No regime as corrupt, brutally oppressive, and murderous as the communist Castro dictatorship can survive for more than six decades without free nations looking the other way. Britain is one of those nations. While the Cuban regime executes dissidents and imprisons them by the thousands, British royals enjoy mojitos in Havana and provide cover for a murderous totalitarian dictatorship. Unfortunately, they are just one of many “free” nations who do the same.
The British government fiddles as the Cuban regime murders
36-year-old political prisoner Luis Barrios Díaz died on November 19th, 2023. The father of a six-year-old was serving a 6-year prison sentence at a Havana prison for peacefully participating in demonstrations on July 11th, 2021. Last August, he had been transferred ill to a hospital that had no antibiotics for his infection. The doctors recommended his admission, but prison authorities refused, alleging from lack of fuel for his surveillance. With no medical care, his condition worsened, and he had trouble breathing. Finally transferred to the hospital, over a liter of fluid was taken from his lungs in an emergency procedure, but he died the following day. The doctor told the family that he had not been treated on time. Deaths in prison from denial of medical care have been par for the course of Cuba’s penitentiary since the early days of the revolution in 1959. Cuba Archive has documented 345 individual cases over six decades, each a testimony of human suffering and preventable loss of life. Many more cases, likely thousands, have not been documented, as monitoring the prisons is not allowed. and gathering the information is very difficult.
The Cuban regime consistently mocks international rules. The horrid conditions of Cuba’s dungeons are well known, yet the Cuban government has ratified many international human rights agreements, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It even guarantees its compliance with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The failure of a totalitarian Communist regime to not live up to its commitments is worrisome but unsurprising. What’s peculiarly troubling is the failure of the world’s democracies –and the international community in general– to hold it to account and reward it repeatedly with legitimacy, engagement, and support.
British royals drink mojitos as Cuba burns
For a recent example, two days after Barrios’ death, David Rutley, MP, the United Kingdom’s Minister for the Americas & the Caribbean, paid a friendly visit to Cuba to sign a new “Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement.” The UK commits to strengthening the relationship with the Cuban regime, which exalted the opportunity for enhanced collaboration and increased ties. No public release mentioned any concerns over partnering with a government that has hijacked the Cuban people’s sovereignty and commits systematic crimes against humanity. (Photo: Cuba Minrex.)
Not even an accommodating royal visit to Cuba in March 2019 by then Prince Charles and his wife Camila, now the King and Queen, managed to make any perceptible dent in their guests’ obstinate repressive and failed-state approach. The royals’ 3-day Potemkin tour included mixing mojitos, riding a vintage car, visiting the John Lennon statue, and solemn posing backdropped by Che Guevara’s image. It excluded meeting any victim of human rights abuses or mentioning any such rights. No doubt, it helped embolden the regime to crack down further when needed.
Continue reading HERE.
It’s brutally simple: it comes down to PC fashion. If Castro, Inc. were seen as a far right dictatorship, the “good” world would be far less inclined to play footsie with it or “overlook” its crimes and abuses.