Cuba's Human Rights Violations

[Lefty]

I have heard various allegations of Cuba suppressing dissenters and torturing dissedents. Do you think this is a fair price to pay for a communist society?

[Nateddi]

Lefty,

It is more accurate to call what you've "heard" a right-wing lie, hell, that would be more accurate than the substance of the claim itself. I would suggest you go read Larissa's comments in the Cuba and the internet (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=11&topic=2588) thread, talk to some people that have actually been to Cuba hands on, like Joyce Holmes ([email protected]) of Friendship Tours, or perhaps read a chapter on Revolution from Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds (http://www.michaelparenti.org/BlackShirts). There is an essay written by William Blum, the author of Killing Hope and Rogue State, entitled "The United States, Cuba and this thing called Democracy" (http://members.aol.com/bblum6/democ.htm)

These are all good reads, comrade. I would suggest to you to educate yourself, and unless you do, you will likely drop all your beliefs by the time you are in college on the basis of idealistic and stupid. Read and look for answers yourself, its a much more liberating feeling than making a thread and expecting some random people answer for you. Most importantly, never let yourself believe a right-winger or their 'arguement' is decent. Ever.

[Larissa]

OMG! Here we go again...
No, definitevely not. No dissenters are suppressed nor dissidents are tortured in Cuba. While it has been reported that In Guantamo Bay, the Marines+CIA have tortured prisoners suspected of participating in the events of 9/11. Not to mention the continued Human Rights Violations of the American Gov over many countries.

Quote: from Lefty on 4:36 am on Dec. 31, 2002
I have heard various allegations of Cuba suppressing dissenters and torturing dissedents. Do you think this is a fair price to pay for a communist society?

[Larissa]

US 'inciting global rights abuse'
Please check BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2657647.stm

[Lefty]

hehe, i was in no way supporting the U.S.'s HR violations. However, the people that I have talked to that have lived in Cuba moved here, to "the land of opportunity," not because they were hungry or whatever, but because they felt that they couldnt speak out against the current governmental system without fear of oppression. I will talk to them more about this and elaborate later, but that is all i remember.

[Larissa]

Lefty,

Tkae a look at this site's article about Human Rights in Cuba...

"Who Authorized the U.S. to assume the Role of Prosecutor Against Cuba?

Cuba's Message on Human Rights"

http://www.socialistaction.org/news/199906.../prosecute.html (http://www.socialistaction.org/news/199906/prosecute.html)

[RedRevolutionary87]

one thing you have to consider is that all communist countries are breaching human rights since one right is the right to own property

[Larissa]

Quote: from RedRevolutionary87 on 6:08 pm on Jan. 17, 2003
one thing you have to consider is that all communist countries are breaching human rights since one right is the right to own property
Redrevolutionary87, in Cuba people are allowed to have TWO properties (houses), for instance my husband's family has their home (where they live) and a house at the beach (where they spend their holidays).

Before the Cuban revolution, they were a typicall middle class family, when Fidel and Che were fighting in Sierra Maestra, my husband's grandfather helped them carrying guns and supplies in his truck (he used to distribute cigars) and after the Revolution, they decided to stay in Cuba, not like many of their class who left for Miami. Today they still live in Cuba, they don't starve, they are not "wealthy", they are NOT members of the Communist Party, they have no "special benefits", they live ok and they kept both houses because that IS allowed in Cuba.
After the triumph of the revolution, those houses that were left behind by ppl who left the country were expropriated by the Government who afterwards sold them to the people who did not have a home.
But those who remained in Cuba, kept their homes.

What you actually CAN'T do is SELL your house to another person, but you can either sell it to the government or exchange it with other people (which is more common) - They "permute" houses.

[Anonymous]

redrevolutionary is right, there is the ariclesomething something were it clarify reads: "right to accumulate and hold private property"...
or something like this...

[redstar2000]

Another excellent and informative post, Larissa, thank you very much!

You know, considering the treatment of the Cuban speaker at the UN as well as many other things, it's looking to me like the United Nations is becoming little more than a "puppet assembly" where the U.S. calls the tunes and doesn't even pay the piper!

To some extent it's ALWAYS been that way...but it seems to me to be becoming really outrageous.

Let the U.N. condemn the Cuban counter-revolutionary terrorists operating on American shores with U.S. Government support and assistance...or else SHUT UP about terrorism, human rights, or anything else! :cool: