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Hedge Fund Walleye Returns Capital, Fires Head Of Equities After Worst Month Since COVID: Read The Full Letter

One week ago, when Nomura’s Charlie McElligott told clients that the October “pod purge” was the multi-strat model simply “cleansing” itself, we were less sanguine: “we suspect the next round of stop-outs is probably just a matter of time.” Well, Charlie was wrong, we were right: it took about a week. And this time it’s an entire fund.Moments ago, Bloomberg reported that Walleye Capital, the $17 billion multistrategy hedge fund run by CIO Will England, is returning a portion of its capital to investors and gutting its internal equities business after its worst month since March 2020. Walleye lost 5.9% in October, bringing its 2026 losses through last month to 6.8%, according to people familiar. Anil Gondi, the firm’s head of equities, has been let go along with a “substantial” portion of the internal long/short teams, according to a letter sent to investors on Thursday, which we have obtained and post in full below.Here is the math: if October’s 5.9% loss took Walleye to -6.8% YTD, the fund was down roughly 1% for the year going into the month. That’s the “already challenging 2026″ England references in his first paragraph. Then October turned a mediocre year into a bad one.”Not Going To Be Trying To Replicate” MillenniumThe letter is short, and unusually blunt for a hedge fund letter. England opens with “discipline, humility, and self-awareness” and then gets right to the point:Following our worst month since March 2020, in an already challenging 2026, we have taken a hard look at every aspect of our firm. With that in mind, we are simplifying our internal equity long/short business. This decision includes parting ways with our long/short leadership and a substantial portion of our internal long/short investment teams. We are also going to lean into the businesses where we have a proven and differentiated right to win, including our Volatility, Quant and external businesses. Related, we have evaluated the optimal size of the Fund and plan to return a portion of our capital.Investors will hear later about “the quantum, timing, and mechanics” of the capital return. As for why, England writes that internal equity L/S has been Walleye’s weakest strategy since 2023 and “substantially underperformed” the firm’s external long/short business (i.e., the outside managers Walleye allocates to). Several years and a new leadership team later:Those efforts did not produce the results we expected, and the opportunity cost and resources consumed have been too high relative to the return. It did, however, reinforce an important lesson: our competitive advantage is not going to be trying to replicate the traditional multi-manager equity long/short model.In other words, a $17 billion fund just admitted it can’t out-pod the pod shops, at least not in single-stock long/short, where Millennium, Citadel, Balyasny and Point72 are all bidding for the same PMs and crowding into the same trades.The irony is that Walleye spent the past 18 months trying to do exactly that. Gondi, a former Balyasny PM, was hired in 2025 to lead the equities unit, in the same overhaul in which Walleye dismissed its credit and commodities teams to focus on volatility, quant and fundamental long/short. As recently as mid-October, trade press reported Walleye was still building out its equities business under Gondi, adding Balyasny’s chief equities strategist and a Millennium recruiter. Meanwhile, the equity unit’s COO had already left in September to return to Citadel, per Hedgeweek. Three weeks is a long time in pod land.Walleye isn’t quitting stocks entirely. It will keep allocating to external long/short managers “as we have for over 10 years,” keep its day-one seeding of new managers (with a nod to the “natural strategic alignment” with Dockside, the platform it launched in 2023 to connect investors with smaller managers), and keep its “highest conviction” internal PMs, who will now report directly to England. Partners Tom and Chris “will step back into the management of this external long/short business, reporting to me as they did before in 2024 and most of 2025.” Translation: the old org chart is back, minus the people hired to replace it.From “No New Cash” To “Here’s Some Cash Back”The more interesting line is the one about size. Back in July 2025, Walleye stopped taking money from new investors after a capital raise, with England writing that the strategies needed time to “settle at their new size.” At the time, the fund managed a little over $8 billion. Today it manages more than $17 billion. So assets more than doubled in about 16 months, and the fund has now decided the “optimal size” is smaller than what it has.That’s precisely the dynamic McElligott described in his “CLEANSING” note (available to pro subs), which we covered in “The Pod Purge Will Pass” last week: asset growth in multi-strats, “the near pervasive demand for bodies to fill seats to manage that money (potentially ‘talent dilutive’),” and the leverage the model requires create “‘Perpetual Crowding’-risk” and “periods of rolling stop-outs.” Walleye just ran that diagnosis on itself: too much money, chasing too few good stock-pickers, in the most crowded corner of the market.And England’s letter has one more tell. The volatility business, he writes, had its strongest month on record in October and is on track for its best year ever in dollar P&L. If the vol book had a record month and the whole fund still lost 5.9%, then the rest of the book lost a lot more than 5.9%.Not all of that was the stock pickers. England concedes quant had “a softer 2026,” which is putting it gently given what happened to systematic funds last month. As we reported on Tuesday, Goldman’s Prime Brokerage “October 2026: First Look on Hedge Fund Performance and Positioning” (available to pro subs) showed Systematic L/S funds lost 3.6% in October, “the first down month since Jul ’25 and the worst monthly drawdown in six years,” with quant alpha a staggering -5.06%. The light blue line on the left shows the quants’ entire YTD lead evaporating in the last two weeks of the month:Nowhere To HideWalleye was hardly alone. As we detailed in “Nowhere To Hide” on Tuesday, global Fundamental L/S funds lost 3.49% in October while quants lost 3.6%, the first time on Goldman’s record (going back to 2016) that both cohorts lost 3% or more in the same month:Fundamental long/short funds lost 3.49% last month while Systematic L/S funds (quants) lost 3.6%, the first time on the bank’s record, going back to 2016, that both cohorts fell by 3% or more in the same monthQuants had the first down month since Jul ’25 and the worst monthly… https://t.co/YObjWdKKoI— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 3, 2026
Goldman’s other observation now looks prescient: the asset-weighted return (-3.49%) was far worse than the median (-1.69%), “suggesting large managers underperformed.” Ten months into the year, the median fundamental L/S fund was up just 1.16% vs 10.89% for the MSCI World, and the bottom quartile was down 9.88%. Walleye, at -6.8%, sits a lot closer to the bottom quartile than to the median:Bloomberg’s tally of the big names tells the same story. Millennium lost 2.3% in October, ExodusPoint 2.4%, Marshall Wace’s Eureka 5.4%, and credit fund Arini was on track for its worst month ever, down 12.1% through Oct 23. And just this afternoon, Bloomberg reported that Greg Coffey’s Kirkoswald had its worst month ever, losing about 6.4% on the back of Brazil’s election whiplash and breaking a 16-month winning streak. The lone giant in the green was, naturally, Citadel, up 1.7% in its flagship Wellington fund. Which is also where Walleye’s equity COO went back to in September. Funny how that works.As JPMorgan’s positioning intelligence team put it, “October is a month that most hedge funds will probably want to forget.” Walleye apparently decided forgetting wasn’t enough….And November Isn’t HelpingThe timing of the letter (Thursday, with the market in freefall) is probably not entirely a coincidence either. As we noted earlier today, UBS trader Torsten Sippel said hedge funds opened the session 23/75 buy/sell, with the “clearest sign of capitulation” in neoclouds and semis, while Goldman’s John Flood reported that “our phones are exploding” with requests for color, and “we are not seeing buyers step in to defend anything just yet.”Most relevant for Walleye’s peers, Goldman’s Prime Brokerage (Marco Laicini) had this snapshot as of mid-morning:U.S. markets sell-off and global momentum down. Fundamentals down with US-focused funds hit harder. TMT severely down. Systematics are positive, and multi-strategy funds down significantly on their equity exposure.So that’s two bad days in a row for the pods’ equity books, right as allocators read Walleye’s letter and start asking their own managers some uncomfortable questions about “optimal size.”GREG COFFEY’S HEDGE FUND HAD WORST EVER MONTH, BREAKING STREAK— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 5, 2026
Recall that by headhunters’ count, roughly 100 PMs were already out of a job in October (vs. ~40 in September and ~20 before that), per eFinancialCareers, with one PM complaining that “hedge funds hired too many morons.” Walleye’s cuts will add to that tally, though for once the purge came from the top of the org chart rather than the bottom.The First To Hand Back The Money, Probably Not The LastEngland frames the move as “proactive,” noting that “several of our largest partners” encouraged the simplification, and that investor demand for Walleye’s vol, quant and external strategies remains strong. Maybe. But a fund that closed its doors to new money 16 months ago to let its strategies “settle at their new size” is now shrinking after its worst month since the COVID crash, and that’s hard to spin as anything other than a retreat.McElligott’s view last week was that this “too shall pass,” the model “cleansing the excess Positioning and Leverage out of the system.” We remain skeptical: with gross leverage in the 97th percentile on Goldman’s five-year lookback, nets near one-year lows, the median fund barely positive for the year and the year-end clock ticking, the cleansing has so far come from PMs being stopped out, while gross has barely moved. Walleye returning capital is the first sign that allocators, and the platforms themselves, are starting to shrink the capital base too. That’s the part of the cycle where “get smaller” finally happens, and it’s rarely orderly.Or, as England himself put it, “our competitive advantage is not going to be trying to replicate the traditional multi-manager equity long/short model.” A lot of mid-sized multi-strats which spent the past three years trying to do just that may soon be reaching the same conclusion… and writing similar letters.The Full Walleye LetterBelow is the full letter Walleye sent to investors on Thursday:
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/05/2026 – 15:03

It’s no secret Major League Wrestling (MLW) has brought in some big names into the company over the last few years with wrestlers like Killer Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, Austin Aries, Trevor Lee, Shotzi Blackheart and several others being on the roster at one point or another.Two other notable names that caught the attention of the pro wrestling world this year bolstered MLW’s women’s division – Tessa Blanchard and Masha Slamovich (known in MLW simply as Masha).CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK PRO WRESTLING COVERAGEBlanchard, a third-generation pro wrestler, has vehemently denied racism allegations for years even as she’s been featured as a top player in several promotions. Slamovich addressed domestic abuse allegations in September 2025, apologizing for her actions in what she described as a “mutually destructive relationship.”MLW first announced Blanchard’s signing in September of this year and she was initially planned for Fightland. Some confusion pushed back her debut to Saturday Night SuperFight, which takes place this weekend and can be seen on Veeps.MLW owner Court Bauer addressed Blanchard’s signing in an interview with OutKick Dropkick.”There are things in this business that happen that are just unique and I really can’t talk about it other than saying, ultimately what happened was you had about a 60-day delay on it and instead of her debuting in Charleston for a TV taping, she’s arriving at our pay per view, which is a critically awesome moment for it to happen. So, it worked out pretty damn good for us and we’re thrilled, CMLL’s thrilled and Tessa’s thrilled. I think that’s all that matters.”But for Tessa, she’s been an incredible part of the CMLL roster, and for her to come over is a huge honor and she was actually supposed to be a part of the original relaunch of MLW in 2017. We had taped stuff of her training and, again, it was one of those weird things where just the timing didn’t work and it didn’t happen. She was gonna be like one of the cornerstones of MLW at that point in time of our new era talents. And then here we are. That was 2017. Here we are 2026, end of 2026, almost 10 years later. And seeing all of this incredible success she’s had in Mexico and she’s had elsewhere and it’s to come back and do this finally. It’s about a decade in the making. So finally, it will not be denied, just like her undeniable. she’s gonna be here.”Bauer told Wrestling Observer Radio he was a believer in “second, third chances” for people.OutKick Dropkick asked Bauer if he share the same sentiment for Slamovich.MLW’S COURT BAUER TOUTS ‘HUGE YEAR’ FOR COMPANY AMID MEDIA DEALS, SPLASH MOVES”I believe in forgiveness,” he said. “As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness. I think we’re so quick to condemn and everyone gets executed and then they’re just on the island of irrelevancy. They are to be forgotten. They are shunned forever, and there are definitely people in this world, in this business, that should be. And there’s people in this business that could be, but there are a lot of people that make bad mistakes, terrible mistakes, and they repent, and they realize their errors and their things that they could have done differently. They’re young people, they’re living in a time where they’re just on the go constantly, and then they get to settle down and they get to have perspective. But you gotta have the ability to see that and then you have a conversation with those folks, you see where they’re at, and I’m not saying one person in particular, but my approach has always been, yeah, you know, give second chances, give forgiveness.”I mean, we’re so easy to condemn and I think that’s just something that if I hadn’t had a second chance, third chance, fourth chance, I mean I really sometimes would make a mess when I was younger and you don’t realize, you know, maybe this is it for me and thankfully people gave me another chance, and if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be in this position, and I’m grateful for that.”And so forgiveness to me is like one of those things that really I wish would get an equal amount of enthusiasm, especially on social media, versus quick to just let’s go out there and let’s get our pitchforks and torches and go burn that person down. And once they’re torched, they’re satisfied and that person’s just devastated. Yeah, maybe rightfully, they should be in that moment, on a sabbatical, but let them, you know, it’s not all or nothing. I think there’s a little bit of nuance there, a little bit of gray area in there, and I think that’s where it’s important to like let them kind of go on their journey of realizing that and then see if there’s a conversation we had when the timing is right, when it’s appropriate. That’s kind of how … I’ve never really spoken about that deeply, but that’s really where I stand both my heart and in my mind about it.”Blanchard and Slamovich will both be in action at Saturday Night SuperFight.Blanchard will square off against Keyra and Slamovich will take on Zamaya this weekend.The pay-per-view, which takes place at Cicero Stadium in Chicago, can be seen on Veeps.

Two WNBA players. Two midterm messages.One attempted to unify an increasingly divided country. Another seemed to give her opponents a firm slap in the face. Or, more specifically — a swat on the rear end.The first statement came from impending Fever free agent Sophie Cunningham. We know that the shooting guard isn’t afraid to take a stance on a political issue, as she became a lightning rod over comments supporting the separation of biological males and females in sports and locker rooms last summer. But she isn’t a formulaic partisan.SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM SPARKS SOCIAL MEDIA MELTDOWN BY SPEAKING OUT TO PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTSSophie has been adamant about being in the political “middle,” saying she agrees with arguments from both sides of the aisle. And on Wednesday, one day after the Democratic-dominated midterm elections, she shared a post from entrepreneur Andy Frisella on her Instagram emphasizing personal growth over political identity.”One of the strangest things about our culture is how much faith we’ve placed in elections to change our lives and how little faith we’ve placed in our own ability to do the same. People will spend months arguing about who should lead the country while spending zero time considering how they could better lead themselves … and THAT is a much bigger problem than most people realize,” Frisella’s post read.”Because the strength of a country is ultimately a reflection of the character, discipline and standards of the people who make it up. That’s you. Politics is downstream of culture. We can keep changing the people in charge, passing new laws and arguing over which party has the answers … but until we change the culture fostering, producing and tolerating the problems we have as a society, nothing fundamentally changes.”A population of weak, unhealthy, uninformed and dependent people is a hell of a lot easier to control than a population of strong, healthy, educated and self-reliant people. Your responsibility is to become the exact opposite of everything they want for you to the best of your abilities. Your REAL best. In my opinion that’s our obligation as Americans.”A culture of personal excellence is the foundation of a great country. There is no election, politician, policy or law that can substitute for that … and the best thing about that is the same behaviors that make you a better American also make your own life better quickly. If we want a better America … It starts with better Americans. There is no other way. Personal excellence is the Ultimate Rebellion.”SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM RESHARES POST-ELECTION DAY MESSAGE: ‘PERSONAL EXCELLENCE IS THE ULTIMATE REBELLION’This reminds me of the old Jordan Peterson axiom “clean your room.” Before you can take on the world, make sure you can take care of yourself. It’s not uncommon to see some of the most volatile, maladjusted people dedicating their lives to political causes in lieu of personal responsibility. That seems to be what Cunningham is warning against. Whether she would have reposted Frisella if the Republicans cleaned up in the midterms is unknown, but her premise holds up regardless. Constructive. Un-tribal.Pretty much the opposite of Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud.Cloud also took to social media after Tuesday’s midterms, but not in an attempt to unify or inspire. The Chicago guard shared a Threads post from Rep. Robert Garcia reading “LAWYER UP!” and added her own three-letter commentary: “BTA!” — slang for “belt to ass.” In short, Cloud was openly taunting Republicans over their midterm losses while celebrating the prospect of incoming Democratic oversight targeting President Trump.WNBA’S NATASHA CLOUD ADDS ‘BTA’ TAUNT TO DEMOCRAT’S ‘LAWYER UP’ MESSAGE AFTER MIDTERMSThis isn’t the first time Cloud has used her platform to divide. In 2023, she tweeted, “Our country is trash” on the heels of SCOTUS ruling that the affirmative action policies universities had been employing were unconstitutional. She added that “we continue to oppress marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of time,” and that “I feel like I’m gonna see a civil war in my lifetime.” She also gave the AP a quote saying “it’s time to break down a system that has only been about white men.”Sophie and Natasha. One sees the potential good in humanity and calls for individuals to rise above the political fray. The other seems to view half the country as irredeemable — and wants the world to know it. Remember, it was Cunningham who, despite her position on separating men and women in sports, emphasized that she had nothing but love for the trans community. And it was Cloud who walked toward and screamed at Enes Kanter Freedom for wearing a shirt defining what a woman is.Two players. One who’s on a team that stands for the national anthem, the other on one that clears the court for it. One doing her part to bring people together in divisive times — another who’s clearly relishing the division.

Tuesday night was a pretty important night in our country, and I’m not talking about the midterm elections.The first edition of the 2026 College Football Playoff rankings were released to the public, and, as usual, the placement of certain teams caused an absolute uproar throughout the college football community.Notre Dame took a tumble, head-to-head results seemingly got thrown in the trash, and, of course, the cries of “SEC bias” were loud and clear.Not one to miss out on the popular activity of bashing the SEC, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti took aim at the Playoff committee for their seeming favoritism toward teams from the southeast, saying they “get a lot of love from ESPN.”Longtime college football commentator Tim Brando wasn’t buying it — at least not all of it — from Cignetti, though, and joined Dan Dakich on “Don’t @ Me” to discuss.ESPN PERSONALITY BUSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INACCURATELY TRYING TO PROMOTE THE SEC’S STRENGTH OF SCHEDULEThe Shreveport, Louisiana, native knows a thing or two about the Southeastern Conference, as well as what it’s like to work for a bevy of different networks, and he claims it’s not a conscious bias from the broadcasters.”In general terms, the broadcasters are not consciously doing something that’s not right,” Brando explains.SEC WANTS MORE PLAYOFF FAVORITISM AS GREG SANKEY COMPLAINS ABOUT ‘UNSATISFACTORY’ TALKS WITH CFB PLAYOFFAs Brando puts it, the broadcasters are living in a vacuum, and sometimes that can color how they see the league they’re covering relative to the other leagues.”You live in this bubble. And all of a sudden you start talking about the ‘league that’s yours,'” he said. “And the ‘league that’s yours’ that they cover is the SEC.”THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!While he does agree that there are certain leagues that have a legitimate gripe, the Big Ten isn’t one of them.”I think the Big 12 and the ACC both do [have a gripe],” Brando explained to Dakich. “They both have contracts with ESPN, and they get summarily dissed.”He would go on to say that the Big 12 is more competitive than the Big Ten, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they are better overall.With all that being said, Brando agrees that there’s no “memo” being sent out telling ESPN personalities to carry water for the SEC, or any league, for that matter.”I think sometimes it can be a subconscious thing,” he said. “We’re living in a country where it’s so polarized that everyone is going to suggest bias no matter what network you’re on.”

A Florida Marine veteran was credited Thursday as a hero for fatally shooting a gunman who drove onto a Citibank Center campus and began hunting down workers in anger over a delinquent $2,500 credit card bill, officials said.During a press briefing detailing the tragedy, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister identified the security officer as John Fraley, who confronted 35-year-old Jacob Pearson inside the corporate setting just after he shot and killed a female Citibank employee.”He is an individual that’s afforded an opportunity to carry a firearm because the ones who were either previous law enforcement or military and have that training, Citibank empowers them to carry a handgun,” Chronister said. “He didn’t have to stop. He could have run and protected his own life, too. He took up a tactical position when he saw the suspect coming and made a decision.”ARMED SECURITY GUARD HAILED AS HERO AFTER FATALLY SHOOTING GUNMAN AT MASSIVE TAMPA CITIBANK SITE”That decision put his own life at risk to stop that shooter from harming anyone else,” he added.Pearson was married and had a 7-year-old child, the sheriff said.He became violent upon receiving a court summons regarding a $2,500 delinquent debt owed to Citibank, the sheriff said. Furious over the court notice, Pearson called an attorney’s office contracted by the bank for collections around 9 a.m. Wednesday.He allegedly made violent threats to the attorney’s office over the phone before leaving his Orlando home.”Unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest and my insanity, you m———— cancel this court case,” he allegedly said, Fox 13 reported. “Do you understand me? They are only an hour and three minutes away, so the last thing you want to do is f*** with me.”Citibank’s head of security, a retired Secret Service agent, recognized the severity of the threat, initiated proactive safety measures, and contacted both the Orlando Police Department for a welfare check and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to request deputy presence on campus.WATCH: BODYCAM CAPTURES CHAOTIC RESPONSE TO DEADLY CITIBANK SHOOTING IN FLORIDADespite those steps, Pearson drove to the Brandon campus, crashing through a gate into the courtyard where employees were gathered.Once inside, he got out of his sedan with a rifle immediately shot 41-year-old learning advisor LeAnne Selmon three times before his weapon malfunctioned, according to Chronister.ARMED SECURITY GUARD HAILED AS HERO AFTER FATALLY SHOOTING GUNMAN AT MASSIVE TAMPA CITIBANK SITE”As he shoots her, his rifle begins to malfunction,” he said. “This suspect goes back… returns back to his car, retrieves his handgun, walks back over to the victim who’s trying to crawl away with her life and executes her.””He was there intent on one purpose and that purpose was to hunt any human being he could find and kill,” the sheriff said. “Because of the heroic actions of this Citibank security officer, vice president of operations, his reign of terror ended before it even began.”Pearson then walked into a cafeteria intent on finding more victims before encountering Fraley, the sheriff said. Fraley, a Citibank security guard, vice president of operations, took a tactical position inside the men’s restroom and opened fire, striking Pearson five times, according to the sheriff.Pearson was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical care, where he died from his injuries.

Rosa María Payá’s Madrid presentation put Cuba’s democratic transition back on the international agenda. As new discussions are expected to take place in Seville next week, the focus is shifting from ending Communist rule to answering a much bigger question: How does Cuba rebuild after nearly seven decades of dictatorship?

Rosa María Payá presenta en Madrid una hoja de ruta para la transición democrática en Cuba https://t.co/tL0LsUZ08j a través de @ElNacionalWeb
— Miguel H Otero (@miguelhotero) November 5, 2026

For nearly seven decades, Cuba has been governed by a one-party Communist system that has eliminated political competition, restricted fundamental freedoms, weakened private enterprise, and driven millions of its citizens into exile.
The consequences are impossible to ignore: economic collapse, widespread poverty, deteriorating hospitals, shortages of food and medicine, an unreliable electrical grid, and the systematic persecution of political opponents.
But condemning the dictatorship is no longer enough. The international community and the Cuban opposition must also address what comes next.
That was the central message emerging from Madrid, where Cuban opposition leader Rosa María Payá presented Cuba en el Umbral, a roadmap for democratic transition developed around the Acuerdo de Liberación.

Participé en el evento “Cuba en el Umbral”, en Madrid, donde reafirmé la importancia de ampliar y fortalecer el espacio democrático en las Américas, incluida Cuba.
El futuro de Cuba debe ser decidido por los propios cubanos, mediante un proceso de transición pacífico, inclusivo… pic.twitter.com/KORbAa6wXT
— Albert R. Ramdin – OAS Secretary General (@SG_OEA_OAS) November 3, 2026

The initiative represents an important evolution in the Cuban opposition’s strategy. Rather than focusing exclusively on denouncing repression and demanding political change, it seeks to prepare the institutional, economic, humanitarian, and security structures necessary to rebuild the country.
THE DAY AFTER THE DICTATORSHIP: WHO WILL REBUILD CUBA?
One of the most important lessons from the collapse of authoritarian regimes around the world is that the fall of a dictatorship does not automatically produce democracy.
Countries can move from one authoritarian structure to another if there is no institutional reform, accountability, protection of individual rights, and genuine political competition.
Cuba must avoid that outcome.
The Madrid proposal addresses four fundamental stages: liberation, stabilization, reconstruction, and democratization.
The first priority must be ending political repression and securing the release of political prisoners. There can be no credible democratic transition while political opponents remain behind bars and citizens continue to face persecution for exercising their fundamental rights.
The second challenge is humanitarian stabilization.
During the Madrid presentation, the team outlined an emergency response plan for the first 180 days of a transition. It includes delivering food, drinking water, medicine, and essential sanitary products, with immediate assistance intended to begin within the first 72 hours.

Cuba stands on the threshold of historic change. Today in Madrid, on the eve of the Ibero-American Summit, I am presenting, alongside @RosaMariaPaya and other Cuban leaders and experts, the plan for Cuba’s transition to democracy.
Watch this historic moment live:… pic.twitter.com/TV3XXtPOCi
— Armando Ibarra (@aibarra) November 3, 2026

The scale of the humanitarian challenge is enormous. The organizers cited estimates that 94% of Cuban households live in extreme poverty and that eight out of ten Cubans regularly sacrifice one or more meals a day.
The assistance must reach ordinary families without political discrimination. Food, medicine, and humanitarian relief cannot become instruments of political control.
ECONOMIC FREEDOM: CUBA NEEDS MORE THAN FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Perhaps the most important long-term challenge is economic reconstruction.
Cuba cannot recover through temporary financial assistance while maintaining the same economic model that contributed to its collapse.
The country needs to restore private property rights, encourage entrepreneurship, attract international investment, establish legal certainty, and dismantle the structures that have placed enormous economic power in the hands of the military and the Communist establishment.
A functioning economy requires more than foreign currency. It requires confidence, independent businesses, competitive markets, access to capital, and institutions that protect investors and citizens alike.
The transition must also address monetary instability, inflation, the collapse of productive capacity, and the destruction of incentives for Cuban workers and entrepreneurs.
For the millions of Cubans living abroad, this represents an enormous opportunity to contribute to national reconstruction.
The Cuban diaspora possesses capital, professional expertise, business networks, international relationships, and experience in free-market economies. Those resources could become essential to rebuilding the island.
But exiles must be able to return, invest, own property, establish businesses, and participate freely in the country’s future.
FROM A STATE SECURITY SYSTEM TO THE RULE OF LAW
Another fundamental question is what happens to Cuba’s security and military institutions.
A democratic transition cannot simply change the people in government while leaving the machinery of political repression intact.
The Madrid roadmap addresses the need to reform security institutions, establish civilian control over the armed forces, dismantle structures responsible for political persecution, and ensure that law enforcement operates under constitutional guarantees.
The objective must be to transform Cuba from a police state into a country governed by the rule of law.
Justice must also be part of the process. Human rights violations, political persecution, and the misuse of public resources cannot simply be ignored.
At the same time, a credible transition will require legal safeguards, due process, institutional accountability, and protections against arbitrary retaliation.
The lesson from other post-Communist transitions is clear: removing an authoritarian leadership is only the beginning. Democratic institutions must be built to ensure that authoritarianism cannot return under a different name.

STATE DEPARTMENT: “Cuban Regime’s Illicit Revenue Networks. Cuba’s ruling elite hoards the island’s energy and shipping resources for its own enrichment, leaving the Cuban people to contend with blackouts, fuel shortages, and a stagnant economy. To keep this system running, the…
— Miguel Cossio (@micossio) November 5, 2026

THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES, EUROPE, AND THE CUBAN EXILE COMMUNITY
Cuba’s future will ultimately be decided by Cubans. However, the international community has an important role to play.
The United States, Spain, the European Union, and governments throughout Ibero-America should make democratic freedoms, political pluralism, and respect for human rights central to their policies toward Havana.
Diplomatic engagement should not become an excuse to legitimize political repression or preserve the existing power structure.
International cooperation will also be essential in mobilizing humanitarian assistance, supporting economic reconstruction, protecting investors, and ensuring credible electoral processes.
The Cuban exile community must have a place in this conversation. Generations of Cubans who were forced to leave their homeland should not be treated merely as observers of the country’s future. Their knowledge, experience, and resources can help rebuild it.
FROM MADRID TO SEVILLE: THE CONVERSATION CONTINUES
The debate taking place in Madrid will continue in Seville on November 11, when several activists and economists will gather to discuss the impact of socialism in Cuba and throughout the region.
The discussions will examine not only the Cuban experience but also the broader political, economic, and institutional consequences of socialist policies across Ibero-America.
Cuba provides one of the clearest historical examples of what happens when political power, economic decision-making, and control over civil society become concentrated in the hands of a single party.
The experience of Venezuela offers another warning about the consequences of institutional deterioration, political authoritarianism, economic mismanagement, and the destruction of productive capacity.
The central question is whether other countries in the region will learn from these experiences or repeat the same mistakes.
Spain, with its historical, cultural, and family ties to Cuba, has a particular responsibility to encourage an honest discussion about the island’s future.
The question is not simply whether Cuba can change. It is whether the international community is prepared to support a genuine transition that places freedom, human dignity, and economic opportunity above political interests.
THE FINAL MESSAGE: CUBA MUST BE READY FOR FREEDOM
The opportunity for change must be accompanied by preparation, international cooperation, and a commitment to ensuring that the next chapter of Cuban history is fundamentally different from the last seven decades.
When that historic opportunity arrives, the Cuban people must be ready to choose their leaders, rebuild their country, welcome home their exiles, and reclaim their national sovereignty.
CUBA DOES NOT NEED ANOTHER REVOLUTION. IT NEEDS FREEDOM.
CUBA’S FUTURE MUST BE A FREE REPUBLIC.

The post CUBA MUST BE READY FOR FREEDOM: FROM MADRID TO SEVILLE, THE FIGHT AGAINST SOCIALISM AND FOR A DEMOCRATIC FUTURE appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the Dobbs Roe v. Wade draft leak.
A draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico’s senior legal reporter Josh Gerstein in May 2022.
“The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.”
Justice Alito’s opinion is a “full-throated, unflinching repudiation,” Politico reported at the time of the leak.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito wrote. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
In 2023, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he knows who leaked the Dobbs draft to Politico.
“This made us targets of assassination,” Alito said of the draft leak to Politico.
The Supreme Court previously issued a report on the Dobbs draft leak.
The report says the leaker could not be found and that new protocols for drafts have been put in place.
97 Supreme Court staffers were interviewed and signed sworn affidavits under penalty of perjury denying being the Dobbs draft leaker.
Justice Alito said despite this report, he likely knows who the leaker is.
Alito said the leaker’s motive was to stop the Supreme Court from overturning Roe v. Wade.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation into the Dobbs draft leak.
DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro is spearheading the investigation.
Prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas, according to The New York Times.

Breaking News: The Justice Department is actively pursuing a criminal investigation into who leaked the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the right to abortion. https://t.co/UxnZIEWLmM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 5, 2026

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.