AS UNDEMOCRATIC!!
Before dawn on the Caribbean morning of Friday, January 13th, 2017 Josefina Vidal was awakened in Havana and informed of the latest gigantic assault by President Obama on America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy. Though still tired and sleepy, Vidal appeared on Cuban and other television networks to herald President Obama's newest pro-democracy decision regarding Cuba, "Which is all I've ever asked for," said Vidal. She is the Cuban Minister on all things related to the United States.
The BREAKING NEWS that awoke Josefina Vidal Friday morning in Havana was President Obama's decision to erase one of the long-standing and most undemocratic U. S. laws, the one known as "WET FOOT/DRY FOOT. Since 1966, in order to hurt Cuba and to appease the most hardline Cuban-Americans in Miami and Congress, the law has provided special and very discriminatory incentives for Cubans to defect to the U. S. and be lushly rewarded beginning the second their foot touches U. S. soil. The law grossly discriminates against all non-Cubans and grossly sates the appetites of counter-revolutionary forces in the U. S., one of the reasons the nations of the world vote 191-to-0 against America's undemocratic, discriminatory Cuban policy. President Obama's official statement Friday morning said:
"Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with United States laws and enforcement priorities. By taking this step, we are treating Cuba migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries."
This is the latest in an amazing sequence of brave and pro-American executive orders that President Obama has enacted regarding Cuba in defiance of Cuban-exile dictums that no previous U. S. president since 1959 has dared to attempt. The hardline anti-Cuban forces in Miami and in Congress fully expect incoming President Donald Trump to begin dismantling Obama's sanity and decency regarding Cuba but to do so he will also be defying the wishes of most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and all the nations of the world, especially the ones who love democracy and respect the United States of America the most.
In her televised statement before dawn Friday morning, Josefina Vidal praised Obama's "courage and decency" regarding Wet Foot/Dry Foot but she also said "the total elimination of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act that spawned it must also be removed, for democracy's sake in America as well as for the sake of innocent Cubans." Vidal, an absolutely brilliant diplomat, has engineered all of the Obama-orchestrated advances in U.S.-Cuban relations, starting with her "line in the sand," which was her insistence that Cuba be removed from the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list before she would discuss such things as the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. While much has been done with Obama, she realizes much can be undone with Trump. "But at least with Obama," she says, "we have illustrated where we stand. As he leaves office on January 20th, much will be left before any normalization of relations can be achieved, but we will take those developments as they evolve." In addition to wanting the entire 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act ended and not just reworked, Vidal insists on an end to the embargo and a return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba, all items considered impossible within the realm of a disjointed and dysfunctional Congress but also items that democracy-lovers the world over strongly support her on. Without those things, the sovereignty-loving Josefina Vidal is willing to forego normal Cuban relations with the U. S.
Obama in March of 2016 not only became the first sitting U. S. President to visit Cuba since 1928, during his 8 years as America's two-term President, he has been the first American leader to have both the courage and decency to apply democratic principles to U.S.-Cuban relations. With a Batistiano-fueled Congress soon joined by a Batistiano-fueled Trump presidency, Mr. Obama's herculean efforts on behalf of democracy and innocent Cubans may well be unraveled. But his efforts alone should crown him at the very top echelon of America's 45 Presidents. No democracy-lover in the world could defend the plethora of anti-democratic Batistiano Cuban laws easily rammed through Congress and supported by right-wing Republican administrations, laws such as Wet Foot-Dry Foot. No matter what happens after January 20th, Mr. Obama tried his best to correct Cuban policies that daily shame America and democracy in the eyes of the world. And just trying in the manner he did should stand as an unforgettable legacy for a great man.
A favorite photo of my favorite President.
{I now rate FDR #2 and Lincoln #3}
{I now rate FDR #2 and Lincoln #3}
No comments:
Post a Comment