See update below.
Just in time for festivities later this month commemorating the beginning the beginning of the Castro dictatorship, the 55th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, the Los Angeles Times and the Dallas Morning News report on how the typical Cuban José — rare is the honest-speaking Cuban who wants to be quoted by his whole name — are adapting to Raúl Castro's so-called economic and social reforms.
Not mentioned in either story, because nothing has changed for them, are those Cubans who continue to languish in the Castro gulag or are otherwise persecuted because of their opposition to the regime.
Not mentioned is political prisoner and independent journalist Oscar Sánchez Madan, who has been denied adequate medical care for injuries he suffered last month in a fall at the Matanzas provincial prison. (Also not mentioned is Sanchez's proposal, made in a letter to the newly elected president of the communist "journalists" union, that the state-run media provide a venue for the family members of Cuban prisoners to describe conditions in the gulag.)
Not mentioned is Fabio Prieto Llorente, a political prisoner and independent who is not receiving adequate medical care for his many ailments.
Not mentioned is Emilio Pérez Díaz, a political prisoner on hunger strike since July 9 to protest being denied adequate medical care.
Not mentioned are brothers Alfredo Rodríguez Mustelier and Osmanis Rodrígues Mustelier, who were beaten and arrested after they shouted anti-dictatorship and pro-human rights slogans. In jail, they are awaiting some sort of judicial action on charges that they attacked police — a charge commonly used to target Castro opponents.
Not mentioned is Julián Antonio Moné Borrego, a former political prisoner and president of the Miguel Valdez Tamayo movement, who was arrested Wednesday as he was about to board a bus in Baracoa, in far eastern Cuba.
I don't deny that the LA Times and Morning News articles are legitimate news or even that the stories were well done and maybe even capture some of the reality of Cuba today. Read them and learn. They just don't tell the whole story, or even the part of the story that tells you what Cuba is still like under Castro 2.0. In my Political Prisoner of the Week profile of Julián Antonio Moné Borrego last year, I described that reality, and suggested that maybe some journalists are missing the story:
If you read enough MSM stories about Raul Castro — and you believe both what they say, and what they leave unsaid — you'd think he's a gentler, kinder dictator. Surely, he's no democrat, but he's open to change, and more tolerant of dissent. Complete fiction, of course, but you have to give his handlers credit. They spin a good line, and a compliant media goes along, to get along or whatever.
Most of the political prisoners in the Cuban gulag are on Fidel Castro, locked away because they dared to oppose his regime, or maybe just on the bearded bastard's whim. But the oppression and repression did not stop with Fidel's surgery in the summer of 2006 and ascent of his little brother. There have been plenty of dissidents locked up during his rule.
And here's guessing they won't mind American reporters using their full names.
UPDATED, July 18, 2008
Miami Herald has the story that Dallas and LA missed.
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