President Obama visited Cuba with much pomp and fanfare over the past two days, but critics say Obama’s efforts to thaw nearly six decades of severed ties with the communist regime there gives cover to the brutal repression of political dissidents and rewards the Castro brothers for doing nothing to clean up its human rights record.
On Sunday, Obama touched in Havana, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928. On Monday, Obama drew controversy by standing at attention in Revolution Square in front of a giant mural of murderous Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
He later held a joint press conference with Cuban dictator Raul Castro, who blasted the U.S. for its record on race and poverty, demanded the return of the Guantanamo Bay naval base and insisted Cuba held no political prisoners.
Obama has asserted for months that normalizing relations with Cuba is a better way to effect human rights changes, rather than continuing a policy of isolation. But one of the leading voices against communism says Obama is simply giving cover to the Castros.
“Nothing has changed since Fidel Castro came to power with Raul almost 60 years ago now,” said Lee Edwards, chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and a distingushed fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Edwards says the facts on the Castro regime are clear and brutal.
“We’ve had 100,000 Cubans that have been arrested and imprisoned in the most terrible of conditions. Some 20,000 have been executed, according to the “Black Book of Communism,” said Edwards.
Edwards says those numbers often get downplayed by the left under the assumption that the vast majority of those atrocities were conducted during and shortly after the revolution in the late 1950’s. He says that’s simply not true.
“Since recognition of last year, 8,000 Cubans have been detained for political reasons. Just in January of this year, 1,474 were detained for political reasons. So nothing has changed,” said Edwards.
The New York Times confirms the increase in political detentions, noting more than a thousand arrests each in January February and over 500 in the first half of this month. Other reporters witnessed the arrest of dissidents in advance of Obama’s arrival Sunday.
The photo of Obama and his delegation standing in attention with the mural of Che Guevara behind them is stirring fierce reaction among his critics. Edwards says Guevara may be a cult hero among some, but his true record is nothing more than being Fidel Castro’s personal hit man.
“In point of fact, he was a cold-blooded murderer and was Fidel Castro’s personally appointed executioner. He would just say, ‘Take care of him, Che.’ And Che would go out and shoot him,” said Edwards.
Monday’s press conference also worried Edwards, as a result of Obama being very careful not to offend his host while Castro offered a stream of criticisms against the U.S.
“Obviously, the president has chosen a policy of accommodation and detente, rather than a policy of peace through strength, which is what Ronald Reagan initiated and successfully implemented during the Cold War,” said Edwards. “With ideological opponents like the Castro brothers, you’ve got to be firm and strong and deal from strength.”
He says any instinct Obama may have to see the Castros as honest brokers is a huge mistake.
“As an old, expert anti-communist used to say, ‘You can trust the communists to be communists.’ That is to say that they will lie and they will cheat and they will steal if you let them do so,” said Edwards.
Edwards also believes this visit and acknowledgement of the Castro regime will have other chilling effects, starting with the Cuban dissidents.
“They must be distraught. The must be discouraged. Fifty of them were arrested today prior to to meeting,” said Edwards.
He also says other communist and authoritarian leaders see Obama’s actions as their green light for mischief.
“They’re saying, ‘Ah, this is just what we hoped and expected. If we take the strong position then the Americans will kowtow.’ If I were China right now, I’d be saying, ‘What can I do to test Americans in the South China Sea,'” said Edwards.
And he says China is not alone.
“If I’m (Russian President Vladimir) Putin I’m saying, ‘What can I do to test the resolve of the U.S. in places like the Baltic countries and Poland,'” said Edwards. “I’m sure they must really be toasting each other and toasting Raul for being able to show up the United States.”
But why would Obama continue to honor his side of the effort to normalize relations if Cuba is making no progress on its human rights record. Edwards believes it’s part gamble and part ego.
“They’re just hoping and praying and maybe they’ve go tone eye on Mr. Obama’s legacy as well, thinking things are going to get better,” said Edwards, who says that’s a prescription for failure.
“As (George) Santayana said, ‘If you don’t study the past, you’re condemned to repeat it. Here we are, not realizing that we’re dealing not with a political party or with a couple of politicians down there. We’re dealing with communists. We’re dealing with Marxist Leninists, who have an ideology that motivates all of their actions. Unless you understand that and begin with that, you’re not going to be able to make any progress,” said Edwards.
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is committed to making all Americans aware of what the spread of communism brings: misery and death on a grand scale.
“People do not know that nearly 100 million people – men, woman and children – died in the twentieth century and they’re still dying in places like North Korea and Vietnam as a result of standing up against communism. That record must be maintained. Those people must be remembered. They must not be forgotten. We intend to make certain that they’re not,” said Edwards.
