Still in agony
OUR OPINION: Rights report shows Cuba's new boss same as old boss
The title of the latest Human Rights Watch report on Cuba succinctly
describes the dismal state of civil liberties on the island since Raúl
Castro took over for his ailing brother in July of 2006: ``New Castro,
Same Cuba.''
Anyone who thought that the world's longest-serving little brother would
offer a ``revolution lite'' brand of communism was bound to be
disappointed. His decades-long record as the hard-line overseer of
Cuba's loyal military forces contains no signs of flexibility or
moderation, and his performance over the past 40 months in place of his
brother shows no deviation from this trajectory.
No difference
He has attempted to be a more efficient manager of Cuba's meager
resources, impatient with unproductive economic schemes, but little else
sets his performance apart from that of his predecessor.
When it comes to human rights, the 123-page report offers overwhelming
evidence that he has run a government every bit as repressive as Fidel
Castro's. Not only does the state's all-seeing, punitive apparatus
remain in place, but Raúl has made sure it stays busy.
Ramón Velásquez Toranzo is one of its victims. He set out on a peaceful
march across Cuba to call for respect for human rights and freedom for
all political prisoners, and was promptly arrested and sentenced to
three years in prison for ``dangerousness'' in January 2007. The report
documented more than 40 cases under Raúl Castro in which the government
has imprisoned individuals like Velásquez Toranzo under the
``dangerousness'' provision for exercising basic rights that Cuba denies
its citizens.
Meanwhile, beatings like the one blogger Yoani Sánchez experienced
recently, short-term detention, ``acts of repudiation,'' denial of work
and brutal treatment of political prisoners remain common features of
the machinery of repression.
The case of Alexander Santos Hernandez, a political activist sentenced
to four years for ``dangerousness,'' shows how ``due process'' works. He
told HRW, ``[The police] picked me up at 5:50 a.m. while I was at home
sleeping, and by 8:30 that morning they were already reading me my
sentence.'' Denied a lawyer, the sentence he was given was dated two
days before his trial took place. Stalin himself would applaud.
Police state
The Cuban government's first response to the report was to vilify the
messenger. No surprise there, given that the regime can't deny the
facts. But the claim that the human rights group timed the report to
undermine efforts on Capitol Hill to eliminate restrictions on
Americans' travel to Cuba is absurd on its face because HRW opposes the
travel ban.
This damning report would have been uncomfortable at any time for the
regime. It's not about U.S. policy but about the way the Cuban
government mistreats its own citizens, which can be summed up in one
word -- miserably. The spotlight shone by HRW reveals that Cuba remains
a police state under the Castros, with the ordinary citizen trampled
underfoot by the ever-present guardians of state security.
The unchanging nature of the Cuban government is an argument for seeking
more effective U.S. policies to undermine the regime's chokehold of the
population. But we must ask if relaxing the travel ban now makes sense.
It seems more like a unilateral U.S. concession after 50 years of
dictatorship.
The Obama administration has taken several steps to engage Cuba,
including opening up travel for Cuban Americans to visit family and more
academic and cultural exchanges.
So far, this strategy of engagement, which we support, has gone one way
only. Cuba has done nothing to show it's open to hear its citizens'
concerns or wants to seriously try.
Still in agony - Editorials - MiamiHerald.com (20 November 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1343124.html
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