Obama and Michele left Washington, D.C. on Air Force One on their way to Communist Cuba on March 20, 2016.
President Obama arrived in Havana on March 20, 2016, becoming the first president to visit Cuba since the1928 visit to this country by President Calvin Coolidge. In what appears to be deliberate insult to Obama and First Lady Michelle, they were not welcome by Head of State Raúl Castro or Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel, as is normally expected, but by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and a small delegation of Cuban officials that included Gustavo Machín, a diplomat who was deported from the United States for spying. No military bands played, no state honors were given, and no flags displayed, there was not and official welcoming ceremony. Nothing but torrential rain received the president and his wife.
Upon arrival of the president, the Cuban regime spokeswoman an intelligence officer Josefina Vidal, who led Cuban delegation in several negotiation sessions with U.S. officials, stated that no progress can be achieved until Gitmo is returned and the embargo ends. As usual more demands, zero concessions on the part of the oppressive regime and more arbitrary arrests of peaceful opponents.
Dan Friedman and Jacqueline Klimas wrote in the Washington Examiner on March 20 that President Obama and his family emerged from Air Force One in Havana at around 4:30 p.m. Some key members of Congress, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California; Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois; Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont (who recommended to Obama the shameful sperm diplomacy); and Senator Jeff Flake, Republican from Arizona and a strong supporter of Obama’s Cuban policy, came along on Air Force One. Rich Cuban American businessmen, who encouraged Obama to lift the embargo and recognized Cuba diplomatically, were also invited by the president.
The two-and-a-half-day visit will include meetings with Cuban bloody dictator Raúl Castro as well as with U.S. and Cuban American business leaders. Obama will also attend a baseball game between the national team of Cuba and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The reporters explained that Republicans have criticized the president’s visit to Cuba since the communist dictatorship continues to arrest and beat up peaceful protesters in many cities in Cuba. Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Obama on March 2016 encouraging him to meet with human rights activists during the trip, not just with officials selected by the government. Representative Royce said in his letter the following: “Meeting with these high-level, internationally acclaimed dissidents — and not government-picked ‘activists’ — will assure the Cuban people that America has not forgotten them. Frankly, these meetings should have been solidified well before the White House announced your upcoming visit.”
The Republican National Committee criticized the presidential trip ahead of his arrival, by calling it a “historic mistake” and accusing Obama of breaking his own promise to only visit Cuba if it showed more human rights progress. During a December 2015 interview with Yahoo News, Obama stated that he would only travel to Cuba if he could meet with pro-democracy dissidents there. The Marxist president also said that he would only go to Cuba if there was progress on human rights. There has been absolutely no progress in the advancement of human and civil rights in the Island. Quite the contrary, more arbitrary arrests and beatings of peaceful opponents, especially the Damas de Blanco have increased in many cities in Cuba.
Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz from Texas
Obama’s trip to Cuba was immediately criticized by Republicans and some Democrats in Congress as well as by some Republican presidential candidates. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz (Senator from Texas), blasted the visit and said “so sad and so injurious to our future as well as Cuba’s” in an article that appeared in Politico. The Miami Herald reported on March 21, 2016 that about 200 Cuban American protesters marched Miami’s Little Havana area. Florida’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Carlos López-Cantera said the following: “I never thought that I would see a president of the United States of America landing Air Force One in a communist Cuba. I grew up learning first-hand what it was like to flee communism and oppression.”
A poster of the bloody dictator Raúl Castro and Marxist Barack Obama decorates a street in Havana.
President Obama, together with his wife and his two daughters, spent their first day in Havana similar to many tourists. They ate at a private restaurant known as “paladares.” Eusebio Leal, Havana’s historian who enrich himself by selling stolen property of Cubans and Americans who left the island pocketing the money and becoming a multimillionaire, gave a tour of old Havana to the president and his family. Later, the president met the pro-Castro regime Cardinal Jaime Ortega at Havana’s Cathedral for a private meeting. Cardinal Ortega acted as an intermediary for Marxist Pope Francis and Obama during the secret negotiations between the two nations.
Obama met with Cuba’s bloody dictator Raúl Castro and held a shameful press conference
On March 21, Obama met privately with Cuba’s bloody the dictator Raúl Castro and in a press conference dictator Castro lectured Obama on human rights.
On March 21, Obama met privately with Cuba’s bloody the dictator Raúl Castro. Both of them then held a press conference.
Susan Crabtree wrote an article entitled “Castro Lectures U.S. on Human Rights Double Standard” which was published in the Washington Examiner on March 21, 2016. The reporter said that Raúl Castro, while standing next to President Obama, delivered a lecture to the United States on its “double standard” on human rights and made several other demands to fully normalize relations. During several moments of awkward tension Castro highlighted America’s “political manipulation and double standards” with respect to human rights and lack of universal healthcare.
Crabtree explained that in response to a question from CNN‘s Jim Acosta on why his regime imprisons dissidents, Castro lied and said “What political prisoners?” Castro then said “Give me a name or names. After this meeting is over…and they will be released before tonight ends.”
Armando Sosa Fortuny has been in jail in Cuba for almost 40 years. As a member of the Cuban Patriotic Council, presided by Antonio de Esquivel, this writer and others in this anticommunist organization collect money at each biweekly meeting sending to Cuba to help Sosa Fortuny and other political prisoners.
Obama needs to give the assassin-in-series Raúl Castro a complete list of political prisoners and if the dictator fails to free them, the president needs to denounce him strongly. Obama can start his list of prisoners with the name of Armando Sosa Fortuny who in October 2016 would have been 40 years in jail. More than likely Sosa Fortuny is the political prisoner who has been in prison the longest in the world. Then Obama can add to the following partial list of political prisoners most of whom are serving sentences of life imprisonment and 30 years:
- Harold Alcalá Aramburu. 2. Claro Fernando Alonso Hernández. 3. Miguel Álvarez. 4. Lewis Arce Romero. 5. Lázaro Ávila Sierra. 6. Ernesto Borges Pérez. 7. Alieski Calderín Acosta. 8. Cerezo Sirut Leandro. 9. Cornel de la Rosa Raúl Manuel. 10. Karel de Miranda Rubio. 11. Maikel Delgado Aramburo. 12. José Ángel Díaz Ortíz. 13. Alain Forbes Lamorú. 14. Ramón Henry Grillo. 15. José David Hermán Aguilera. 16. Wilmer Ledea Pérez. 17. Ríder Lescay Veloz. 18. Santiago Padrón Quintero 19. Jorge Luis Pérez Puentes. 20. Máximo Pradera Valdéz. 21. Humberto Eladio Real Suarez. 22. Francisco Reyes Rodríguez. 23. Erick Salmerón Mendoza. 24. Daniel Candelario Santovenia Fernández. 25. Rubén Sintes Rodríguez. 26. Armando Sosa Fortuny. 27. Ihosvani Surís de la Torre. 28. Yoanny Thomas González. 29. Juan Antonio Torres Fernández. 30. Yoan Torres Martínez.
The above list is incomplete and this writer, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison and served two horrible years after invading Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, does not have the complete list. Obama should have the complete list and after giving it to Castro demand their release, make space for them in Air Force One and bring them back to the United States. Of course, he is not going to do it because the president does not want to embarrass his new friend the ruler of Cuba.
The cruel dictator Castro summed up the “profound differences” between the two countries’ systems of government. “There are profound differences between our countries that will not go away,” Castro said. “…We should learn the art of coexisting with our differences in a civilized manner.”
Crabtree wrote that Obama declared it a “new day” between the U.S. and Cuba, trying to focus on the positive. Obama stated the following: “We were moved by the Cubans who received us yesterday smiling and waving when we drove in from the airport.” He said, noting that 40 members of Congress are traveling with him as part of the U.S. delegation, a sign of the “excitement and interest in American” about the new business opportunities in Cuba. But Obama recognized the obvious differences on “democracy and human rights” and said the future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans, not anybody else.
Shamefully, Obama acknowledging dictator Castro’s criticism of the U.S. human rights record, Obama said he welcomed the “constructive dialogue.” “When we share our deepest beliefs and ideas with an attitude of mutual respect, then we can both learn and make the lives of our people better,” Obama said. This was appeasement of the worse kind for Obama to sit there in front of an international press and to accept this type of public abuse from a dictator who has executed more than 15,000 children, women and men and jailed over 300,000. The coward Obama needed to defend his nation and once again he did not.
Crabtree pointed out that both Obama and Castro mentioned some positive aspects of the new relation, such as the restoration of postal service and commercial travel between the two countries, as well as new environmental, counter-narcotics and healthcare agreements. The tyrant Castro made more demands, including lifting the trade embargo entirely and the return of the “illegally occupied” Guantánamo U.S. naval base. The U.S. delegation who attended the meeting with Castro included Secretary of State John Kerry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
Obama then participated in an event focused on “entrepreneurships and opportunity” for the Cuban people. First lady Michelle Obama joined him for a state dinner at the palace. Obama is scheduled to deliver a major address to the Cuban people on the morning of March 22 before meeting with a group of dissidents and attending a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team.
Obama will play lip service to human rights but he is interested in promoting U.S. business investment in Cuba to prop up the regime. In an additional violation of the Helms Burton law and what is left of the Cuban embargo, Obama’s Treasury Department has given permission to Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide to manage to hotels in Cuba and a third deal is in the works. The meeting on “entrepreneurships and opportunity” on March 21 is to pave the way for more U.S. corporations to invest in communist Cuba.
The Cuban regime as usual cracked down on peaceful opponents
Below are pictures of the violent arrests made a few hours before the arrival of Obama to Havana of the members of the dissent organization Las Damas de Blanco (the Ladies in White) and men who supported them:
As they have done for several years on Sundays, the opponent group Ladies in White marched peacefully and quietly down the streets of Havana. This brave group of patriotic Cuban women, with the support of some men, marched with Palm Sunday fronds in their hands just hours before the landing on Air Force One requesting the release of all political prisoners and respect for human rights. As usual, policewomen beat them up, arrested them, and violently pushed them into police buses. Not even with hundreds of journalists from different nations watching their march for freedom kept them safe. The Cuban regime has zero tolerance for peaceful dissent. As they were arrested the Ladies in White chanted “Libertad, Libertad, Libertad!” As the pushing and shoving began by police, the Ladies in White shouted “Asesinos, Asesinos!” or murderers.
The previous Sunday the Wall Street Journal reported on March 18, 2016 that approximately 30 opponents gathered at this Havana’s Mahatma Gandhi Park on March 13 and showed a banner in anticipation of President Barack Obama’s visit. The banner said, “Obama, Cuba has a dream” and “Cuba without Castros.” Immediately, Cuban security officers tore the banner from their hands, pushed them into police cars, and took them away. Some arrested demonstrators said they were kicked, hit, pushed to the ground, and stripped naked before being released hours later. Their treatment was part of a general crackdown on dissidents in preparation to Obama’s visit to Cuba.
Obama wants to see his friend, the tyrant and serial assassin Raúl Castro, once again. Obama hopes that the visit will help assure the move to develop closer ties with Cuba is irreversible.
These beatings, arrests, and threats also occurred before and during the Marxist Pope Francis visit to Cuba. Shamefully, Pope Francis only met with the oppressors and not with the oppressed.
The WSJ said that since the United States began normalizing relations with Cuba in December 2014, tourism has flourished in the Island. Central Havana has new restaurants, hotels, and gift shops (owned by the Mafia who runs Cuba). But in crumbling neighborhoods outside the elegant tourist areas, residents stated that the repression by Raúl Castro’s regime has not let up for those daring to speak out.
“Here in Cuba nothing has changed,” said Berta Soler, a member of a dissident group known as the Ladies in White, moments before she was arrested with those carrying the banner. She added that “The Cuban government keeps trying to stop us, to demonize us, and we all live in fear.” Ladies in White, whose members wear white to symbolize peace, are among the opponents targeted by the regime secret police in a wave of arrests around Cuba in recent days as well as the day of arrival of Air Force One.
Berta de los Ángeles Soler Fernández is an opponent of the Cuban regime. She is the current leader of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), a group composed of wives and female relatives of political prisoners who protest on their behalf. She assumed leadership following the death of group founder Laura Pollan.
More than 300 people have been arrested since March 8, 2016 in Havana, the eastern city of Santiago, and other cities, stated Berta Soler and members of the Patriotic Union, another Cuban group. The dissidents say they get roughed up, threatened, and dropped off in remote areas, forcing them to walk home in searing heat.
The WSJ explained that four dissidents, who had been repeatedly jailed, were allowed this week to leave Havana, according to Ovidio Martin Castellanos, a member of the dissident Patriotic Union. Berta Soler stated that “They know that these days there are foreigners and foreign press here and they don’t want people to see the opposition and think it has too much support.” Human-rights activists such as Daniel Wilkinson, managing director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said that when Obama meets with Raúl Castro he “needs to be clear, categorical and forceful, specific in denouncing the abusive practices and calling for steps by the Cuban government to address them.” Wilkinson added that “If it ends up he spends the day just enjoying a baseball game with President Castro; it will undermine whatever message he has about human rights.”
The WSJ said that Aurelio González, member of an opposition group associated with the Ladies in White, said that Obama’s Cuban policy has done nothing to improve rights. “The U.S. has stopped supporting us from a moral point of view, from one of solidarity,” said Mr. González, who was also recently arrested.
Obama will be meeting with opponents of the regime on March 21, 2016. Antonio Rodiles, one of the founders of the Forum for Rights and Liberty, said that the only reason he was able to make it to the Gandhi Park where the Ladies in White were meeting was the fact that he was accompanied by a group of foreign journalists. Rodiles was opposed to Obama’s trip to Cuba, he said now that he has arrive they would like to see a clear message about repression in Cuba from Obama. Otherwise, he believes that the regime will continue repressive activities forever. Both Berta Soler and Antonio Rodiles have been invited to meet with the president but both of them and their husband and wife were arrested once again.
Obama told reporters last month’s that it would be “fun” to visit Cuba. This statement angered many dissidents. One of them said there is no fun in this game and what Cubans need to see is a condemning speech from Obama of the repression by the regime to the people on the Island and a strong defense of human and civil rights. Otherwise, Obama’s visit to Cuba would serve to legitimize the tyrannical regime. Many observers think that although Obama wants to speak directly to the Cuban people, a speech of condemnation is unlikely. When the president arrived in Havana he wrote on Twitter “¿Qué bolá Cuba?” which means in Cuban slang “What’s up?” He added “Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.” That did not sound like a condemnation speech at all!
More criticism of Obama’s ill-advise trip to Cuba
Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida
Senator Marco Rubio, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, issued the following statement on March 20, 2016, regarding President Obama’s trip to Cuba:
“On Sunday, President Obama will touch down in Cuba for what promises to be one of the most disgraceful trips ever taken by a U.S. president anywhere in the world. This is an Obama presidential trip whose ultimate results will be giving away legitimacy and money to an anti-American regime that actively undermines our national security interests and acts against our values every single day. President Obama’s entourage will sleep in hotels controlled by the Cuban military that were confiscated by the regime and are among the $7 billion in unpaid legal claims owed to American property owners. When President Obama arrives in Havana on Sunday, he will visit Catholic Church sights and church officials, yet he’s inexplicably expected to skip St. Rita Church, where the Ladies In White have shed much blood and received routine beatings at the hands of the Castro regime for simply demanding their loved ones’ freedom.
On Monday, President Obama will showcase the most damaging part of his Cuba policy: the lawless, one-sided weakening of the LIBERTAD Act that seeks to enrich American businesses and the Castro regime’s police state, without any concessions from Cuba that lead to greater freedoms for the Cuban people. The Obama-Castro state dinner promises to be another low point of this visit, one that I fully expect will be attended by some of the Castro regime’s biggest low-lives who will seek to exploit this opportunity to mock this president, his administration and the American people.
On Tuesday, the irony should not be lost on anyone that President Obama will be giving a speech at yet another property confiscated by the Castro regime. President Obama’s decision to end his trip at a baseball game is a fitting symbol of this trip and of his entire Cuba policy: he thinks this is a game. What’s not a game is the repression, intimidation and exploitation Cuba’s baseball players face and that has led to many of them defecting the first chance they get, and that would probably lead some of them, should they be able to meet and speak freely with President Obama, to ask him directly for asylum and a flight to freedom on Air Force One.
As a whole, President Obama’s trip to Cuba and his policy of one-sided concessions to this regime are as naïve as his world view and as misguided as his foreign policy affecting other parts of the world. America should be standing with our allies and democracy advocates around the world, not embracing, enriching and empowering our enemies, the way President Obama is about to do in Cuba.”
This writer agrees all the many criticism of the Obama trip to Cuba made by Senator Marco Rubio over the last few weeks. Senator Rubio 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!
Senator Marco Rubio, the former presidential candidate born to Cuban parents, have said Obama’s detente and Cuba visit are windfalls for the Castro government, providing little benefit to Cubans. Senator Rubio said in a recent presidential debate that “Here’s a good deal: Cuba has free elections. Cuba stops putting people in jail for speaking out. Cuba has freedom of the press.”
Earlier, when Senator Rubio was running for president, he stated the following:
“When I’m President, the U.S. will not diplomatically recognize the Cuban government. I would honor the Cuban Democracy Act, which is pre-existing law that governs our relationship with Cuba and says that in order for U.S. policy to change the Cuban government must make changes too. It is as if we have now agreed that Castro and oppression get to stay. It would be one thing if this was part of a change in our policies in exchange for a change in Cuban policies, but this is a unilateral change. We are changing toward Cuba, but Cuba isn’t changing toward us or its people. For many, it feels like we are accepting that the Cuban people forever will have to live under a repressive government. There is a cartel that runs everything from the airport to the gas stations to the hotels, and any increased business in Cuba is increased revenue for a military dictatorship that used it to further oppress the Cuban people.”
“The Obama Administration’s unilateral lifting of sanctions offers the Cuban regime a lifeline. It means more revenue to a repressive and brutal regime that continues to jail and beat its political opponents and give safe havens to the Chinese and Russians. Members of the Castro regime would use it as their own personal piggy bank, both for personal enrichment and also to fund their governmental operations at the expense of the Cuban people. The Cuban people don’t have any access to alternative methods of communication. It’s not a coincidence that every person has the same opinion. I’m proud that the Castro regime feels threatened by us. They fear freedom and democracy.”
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 Democrat Senator Bob Menendez has been a critic of all the moves by Obama to normalize relations with Cuba and give the Castro regime a series of unilateral concessions without Cuba giving anything 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 said that 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.
Ben Rhodes 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.
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 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 that 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 that a Republican president would eliminate those changes. Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and presidential candidate, and former governor Jeb Bush from Florida all have said they would completely reverse 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 that would be a gift to the criminals who govern 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.”
Unfortunately, the Cuban regime has continued to violate the human and civil rights of the people in the Island as it has been doing for more than 57 years. In fact, the Cuban regime is one of the worse 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 with respect to 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.
Obama’s shameful concessions to the bloody Castro regime
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 arrests on peaceful opponents of his oppressive regime. It is very sad to witness the failure of Republicans in Congress 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. President Obama and the bloody dictator Raúl Castro also talked and smiled at each other during the VII Summit of the Americas in April 2015 in Panama.
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 for more than 57 years.
Cuban-Americans multimillionaires supported by the New World Order globalist elite backed Obama’s Cuban policy
José de Córdoba wrote an article entitled “How Foes of Warmer Relations with Cuba Slowly Came Around” which was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 19, 2016. Córdoba explained that Obama will be accompanied by a group of very rich Cuban-American businessmen who advocated restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and ending the embargo.
As this writer explained in previous articles, some of these multimillionaire Cuban-Americans who will be traveling with Obama to Cuba sent a letter to the president on May 19, 2014, asking for a radical change of U.S. policy towards Cuba. Carlos Saladrigas, president of the Cuba Study Group, was one of the 17 wealthy Cuban-Americans and other Hispanics who signed the shameful letter. A total of 46 very powerful individuals signed the open letter to Obama.
The rich Cuban-Americans and other Hispanics who sent the letter to the president were the following:
Ricky Arriola, CEO de Inkel; Joe Arriola, former administrator of the City of Miami; Diana Campoamor, philanthropist ; Paul Cejas, former U.S. ambassador to Belgium and CEO de PLC Investments; Gustavo A. Cisneros, president of Grupo Cisneros; Andrés Fanjul, Grupo Fanjul; Mike Fernández, Chairman MBF Healthcare Partners; Pedro A. Freyre, member of Akerman LLP; David Hernández; CEO Liberty Power; Eduardo Mestre, member of the Board of Director of Avis Budget and Comcast; Marcelino Miyares, president of MM Communication Inc.; Jorge Pérez, CEO of Grupo Related; Carlos Saladrigas, Chairman de Regis HR Group y Concordia Behavioral Health, president del Cuba Study Group; Ken Salazar, former secretary of the Interior Department; Hilda L. Solís, former secretary of the Labor Department; Enrique Sosa, former president de Dow Chemical North America; and Arturo Valenzuela, former assistant secretary for Hemispheric Affairs of the Department of State.
The 17 Hispanics were supported by 15 members of the New World Order globalist elite who are members of the very powerful Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council of Foreign Relations. These three organizations, that controlled most of the nations of the world, are working to establish a planetary government under the United Nations but controlled by the very rich members of these groups.
The signers were the following: David Rockefeller , Richard Feinberg , Dan Glickman, Lee Hamilton, Jane Harman, John Negroponte, Thomas Pickering, Susan Segal, Anne-Marie Slaughter , Admiral James Stavridis , Alan Stoga , Strobe Talbott , Arturo Valenzuela, Alexander Watson and George Weiksner .
José de Córdoba wrote that businessman Carlos Saladrigas, age 68, who in 2000 founded the Cuba Study Group, a nonprofit that pushed for U.S. engagement with Cuba, stated that “We had to decide whether we were going to be an obstacle to a transition in Cuba or an asset to that transition.” Having support from such an influential group of Cuban American businessmen helped give Obama the political cover needed as he pursued a major shift of policy. “They kept pushing us to do more,” recalled Dan Restrepo, a former national security adviser for the Western Hemisphere. Cuban-Americans “influenced the political climate in Miami at the time, and the president’s policies were made easier by the changed political environment.”
The support for Obama’s Cuban policy is far from being universally embraced and hatred for the Castro brothers continue to run high among many Cuban Americans in the United States. In fact, these individuals are considered to be traitors to the freedom of Cuba by many.
Córdoba pointed out that Cuban-American Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican from South Florida) said President Obama was ignoring repression on the island to “promote more funds going in the pockets of the regime. U.S. policy must focus less on easing regulations and more on putting pressure on the Castro brothers.” Support for the embargo is a fundamental issue for Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who together with Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, also opposes rapprochement, which he says has thrown the regime an economic lifeline. Not until the 2016 presidential election contest is settled will the long-term prospects of the Obama administration’s policy be clear.
Mike Fernández is Chairman MBF Healthcare Partners.
Córdoba explained that among the Cuban-American businessmen who support Obama’s Cuban policy are the following: “Sugar magnate Alfonso “Alfy” Fanjul, one of the owners of Fanjul Corp., one of the largest sugar producers in the U.S.; Mike Fernández, a wealthy health-care entrepreneur who was a major donor to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s campaign; and Carlos Gutiérrez, who retired as chairman of Kellogg Corporation after a 30-year career and served as President George W. Bush’s commerce secretary, a position from which he supported the Bush administration’s hard line on Cuba.
Córdoba said that Saladrigas, Gutierrez,
Carlos Gutiérrez, former chairman of Kellogg Corporation, served as President George W. Bush’s commerce secretary
and Andres Fanjul, Alfonso Fanjul’s younger brother, will be among the Cuban-Americans accompanying Obama on the trip. Saladrigas stated that he and other like-minded businesspeople concluded that backing the embargo was not an effective strategy. Enrique Sosa, 76, a retired executive in the oil and chemical industries, explained that “I thought, this [embargo] is no way to knock these guys out.” On his first trip back in 2002, Sosa and family members drove to Camagüey, where his family had been cattle ranchers and sugar farmers. “I realized I didn’t belong there anymore,” said Sosa, whose father and brother spent nearly two years in prison after being captured in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Cuban-American businessman Carlos Saladrigas supported lifting the embargo and will travel to Cuba with President Obama.
Córdoba pointed out that Enrique Sosa believes Cuba “faces daunting prospects, including the island’s obsession with maintaining tight control over the country’s economic and political life.” Sosa then said the following: “I came to the conclusion that if in order to help the Cuban people you ended up giving collateral help to the Cuban government, it was an acceptable price. I crossed that bridge a long time ago.” This writer and many freedom-loving Cubans strongly disagree with that statement since helping the Castro tyrants stay in power is not acceptable and does not help the suffering people of Cuba.
Former City of Miami manager Joe Arriola
Córdoba explained that former City of Miami manager Joe Arriola remembered a chance 2003 encounter in Chicago with Obama, then a young Illinois state legislator. “I told him the embargo is bull, a Fidel Castro plot to keep the people down, and that we were playing to his tune,” Mr. Arriola recalls. Two years later, Arriola invited Obama to Miami for a fundraiser for his Senate campaign. The event, held at the home of a Cuban-American developer, netted some $50,000. Among the attendees was Saladrigas.
Alfonso Fanjul, one of the owners of Fanjul Corporation, a large sugar producer in the U.S., is one of the influential businessmen who changed his mind and supported ending the trade embargo.
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 this country now has a United States–back dictatorship in Cuba. Shame on you Obama!
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 the 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.
It is interesting to note that Arriola invited Obama to Miami for a fundraiser for his U.S. Senate campaign. The event, held at the home of a Cuban-American developer, netted some $50,000. Among the attendees was Saladrigas. Thus, these two rich individuals and their friends were responsible for electing Obama in the Senate and as president. Shame on both you for helping the architect of the destruction of our beloved nation!
Additionally, Arriola, Saladrigas, their multimillionaire friends, and the many people, who pushed for diplomatic recognition and the end of what is left of the embargo to help the rogue communist regime, are responsible for giving a lifeline to the worst and longest dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere.
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 opportunity to meet his hero, the senile murderer Fidel Castro!
It was very sad to see Obama being lectured by the bloody Cuban tyrant on the lack of human rights in the United States at a press conference in front of national and foreign journalists. As usual, Obama accepted the unfair criticism and the insult from the aging oppressive Cuban dictator and he did not defend our beloved country.
Barack Hussein Obama’s legacy is one of appeasement to the bloody 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 and the only one who hated the nation that elected him. He is a traitor who hates our nation!
