Jamie Daremblum in the Albany Tribune addresses the real changes taking place in Cuba that have nothing to do economic reforms and everything to do with an increase in repression on the island:
Why Cuba Is Getting More Repressive
What exactly is happening in Cuba? Every week, it seems, we read stories about economic reforms implemented by the Communist government. Cubans can now legally work as entrepreneurs in more than 180 different occupations, and they are no longer prohibited from selling their homes or motor vehicles, or from traveling abroad (provided they can secure a passport). Meanwhile, the number of state-sector jobs has declined significantly. In addition, Raúl Castro has promised that his current five-year term as Cuban president (which began in late February) will be his last, meaning he will retire in 2018.
Americans are always on the lookout for signs that Cuba is finally changing, and the changes listed above have prompted many journalists, analysts, and political figures to renew their calls for lifting or at least softening the U.S. embargo. After traveling to the island in mid-February as part of an official delegation of federal lawmakers, Democratic senator Pat Leahy of Vermont expressed his hope for a shift in U.S. policy: “There is a growing sense by many in the U.S. who do not have a Cold War attitude that they would like to see a change.”
But the biggest impediment to closer bilateral relations is not “a Cold War attitude” on Capitol Hill, nor is it the American embargo. It is the behavior of the Castro regime. Indeed, we should not let Havana’s timid economic reforms or its new travel policy distract us from the more important story: In its treatment of human-rights activists, pro-democracy dissidents, and pretty much anyone it considers a threat to Communist rule, the Cuban government is becoming more repressive, not less.
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