The President of the United Nations General Assembly and ambassadors from around the world stood for a “minute of silence” earlier this week to honor the deceased Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Peter Thomson of Fiji called for the minute of silence Tuesday, beginning the session with what Thomson called his “sad duty to pay tribute to the memory” of the former Cuban president:

“I’m deeply saddened by the passing of Fidel Castro … [O]ne of the iconic leaders of the 20th century, with a great love for his homeland and the Cuban people, he dedicated his life to their welfare and development. A tireless advocate for equity in the international arena, he was an inspirational figure for developing countries in particular. His dedication to their advancement, especially in the fields of education and health, will long be remembered.

Thomson then invited the other representatives to stand with him in observation of the minute of silence . . .

A Legacy of Tyranny

Nearly a week has passed since Castro died at age 90. Even as Cuban exiles in Miami celebrated his death and the end of his tyrannical reign over Cuba, numerous world leaders lauded him — largely ignoring the countless atrocities committed against Cubans during his near half-century in power.

Perhaps most notable was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement expressing “deep sorrow” over Castro’s death and describing him as a “larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.” An international backlash against those comments led Trudeau to acknowledge Castro as “a polarizing figure” whose leadership led to “significant concerns around human rights.”

Those familiar with Castro’s autocratic 50-year regime were less sanguine. Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and veteran international correspondent, wrote last week that over 8,000 political arrests were made during the first eight months of 2016, and over 50,000 Cubans fled to the United States last year. While the number of exiles has recently increased, Cubans have been fleeing to America’s shores for years, braving shark-infested waters and sometimes dying along the way.

In a Miami Herald piece published in response to Castro’s death, Armando Salguero, a Cuban immigrant, details the harrowing story of his family’s escape from Castro’s rule, which resulted in a three-year separation from his father. They were eventually reunited.

Stream Senior Editor John Zmirack told the story of his high school best friend, a Cuban exile, whose father had been tortured in prison camps under Castro’s rule and who said the only reason Cuba so heavily emphasized literacy — a point many world leaders have praised — was because “They wanted everyone to be able to read their propaganda … so there was no excuse for disobedience.”

And another Cuban-American, Ana Quintana, recalled this week her grandfather’s stories of life under Castro:

Religion was criminalized, dissent was violently punished, and Cuban citizens became property of their communist state. Fidel’s rule brought the world to its closest point of nuclear war during those fateful 13 days in 1962. He indoctrinated hate and pushed millions out of their country.

World Leaders’ Reactions to Castro’s Death

After Castro’s death, President Barack Obama said that “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.”

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn acknowledged Castro’s “flaws” but also called him a “champion of social justice.”

In a telegram to Raul Castro, Castor’s younger brother, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Free and independent Cuba, which he (Fidel Castro) and his allies built, became an influential member of the international community and became an inspiring example for many countries and nations. Fidel Castro was a sincere and reliable friend of Russia.”

The Associated Press reported statements from other world leaders after Castro’s passing. Like those issued by Trudeau, Putin and Corbyn, the statements mostly consisted of praise for the dictator:

Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the president of El Salvador, said he felt “deep sorrow … of my friend and eternal companion, Commander Fidel Castro Ruz.”

Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted that “Fidel Castro was a friend of Mexico, promoting bilateral relations based on respect, dialogue and solidarity.”

“India mourns the loss of a great friend,” Indian Prime Minister Nerendra Modi said on Twitter.

The country’s president, Pranab Mukherjee tweeted: “Heartfelt condolences on sad demise of Cuba’s revolutionary leader, former president & friend of India, Fidel Castro.”

Peter Hain, a former member of the British Cabinet and anti-apartheid campaigner, tempered praise for Castro with criticism of some aspects of his long rule.

“Although responsible for indefensible human rights and free-speech abuses, Castro created a society of unparalleled access to free health, education and equal opportunity despite an economically throttling USA siege,” Hain said. “His troops inflicted the first defeat on South Africa’s troops in Angola in 1988, a vital turning point in the struggle against apartheid.”

A statement from the Spanish government hailed Castro as “a figure of enormous historical importance.”

“As a son of Spaniards, former president Castro always maintained close relations with Spain and showed great affection for his family and cultural ties. For this reason Spain especially shares the grief of Cuba’s government and authorities,” the government statement said.

“Fidel Castro in the 20th century did everything possible to destroy the colonial system, to establish cooperative relations,” former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency.

“Fidel survived and strengthened the country during the most severe U.S. blockade, while there was enormous pressure on him, and still led his country out of the blockade on the road of independent development.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recalled Castro’s departure from Mexico on the yacht Granma with his brother Raul and several dozen supporters to start their revolution.

“Sixty years after the Granma sailed from Mexico, Fidel sails toward the immortality of all those who fight their whole lives,” Maduro tweeted. “Onward to victory, always!”

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, however, refused to sing Castro’s praises. Calling him a “brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said in a statement, “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty, and the denial of fundamental human rights.” (For more from the author of “UN Honors Fidel Castro With ‘Minute of Silence'” please click HERE)

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Under the Castro regime in Cuba, Sebastian Arcos spent a year of his life in prison for trying to escape the grip of communism.

But the death of Fidel Castro on Friday did not give Arcos immediate relief, because the regime that altered the course of his life remains in power.

“I have become old and cynical, so I was not particularly happy when he died—I was not sad either,” said Arcos, who spent the first 30 years of his life in Cuba before coming to Miami, where he is now the associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

“Unquestionably, the world is a better place today without Fidel Castro,” Arcos added in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“More importantly, even if I don’t have any hope the regime will change in the short term, as a friend said to me yesterday, nothing changes and everything changes. Nothing changes because in the short term, Raul Castro [Fidel’s brother and Cuba’s president] remains firmly in control. But everything changes because the paramount leader of the Cuban Revolution has died, and when they bury him, they will bury the Cuban Revolution with him.”

Arcos, like many Cuban-Americans and others with a stake in Cuba’s future, views Fidel Castro’s death as an inflection point in how the U.S. engages with the Communist-ruled island.

Supporters of President Barack Obama’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba hope that Fidel Castro’s death will hasten the rapprochement of the two countries. But skeptics like Arcos say Fidel Castro’s death, and the attention it is drawing, will expose the human rights abuses and oppression that he says has continued under Raul Castro’s leadership, providing an opportunity for the next U.S. administration to press harder for change.

“President-elect Donald Trump made a campaign promise here in Miami, and he has to find a way to fulfill that campaign promise,” Arcos said.

Trump has sent mixed signals on his potential Cuba policy.

During a campaign event in Miami in September, Trump accused the Obama administration of making “concessions” to Cuba and he said he would reverse the president’s actions, many made by executive authority, unless “the Castro regime meets our demands.”

Monday, Trump took to Twitter to clarify his policy, writing: “If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people, and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.”

But Trump also spoke positively of Obama’s policy early in his campaign, saying restarting diplomatic relations with Cuba was “fine.”

Obama’s Dramatic Change

In December of 2014, Obama announced a renewal of diplomatic ties with Cuba that included a loosening of decades-old restrictions on travel, trade, investment, and remittances.

Within a year, the countries reopened their embassies.

It is now easier for Americans to visit Cuba and send money and goods there, and also for American businesses to establish a presence on the island. Obama recently used executive action to expand the legal importation of Cuban cigars and rum by Americans who visit the island.

Hundreds of commercial flights go to and from the island weekly, with U.S. airlines scheduled to join this week.

Obama could not end the trade embargo against Cuba. Only Congress can do that.

Ricardo Herrero, the executive director of #CubaNow, an advocacy group that supports Obama’s policy change, said that the opening to Cuba has encouraged private industry and promoted free expression from reform-minded citizens.

“It would be a grave mistake to pull back now,” Herrero told The Daily Signal in an interview. “By demanding concessions, all you are doing is empowering the regime and enabling them to go to reformers on the island and say, ‘See, they [the U.S.] are trying to govern us already.’ That’s why we need to remain strong. Let’s not give more oxygen to those who want to continue fighting the Cold War forever.”

‘Important Opportunity’

If Trump moves forward with changing Obama’s Cuba policy, he will find influential allies in the Republican-controlled House and Senate.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal that he and other Cuban-American Republicans in Congress are “so encouraged” by Trump’s public statements regarding Cuba.

He said he would push for Trump to “eliminate” all of Obama’s actions unless Cuba meets certain conditions, including freeing all political prisoners “without exception,” allowing for “basic freedoms,” and starting the process “toward multiparty elections.”

“Let’s help the internal opposition,” Diaz-Balart said. “Let’s stand with them, and encourage and legitimize them, as opposed to what Obama has done to legitimize the dictatorship that oppresses those folks. This is a very important opportunity for the president-elect to do an awful lot of good for the prospects of a free Cuba.”

Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who supports Obama’s policy change, is more circumspect about radically shifting course.

“I am hopeful he [Trump] will come out on the side of his earlier statements that were pro-engagement and question the validity of a 50-year policy that has not brought about change,” Sanford told The Daily Signal in an interview. “I have no problem with the idea of asking for more. If one can come up with a better deal, we should. What I would hope not to see is the perfect being the enemy of the good. Wherever you are in the debate, people are foreseeing change in Cuba. The question is how do we get there.”

Eric Hershberg, the director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, said Trump has the authority to walk back much of Obama’s Cuba policy.

He argues that in this uncertain period after Fidel Castro’s death, and the election of Trump as U.S. president, Raul Castro and his communist regime may be more tempted to act out in the short term.

“Fidel leaving the scene may accentuate the regime’s message to the Americans that we are still here and will act in our interests, not yours,” Hershberg said. “The Cubans aren’t going to give any concessions at all. The Cubans have never gave concessions since the revolution and they won’t start now.” (For more from the author of “After Castro’s Death, Trump Seeks ‘Concessions’ From Cuba” please click HERE)

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You will hear some people today excuse Fidel Castro’s crimes by begging that he accomplished social goals. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have already beclowned themselves on that front. They were merely the first.

Our own President Barack Obama opted for washing his hands, choosing to neither praise Castro after his death Friday, nor to condemn the tragedy his communist dictatorship has inflicted on the Cuban people for 57 years.

“History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him,” said Obama, playing Pilate.

No social accomplishment, to be sure, could justify keeping an entire people hostage, denying them the right to elect their own leaders or exercise any human rights for half a century. But there weren’t any accomplishments.

On the contrary, Castro destroyed a thriving society and imposed penury, either out of Marxist dogma or out of resentment that his out-of-wedlock birth had left him with a stigma among Cuba’s middle classes.

Cuba had problems in 1958, as many societies do. But on a number of fronts, it was the lead country in Latin America, or among the very top. Its social indicators were not just ahead of Asia and Africa, but also ahead of many European countries.

Many Europeans, including half of all my great-grandparents, immigrated to Cuba in the 20th century—barely a century ago—seeking to improve their lives economically. They did, and their granddaughter, my mother, went to law school.

After 57 years of communism it is risible to think of a single European immigrating to Cuba to improve his fortunes. Risible in a dark, macabre way.

That’s anecdotal, but the numbers back up what 2 million Cuban-Americans today (i.e., Cuban-born people who can speak freely) know to be true.

A study by the State Department’s Hugo Llorens and Kirby Smith shows, for example, that in infant mortality, literacy rates, per capita food consumption, passenger cars per capita, number of telephones, radios, televisions, and many other indicators, Cuba led when Castro took over on New Year’s Eve 1958.

The United Nations statistics leave no doubt. In infant mortality, Cuba’s 32 deaths per 1,000 live births was well ahead of Japan, West Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain (40, 36, 39, 33, 34, 50, and 53 respectively), and many others.

In food consumption, in terms of calories per day, Cuba was ahead of all of Latin America except cattle-rich Argentina and Uruguay. In automobiles per 1,000 inhabitants, Cuba’s 24 was ahead over everyone in Latin America expect oil-producing Venezuela (27).

As for literacy rates, Cuba’s 76 percent in the late 1950s put it closely behind only Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica. Giant Brazil’s percentage, by comparison, was 49 percent.

And Cuba’s gross domestic product per capita in 1959 was higher than those of Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, most of Latin America, Asia, and Africa, again according to U.N. statistics.

In most vital statistics, therefore, Cuba was on a par with Mediterranean countries and southern U.S. states.

And today? Castro’s communism has not just left Cubans economically pauperized, but politically bereft, a situation that Obama’s unilateral concessions to Castro’s little brother, the 85-year-old Raul, Cuba’s present leader, has only made worse.

According to the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which is recognized by Amnesty International and Freedom House, so far this year there have already been over 8,505 political arrests during the first eight months. This represents the highest rate of political arrests in decades.

Meanwhile, we are in the midst of a new Cuban migration crisis. The United States is faced with the largest migration of Cuban nationals since the rafters of 1994. The number of Cubans fleeing to the United States in 2015 was nearly twice that of 2014.

Some 51,000 Cubans last year entered the United States, and this year’s figures will easily surpass that. The numbers of Cuban nationals fleeing Cuba have now quintupled since Obama took office, when it was less than 7,000 annually.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised he will reverse Obama’s opening unless Raul Castro opens up Cuba politically. This Castro won’t do and there were reports today that dissidents are being rounded up and carted off.

And so far, Trump’s statement on the “brutal dictator” Castro has been the moral one and the one closest to the mark: “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

Today, therefore, will be a day for clarity. What world leaders say about the departed tyrant will reveal whether they have an inner moral compass or not. (For more from the author of “The Left’s Appalling Whitewashing of Castro’s Legacy” please click HERE)

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