Ted Cruz: U.S. Must Stand With The Opponents Of Castros’ Ongoing Tyranny

I had the honor recently to meet with Cuban dissident Oscar Biscet, who was visiting the United States to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom that President George W. Bush had awarded him in 2007. Then serving a 25-year prison sentence for promoting human rights in Cuba, Dr. Biscet originally had to accept the award in absentia. But following his 2011 release, he was here in person.

I asked Dr. Biscet if his ability to leave the island was emblematic of political liberalization after normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States just over a year ago. Smiling, this man who has endured savage torture by Raúl and Fidel Castro’s police state said No. There was no liberalization. The Castros were just trying to appear reasonable so they could get the most money possible out of tourists coming to the island.

Hey Donald, where to you stand on Cuba? Oh, that's right.

 Putin's in tight with the Castro boys and we wouldn't 

want him to like you any less, now would we, Besides,

there's money to be made down there. Who cares if it's 

BLOOD MONEY, heh? LINK

Didn’t Americans understand, he asked in genuine amazement, that their dollars were going to enrich the Communist regime? The answer is, once again, No. American tourists and industries are tripping over themselves to visit Cuba and project themselves onto a 1950s movie set, all while imagining their commerce trickles down to the Cuban people.

In 2013, I heard similar words from Guillermo Fariñas, a former soldier for Castro who had come to see Communism for the oppression that it is. Fariñas traveled to Brussels to receive the Andrei Sakharov Prize for his brave opposition to the Castros. But his leaving Cuba was not a sign of progress. Rather, he called it a ploy by the Castros to get American money while retaining political power. He said they were employing Putinismo — trying to imitate Putin.

Read the rest of Ted Cruz's op-ed HERE.

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