The arrest of more than 50 anti-regime protestors just before President Obama landed in Cuba underscores the fact that the Castro regime is a tyranny. It does not tolerate dissent.

This reality was also written all over the face of dictator Raul Castro in his press conference with Obama on Monday, when he scolded reporters for asking unscripted questions in public. He's clearly not accustomed to such things — why should be he be, he and his brother Fidel got rid of them more than half a century ago — and will probably not become so any time soon.

Castro praised his government's human rights record, asserting that the difference between America and Cuba on human rights is merely one of emphasis. He repeated a version of the age-old lie that his country detains no political prisoners. (Political dissenters are simply labeled "national security" threats intead. Problem solved.)

It got worse when Castro had the gall to suggest an American "double standard" on human rights, on the basis of supposedly deficient public retirement and health system here in the U.S.

Obama said he "welcomes" such criticism from the Cuban dictator. We don't. In saying so, Obama embraced a false moral equivalency. American voters are responsible for the government they choose, for they are free to debate issues and choose their lawmakers. Cuba, in contrast, is as far as it has ever been from holding free or fair elections. Its regime, an unelected dictatorship handed from one brother to another, only stands to gain legitimacy and prestige from such careless rhetoric.

At the end of their event, Castro tried to raise Obama's arm in a sign of mutual triumph. Obama awkwardly let his wrist go limp, apparently embarrassed at the gesture. It was a fitting symbol of relations between the two countries — a tinpot dictator flapping America's president for the cameras, and the president meekly going along with it.

Is Obama wrong in wanting to thaw relations with Cuba? Not at all, but it matters greatly how it is done. This is not a debate between a free and open Cuba on the one hand, and an ossified policy of eternal sanctions on the other. The opening of Cuba would be a positive development, if effected through diligent negotiation and with demands appropriate to the real situation in Cuba.

But as with Iran, Obama has cut corners to arrive at a deal designed to burnish a vainglorious legacy but which avoids all the big issues. He is giving Castro what he wants in terms of legitimacy and a crumbling economy, but demanding little in return.

Castro is no Gorbachev, as the press conference made clear. Cuba is not becoming a freer society as a result of this thaw, nor even acknowledging its problem. The machinery of the Castro state continues to chew up its citziens. It has even stepped up persecution of Christians from certain denominations since this "thaw" with Washington began.

Cuba's citizens depend on information smuggled in. They lack open access to the Internet, not because of their clear impoverishment by communism but because their rulers control public opinion.

As Obama acknowledged during the press event, only Congress can end the embargo against Cuba. But it would be bunk, and an acceptance of Castro propaganda, to believe the embargo is largely responsible for Cubans' suffering, even just their economic suffering.

For years, Cuba has been trading with Europe and Latin America. Yet Cuba remains poor, unproductive and backward, despite its fertile land and wealth of natural resources. That's because of state control of the Cuban economy, and that goes back to the man who raised Obama's limp arm in triumph on Monday.