{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tiberi.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394717", "IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL:", "2014-12-18", "2014", "2014-12", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Pat Tiberi", "T000462", "tiberi.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "IN RECENT months, the outlook for the Castro regime in Cuba was growing steadily darker. The modest reforms it adopted in recent years to improve abysmal economic conditions had stalled, due to the regime\u2019s refusal to allow Cubans greater freedoms. Worse, the accelerating\u00a0economic collapse of Venezuela\u00a0meant that the huge subsidies that have kept the Castros afloat for the past decade were in peril. A growing number of Cubans were demanding basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly.\r\nOn Wednesday, the Castros suddenly obtained a comprehensive bailout \u2014 from the Obama administration.\u00a0President Obama granted the regime\u00a0everything on its wish list that was within his power to grant; a full lifting of the trade embargo requires congressional action.\u00a0Full diplomatic relations\u00a0will be established, Cuba\u2019s place on the list of terrorism sponsors reviewed and restrictions lifted on U.S. investment and most travel to Cuba. That liberalization will provide Havana with a fresh source of desperately needed hard currency and eliminate U.S. leverage for political reforms.\r\nAs part of the bargain, Havana\u00a0released Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor who was unjustly imprisoned five years ago for trying to help Cuban Jews. Also freed was an unidentified U.S. intelligence agent in Cuba \u2014 as were\u00a0three Cuban spies\u00a0who had been convicted of operations in Florida that led to Cuba\u2019s\u00a01996 shoot down\u00a0of a plane carrying anti-Castro activists. While Mr.\u00a0Obama sought to portray Mr.\u00a0Gross\u2019s release as unrelated to the spy swap, there can be no question that Cuba\u2019s hard-line intelligence apparatus obtained exactly what it sought when it made Mr.\u00a0Gross a de facto hostage.\r\nNo wonder Yoani S\u00e1nchez, Cuba\u2019s leading dissident blogger, concluded Wednesday that \u201cCastroism has won\u201d and predicted that for weeks Cubans will have to endure proclamations by the government that it is the \u201cwinner of its ultimate battle.\u201d\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMr.\u00a0Obama\u00a0argued\u00a0that his sweeping change of policy was overdue because the strategy of isolating the Communist regime \u201chas had little effect.\u201d In fact, Cuba has been marginalized in the Americas for decades, and the regime has been deprived of financial resources it could have used to spread its malignant influence in the region, as Venezuela has done. That the embargo has not succeeded in destroying communism does not explain why all sanctions should be lifted without any meaningful political concessions by Cuba.\r\n\r\n\r\nU.S. officials said the regime agreed to\u00a0release 53 political prisoners\u00a0and allow more access to the Internet. But Ra\u00fal Castro promised four years ago to release all political prisoners, so the White House has purchased the same horse already sold to the Vatican and Spain.\r\nThe administration says its move will transform relations with Latin America, but that is naive. Countries that previously demanded an end to U.S. sanctions on Cuba will not now look to Havana for reforms; instead, they will press the Obama administration not to sanction Venezuela. Mr.\u00a0Obama says normalizing relations will allow the United States to be more effective in promoting political change in Cuba. That is contrary to U.S. experience with Communist regimes such as Vietnam, where normalization has led to no improvements on human rights in two decades. Moreover, nothing in Mr.\u00a0Obama\u2019s record of lukewarm and inconstant support for democratic change across the globe can give Ms.\u00a0S\u00e1nchez and her fellow freedom fighters confidence in this promise.\r\nThe Vietnam outcome is what the Castros are counting on: a flood of U.S. tourists and business investment that will allow the regime to maintain its totalitarian system indefinitely. Mr.\u00a0Obama may claim that he has dismantled a 50-year-old failed policy; what he has really done is give a 50-year-old failed regime a new lease on life.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tiberi.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394717"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2317679356783628, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}