Conservative Corner: All for Nothing

On Dec. 17 of last year, President Obama decided to, on his own, try to improve the Cuban-American relationship. He did so by ordering the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century. He vowed to “cut loose the shackles of the past” and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

Well, here’s the problem with that: Nothing will change for the Cuban people. Nothing!

Some have claimed this is a good idea. Many of those people are not of Cuban descent and will never understand the true horrors suffered at the hands of this regime. Yet, no one really knows how it is a good idea.

Here’s a crash course people: the Cuban Government controls everything. It controls what you hear, what you see, what you eat, what you can drive, where you can work, where you can shop and most importantly, what you can say. If you, by any chance, think that after this deal the Cuban people will have free speech or at least be heard, you are dead wrong. This link shows a Cuban open-mic event was not just cancelled, but the organizers were detained until the following morning right after the “deal” by the United States and Cuba in December. The opening of this embargo will not change one thing for my fellow Cubans. However, it will change things for the Castro Regime. It will get even more powerful and even wealthier as tourists fill their pockets and finance restrictions are lifted.

I have never seen a worse negotiator in my lifetime as President Obama. The U.S. gave away the bank and the Cubans forfeited one falsely imprisoned American. If you want to know exactly how bad this deal was, read the Jan. 1 perspective piece by the Chicago Tribune.

Now, let me share this with you: I am of Cuban descent. My family had to flee Cuba so that they and their children could live in freedom. That government took my parents’ home, their money and their belongings. They took businesses and land from its people in the name of the Revolution. They murdered innocent people who just wanted to keep what they had fought so hard to acquire.

Why? Because they were—and still are—and will always be Communist thugs, thieves and murderers. Thousands were imprisoned just for speaking their minds.

But what about the LGBT community? Well, many were sent to jail or labor camps, some even killed. Though the Castro family is no longer sending LGBT people to labor camps as they did in the 1960s and 1970s, the only permitted LGBT movement in Cuba is the official, state-run one that Mariela Castro has created.

“The reality for the LGBT community in Cuba is very different from that described by the international media,” Ignacio Estrada, a 33-year-old gay man from Santa Clara, tells. “We live under constant government surveillance and harassment, while at the same time being manipulated for their political purposes.” For more on the LGBT Cuban issue, please visit this link for the article on Cuba’s gay paradise.

That being said, there is no freedom of speech, no free press, no elections and no real freedom for the Cuban people, let alone for the LGBT Community. Even after President Obama’s “deal,” basic human rights will still be null and void in Cuba.

Nothing will change except for the bank accounts of the Castro Regime. The poor will remain poor, you cannot have freedom and you certainly cannot follow your dreams.

So then what have we done? Well, to keep it simple—we have just aided and abetted the criminal. Nice!

Did anyone ever stop to wonder why Cubans risk their lives and their children’s lives to reach the United States? Anyone? It’s because they have no Freedom, no money, no Elections, no honest press—nothing. Do you know what it is like to live that way? You do not.

This is one of the last five remaining Communist Countries in the world. I challenge anyone reading this to chuck it all and go live in any of these countries for a single month. I guarantee you will come back running to the United States, kissing the ground upon your re-entry. If any action is to be taken regarding the Cuban stand-off, it is even stronger sanctions and a backbone by a strong American President.

So Mr. Obama, exactly what “shackles” have you cut? No one seems to have the answer.

As far as the Cuban-American community goes, only outrage and betrayal is what they feel in the aftermath of these unilateral actions taken by a President gone rogue.

Mimi Planas is the president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Miami and was elected to the Miami-Dade County Community Council in 2012.