cuba they live in.

551
00:47:23,410 --> 00:47:25,310
Yes, they are the ones driving the Mercedes.

552
00:47:25,630 --> 00:47:27,350
They are the ones driving the Teslas.

553
00:47:27,570 --> 00:47:30,050
They are the ones driving the BMWs.

554
00:47:30,050 --> 00:47:44,950
We can see the pictures of Fidel Castro's grandson all over on Instagram and all the private fishing tours and their resorts and with the access to the food and the air conditioner and the houses that the rest of the population doesn't have.

555
00:47:45,270 --> 00:47:47,270
But in Cuba has always been like that.

556
00:47:47,690 --> 00:47:50,670
Now, to add insult to injury, don't get me wrong.

557
00:47:50,810 --> 00:47:55,330
I don't criticize anybody making money and getting a good house and a good car.

558
00:47:55,330 --> 00:48:06,970
The ill suit to injuries when you have an entire country, 11 million of human beings selling them the lie that, oh, I'm going to bring you equality and I'm going to bring you a good life.

559
00:48:07,110 --> 00:48:15,590
And the reality after 66 years is the only thing that they redistribute is hunger, misery, repression and despair.

560
00:48:16,150 --> 00:48:17,430
They are the only ones.

561
00:48:17,570 --> 00:48:22,790
Back again, like the pigs in the animal farm, they are the only ones that have access to the milk.

562
00:48:23,290 --> 00:48:24,070
Nobody else.

563
00:48:24,070 --> 00:48:40,630
It almost seems unreal to think about it because it's such a cliche. The cliche is of communism or socialism is that you get the elite class who just gorge on, you know, but you're saying it's really like that.

564
00:48:40,870 --> 00:48:43,830
It is. It's always been like that. Always.

565
00:48:43,830 --> 00:48:53,610
it's so out of order i mean i'm probably being naive here but you'll probably see many many

566
00:48:53,610 --> 00:49:00,530
similarities between that and what you see in a lot of western democracies right of course yeah

567
00:49:00,530 --> 00:49:06,490
and i'm missing it right i i'm i'm looking at the cuba and going that is just out of outrageous how

568
00:49:06,490 --> 00:49:12,510
can how can people well obviously like you say they're probably just beaten down so hard they

569
00:49:12,510 --> 00:49:21,550
don't care anymore. The spirit of the Cuban society, it's being broken down by 66 years of

570
00:49:21,550 --> 00:49:26,030
communism. If you read a little bit about the history of the country, that spirit of the

571
00:49:26,030 --> 00:49:32,830
Mambises that we had when we were a colony of Spain, those mulatos in those years that in horses

572
00:49:32,830 --> 00:49:40,330
and with machetes did three wars for us to gain the independence from Spain. I think that genetic

573
00:49:40,330 --> 00:49:44,330
pool has been killed by communism. I don't think it's there anymore.

574
00:49:44,330 --> 00:49:50,210
I suppose I'm swayed a bit by you because you're a very passionate person. I'm assuming

575
00:49:50,210 --> 00:50:08,368
that everyone in the country is potentially like that right Is that a common Is that part of the human psyche of a community It is who we are It our spirit It the way we are And the fact that you don see that spirit coming out on a daily basis

576
00:50:08,368 --> 00:50:12,168
in all these six decades, especially in the last 20

577
00:50:12,168 --> 00:50:13,968
where everything has gotten worse,

578
00:50:14,348 --> 00:50:22,068
it tells you that communism has broken us down as humans.

579
00:50:22,068 --> 00:50:27,608
what do you think would happen then if i mean you can imagine it can't you can imagine the

580
00:50:27,608 --> 00:50:31,968
whole thing falling apart and you can imagine what would happen and then there'd be a tipping

581
00:50:31,968 --> 00:50:35,448
point and then people would be out in the streets and then there'd be ransacking

582
00:50:35,448 --> 00:50:42,268
houses of politicians and what do you think would happen in the in the wake of all that afterwards

583
00:50:42,268 --> 00:50:48,048
i think it's gonna be something similar there was like a little preview of something like that

584
00:50:48,048 --> 00:50:53,888
I was still in Cuba, I believe it was before the 1994 Rafter crisis.

585
00:50:54,188 --> 00:50:56,328
There was a lot of issues in Havana.

586
00:50:56,468 --> 00:51:02,488
That was a famous year that Fidel Castro took the tanks out to the streets in the Malacan to crush the riots.

587
00:51:02,928 --> 00:51:06,888
And it was a crisis that it was not as bad as the one right now.

588
00:51:06,988 --> 00:51:11,108
And people were just ransacking the stores to get the food and whatnot.

589
00:51:11,108 --> 00:51:18,448
not. I imagine that probably as, again, the crisis and the disintegration of the daily life of the

590
00:51:18,448 --> 00:51:24,008
average Cuban has been worsening instead of improving, I think that we're going to see that

591
00:51:24,008 --> 00:51:32,628
probably in a worse level. Hopefully not violent, but at the same time, I don't know, it's going to

592
00:51:32,628 --> 00:51:40,208
take a lot of time to rebuild that country. And I'm not talking about infrastructure and investment,

593
00:51:40,208 --> 00:51:41,308
And that's the easy part.

594
00:51:41,748 --> 00:51:46,788
Once you get a transition and exchange with the constitutional guarantees for private property,

595
00:51:47,208 --> 00:51:50,688
for free market economy, for freedom of speech,

596
00:51:50,688 --> 00:51:55,688
the part of doing the rebuilding of the infrastructure is not going to be the hardest one.

597
00:51:56,168 --> 00:52:01,648
The hardest one is going to be to change the mindset of three generations of Cubans

598
00:52:01,648 --> 00:52:05,828
that have been broken down by this socialist idiocy.

599
00:52:05,828 --> 00:52:12,508
people that don't have a concept of what personal responsibility is people that

600
00:52:12,508 --> 00:52:19,128
think that the government is going to take care of them people who do not know how to be free

601
00:52:19,128 --> 00:52:25,548
that's going to be the change that is going to take the longest that's an interesting idea can

602
00:52:25,548 --> 00:52:31,588
you can you elaborate on that a little bit that you mean like but presumably given the chance

603
00:52:31,588 --> 00:52:35,648
people would want to take responsibility for their own lives.

604
00:52:36,708 --> 00:52:37,548
I don't know.

605
00:52:37,708 --> 00:52:41,428
I've never been broken down to my, broken as a person.

606
00:52:41,428 --> 00:52:44,608
But you're saying that you think that there's going to be

607
00:52:44,608 --> 00:52:46,488
a completely dysfunctional society.

608
00:52:47,128 --> 00:52:47,688
Probably.

609
00:52:48,008 --> 00:52:51,728
If there is not a transition plan that has a solid foundation,

610
00:52:51,728 --> 00:52:55,628
I think that most people are expecting that there is going to be

611
00:52:55,628 --> 00:52:58,728
some sort of transition and there is going to be elections

612
00:52:58,728 --> 00:53:03,748
with hopefully a new government that can change the constitution and implement.

613
00:53:04,188 --> 00:53:05,068
Who does that then?

614
00:53:05,088 --> 00:53:09,248
The same representative republic that we had in Cuba before communism took over.

615
00:53:09,368 --> 00:53:13,648
But the problem, that's the million-dollar question, is who is going to do it?

616
00:53:13,648 --> 00:53:16,608
There are so many fractured dissidents groups.

617
00:53:16,728 --> 00:53:18,728
There is not an organized opposition.

618
00:53:19,028 --> 00:53:24,148
All those groups have been infiltrated by the state security and police in Cuba.

619
00:53:24,148 --> 00:53:34,308
All those groups have also been, to a point, corrupted by all the USDA aid, foreign aid and whatnot, get it in there.

620
00:53:34,588 --> 00:53:39,208
There is like so many layers, even within the dissidents movement.

621
00:53:39,808 --> 00:53:47,748
It's so fractured that it's really hard to anticipate or to even guess what's going to happen.

622
00:53:47,748 --> 00:53:54,108
If it all kind of fell apart, you know, tomorrow, would you think about going back there?

623
00:53:54,148 --> 00:53:55,608
to sort of rebuild?

624
00:53:56,768 --> 00:53:58,868
Yes, if I have the resources

625
00:53:58,868 --> 00:54:00,968
and I see that there is a guarantee

626
00:54:00,968 --> 00:54:02,428
of, you know,

627
00:54:02,508 --> 00:54:03,928
minimum level expectation

628
00:54:03,928 --> 00:54:06,168
of what free market freedom is,

629
00:54:06,288 --> 00:54:08,308
yes, there is a phrase

630
00:54:08,308 --> 00:54:10,388
from our national hero

631
00:54:10,388 --> 00:54:12,448
that he was asked the same thing

632
00:54:12,448 --> 00:54:13,968
in the early 19th

633
00:54:13,968 --> 00:54:16,148
and I don't know how to translate it

634
00:54:16,148 --> 00:54:16,828
in English.

635
00:54:16,988 --> 00:54:18,128
So I have to think about it

636
00:54:18,128 --> 00:54:18,908
before I tell you.

637
00:54:18,988 --> 00:54:20,208
But yes, I will do it.

638
00:54:20,208 --> 00:54:22,268
I won't go now.

639
00:54:22,468 --> 00:54:22,988
I can't.

640
00:54:22,988 --> 00:54:27,688
since I left, especially because I have made my career in media,

641
00:54:27,908 --> 00:54:33,908
I have made it precisely speaking out and exposing what real life under communism is

642
00:54:33,908 --> 00:54:38,868
to the point that they deleted me from the birth registry records.

643
00:54:39,348 --> 00:54:42,868
Someone tried to get me a copy of my birth certificate and I don't exist.

644
00:54:43,208 --> 00:54:45,308
So I don't believe in coincidences.

645
00:54:45,308 --> 00:54:50,608
If they did that, I probably should not be planning to go and do anything like it anytime soon.

646
00:54:50,608 --> 00:54:57,088
But the minute the communists are out and a new free country, it's being rebuilt.

647
00:54:57,488 --> 00:55:01,788
If I have, you know, my life is still with me, the time and the resources.

648
00:55:02,068 --> 00:55:03,928
Yes, I absolutely would do it.

649
00:55:04,348 --> 00:55:15,728
I think I even have a map that I drew where I can totally see how many free economic sons we can have in Cuba and how many seapots we can have around the island.

650
00:55:15,728 --> 00:55:19,228
And we have the best location in the Caribbean to do all of that.

651
00:55:19,228 --> 00:55:22,648
Do you think a lot of people think like that? A lot of Cubans abroad?

652
00:55:22,648 --> 00:55:30,328
Yes, we have a lot. At least, you know, I can speak from the ones that I have met and know in the United States.

653
00:55:30,328 --> 00:55:41,088
We have very, very successful business people, investors, cutting edge technologies that are Cuban Americans living in the United States and in other countries too.

654
00:55:41,088 --> 00:55:48,648
And they have, they share the same value. I am ready to go and help rebuild and help with infrastructure and this and that.

655
00:55:48,648 --> 00:55:52,208
but my only condition is that the communists have to be out.

656
00:55:54,988 --> 00:56:01,628
Something I just thought of when you were talking earlier about sending money home and sending medicine and sending this and sending that.

657
00:56:02,048 --> 00:56:05,448
Can you send parcels into Cuba from the outside?

658
00:56:05,788 --> 00:56:11,808
Yes, they are, which is another ironic reality.

659
00:56:12,448 --> 00:56:14,268
There is a lot of agencies and businesses.

660
00:56:14,268 --> 00:56:21,548
I would say most of them in Florida, although you can find them in other places in the United States, that they send boxes and all that.

661
00:56:21,948 --> 00:56:36,208
And we have discovered all these years that majority of those agencies are actors from the Cuban government or the Communist Party or the state police that were able to get a visa or a residency in the United States.

662
00:56:36,208 --> 00:56:44,208
And they are the ones running those businesses, sending boxes of medicines to Cuba and whatever, you know, what you call parcels.

663
00:56:44,908 --> 00:56:45,708
And do they get through?

664
00:56:46,348 --> 00:56:48,908
If you sent something to your family, would they get it?

665
00:56:49,008 --> 00:56:49,328
Yes.

666
00:56:49,728 --> 00:56:51,048
Nowadays, they get it.

667
00:56:51,188 --> 00:56:56,648
Again, this was like another change that the Cuban government did after I left.

668
00:56:56,648 --> 00:57:01,928
I mean, in my generation, like I said the other day to the audience in my speech,

669
00:57:02,268 --> 00:57:04,988
my German brother or sister would send me letters

670
00:57:04,988 --> 00:57:08,588
and they would arrive to my house already tampered with and open.

671
00:57:08,908 --> 00:57:10,628
So it was quite different.

672
00:57:10,628 --> 00:57:18,388
Right now, the government had to let the valve of the pressure cooker a little bit out a few years ago.

673
00:57:18,528 --> 00:57:24,108
And they started allowing people to send food and send medicines and whatnot.

674
00:57:24,668 --> 00:57:36,688
I mean, it was the only way because they tried to put like a Band-Aid, you know, in a surgical wound from side to side in the country.

675
00:57:36,788 --> 00:57:38,248
That's what they tried to do.

676
00:57:38,248 --> 00:57:43,128
it helps a little bit but again not every family in Cuba has somebody living abroad

677
00:57:43,128 --> 00:57:49,188
that can send them food and medicines and toilet paper and you know mosquito spray or something

678
00:57:49,188 --> 00:57:56,188
like that it's amazing it's amazing and it's actually I think this is going to sound a bit

679
00:57:56,188 --> 00:58:03,388
crass but North Korea gets all the press about this kind of place doesn't it Cuba I I you're

680
00:58:03,388 --> 00:58:06,708
You're right what you said earlier.

681
00:58:06,708 --> 00:58:12,208
Like I would never think of North Korea as somewhere that tourism would go, but Cuba

682
00:58:12,208 --> 00:58:26,486
has a glossy kind of veneer doesn it And like I said as a tourist I can just go there or do i have to get special permission no everybody cool cuba has been open to tourists all the time even when americans were you know

683
00:58:26,486 --> 00:58:31,786
crying wolf about oh the embargo and i cannot go on this and that i'm like that's a lie the cuban

684
00:58:31,786 --> 00:58:36,886
government doesn't stamp your passport they want you there spending your money so they can pocket

685
00:58:36,886 --> 00:58:43,846
more cash on their side can you take cash into the country yes so there's a u.s dollar black market

686
00:58:43,846 --> 00:58:48,026
in there is there oh yeah there is the regular government control market for the exchange and

687
00:58:48,026 --> 00:58:52,206
there is the black market too yeah and can you spend actual dollars i mean will people take yes

688
00:58:52,206 --> 00:58:58,046
yes you can do it too it's like you know it really doesn't matter how many regulations and how much

689
00:58:58,046 --> 00:59:05,146
control uh the government does the market always finds a way talking to free markets let's go back

690
00:59:05,146 --> 00:59:11,086
to america let's get let's hear what the latest from america according to you since the last time

691
00:59:11,086 --> 00:59:13,066
I spoke with you.

692
00:59:13,186 --> 00:59:14,026
How's it looking?

693
00:59:14,126 --> 00:59:14,766
How are you feeling?

694
00:59:15,026 --> 00:59:16,366
What's good?

695
00:59:17,626 --> 00:59:18,106
What's bad?

696
00:59:19,786 --> 00:59:24,206
I don't know how to say that out loud in public without having to plead the fifth.

697
00:59:27,146 --> 00:59:28,486
It's complicated.

698
00:59:28,706 --> 00:59:30,806
I feel like a teenager talking about boyfriends.

699
00:59:31,066 --> 00:59:32,366
It's complicated.

700
00:59:32,366 --> 00:59:39,446
But I think that you can summarize it into the fact that we have an ever-growing state,

701
00:59:39,446 --> 00:59:49,386
that it's infringing on the market rules and on individual freedoms and on the mere concept where

702
00:59:49,386 --> 00:59:57,746
the country was founded. They are infringing on all of that on a daily basis. And the majority

703
00:59:57,746 --> 01:00:03,906
of the people team are just the little frogs sitting in the boiling water, you know, like

704
01:00:03,906 --> 01:00:10,646
in the little hot tub with a drink with a colorful umbrella and then somebody back there keeps

705
01:00:10,646 --> 01:00:16,266
cranking the heat and they're not even noticing. The majority of the people are not even noticing.

706
01:00:16,266 --> 01:00:18,366
And you're talking about both sides of the political spectrum.

707
01:00:18,546 --> 01:00:25,186
Both sides. And then when to that you add the new generation that has been brainwashed in

708
01:00:25,186 --> 01:00:30,166
government control schools, paid by my taxes, whether I agree with their curriculums or not.

709
01:00:30,166 --> 01:00:37,486
this new generation growing up with this entitlement mentality, where, again, that personal

710
01:00:37,486 --> 01:00:43,626
responsibility, that basic knowledge of economics, the basic knowledge of what is the limited role

711
01:00:43,626 --> 01:00:48,766
of the government, all that is out the window. That generation doesn't know much about it.

712
01:00:48,766 --> 01:00:53,786
They truly think that when they need something, they just extend their hand and the government

713
01:00:53,786 --> 01:00:58,406
is going to give it to them. They don't understand that the government and the state and their

714
01:00:58,406 --> 01:01:00,906
don't produce anything.

715
01:01:01,286 --> 01:01:02,846
That whatever they give away

716
01:01:02,846 --> 01:01:04,766
has been taken by force

717
01:01:04,766 --> 01:01:06,586
from somebody else.

718
01:01:06,786 --> 01:01:09,166
When you mix those two things,

719
01:01:09,266 --> 01:01:10,566
just give it some time

720
01:01:10,566 --> 01:01:12,166
and what are we going to be looking at?

721
01:01:12,426 --> 01:01:14,406
It was surprising the other day

722
01:01:14,406 --> 01:01:16,666
when the Trump administration

723
01:01:16,666 --> 01:01:18,506
announced they were sort of

724
01:01:18,506 --> 01:01:22,966
commandeering a certain percentage

725
01:01:22,966 --> 01:01:25,126
of large businesses.

726
01:01:25,286 --> 01:01:26,286
What was the story?

727
01:01:28,406 --> 01:01:36,326
investing in 10% of yes I cannot remember whichever one it was it was in I think it was

728
01:01:36,326 --> 01:01:41,506
Intel it was a tech company I think it was a tech company that seems a bit out of character

729
01:01:41,506 --> 01:01:48,306
that seems a bit socialist do you know what was my phrase when I saw that I was talking to Trey

730
01:01:48,306 --> 01:01:54,786
and I was just like wake me up please and tell me that I am not in Cuba anymore since when the

731
01:01:54,786 --> 01:01:59,666
government has to be investing anything in a private company. But then, Tim, it takes two to

732
01:01:59,666 --> 01:02:05,786
tango. Okay. Yes, I'm going to criticize the government, but I'm also going to put those big

733
01:02:05,786 --> 01:02:09,266
companies on the spot. It's like, why the hell do you have to go to bed with the government?

734
01:02:09,546 --> 01:02:15,426
You don't have a good business model to put that 10% into the free market investors? What's going

735
01:02:15,426 --> 01:02:21,066
on here? Somebody enlighten me because I'm just, you know, a simple Cuban girl that doesn't get it

736
01:02:21,066 --> 01:02:29,006
yet. I think probably when you get the call to say, yeah, hi, we're the government, we'd really

737
01:02:29,006 --> 01:02:34,526
like to have 10% of your business. I'm pretty sure at that level, you just do it because it's better

738
01:02:34,526 --> 01:02:39,006
for you, isn't it? I mean, this is the point. It's like getting a call from the mafia.

739
01:02:39,006 --> 01:02:45,786
We are lacking a lot of John Galt mentality in our generation and our society. And 10,

740
01:02:45,786 --> 01:02:51,586
20 years from now when we are under the same predicament that Cuba is but in English and with

741
01:02:51,586 --> 01:02:58,446
Wi-Fi we will have nobody else to blame but ourselves what do you think of Florida Florida

742
01:02:58,446 --> 01:03:02,546
seems to be the place I noticed they were even talking about taking away property taxes which

743
01:03:02,546 --> 01:03:07,246
would yes they are still they are still working on it there is a high chance that is going to be

744
01:03:07,246 --> 01:03:12,626
passed I think that you have in the United States like little like little bubbles you know little

745
01:03:12,626 --> 01:03:20,046
bubbles of places where I wouldn't say you have more freedom. I would actually frame it into saying

746
01:03:20,046 --> 01:03:27,546
you have less government control and involvement in the market in your life. You have some of them.

747
01:03:27,546 --> 01:03:33,046
You have Florida, you have New Hampshire, you have a little bit in the Rocky Mountain States,

748
01:03:33,046 --> 01:03:35,066
You have a little bit in Wyoming.

749
01:03:35,866 --> 01:03:48,246
But again, it's not the conceptual idea of limited government and absolute respect of the market and natural rights that we sit down on this cause.

750
01:03:48,386 --> 01:03:51,346
You get like little bits and bites here and there.

751
01:03:51,726 --> 01:04:01,006
But I would say the entire country is highly contaminated with the wrong concept of what the true size and the true role of the state is.

752
01:04:01,006 --> 01:04:07,646
What's your, if you had to make a bet on the future of America, what do you think happens?

753
01:04:08,346 --> 01:04:12,946
Do you think it trends, it carries on trending in the direction that you think you can see,

754
01:04:13,326 --> 01:04:18,686
which would lead to something, you know, mimicking something socialist?

755
01:04:19,166 --> 01:04:21,066
Or do you think it finds a way out?

756
01:04:21,126 --> 01:04:22,206
Or do you think it fractures?

757
01:04:22,366 --> 01:04:24,166
Or do you think you get a bit of both?

758
01:04:24,166 --> 01:04:35,586
I would hope that it fractured in somehow where places like Texas and Florida secede and do their own free countries and their own free projects.

759
01:04:35,866 --> 01:04:37,886
I think it's a big country.

760
01:04:38,046 --> 01:04:40,366
It's one of the largest economies in the world.

761
01:04:41,546 --> 01:04:45,166
It's been years and years of government control and growing.

762
01:04:45,306 --> 01:04:51,866
They're not going to let go of that that easy just because you and I tell them that it's not the right way to have it.

763
01:04:51,866 --> 01:05:07,106
And then when you add generations now coming up that know nothing else, but the government is going to take care of me and I'm okay living in the tax plantation because that's my sacrifice and social responsibility and whatnot.

764
01:05:07,406 --> 01:05:16,606
When you mix those things together, they have ensured themselves a generational growth to keep doing the same thing they have doing for so long.

765
01:05:16,606 --> 01:05:30,786
I've heard people say that there are, I don't know what the latest generation is, but there are, they think a little bit differently. They're not as woke socialist type big government people. Is that not true?

766
01:05:30,786 --> 01:05:46,926
It is true. It is true. And I have been able to see it with my own eyes. Many of the speaking engagements that I work with the decent project, many of the clients that I work doing communications events, public speaking and all that for them are working with younger.

767
01:05:46,926 --> 01:05:55,046
like the Gen Z. And yes, I have been able to see that revival where they are aligning a little bit

768
01:05:55,046 --> 01:06:00,966
more, I would say, a mix of libertarian and conservative leaning. Conservatarians is what

769
01:06:00,966 --> 01:06:06,486
we say, where they are kind of like starting to grow a little bit more suspicious of the size of

770
01:06:06,486 --> 01:06:10,866
the state, the power and the influence that the government has in my life, in my business,

771
01:06:11,046 --> 01:06:16,846
this and that. So that's actually the part that gives me a little bit of hope. But I don't know.

772
01:06:16,926 --> 01:06:18,426
It's a big bet, man.

773
01:06:18,766 --> 01:06:20,626
It's a big, I don't do gambling.

774
01:06:20,886 --> 01:06:22,846
I do, you know, I can do communications

775
01:06:22,846 --> 01:06:24,786
or marketing for gambling,

776
01:06:25,046 --> 01:06:26,666
but I don't do it myself.

777
01:06:26,846 --> 01:06:27,726
So I don't know.

778
01:06:27,766 --> 01:06:30,846
It would be hard to predict, I think.

779
01:06:32,366 --> 01:06:33,886
Well, or would it?

780
01:06:33,966 --> 01:06:36,966
I mean, we can look historically, can't we?

781
01:06:37,626 --> 01:06:39,966
At the trajectory,

782
01:06:39,984 --> 01:06:42,604
that the society in the States is on.

783
01:06:43,004 --> 01:06:45,144
And the sad thing is, unfortunately,

784
01:06:45,364 --> 01:06:47,304
especially for a limey like me,

785
01:06:47,524 --> 01:06:53,804
is me personally, I look to America for inspiration in that way,

786
01:06:53,944 --> 01:06:55,524
in the way of freedom and liberty.

787
01:06:56,664 --> 01:06:59,964
And when I came over to visit you guys,

788
01:07:00,044 --> 01:07:01,204
I really felt it.

789
01:07:01,364 --> 01:07:02,644
I really felt it there.

790
01:07:02,644 --> 01:07:05,744
And I've never felt that in the UK, never.

791
01:07:06,424 --> 01:07:07,204
It's not there.

792
01:07:07,204 --> 01:07:11,644
it's not something that we have in our consciousness certainly not on a national level

793
01:07:11,644 --> 01:07:19,404
so it is a it is it is even is much sadder i mean but but say say like say that that that

794
01:07:19,404 --> 01:07:25,064
the u.s is on the way out say it's not the land of the free anymore and say it's on this kind of

795
01:07:25,064 --> 01:07:30,064
like perpetual decline have you got hope for other places around the world that might take on the

796
01:07:30,064 --> 01:07:37,304
mantle. Absolutely. I'm looking at Latin America right now and the whole trend of changes that we

797
01:07:37,304 --> 01:07:43,784
have seen, which is again, like that irony, sad irony, if you think about it, because the whole

798
01:07:43,784 --> 01:07:51,384
concept of this idea of the American dream of this, you know, life project where you have limited

799
01:07:51,384 --> 01:07:55,624
government influence in your life, where you have free market, where you have individual rights,

800
01:07:55,624 --> 01:08:05,124
how it has been deteriorating in the United States, which has been the beacon of that entire life project for the rest of the world for so long.

801
01:08:05,724 --> 01:08:11,584
And then you start looking around and like I tell many, many peoples and audiences when I speak to them,

802
01:08:11,624 --> 01:08:16,144
it's like if we lose the American experiment, where do we go? We got no place to go.

803
01:08:16,144 --> 01:08:21,464
You know, this was in the founding documents of this country for so many years.

804
01:08:21,464 --> 01:08:26,904
And now what I'm seeing is that hope is actually starting to move south.

805
01:08:26,904 --> 01:08:31,044
It's starting to move to the trends of changes that we are seeing

806
01:08:31,044 --> 01:08:33,644
in the governments and administrations in Latin America.

807
01:08:33,644 --> 01:08:37,184
I think that there are plenty of examples that we have seen lately

808
01:08:37,184 --> 01:08:51,784
with Javier Milley in Argentina the recent elections in Bolivia what Bukele is doing in El Salvador the new president in Ecuador So you starting to see I am starting to see something that honestly I never thought I was

809
01:08:51,784 --> 01:08:58,104
going to see in Latin America. Because I am obviously in Cuba and when I left, I am that

810
01:08:58,104 --> 01:09:04,944
generation that we grew up seeing Fidel Castro exporting socialism all over Latin America. And

811
01:09:04,944 --> 01:09:10,564
then that generation that grew up thinking, oh, it's like our manifest destiny is to be always

812
01:09:10,564 --> 01:09:17,544
governed by corrupt socialists and control freaks that believe in, you know, in centrally planned

813
01:09:17,544 --> 01:09:25,564
economy and whatnot. And seeing this trend of change for me has been very inspirational,

814
01:09:25,564 --> 01:09:30,464
because I never thought that I was going to be able to see it with my own eyes. Is it perfect?

815
01:09:30,464 --> 01:09:34,564
Is this going to happen or change everything overnight?

816
01:09:34,704 --> 01:09:35,504
Of course not.

817
01:09:35,864 --> 01:09:40,704
We're human beings and we have to keep our expectations in check and we have to be realistic

818
01:09:40,704 --> 01:09:48,064
that two, three decades of centrally planned economy, corruption up the roof, and all that

819
01:09:48,064 --> 01:09:50,344
kind of changes are not going to happen overnight.

820
01:09:50,864 --> 01:09:56,704
But we have seen something that, again, I never thought I was going to see because people

821
01:09:56,704 --> 01:10:01,744
are saying in the voting booth that they're done with the failures and the corruption of socialism

822
01:10:01,744 --> 01:10:09,884
and that they want this, you know, enlightening movement to go back to change to free economies,

823
01:10:10,104 --> 01:10:17,024
to low regulations, to guarantee judicial system, to guarantee individual rights. This is the first

824
01:10:17,024 --> 01:10:23,924
time that we see something like this happening as a trend in Latin America. You're right, actually.

825
01:10:23,924 --> 01:10:32,864
I think it's no coincidence that there are so many free city projects there, Bitcoin projects there, you know, libertarian things.

826
01:10:33,464 --> 01:10:34,484
You're absolutely right.

827
01:10:34,524 --> 01:10:36,044
It's the place where that stuff's happening.

828
01:10:36,304 --> 01:10:40,924
And maybe it is because you're just sick of it.

829
01:10:41,604 --> 01:10:42,184
We're sick of it.

830
01:10:42,284 --> 01:10:43,004
We're sick of it.

831
01:10:43,004 --> 01:10:59,544
And we seeing a lot of young generations embracing that return to free market and you know on the rule of law The recent example with elections in Bolivia 50 of the Bolivian population is 30 years or younger

832
01:11:00,464 --> 01:11:06,324
Imagine having that generation being part of that restoration and rebuild of the country.

833
01:11:06,324 --> 01:11:13,364
That's the message they're going to pass on to the next generation of Bolivians that come into the country.

834
01:11:13,364 --> 01:11:19,624
That's how you pass freedom alone, literally, in a generational timeline.

835
01:11:20,364 --> 01:11:23,144
So, yeah, there is a hope.

836
01:11:23,304 --> 01:11:24,784
My hope, at least, is in there.

837
01:11:24,844 --> 01:11:30,324
Obviously, I'm a biased source of information because, you know, it's going to be my first language and the best weather.

838
01:11:30,324 --> 01:11:51,824
But the fact that we can see the trends and, you know, knock on wood, if we can see Venezuela and Nicaragua, Mexico just getting out of the world with their socialist bondongles and all the, you know, dark cash and cartels and corruption that they have going on, it would be really great.

839
01:11:51,824 --> 01:12:02,824
The region has a really, really good potential if it's here into the right framework of free market economy, rule of law and free societies.

840
01:12:03,584 --> 01:12:06,024
You know, we guarantee rights for everybody.

841
01:12:07,164 --> 01:12:08,564
Viva la libertad.

842
01:12:08,684 --> 01:12:11,304
I have it on my necklace here.

843
01:12:11,524 --> 01:12:11,924
I have it.

844
01:12:12,064 --> 01:12:13,204
Viva la libertad, carajo.

845
01:12:13,444 --> 01:12:15,944
I got it on my necklace from the AP network.

846
01:12:16,524 --> 01:12:18,184
Viva la libertad, carajo.

847
01:12:18,344 --> 01:12:19,944
Yeah, that's a bad word, by the way.

848
01:12:19,944 --> 01:12:24,364
Don't be, you know, traveling to Latin America saying that word like that.

849
01:12:24,484 --> 01:12:25,604
Carajo, what does it mean?

850
01:12:26,184 --> 01:12:27,784
It means the F-bomb.

851
01:12:28,204 --> 01:12:29,384
Oh, so what?

852
01:12:29,464 --> 01:12:31,504
Is that like free fucking freedom?

853
01:12:31,624 --> 01:12:34,144
Yeah, that's exactly what we're saying.

854
01:12:34,364 --> 01:12:35,944
That's exactly what we're saying.

855
01:12:35,964 --> 01:12:37,244
I don't mind saying that.

856
01:12:37,764 --> 01:12:39,744
Listen, Myelin, thanks.

857
01:12:41,144 --> 01:12:42,624
That's perfectly a place to end.

858
01:12:43,104 --> 01:13:03,564
I love it when you end on a positive note because talking of Cuba like that It just depressing It absolutely depressing It is It is absolutely depressing I glad to hear you think that there is a massive opportunity for everyone involved anyone who wants a piece of that new life in

859
01:13:03,564 --> 01:13:10,064
Central America South America whatever it's there for the taking hopefully it's there yeah it's there

860
01:13:10,064 --> 01:13:15,964
for the development the right way and for the law you know for the right reasons and if you think

861
01:13:15,964 --> 01:13:21,764
about it it could be like a snowballing effect where all that trend at some point is going to

862
01:13:21,764 --> 01:13:26,504
reach Cuba too and and yes it's going to take the longest and yes it's going to take a lot of money

863
01:13:26,504 --> 01:13:32,104
to rebuild and all that but at some point it will reach the island too and that's that's kind of like

864
01:13:32,104 --> 01:13:39,324
part of that hope picture that I have in my head I mean it may even be yeah I mean imagine if it

865
01:13:39,324 --> 01:13:44,944
was just the last bastion that fell it would be um who knows I don't know that's I'm getting too

866
01:13:44,944 --> 01:13:51,424
utopian that's we get we just we just need to yeah touch wood and keep an eye on on you know

867
01:13:51,424 --> 01:13:56,204
and seeing what happens which is gonna be good i think it's gonna be good great myelin thanks

868
01:13:56,204 --> 01:14:01,544
lovely to see you again thank you for having me i appreciate it yeah we're really happy to have

869
01:14:01,544 --> 01:14:07,644
you here i think i'm so glad you you came because last time i saw you we were in the america and now

870
01:14:07,644 --> 01:14:12,324
and it's almost like i feel like this is a little bit of my thing over here not that i saw you much

871
01:14:12,324 --> 01:14:15,344
but I'm glad you saw what's going on here.

872
01:14:15,664 --> 01:14:16,684
Yes, it was great.

873
01:14:16,784 --> 01:14:18,144
It was a great experience

874
01:14:18,144 --> 01:14:20,364
and a great group of people to see

875
01:14:20,364 --> 01:14:22,244
and to meet so much potential.

876
01:14:22,484 --> 01:14:24,124
I met so many wonderful people

877
01:14:24,124 --> 01:14:25,684
that I hope, you know,

878
01:14:25,724 --> 01:14:27,024
we can keep in touch

879
01:14:27,024 --> 01:14:28,624
and we can work on things together.

880
01:14:28,904 --> 01:14:31,044
And we'll be in Latin America this time next year.

881
01:14:31,064 --> 01:14:31,344
Yes.

882
01:14:32,724 --> 01:14:35,184
You guys are going to be the jet lags, not me.

883
01:14:36,384 --> 01:14:36,824
Great.

884
01:14:36,944 --> 01:14:37,484
I'll see you.

885
01:14:37,484 --> 01:14:38,204
If I don't see you before,

886
01:14:38,304 --> 01:14:39,504
I'll see you in Prospera next year.

887
01:14:39,604 --> 01:14:39,944
Okay.

888
01:14:40,184 --> 01:14:40,924
Sounds good.

889
01:14:42,324 --> 01:14:52,624
Thank you.