The failure of détente.
The past decade in Cuba was a difficult one for human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists. Over eight years the Obama Administration attempted to normalize relations with the Castro regime. This was the third such attempt, and the results were similar to the prior two, but in some respects far worse, although predictable.
Under Carter, and Clinton attempts to normalize relations with the Castro regime led to a worsening human rights situation in Cuba, the regime projecting itself more into hemispheric affairs, undermining governments, and coinciding with the rise of other communist regimes: Nicaragua in 1979, and Venezuela in 1999. Migration crises from Cuba that negatively impacted the United States also coincided with Carter, Clinton and Obama who pursued an engagement policy with the dictatorship in Cuba.
In 2009 the Obama Administration sought to distance itself from the Cuban dissident movement, while pursuing a diplomatic strategy of engaging with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and Raul Castro that critics alleged involved ignoring regime abuses.
On April 17, 2009 President Barack Obama said
that his Administration sought "a new beginning with Cuba" and stated
further that he was “prepared to have my administration engage with the
Cuban government on a
wide range of issues — from human rights, free speech, and democratic
reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues.”
On May 28, 2009 the Cuban regime backed a Sri Lankan-proposed resolution describing the conflict in Sri Lanka as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant outside interference”. Castro's diplomats took the lead in blocking efforts to address the wholesale slaughter then taking place in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Policy Association reported that "Cuba succeeded in blocking debate on abuses in Sri Lanka, which many countries have pushed for after the extreme violence that rocked the country earlier this month." Amnesty International at the time said that “[t]he vote is extremely disappointing and is a low point for the Human Rights Council. It abandons hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka to cynical political considerations.”
Towards the end of 2009 the White House was tested when U.S. citizen Alan Gross was taken and held hostage by the Castro regime. U.S. diplomats did not see him until 25 days later. Furthermore, the policy of rapprochement and loosening of sanctions continued despite Gross's continued detention.
On January 14, 2010 the "illegal" Cuban Commission for Human Rights, reported the confirmed deaths of at least 20 mental patients at the Psychiatric Hospital known as Mazorra due to "criminal negligence by a government characterized by its general inefficiency" and that a day later the Cuban government confirmed that 26 patients had died due to “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees.” This only occurred because the images of the victims had been leaked and reported by independent journalists.
On February 23, 2010 Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a prolonged hunger strike. He had been the victim of numerous beatings and ill treatment that rose to the level of torture over nearly seven years that drove him to go on a water only hunger strike. Prison guards periodically cut off his access to water, contributing to his death.
Other prisoners of conscience, such as Ariel Sigler Amaya, who survived the ordeal of Cuban prisons emerged emaciated and completely incapacitated from their captivity in the summer of 2010. The International Committee of the Red Cross had not been able to visit Cuban prisons since 1988-89. Prior to that there had not been a visit allowed since 1959, and no other visits permitted to the present date.
Extrajudicial killings continued at a higher documented rate than in previous years.
Cuban human rights defender Juan Wilfredo Soto García died on May 8, 2011, three days after being beaten up by police officers in a public park in Santa Clara, Cuba. Amnesty International raised concerns on the circumstances surrounding his death. In the past Juan Wilfredo had been a political prisoner for 12 years.
On May 22, 2010 Norwegian media reported that Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, insulted, threatened, and bit a young Norwegian woman, Alexandra Joner age 19, of Cuban descent on her mother's side while she was across the street from the Cuban embassy in Oslo. She was filming a non-violent demonstration in solidarity with the Ladies in White and in remembrance of martyred Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo. The main national newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten, photographed the young girl with bite marks on her hand.
Human rights defender and opposition leader Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011 from heart failure at the age of 63. One week after she had fallen suddenly ill from a respiratory infection compounded with dengue fever and already existing condition as a diabetic. A medical professional described her death as"painful, tragic and unnecessary."
On the international seen the Castro regime allied with the worse regimes to undermine international human rights standards. On August 23, 2011 the Cuban government voted against investigating gross and systematic
human rights violations in Syria.
In January 2012 there were reports in the media of Cuban, Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats meeting in Mexico to discuss cyber attacks on U.S. soil and allegedly seeking information about nuclear power plants in the United States.
On July 22, 2012 Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and Harold Cepero Escalante, member of the cited movement, lost their lives on the Las Tunas-Bayamo highway, in Cuba. Evidence that the "car accident" was a premeditated act arranged for Oswaldo Paya was that this was not the first time; the regime had also tried with another vehicle 20 days earlier while he was in Havana. The East German Stasi trained the Cuban State Security service known as "G2" and one of its standard tactics was arranging car accidents. Calls for an international investigation continue to circulate and fall on deaf ears.
The Castro regime in January 2013 announced a "liberalization" in Cubans being able to travel out of the country, but with qualifiers that maintained the secret police's power to stop anyone from entering or exiting their own homeland.
The Obama White House and the Castro regime began having secret meetings in June 2013 in Canada. These meetings continued throughout 2013 and 2014. Reporting on these meetings do not mention any reaction to provocative actions by the Cuban dictatorship.
On July 15, 2013 the Cuban government was caught red handed smuggling tons of weapons to North Korea. This was confirmed by a March 6, 2014 report by a panel of experts for the United Nations Security Council that also reported:
Despite the worsening situation the White House continued to push for unilateral concessions and the loosening of sanctions on the Castro regime, and pressed ahead with their secret negotiations.
On December 17, 2014 both President Obama and Dictator Raul Castro announced that they intended to normalize relations. Alan Gross was finally
free after nearly five years in captivity, travel would be further liberalized and that some Cuban political prisoners were to be freed was news that would be received positively.
Nevertheless it was a sobering and worrisome exercise for a number of reasons. Three spies who had spied on military installations and congressmen on American soil, that had plotted terrorist acts in the United States, and were implicated in the February 24, 1996 murder of three American citizens and one American resident were freed in a swap to return to Cuba set a terrible precedent. Regime hardliners had won, thanks to the Obama Administration's actions. Kidnapping an American and holding him for ransom for five years paid off. Moderate elements within the dictatorship, seeking to transition Cuba into a responsible member of the family of nations, would continue to remain silent.
On February 3, 2015, Rosa María Payá, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicted the indifference of the US government and the international community: "The Cuban
government wouldn’t have dared to carry out its death threats against my
father if the U.S. government and the democratic world had been showing
solidarity. If you turn your face, impunity rages. While you slept, the
regime was conceiving their cleansing of the pro-democracy leaders to
come."
On April 8, 2015 Cuban diplomats streamed out of the the Cuban Embassy in Panama attacked civil society representatives who were laying flowers at a bust of Jose Marti in a public park nearby. Several activists were injured and at least one required surgery. During the Summit of the Americas Cuban diplomats disrupted official meetings in order to block Cuban and Venezuelan dissidents from taking part, despite being officially accredited.
Cuban dissident Sirley Ávila León, age 56, was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 by Osmany Carrión who had been "sent by state security thug s" and that she is sure that the aggression "was politically motivated." The attack was severe enough that she suffered deep cuts to her neck and knees, lost her left hand and nearly lost her right arm.
On May 29, 2015 the State Department removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, despite evidence of continued bad actions.
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at the State Department, Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo attended a press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry and Castro's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez. Rosa Maria had proper accreditation as a member of the press. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, took Rosa Maria aside and warned her that she would be physically removed if she asked any questions.
Secretary of State John Kerry in an interview with journalist Andres Oppenheimer before his trip to Cuba made it known that "the United States and [the Castro regime] are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis."
The United States reopened its Embassy in Havana, Cuba on August 14, 2015, but did not invite Cuban human rights defenders to the flag raising ceremony in what the media labeled a snub. The State Department argued that it was a government to government affair and that there was not enough space to accommodate the dissidents. However, the State Department did accommodate "entrepreneurs and Cuban American activists" who flew down with Kerry and his official delegation. Despite the plane load of lobbyists and businessmen CNN anchor Jake Tapper in a tweet observed that there was plenty of space to have invited Cuban dissidents.
On January 7, 2016 The Wall Street Journal broke the story that in 2014 an inert US Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a training exercise was wrongly shipped on to Cuba. Since then the United States has been asking the Cuban dictatorship to return the missile but it has not done so. Only after the embarrassing news broke was it returned, but no doubt all the technical specs had been deciphered by then and given (or sold) to America's enemies.
Three days before President Obama arrived in Cuba, Roberto Ampuero, a Chilean former Minister of Culture and former Ambassador to Mexico tweeted in Spanish: "Paradox: After decades backing Right wing dictatorships in Latin America, now the United States could end up backing a Left wing dictatorship."
President Barack Obama and his family visited Cuba on an official state visit on March 20, 2016 and left for Argentina on March 22nd. The image of President Obama photographed with the Ministry of the Interior in the background with Che Guevara prominently featured and used by Cuban official media as endorsement of the violent revolutionary martyr sent an unfortunate message. As did the photo of Raul Castro with President Obama doing the wave at a baseball game in Havana.
The picture at the top of the page with the limp handshake is symbolic of the efforts to engage with the Castro regime. President Obama tried to embrace Raul Castro, but the wily old dictator intercepted it, and tried to turn it into a revolutionary salute, and the US president went limp to avoid it. The loser in the exchange was the American President who came across looking weak. The short video above demonstrates the exchange.
Lady in White Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was arrested on April 16, 2016 for speaking out during a human rights demonstration in Havana's Central park.
Rosa
Escalona, member of “The Ladies in White”, a human rights group in
Cuba, along with her husband and three sons were subjected to a savage beating by Castro thugs. All four family members suffered great bodily
injury, with her husband Alberto Pedro Freire Leiva being the most
critically injured. This unprovoked attack took place May 8, 2016 in the city of Holguín, Cuba.
On September 23, 2016 Cuban state security agents raided Cubalex headquarters in Havana and confiscated their equipment and records. Members of the human rights group Cubalex, along with their family members, requested political asylum in the United States. The organization had formed in 2010 and provided legal representation in Cuba, and documented human rights violations inside the island. They are now all in exile due to the intensification of repression.
The Obama administration issued a Presidential policy directive on United States-Cuba Normalization on October 14th that called for US intelligence agencies to share information with the Castro dictatorship's secret police
Fidel Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016 reported the Castro dictatorship. Cubans that gave a critical assessment of the dictator's legacy or refused to mourn his passing were beaten up, detained, and jailed.
U.S. diplomats began suffering brain injuries in Havana, Cuba in November 2016, and the Obama Administration did not raise this serious issue in the remaining months of their tenure, but continued with their unilateral concessions.
In the midst of the so-called Cuban thaw with the situation for Cubans growing increasingly dire, the international community following the White House's lead abandoned Cuban democrats.
On December 6, 2016 the European Council of the European Union abandoned Cuban democrats when it "repealed the EU 1996 Common Position on Cuba. The main objective of EU's 1996 common position on Cuba was to encourage transition to pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as a sustainable recovery and improvement in the living standards of the Cuban people." (This may have been pushed by the Obama Administration, in exchange for the release of Alan Gross.)
On January 2, 2017 Raúl Castro presided over a military parade in Havana where marching troops chanted about shooting the American President in the head: “Obama! Obama! with what fervor we’d like to confront your clumsiness, to give you a cleansing with rebels and mortar, and send you a hat of lead to the head.”
On January 4, 2017 former U.S. ambassadors ask President-Elect Trump to stop U.S. intelligence cooperation with Cuban spy agencies.
The Office of the Press Secretary at The White House on January 12, 2017 released a "Statement by the President on Cuban Immigration Policy" that did two concrete things: further restrict the Cuban Adjustment Act and end the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program. This closed the door on Cuban refugees and victims of the Castro regime's human trafficking.
On January 18, 2017 President Obama commuted the prison sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a terrorist backed by the Castro regime. López Rivera, a founder of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). The FALN placed more than 130 bombs in American cities — including one in New York City on January 24, 1975. The explosive went off in busy Fraunces Tavern during lunch hour. Four people died. The New York Daily News on January 16, 2017 described another bombing attack that claimed a young life, injured six and caused the evacuation of a 100,000 workers from Manhattan offices.When López Rivera was arrested in 1981, the FBI found six pounds of dynamite and four blasting caps in his Chicago apartment along with numerous fake IDs.
On February 3, 2017 White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced that the Trump Administration was in the midst "of a full review of all U.S. policies towards Cuba" and that human rights was a priority.
The Trump Administration on June 6, 2017 released the "National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba" that begins by defining what will guide this new policy: "My Administration's policy will be guided by the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as solidarity with the Cuban people. I will seek to promote a stable, prosperous, and free country for the Cuban people. To that end, we must channel funds toward the Cuban people and away from a regime that has failed to meet the most basic requirements of a free and just society."
On September 19, 2017 President Trump addressed the United Nations and outlined Cuba's negative role in the international community and pledged to maintain sanctions: "That is why in the Western Hemisphere, the United States has stood
against the corrupt and destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the
enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom. My
administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the
Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms."
Alejandro Pupo Echemendía, a 46 year old Cuban national was beaten to death by the Revolutionary National Police on August 9, 2018 while he was in their custody. Elizama Mujica Cabrera, the wife of the victim courageously denounced the extrajudicial killing despite threats against her and her family by the regime.
Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was placed on parole in January of 2018. She was re-arrested in mid-September 2018 under the charge of being "threatening." On September 19, 2018 she was tried and sentenced to one year and four months in prison. She was sent to a prison 400 kilometers from her home.
On October 16, 2018 Cuban diplomats led an "act of repudiation" at the United Nations to prevent a discussion on the plight of political prisoners in Cuba at a side event organized by the United States.
Police officers in Old Havana brutally beat Cuban citizen Iván Michel Ponce de León on April 19, 2019. Iván Michel died of his injuries eight days later on April 27th. Spanish newspaper ABC covered the story on May 1, 2019.
On April 22, 2019 independent Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones was beaten up for covering the trial of a religious couple sentenced to prison for homeschooling their kids.
The Trump Administration on May 2, 2019 began to enforce Title III of the LIBERTAD Act, after prior U.S. Presidents beginning with Bill Clinton in 1996 had waived the measure. This has meant a
chance for justice in the courts for property owners who had everything
stolen from them by the Castro dictatorship.
On May 11, 2019 the Castro regime's efforts at Pinkwashing its totalitarian edifice came crashing down as gay rights activists were beaten down, arrested and taken away for carrying out a Gay Pride march in Havana.
On August 8, 2019 Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was transferred to intensive care. Cuban dissident Angel Juan Moya posted videos of interviews from August 6th and August 7th with doctors at the hospital. Family members complained that they are receiving differing diagnoses and her situation continues to worsen. Xiomara was in intensive care and doctors were saying that it could be lung cancer. A doctor refused to update the family saying: "that he did not want to see those people."
On September 11, 2019 authorities arrested independent Cuban journalist
Mr Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces in Cuba, after he was convicted of
resistance and disobedience in August 2019. He is a prisoner of conscience and serving a one year prison sentence.
Cuban opposition activist José Daniel Ferrer García was detained on October 1, 2019, by Cuban authorities. He is the leader of the unofficial political opposition group “Patriotic Union of Cuba” (UNPACU) in Santiago de Cuba. He was taken along with three other UNPACU members.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on December 23, 2019 reported that Liusdan Martínez Lescaille, a twelve year-old Jewish boy has been forbidden by Cuban educational authorities from entering his school while wearing a yarmulke since December 11, 2019 with the result that he has been prevented from continuing his education. His younger brother, Daniel Moises, has also been subjected to the ban and government authorities threatened to open legal proceedings against his parents, jailing them and taking their children away.
According to the Ladies in White on December 26, 2019 over Twitter, the Lady in White Xiomara Cruz lost consciousness early in the morning, is currently in intensive care, and according to the Doctor who took her in, she should be receiving medication intravenously.
The past decade has demonstrated that the Castro regime has the will and ruthlessness to hang on to power and is willing to commit atrocities to do so. This has included the murder of opposition figures that could have managed a non-violent transition. Furthermore that engaging, legitimizing and subsidizing the regime leads the Castro dictatorship to expand its international projection with the objective of duplicating its revolutionary project in other countries.
 |
| President Obama with Raul Castro and the moment that symbolized his visit to Cuba |
Under Carter, and Clinton attempts to normalize relations with the Castro regime led to a worsening human rights situation in Cuba, the regime projecting itself more into hemispheric affairs, undermining governments, and coinciding with the rise of other communist regimes: Nicaragua in 1979, and Venezuela in 1999. Migration crises from Cuba that negatively impacted the United States also coincided with Carter, Clinton and Obama who pursued an engagement policy with the dictatorship in Cuba.
 |
| President Obama met with Hugo Chavez in 2009, with Maduro in the background |
 |
| Daniel Ortega meets with President Obama |
On May 28, 2009 the Cuban regime backed a Sri Lankan-proposed resolution describing the conflict in Sri Lanka as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant outside interference”. Castro's diplomats took the lead in blocking efforts to address the wholesale slaughter then taking place in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Policy Association reported that "Cuba succeeded in blocking debate on abuses in Sri Lanka, which many countries have pushed for after the extreme violence that rocked the country earlier this month." Amnesty International at the time said that “[t]he vote is extremely disappointing and is a low point for the Human Rights Council. It abandons hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka to cynical political considerations.”
 |
| Alan Gross before and after his captivity in a Cuban prison (2009 - 2014) |
On January 14, 2010 the "illegal" Cuban Commission for Human Rights, reported the confirmed deaths of at least 20 mental patients at the Psychiatric Hospital known as Mazorra due to "criminal negligence by a government characterized by its general inefficiency" and that a day later the Cuban government confirmed that 26 patients had died due to “prolonged low temperatures that fell to 38 degrees.” This only occurred because the images of the victims had been leaked and reported by independent journalists.
On February 23, 2010 Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after a prolonged hunger strike. He had been the victim of numerous beatings and ill treatment that rose to the level of torture over nearly seven years that drove him to go on a water only hunger strike. Prison guards periodically cut off his access to water, contributing to his death.
Other prisoners of conscience, such as Ariel Sigler Amaya, who survived the ordeal of Cuban prisons emerged emaciated and completely incapacitated from their captivity in the summer of 2010. The International Committee of the Red Cross had not been able to visit Cuban prisons since 1988-89. Prior to that there had not been a visit allowed since 1959, and no other visits permitted to the present date.
 |
| Ariel Sigler Amaya: Before and after his imprisonment in Cuba |
Cuban human rights defender Juan Wilfredo Soto García died on May 8, 2011, three days after being beaten up by police officers in a public park in Santa Clara, Cuba. Amnesty International raised concerns on the circumstances surrounding his death. In the past Juan Wilfredo had been a political prisoner for 12 years.
On May 22, 2010 Norwegian media reported that Cuban diplomat, Carmen Julia Guerra, insulted, threatened, and bit a young Norwegian woman, Alexandra Joner age 19, of Cuban descent on her mother's side while she was across the street from the Cuban embassy in Oslo. She was filming a non-violent demonstration in solidarity with the Ladies in White and in remembrance of martyred Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo. The main national newspaper in Norway, Aftenposten, photographed the young girl with bite marks on her hand.
Human rights defender and opposition leader Laura Inés Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011 from heart failure at the age of 63. One week after she had fallen suddenly ill from a respiratory infection compounded with dengue fever and already existing condition as a diabetic. A medical professional described her death as"painful, tragic and unnecessary."
 |
| Sample of documented extrajudicial killings in Cuba: 2010 - 2014 |
In January 2012 there were reports in the media of Cuban, Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats meeting in Mexico to discuss cyber attacks on U.S. soil and allegedly seeking information about nuclear power plants in the United States.
On July 22, 2012 Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement and Harold Cepero Escalante, member of the cited movement, lost their lives on the Las Tunas-Bayamo highway, in Cuba. Evidence that the "car accident" was a premeditated act arranged for Oswaldo Paya was that this was not the first time; the regime had also tried with another vehicle 20 days earlier while he was in Havana. The East German Stasi trained the Cuban State Security service known as "G2" and one of its standard tactics was arranging car accidents. Calls for an international investigation continue to circulate and fall on deaf ears.
The Castro regime in January 2013 announced a "liberalization" in Cubans being able to travel out of the country, but with qualifiers that maintained the secret police's power to stop anyone from entering or exiting their own homeland.
The Obama White House and the Castro regime began having secret meetings in June 2013 in Canada. These meetings continued throughout 2013 and 2014. Reporting on these meetings do not mention any reaction to provocative actions by the Cuban dictatorship.
On July 15, 2013 the Cuban government was caught red handed smuggling tons of weapons to North Korea. This was confirmed by a March 6, 2014 report by a panel of experts for the United Nations Security Council that also reported:
6. In addition, various parts for three SA-2 and six SA-3 missiles were in the cargo, such as the nose cones housing proximity fuses, auto-pilots and transponders, transmitter antennas and some actuators (figure 4). 4 __________________ 4 The Panel notes that some of the SA-2 and SA-3 parts could also meet the criteria defined in the list of items, materials, equipment, goods and technology related to ballistic missile programmes (S/2012/947), whose export and import by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are prohibited. See in particular the Category II, Item 9 of S/2012/947 covering “instrumentation, navigation and direction finding”There were no consequences for this action of the Castro regime that was also illegal under international law.
Despite the worsening situation the White House continued to push for unilateral concessions and the loosening of sanctions on the Castro regime, and pressed ahead with their secret negotiations.
 |
| The President and the dictator address their respective countries on 12/17/14 |
Nevertheless it was a sobering and worrisome exercise for a number of reasons. Three spies who had spied on military installations and congressmen on American soil, that had plotted terrorist acts in the United States, and were implicated in the February 24, 1996 murder of three American citizens and one American resident were freed in a swap to return to Cuba set a terrible precedent. Regime hardliners had won, thanks to the Obama Administration's actions. Kidnapping an American and holding him for ransom for five years paid off. Moderate elements within the dictatorship, seeking to transition Cuba into a responsible member of the family of nations, would continue to remain silent.
 |
| Rosa María Payá testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee |
 |
| Cuban diplomats assaulted nonviolent protesters in Panama |
Cuban dissident Sirley Ávila León, age 56, was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 by Osmany Carrión who had been "sent by state security thug s" and that she is sure that the aggression "was politically motivated." The attack was severe enough that she suffered deep cuts to her neck and knees, lost her left hand and nearly lost her right arm.
 |
| Sirley Avila Leon was the victim of regime engineered machete attack. |
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at the State Department, Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo attended a press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry and Castro's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez. Rosa Maria had proper accreditation as a member of the press. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, took Rosa Maria aside and warned her that she would be physically removed if she asked any questions.
Secretary of State John Kerry in an interview with journalist Andres Oppenheimer before his trip to Cuba made it known that "the United States and [the Castro regime] are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis."
The United States reopened its Embassy in Havana, Cuba on August 14, 2015, but did not invite Cuban human rights defenders to the flag raising ceremony in what the media labeled a snub. The State Department argued that it was a government to government affair and that there was not enough space to accommodate the dissidents. However, the State Department did accommodate "entrepreneurs and Cuban American activists" who flew down with Kerry and his official delegation. Despite the plane load of lobbyists and businessmen CNN anchor Jake Tapper in a tweet observed that there was plenty of space to have invited Cuban dissidents.
Excuse that there was no space at ceremony for any dissidents to be invited belied by actual space at ceremony pic.twitter.com/Cd8N2HQdT5— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 14, 2015
On January 7, 2016 The Wall Street Journal broke the story that in 2014 an inert US Hellfire missile sent to Europe for a training exercise was wrongly shipped on to Cuba. Since then the United States has been asking the Cuban dictatorship to return the missile but it has not done so. Only after the embarrassing news broke was it returned, but no doubt all the technical specs had been deciphered by then and given (or sold) to America's enemies.
Three days before President Obama arrived in Cuba, Roberto Ampuero, a Chilean former Minister of Culture and former Ambassador to Mexico tweeted in Spanish: "Paradox: After decades backing Right wing dictatorships in Latin America, now the United States could end up backing a Left wing dictatorship."
 |
| President Obama and Dictator Raul Castro do the wave at a baseball game in Cuba |
The picture at the top of the page with the limp handshake is symbolic of the efforts to engage with the Castro regime. President Obama tried to embrace Raul Castro, but the wily old dictator intercepted it, and tried to turn it into a revolutionary salute, and the US president went limp to avoid it. The loser in the exchange was the American President who came across looking weak. The short video above demonstrates the exchange.
Lady in White Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was arrested on April 16, 2016 for speaking out during a human rights demonstration in Havana's Central park.
On September 23, 2016 Cuban state security agents raided Cubalex headquarters in Havana and confiscated their equipment and records. Members of the human rights group Cubalex, along with their family members, requested political asylum in the United States. The organization had formed in 2010 and provided legal representation in Cuba, and documented human rights violations inside the island. They are now all in exile due to the intensification of repression.
The Obama administration issued a Presidential policy directive on United States-Cuba Normalization on October 14th that called for US intelligence agencies to share information with the Castro dictatorship's secret police
Fidel Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016 reported the Castro dictatorship. Cubans that gave a critical assessment of the dictator's legacy or refused to mourn his passing were beaten up, detained, and jailed.
U.S. diplomats began suffering brain injuries in Havana, Cuba in November 2016, and the Obama Administration did not raise this serious issue in the remaining months of their tenure, but continued with their unilateral concessions.
In the midst of the so-called Cuban thaw with the situation for Cubans growing increasingly dire, the international community following the White House's lead abandoned Cuban democrats.
On December 6, 2016 the European Council of the European Union abandoned Cuban democrats when it "repealed the EU 1996 Common Position on Cuba. The main objective of EU's 1996 common position on Cuba was to encourage transition to pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as a sustainable recovery and improvement in the living standards of the Cuban people." (This may have been pushed by the Obama Administration, in exchange for the release of Alan Gross.)
On January 2, 2017 Raúl Castro presided over a military parade in Havana where marching troops chanted about shooting the American President in the head: “Obama! Obama! with what fervor we’d like to confront your clumsiness, to give you a cleansing with rebels and mortar, and send you a hat of lead to the head.”
 |
| Cuban troops chant sending Obama "a hat of lead to the head" in January 2017 |
The Office of the Press Secretary at The White House on January 12, 2017 released a "Statement by the President on Cuban Immigration Policy" that did two concrete things: further restrict the Cuban Adjustment Act and end the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program. This closed the door on Cuban refugees and victims of the Castro regime's human trafficking.
On January 18, 2017 President Obama commuted the prison sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a terrorist backed by the Castro regime. López Rivera, a founder of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN). The FALN placed more than 130 bombs in American cities — including one in New York City on January 24, 1975. The explosive went off in busy Fraunces Tavern during lunch hour. Four people died. The New York Daily News on January 16, 2017 described another bombing attack that claimed a young life, injured six and caused the evacuation of a 100,000 workers from Manhattan offices.When López Rivera was arrested in 1981, the FBI found six pounds of dynamite and four blasting caps in his Chicago apartment along with numerous fake IDs.
 |
| Terrorist Oscar López Rivera freed by Obama in 2017 |
The Trump Administration on June 6, 2017 released the "National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening the Policy of the United States Toward Cuba" that begins by defining what will guide this new policy: "My Administration's policy will be guided by the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as solidarity with the Cuban people. I will seek to promote a stable, prosperous, and free country for the Cuban people. To that end, we must channel funds toward the Cuban people and away from a regime that has failed to meet the most basic requirements of a free and just society."
 |
| President Trump addresses Cuba policy in Miami to the Cuban American community. |
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| Alejandro Pupo Echemendía died from police beating on August 9, 2018 |
Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was placed on parole in January of 2018. She was re-arrested in mid-September 2018 under the charge of being "threatening." On September 19, 2018 she was tried and sentenced to one year and four months in prison. She was sent to a prison 400 kilometers from her home.
 |
| Cuban "diplomats" try to shout down side event on political prisoners |
On October 16, 2018 Cuban diplomats led an "act of repudiation" at the United Nations to prevent a discussion on the plight of political prisoners in Cuba at a side event organized by the United States.
Police officers in Old Havana brutally beat Cuban citizen Iván Michel Ponce de León on April 19, 2019. Iván Michel died of his injuries eight days later on April 27th. Spanish newspaper ABC covered the story on May 1, 2019.
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| Iván Michel Ponce de León beaten up by police on April 19th and died of his injuries |
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| Roberto Quiñones was physically assaulted on April 22, 2019. |
On May 11, 2019 the Castro regime's efforts at Pinkwashing its totalitarian edifice came crashing down as gay rights activists were beaten down, arrested and taken away for carrying out a Gay Pride march in Havana.
On August 8, 2019 Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda was transferred to intensive care. Cuban dissident Angel Juan Moya posted videos of interviews from August 6th and August 7th with doctors at the hospital. Family members complained that they are receiving differing diagnoses and her situation continues to worsen. Xiomara was in intensive care and doctors were saying that it could be lung cancer. A doctor refused to update the family saying: "that he did not want to see those people."
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| Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces |
Cuban opposition activist José Daniel Ferrer García was detained on October 1, 2019, by Cuban authorities. He is the leader of the unofficial political opposition group “Patriotic Union of Cuba” (UNPACU) in Santiago de Cuba. He was taken along with three other UNPACU members.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on December 23, 2019 reported that Liusdan Martínez Lescaille, a twelve year-old Jewish boy has been forbidden by Cuban educational authorities from entering his school while wearing a yarmulke since December 11, 2019 with the result that he has been prevented from continuing his education. His younger brother, Daniel Moises, has also been subjected to the ban and government authorities threatened to open legal proceedings against his parents, jailing them and taking their children away.
According to the Ladies in White on December 26, 2019 over Twitter, the Lady in White Xiomara Cruz lost consciousness early in the morning, is currently in intensive care, and according to the Doctor who took her in, she should be receiving medication intravenously.
The past decade has demonstrated that the Castro regime has the will and ruthlessness to hang on to power and is willing to commit atrocities to do so. This has included the murder of opposition figures that could have managed a non-violent transition. Furthermore that engaging, legitimizing and subsidizing the regime leads the Castro dictatorship to expand its international projection with the objective of duplicating its revolutionary project in other countries.
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Excelente informe lo comparto.
ReplyDeleteGracias Adri! Feliz 2020!
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