Newsletter Aug 6, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #132 In Syria, the transitional government replaced the Assad-era pound, which lost more than 99% of its value since 2011. The new pound removes two zeros from the old currency, but the process has created new barriers for Syrians holding old banknotes outside the formal economy, especially those who are unbanked, far from Damascus, or reliant on cash.
Human Rights Dispatch Jul 28, 2026 Venezuela’s Systemic Repression, US Targets Cuba, Azerbaijan Denies Medical Care HRF welcomes new U.S. sanctions targeting officials and entities linked to the Cuban regime’s military-run conglomerate GAESA, its energy sector, and its “medical missions,” which have long been denounced as a state-sponsored human trafficking scheme that generates billions in revenue for the dictatorship.
Press Release Jul 18, 2026 HRF Condemns the Forced Exile of Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara NEW YORK (July 18, 2026) – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) welcomes the news that artist and prisoner of conscience Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is no longer behind bars after five years of unjust imprisonment, and condemns the Cuban regime for forcing him into exile as the price of his freedom.
Op-Ed Apr 2, 2026 Loud on the Embargo, Silent on the Dungeons On the night of March 21, 2026, Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed for the third time in a month, the result of a fuel shortage triggered by a U.S.-imposed oil embargo, decades of underinvestment in a crumbling gridand, most consequentially, the post–Nicolás Maduro halt of Venezuelan crude, on which Cuba had depended for years to cover roughly a quarter of its oil needs.
Op-Ed Mar 19, 2026 HRF Op-ed Featured in The Washington Post on the Political Opening in Cuba An opening that leaves political prisoners behind will only fund further repression.
