Duffy frustrated with concessions made by Obama in Cuban deal

An op-ed by U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) was published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Sunday, discussing his disappointment in the concessions given by President Barack Obama in finalizing the new diplomatic relationship with Cuba last week.

“This 4th of July weekend, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Cuba who yearn for the freedoms our forefathers secured for us 239 years ago,” Duffy said. “Forgotten in the Obama administration’s ‘legacy-making’ foreign policy celebrations are the liberty-loving dissidents languishing in Cuban jails; the families who will never see their loved one who ‘disappeared’; the young and old who risked and lost their lives in shark-infested waters trying to touch the shores of freedom; and the millions who suffer unspeakable poverty and indignities under the repressive, Communist [Fidel] Castro regime.”

The Congressman went on to explain his frustration that instead of using Cuba’s strong desire to gain a strong economic ally such as the United States to replace its eroding relationship with Venezuela as a negotiating tool, the Obama administration “continues its pattern of negotiating with the world’s worst dictators from a position of weakness, demanding none of the human rights and democratic concessions that it could secure and that the Cuban people deserve.”

Obama announced that he was restoring full diplomatic ties with Cuba late last year. Last week, he and Cuban President Raul Castro said the two countries would reopen their embassies after more than 50 years. 

“President Barack Obama offered Cuba a one-sided handshake without demanding any major human rights or political reforms from Cuba in return,” Duffy added. “The corrupt Castro brothers and their communist government cronies will enjoy the economic benefits of a ‘friendship’ with the United States while the Cuban people will continue to live in an oppressed state deprived of free speech and the most basic of economic opportunities.”

Obama has asked lawmakers to lift the travel embargo against Cuba, but many in the Republican-controlled Congress have objected. 

“As we celebrate our freedoms this weekend with our families, let our thoughts and prayers be joined in solidarity with our Cuban brothers and sisters whose hearts still long for liberty and who continue to find hope in the faint sound of its bells which ring so loudly a mere 90 miles from their island-nation’s shores,” Duffy concluded.