Obama’s normalization policy
toward Castro’s Cuba
Manuel Castro Rodríguez
December 29, 2014
Eight years ago Raúl Castro assumed power inherited from his brother Fidel. They have tyrannized Cuba for 55 years.
For almost six years I was sending to President Barack Obama my weekly reports on the human rights violations committed by the communist dictatorship that continues to oppress the Cuban people. Obama already knows a lot about Cuba. I have done a detailed analysis — substantiated with citations, examples and videos — of the physical destruction, the anthropological damage, the assassinate of women and children and others crimes committed by the tyranny of the Castro brothers since 1959.
Up to December 15, 2008, Cuba Archive documented more than 8,200 fatalities or disappearances, which are almost three times the 2,296 disappearances or killings by the dictatorship of Pinochet.
In February 2010 political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died following an 85-day hunger strike. Zapata — who was jailed during a 2003 crackdown on more than 75 human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents — initiated his hunger strike to protest the inhumane conditions in which he was being held and to demand medical treatment.
According to The New York Times report published on October 10, 2014,
More Cubans took to the sea last year than in any year since 2008, when Raúl Castro officially took power and the nation hummed with anticipation. Some experts fear that the recent spike in migration could be a harbinger of a mass exodus, and they caution that the unseaworthy vessels have already left a trail of deaths.
On December 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba and ease restrictions on travel and commerce with the Castro regime in exchange for several concessions by the Cuban government, including a commitment to release 53 political prisoners.
I am a harsh critic of Obama’s normalization policy because President Barack Obama knows that:
1- The arbitrary detention of critics of the regime has increased since that “Following the death of a political prisoner on hunger strike in February 2010 and the subsequent hunger strike of a prominent dissident, Cuba’s government has released more than 40 political prisoners, forcing most into exile.”
2- The human rights violations that continue to be committed in China and Vietnam demonstrate that diplomatic engagements and commercial relationships not leads inexorably to political reforms.
3- The human rights situation in Cuba continued to deteriorate after of the release of “Black Spring” prisoners. For example,
a) Non-government Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCHRNR) documented 2,074 arbitrary detention in 2010, 4,123 in 2011, 6,602 in 2012 and 6,424 in 2013.
b) According to World Report of Human Rights Watch, in 2013
“The Cuban government continues to repress individuals and groups who criticize the government or call for basic human rights. Officials employ a range of tactics to punish dissent and instill fear in the public, including beatings, public acts of shaming, termination of employment and threats of long-term imprisonment.”
c) On September 9, 2014, Reporters Without Borders published: “Independent journalist arrested, pressured to leave Cuba.”
d) On October 5, 2014, Catalina Botero finalized her mandate as Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commssion on Human Rights (IACHR). Botero declared: In Cuba “there is no freedom of expression, is not guaranteed in any form”.
e) On February 24, 2017, political prisoner Hamel Santiago Maz Hernández died in the great prison of Havana, known as Combinado del Este. He languished in prison since June 3, 2016, that is, more than 8 months without being subjected to “trial”. Maz Hernández was accused of “contempt” (disrespect to any government official).