Gitmo Undermines US Moral Standing to Lecture Cuba on Human Rights

President Barack Obama’s failure to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba makes it harder for the United States to claim the moral high ground when raising human rights issues with Cuban President Raul Castro, Human Rights First said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Obama is set to meet with Castro in Havana next week to discuss a range of bilateral issues including concerns about Cuban human rights abuses, US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters on Wednesday.

"President Obama will likely raise Cuba’s human rights record when he meets with [Cuban] officials; the continued operation of Guantanamo will make it more difficult for him to have moral leadership on the issue," the release stated on Friday.

Guantanamo Bay, the release continued, is an international symbol of the breakdown of the rule of law and undermines the US ability to hold perpetrators of foreign human rights abuses accountable.

Obama is scheduled to travel to the Caribbean island nation on March 21-22 in what will become the first visit by a US president to Cuba in nearly 90 years.

Obama is also scheduled to meet with Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega, dissidents and entrepreneurs before traveling to Argentina on Tuesday.