March 28, 2024

The Disgraceful Obama’s Trip to Cuba

As expected, the White House announced on February 18, 2016 that President Barack Obama will travel to Havana on March 21, 2016 for two days to meet with bloody Cuban dictator Raúl Castro. His trip was immediately criticized by Republicans and some Democrats in Congress as well as some Republican presidential candidates.Obama and Castro Shake Hands

Obama wants to see his friend the tyrant Raúl Castro once again. Obama hopes that the visit will help assure the move to develop closer ties with Cuba is irreversible.

Cuban-born Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from South Florida condemned Obama’s visit to the Castro brothers.

Anna Giaritelli, a reporter from The Washington Examiner reported on February 18, 2016 that Cuban-born Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from South Florida said, “It is absolutely shameful that Obama is rewarding the Castros with a visit to Cuba by a sitting American president since their reign of terror began.” The congresswoman called the move a “slap in the face” to U.S. citizens who were murdered by the Castro regime, adding that this visit will only legitimize the Castro brothers’ repressive behavior. Ros-Lehtinen said the United States has failed to make any progress in establishing civil liberties for those persecuted by Cuban authorities. Despite the lack of progress, Ros-Lehtinen said the following: “The Obama administration has chosen to align itself with Cuban rulers in its decision to visit the country. Unfortunately, this announcement encapsulates President Obama’s Cuba policy characterized by unilateral concessions and willfully neglecting to pursue American claims.”

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey has denounced Obama’s Cuba policy as well as the Iran nuclear agreement.

Cuban-American Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been a critic of all the moves by Obama to normalize relations with Cuba and to give the Castro regime a series of unilateral concessions without Cuba doing nothing in return. Senator Menendez said “It is totally unacceptable for the president of the United States to reward a dictatorial regime with and historic visit when human-rights abuses endure and democracy continues to be shunned.” A few months ago, Senator Menendez called the Obama administration new regulations on trade are “a contravention of the law — the will of Congress and the people who elected us and a betrayal to those brave Cubans who have raised their voices in support of freedom, only to be silenced by a regime we are now helping.” He contends that U.S. law says “any administration has the discretion to tighten sanctions, but none have the power to relax them.”

Javier Corrales, a Latin American expert at Amherst College in Massachusetts, said that President Obama is so eager to normalize relations without negotiating any concessions, that the United States “is very close to creating a situation where we now have a United States–back dictatorship in Cuba.”

Ben Rhodes is the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting. He was one of the two U.S. officials who negotiated secretly with Cuba to normalize relations. Rhodes directed the cover-up on Benghazi from the White House which was a felony. He should have been indicted for asking Obama administration officials to lie to the nation.

Obama wants to cement legacy with Cuba visit

Giaritelli explained that Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters on February 18, 2016 that President Obama will travel to Cuba in March in part to help cement his Cuban policy and to prevent that the next president would not reverse it. Rhodes said, “We want to make this policy change to be irreversible.” Many Republicans oppose Obama’s decision to ease trade and travel restrictions to Cuba, and say the United States should have traded those offerings for commitments from Cuba to improve its human rights regime and undertake democratic reforms.

Those who favor Obama’s Cuba policy fear a Republican president would eliminate those changes. Republican presidential candidates Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, and former governor Jeb Bush from Florida all have said that if elected they would reverse completely Obama’s Cuba policy. Donald Trump said in September 2015 that he is in agreement with Obama’s policy with Cuba. Previously, Trump had said that he favored keeping the embargo and not recognizing Cuba diplomatically as it would be a gift to the criminals who governed Cuba.

Obama defends planned Cuba trip

President Obama tweeted, “Next month, I’ll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people.”

Susan Crabtree, White House correspondent from The Washington Examiner, wrote an article titled “Obama defends planned Cuba tripwhich was published on February 18, 2016. She pointed out that the visit is the first time a sitting president has traveled to the island nation in 90 years. The White House said the following: “It is another demonstration of the president’s commitment to chart a new course for U.S.-Cuban relations and connect U.S. and Cuban citizens through expanded travel, commerce and access to information. In Cuba, the president will work to build on the progress we have made toward normalization of relations with Cuba – advancing commercial and people-to-people ties that can improve the well-being of the Cuban people, and expressing support for human rights. In addition to meeting with Castro, Obama will engage with members of civil society, entrepreneurs and Cubans from all walks of life.”

Unfortunately, the Cuban regime continued to violate human and civil rights of the people in the island asked is had been doing for more than 57 years. In fact, the Cuban regime is one of the wars violators of human and civil rights in the world.

It is obvious that Barack Obama does not care how the bloody dictator Raúl Castro abuses the Cuban people in spite of his empty rhetoric that he would press the Cuban regime to respect human rights. In the face of mounting Republican and some Democratic criticism in Congress to the decision to make the trip, Obama took to Twitter on February 18, 2016, to announce the controversial trip. “Next month, I’ll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people,” he tweeted.

The Washington Post said on February 18, 2016 that “there has been little movement on political freedoms…and the number of dissidents in detention has steadily increased in recent months.” In fact, there has been absolutely no progress on respecting human rights whatsoever. So far, the real effect of the Obama “opening” is an increase in the flow of funds to the Castro regime through tourism and business with state-owned companies. This would help the tyrannical regime in the island to remain in power for the foreseeable future.

Capitol Hill Cubans denounced Obama’s announced trip to Cuba

The organization Capitol Hill Cubans issued the following statement regarding Obama’s trip to Cuba on February 17, 2016:

“This morning, President Obama announced a trip to Cuba by the end of March. In the 20th century, various U.S. Presidents visited and fêted Latin America’s military dictators. A trip by Obama to Cuba would be the first visit by a U.S. President to a dictatorship in Latin America since Lyndon Johnson’s 1968 visit to Nicaragua with Anastasio Somoza Debayle. That should be unacceptable in the 21st century.

After decades of military dictatorship — both of the left and the right — thirty-four (34) out of thirty-five (35) nations in the Western Hemisphere are representative democracies. Albeit some imperfect, and while Cuba’s regime has worked diligently to subvert democratic institutions in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Argentina — those efforts are being slowly thwarted. Unfortunately, a Presidential visit to Cuba, prior to that nation’s government taking any steps towards democratic reforms — or even making any commitments to do so — would harken back to the days of “business as usual” with the military dictatorships of the Americas.

Cuba is the only country in the Americas ranked as “Not Free” by Freedom House. It is the worst violator of human rights in the region. Rather than legitimizing the sole remaining military dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere, the United States should be focused on celebrating the advancement of democracy in most of the remaining others. We should be embracing a new generation of democratic leaders in the Americas, rather than emboldening the regime of General Raúl Castro, his heirs and military cronies.

Upon taking office, Obama famously stated to the world’s tyrants that “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” That turned out to be a lie — Obama has extended his hand, and left it extended, as political arrests and repression in Cuba have intensified throughout the last year.

During a December 2015 interview with Yahoo News, Obama stated that he would only travel to Cuba if he can meet with pro-democracy dissidents there. Such meetings should — at the very least — include internationally-recognized dissidents, such as Sakharov prize recipients, The Ladies in White and Guillermo Farinas; U.S. Presidential of Medal recipient Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet; Estado de Sats‘ Antonio Rodiles and former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antunez” Otherwise, Obama will have lied again.”

Elliot Abrams, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the early 1980s and later as Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, wrote an article entitled “The Disgraceful Obama Trip to Cuba” which he posted in his website on February 18, 2016. He asked the question of what is the effect of these much–celebrated opening of diplomatic relations? Who has benefited? Abrams stated the following: “Why is the President visiting Cuba, given the lack of change? Because he cannot resist the photo op with Fidel Castro. It’s as simple as that. This visit is about the President’s vanity and search for a legacy, not about freedom and human rights for the people of Cuba. And that’s a disgrace.”

Obama’s shameful concessions to the bloody Castro regime

President Obama and the bloody dictator Raúl Castro talked and smiled at each other before the start of the VII Summit of the Americas in April 2015 in Panama.

President Obama has given the tyrannical regime in Cuba numerous shameful and illegal unilateral concessions for more than a year. These rules are accompanied by other provisions aimed at facilitating trade, investment, travel, and cultural exchanges with Cuba which are in violation of the Helms Burton Law and the separation of powers clause of the Constitution. All of these unilateral concessions are part of the Obama administration’s step-by-step measures to chip away the commercial embargo and improve diplomatic ties with Havana while the tyrannical regime on the island provides no “Quid Pro Quo or nothing in return.

The more Obama gives to Raúl Castro the more the Cuban dictator waits for the next series of concessions while increasing the number of arbitrary arrest on peaceful opponents of his oppressive regime. It is very sad to witness Republicans in Congress failure to fight against the multiple violations to the Constitution and the Helms Burton law by the president, as well as, the series of outrageous unilateral concessions to the oppressive Castro regime.

Obama shakes the bloody hands of dictator Raúl Castro, who together with his brother, share Obama’s profound hatred for the United States. Obama probably wants to meet his hero, the monster tyrant Fidel Castro, before he dies, even if he is senile.

Obama’s new unilateral measures on Cuba will give oxygen to the tyrannical Cuban regime at a time when Venezuela is almost bankrupt and will be soon unable to provide free oil to Cuba. The Obama administration has thrown a lifesaver to the bloody regime of the Castro brothers. All of the new rules will serve to enrich and support the military dictatorship which has been in power in Cuba more than 57 years.

The Cuban Americans in Congress of both political parties and others think the United States is offering too much to Cuba with little in return. John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, stated the following: “These changes were decided upon last fall, and the administration was hoping to announce them last year because doing so meant that the Cuban government was reciprocating. Cuba, in fact, hasn’t reciprocated for nearly all the Obama initiatives. The Cubans are looking at how little they can do to get as much as they can.’’

Kavulich said it appears a further opening to Cuba isn’t too dependent on Cuban government actions, but rather “is part of the president’s legacy program. The Cuban government has shrewdly looked at everything the administration has said and done and says that where there is some, there is more, so let’s just wait.”

Conclusion

Havana continues winning and Washington losing. President Obama is so eager to normalize relations and eliminate the embargo with Cuba without negotiating any concessions, that the United States has created a situation where we now have a United States–back dictatorship in Cuba.

Obama’s trip to Cuba is another gift to the Cuban communist regime which has assassinated over 15,000 children, women, and men; imprisoned over 300,000; and forced over two million to leave the country of their birth with an estimate of 80,000 drowning or being devoured by sharks when trying to escape the island-prison. This writer and many other Cuban American anti-communists and many opponents in the Island knew that Obama’s new policy on Cuba was a failure because the mafia who rules Cuba is not going to change. The repression in Cuba continues.

The bloody regime only wants money from tens of thousands of American tourists and U.S. investments to perpetuate itself in power. Sadly, Obama has given oxygen to the Cuban regime so that it may continue to oppress the Cuban people and perhaps assist U.S. multinationals that want to use the labor of Cuban workers, who make $20 a month, to increase the profits of their future factories in that island. The multinationals from United States and from other countries want to make Cuba the China of the Caribbean. They do not care about freeing the Cubans who suffer. They only care about increasing their profits.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida

This writer agrees with Senator Marco Rubio when he said the Obama administration has conceded too much in its rapprochement with Cuba and only received “the regime’s empty promises of future discussions.” We need to stand with the suffering Cuban people and the opponents of the tyrannical regime who want democracy and not help their oppressors!

The many people who pushed for diplomatic recognition and the end of what is left of the embargo to help the rogue communist regime, which has established the worst and longest dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere, as well as President Obama and Pope Francis, are responsible for what is occurring on the Island today. Shame on all of these individuals who have provided assistance and encouragement to Obama for normalizing relations with Cuba, a person who has always admired the Castro brothers together with his preacher of 20 years Jeremiah Wright. Obama wants to travel to Cuba to, once again, shake the bloody hands of Raúl Castro, and perhaps have the great opportunity to meet his hero, the senile beast that is Fidel Castro!

Barak Hussein Obama’s legacy is one of appeasement to bloody the dictators in Cuba and elsewhere in the world. He has made the United States a superpower in retreat. Our allies do not respect him and even worse our enemies do not fear him. Obama is omnipotent in the United States but impotent with our enemies. Obama will go down in history as the worst president in history and the only one who hated the nation that elected him. He is the architect of the destruction of the United States!

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