You Call This "Reform"?

October 26, 2010


While the Castro regime tries to deceive the world that it's undertaking "reforms" -- and "Cuba experts," journalists and apologists try to help it make the pitch -- the international community has rejected the regime's charade four times this past week.

1. Last Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed doubt that the Castro regime has taken sufficient steps to merit any reciprocity.

2. Last Wednesday, the Spanish government dismissed Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose obsession had become rescuing the Castro regime.

3. Last Thursday, the European Parliament recognized Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas with its 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

4. And today, the European Union's Foreign Minister's refused to scrap the trading bloc's Common Position towards Cuba, which conditions the normalization of relations to the respect for fundamental human rights.

In other words, the message is clear:

Transferring a group of innocent men, which had been unjustly imprisoned for years due to their political beliefs, from a prison cell to forced exile in Spain is not "reform" by any stretch of the imagination.

Particularly, as the Castro regime continues to beat, harass and arrest countless others on the island.

As one of those banished political prisoners, Juan Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, stated in today's Wall Street Journal:

"Until the Castro regime repeals all its laws violating human rights, allows multi-party elections, free trade unions and independent media, and lets Cubans participate fully in our economy and travel freely, any attempt to normalize relations with Cuba would be premature."