Five years later, Cuba’s political prisoners are still waiting for freedom | Opinion
.JPG "In this file photo, Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer painted the slogan Patria y Vida, Homeland and Life on his body. The phrase, taken from a popular song, inspired those who protested against the government on July 11, 2021. Ferrer was arrested that day on his way to join the demonstrations in Santiago de Cuba.")
On July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans joined the largest uprising on the island in a generation. In Havana, Santiago and other cities, Cubans poured into the streets, chanting “libertad” and demanding an end to six decades of communist tyranny.
The regime’s response was swift and brutal. Security forces arrested hundreds. Men and women were dragged from their homes, thrown into prisons and handed sentences of 20 years for the crime of demanding freedom. Five years later, hundreds of those prisoners remain behind bars. Some are sick. Some have been tortured. All of them are still waiting for their freedom.
The Cuban regime hopes the world will forget the crackdown of July 11. They want us to move on, normalize relations and engage with the regime as if nothing happened.
But we won’t allow this anniversary to pass in silence.
For 65 years, the communist regime in Havana — under the Castro brothers and now their successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel — has counted on the world’s short attention span to survive its own failures. But today, these communist failures are impossible to ignore.
The Cuban people have long suffered under the Castro regime. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio told them this spring: “The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people.” Though the Trump administration offered direct humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, the regime rejected it. They would prefer to keep their people impoverished and starving to keep their grasp on power.
And it’s not just the Cuban people; the Castro regime also poses a grave threat to America. A failing state in our backyard presents a potential mass migration of desperate Cubans to America.
Cuba also conspires with America’s enemies. For example, public reporting indicates that Cuba hosts Chinese and Russian listening posts to spy on Americans. The Díaz-Canel government also allows Russian spy ships to use its ports to conduct espionage voyages off the coast of Florida. And, let’s be honest, the Cuban government isn’t hosting its Chinese and Russian friends to spy on Jamaica; they want to get as close as possible to the United States.
Further, U.S. officials recently said that the regime has been stockpiling Russian and Iranian drones for at least three years. The regime began receiving these weapons — which now pose “a growing threat” to America — around the time that Iran’s president visited Cuba to sign several secret agreements. And on top of the weapons stockpiles, Cuban soldiers who survive fighting for Russia in Ukraine will return home with new tactics to benefit their own murderous regime.
A radical communist regime, a failing state, a stockpile of weapons and Putin’s former proxy troops aren’t a combination we can tolerate on our doorstep. President Trump has warned Havana’s desperate leaders to make a deal with the United States “before it is too late.” The president also signed an executive order declaring that the United States has “zero tolerance for the depredations of the communist Cuban regime.”
I couldn’t agree more. I’m confident that the Trump administration has made and will continue to make the case to the regime that it has two retirement options. The regime can choose the Assad retirement plan and board a Russian military transport headed east. Or they can choose the Maduro retirement plan, with a flight north and complementary orange jumpsuits.
In either case, the Chinese and Russian spy platforms must be removed. The communist regime must be neutered. And the island must, at long last, be returned to the Cuban people.
Cubans haven’t given up. Even now, in the dark, they are making noise. Even now, they are risking everything to show the regime that fear has its limits. They deserve to know that the United States stands with them — not with words alone, but with action.
Tom Cotton, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Arkansas.