It has been a year since Obama decided to change course in regards to U.S. policy towards Cuba’s apartheid dictatorship and the results are in: Tyranny is much stronger on the island and any hope for democracy has been weakened and marginalized. ¡Gracias, Obama!
One year after changing U.S. – Cuba Policy course to the wrong direction: Marginalizing democrats embracing dictatorship
Changing course to go in the wrong direction is not progress.
From meeting with opposition leaders (2003) to shunning them (2015)
Today the White House tweeted “One year ago, we changed course inCuba” and claimed to have achieved “progress.” Over the past year human rights have worsened in Cuba and overall situation has deteriorated. Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s passivity before regime demands is partly to blame.
One year ago today the Cuban Interests Section in Washington D.C. was formally re-designated the Cuba Embassy with Secretary of State John Kerry in attendance. Later on that same day the significance of this new relationship with the Castro regime was made evident in the treatment accorded to Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo.
On July 20, 2015 at the State Department, Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo attended a press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry and Castro’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez. Rosa Maria had proper accreditation as a member of the press. She has had articles published in news publications such as The PanAm Post and her own blog. This did not stop Rear Admiral John Kirby, who was transferred from the Pentagon and in May of 2015 became the new State Department spokesman, from taking Rosa Maria aside and warning her that she would be physically removed if she asked any questions or caused any kind of disturbance.
Cecilia Bradley of NBC6 captured a blurry image of when Rosa Maria Payá was taken aside. The young activist tweeted a photo of Rear Admiral Kirby with the following text: “John Kirby kindly told me if I caused disturbances during the conference security would remove me.” In a later tweet Rosa Maria reported that “Mr. Kirby asks me not to ask questions at John Kerry’s press briefing or they would use force to expel me.”
The United States Department of State in the space of twelve years has gone from Secretary of State Colin Powell receiving Cuban democratic opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas to threatening his daughter with force if she dared to ask a question at a press conference in which Secretary of State John Kerry took questions with the Cuban dictatorship’s Foreign Minister. The same dictatorship that martyred her father three years earlier.
