"Raúl Castro’s government has imprisoned scores of political prisoners using laws criminalizing dissent. In particular, Cuba has relied on a 'dangerousness' provision that allows authorities to imprison individuals for exercising their fundamental freedoms, on the grounds that their activities contradict 'socialist morality.'"
"New Castro, Same Cuba," Human Rights Watch, Nov. 18, 2009.
Human Rights Watch's new report on Cuba, "New Castro, Same Cuba," is full of many quotable moments Each one illustrates a different element of the repressive machinery — made up of Orwellian laws criminalizing dissent enforced by the goons who infect the secret police, courts and other parts of Cuban society controlled by the dictatorship — built by Fidel Castro and now in the hands of his younger brother Raúl.
As a whole, the report is a powerful indictment and primer detailing how the Castro dictatorship, with varying levels of fear, brutality and oppression, targets those Cubans wanting and demanding change, and possessing the courage to not stay silent, so that it remains in power. A large portion of the study also details the suffering of Cuban political prisoners.
Hopefully, the 123-page report, which includes an extensive bibliography detailing interviews with Cuban dissidents and their families and other research, will inform those, whether by their ignorance or their indifference, who insist that all would be well in Cuba if the United States would accept what it is and leave it alone.
And once and for all, or at least for now, the study hopefully will halt efforts underway to change how the United States approaches Cuba before there is cambio in Cuba.
That is exactly what Human Rights Watch recommends.
Some may dismiss the Human Rights Watch report because at the same time it is condemning the Castro dictatorship for its barbarity, it is renewing calls for the United States to lift trade, travel and other restrictions that make up the so-called "embargo," which it argues has not forced the Castros out of power while at the same time worsening conditions for Cuban citizens.
HRW, however, also says that such a re-setting of relations must be part of a unified international diplomatic strategy that sets as the pre-condition for the end of the embargo the release of Cuban political prisoners within six months of an offer being made.
What HRW is suggesting may rely too much on the goodwill of European and other nations whose commitment to Cuban human rights has too often been morally malleable. And it may rely too much on the hope that the dictatorship would go against instinct and make such a deal, even if it is to its economic benefit.
But what makes the suggested approach so attractive, regardless of where you stand on the efficacy of the embargo, is that it holds not the United States nor the exiles in Miami nor the Cuban people responsible for the situation in Cuba.
The blame, says HRW, is all on the Castros.
If the Castros refuse the offer, "if the Castro government is still holding political prisoners at the end of six months, Cuba must be held accountable."
And then, maybe, the change can really begin.
You can read the whole report in English, here, and en español, aquí.
A couple of post-scripts:
- The Human Rights Watch study, which validates a lot of the reporting and conclusions about how the dictatorship punishes dissent found on this blog, offers several examples of Cuban dissidents who have been victimized by the Castro dictatorship, particularly its enforcement of laws designed to punish as "pre-criminal social dangers" anyone who deviates from the the regime's "socialist" norms. You can read more about them by clicking on their names on the right sidebar.
- Four dissidents HRW provides extra attention to are Ramón Velásquez Toranzo; Alexander Santos Hernández; Juan Luís Rodríguez Desdín; and "Jorge Barrera Alonso," a pseudonym for a political prisoner whose wife was worried about possible retaliation for talking with the study's authors.
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