Not long ago, President Obama decided to open a U.S. embassy in Havana, facilitate trade and contacts, and then watch a baseball game with Raul Castro. We were told that this new approach would open up Cuba. Accordingly, Cubans would see what they’ve been missing for and demand it.
Well, the theory ran into reality, or the fact that Raul Castro never saw the opening with the U.S. as a way of improving the lives of Cubans. Instead, he just wanted the U.S. to become his latest sugar daddy, especially now that no one lends him money, the USSR is gone, and China is not so easy to do business with.
Let’s check out the latest of how showering Cuba with U.S. dollars and American tourists has impacted the Cuban people.
We learned this week that there are over 40 websites that the Cuban government will not allow to be seen in the island, as we see in this report:
Want to access Skype in Cuba? Without a VPN, you’re out of luck.The service is blocked in the country, along with dozens of other websites, according to new report from the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), which works under the Tor Project. The study, published this week, shows just how censored Cuba’s internet still is.Researchers from OONI monitored eight different internet access points in three different Cuban cities (Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Santa Clara) between May 29 and and June 10 of this year.Their findings show that 41 different websites are blocked in the country, including the Cuban Free Press Project and Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization that advocates for greater civil liberties around the world.In total, OONI tested nearly 1,500 different websites in order to see which were restricted.Most of the sites blocked have criticized the Cuban Castro regime (either directly or indirectly) according to the report.News sites that have published articles critical of the Cuban government made up the bulk of restricted sites.
So let me get this straight. Are we just learning that the Castro regime does not like to hear criticisms or allow its critics to reach the island?
On the day that President Obama announced his new policy toward Cuba, I was with my sick father at the hospital. He listened to the speech and said something in Spanish that translates to this fool does not understand communists. No, he does not!
So we are really back to square one. Before the Obama opening, information was restricted and Obama did not understand communists. Thirty months later, information is still restricted in Cuba and Obama still does not understand communists.
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