Estafans target Obama over Cuban human rights

Cuba’s deplorable human rights situation was one of the main topics expressed by singer Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio to President Barack Obama last week. “Hope and freedom are a part of (Cuban) history,” said Gloria at a Democratic Party fundraiser hosted at the couple’s Miami Beach mansion. The couple showed the president pictures of the repression suffered by the Ladies in White and also gave him a letter from the mother of recently deceased dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

The Estefans have subsequently come under fire from some in the Cuban exile community who have accused the couple of shilling for the Democratic Party. A recent post on Babalu Blog asked what would the reaction be had the event been “a Tea Party event with Sarah Palin as the guest of honor.” (Actually the better comparison would be if it was a Republican fundraiser with Mitch McConnell or John Boehner as the guest of honor but that’s beside the point).

In response Gloria said on a TV interview that she found the chance to talk directly to the president too hard to resist:

"The bottom line is that if the White House calls and says, 'We're coming to Miami', what more of an honor for a Cuban-American immigrant that came here when I was two years old, than to have the president of the United States in my home and to be able to speak to him about some of the things we have been doing?" Estefan said on Larry King Live.

Back in Cuba, meanwhile, police continued harassing the Ladies in White and broke up their march on Sunday. In an article published today Fidel Castro echoed the recent rants of his brother and claimed that Cuba will never give in to the alleged “media blackmail and terror” from the U.S. and Europe.

Image- Reuters (“Recording artist Gloria Estefan (front) and her husband, record producer Emilio Estefan look towards the crowd as they lead a protest in support of Cuba's Las Damas de Blanco, or the Ladies in White, on Calle Ocho in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida March 25, 2010.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, Miami Herald, Babalu Blog, dnaindia.com, MSNBC, Milenio