Shift of Cuban policy

The recent wire-service article written from Havana reporting on Mr. Trump’s change in Cuba policy was a bit obscure about the effect on the island. Perhaps the reporters feared losing the right to be in Cuba and could not be more direct. Cuba is still a police state run by an entrenched elite—the pigs on the Animal Farm island.

For those of us who have been to Cuba and speak Spanish, the message was crystal clear: Trump’s change in policy only strengthens the hand of the communists while undermining the emerging forces of democracy on the island. Once again average Cubans see the heavy hand of Uncle Sam trying to dictate how Cubans are to manage their own affairs.

Such attempted bullying by any outsider is deeply resented.

One thing the rulers in Cuba understand very well is the fierce determination of her people to preserve their right to self-determination. Thus, the elites have played up this misguided policy change—using it to their personal advantage. Mr. Trump’s ignorance has pulled the rug out from under the libertarians on the island, forcing them to back down from their challenges to los jefes, the state security thugs.

Sadly, the visceral hatred of Cuban-American hard-liners here in the U.S. who promoted these changes clouds their ability to understand they are actually working on the side of the oppressors in Cuba. When the castle (or island) seems under siege, those holding command power inside actually get stronger, not weaker. JOHN ROBERT BOMAR

Arkadelphia