Thee of the 20th Century’s greatest individuals, Poland’s Lech Walesa, the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Havel, and Hungary’s Arpad Goncz have an absolutely essential editorial on freeing Cuba from Castro’s tyranny in The Washington Post.
It is the responsibility of the democratic world to support representatives of the Cuban opposition, regardless of how long the Cuban Stalinists cling to power. The Cuban opposition must have the same international support as did the representatives of political dissent in Europe when it stood divided. Statements of condemnation for the government’s repression, combined with specific diplomatic steps coming from Europe, Latin America and the United States, would be suitable means of exerting pressure on the regime in Cuba.
These three great men know how important it is for dissident movements to be supported in order to foster a spirit of Democratic change. Each of them understand all too well what Stalinist tyranny is like, and they know how to overcome it.
The people of Cuba deserve the same freedoms as the Czechs, the Hungarians, or the Poles. The question is will the free world support them or abandon them?
Well it seems that the free world is led by the United States. If we assume that to be true, then we need to examine what the US is doing. We are putting sanctions on Cuba, trying to isolate them. Instead of fostering democracy and trying to encourage exchange of ideas we are cutting off travel and customs ties. We all know how well sanctions worked in Iraq. Sanctions have never forced any leader from office, and are a proven failed strategy. Cuba will never be free until her people are exposed to the idea of freedom and capitalism. Sadly the people in Washington are to obtuse to realize that and will continue to encourage ostracization over dialogue.
The people detained without a fair trial in Guantanamo, if they could have internet access, would strongly support your views on that.
the real question is: what free world?
The people being held at Camp X-Ray would be too busy using the Internet to plan attacks against innocent civilians.
They are enemy combatants in violation of the Geneva Convention, denying them POW status. Given the fact that most of them are now in better health than the were in Afghanistan, what they’re getting is probably too good for them.
Of course the typical European press hysterically has already proclaimed Gitmo to be some kind of concentration camp, even though the Red Cross has confirmed that the prisoners are being treated humanely. It’s another example of how anti-Americanism has overwhelmed common sense.
if it’s so bad to violate the Geneva convention, then the US shouldn’t put themself at the same level of barbarism. This statute of “enemy combatant” does not exist in the Geneva convention.
These persons are not american, but they still are humans. You cannot deny that. They deserve human treatments.
On the fact that they are in a better shape now than in Afghanistan, If you believe that, it’s very sad. It means you are blind and brainwashed. If X-ray camp(I mean just the name is enough!) is in Cuba, and not in the states, it’s precisely because the army doesn’t have to apply the democratic rights you were requesting for cubans.
This is a real shame. You’re still trying to hide behind anti-americanism…drop that will you. I explained many times now that I’m not.
For example, I’m not anti-my sister. I really like her most of the time. but sometimes, when she -let say- search my room to find my diary, I hate her. Got it?
I think I heard that Fidel has WMD. We should invade, we need their suger cane.
Somehow I think a camp where the prisoners get full medical treatment, are allowed to practice their religion and leave with a pair of new jeans, a Koran, and 13 extra pounds.
Compare that to Castro’s Cuban prisons, the way Iraqi captives are being tortured in Iran or the fact that tuberculosis makes any Russian prison sentence a death sentence.
Given that the people at Gitmo are being well cared for in conditions better than some shithole cave in Afghanistan, many are being released once it is verified that they are not a threat, and that those who are a threat are some of the worst terrorists in the world it seems clear that all the moral outrage over prison camps would be better served by looking at places where prisoners really are being tortured – a Cuba is a place where that is really happening.
That’s why I blame anti-Americanism. Gitmo is far better than the Castroite concentration camps in Cuba, but Castro gets a free pass and Bush is called the next Hitler. Such a lack of perspective can only be attributed to a political agenda.
As far as I can remenber, I don’t remenber me singing “alleluia” about Castro, nor the EU, who made a special press release about this dictatorship not so long ago.
The way you describe this PRISON kind of reminds me of the way Mussolini sent people on “vacation” as Berlusconi stated it 😉
so if the US are so against Castro, why are you keeping this jail on this Island? Logics tells you should run away from anything that look like cooperation with cuba. this not the case, for the convenient reason given earlier.
As you explain, there are some check-up in this jail, and the innocents are released. Too bad they were deported by plane with hand and feet shackles,earplugs, and blinders .too bad they were busted in the first place!(habeas corpus)
to end with that, how is 13 pound a gift? maybe according to american standards…
wait a sec…did you say anti-americanism again? Ok, let me ask you one question: imagine a campus. EVERYBODY hate ONE guy. Who’s fault is it? everybody’s, or this guy, who obviously is not sympathetic.
In a democracy, people that do not respect the rules must be arrested. But there are rules for that as well. If you do not respect the rules…you’re unlawful as well, isn’it? These people did not repest the geneva convention. So did the US by busting and detaining people with a statute that does not exist in the geneva convention.
another good one I just learned about: do you know what usage was made of this jail before? It was to put in “quarantaine” porto-ricans trying to enter the states with AIDS. I love this place and the people who run it.
Guantanomo Bay has nothing to do with Castro. The only reason it’s still in Cuba is that Castro didn’t want to go to the trouble of removing the heavily-armed fortification. I believe that Gitmo was the original American fortification from the Spanish-American war which was donated to the US in perpetuity when Cuba gained its independence from Spain.
Secondly, the 13 pounds is 13 pounds of weight, not 13 pounds of currency. Most prisons don’t have prisoners who leave in better condition than when they entered.
All the bluster over Gitmo is precisely that – bluster. The conditions in Russian prisons are appalling, and antibiotic-resistant TB is at epidemic proportions. Even a few day sentence in such a place could be a death sentence, and if that contagion were to spread it could be devastating for the whole world.
But does the European press give a damn about that? No, of course not, it sells more papers to whine about those horrible Americans.
It’s another example of political posturing above common sense and humanitarianism.