State Dept. encourages travel to Cuba hours after latest crackdown

State Dept. encourages travel to Cuba hours after latest crackdown

The State Department on Monday was encouraging people to learn more about how they can travel to Cuba under the Obama administration’s relaxed travel rules, less than a day after the Cuban government arrested about 90 political activists.

Despite the latest crackdown in Cuba, the State Department was set to host a Spanish-language Twitter chat Monday afternoon to answer questions about how people can travel to Cuba under the administration’s relaxed travel rules.

“Looking to travel to #Cuba? Join @USAenEspanol’s Q&A in Spanish today at 2:30 ET. Ask ?s using #USCuba,” State tweeted Monday.

The invitation is likely to lead to further complaints that the Obama administration is working hard to court Cuba by making significant concessions to the island, and failing to insist on better treatment in Cuba for those opposed to the Castro regime.

Less than 24 hours ago, AFP reported that Cuban security forces threw dozens of activists in jail, including about 50 people who were marching with the Ladies in White dissident group.Several protestors seemed to blame Obama for Cuba’s ongoing crackdown against dissident groups. Many held up Obama masks, and one protestor said Obama’s concessions to the Cuban government have only made it worse for political protestors.

“The Cuban government has grown even bolder,” said Angel Moya told AFP just before he was arrested. “That’s why we have this mask on. Because it’s his fault,” Moya said, referring to Obama.

Republicans and even some Democrats have said Obama’s concessions to Cuba made no sense because they weren’t conditioned on better treatment for political dissidents. But the Obama administration has insisted that it made the most sense to ease some of the travel rules for Cuba, and hope that those moves lead to reforms in Cuba.

From CapitolHillCubans.com:

Over 100 Cuban dissidents have been brutally beaten and arrested this weekend, as they peacefully gathered and demonstrated against the Castro dictatorship.

First, on Friday, over a dozen members of renowned democracy leader Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet’s Emilia Project were arrested.

They include Yuset Perez Moreira, Guillermo Rodriguez Cardenas, Emilio Otero, Gladys Capote Roque, Nieves Capote, Miguel Angel Tirador, Enrique Torres, Camila Araujo, Eduardo Ramos, Augusto Guerra Marquez, Ubaldo Herrera and Lazaro Garcia.

Then, on Saturday, Sonia Garro, a member of The Ladies in White, was brutally beaten (see image attached).

Garro, who was released as part of the Obama-Castro deal, was later hospitalized and re-arrested. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

Finally, today, over 90 democracy activists, including 60 members of The Ladies in White, demonstrated donning Obama masks (see image attached).

They denounced the Obama Administration’s deals with the Castro dictatorship, which have sidelined Cuba’s civil society and democracy movement.

Among those arrested were rocker Gorki Aguila, Claudio Fuentes, Camilo Olivera, Egberto Escobedo, Boris Gonzalez and Antonio Rodiles.

Meanwhile, the home of democracy leader Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez” was cordoned by regime officials, in order to prevent him from traveling to Havana to join the demonstration.

It was a scene akin to 2009’s Green Revolution in Iran, whereby democracy activists questioned what side Obama was on — a sad confirmation of the lack of “moral clarity” in his foreign policy.

This violence is taking place as Secretary of State John Kerry prepares his visit to Havana this week, and amid speculation that dissidents will not be invited to the flag-raising ceremony at the American Embassy, in order not to “offend” the Castro dictatorship.

It’s “what change looks like” in Obama’s Cuba policy.