Aero Marti: l'avion qui ne vole plus...

Le gouvernement américain dépense des milliers de dollars pour entreposer un avion portant le nom du père de l'indépendance de Cuba... Cet avion devait offrir aux cubains un accès à une chaîne télévisée qui ne serait pas censurée par le régime de Castro. Jusqu'à maintenant on parle d'un échec. Une histoire étonnante, coûteuse et... Un brin ridicule!

 "The plane was outfitted to fly over the ocean and broadcast an American-run TV station into Cuba. The effort was part of the long-running U.S. campaign to combat communism in Cuba by providing information to the Cuban people uncensored by their government.

 But Cuban officials jammed the signal almost immediately, and surveys showed that less than 1 percent of Cubans watched. Still, when Congress started making budget cuts, lawmakers refused to kill the plane.

But then they allowed across-the-board “sequestration” cuts. And there was no more money for the fuel and pilots. So the plane sits in storage at taxpayer expense — a monument to the limits of American austerity. In this case, a push to eliminate long-troubled programs collided with old Washington forces: government inertia, intense lobbying and congressional pride.

 The result was a stalemate. And a plane left with just enough money to do nothing.

 “It’s hard to state how ridiculous it is” that the plane is still costing taxpayers money, said Philip Peters, an official in two Republican administrations and now the president of the Alexandria-based Cuba Research Center.

 La suite:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/grounded-tv-marti-plane-a-monument-to-the-limits-of-american-austerity/2013/09/02/18cdc324-1047-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html