By Ninoska Perez

There seems to be a renewed interest in lifting the embargo and normalizing relations with Cuba, especially after the transfer of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul. To do so, would mean that the countless crimes committed by them would be ignored and, what is worse, the existing ones would become acceptable.

What is normal about a country that has condemned its citizens to a ration card for almost five decades, despite a generous subsidy from the former Soviet Union? What is normal about censorship, repression and the fact that the Castro dynasty has ruled with an iron fist for the past 50 years?

What is normal about depriving citizens of their basic freedoms? Should it be seen as normal that the communist ideology be imposed on a five-year-old child, based on the false premise that education is free? Or that a defector's child is denied an exit visa, simply because the parents opted for freedom?

In 2003, in what came to be known as "The Black Spring," the Cuban regime arrested 75 men and women seeking peaceful and democratic change. For attempting to write, defend human rights and create independent libraries to oppose the government's censorship, they were arrested and condemned to sentences ranging from 15 to 28 years.

Sixteen have been released; the remaining 59 are enduring the hardship of Cuba's gulags, along with hundreds of other political prisoners. That same year three young men stole a ferry boat to flee Cuba. No one was hurt in the attempt. After a swift and secret trial, the three faced a firing squad within 72 hours of their arrest. It was then that additional sanctions were imposed by the Bush administration on Cuba's totalitarian regime.

The fact is that for the embargo or the additional sanctions to be lifted, certain steps must be taken: Respect for human rights, the release of all political prisoners and free and democratic elections.

It's the Cuban regime that must change, not U.S. policy.

Miami radio and TV host Ninoska Perez is a leader of the pro-embargo Cuban Liberty Council. (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.