The United States officially re-opened its embassy in Havana on Aug. 14 -- smack in the middle of the worst month for political repression in Cuba so far this year. The exact correlation is left for readers to discern, but the ramping up of repression as the new normal between the U.S. and Cuba takes hold, belies the notion that restored relations is a harbinger of better times for Cubans.
The unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported Wednesday the Castro dictatorship's secret police last month made at least 768 politically motivated arrests. That was the highest monthly tally since June 2014, when there were 963 arrests; and brings the total for 2015 to at least 4,264, according to the commission.
The commission also noted that August was the third straight month in which the number of arrests increased from the prior month.
There has been "a worsening of the civil and political rights situation in Cuba," the commission said.
The group also criticized the Castro regime for not taking "a single significant step" toward the "necessary decriminalization of the exercise of such basic rights."
Maybe it's too early to judge whether the Obama administration's warming up to the dictatorship will lead to an improved political and human rights situation on the island. Repression is institutionalized in Cuba, and breaking that grip will take a lot more than hope in change.
But it is beyond time to conclude that the regime has been emboldened in its repression -- as evidenced by the steady increase in political arrests since the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement was announced Dec. 17 -- by the Obama administration's steadfast refusal to hold it accountable for how it treats those Cubans bravely championing the values that are suppose to be America's values, too.
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