Did you know that President Obama, who proudly legitimized the freedomless Cuban communist government by recognizing the country last year on our behalf, is making a trip there this week?
Did you know that he says he will meet with a group of “dissidents” on Tuesday (i.e. people who dare to say they are unhappy with what the castro brothers turned Cuba into)?
And did you know that raul castro, who is his brother fidel’s surrogate these days, has told the dissidents to take a hike; that they cannot meet with President Obama?
Excerpted from Tracy Wilkinson’s article in the Los Angeles Times:
On the eve of President Obama‘s historic visit to Cuba, authorities there are ordering dissidents invited to meet with the American leader to stay home instead, a leading human rights activist said Saturday.
Elizardo Sanchez, a Cuban anti-government activist who chronicles political detentions month-to-month, said he and most of those invited planned to defy the government order.
Sanchez, speaking by phone from Havana, said U.S. officials were offering to help the activists get to the meeting with Obama, scheduled for Tuesday.
“Everyone is pretty determined,†he said.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the White House or the Cuban government.
Obama is portraying his trip, the first by a sitting U.S. president to Cuba in nearly 90 years, as an embrace of the Cuban people and an attempt to empower them through freer economic exchange that may eventually bring more democracy.
The White House has said Obama would meet with dissidents and members of civil society of his choosing. White House officials bristled at the suggestion that Cuban authorities might try to impose limits.
If President Obama had any integrity, he would stop this visit in its tracks, until he was assured he could meet with the people he said he was there to see.
But if President Obama has no integrity, and is more interested in the accolades he expects from our mainstream media for visiting castro’s devastated Island (except for the few terrific-looking spots set up for foreign tourists to marvel over, without ever seeing the rest), it will not change his plans one little bit. (Want more information on what Cuba is like under Castro? Read this. And this.)
Guess which of those two is going to happen?
Yep, this trip is going to “bring more democracy” all right. Like going to Syria will bring peace.
