In the wake of the European Union's decision to maintain its "common position" on Cuba, linking better relations with Havana to improvements in the Cuban human rights situation, the Miami Herald makes an effective case for how the Castros are not worthy of relief.
An excerpt:
To make the case for Cuba, Spain's foreign ministers and like-minded diplomats say Cuba's promise to release 52 political prisoners -- whose crime consists of expressing dissent in peaceful ways -- should be seen as a major step forward. Forty of them have already been released.
What they don't bother to say is that these prisoners should never have been arrested in the first place. Or that after being released they were summarily exiled along with their families. Or that the jails still contain hundreds of political prisoners, who have no hope of freedom.
Every release of a blameless prisoner constitutes a victory for human liberty. But these releases are no more than a self-serving gesture by Cuba, an effort to use human beings as pawns in a cynical game of international diplomacy.
Europe should maintain its common position until all political prisoners are freed and peaceful dissent is allowed in Cuba. True freedom of thought and expression will spell the end of the Castro brothers' regime, though. That's why they will never let it happen.
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