Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden Spends Winter Break with Communist Leaders in Cuba

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Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez/Twitter
Christian K. Caruzo

The Castro regime’s puppet president Miguel Díaz-Canel announced on Wednesday evening that he received a visit from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The announcement of Wyden’s visit to Cuba occurred less than three weeks after a delegation of three Democrat congressmen traveled to Havana to meet with members of Cuba’s communist regime between December 9-11.

“I received United States Senator Ron Wyden, to whom I ratified the willingness to work together to improve bilateral relations for the benefit of our peoples,” Díaz-Canel posted on Twitter. “I explained to him the impact that the extreme measures of the US government have had on the Cuban population.”

Díaz-Canel appeared to be referring to the Cuban “embargo,” which allows medical, humanitarian aid, family ties, and other critical contacts between the two countries but is designed to keep money out of the hands of the oppressive communist regime. The Communist Party has spent much of the past century complaining that the impoverished state of the Cuban people is single-handedly the result of the “embargo,” omitting the strict restrictions Havana places on its people interacting with Americans and decades of incompetent communist rule.

In its report of the Democrat Senator’s visit to Cuba, Granma, the communist Castro regime’s state newspaper, described Wyden on Thursday as “one of the most influential voices” from the United States who has “expressed his disagreement” with the Cuban “embargo,” noting that the Democrat senator introduced a bill in 2021 that sought to “establish normal trade relations” with the enemy state to America.

Granma‘s report also mentions a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed by the Democrat senator in February 2021 in which Wyden – alongside Democrat Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Mark Warner (D-VA) – urged the Biden administration to drop all sanctions imposed on the communist Castro regime, including Cuba’s removal from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism. The letter suggested reengaging with the Castro regime to “promote U.S. interests.”

The Trump administration included Cuba on the list of states sponsors of terrorism in January 2021 as a result of the communist Castro regime’s deep ties to international terrorist organizations such as Colombia’s Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Shiite jihadist organization Hezbollah.

Granma also effusively praised Wyden’s “notable activism” in favor of restrictions on gun rights in the United States and “other issues of social impact such as the legalization of abortion and equal marriage.”

“This meeting is an example of how, despite the US government’s position of sustaining its hostile policy against Cuba, there are influential personalities from that nation who are committed to respectful bilateral dialogue,” Granma concluded in its report.

In addition to the recent visits from Democrat Congressmen to Cuba and their calls to end the “embargo,” the Biden administration has granted concessions to the communist Castro regime by reversing Trump-era restrictions on remittances sent from Cuban citizens abroad to their families in Cuba — which the Castro regime steals a large cut from, giving only a fraction of the original sent amount to its intended recipients.

The Castro regime’s human rights violations against peaceful protesters – who have for years demanded the end of more than six decades of communist rule – have worsened throughout 2022. Quality of life in Cuba has also deteriorated significantly as basic infrastructure, poorly maintained under the Castro family, has almost entirely collapsed. 

The Castro regime recently admitted that its crumbling healthcare system — which the regime falsely promotes as world-leading — faces its worst crisis in 64 years of communist rule.

Cuba is believed to be currently undergoing the worst migrant crisis in history. U.S. border authorities documented over 227,000 cases of Cubans fleeing from communism between December 2021 and December 2022 alone. The number of cases of Cubans fleeing from communism during the past year is greater than the 1980 Mariel exodus and 1994’s rafter crisis combined.

The Biden Administration has responded to the Cuban migrant crisis by detaining and deporting Cubans fleeing from communism who attempt to reach U.S. soil by sea, leaving the southern land border largely open.

Recently, Homeland Security “accidentally” tipped off the Castro regime on the names and personal information of a group of Cuban citizens who had requested protection in the United States out of fear of political persecution.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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