OPINION:
The incredible footage coming from Cuba of protestors standing in front of the Communist Party headquarters chanting, “Cuba isn’t yours,” brought one clear thought to mind: Libertad para Cuba or as we say in English: Freedom for Cuba.
If only our young people understood the failures of communism as these people do. Too bad so many have lived such privileged lives that they do not fully appreciate the freedom and opportunity we have in the United States.
Right on cue, the Marxists at the Black Lives Matter organization put out a press release blaming the U.S. government and making excuses for the failures of communism in Cuba. What a joke.
Communism and socialism promise power to the people. In reality, they shift it to the elite while leaving the masses in poverty. Even before the global pandemic, Cuba had massive problems.
Before this year, the minimum wage in Cuba was $17. No, not $17 per hour. Not even per day. It was $17 per month. Even with government-run health care, housing, and transportation, that’s not even enough to cover the typical cell phone bill.
The situation in Cuba exposes the major problems with government-run health care. It is made even worse because Cuban oppressors send trained medical staff to other countries to profit off their services while leaving their people with major gaps in coverage.
Many critics falsely claim that the U.S. embargo blocks medicine and food from reaching the people of Cuba. Communist sympathizer U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the embargo. Documents from the U.S. State Department, however, show that is not true. According to federal documents, “The U.S. embargo does not deny medicines and medical supplies to the Cuban people.”
Agriculture and food exports to Cuba actually increased 74.7 percent in March of this year and over 54 percent over the past year. So much for their big lie about the embargo causing the pain and suffering in Cuba.
Many legacy media try to dismiss the uprisings as merely being about the lack of COVID-19 vaccines. The outrage from Cubans is far greater than that and has been building for years. The failure to provide enough shots is just the last straw for many people.
Ironically, other media outlets started shifting coverage to highlight concerns over pandemic surges because of the mass gatherings. So we should believe that you’re immune from COVID-19 if you’re part of a mass protest/riot organized by Marxist leaders (like we saw on the streets of America last summer). But you’re not safe if you are actually protesting communists. This is why fewer and fewer people trust traditional media sources.
Brutal Cuban dictator Fidel Castro played up his characterization of being a man of the people. In his book, Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, Castro’s longtime bodyguard, wrote that Castro kept 20 luxurious properties throughout the Caribbean nation, including his own island, accessed via a yacht decorated entirely in exotic wood imported from Angola––one of the many contradictions of the communist leader.
Years ago, I visited members of the Wisconsin National Guard stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. While there, I went to the wall with a Marine from Wisconsin. He explained to me two very interesting things.
First, he noted that the U.S. Marines and their counterparts in Cuba were both facing the same direction: towards Cuba. Second, he told me the barrier was about 17 miles of fencing surrounded by minefields. Along the way, there was a spot where water flowed into Cuba from the bay. The story goes that Castro built a meatpacking plant near this watergate so that the disposal of remnants would attract sharks into the bay. Both were presumably to block Cubans from getting to the base to seek asylum from the United States. Talk about diabolical.
During his reign of terror, Mr. Castro routinely shut down or controlled the sources of information like newspapers, television, and radio stations. Today’s oppressors have shut down access to the Internet. There are even some reports of landline phone service being cut off during the height of the protests.
As a young man, I remember the images of rafts full of Cuban people seeking refuge in America along the Florida coast. They barely floated across shark-infested waters for their one chance at freedom.
That image—as well as the Cubans marking in the streets these days—of how badly human beings want freedom. There are no similar images of people fleeing from the United States.
Despite the anti-American rhetoric being spewed by radical activists, political opportunists, left-wing professors, and—sadly—many teachers union members, most people in the world want to come to America. In fact, many have, are, and will risk their lives for it. At the very least, we should support them and their quest for freedom.
¡Libertad para Cuba!
• Scott Walker was the 45th governor of Wisconsin. You can contact him at swalker@washingtontimes.com or follow him @ScottWalker.
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