…Super-rich musical power-couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who recently traveled to Cuba, a country whose record of human rights abuses would span the length of this continent.

Reports indicate that many in the Cuban community here in America are outraged. And the anger among politicians is bipartisan. No matter that Beyoncé’s Cuban-esque hairdo likely cost more than the yearly income of an average Cuban citizen, their willful ignorance regarding human rights violations within Cuba could fill our national deficit trough. Not to mention the potential illegality of their trip, timed coincidentally during their wedding anniversary. Isn’t that special…but hey, there’re Cuban cigars! I can’t think of a better place to celebrate than a country notorious for imprisoning political dissidents, dragging women through the streets, beating them with stones and then ripping off their clothing, and jailing Jay-Z’s fellow rappers for criticizing the government. Surely the Cuban prisons were on the tour route.

“As Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s recent government-licensed visit proved, there is now a way to travel to Cuba with a clear conscience.” It’s good to be besties with the Prez. Communism is so very hip ‘n cool these days. Genocide schmenocide.

“From the Coalition of Cuban-American Women:

Ladies in White Beaten, Dragged and Stoned After Mass

In Santiago de Cuba, a city in the eastern province of Cuba, female pro-democracy activists were savagely beaten and verbally attacked in the streets by Cuban State Security agents after they attended mass in the Basilica of “El Cobre,” a Catholic shrine dedicated to “Our Lady of Charity,” where they prayed for the freedom of all Cuban political prisoners and for the freedom of Cuba.

Tania Montoya Vazquez, one of the 16 Ladies in White who were attacked, describes the violence:

“…it wasn’t enough for them to snatch the gladiolus from our hands, they began to beat us, they ripped all our clothes, I have scratches all over my body… so does Aimee and all the other women in the group. We all did a ‘sit-in’ and they almost killed us… they did not stop slapping us, we are all scratched, they pulled our hair, they dragged us, and they threw rocks at us as we remained united, in silence on the ground, firm in our conviction that what we want is the freedom of our political prisoners and the freedom of Cuba.

…this was all organized and ordered by State Security whom we make responsible for what could have happened to each one of us and the physical condition we are all presently in… they didn’t care that they beat up Nersa Fernandez Fonseca, an older woman in her fifties. Several of us had to go to the hospital due to our ailing physical conditions. I was hit on the head with a stone and have a bump, I’m all bruised. When they attacked us, they never took into consideration the fact that we were women walking in silence. Freedom for Cuba! Long live human rights! Freedom for our political prisoners!”

“The two rappers are:

1. Angel Remon Arzuaga – from the hip-hip duo “Los Hijos Que Nadie Quiso” (‘The Unwanted Children’), who has been in jail since March 21st for his lyrics. Angel is on the 16th day of a hunger strike protesting his unjust imprisonment.

2. Marcos Máiquel Lima Cruz – imprisoned on Christmas Day 2010, along with his brother Antonio Michel (released in October 2012), during a private party at their home in Cuba. Their crime? Listening to an underground hip-hop group (“Los Aldeanos”), whose lyrics criticize the government.”