In a reversal, the U.S. State Department has reinstated a few contracts funding Cuban independent news outlets, humanitarian aid delivery and support for political prisoners in Cuba that it had previously canceled, but questions about the administration’s commitment to promoting democracy in Cuba still swirl as the government-funded Radio Martí went off the air.

The State Department notified Cubanet, the oldest independent Cuba news outlet based in Miami, that a grant funding its operations was no longer canceled, its director, Roberto Hechavarría, said. The outlet had received a three-year, $1.8 million award set to expire this year from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is currently under the State Department. Hechavarría said he was informed that the while the contract has not been canceled, it is still under review since a January executive order by President Donald Trump paused foreign aid programs for 90 days.

Cubanet and some other Cuba-related initiatives were spared cuts that slashed 83% of USAID programs, according to figures provided by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is acting director of the mostly dismantled aid agency.

Cubalex, an organization providing legal advice to dissidents and families of political prisoners and tracking arbitrary arrests, also received notice that a two-year award previously suspended by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor would be available again, its director, the Cuban lawyer Laritza Diversent said. Outreach AID to the Americas, an organization delivering humanitarian aid to churches in Cuba and other Latin American countries, received a similar communication indicating one Cuba-related program previously canceled could continue.

Still, both organizations had other grants for Cuba-related work canceled. Diversent said Cubalex lost half of its funding and had to reduce its team and scale back the legal counsel it was offering to people subjected to government harassment in Cuba.

The International Republican Institute was allowed to retain only five of its 95 awards from the State Department and USAID. Those still in place are projects related to Cuba and Venezuela, among them one supporting political prisoners on the island that was initially terminated, a source with knowledge of the decision said. Another source said that a similar Democratic organization, the National Democratic Institute, was allowed to retain only a couple of Venezuela-related grants.

Promoting a democratic transition in Cuba — and more recently, in Venezuela — has been a bipartisan policy funded by Congress for decades. But the goal has clashed with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency crusade to slash costs and close government agencies.

Radio Marti, a government effort to provide uncensored information to the people of Cuba from offices in Miami, stopped broadcasting for the first time in 40 years on Monday, after Trump mandated its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to reduce its operations to the minimum, and all of the Radio and TV Martí stations employees were placed on administrative leave or fired during the weekend.

Martí Noticias’ last publication on its website was on Monday, and radio programming streaming on the website is repeating daily in a loop. Former employees have lamented the closure, which occurred after the stations had revamped their digital and social media strategies and amassed millions of views on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, according to figures in an internal document widely circulating on Tuesday. The Herald could not independently verify the data gathered by a third-party company.

The move to shut down the Martí stations, fulfilling a long-sought goal of the Cuban government, has caused an uproar in the Cuban exile community and has prompted Cuban American Republican members of Congress to react.

“In the case of Radio and TV Martí, it’s something I’ve always supported and continue to support,” Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, who has saved the stations in the past from harsh cuts and plans to merge with the Voice of America, told Telemundo journalist Gloria Ordaz in an interview. “I’m working with the administration to see how we can reverse it, or at least find a way to provide radio and communication services for the Cuban people, which is essential,” he added.

Díaz-Balart also mentioned that some previously suspended funds are flowing back to the organizations.

“Everyone should calm down, this isn’t the end of the world,” he said. “Essential things will continue to be funded. Among those essential things is communications to the Cuban people and the groups that are helping the cause of freedom.”

However, uncertainty looms over the future of many of these organizations and aid programs focusing on Cuba.

“There is no clarity on the administration’s strategy for the Cuba programs, or for that matter, other countries,” a source involved in humanitarian projects in foreign countries said. “We don’t have anyone to speak with, and no funds have been provided. So even if a project is not terminated, it has the same effect as a suspension, which has been in effect since January 24th.”

Questions remain about how the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor will be able to handle all of the remaining contracts, including those originally handled by USAID.

Enrique Roig, who headed the bureau under President Joe Biden, said around 60 contractors involved in grant-related work were recently let go.

“They are already understaffed, and there is a lot of work to do in those programs,” he said, lamenting the cuts to programs in several other countries in the region.

“Independent journalists, important media organizations in those countries are on life support and had to downsize. If local organizations don´’t have a way to continue paying staff, this will have a ripple effect,” he added. “The sooner we can fix this, the better, because we are losing a lot of credibility with groups on the ground.”

The National Endowment for Democracy, an independent organization receiving funds directly from Congress, said the administration released a portion of funds previously frozen after the organization sued the State Department. But the funds will likely go to pay past work and organizations like the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, which used to receive about one-third of their funding from the endowment, are still unsure about the level of funding in the future. Most of their personnel are still on leave.

One program proposed by Cubalex that was approved by the endowment in January focusing on supporting the families of political prisoners and tracking life conditions in Cuban prisons was canceled, Diversent said. José Jasán Nieves, the director of El Toque, a Cuban news independent outlet receiving support from NED, said the organization notified them of the disbursement of funds “but they are still not talking about reactivating the paused programs.”

Nieves and Diversent said they’re now looking to diversify the sources of funds so their projects can survive the sudden policy change.

“We still don’t have a clear idea of what we can do,” Nieves said, “but even if this is restored, American cooperation [agencies] are no longer a reliable partner.”

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