By James L. Lambert

Last week 7 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) returned from a trip to Cuba. The tax payer funded Cuban trip seems to be an annual affair for leftists who are in love with the brutal, Castro regime. CBC Chairwoman, Rep. Barbara Lee (D - CA.), and Rep. Bobby Rush (D- IL) spoke glowingly of their meeting with the former dictator, Fidel Castro. In February, 2008, Castro has kept the rule of his country ‘in the family’ by appointing his brother, Raul, to his former ‘Premier’ position.

What these leftist CBC representatives forgot is the definition of ‘slavery’. Slavery is wrong wherever it raises its evil head. Cuba has long enslaved its citizens with a very oppressive regime. Castro’s fellow revolutionary, Che Guevara, was a mass murderer who was in charge of Cuba’s revolutionary tribunals. Castro also appointed this Marxist thug to be Cuba’s Minister of Industry. Remember, it was Fidel Castro who expropriated property from businesses and civilians not long after he came into power in Cuba.  Forces magazine, in 2005, estimated Castro’s personal wealth to be around $550M, certainly more than the ‘moderate’ means that CBC members implied in press conference discussing their meeting with the retired Cuban dictator.  

The CBC also forgot about the estimated 1.2 million Cubans who have attempted to flee, (many successfully), Cuba from 1959 to 1993. Why? Castro’s government is oppressive. The Cuban government has tight controls over the media, education, and commerce. It is still a huge violator of human rights. A ‘tribunal on Cuba’ held in 1986 by former captives and prisoners of the Marxist regime outlined in detail the corrupt penal system and hard labor camps in Cuba.

Last Thursday, Rep. Chris Smith (R- NJ) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R- VA.) said the “caucus trip to the island nation ignored the plight of the political prisoners under the Castro regime.” Senator Mel Martinez said on Wednesday, that “regardless of one’s position on US Cuba policy, one would expect that any US official would … raise concerns about the regime’s systematic violation of human rights.” 

Having the courage to raise human rights concerns with the retired dictator is something that admirers of Castro would never do. They have long admired the retired dictator. Remember, this is former dictator of a country that is listed by our government as one of the 15 worst state violators of human trafficking in the world. 

Surprisingly, for all the gushing admiration that CBC members like Lee, Rush, and Maria Fudge (D-Ohio) held for the former Cuban Premier, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D- MO) was quick to deny Castro’s own claim that while the House Democrats were in Cuba “one of the Caucus members said that ‘America continues to be racist’” (CNN) 

A little egg on their face?  I guess it’s hard for dedicated leftists; too hard to recognize the truth of a regime they so very much admire.