The spotlight on President Obama’s day in Johannesburg marking the
life of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela was stolen by a
controversial handshake and an oddly timed “selfie.”
Mr. Obama
found himself under sharp fire from U.S. opponents of the regime in Cuba
for his decision to shake the hand of Cuban President Raul Castro — the
brother of Fidel Castro — on his way to the podium in South Africa, and
sparked another uproar on social media hours later with a jovial
self-portrait-by-cellphone with the prime ministers of Denmark and
Britain during a memorial service for Mr. Mandela.
Republican
lawmakers with Cuban roots led the charge over the handshake, which
White House officials said later was not a premeditated move, asserting
that Mr. Castro and his brother Fidel are ruthless dictators likely to
profit from the Obama handshake by turning it into a pro-communist Cuba
propaganda stunt. The U.S. has maintained an economic embargo on the
island for more than a half-century.
“If the president was going
to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms
Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba,” said Sen. Marco
Rubio, Florida Republican and the son of Cuban-American immigrants.
Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also a Cuban-American from Florida and a former
chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, grilled Secretary of
State John F. Kerry about the incident during an unrelated hearing
Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
“Mr. Secretary, sometimes a handshake is
just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes the
bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raul Castro, it becomes a
propaganda coup for the tyrant,” Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said.
“Raul
Castro uses that hand to sign the orders to repress and jail democracy
advocates. In fact, right now as we speak, Cuban opposition leaders are
being detained and they’re being beaten while trying to commemorate
today — which is International Human Rights Day,” she said. “They will
feel disheartened when they see these photos.”
Mr. Kerry was quick
to defend the president, noting that Mr. Obama shook Mr. Castro’s hand
while greeting a line of world leaders at the memorial for Mr. Mandela, a
world-respected peace and human rights leader who died last week at age
95.
“Today
is about honoring Nelson Mandela,” said Mr. Kerry. “The president’s at
an international funeral with leaders from all over the world. He didn’t
choose who’s there.”
The secretary of
state noted the speech Mr. Obama made during the memorial service, in
which the president urged the world’s leaders to honor Mr. Mandela’s
struggle for freedom by upholding the basic human rights of their
people.
But Ms. Ros-Lehtinen pressed Mr. Kerry on whether he believed that “Raul Castro is upholding the basic human rights.”
“No, absolutely not,” Mr. Kerry responded.
Mr.
Obama also shook hands and kissed the cheeks of Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff, who canceled a state dinner at the White House over her
anger with revelations that the National Security Agency had spied on
her.
President Clinton and Fidel Castro shook hands at a private
U.N. luncheon in New York in 2000, but there was no photo of the meeting
and the White House at first denied it happened.
Cuban state-run
television broadcast Tuesday’s encounter without commentary, simply as
part of the footage of Mr. Castro’s speech at the tribute in South
Africa. The Reuters news agency reported from Havana that many Cubans
were heartened by the gesture after decades of frosty relations between
the nations.
“I never imagined such a thing could happen,” Yesniel
Soto, a 25-year-old government worker, told the news agency. “I see it
as something that has begun to change, a change we are all hoping for.”
However,
one prominent Cuban-American politician was not so taken with Mr.
Castro’s appearance. Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican and a frequent
critic of Mr. Obama, walked out of the service when Mr. Castro began
speaking.
“Just as Mandela was released after 27 years in prison,
Castro should finally release his political prisoners; he should hold
free elections, and once and for all set the Cuban people free,” Cruz
spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement.
Mr. Cruz was among 22
members of Congress on the taxpayer-funded trip, all but two of whom
were Democratic House members. The other Republican was Rep. Aaron
Schock of Illinois, and most of the Democrats were members of the
Congressional Black Caucus.
Another distraction
The presidential selfie proved another distraction.
Photographs
posted on the Internet showed a smiling Mr. Obama taking the shot while
holding a smartphone at arm’s length. In one shot, first lady Michelle
Obama is shown staring into the distance beside the president.
In
another, Mrs. Obama has what might be read as a disapproving look on her
face as her husband engages in a jovial exchange with Danish Prime
Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Etiquette advisers have frowned
on the practice of selfies at funerals, although the Mandela event was
technically a memorial service. But the incident gave critics fresh
ammunition to attack the president.
“It’s not [about] the death of
Mandela anymore,” conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said.
“This is about Barack Obama assuming Mandela’s place as a great whatever
on the world stage. That’s what the soap opera is.
Away from the
hype over the photos, most U.S.-Cuba policy analysts cautioned against
blowing the Obama-Castro handshake out of proportion.
The U.S.
continues to enforce an embargo on trade with Cuba. Mr. Obama in 2011
eased some of the economic and travel restrictions that had been
enforced by President George W. Bush, but relations between the two
nations remain tense.
“No one should read too much into the
handshake — it wasn’t the signal that the Obama administration is about
to end the embargo, nor was it a signal that President Obama doesn’t
care about freedom of speech or freedom of association in Cuba,” said
Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America.
“It
was a gesture of decency at the funeral of a man who was famous both
for his leadership in the struggle for black freedom in South Africa and
for his support for reconciliation among enemies,” said Mr. Thale. “At
the same time, and in the context of a series of small steps forward in
the U.S.-Cuban relationship over the last year, it was a modestly
hopeful gesture.”
“It should not be blown out of proportion,”
added Ricardo Herrero, deputy director at the Cuba Study Group.
“President Obama has already demonstrated his willingness to improve
relations with Cuba on the basis of U.S. interests and the well-being of
the Cuban people, through the policy changes he has advanced.” by taylor Guy of Washington news
Thursday, December 12, 2013
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Obama’s antics at Nelson Mandela tribute overshadow somber eulogy
Obama’s antics at Nelson Mandela tribute overshadow somber eulogy
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