Three leftist countries that drew Bill de Blasio’s interest over the past 25 years rank high for repression on the annual list compiled by Freedom House, a human-rights watchdog group.
The organization uses a point scale of 1 to 7 for political rights and civil liberties, with the higher number representing the most oppressive.
Cuba gets a 7 for political rights and a 6 for civil liberties.
Zimbabwe lands a grade of 6 on both issues.
And de Blasio’s beloved Nicaragua earns 5 points for political rights and 4 for civil liberties.
Freedom House rates that country as “partly free.”
“Employees have reportedly been dismissed for union activities, and citizens have no effective recourse when labor laws are violated by those in power,” the oversight group reported.
“Child labor and other abuses in export-processing zones remain problems, though child labor occurs most often in the agricultural sector.”
De Blasio, the city public advocate who is the Democratic nominee for mayor, is facing mounting criticism for his full-throated support of Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, which cracked down on dissenters and had close ties to communists.
De Blasio has also drawn fire for honeymooning in Cuba after his 1994 marriage to Chirlane McCray — a trip that violated a US travel ban.
The mayor-poll front-runner has also been criticized for joining legislators who welcome reviled Zimbabwe despot Robert Mugabe to City Hall in 2002 when de Blasio served on the City Council.
De Blasio has since said the Mugabe appearance was a “mistake.”
“I feel ashamed of it,” he said.