The Castro cancer, chemotherapy, and hypocrisy at the UN

It took less than 20 minutes yesterday for the American representatives to the UN, Mike Waltz and Jeffrey Bartos, to dismantle the castle of lies and justifications that the Castro-communist regime has upheld for years to justify the oppression and misery imposed on the Cuban people.

"Blaming the United States is the only economic plan left for Havana." "The only embargo is the guillotine that the regime keeps over the heads of its own citizens," Waltz said. "...That is the true embargo against Cuba... the one the regime imposes on its own people, on freedom of expression, faith, entrepreneurial initiative, dissent, political rights, hope, and now, literally, on light."

When the US ambassador mentioned July 11, 2021, the representatives of the tyranny interrupted him. It is a date that, after five years, still frightens the leaders of the Communist Party. But Waltz continued unfazed: “You can keep banging the table, my friend. This is not Havana. This is the United States of America. This is the United Nations. And we will raise our voices, we will make ourselves heard, and we will not allow ourselves to be silenced like your own people. So, keep banging the table.”

The moment when the U.S. representative mentioned several Cuban political prisoners and displayed their photographs proved to be very striking: “Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. Do you know what his crime was? He is in a maximum-security prison. -Yesterday taken to a “government facility” until his definitive release in three days, according to the Spanish newspaper El País- His crime, according to the regime itself, is artistic expression. His crime is being an artist, Mr. President.” And thus he continued with five other emblematic political prisoners.

Worrying more about the U.S. embargo against the Castro regime than about the systematic blockade that this criminal tyranny imposes on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Cuban people is like being against chemotherapy due to its side effects while preferring that the aggressive cancer that consumes the body continues to progress, which, unlike clinical cancer, is more contagious than COVID-19.

The tyranny that has controlled Cuba for 67 years has destroyed institutions, the economy, society, and, above all, crushed the freedom of millions of Cubans. It is a cancer that represses, imprisons, tortures, exiles, and impoverishes. It keeps political prisoners in inhumane conditions, prohibits freedom of expression, association, assembly, and peaceful demonstration. It does not allow the people to choose their leaders. It controls the economy to the extent of generating extreme misery, chronic scarcity, and dependency, while the elite enrich themselves without measure.

In the face of this cancer, the American embargo functions like the necessary chemotherapy or radiation therapy. It is not the root of the evil; it is an imperfect yet real response to a dictatorship that has spent decades exporting subversion, aligning itself with hostile powers, and clinging to power with insane stubbornness.

To claim that the embargo is the main cause of Cuba's problems is to uphold a propaganda lie repeated to the point of exhaustion. The embargo is part of the treatment to contain it and contribute to its eradication, and if it has not produced the expected results, it is due to those who insist on feeding the cancer and attacking the cure.

At the UN General Assembly, a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo is approved each year. It is debated, voted on solemnly, and the tyranny presents the outcome as a great victory for the "Revolution" and a defeat for "imperialism." The hungry people, enduring long blackouts and living in fear of repression, feel betrayed by the world, including the European Union, which claims to defend the rights of Cubans and is an ally of the United States.

Every year they condemn "chemotherapy," but there is no equivalent resolution, approved by a large majority, against cancer, or against the serious human rights violations in Cuba. That is neither fair nor even neutral. - "The worst places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of crisis, claim to be neutral." - This is hypocrisy, pharisaism of the worst kind. It is turning a blind eye while cancer advances and pretending that the real problem is the medicine trying to combat it.

The Cuban people, however, do not surrender. Each day, they rise with greater determination and courage in the face of cruel repression. Tyrannies have an expiration date, and that of Cuba is running out. The United States, along with the few sincere friends we have in the world, will continue to be a key factor in ensuring that freedom comes sooner than many imagine. And when it happens, we will remember who were the true friends in difficult times, who were “neutral,” and who were allies of the dictatorship.