AOC Has Got Cuba All Wrong & The Democrats Have Come To Correct Her

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently broke her silence on the pro-freedom protests that have broken out in Cuba over the tyrannical communist government. But AOC’s response echoed that of the Black Lives Matter organization and Sen. Bernie Sanders, focusing entirely on ending the U.S embargo and Trump-era restrictions, instead of the dictatorship actions taken by President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

AOC wrote that she stands in “solidarity” with the Cuban people and condemns the suppression of the media, speech, and protest, in their country. She said they are seeing Cubans rise up and protest for their rights like never before. She adds that she would also call for an end to the U.S embargo and additional Trump-era restrictions that are “profoundly contributing” to the suffering of Cubans.

This rings similar to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has urged the Cuban government to refrain from violence but also criticized the U.S for its trade embargo on the island. Sanders previously shared his excitement for the communist revolution during a speech in the 1980s, where he said it seemed “right and appropriate” that poor people were rising up against rather ugly rich people.

Sanders said he almost “puked” when he saw former president John F. Kennedy push his opponent Richard Nixon to be tougher on Cuba, adding that it was the first time in his adult life he saw the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

But Sanders and other members of the Progressive Squad have praised Cuba and defended Castro for public transportation, education, health care, and “totally transforming” the society. Sanders has not said if he regrets any of his past comments about Cuba but has continued taking on an extremely warped view of society that does not believe in work ethic or accumulating wealth related to hard work.

AOC follows the same footsteps and has used Cuba’s crisis to focus on the United State’s “contribution,” which she evoked as Cuba’s worst crisis in decades. She said they must add the sixty-year-old U.S embargo to Cuba’s suffering and lift the “cruel and inhumane policies” that destabilize the country. The U.S imposed an embargo to isolate Cuba economically and diplomatically after Fidel Castro overthrew the regime in 1959. She used three of her four tweets condemning the United States and blaming it for the hardships in Cuba without a single mention of communism.

Despite what people think, the embargo against Cuba began when Cuba was allying itself with the Soviets, which led to the Cuban missile crisis. If we were holding embargoes or sanctions against countries simply because we don’t like them, we’d be sanctioning Saudi Arabia.

Black Lives Matter went on to suggest that the U.S is credited for the failure of the Cuban government and the country’s instability. They said that the U.S embargo has undermined the Cubans’ right to choose their own government, as if Cubans were able to vote or run a democracy in the first place. BLM, Sanders, and AOC have all called on President Joe Biden to end the decades-long embargo on the country, rather than call out the communist government for its crisis.

But many people don’t like what the radical left members of Congress have to say, including some Democrats themselves. Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost to Rep. Carlos Gimenez in Florida, tweeted that AOC’s label of the embargo as “absurdly cruel” was not correct at all.

Mucarsel-Powell explained that it is not the U.S embargo that contributed to the Cubans’ suffering, but the failed policies of a communist regime that has violated human rights and killed dissidents. “Cuban ppl [sic] — young & old — are risking their lives to rise up, we must listen to them,” she added. “This is a matter of national security. The US must act,” she said.

Mucarsel-Powell called on protesters and their demands to removal Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and the end of the totalitarian system.

The radical left will continue denouncing the Cuban government in a half-hearted way while arguing that everything would be better if the U.S embargo ended. Mind you, the embargo does not stop Cuba from trading with other countries. They’ve even turned down aid in regards to COVID-19 vaccines and medicine. But according to AOC and Sanders, if Cuba were just richer in trade then the suffering would not exist for the Cuban people.

Cubans want freedom, not imports.