As Cuban citizens take to city streets across the island nation to cry out for liberty in the first such mass protests in decades, the White House — and Jen Psaki in particular — has developed a strange sort of amnesia for the reign of terror that’s been inflicted by Cuba’s dictators for decades.
Specifically, Psaki and the White House she speaks for won’t identify the painfully obvious source of citizens’ suffering and turmoil: Communism.
Rather than Castro's commie regime — and its abuse of Cuba’s citizens through years of suppressed economic and personal freedom — Psaki thinks she knows what protesters are upset about. “One of the issues that protestors are justifiably out there in the streets protesting about is hunger, is lack of access to vaccines, etcetera,” said Psaki of Cuban protests this week.
No mention of perhaps why hunger is a primary concern of Cuba’s citizens or how the distribution and use of vaccines have been less than stellar in the country. And no explanation as to why Cuban protestors gathered outside Communist Party buildings to chant “Cuba isn’t yours.”
President Biden’s statement — or at least the text attributed to him by the White House — isn’t any better at getting to the root cause of discontent among Cuba’s citizens.
“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime,” Biden said.
Sure, the Wuhan coronavirus hasn’t done anything to help the people of Cuba, but a much more “tragic grip” has been afflicting Cubans for far longer than COVID. Yet communism and socialism are words not found in the President’s lip service statement to Cuban freedom fighters that he’s otherwise, so far, done nothing to help.
Cuban citizens are brave enough to say “down with the communist dogs,” so why isn't the Biden administration?
Asked by the press about Biden’s statement, Psaki had another opportunity to explain the horrors faced by generations of Cuban citizens who were held down, imprisoned, tortured, or killed by some of the world’s worst in the name of communism. Again, her mind failed to bring the word to her lips.
“There’s every indication that yesterday’s protests were spontaneous expressions of people who are exhausted with the Cuban government’s economic mismanagement and repression," she said. "These are protests inspired by the harsh reality of everyday life in Cuba.”
Oh really. “Economic mismanagement” is how the spokeswoman for the most powerful office in the world — that’s supposed to be the globe’s greatest force for freedom — wants to frame the evil of communism? Or, even if mere “mismanagement” is how the White House chooses to characterize the utter lack of economic freedom in the country, why couldn’t she muster the courage to identify the individuals and ideologies responsible for repressing Cubans?
“Economic mismanagement” is too gentle a term for most white-collar crimes let alone the systematic oppression of an entire country’s population in order to amass wealth and power for an elite few. Coming up short on cash at the end of the month is “economic mismanagement,” keeping your citizens impoverished to the point they make an average of around $25 per month is evil.
But much like Psaki’s frequent use of “circle back,” she had found a phrase in “mismanagement” and wasn’t done using it.
When asked point-blank during a subsequent White House press briefing, “don’t we know that the reason people want to leave Cuba is because they don’t like communism?” she was apparently confounded.
“I’m not sure what your question is. Why are people leaving Cuba?” she responded, seeking to clarify a very clear question.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear that we think people are leaving Cuba, or protesting in the streets as well, because they are opposed to the oppression, to the mismanagement of the government in the country," Psaki eventually explained. "And we certainly support their right to protest, we support their efforts to speak out against their treatment in Cuba.”
Ah. Now it’s not just “economic mismanagement” that Cuba’s communist dictators oversaw, but also a general “mismanagement of the government.” The watered-down terminology is a slap in the face to the innocent Cuban citizens who for generations were oppressed and abused by one ideology — communism — and its adherents.
The Biden administration’s refusal to call out communism by name means its stated support for Cuba’s citizens rings hollow and only provides cover for the evil ideology that’s to blame for suffering in Cuba.
If Psaki and Biden truly supported Cubans’ “efforts to speak out against their treatment in Cuba,” they would join the brave freedom fighters in calling out communism by name and demanding its eradication.