WASHINGTON, DC July 19 (DPI) – Comment boards across many news sites reflected a surprising lack of appreciation for the great personal risks Cubans are taking as they protest lack of food and electricity and freedom in their country.
Thousands of Cubans have staged unprecedented protests in recent days, and police have snatched hundreds off the streets of Havana and other Cuban cities, as the Communist regime tries to keep its grip on a country fatigued by shortages, mismanagement and corruption.
As the reports and images emerged from the benighted country this week, US readers who posted comments mostly engaged in partisan attacks on one another, crowing about whose political party has helped – or hurt – the well being of ordinary Cubans. Few of the more than 1,500 comments expressed admiration or respect for the Cuban citizens who courageously took to the streets.
The most popular comments, in fact, focused on now-familiar criticism of Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as the virtues of Barack Obama’s initiative to normalize relations with Havana in 2015-16.
Trump acolyte Rubio calls on “members of the Cuban military to not fire on their own people,” and yet Trump repeatedly wanted the American military to fire on their own people.
This is the result of the Cuban idiots in Florida who are still supporting sanctions after decades of zero results. It is shameful and I as a Cuban that was given refuge in the United States and whose father was a political prisoner find it despicable that you sit in your comfortable homes in Florida and oppose any relief for the people suffering in Cuba.
And yet when the Cubans come to the USA they vote for an authoritarian strongman.
Protest is healthy and timely. Cuba’s government is evolving away from dictatorship. There was support for this under Obama. Trump shut down any hope of diplomatic pressure. Let’s hope the People and their government can find a productive way forward. I hope the US can be fully supportive, as opposed to antagonistic.
“Evolving away from dictatorship” – When?
“They threw him to the ground, tied his hands and arrested him because he shouted ‘Freedom.’”
I could see Trumpist police doing this to Americans who shout ‘Vote.’