The Castro regime just turned 55.  At the same time, what do they have to show for it?  The answer is nothing, specifically in the area of human rights.

From the beginning, the regime shut down dissent and closed newspapers. The political prisons were full of Cubans, in some cases for simply calling Castro a communist.  

This is a regime built on lies and more lies, as Fabio Rafael Fiallo, a Dominican-born economist and author, reminded us:

"Still more unfounded are the expectations that the Cuban regime is trying to nurture the political realm.

While Raúl Castro proposes to President Obama to establish a "civilized relationship" between their two countries, the Cuban regime continues to repress members of the dissidence, denying them the right to express their views, beating them brutally and submitting them to recurrent arrests. 

Arrests of dissidents have in fact been on the rise: 4,000 in 2011, 5,000 in 2012 and more than 5,300 in 2013.

Some leading dissidents -- such as Laura Pollán and Oswaldo Payá -- lost their lives under strange circumstances.  

Tellingly, the very day President Obama shook hands with Comrade Raúl Castro, more than one hundred dissidents were detained in Cuba.

Their crime: to try to organize a gathering on the International Human Rights Day."

It's time for decent men and women to support the Cuban people and support the termination of this corrupt and repressive regime.

P. S. You can hear my chat with Jorge Ponce of Babalu Blog about the current state of Cuba  & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.