"Obama has dissappointed us, many Cubans that thought with his government, the opposition was going to receive support"

No, those are not my words. They are from Jose Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez", castro's ex political prisoners and one of the most lucid and outspoken dissidents back in the island-gulag.

Ejem... sorry, the race card won't work here either. As you can see, Antunez's Black ancestry is wayyyyyy closer than our POTUS's. And, to go above and beyond and be color-blind, he is a man with capital letters, something BHO is far, far, far away from.

Antunez charged back against Obama in an interview published (in Spanish) in the online magazine Cubaencuentro, which is not exactly a den for "rabid anti-castro Miami Cubans".

BTW, this is not the first time, nor is he the first Cuban dissident to talk about it, but it is certainly the first time that is pretty direct, clear and simple.

He also addressed the current situation of the opposition movement inside the island and analyzed the internal fights among different dissidence's organizations.

Due to the relevance of this brave man's words, I am posting the interview in its entirety, in my own humble English translation.

(Any resemblance with POTUS' stand on Iran and Honduras it is the result of your imagination or a pure and simple coincidence)

Antúnez asks Obama to pay attention to Cuba's human rights
situation
CE Newsroom 05/08/2009

Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), ex political prisoner, asked the United States' President Barack Obama to pay attention to the situation of the human rights in the island.

"Obama has disappointed us, many Cubans that thought with his government, the opposition was going to receive support (...) he has demonstrates a position of reconciliation and rapprochement with the Castro's tyranny. He has destroyed, with the stroke of a pen, the long history of solidarity and support that previous US governments have maintained towards the Cuban opposition movement," said Antunez during an interview with independent journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira.

Antúnez criticized the US president's decision to lift the family travel and remittances restrictions with the island. "Since the beginning, I was among those who have said that more remittances or more Cuban Americans flying to the island are not going to make any difference for the freedom of the Cuban people. Those trips, in their biggest majority, represent tourism and pleasure," added the dissident.

"The quest of freedom for Cuba is above remittances and traveling, the cause for the freedom of our homeland needs a compromise and a massive support not only from the US government, but also from the European Union, that is so detached, insensible and demagogic towards the suffering of the Cuban people," he added.

For the dissident, this confirms that "the solution to the case of Cuba is a matter that have to be solve between Cuban."

"We hope that the US government (...) will think about this aspect and pay more attention to the situation of the human rights in Cuba," he said.

Talking about the current situation of the internal opposition, the ex
political prisoner considered that there has been an increase in the "demonstrations of civic resistance and civil disobedience." He considers that "the vast majority of Cubans, inside and outside the opposition", believes that the streets are "the real scene to fight and resist."

"Unfortunately, we're seeing a completely negative phenomenon (...) I can see quite a few dissidents and independent journalists that are opposing the opposition," criticized the dissident.

"It hurts a lot when you see that every day there is a new letter out there, denounces to attack other dissidents and projects to question and minimize their work. I think that behind all that are the horrendous strings and the hand of the political repression forces. This, obviously, does not undermine the fact that, unfortunately, there are attitudes of caudillism, protagonism and elitism around us that reinforce this trend," stated Antunez, according to Serpa Maceira.

Regarding the relations between the opposition and the exiles, he stated that there are dissidents that "seems to want to exclude the exile from this battle."

"The Cuban nation consists of the Cuban people that is right here, of its peaceful dissidence and the exile. Any movement, trend or initiative that aim to exclude the exile (...) from our fight, that is a contentious position that will only benefit, ultimately, the Castro's regime."

This is a man in front of whom, as I've written before, I take my hat off thousand times. I hate that he has come to this realization and, as my mother always says, one should not beat the dead horse... but it feels like "I've told you so!"

Which, sadly, makes me wonder how many hopes did Cuban dissidents placed in BHO and much time will they need to open their eyes... will they need another 50 years like most of our parents needed to realize who Castro really was?

The question "How's that hopeandchange working for ya'?", inevitably, takes to me the endless quest of why we, as human beings, do not learn our lessons.

Why we insist in choosing saviours and messiahs over freedom and common sense? What else do we need to loose? How many more need to die or be repressed in order for us to learn the lesson? Why, America, do we take our freedom for granted?

H/T to Penúltimos Días