Yes to the Cuban People, No to the Castro Regime

The Cuban flag now flies over Havana’s embassy in Washington. It was raised on Monday for the first time in 54 years as the United States and Cuba formally restored relations. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over the reopening of the embassy, a milestone in the diplomatic thaw that began with the simultaneous announcements by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raoul Castro last December 17. Rodriguez took yesterday's opportunity to urge Obama to use more executive powers to dismantle the economic embargo, the main stumbling block to full normalization of relations. Obama has used executive orders to ease some business and travel restrictions but the broader 53-year-old embargo remains in place because only Congress can lift it, and most congressional Republicans are unlikely to do that soon, despite Obama's appeal for the embargo to be eliminated. With Rodriguez beside him later on Monday at the State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed a "new beginning" in relations but said there is still much that divides the two governments and that the path to complete normalization may be "long and complex." White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the administration was "hopeful" that Cuba in coming years would start to show respect for basic human rights. ~~~~~ The reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana is the culmination of more than two years of negotiations between the long-hostile governments. At the reopening ceremony, Rodriguez noted : "The historic events we are living today will only make sense with the removal of the economic, commercial and financial blockade which causes so much deprivation and damage to our people, the return of occupied territory in Guantanamo, and respect for the sovereignty of Cuba." But, Secretary Kerry answered that the United States has no intention at this time of altering its existing lease arrangement for its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Speaking at a news conference with Rodriguez, Kerry noted that the issue was a clear difference between the two nations. Rodriguez told reporters that the military base along with remaining issues over the trade embargo remained top concerns for Cuba. ~~~~~ Secretary Kerry will visit Cuba on August 14 to attend the ceremony that will open the US embassy in Havana, an unnamed US source said yesterday. The American flag will not fly in Havana until then. The State Department said that Kerry's expected visit would be first by a US Secretary of State to Cuba in 70 years. ~~~~~ Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is the largest island in the Caribbean and is only 90 miles away from the south Florida coast. Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes before Christopher Columbus landed there in 1492 and claimed it for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a Spanish colony until the Spanish–American War of 1898, after which it gained nominal independence in 1902 as a de facto US protectorate. The fragile republic experienced increasingly radical politics and social strife, and despite efforts to strengthen its democratic system, Cuba came under the dictatorship of US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Growing unrest and instability led to Batista's overthrow on New Year's Eve in January, 1959, by the July 26 movement, which then established a revolutionary socialist government under Fidel Castro, who had led the guerrilla campaign against Batista's military and security forces. Since 1965, Cuba has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. With over 11 million inhabitants, Cuba is a multi-ethnic country whose people, culture and customs come from diverse sources, including the aboriginal Taíno and Ciboney peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of African slaves, America, and a close relationship with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. ~~~~~ The Communist Party, now headed by Castro's brother Raoul, continues to govern Cuba today. The Cuban Revolution has had powerful domestic and international repercussions. In particular, it reshaped Cuba's relationship with the United States, which led to the embargo against Cuba that continues today. In the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castro began a program of nationalization and political consolidation that transformed Cuba's economy and civil society, impoverishing Cubans, destroying businesses and infrastructure, and eliminating all personal and political liberties. The revolution also ushered in an era of Cuban intervention into foreign military conflicts, including the Angolan Civil War and the Nicaraguan Revolution. Scholars and political analysts have tried to arrive at an estimate of the number of Cuban dissidents killed by the Castro regime. Armando Lago, a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, continues working on his book "CUBA The Human Cost of Social Revolutions : The Black Book of Cuban Communism," documenting the deaths caused by Castro's regime from 1959 to the present. According to Dr. Lago's ongoing research, the total number of deaths currently ranges between 90,827 and 102,722 (much higher, for example, than the 3,000 attributed to Chile's Augusto Pinochet). ~~~~~ Dear readers, Americans are understandably ambivalent about President Obama's recognition of Castro's Cuba. The Cuban people have long immigrated to America. Before Castro, they welcomed American tourists and business people to Havana. American music and popular culture have absorbed Cuban influences. Rum and Coca Cola - called a Cuba Libra - owes its existence to Havana. And Ernest Hemingway wrote some of his greatest novels while living in Cuba. So, most Americans feel a kinship with the Cuban people and want their suffering under Castro to end. But, most Americans would greatly prefer that the Cuban people, and not the Castro family and regime, benefit from a renewed US-Cuba diplomatic and commercial relationship. And like so much spin produced by his administration, Obama has glossed over the realities of his recognition of Cuba. Seeing the butchers Raoul and Fidel Castro elevated to a fake respectability -- watching them, much like the Ayatollah Khamenei, try to bully Obama into dangerous concessions because they know that he has abandoned the interests of America and the world in his rush to build his "legacy" -- that is repugnant to all of us who must watch the current collapse of the American presidency into a personal fiefdom . It is simple -- the Cuban people "yes" -- but the Castro brothers "no."