In spite of all the marvelous "reforms" implemented by the Castro regime, the fact remains that Cuba is a repressive, totalitarian communist dictatorship. Moreover, it is a dictatorship that has been run and controlled by the same criminally corrupt and murderous Castro family for fifty-four years.

Nevertheless, the butchers of Havana have some friends in high places, namely, the American press. Leading this pack of sycophantic Castro propagandists is The New York Times, the Alicia Alonso of American journalism. Just like Ms. Alonso, The New York Times' heady days of being the premier source of objective news and exceptional journalism are long gone and now it is a mere caricature. The years have not been kind to The Old Gray Lady, but that does not stop her from dressing up in sequin ballroom gowns and smearing her face with too much makeup and too little dignity in a desperate effort to remain relevant.

Since the days of Herbert Matthews, The New York Times has taken pride in its loyal support of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba. For more than five decades the "newspaper of record" has protected and promoted the most murderous and repressive dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere, all under the guise of journalism. It has not been an easy task for them, but they have dutifully and consistently done their best to ignore the atrocities that take place on the island and paint a happy face on the prison walls of the hundreds of thousands of Cuba's political prisoners and on the grave markers of the tens of thousands of innocent Cubans executed by the Castro dictatorship.

The actual objective and undeniable truth is that the real change taking place in Cuba these past two years is the documented escalation in violent and repressive acts by the Castro dictatorship against the opposition. Despite the so-called reforms of dictator Raul Castro, the regime has sharply increased its violent repression as evidenced by the disturbingly large increase in violent beatings of dissidents, the unjust imprisonment opposition leaders, and even the assassination of human rights activists.

Of course, The New York Times will stay away from this reality since it does not fit the narrative of the regime. They must keep pushing and promoting the whole "Raul = Change" mantra, and apparently, this is what passes for change in Cuba:

A Transgender Elected Official Reflects an Evolving Cuba

CAIBARIÉN, Cuba — JOSÉ AGUSTÍN HERNÁNDEZ may not be precisely the kind of New Man whom Che Guevara pictured shaping Cuban socialism.

Ms. Hernández, 48, who identifies as a woman and goes by Adela, would sooner cut a lazy bureaucrat to size with her sharp tongue than chop sugar cane with a machete. And you would more likely catch her hauling water to her house in platform heels than trudging the streets in fatigues and work boots.

So Ms. Hernández was more than a little tickled when she became the first transgender person to be elected to public office in Cuba, a country whose government once viewed homosexuality as a dangerous aberration and, in the 1960s, packed gay men off to labor camps.

“It’s a huge achievement,” said Ms. Hernández, referring to her election in November to the municipal council in this coastal town where she represents the 2,000 or so residents of her destitute neighborhood. She raised her painted eyebrows, saying, “For a country that has been so homophobic to change so dramatically — it’s unheard of.”

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