The statement began:

Black Lives Matter condemns the U.S. federal government’s inhumane treatment of Cubans, and urges it to immediately lift the economic embargo. This cruel and inhumane policy, instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government, is at the heart of Cuba’s current crisis.

BLM added:

Since 1962, the United States has forced pain and suffering on the people of Cuba by cutting off food, medicine and supplies, costing the tiny island nation an estimated $130 billion.

The statement goes on to accuse the U.S. of punishing Cuba because of its “commitment to sovereignty and self-determination” and of trying to crush the “Revolution” for “decades.”

BLM also made the laughable claim that Cuba has “historically demonstrated solidarity with oppressed peoples of African descent,” and lauded its government for protecting Assata Shakur, a black revolutionary who was allegedly involved in the murder of a New Jersey police officer.

There is no need to bore you with the rest of the organization’s statement as it was the typical standard fare. Nevertheless, it is worth debunking the untruths that were peddled in this deceptive statement.

Let’s start with BLM’s erroneous claim that the United States is responsible for the economic conditions in which most Cubans live. First, it is worth noting that no country – including the U.S. – is obligated to open trade with any other nation. Indeed, if the communist ideology of Cuba’s government were so superior to that of capitalist nations, it would not need to rely so heavily on a country like the United States.

Don’t the values of “self-determination” suggest that a nation pursuing this principle would need to figure out how to achieve it on its own? It does not seem that Cuba’s government is overly interested in outside help until the you-know-what hits the fan.

CNN reported that on Wednesday, Cuba announced it was temporarily rescinding restrictions on travelers bringing food, medicine, supplies, and other resources to people in the country. According to CNN, individuals will not be required to pay duties on the items imported into the nation and these new relaxed measures will remain in effect for the rest of the year.

However, if the Cuban government was so concerned about getting help from other countries, why would it have had these rules in the first place? Moreover, why does its government skim off the top when Cubans in America try to send money to their relatives still living on the island?

Last year, the Trump administration had to put new embargo regulations in place that outlawed business relations with companies that are under the control of the Cuban military. Why? Because in a display of evil that would make La Cosa Nostra blush, the government was stealing a portion of the hard-earned funds that Cuban Americans wished to send to family.

Speaking of remittances, there is yet another flaw in BLM’s argument. The group argued that the U.S. is responsible for the dismal economic conditions that Cuba is experiencing. However, America sends a significant amount of funding to the nation. According to the Cuban Research Institute, Cuban Americans send about $460 million in remittances to Cuba each year.

Even more, the United States government has sent tons of cash to the Cuban people over the years. Since 2001, the U.S. has given the nation about $225.6million according to USAID’s foreign aid tracker, which monitors the funding that America sends to other countries. With a corrupt government like Cuba’s, one has to wonder: Where the hell is all this money going?

But we already know the answer, don’t we?

But what about BLM’s insistence that Cuba’s government is all about helping people of African descent? Is the regime as “woke” as the organization is trying to claim? Do they really care about black people?

Well, if one digs deeper, they find that Cuba’s government has historically cared about black people as much as David Duke. What’s worse is that many on the left are well aware of the Castro regime’s egregious treatment of darker-skinned Cubans and its record on racial issues in general. In 2009, 60 high-profile intellectuals, including Princeton University professor Cornel West, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and actress Ruby Dee signed a protest declaration which read:

We cannot sit idly by and allow for decent, peaceful and dedicated civil rights activists in Cuba, and the black population as a whole, to be treated with callous disregard.

Foreign Policy noted that while Fidel Castro seemed as if he wanted to address issues pertaining to racism when he seized power in 1959, he may not have been as serious about the matter as he may have wanted people to think. The article explains that only three years later, he declared that racism was over. But, in fact, Castro only sought to minimize and conceal the impact of bigotry in Cuba.

From Foreign Policy:

However, one of the actions taken by the government to eliminate differences within the population was to outlaw organizations structured around racial identity, including the Black social clubs that had sprung up in the 1930s and 1940s in response to the de facto segregation that had existed before the revolution.

It gets worse. The article points out that the dictator outlawed public conversations on racial differences and race relations, which essentially killed any effort to address civil rights issues. Those who spoke out against anti-black racism “were branded as counterrevolutionaries and often detain, sent to reeducation camps, or forced to leave the island in exile,” according to Foreign Policy.

Doesn’t sound so “woke,” now, does it?

But groups like Black Lives Matter and their close friends and allies in the activist media are counting on their audience’s ignorance on these matters. While it only takes a few minutes to discover that their arguments are lies, they know that most won’t bother to look it up.

However, the sordid history of Cuba’s government is common knowledge; people might not be privy to all of the particulars, but they know the communist regime is an oppressive and evil entity. In the end, Black Lives Matter and their comrades will only convince those who already believe what they believe. These bald-faced lies will likely not earn them any new converts.