A Question for Congressman Berman
Is this what you want Americans to not only witness in Cuba, but support with their dollars?
Reinaldo Escobar, husband of Yoani Sanchez, gets harassed and beaten at the hands of one of those "impromptu" crowds of "everyday" Cubans that always seem to show up, en masse, on time and with prepared hatred and clenched fists whenever certain Cuban citizens stray from the rigid official Cuban Government line.
Because make no bones about it, American tourist dollars will end up subsidizing these stifling crowds of intellectual cowards of purchased brutality.
This is what you and your congressional colleagues wanting to lift sanctions against Cuba want to ignore and sweep under the rug.
This act of repudiation against a peace loving man, whose only crime in Cuba has been having the audacity to express his opinions, is an affront to human civility. A stain on the human condition and the absolute antithesis of the American Ideal.
These acts of vituperation must not be condoned or rewarded. By eliminating restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans you send a message to the world and to the Escobars and Biscets in Cuba: Americans no longer care about freedom and prefer to live on the world as opposed to in it.
Update: Via Penultimos Dias, the video of the appalling:
Val,
I loved that "purchased brutality."
I look at the last picture and can't help comparing it to pictures from the 9/12 rally in Washington with all of those smiling happy faces of people protesting this administration which is trying to put us on the path to just what all of this represents.
Meanwhile,the very first story in my news feed is not about this barbarism,but fucking _UNICEF-UN urging the world to emulate how Cuba protects their children. Consider the traffiking of children for sex, teaching them to be like a mass muderdering scumbag el che, and everything else, why doesn't the UN just officially declare the castro's universl ruler and the Cuban people slaves.
But when Reinaldo arrives home, his own wife, Yoani Sanchez, tells him she sent Berman a letter in support of ending the travel restrictions. Your rabid and proud hatred for the Castro's and their brutal system is perhaps understandable but don't you even read what others think and consider the logic of their arguments? Especially many of the "heroes" you so stridently support in Cuba?
Hey! Did I see some of those same faces in pics of the Juanes Concert crowd?...or is it just my imagination ..'runnin away with me..?
Ohh my, my....
These ñangaras are sure a brave crowd. But where or where was that machote, you know...that fascist commie with the little dic* who WAS SO brave to hit a 100 pound women who has more COJONES THAN HE OR HIS FATHER SEEM TO NOT HAVE.
RAINALDO ESCABAR IS A MAN....
THOSE OTHER GUYS IN THE VIDIO PUSHING HIM AROUND ARE JUST PUSSIES.
My respects to Reinaldo Escobar, to Yoani Sánchez, to the Antunez couple and to Antunez's sister. Admirable all of them even if they disagree on the embargo.
I second Ziva's outrage at the lack of media coverage that this act of barbarism is receiving. And if it were only lack of coverage, its out right complicity. What else can we call it when the media creates a smoke screen by printing a positive story out of Cuba [the regime protecting children] at precisely the moment when something like this is happening!
Hell has to have a special place reserved for these media types who help t perpetuate the regime by shilling for it!
Here it is, the article is short and oh so sweet for the tyrant: "The representative of UNICEF, or the UN Children's Fund, in Cuba said here Friday that Cuba is among the countries that have best implemented the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that countries in the world should learn from Cuba on the protection of children's rights.
Jose Juan Ortiz, speaking at celebrations marking Universal Children's Day, said Cuba, still under an economic embargo and is suffering from frequent natural disasters, has significantly reduced child mortality and improved child nutrition -- to levels that can rival those of developed countries.
The cause of the amazing achievements in children's protection in Cuba lies in the government's political will, he added.
All countries in the world should follow Cuba's example and strive to provide better conditions for children in judicial and social welfare fields, Ortiz said, adding that in this way most countries would be able to meet the targets set by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
On Friday, Cuba held a variety of activities nationwide to celebrate Universal Children's Day."
It's abominable. Tell me how children can possibly be protected by the same state that beats their parents into submission to slavery. A state that doesn't allow a man to protect his famiy. I'm out of words, and just want to break something.
Ziva,
To whom can we write to vent our spleens about these lies? Is there a way to send them proof of the children in Cuba who are forced to work at slave labor if the family hopes to have food on the table?
Also, who is taking this movie and why is it permitted?
and the UN, and the liberals close their eyes...... and cheer. I have absolutely stopped trying to understand the mind set.
Don't bother to try and understand; they are beyond hope. They're agenda-driven; facts and reality are uselss and meaningless with people like that.
Our complicit media never thinks of the fact that if/when a dictatorship comes their way, they too will be under the bus, or 10 ft. under, buried with their mikes and cameras that they could have used for good instead of evil. They will be silenced and muffled and beaten.
Reinaldo is a real man with tons of class and restraint. You can't take that away from him and it makes the mob around him all the more gutless and disgusting. Wonder how much @ was paid.
The Unicef had their Cuban Headquarters very close to my house in Cuba, the had a big mansion and drove the latest model Mercedes Benz, I also bet you anything that they are actively involved in the child prostitution and abuse in Cuba.
To me they are worthless pieces of shit
These actos de repudio are horrifying examples of the continuing human capacity for evil. It's hard to believe that even today, ordinary people would be willing to sell their dignity and their humanity to some state apparatus, just to curry favor or get some kind of reward. The lack of self-control and the blindness to the difference between good and evil is terrifying--like a glimpse of hell on earth.
i oppose the lifting of the travel ban but one thing does not have to do with the other. we don't ban travel to other totalitarian/authoritarian regimes - regimes that are even more repressive than Cuba. You aren't going to convince too many people to keep the ban on because of HR violations because the tourist dollar does not care who get's their ass beat up as long as they have access to cheap hotels, cheap drinks and cheap...you get the idea. They don't care about the world outside their resort unless they are buying trinkets to bring back to the family. They just don't care.