Don’t ignore repression in Cuba

Miami Herald: The scathing reply delivered by Sen. Marco Rubio on the Senate floor this week in response to Sen. Tom Harkin’s report of a visit to Cuba was a well-aimed and well-justified verbal cannonball. Sen. Harkin had it coming.

Let’s be clear about this: There is room for debate about the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba and whether it should be replaced. Indeed, open debate should be encouraged.

There is certainly room for discussion about finding a more-effective way for the United States to help the Cuban people and, at the same time, promote U.S. goals in the hemisphere. Sacred cows have no place in foreign policy.

But any discussion about daily life in Cuba that glosses over, or completely ignores — as Sen. Harkin did — the punishing nature of the Cuban regime is intellectually dishonest, not to say naive.

Sen. Harkin believes the United States should abandon its policy of seeking Cuba’s isolation. His farm state of Iowa benefits from any trade improvement that would increase agricultural exports to Cuba, of course.

Sen. Rubio rightly responded to the speech by the Democrat from Iowa with sarcasm and indignation, tying the Castro regime to the Venezuelan government’s harsh response to street protests over failed economic policies based on Cuba’s discredited model.