Cuba detains 'Ladies in White' after Havana protest

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8573809.stm

Now comrades, isn't the irony and hypocrisy of it all rather amusing?

The US has more political prisoners in Cuba than Cuba does:lol:

Also, i'm not a fan of Wikipedia, but I guess this is more of a news story than an academic article:

During the Black Spring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Spring_%28Cuba%29) in 2003, the Cuban government arrested and summarily tried and sentenced 75 human rights defenders, independent journalists, and librarians to terms of up to 28 years in prison.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_in_White#cite_note-0) For their part, the Cuban government accused the 75 individuals of "acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state", including belonging to "illegal organizations", accepting money from the United States Interests Section in Havana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Interests_Section_in_Havana) and of "hijacking", "terrorist activities", and collaborating with foreign media.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_in_White#cite_note-1) In the view of The Committee to Protect Journalists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_Protect_Journalists), The Black Spring violated the most basic norms of international law, including Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice."[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_in_White#cite_note-longblackspring-2)

Does the above, with 'hijacking' and 'terrorist activities', not sound like a certain War on Terror? Only difference of course, being that people who protest against the regime in Cuba know what they are in for, and there are only 75 or so on the whole Island imprisoned as 'political prisoners', whereas the WoT there are tens of thousands imprisoned, without trial, without even a trial date, in some unknown part of the world, and they can be arrested on a whim - for being a British muslim travelling to Pakistan.

As much as there is an undemocratic and somewhat dictatorial element to the national-level government in Cuba, it is laughable that the Capitalists should try to make something out of the jailing of dissidents or their protesting wives. Take care of matters at home, pigs...;)

[The Idler]

Black spring sounds pretty nasty to me.

[manic expression]

I was wondering how long the people of Cuba were going to tolerate the antics of the Ladies in White. Looks like they finally got their just deserts after all. You can't openly support people who collaborate with imperialist terrorism and expect nothing to happen. It's been documented that the so-called "dissidents" were accepting funds from Miami-based terrorists through US diplomats.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/24/cuba.usa

Those are the people the Ladies in White (who shamelessly tried to steal the image of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina) are agitating for. So this isn't cutting down on political dissent, it's cutting down on saboteurs who side with imperialism in its war against the Cuban people.

[Wanted Man]

The article in the OP is from March 2010. Just sayin', in case anyone thinks this is a current event.

[The Red Next Door]

old news.

[eclipse]

The doubt that the shit the US does, makes the shit Cuba does right. :/

[RadioRaheem84]

The 75 prisoners number is totally bogus. I cannot believe they're still touting that figure. It was drastically reduced to 55.


Since 2003, at least 20 of the 75 have been released due to health problems, shrinking the number still incarcerated to 55 –a level of humanitarian leniency not likely to be emulated in the US criminal justice system. Apparently this news has yet to reach the US media. As of 17 March 2010 the New York Times still referred to the "imprisonment of 75 dissidents." Even more recently (5 April 2010) an NPR commentator referred to the "75 dissidents being held in Cuba 's prisons."
The Cuban government argues that to describe the 75 (or 55) as being "prisoners of conscience" or "political dissidents" is to misrepresent the issue. They were never tried for holding dissenting views but for unlawfully collaborating with a hostile foreign power, receiving funds and materials from the US interest section, with the intent to subvert the existing political system in Cuba.
http://www.cubasolidarity.com/news/2010/100415parentijrapko.htm

Typo: Article from '10, not '00.

[Soviet dude]

Those "independent journalists" included people who had never once had a job at any newspaper or TV station, and has never taken a single class at any university on journalism.

They were obviously agents. They should be shot.

[The Idler]

How were they specifically saboteurs?

[Raúl Duke]

Those "independent journalists" included people who had never once had a job at any newspaper or TV station, and has never taken a single class at any university on journalism.

In this age of the internet, anyone can be a journalist without having to work in a mainstream newspaper, TV station, nor probably even having any degree relevant to journalism.

[mykittyhasaboner]

They were obviously agents. They should be shot.

Now do you really think this would be appropriate? Or are you just flaunting your arrogance because you think the answer to any and all subversion should be execution?




In this age of the internet, anyone can be a journalist without having to work in a mainstream newspaper, TV station, nor probably even having any degree relevant to journalism.

Well yeah, but I don't think that was the point. I think Soviet dude was trying to illustrate the point that if your going to call yourself a journalist, you have to have a degree of accountability. It doesn't help if your getting help and cash from the US or some other contributors.

[manic expression]

In this age of the internet, anyone can be a journalist without having to work in a mainstream newspaper, TV station, nor probably even having any degree relevant to journalism.
Bloggers aren't journalists, and these "dissidents" aren't even bloggers as far as I know. Calling them journalists doesn't make much sense from any perspective.


How were they specifically saboteurs?
From my link:

The money allegedly came from Fundación Rescate Jurídica, a Miami-based group headed by Santiago Alvarez, a Cuban-American businessman once convicted in the US of conspiring to collect weapons to overthrow Fidel Castro.

That's the sort of aggression the Cuban people have to face. Collaborators need to be exposed and punished.

[Raúl Duke]

Bloggers aren't journalists, and these "dissidents" aren't even bloggers as far as I know. Calling them journalists doesn't make much sense from any perspective.

I never said that they're are journalists or not.

Also, to some, bloggers can be journalists.

[Barry Lyndon]

Some people don't seem to get that taking revolutionary power and keeping it is not some polite PTA meeting, it is a often vicious struggle for power.

US imperialism has repeatedly demonstrated that it will do anything to destroy a progressive or revolutionary government that rejects its economic model. They will use assassination, they will fund proxy wars, they will engineer false flag attacks, they will create 'opposition' front groups, they will set up alternative trade unions, they will set up fake 'human rights' organizations like Freedom House to pump out propaganda, they will employ neo-fascists, mercenaries, terrorists, and drug smugglers to sabotage, murder, and destroy the nations infrastructure.

But apparently revolutionary Cuba has to abide by every legal nicety while trying to survive, while Washington uses every dirty trick in the book. The same crap charges are leveled against Hugo Chavez for 'violating the free speech' of rich neo-fascist propagandists who actively supported an illegal coup de tat against him and have been literally calling for his head on a platter every year since.

One of my favorite stories is of when Fidel Castro was asked by the New York Times about the lack of press freedom in Cuba, the fact that there wasn't the 'freedom' to criticize the communist system. Castro responded that he would take the question seriously when the New York Times had a communist on their staff. Basically 'human rights' and 'free speech', 'free press', etc., are used by the capitalists when it suits them and disposed by them when it suits them.

In a revolution, it generally is not wise to play by the rules of those who want you dead.