Just the other day amid the hoopla over the President’s embrace of foreign dictators I asked a simple question about concessions, as we ease our restrictions and look to potentially end the embargo on Cuba what will the Castro’s be doing in return? While the left has embraced Chavez and Castro as heroes and figures torn asunder by American intervention they have ignored the long list of ways those dictators have moved to enslave their own people.

So will Cuba be releasing political prisoners or say allowing their people to leave the country and explore the world or allow money to travel in without excessive taxation? The media couldn’t wait to jump on Raul Castro’s comments that he was willing to come to the table and the administrations appearance that history was about to be made. Now Fidel has something very different to say.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said President Obama misinterpreted remarks by his brother and successor, Raul, and bristled at the suggestion that the island should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from abroad as a goodwill gesture to the U.S.

Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations. The speculation began when the Cuban president said leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss everything, including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners on the island.

Obama responded at the Summit of the Americas by saying Washington seeks a new beginning with Cuba, but he also said Sunday that Cuba should release some political prisoners and reduce official taxes on remittances sent to the island from the U.S.

That appeared to enrage Fidel Castro, 82, who wrote in an essay posted on a government website that Obama “without a doubt misinterpreted Raul’s declarations.”

Ouch! Don’t worry though if the Castro’s have shown us one thing in the last several decades it is that they are open to change…