On Saturday night, blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrived in Newark, N.J., after escaping seven years of persecution in China. With the sweet land of liberty under his feet, Chen breathed the free air and remarked, “We should link our arms to continue in the fight for the goodness in the world and to fight against injustice.” Chen’s newfound freedom is a cause for celebration, but it is also a reminder that America must continue to be a force for liberty in the world, whether on the other side of … More
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Cuban Solidarity Day should make us renew efforts to extend a little more freedom to the Cuban population, which is still effectively imprisoned under their creaky Communist autocracy. May 20 marks the 110th year of Cuba’s independence, of which 53 long years have been spent under the Castro brothers’ dictatorship. Public events such as The Heritage Foundation’s program Friday, May 18, will demonstrate that the Cuban people are not forgotten. As important as this is, there are other, more concrete measures that can and should be taken as well. One … More
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The U.S. State Department has decided to grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Raul Castro, the country’s President and Premier, neice of notorious Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, despite laws precluding such visas from officials of the Cuban dictatorship. Castro Espin, who is the director of Cuba’s state-funded National Center for Sex Education, is scheduled to speak at a San Francisco conference held by the Latin American Studies Association starting May 23. A LASA spokesman confirmed that she is scheduled to attend in person. Castro Espin’s organization is … More
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It appears that the U.S. State Department has granted or will grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Raul Castro, the country’s President and Premier, neice of notorious Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, despite laws precluding such visas from officials of the Cuban dictatorship. Castro Espin, who is the director of Cuba’s state-funded National Center for Sex Education, is scheduled to speak at a San Francisco conference held by the Latin American Studies Association starting May 23. A LASA spokesman confirmed that she is scheduled to attend in person. Castro … More
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The U.S. State Department has decided to grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Raul Castro, the country’s President and Premier, neice of notorious Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, despite laws precluding such visas from officials of the Cuban dictatorship. Castro Espin, who is the director of Cuba’s state-funded National Center for Sex Education, is scheduled to speak at a San Francisco conference held by the Latin American Studies Association starting May 23. A LASA spokesman confirmed that she is scheduled to attend in person. Castro Espin’s organization is … More
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On April 13–15, President Obama participated in what will likely be the last Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. It showed that contemporary gatherings such as this latest Summit—absent strong U.S. leadership and lacking a genuinely constructive agenda—can easily be derailed. The showy gathering of heads of state was designed, starting in 1994, to bring the Americas together. Today, in the glare of the cameras, the summit has become a dysfunctional reality show, where increasingly independent-minded regional leaders freely speak their minds. The summit is a bruising, ego-heavy affair … More
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On March 28, Pope Benedict XVI completed his six-day visit to Mexico and Cuba. In both stops, the Pope sought to propagate the faith and demonstrate the connectivity between faith and the moral and spiritual conditions of modern man. In Cuba, the Pope did not visit with those who speak in opposition to the Castro regime. He did meet with a visibly aging, weakened Fidel Castro. Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said the Pope granted a meeting to Fidel Castro—but not to dissidents who had requested the same—out of the church’s … More
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The society that Pope Benedict XVI will find when he lands in Cuba next week will be a destitute one, prostrate in every way. The once proud and comparatively wealthy Cubans are now among the poorest in the hemisphere, definitely the least informed and, consequently, the least free. For outsiders, Cuba is a cautionary tale about what happens when a minority with guns takes over and tries to create a socialist paradise. For Cubans, who can’t escape, Cuba oscillates between inferno and merely tedious existence. Cuba is disconnected from the … More
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On March 24–26, Pope Benedict XVI will visit Cuba. This is the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II visited in 1998. Many fear that while the pope’s visit will generate fervor among the Catholic faithful, it may actually be harmful to the prospects for greater freedom on the island. Pope Benedict should not forget that Cuba in March 2012 remains “totalitarian” in nature, a one-party state run by General Raul Castro. It is a socialist/communist economy with a constitution that uniformly denies individual rights and suppresses human liberty. … More
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Anyone hoping to see serious changes to Cuba’s ruling system was again disappointed on January 28 when Raul Castro spoke. In a speech marking a critical conference, the Cuban leader promised change, term limits, economic reform, and a willingness to move younger party members to a more elevated status. Yet, as Raul Castro made many promises to his people during his 48-minute address, one could not help but notice the disparity between his words and the reality of Cuban life and politics. At one point, he boasted that Cuba is … More
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