Inspire America’s Initiatives for the Trump Administration

Marcell Felipe is an international tax and corporate lawyer based in Miami and the founder of the Inspire America Foundation. The foundation’s aim is to promote democracy in Cuba and the Americas. On the anniversary of Donald Trump’s visit to Miami, Marcell Felipe along with Inspire America released ten initiatives that would continue to serve that end.

Among the ten initiatives was the plea to reinstate the Cuban regime to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba was removed from the list in 2015 by the previous administration.

Another initiative calls for the discontinuation of law enforcement cooperation based on the regime’s provision of sanctuary to American terrorists and criminals and cooperation with drug trafficking organizations.

Perhaps the most dramatic, however, is to allow federal prosecutors the discretion to indict Raul Castro on various charges. The Trump administration has not been friendly to the Cuban regime, but it’s unclear how many of these initiatives will receive its attention.

National Security at Issue in Florida Confucius Institute Closure

Marcell Felipe is a respected presence in the Miami legal community who serves as the board chair for the Inspire America Foundation and the Initiative for Democratic and Economic Alternatives for Cuba at Florida International University. In his capacity as a Miami Dade College (MDC) trustee, Marcell Felipe raised concerns that led to the shuttering of the last of four Chinese-government funded Confucius Institutes statewide.

The issues with MDC’s Confucius Institute, which provided Mandarin language education, included concerns detailed by Felipe in an email to the Miami Herald that “you can’t partner with an institution once you know they persecute their own academics.” By refusing to partner with the program, Miami Dade College was taking a stand in support of freedom and independence within US academic settings.

The successful efforts to close Confucius Institutes across Florida reflected concerted political will, with Republican US Senator Marco Rubio initially recommending the shutdown in 2018. More recently, a resolution was crafted by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who highlighted national security concerns about the institute at MDC.

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