Last week, in an article entitled, "In a first, U.S. trial to test Cuban lung-cancer vaccine," The Washington Post's health reporter wrote:
"The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first clinical trial to test a Cuban drug in the United States — a lung-cancer vaccine developed in Havana."
Obama, the Castro regime and its lobbyists also celebrated and sensationalized the story.
In 2011, the Cuban government announced that it would fire up to 1,300,000 workers from their government jobs -20 percent of the workforce - but would magnanimously allow them to become self-employed in 178 trades that would then be permitted by the State. With a high degree of specificity the government outlined the sanctioned activities for example:
Trade No. 23-purchase and sale of used books. Trade 29-attendant of public bathrooms (presumably for tips); 34-palm-tree pruner (apparently other tress will still be pruned by the state)...
Today, for the first time ever, the United States abstained in the annual United Nations General Assembly vote to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Needless to say, President Obama is very proud, Ben Rhodes is very proud, John Kerry is very proud, and our ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, is especially proud.
Power’s remarks to the General Assembly were a perfect rendition of the Obama approach to Cuba, which is to say they were full of apologies about the United States and falsehoods about Cuba. Let’s take a look.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) released the following statement after the Obama administration chose not to defend U.S. law pertaining to Cuba at the United Nations:
“Today the Obama administration turned its back on U.S. law and the suffering Cuban people. Worse yet – on a world stage – the administration allowed the Cuban regime to claim moral equivalence between its brutal rule and our democracy. This is wrong, and it undermines Cubans fighting for basic freedoms..."
Today, the Obama Administration has chosen to abstain from a resolution presented by the Cuban dictatorship at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 ("Libertad Act"), which codified the embargo into U.S. law.
Cuba, Iran's island in the sun
The Obama administration thinks Iran's influence in Latin America is waning. That means it does not view the 80 or so cultural centers Iran has established across Central and South America as a threat.
This week, the Federal Register published the Obama Administration's latest regulatory changes.
Buried in the rule -- ignored by the press releases and overlooked by the media -- was (perhaps) Obama's greatest betrayal of the Cuban people.
For months, U.S. lawmakers have expressed serious concerns over the Obama Administration's haste in restoring commercial flights to Cuba, despite the serious security risks they pose.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued the following statement on the Obama administration’s unilateral move to lift trade restrictions on Cuba, which took effect yesterday:
“The Castros continue to jail pro-democracy activists at a rate of hundreds per month, yet it is full steam ahead for the Obama administration’s efforts to appease this oppressive regime..."
The Obama Legacy in Cuba
Moving fast in his waning months, President Obama concluded he had not done enough to overturn U.S. policy toward Cuba and ensure that his new policies will survive. So he has issued a new “Presidential Policy Directive” that goes even further.
