Human Rights

Engagement with Cuba and those “reforms”

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Engagement with Cuba, via trade and tourism will create a middle class, which in turn will create the necessary conditions for democracy.

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, that mindset is endlessly espoused within articles and comments about Cuba in the media. It seems entrenched doctrine when it comes to U.S. Cuba relations, and not just among those actively promoting the regimes interests, but also among many well-intentioned but misinformed folks hoping for normalization with Cuba.

Years ago, Val posted a list of things Cubans cannot do in order to illustrate the reality of life for Cuban’s living under the boot heel of state control. With the onslaught of stories heralding all the so-called reforms in recent years, I think it is useful to revisit that list to see what if anything, has really changed in Cuba.

What Cubans Cannot Do
• Travel abroad without government permission – Well, the bigger the scam, the bolder the lie.

• Change jobs without government permission – No change

• Change residence without government permission No change – The law known as Decree 217 limits the internal freedom of movement of Cubans.

• Access the Internet without government permission (the Internet is closely monitored and controlled by the government. (Only 1.67% of the population has access to the Internet). – Internet access remains under 5%. See Freedom House Report.

• Send their children to a private or religious school (all schools are government run, there are no religious schools in Cuba).- No change

• Watch independent or private radio or TV stations (all TV and radio stations are owned and run by the government). Cubans illegally watch/listen to foreign broadcasts. – No change

• Read books, magazines or newspapers, unless approved/published by the government (all books, magazines and newspapers are published by the government). – No change

• Receive publications from abroad or from visitors (punishable by jail terms under Law 88) – No change

• Visit or stay in tourist hotels, restaurants, and resorts – Poverty is also a method of control, and these still are off-limits to average Cubans striving to survive on state controlled wages.

• Seek employment with foreign companies on the island, unless approved by the government – No change

• Run for public office unless approved by Cuba’s Communist Party – No change

• Own businesses, unless they are very small and approved by the government and pay onerous taxes – No change and he told you so.

• Join an independent labor union (there is only one, government controlled labor union and no individual or collective bargaining is allowed; neither are strikes or protests) – No change

• Retain a lawyer, unless approved by the government – No change

• Choose a physician or hospital. Both are assigned by the government. – No change

• Refuse to participate in mass rallies and demonstrations organized by the Cuban Communist Party. – No change

• Criticize the Castro regime or the Cuban Communist Party, the only party allowed in Cuba. – No change

Draconian laws imposed by the Castro dictatorship prohibits the Cuban people from engaging in foreign commerce, and the Cuban military’s complete control over all tourism to the island is a blockade that prevents the kind of normal tourism and commerce that could result in benefits for the Cuban people.

Some thoughts about Gabriel Garcia-Marquez & Fidel Castro

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Victor Triay, author and college professor, joins me for a chat about the Latin American left.   We will also hear from Michael Prada.

We will look at the death of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, the well known author of the Spanish language, who died in Mexico City.

My concern is that Mr Garcia-Marquez is another one of those Latin American intellectuals who loved Fidel Castro more than the Cuban people.  How else do you explain his fascination with Castro?  Why the selective indignation?

 

“Dialogo” without holding Maduro accountable for the deaths is wrong

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(This is my new American Thinker post about Venezuela)

There are talks underway in Venezuela, as reported by The Washington Post:

“Venezuelan opposition leaders began a late-night meeting with President Nicolás Maduro and his cabinet Thursday in a possible first step toward ending two months of anti-government protests and street clashes that have left at least 41 dead.

The meeting was broadcast live on Venezuelan television and radio, at the insistence of the opposition, and was attended by mediators from Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and the Vatican. The representative of the Holy See in Venezuela, Aldo Giordano, opened the meeting by reading a written statement from Pope Francis urging both sides to put aside differences and summon the courage to reach an agreement.

Maduro followed, speaking for more than half an hour, and insisted that the encounter was a “dialogue,” not a negotiation. “I’m willing to debate all of the country’s problems,” he said. “But we need to join together in condemning violence as a way to force political change.”

With 11 members of the opposition and 11 members from the government side scheduled to speak, it appeared likely that the meeting would stretch well past midnight. Both sides indicated that future meetings would be required to work out the biggest sticking points between the two sides, especially the fate of jailed protesters. Henrique Capriles, the opposition standard-bearer who narrowly lost to Maduro in last April’s president election, was the most prominent figure on the anti-­government side.

While the encounter allowed opposition leaders an unusually open platform to speak directly to a national audience and the president himself, it was also notable for the absence of the opposition’s more hard-line anti-Maduro wing.

That’s the branch that has been in the streets battling national guardsmen and blocking traffic with flaming barricades, and it may be unwilling to heed any agreements that emerge from the talks with Maduro.

María Corina Machado, the congresswoman who has emerged as the most prominent opposition voice in recent weeks after the arrest of fellow anti-Maduro hard-liner Leopoldo ­López, boycotted the event, saying no meeting with the president should be occurring while protesters and opposition leaders remain in jail.”

I’m OK with a dialogue but the opposition should demand several things:

1) Who will be held responsible for the deaths?  43 people are dead and that is unacceptable.  Who gave the order to shoot people peacefully protesting?

2) When will the government allow a free press and media?  It’s a shame that the world has learned about the atrocities from the people on the streets using social media.  Venezuela must restore the vibrant media that it had years ago.

There are probably other issues but those are my two starting points.

The Maduro administration has lots of blood in its hands and it’s time to demand explanations.

P. S. You can hear my chat with Mr Cazorla in Venezuela here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

 

Carlos Eire discusses Pres Correa’s visit to Yale University

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Like many of you, I woke up Friday morning and read Carlos’ post about President Correa at Yale University.  We discussed that visit and what it means……please click below and listen to the interview:

 

Cuba: Dr. Oscar Biscet brutally beaten, arrested – Updated

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biscet

Dr. Oscar Biscet, physician, winner of numerous human rights awards, including the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom, was arrested and brutally beaten earlier today.

Just in on Twitter, from Dr. Biscet’s wife Elsa Morejon:


Translation: OscarBiscet was brutally beaten by the political police when they arrested him, I do not know where he is.

Update, good news:

@ElsaMorejon Thanks to God and supportive friends, my husband @OscarBiscet just called from the Infanta Street, says he is on his way home.

Cuban opposition leader Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez” arrested, whereabouts unknown

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While Alfy and other morally compromised individuals are busy making deals with the murderous Castro regime, in Cuba, those who disagree and dare to stand up for their human rights suffer violent repression and arrest.

Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez” along with family members were arrested Wednesday. His whereabouts is unknown at this time.

Various posts Twitter:

“Oye compay, que semana”: We talk Cuba with Jorge Ponce!

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Jorge Ponce and I looked back at this big “semana” of Cuba news.

It started with the handshake, talk of Dr Gross, calls for lifting the embargo, to more of Alberto’s posts about human rights violations in the island.

Even Elian made the news this week.  Wonder if someone told Elian that his mother died to bring him to the US?

It was quite a week!  We spoke with Jorge Ponce about it.

Listen here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/12/14/us-cuba-issues-the-embargo-handshake-and-the-status-of-mr-gross

 

Obam(ACA)re* Looks A Lot Like CastroCare

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ObamaCare architect Zeke Emanuel will now explain to you unwashed dolts exactly why you cannot keep that doctor you have been seeing for years and years, and trust with your medical history, (real) healthcare, and life…

Got that, dummies?

1) Because Obama did not say you could have unlimited “choice”. Where the Hell did you get that idea? (That’s just for aborting babies without restrictions.) Sheesh, you people are dumb!

2) Hey, if you really want to keep your doctor you have to pay Obama more, suckers! It’s the Chicago extortion way.

Furthermore, what makes you think you can just check into the country’s top hospitals?

Americans who are buying insurance plans over online exchanges, under what is known as Obamacare, will have limited access to some of the nation’s leading hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centres.

Amid a drive by insurers to limit costs, the majority of insurance plans being sold on the new healthcare exchanges in New York, Texas, and California, for example, will not offer patients’ access to Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan or MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, two top cancer centres, or Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in the country.

Experts say the move by insurers to limit consumers’ choices and steer them away from hospitals that are considered too expensive, or even “inefficient”, reflects the new competitive landscape in the insurance industry since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.

It could become another source of political controversy for the Obama administration next year, when the plans take effect. Frustrated consumers could then begin to realise what is not always evident when buying a product as complicated as healthcare insurance: that their new plans do not cover many facilities or doctors “in network”. In other words, the facilities and doctors are not among the list of approved providers in a certain plan.

Under some US health insurance plans, consumers can elect to visit medical facilities that are “out of network”, but they would probably incur high out of pocket costs and may need referrals to prove that such care is medically necessary.

Cuba here we come…

cuba hospital

MORE:

Dr. Betsy McCaughey @ IBD (who knows this law inside-out): “Another ObamaCare Lie: Protecting Those With Pre-Existing Conditions”

MSNBC host “Prof.” Melissa Harris-Perry equates ‘Obamacare’ with N-word

ObamaCare created a Medicaid time bomb

George Will addressed the coming Medicaid “HEll” that will be exploding very soon.

Previous Posts here and here.

Lies of Obamacare: False choice edition

You’re damn straight we’re talking about Obam(ACA)re … and getting punished for it (here and here).

*FOOTNOTE:

A few weeks back the White House and the MSM decided to “rebrand” ObamaCare by returning to calling it the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in order to deflect Obama’s ownership of the horrifically failing and rapidly-growing opposition to the unpopular law, and his falling approval. So, at that time I decided to begin spelling “ObamaCare” thusly:

Obam(ACA)re

Why? Because it’s STILL in there.

Nelson Mandela Dies…

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mandela castro

South Africa’s first black president has died after a long illness. History will remember his life, to be sure.

While I appreciate and respect Nelson Mandela’s struggles and his being a political prisoner within his own country for a large part of his life, I am not unaware of his post-prison political ideology and all the friendships he held with some of the world’s nastiest leaders. Which leads me to how I cannot help but be struck by the obvious…

The MSM that is now in full honors mode for Nelson Mandela who was a political prisoner for decades, and who fought against apartheid and for freedom in South Africa would be the same MSM that would be in full honors mode if the dictator of the Cuban apartheid, Fidel Castro … who currently holds political prisoners … were to die.

The day that Fidel Castro said: “Yo soy un Marxista Leninista”!

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We will celebrate tomorrow that day in 1961 that Fidel Castro made it official:

“”I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life.”

He went on to state that, “Marxism or scientific socialism has become the revolutionary movement of the working class.”

He also noted that communism would be the dominant force in Cuban politics:

“There cannot be three or four movements.””

And that was it!

It happened about 7 months after The Bay of Pigs and confirmed that Castro would rule Cuba as a dictator.  It ended any hopes of a multiparty election or restoration of the freedoms that the regime had eliminated by executive decree.

I should add that people were thrown in jail or executed in 1959-61 for calling Castro “un comunista”.

None of those people were ever released after Castro confirmed that he was “un communista”.

 

Marc Masferrer and Cuba getting a seat in the UN Human Rights Council

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As you may know, Cuba will now have a seat in the UN Human Rights Council:

“China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba and Algeria won seats Tuesday on the U.N. Human Rights Council, riling independent human rights groups who said their election undermined the rights watchdog’s credibility.

The General Assembly elected 14 new members to the 47-seat Geneva-based council, which can shine a spotlight on rights abuses by adopting resolutions — when it chooses to do so.

It also has dozens of special monitors watching problem countries and major issues ranging from executions to drone strikes.”

This is a travesty but what else do you expect from the UN?  I can’t wait for Cuba to pass judgement on a member country that puts dissidents in jail or harasses citizens marching for freedom.    Let’s see how Cuba votes when that issue comes before the council.

Again, this is a travesty and an insult to our intelligence.

Marc Masferrer has been at the forefront of this battle.   Please check out interview with Marc.

Here is the link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/11/13/todays-message