It has been a year since the White House’s opening of relations with Cuba. Mr. Obama’s policy may soon be broadened, as the President considers travelling to the island nation in the near future.
A review of the results indicate that the move was a significant error. Havana, Instead of responding to the White House’s embrace with a less belligerent foreign policy and enhanced human rights at home, has doubled down on the worst aspects of the Castro family regime.
It didn’t take long for Cuba to rebuke Obama’s bid for friendship. Foreign Policy noted:
“Indeed, no sooner had Castro met with Obama than he took to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly to unleash a typical jeremiad against the United States, chockfull of hoary Cold War rhetoric denouncing the embargo, demanding reparations (to the tune of $1 trillion) for the embargo, ordering the return of the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, and calling for Puerto Rican independence (which Puerto Ricans do not even want.)”
The Washington Post has reported: President Raúl Castro’s regime… “seems to have done little beyond reopening its Washington embassy…Mr. Castro’s son-in-law, an army general, still controls the dollar-earning tourist industry, the Internet largely remains unavailable to ordinary Cubans, and, most important, dissidents remain subject to arbitrary arrest and detention — including several snatched off the streets for daring to approach Pope Francis during his recent visit.”
According to information from The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, originally shared with the Panama Post, “General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, head of the Cuban Armed Forces…is leading a group of Cuban military personnel … in support of Syria’s dictator Assad and, in Cold War fashion, the Russian contingent…two Russian-made planes arriving in Syria carrying approximately 300 Cuban soldiers. They further detail that the Cuban soldiers will man Russian tanks that have been provided to Syrian head-of-state Bashar al-Assad. Their duty will be to fight Islamic State forces and others who threaten Assad’s grip on power.”
The Castro family regime has not limited its aggressive and disturbing foreign policy moves to areas far from the Western Hemisphere. Capitol Hill Cubans outlined several examples that indicate Havana is continuing its threatening practices, which have included arms deals with North Korea and South American terrorists:
“- Russian intelligence ship, Yantar, targeted a U.S. nuclear missile submarine base and underwater transit routes off the eastern seaboard, as it headed for safe-harbor in Cuba. Throughout the year, the Castro regime has continued to host and harbor Russian spy ships tasked with monitoring sensitive U.S. defense networks
“- As Russia restores military-industrial cooperation with Cuba, it may soon reopen the Lourdes signal intelligence center near Havana, announced a senior member of the State Duma Security Committee.
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“- “We intend to continue cooperation in supplying the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces with modern weapons and military hardware,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting in Moscow with Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Cuba Ricardo Cabrisas.
“- A Russian spy ship, The Viktor Leonov, returned to the Port of Havana during a visit by European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. Her visit to Cuba also ‘coincided’ with a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“- A Russian spy ship docked in central Havana on the eve of a visit to Cuba by the first U.S. delegation for “normalization” talks. The Viktor Leonov, an armed intelligence-gathering vessel that monitors US communications, arrived at a passenger cruise terminal in full public view for what a Russian embassy official called a “friendly” three-day stay.”
Internally, Cuba a remains as repressive as ever. The Heritage Foundation reports:
“Cuba is further than ever from becoming a democracy where people enjoy normal civil liberties; it is in fact closer to becoming what China specialist have identified as a rival model, a ‘resilient authoritarian regime’… the Castro regime thumbed its nose at the world by arresting between 150-200 dissidents on Human Rights Day…regime-organized mobs have blocked a brave group of middle-aged women known as the Ladies in White from marching after church service. These women are always insulted, often beaten and occasionally arrested.”
“Meanwhile, Castro has put family members in charge of a corrupt regime that can now expect to have durability after the two Castro brothers pass from the scene. Castro’s son-in-law, Gen. Luis Alberto Rodriguez, controls an estimated 90 percent of the Cuban economy through the holding company he leads, GAESA. As Bloomberg put it recently about would-be foreign investors, “wait until they learn all roads lead to Raul Castro’s son-in-law.”
“The island’s defenseless dissidents have bitterly denounced what they term Obama’s betrayal of their movement.”
The Wall Street Journal ‘s Bret Stephens reports that, since Obama’s opening to Havana last year, 8,000 cubans have been arrested for political reasons.