Cuba is one of the most oppressive nations in the world.
The country has had a terrible track record of human rights abuses for decades.
And now one country music star is foolishly hosting a music festival in Cuba.
In 1999, the documentary “The Buena Vista Social Club” chronicled the Cuban band by the same name.
The popularity of the band reinvigorated the flagging tourism economy in the country.
But what’s lost in the success story of the band is that they had to practice in secret due to the oppressive Castro regime.
And when the success of the documentary led to concert requests around the globe, the band had to get permission from the Castro government to go on tour.
This is just a sliver of the reality Cubans face every day under the thumb of communism.
And this is the country leftists from around the world prop up.
Now that tourism is again waning in Cuba, country music star Tim McGraw is coming to the rescue.
McGraw will host a four-day music festival in Cuba, charging tourists thousands of dollars for a ticket.
McGraw has called himself a Blue Dog Democrat, but he’s proven to be anything but moderate.
He not only supported Barack Obama and his leftist policies, he participated in a voter registration drive organized by the Obamas after they left the White House.
The voter registration effort was the Obamas’ latest effort to undermine Donald Trump.
While most former presidents recede into the shadows, Obama has been barnstorming around the country as if he were running again.
He isn’t the only former president backseat-driving.
Bill Clinton criticized Trump for his handling of the child separation matter on the southern border.
Unlike most of the economic migrants leaving Mexico and Central America, Cubans flee actual oppression.
They risk death on rickety boats to escape the prison island.
It’s frustrating to see leftists like McGraw patronize a country that won’t even let its citizens leave.
And many of the Cubans who work abroad, such as doctors in South America, are prohibited from bringing their families with them for fear they may defect.
Leftist celebrities in America spew nonsense about how the country is in the midst of a fascist takeover, even though nobody has been jailed or silenced.
Meanwhile, Cuba is about to enact Decree 349, which criminalizes artists who are not approved by the communist government.
In response to the totalitarian law, Amnesty International said, “[We are] concerned that the recent arbitrary detentions of Cuban artists protesting Decree 349, as reported by Cuban independent media, are an ominous sign of things to come.”
Cuba also heavily restricts internet access.
Everything the left accuses America of being, Cuba has put into practice for decades.
The ladies in white, a movement of wives and mothers protesting the regime’s practice of jailing dissidents, routinely get beaten for their advocacy against the government.
But leftists like Michael Moore make films lauding Cuba’s free healthcare system, ignoring the abject conditions of the hospitals for the people who aren’t in the favored class.
It’s impossible to take celebrities like McGraw seriously when they shill for immoral regimes like Cuba.