If anything related to Cuba hits the news, there is one place I immediately turn to: Val and the Babalu crew. And they are decidedly not impressed with the old dictator’s announcement.
Babalu Blog: Just Another Snip
fidel castro has “officially” stepped down.
I certainly dont want to rain on anyone’s parade, there is, after all, a little bit of happiness buried deep down inside because of the news, but, at the risk of sounding cliche, this is a tempest in a teacup.
We’re going to hear hopes that this is the beginning of change in Cuba. We’re going to hear arguments for the lifting of the embargo. We’re going to hear wishy washy eulogies and praise for the bearded bastard. We’re gonna hear a lot of crap today and in the next few days. Cuba experts will be coming out of the woodwork with their own particular theories and there will most certainly be editorials galore.
A commenter said it best in this post:
Much ado about nothing. What does this change? Nothing. Cubans are still oppressed, the island is still a hell hole and the man in command still bears the last name (c)astro. All this means nothing.
I wholeheartedly agree. This changes absolutely nada. For all intents and purposes, for the past year or two, fidel castro has been but a blurb in the book of Cuba’s political leadership. The man who held the world in terror in the sixties reduced to writing editorials for a mouthpiece “newspaper.”
Cuba’s prisons are still rife with prisoners of conscience. Ordinary Cuban’s are still subjected to Cuba’s system of apartheid. Dissidents are still being round up and harrassed. The UN Declaration on Human Rights remains taboo on the island.
There is going to be much ado about new “freedoms” in Cuba and “changes” in policy and what not. Some are going to point to these as proof of raul’s willingness for change. But, you know what? True freedom can’t come piecemeal. The few crumbs this “new and improved” castro regime will toss down to the Cuban people will do little to stay any true hunger for liberty.
They’re not going to be impressed, because it doesn’t afford them an opening to establish their own opposite, yet equivalent version of corruption and oppression upon the island.
Behind all the jawboning about “freedom” or “liberty”, it’s not about advocating for those left behind on the island, which most right-wing Cuban-Americans “perfumados” consider those undesirable darkies anyway.
My hope would be that decency and common sense will prevail, and our government will seize this opportunity to relax sanctions and travel restrictions for Cuban refugees and Cuban-Americans who actually give two shits about those left behind.