Warner is Unclear on Cuba
The Cuban government is not our friend. And just because the communist country might be showing signs of softening, that doesn’t mean that its decades of human rights abuses should be ignored.
Virginia’s U.S. Senator Mark Warner-D seems content on just forgetting history.
“This decision by the Trump Administration to reverse progress in U.S.-Cuba relations sends the wrong message to the world about American leadership. We must never stop pressing the Cuban government on democracy and human rights, but further restricting economic and cultural engagement between our two nations betrays the spirit of cooperation that will ultimately help empower the Cuban people to choose their own destiny.”
This is about as convoluted as it comes.
It’s probably the equivalent of trying to discipline your dog with the words “bad dog” and then proceeding to give them a treat.
What message does that send? Simple answer: one that continues to encourage bad behavior.
If you want to know what Trump’s policy is really all about, read this statement from Florida’s U.S. Senator Marco Rubio:
It’s very simple, this new policy directive reverses the Obama Administration’s support for the communist Castro regime and its military apparatus, and aligns the United States with the Cuban people.
The policy centers on the belief that the oppressed Cuban people-rather than the oppressive Castro regime’s military and its subsidiaries-should benefit from American engagement with the island. This will be the first time in several decades that the Cuban people will have an economic advantage over the Cuban military.
We will prohibit financial transactions with Group de Administracion Empresarial SA (GAESA) and its affiliates, subsidiaries, and successors. In turn, we will empower the Cuban people to develop greater economic independence and ultimate political liberty.
With Raul Castro and most of his closest advisors in their eighties, Cuba, one way or another, will soon have a new generation of leaders. By channeling funds away from the Castro regime and its military apparatus and towards the private citizens of Cuba, we will empower Cuba’s rising generation economically in the near term and politically over the long term.
This policy will better protect the United State’s national security interests in the Western Hemisphere while advancing human rights and universal values that Americans hold dear. The Castro regime and its military apparatus continue to systematically suppress the Cuban people’s legitimate aspirations for freedom, self-determination, and prosperity, and also continue to prop up the imploding Maduro dictatorship’s violent efforts to crush the Venezuelan people’s legitimate demands for elections and a return to democracy.
Finally, America’s relationship with Cuba will depend entirely on the Cuban government’s willingness to expand the Cuban people’s political freedom, respect their universal rights, and allow freedom of press as well as free and fair democratic elections.
Once again, Warner shows how out of step he is with reality and his inability to actually lead. “Mr. Bipartisan” talks a big game, but when it comes time to actually doing something that is in the best interest of human rights and freedom, he talks in circles.
Simply put, another terrible policy of the Obama administration is being reversed, and, Warner, the lap-dog surrogate that he is, is out there to defend the failed legacy.
