Well, so much for the "normalized" and new relationship with Cuba.
Less than a week after President Obama visited the communist island and pow-wowed with dictator Raul Castro at a baseball game, Fidel Castro has published a scathing letter slamming the United States and mocking Obama in the regime's state run newspaper. From POLITICO:
Castro ripped into the president and his words during the visit in El Granma, the official state newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, bringing up Obama's relative youth, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the role of both countries in ending the apartheid in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent in an article titled "El hermano Obama."
Cuba "has no need of gifts" from the United States, Castro concluded. "Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, because it is our commitment to peace and brotherhood of all human beings living on this planet."
During a joint press conference in Havana last week, Raul Castro openly criticized the United States on human rights issues, pointing out the lack of single-payer healthcare. Later, President Obama said he didn't necessarily disagree.
Meanwhile in Cuba, basic human rights like free speech, freedom of religion and freedom to assemble are non-existent. Those who dare to engage in the practice of these rights are thrown in jail, just like the more than 50 dissidents who were arrested by the Cuban government just hours prior to Obama's arrival.