Obama Shaking Hands with Raúl Castro Insults Efforts of Cuban Dissidents 
 
 by Frances Martel 10 Dec 2013 
 
 President Obama's warm greeting to Cuban dictator Raúl Castro at Tuesday's memorial for Nelson Mandela rightfully sparked the ire of those with a passion for human rights. In greeting Castro, Obama discredits the work of dissidents Castro routinely arrests and assaults. 
 
 The handshake triggered visceral reactions across the political spectrum. On the left, many heralded it as indicative of the power Nelson Mandela had to bring about peace (despite half a lifetime's embrace of violence). On the right, revulsion: the President of the United States exchanged a peaceful gesture with a brutal mass murder and oppressive tyrant, never once showing that same warmth to the dissidents that peacefully call for change in their country. 
 
 For many, especially those that see no issue with a such an approving gesture at a funeral, it is difficult to understand the greater meaning of accepting Castro as an equal. This is especially true without looking at Castro's opposition--that is, at the people whose plight President Obama willfully ignores and whose oppression he embraces as he embraces their oppressor. To that end, below are five of profiles of dissidents on the island with whom President Obama should interact and whose missions he should bolster--political activists seeking to liberate their country from oppression. 
 
 1. Guillermo Fariñas 
 
 Often denominated "Cuba's Mandela," Guillermo Fariñas does not share the history of early violence or support of oppressive dictatorships abroad with the late South African leader. Fariñas, a Sakharov Prize winner, made his name through his 24 hunger strikes in jail, where few of his supporters expected to see him live. Live he did, and he visited the United States and met President Obama while here. He demanded one thing of the President: "don't negotiate with Cuba." 
 
 Fariñas returned to the island after his voyage abroad and was arrested and beaten by state police again shortly thereafter. 
 
 2. Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez (Antúnez) 
 
 Antúnez is perhaps the second highest-profile Cuban dissident on the island after Fariñas. He rose to prominence in 2007 after serving 17 years in Castro's political gulags for spreading "enemy propaganda." He is a great admirer of American civil rights leaders, and his wife founded the Rosa Parks Movement in Cuba. 
 
 Antúnez has been significantly more critical of President Obama than Fariñas, telling the Heritage Foundation that he was alarmed by the fact that "the government of Mr. Barack Obama has exercised a political agenda of approach and relaxation with the regime of Havana." He did not receive an audience with the President on his visit to the United States this autumn but did meet Cuban-American senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, as well as Florida Senator/honorary Cuban Bill Nelson. 
 
 3. The Ladies in White 
 
 Also Sakharov Prize winners, the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) are a coalition of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of Cuban political prisoners. Led by Berta Solér since the death of widely recognized dissident leader Laura Pollán, the group highlights the struggles of women left behind to fare in the socialist dystopia while their husbands toil in jail for thoughtcrimes. 
 
 Solér and the Ladies visited the United States recently as well, only to be told by President Obama that he could see "changes" in the Cuban government that they apparently had missed. 
 
 4. Gorki Águila 
 
 Unlike any other dissidents on this list, Gorki Águila is not exactly a political figure. He is the lead singer of a punk rock group dedicated to fighting communism with profane anti-establishment lyrics. Porno Para Ricardo (the name meaning "censored pleasure for the individual") boasts songs with titles like "El Comandante," "I Don't Like Politics (But Politics Likes Me)," and "How To Fuck Over A Communist." Needless to say, Águila is perennially the victim of police beatings and arrests for his outrageous music, the kind of antics that would make him a beloved star in the States. ||||| Republican Sen. Ted Cruz walked out of the memorial service for Nelson Mandela during Cuban President Raul Castro’s speech, according to reports. 
 
 “Sen. Cruz very much hopes that Castro learns the lessons of Nelson Mandela,” said a Cruz spokeswoman, as quoted by ABC News. “For decades, Castro has wrongly imprisoned and tortured countless innocents. 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.” 
 
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 reset Obama, Castro handshake 
 
 The Texas senator, who is of Cuban descent, was part of a congressional delegation that traveled to South Africa for the memorial service on Tuesday. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Nelson Mandela memorial) 
 
 President Barack Obama sparked criticism for shaking hands with Castro as he arrived. ||||| Nelson Mandela's memorial service brought together world leaders of all political stripes, and unified Democratic and Republican politicians in remembrance of the South African leader. Nevertheless, members of the American media and Congress did their best to turn the memorial into a farce, spawning a ridiculous faux-controversy over the fact that President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro. 
 
 The "handshake heard round Twitter" (not to be mistaken with the "selfie heard round Twitter") rankled some on the right who felt Obama should have spurned the Cuban leader for presiding over a communist country with a dubious human rights record. 
 
 Over at National Review, Mona Charen wrote that the handshake "makes the stomach turn" and that "the nature of the Cuban regime should be enough to cause our president to find some way to avoid a handshake." 
 
 "Shameful day to be an American," she added. 
 
 Meanwhile, Fox News spent a chunk of time discussing the handshake, with anchor Bill Hemmer saying an unnamed fellow journalist told him it "would not have been in the spirit of Mandela, it would have been disrespectful to the spirit of Mandela." (It should be noted that Mandela was not only a great conciliator, but a huge fan of the Castros.) 
 
 And here's Breitbart's John Nolte: 
 
 Obama enthusiastically shakes hand with dictator Castro and the media in unison screams NOTHING TO SEE HERE!!! Y'all are freakin' pathetic. — John Nolte (@NolteNC) December 10, 2013 
 
 Dishonest media's false choice: Be rude or shake hands with dictator. No. Obama could've been formal instead of visibly excited. Matters. — John Nolte (@NolteNC) December 10, 2013 
 
 On the congressional front, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) piled on, saying, "If [Obama] was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba." And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made sure at least someone trotted out a Nazi reference. 
 
 "Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler," he warned. 
 
 The outrage, of course, was predictable in the hyperpartisan atmosphere that dominates Washington. 
 
 That said, the idea that the president should avoid this most basic form of decorum is absurd. Presidents routinely shake hands with world leaders with whom they disagree. To wit, here's a sampling of pictures of Republican presidents doing just that. 
 
 That's because handshakes are a purely ceremonial act that don't in themselves represent official government policy. "Unlike in the case of, say, sanctions, handshakes are purely symbolic," wrote The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner, adding that "no American president, including Obama, will consistently shun unsavory world leaders." 
 
 The same goes for members of Congress. Consider McCain, who infamously tweeted about his pleasant experience meeting former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. In fairness to McCain, he didn't say anything about shaking Gadhafi's hand, so who knows, maybe he drew the line there. 
 
 Handshakes are a mere civility. But from all the outrage, you'd think Obama had sealed a deal to give Florida to Cuba.
– At Nelson Mandela's memorial, President Obama shook hands with the Cuban president, and the media is in a tizzy about it. "The handshake between Obama and Raúl Castro makes the stomach turn," writes Mona Charen at the National Review. "The nature of the Cuban regime should be enough to cause our president to find some way to avoid a handshake." At Breitbart, Frances Martel lists activists in Cuba "whose plight President Obama willfully ignores and whose oppression he embraces as he embraces their oppressor." Republican lawmakers expressed their distaste, too, with Sen. Marco Rubio saying Obama should have asked Castro "about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba." John McCain pointed to Neville Chamberlain's handshake with Adolf Hitler, while Politico notes that Ted Cruz walked out of Mandela's memorial when Castro spoke. But at the Week, Jon Terbush says everyone needs to chill out about this "ridiculous faux-controversy": "The idea that the president should avoid this most basic form of decorum is absurd. Presidents routinely shake hands with world leaders with whom they disagree," he notes. The Obama-Castro handshake is hardly the only gesture riling pundits; there was also this selfie.