Washington, March 12 (RHC) -– The U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which supervises the so-called Radio and TV Marti, has proposed to increase the budget for the anti-Cuba transmissions in 2016 to more than 30 million dollars, a greater amount than the figures requested for 2014 and 2015.
Such a budget would be over three million dollars more than in previous years, according to documents revealed by the “Along the Malecon” blog, cited by Cubadebate website.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a U.S. government entity that owns the OCB, made its fiscal budget request for 2016 on Tuesday asking for more than 30 million, 321 thousand dollars to what it described as increasing global participation, acting in a more aggressive manner in the televised and digital media and supporting high priority audience.
Radio and TV Marti are services financed by the U.S. administration, which maintain broadcasts in Spanish to Cuba from Miami in violation of international rules. The transmissions by the two stations, supervised by the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, have been blocked or jammed on the island.
Radio Marti was set up in 1983 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, marked by an aggressive programming, interference in the internal affairs of Cuba, the promotion of illegal departures from the island, and other anti-Cuba activities.
More recently, a report by the U.S. administration revealed that Radio and TV Marti suffer from a poor morale, lack of transparency, lack of management, security failures and other irregularities.