The new head of USIS from 2005, Michael parmley, had continued efforts to Foster and unite the small, fractured and infiltrated opposition. More sophisticated programs were developed to Target discontented use: to use hip hop, afro-cuban groups, artists, foreign students and social media to engage young Cubans in opposition activities. The celebrity dissident of this era was Yoni sanchez, who would emigrated to wealthy Switzerland in 2002, where she studied computer science, before returning to Cuba two years later and setting up the blog Generation Y in 2007. One year later she was awarded over $320,000 USD equivalent to 1,488 years of Cuba's minimum salary an international journalism prizes and human rights awards, despite having no track record and no following in cuba. Time Magazine listed her among its top 100 most influential people in 2008.
In April 2009 a cable leaked by wikileaks, Jonathan farrar, head of USIS from 2008 to 2011, noted that Sanchez's quote International Fame fuels further jealousy among the traditional dissident organizations quote and that there is no effective Civil Society opposition. The main dissident organizations had little residence among ordinary cubans, were unlikely disciplines the Cuban government, have been infiltrated by government agents, we're consumed by internal conflict and preoccupied with obtaining resources and salaries. Indeed, in November 2006, a US Government accountability officer for it revealing how usaid taxpayers money was being spent, recorded expenditure on computer gaming equipment and software, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates. Well investing heavily on imputive Democracy programs, the Bush Administration further squeezed the Cuban economy. In May 2004 the US Federal Reserve imposed a fine of USD $100,000 on USB Switzerland's largest bank, for transferring US dollar notes to cuba. In October 2004, Daniel Fisk explain the administration strategy quote to identify long ignored revenue streams for the Castro regime and then move to the great them. For example, tourism. When factoring the decline of all revenue flows, we estimate we will have denied the regime at least half a billion dollars over a calendar year. A Cuban assets targeting group is established to investigate and stop hard currency flows into and out of cuba. The Cuban government responded by removing US dollars from domestic commerce, substituting it with the Cuban convertible peso, which was printed in cuba. Attacks of 10% was levied on transactions to exchange US Dollars into Cuban convertible peso on the island, to compensate Cuba for the risks incurred when using the dollar in international transactions. However, in 2008, the capitalist system entered the most severe structural crisis for over 80 years, following the Global Financial collapse and the subsequent International recession. In late September 2008, President Bush Jr professed quote the market is not functioning properly quote and saw oversaw unprecedented government bailouts for Private Financial institutions, undermining faith in the Curative power of Market forces. This compounded the challenges facing the bush administration, who's quote shock and awe " strategy had entangled the US Military and bloody occupations in Afghanistan and iraq. Meanwhile, the rise of brics brazil, russia, India and China and other emerging economy is revived the state-led development path. With Latin America swept Along by the pink tide and Alba membership expanding, Brazil hosted The Summit for Latin America and Caribbean integration and development into December 2008 it was the first time in nearly 200 years of Independence that the Region's heads of States had met without representatives from the US or europe. The summit led to the foundation of the community of Latin American and Caribbean States in 2011 and Havana hosted its second summit. In this complex context the January 2009, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, the Oval Office open its doors to Barack obama, his campaign pledges included closing its prison camps in Guantanamo Bay and resetting us relations with Latin