“The ceremonial raising of the venerated Stars and Stripes at the reopened American Embassy in Cuba this morning cannot hide the fact that the island nation remains one of the worst places on earth for those who long for the freedoms embodied in the American flag,” says Rep. Chris Smith chairman of a congressional panel that oversees global human rights.

“The Obama Administration’s sea change in policy towards Cuba—evident by the ceremonial events of today, Cuba’s recent removal from our nation’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, and last month’s decision to upgrade Cuba on the annual Trafficking in Persons’ list—flies in the face of the reality on the ground and tragically leaves victims of human rights abuses solely in the hands of a brutal dictator, one with new American credentials.

“The Administration could have, and they should have, used the considerable leverage America possesses to seek to better the condition of the Cuban people. Instead, President Obama has raised a white flag on fighting for human rights while seeking to give the appearance of a diplomatic breakthrough,” Smith said.

Smith, who is a leading voice for political dissidents in Cuba and the author of the Cuba Human Rights Act (H.R. 1782) introduced earlier this year, noted that conditions in that country have not changed at all since the Obama Administration has pushed for the so-called normalized relations.

“It is no secret that human rights in Cuba remain in a deplorable state—that Afro-Cubans in particular face discrimination on a day-to-day basis and that human rights activists, including women, are treated with ongoing brutality.

“The Castro government sanctions murders, beatings, arrests and re-arrests of those who merely seek to advance basic fundamental human rights,” he said.

Smith, who has applied for several visas to visit political prisoners in Cuba and has been denied every time, said he and like-minded colleagues in Congress will not relent in their efforts to support and help the dissidents in Cuba.

“The President’s actions notwithstanding we must continue to remind the world that Cuba remains a Communist dictatorship which continues to arrest political dissidents and one whose caudillo, Raul Castro, has declared would not change, even in response to the Obama Administration’s concessions,” he said.

“Similarly we will remind all that this is the same Castro regime that harbors at least 70fugitives from justice, including such as Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted in the 1973 murder of a state trooper in my home state of New Jersey, Officer Werner Foerster.”

Smith also pointed to testimony from a hearing he held earlier this year, submitted by Christopher J. Burgos, the President of the State Troopers Fraternal Organization of New Jersey, in which Burgos said State Troopers “are shocked and very disappointed that returning a convicted killer of a State Trooper was not already demanded and accomplished in the context of the steps announced by the White House regarding this despotic dictatorship.”

“Working towards a new day with Cuba could be an admirable goal if any important human rights milestones were identified or met along the way. Regrettably this Administration has made numerous, effectively unilateral concessions squandering leverage and abandoning the suffering, heroic human rights activists of Cuba,” Smith said.