Cuban media blast “cynical” Clinton

On Saturday we mentioned that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rebuked the Cuban government for not wanting to normalize relations with the U.S. Improving ties to the U.S. would lead the Castro regime to “lose all their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years” according to Clinton.

On Monday the Cuban media issued its harsh response to Clinton’s remarks:

Clinton's comment last week "mixed ignorance and falsehoods at an infinite level," state-run Radio Reloj said.

"If cynicism needed an expression that would immortalize it, the American secretary of state gave it," the station said in a report read over the air and posted on its Web site.

Clinton's remarks also appeared without further commentary on Cubadebate, the government Internet site where Fidel Castro publishes frequent opinion pieces. The elder Castro dropped out of public view after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006, and his brother Raul has since taken over the presidency.

Relations lately between the U.S. and Cuba have worsened after having somewhat thawed in 2009. The Cuban government has come under increased pressure to improve the island’s poor human rights situation. Nonetheless repression has continued as evidenced on Sunday when police broke up a march by dissident group the Ladies in White.

Image- CBS News (Cuban president Raul Castro recently accused the U.S. of enacting a “media campaign” against the island’s government).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Washington Post, Voice of America, AP