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Castros’ Cuba

Castros’ Cuba

After President Obama’s visit to Cuba, hopes are high that the Caribbean nation will see reform and increased freedom for its citizens. Under the Castros, this is not likely. ...
Staff

President Obama traveled last month on an official visit to Communist Cuba, the first such trip by a sitting American president since Calvin Coolidge visited the island in 1928. The trip came less than a year after Obama and Cuban dictator Raúl Castro met in Panama in April 2015 and only six months after their second meeting at the United Nations this past September.

Obama, hopeful for a dramatic improvement in relations between the United States and Cuba, commented that he believes Castro to be a pragmatist and not an ideologue, and that Castro desires change in Cuba, presumably, according to Obama, toward a more open and free society. That expectation of a loosening of the grip of Cuba’s totalitarian system was repeated by Obama during the visit itself, despite the Cuban regime’s rounding up and jailing of dissidents on the weekend prior to the visit.

One dissident, Dr. Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, kept under house arrest during the visit, commented on the recent thaw in United States-Cuban relations: “Yes, things have changed since [diplomatic] relations [between the U.S. and Cuba] were restored. Beatings have increased, threats have increased. Impunity has increased. Aggressiveness has increased.” How, then, is it possible that Cuba is now on the road to greater freedom? Of what benefit to either the American or Cuban people is this softening toward what is still a hardline Communist nation? We will consider these questions momentarily, but first let us examine how Cuba became what it is today.

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