Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Cuban dictator Raúl Castro that he would not allow American President-elect Donald Trump to dissuade him from supporting the communist regime, repeatedly referring to the dictator as “my friend” and thanking him for his “hospitality.”
“I would like to thank President Castro and the Cuban people for their warmth and hospitality. It is no wonder that so many Canadians keep returning every year to this beautiful country,” Trudeau said at the culmination of his diplomatic visit to Cuba, in which he was regaled with a special “intimate” dinner with Castro at an upscale Old Havana restaurant but unable to meet nonagenarian despot Fidel Castro, which he described as unfortunate.
During a talk at the University of Havana, Trudeau confirmed that he had no intention of holding the Castro regime accountable for the beatings and arbitrary detentions of political dissidents, the routine oppression of the Christian faith, or the theft of 92 percent of Cuban workers’ salaries employed by Canadian companies.
“We disagree with the approach the United States has taken with Cuba. We think that our approach is much better — of partnership, of collaboration, of engagement,” Canada’s CBC quotes the prime minister as stating.
“Elections in the United States will not change the strong relationship, which is one of partners and friends, between Canada and Cuba,” he affirmed. “Canada has always been a true and sincere friend of Cuba and we have never seen a contradiction between being great friends of Cuba and good friends and partners with the United States.”
Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, was enough of a good friend of the murderous dictator Fidel Castro that the latter served as an honorary pallbearer at the elder Trudeau’s funeral. The Cuban government gifted Justin Trudeau a photo album of private shots of Castro and his father during his visit to the island four decades ago.
The Canadian Prime Minister reportedly met with government-picked representatives of Cuba’s “civil society,” with which he claimed to have discussed “human rights.” The CBC listed the topics as “diversity, race, gender, and LGBTQ2 issues.”
The U.S.-Cuba relationship is slated for a change as President-elect Trump begins to plan his tenure, beginning in January 2017. Trump has repeatedly and forcefully condemned the human rights abuses of the Castro regime and particularly criticized President Barack Obama’s decision to “normalize” diplomatic relations with the communist country.
“The President’s one-sided deal for Cuba benefits only the Castro Regime,” Trump said in September, vowing to demand human rights improvements from the Castro regime as president. Trump has also written extensively on why he has not personally invested in building hotels in Cuba: “I had a choice to make: huge profits or human rights. For me, it was a no-brainer.”
Trump’s opposition to the Castro regime landed him the first-ever endorsement from the 2506 Brigade, the veterans of the Bay of Pigs massacre under President John F. Kennedy. Trump was also twice as likely to win the Cuban-American vote in Florida than any other Latin American group, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Castro government responded to Trump’s election with a series of “military exercises” intended to intimidate Washington.