3 million tourists have vacationed in apartheid Cuba this year, and the regime remains as oppressive as ever

Remember when President Obama announced his Cuba policy and told everyone that opening the floodgates of tourists to Cuba would bring “change” and democracy to the island? Well, the floodgates were open and so far this year, 3 million foreign tourists — mostly Americans — have vacationed in apartheid Cuba, pouring over a billion dollars in revenue into the coffers of the Castro dictatorship.

Via Global Times:

Cuba announced Tuesday that it had received 3 million foreign tourists so far in 2017, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Speaking to a parliamentary commission, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said that this growth showed that tourism was sustaining its strong improvement as one of the pillars of the national economy.

The 3 million target was reached 75 days earlier than in 2016, marking a growth of 24 percent in the number of foreign holidaymakers coming to Cuba, the ministry wrote in a statement.

The main markets from which tourists come to Cuba are the US, despite restrictions on Americans traveling to the island, Canada, Spain, France, Italy and Germany.

In the first half of 2017, Cuba received 1.5 billion US dollars in revenue from foreign tourism, 9 percent more than in the same stage in 2016.

So how have the Cuban people benefited from this importation of “change” and “democracy” President Obama’s policy promised? They now have the exact same brutally repressive and corrupt dictatorship that has enslaved them for nearly six decades, except it is a little richer and more entrenched now.

¡Gracias, Obama!