Breaking News
Obama Betrays Democracy With Trip To Cuba
- President Barack Obama landed on Cuban soil today to meet with Cuba's dictator Raul Castro.
- Obama has called for Congress to rescind the 54-year old embargo on Cuba, but so far Congress has shot him down.
- Obama did loosen trade and travel restriction with Cuba via executive actions.
- The president will give a speech on Cuban television while he is there.
U.S. President Barack Obama turns from sightseeing to state business on his historic Cuba trip on Monday, pressing President Raul Castro for economic and democratic reforms while hearing complaints about continued U.S. economic sanctions.
Obama and Castro will have their fourth meeting, likely their most substantial, at the Palace of the Revolution, where Castro and his predecessor, older brother Fidel Castro, have led Cuba’s resistance to U.S. pressure going back decades.
A U.S. presidential visit to the inner sanctum of Cuban power would have been unthinkable before Obama and Raul Castro’s rapprochement 15 months ago, when they agreed to end a Cold War-era dispute that lasted five decades and continued even after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The two leaders have deep differences to discuss as they attempt to rebuild the bilateral relationship.
Obama is under pressure from critics at home to push Castro’s Communist government to allow dissent from political opponents and further open its Soviet-style command economy.
His aides have said Obama will encourage more economic reforms and greater access to the Internet for Cubans. His administration hopes such changes might come at a Communist Party congress next month but doubts any political opening will be forthcoming.
Still, Obama has promised to talk about freedom of speech and assembly in Cuba. “I will raise these issues directly with President Castro,” he told the Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White in a March 10 letter.
Castro has said Cuba will not waver from its 57-year-old revolution and government officials say the United States needs to end its economic embargo and return the Guantanamo Bay naval base to Cuba before the two nations can enjoy normal relations.
Cuban police backed by hundreds of shouting pro-government demonstrators broke up a Ladies in White march on Sunday, detaining dozens of people just hours before Obama landed.
Obama has urged Congress to rescind the 54-year-old embargo but has been rejected by the Republican leadership. He now has both Democratic and Republican elected officials with him on his Cuba trip and hopes Congress may act after the Nov. 8 presidential election.
One Cuban yelled “Down with the embargo!” during Obama’s tour of Old Havana, and the president responded by raising his right hand.
Thwarted by Congress on the embargo, Obama has instead used his executive authority to loosen restrictions on trade and travel with the Caribbean island.
Cuba has praised those measures but Castro will likely use the meeting on Monday to press Obama to go further.
“We think the U.S. government can take more steps to send clear and direct signals in this direction,” Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca told reporters on Sunday.
Obama and Castro met for half an hour during a regional summit in Panama last April and they also had brief encounters at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in 2013 and at the U.N. General Assembly last September.
Traveling with his family, Obama was greeted by cheering crowds on the road from the airport and while on a walking tour of Old Havana on Sunday.
Besides meeting Castro, he also plans to visit a state-owned micro brewery and attend a state dinner on Monday.
On Tuesday, he will deliver a speech on live Cuban television and attend an exhibition game between Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team.
By Reuters
41 Comments
It’s about time that we bury the hachet with Cuba. This 60 years of embargo has not helped the United States or Cuba in ANY way whatsoever. It’s refreshing to see Obama take strides in normalizing relations with Cuba. Kudos to him!!!
Absolutely!!!
Any regime that jails, tortures, and kills its inhabitants is despicable and should be ignored by the President until their behavior changes.
Will you people STOP feeding the false narrative that we are a DEMOCRACY. The United States never has been and hopefully never will be a Democracy, which is absolutely one of the WORST forms of government there is. We are a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC!!!! GET IT RIGHT!!!
“We are a Republic. Real Liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy.”
— Alexander Hamilton
“A simple democracy is the devil’s own government.” — Benjamin Rush
“Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine percent.” — Thomas Jefferson,
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” — James Madison
Thank you Ben, I thought I was the only one who knew that this country has always been a Republic . I’m tired of people who keep saying that this country is a democracy. I don’t seem to understand what’s the big deal about Cuba, sure they are a communist country, but we do business with communists all the time (China and Japan). We have also contributed greatly to their economies while ours goes to crap.
By thinking he is going to repair relations all he is going to is destroy the Cubans to hate us even more.
Nixon went to China in the 70’s
Do we consider Viet Nam an enemy now?
How about Germany, Japan, Italy?
Look at some of our “friends” Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
obama and the cuban govt.have the same agenda,HOW TO DESTROY AMERICA!!!!!
Leaders, just like everyday people, have to talk to get a better understanding of the issues. We cannot continue to be so stiff necked about this. We need to learn from each other and appreciate each other’s differences before real and lasting change can happen. “We must seek to understand, and then be understood.” As great as America is, it is by far not perfect and we need to accept that fact. We have an aboundance of issues to work throught right here. Suppose Regan would have never met with the Russian leadership, where would the relationship have ended up? Democracy has not been threatened as a rusult of this trip, we have a much bigger threats right here as the right to vote is being taken away from citizens, and the control of this Democracy is being taken over by corporate America as the Supreme Court is being politisized. This is where the outcry should be because these things are the real and lasting threat to Democracy and to our country’s well being.
Traitor is only how u can spin this
It’s just another ploy to try and build his terrible legacy plus another free vacation for his family on tax payer money before his term expires.
After almost 8 LONG years of ripping America apart, he is doing anything, and everything, to disgrace, and impair America’s standing in the eyes of the WORLD !
Cuba is a communist country. The USA has never and cannot be in unity with a country that does not have a democracy
Why is he still President??
One individual can not make a decision alone.Obama is not a king.
I’M NOT SURPRISE, HE IS FRIEND WITH ANYONE THAT HATE OUR COUNTRY.
Obama is supporting the dictatorship of the Castro brothers against the Cuban people
Obama is Muslim I truly believe he has been a traitor since day one . I just watched him make a fool of himself . I personally do not want anything to do with Communist Cuba . Why did he bring his family along at our expense . All spending should be blocked from this Obomination of our Country .
From one dictator to another that thinks he is.
Doesn’t anyone else see the pattern?
Screw your allies and love it up with our enemies. YES he sure has betrayed the American People.
he has lied so many times and has caused so much damage to America as well as Americans also he was responsible for the deaths also of Benghazi and the deaths of the seal teams that were killed because he told the terrorists where they were he had to they were waiting for them as well as destroy America !!
he has lied so many times and has caused so much damage to America as well as Americans also he was responsible for the deaths also of Benghazi and the deaths of the seal teams that were killed because he told the terrorists where they were he had to they were waiting for them as well as destroy America !!
His trip serves no purpose except for costing the tax payers more money. Cuba is absolutely no benefit to the U.S. but obozo has done this just to spite American citizens. He is not only a traitor to democracy– he is a traitor to America and if we had any kind of Congress with any guts at all obozo would be in prison by now.
I was always taught that communism and communist states were the enemies of the US. Whatever happened to that notion? I have been of the opinion that Obama is a traitor for about the last 7 years based on the way he ignores the constitution and the congress.
Otraitor-muslim-marxist and the Castros are blood brothers, politically speaking. I have more respect for the Castros, because, while they are horrible murdering tyrannical dictators, at least they are and always have been consistent in their evilness. We and the whole world know where they stand. We hate them and their brutal, sadistic, communist ways, but it is easy to keep them in our sights, because they don’t change their position.
The lying, conniving, criminal Kenyan POTUS is far more dangerous to The U. S. of A., and in fact, to the entire world. Actions speak louder than words. There has never been anyone who has so overtly disrespected and damaged our country as this sociopathic madman.
The embargo has not weakened the regime. It has only served to harm the people.
He is a dictator just like Castro. He is a traitor letting terrorist out of Gitmo. He takes lavish vacations at our expense and buys houses 3 now for himself – who is paying for them. He should be IMPEACHED I don’t know why no one will impeach him.
Maybe Obama is afraid Guantonomo Bay is his future home , along with Hillary , Bill , Sharpton, Holder, Reid , Lynch, Romney etc, etc.
I do not like the fact that Obama has ONCE AGAIN betrayed the United States and the American people by cow-towing to a communist regime…basically bending over and kissing their a$$e$ and making us look like fools!
His trip to meet Castro doesnt solve a thing, if anything, it reinforces what us conservatives have always believed, that he is a traitor to our country. How does he make a difference to the free world by visiting that murderous, criminal Castro family!
barack hussein obama is the enemy of democracy. He did nothing to try to stop Cuba’s human rights violation. He only cares about turning the United States into another Socialist country. He is the absolute worst president in our history. He cares nothing about the welfare of United States Citizens. He is importing middle east terrorist into the United States as fast as he possibly can. He know his days are numbered (305) so he will continue to do everything he possibly can, as fast as he can to destroy our country.
o’bama is doing all he can to destroy the fabric and traditions that are American! He seems more socialist or communist than American!! In fact I believe o’bama to be unAmerican at best and a plant to cause and reek havoc to bring our country and her constitution down!!
He was an embarrassment and laughing stock it seemed. He answered the first question (bilingual), that was very obviously directed to Cuban President, not him. Castro indicated later it was his place to respond,and did. Obama showed more courtesy and respect to Castro than he is willing to demonstrate to our own Congress. He “Welcomed” criticism of the US from Communist Leader. Castro did not want to entertain compromise on human right policies as he stated, “If that is expected, we will stay the way we are.” Obama indicated policy over the last 50 years did not serve US or Cuba and how he wants to encourage mutual learning from each other. “Remember the Main??” (Obama doesn’t)
It’s all part of the plan to close our military base there.
Because I disagree
To start a dialog with a country 90miles away from our coast after 50years of nothing is a step in the righ direction. Tired of the 100% disagreements with whatever the president of the united states does. You lose credibility to disagree with everything and show your bias. I am against some key issues which is I believe marriage should be between man and woman. I also dont like his abortion stance. But stock market, unemployment decrease, positive family image, surgical killing of Bin laden and healthcare for citizens who never had it are not negative things. Because the far right is no longer objective, they will lose the senate, lose the presidency again and find some excuse like its Trumps fault or something.
HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING THAN HIS LEGACY-WE AMERICANS ARE STUPID AND HE KNOWS BETTER
That’s what you get when you ignore the Constitutional requirement that the President be a natural born citizen – a person born on U.S. soil of two U.S. citizen parents. Obama was apparently born in Kenya of a Kenyan father; then was adopted by an Indonesian and became an Indonesian citizen in order to attend the Indonesian schools. He was noted as a great scholar of the Koran. Apparently that requirement was ignored and now we pay the price!
Obama is a Traitor to the American way of life.It is so easy to see.You have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to see it.He is a Rasist and a Hippocrate .What I would like to know is why is he not arrested and impeached for Treasonist actions.Where are all the Americans.I’am a Vietnam war Vet and a patriot.I love my country.Why won’t anybody do something to stop him.
Castro just met with him out of curiosity, he has no intention of being friendly with America.
obama is a first class fool and we all know it. The problem though is for some reason Congress is terrified of him and they refuse to act against him. obama knows that we think of him as a traitor and an idiot but he is getting just what he wants, he wants to tear this country apart before leaving office.
Cuba has changed nothing ; it remains an oppressive Communist dictatorship, but now it has the approval of the United States. Mr. Obama has chosen to support a Communist comrade and fellow dictator.