The European Parliament on September 16, 2021 condemned the Cuban government crackdown on protests and citizens in Cuba, Havana’s breach of the PDCA, and called for Magnitsky sanctions to be applied against Cuban officials calling for ordering and/or taking part in the violence during the crackdown. The 426 votes in favor of condemning the Cuban government yesterday at the European Parliament for the crackdown that began on July 11, 2021 that continues to the present day is an increase of 29 votes from the previous resolution that was passed on June 10, 2021, and this is a stronger statement.

As time passes, the decision of Lithuania not to ratify the EU Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) with Havana, is increasingly viewed both as a historic act of solidarity with Cubans, and looking out for European interests.

Other EU states who ratified PDCA with the best of intentions ended up providing millions in Euros to the Castro dictatorship that is funding repression of Cuban dissidents, exploitation of Cuban workers, and the destabilization of democracy in Latin America.

The Vice President of the European Parliament Dita Charanzová, took part in the debate and tweeted on the strong message sent by the European Parliament to impose sanctions, and begin the process to suspend the EU-Cuba agreement.

This is a strong message by the 27 nation block.

On the same day in Mexico, the Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) hosted Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel at the ceremonies celebrating the 200 anniversary of Mexico’s independence in what columnist Andres Oppenheimer called “a slap in the face of democracy, human rights and Mexico’s dignity,” but that should be a wake up call to Mexican democrats that democracy is in danger in Mexico.

It is important to recall that AMLO repeatedly refused to recognize President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, and when he did in early December it was a cool reception. The Guardian reported that ” Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, sent the US president-elect a lukewarm two-page letter which contrasted with the enthusiastic seven-page missive he sent Trump after his own election in 2018.”

In 1952 Cuba’s young Republic issued commemorative coins to celebrate 50 years of liberty and independence.

Mexico has only been a multiparty democracy since 2000 when 71 years of uninterrupted one party rule ended in Mexico with the presidency of Vicente Fox. It is important to recall that Cuba had nearly 50 years of competitive, democratic rule in the island from 1902 to 1952 with great achievements in the social, economic, and political spheres that did not prevent authoritarianism from overthrowing a democratic government on March 10, 1952, and although promising a return to democracy in 1959, the Castro brothers transitioned Cuba into a communist totalitarian dictatorship for 62 years and counting. The case of Venezuela with Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro backed by the Castro regime should also give Mexican democrats cause for great concern.

The crackdown in Cuba and continuing escalation of repression are giving business investors pause. Jerry Haar a professor of International Business at Florida International University, and a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, wrote in The Miami Herald on September 12th that “for American companies that aspire to do business in Cuba, the recent crackdown by the Cuban government on mass protests now places that hope not on the back burner but off the burner altogether.”