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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHRW : CUBA
Nevertheless, the Cuban government continues to repress individuals and groups who criticize the government or call for basic human rights. Officials employ a range of tactics to punish dissent and instill fear in the public, including beatings, public acts of shaming, termination of employment, and threats of long-term imprisonment. Short-term arbitrary arrests have increased dramatically in recent years and routinely prevent human rights defenders, independent journalists, and others from gathering or moving about freely.
Arbitrary Detentions and Short-Term Imprisonment
The government continues to rely on arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate individuals who exercise their fundamental rights. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation—an independent human rights group the government views as illegal—received over 3,600 reports of arbitrary detentions from January through September 2013, compared to approximately 2,100 in 2010.
The detentions are often used preemptively to prevent individuals from participating in events viewed as critical of the government, such as peaceful marches or meetings to discuss politics. Many dissidents are beaten and threatened when detained, even if they do not try to resist.
Security officers virtually never present arrest orders to justify detentions and threaten detainees with criminal sentences if they continue to participate in “counterrevolutionary” activities. In some cases, detainees receive official warnings, which prosecutors may later use in criminal trials to show a pattern of delinquent behavior. Dissidents said these warnings aim to discourage them from participating in activities seen as critical of the government.
Victims of such arrests may be held incommunicado for several hours to several days. Some are held at police stations, while others are driven to remote areas far from their homes where they are interrogated, threatened, and abandoned.
On August 25, 2013, more than 30 women from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White)—a group founded by the wives, mothers, and daughters of political prisoners and which the government considers illegal—were detained after attending Sunday mass at a church in Santiago, beaten, forced onto a bus, and left at various isolated locations on the city’s outskirts. The same day, eight members of the group in Havana and seven more in Holguín were arbitrarily detained as they marched peacefully to attend mass.
Political Prisoners
Cubans who criticize the government may face criminal prosecution. They do not benefit from due process guarantees, such as the right to fair and public hearings by a competent and impartial tribunal. In practice, courts are “subordinated” to the executive and legislative branches, denying meaningful judicial independence. Political prisoners are routinely denied parole after completing the minimum required sentence as punishment for refusing to participate in ideological activities, such as “reeducation” classes.
The death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in 2010 after his 85-day hunger strike and the subsequent hunger strike by dissident Guillermo Fariñas pressured the government to release the remaining political prisoners from the “group of 75” (75 dissidents sentenced to long prison terms in a 2003 crackdown). Yet most were forced to choose between ongoing prison sentences and forced exile. The overwhelming majority accepted relocation to Spain in exchange for their freedom.
http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/cuba
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Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)No freedom of speech
no freedom of assemble
no freedom of press.
And I'm supposed to celebrate what again ?
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)I think he thought it was time, after 50 years, to try a different tact. It's the height of hypocrisy for our government to work with China and Saudi Arabia and still have sanctions against Cuba.
flamingdem
(40,830 posts)including even the Hip Hop group Los Aldeanos who sang anti-government lyrics.
Very little is what it seems in Cuba, the people are not under some horrible yoke of oppression the way the right would depict, that's why the Republicans were able to manipulate policy and subvert to their own ends.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)glad you know much more than HRW.
flamingdem
(40,830 posts)and am not as biased as HRW.
onenote
(46,054 posts)Both of which echo HRW's conclusions about Cuba.
It is possible to be critical of Cuba's repressive policies towards speech and dissent and still applaud the President's move. Hopefully, opening up Cuba a bit more will create more pressure on the government to be more open itself.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)and not one duer noted that except you.
thank you.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)OWS where people are arrested and beaten and find themselves facing down what looks like an invading force rather than civilian police there to protect them.
It is the height of hypocrisy for this country to point fingers anywhere else.
Two US Veterans were nearly killed in Oakland CA simply for peacefully demonstrating, one only walking home.
Add to the list of the dictatorships we support, Uzbekistan, Karamov who committed genocide against his own people and who tortures anyone who speaks out against him.
Not to mention, Uganda and many others, Bahrain, Egypt etc.
So not sure what point is being made with this as it only reminds people of our record re HRs.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)amongst us freely, we don't get to lecture any other country on how to do human rights.
Oh, sure, we can try to 'lecture' them and they have every right to laugh at us (and at this OP) to our hypocritical torturing, human rights-abusing faces.
The real irony will be if some of our torture occurred at Guantanamo. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
craigmatic
(4,510 posts)This move isn't about individual rights it is about the rights of Cuba as a country to be treated fairly along side other Latin countries. If we open Cuba more freedoms will come to the people over time.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)Because, as the president so rightly said, 50 years of policy that isolated and attempted to destroy that regime did not work. And it did not help the Cuban people Let's try something else. We've always been more successful in bringing nations into the world and in line with common humanitarian values when we deal openly with them.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)
Saboburns
(2,807 posts)Who have in many ways surpassed our poor country.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)yes, they were much more in line with common humanitarian values when we deal openly with them... especially when they were defeated in WW2.
Is that your solution? Defeat them at war and they are much more amenable?
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)I believe in freedoms and justice and all that other weird stuff.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Your point?
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)"reeducation" classes? North Korea does the same shit.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Why didn't somebody tell me? 
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)with human rights violations?
Bandit
(21,475 posts)Yet they are our wonderful friends.....I bet if Cuba had oil we wouldn't hesitate in the slightest.
And whatever faults Cuba doubtless has, beheading people for "apostasy" and "practicing witchcraft" is not among them.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)Paladin
(32,354 posts)...everything would have turned out hunky-dory.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)I don't either.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)I've long hoped the United States would normalize relations with Cuba.
Personally, I hate Castro. For some reason, he ordered the execution of Ernesto Sori, a leader of the revolution and brother of a good friend of my parents.
FSogol
(47,543 posts)Kudos for Obama taking a big first step.
MineralMan
(150,878 posts)We're not doing all that well, either, according to HRW.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)
muriel_volestrangler
(105,831 posts)Amnesty International said that it believes the embargo is particularly affecting Cubans’ access to medicines and medical technologies, putting lives at risk.
...
"The US embargo against Cuba is putting at risk the lives of millions by preventing them from accessing vital medicines and medical technologies," said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International's Americas programme. "These sanctions are immoral and should be lifted immediately."
Because of the US embargo, Cuba faces severe restrictions in importing medicines, medical equipment or technologies from the USA or from any US company abroad. The sanctions also limit other imports to the island and restrict travel and the transfer of money.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/obama-should-follow-un-lead-cuba-embargo-20091029
Crunchy Frog
(28,219 posts)Ykcutnek
(1,305 posts)We do business and have relations with far, far worse nations.
muriel_volestrangler
(105,831 posts)...
"If the goal is to improve human rights conditions in Cuba, then the embargo should be ended," said José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "The embargo has proved itself ineffective and even counterproductive to the human rights cause."
Human Rights Watch recommended that after ending the embargo the U.S. government should adopt a more calibrated policy, one that would respond to incremental changes in the Cuban government's human rights practices. "The embargo is a sledgehammer," said Vivanco. "Washington needs a smarter approach."
Human Rights Watch pointed out several serious flaws in the more than forty-year-old policy. First, it is an all-or-nothing approach aimed at overthrowing the Castro government, which does not allow for any relaxation in response to measurable improvement in Cuban human rights practices. It therefore does nothing to encourage such improvements, instead providing the Cuban authorities with a convenient justification for their repressive policies.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2002/05/16/time-end-us-embargo-cuba
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)That's gonna sting.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)great.
muriel_volestrangler
(105,831 posts)As your own link said, Cuba has improved in recent years. And as it also says:
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)maybe you should think through the meaning of the things you post.
if you post upthread that you support what Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International says about Cuba, then unless you weren't serious about that statement,
you shouldn't run away from a major position they took when confronted with it.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)It is a road we should travel together as friends, not apart as enemies.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)its ok that not one person agrees with me.
onenote
(46,054 posts)and still see the change in US policy as a good move, one that may lead to reforms in Cuba -- reforms that certainly have not come from 50 years of disengagement.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)On August 21, 2013, a US court martial at Fort Meade, Maryland, imposed a 35-year-sentence on Pfc. Bradley Manning.
“The aggressive prosecution and harsh sentencing of Manning not only contrasts sharply with the total impunity of former senior US officials for torture and related abuses, but also far exceeds the sentences most democratic countries impose for public leaks of sensitive information,” said Dinah PoKempner, general counsel at Human Rights Watch.
On July 30, 2013, Pfc. Bradley Manning was convicted of 20 of 22 counts by a US court martial in Fort Meade, Maryland, for leaking thousands of government documents to the online publisher Wikileaks for public dissemination. The military judge, Col. Denise Lind, acquitted Manning of the most serious charge, “aiding the enemy.” The cumulative charges could amount to 136 years of prison time for Manning. The sentencing phase of his trial will begin on July 31.
The government’s charge that Manning “aided the enemy” set a chilling precedent, by threatening leakers with prosecution on treason-like charges for any communication to the media that could be thought useful to an adversary. Under this charge, the government did not have to show that Manning actually intended to harm the United States. Rather, the judge ruled, the government only had to prove that Manning would have reason to believe that publishing the information via Wikileaks could potentially aid an enemy such as al-Qaeda, which (like the rest of the public), has Internet access.
The only other case in which a soldier has been prosecuted for indirectly aiding the enemy was in 1863, against a Civil War private who was sentenced to three months’ hard labor for giving a military roster to a newspaper, which printed it. The court declined to dismiss the charge on July 18, for lack of evidence once the government had presented its case, but apparently found the government failed to establish the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. This result, while positive, still leaves a threat of prosecution alive for those who leak information to the media without any actual intent to aid the enemy.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Israel's two main interrogation agencies in the occupied territories engage in a systematic pattern of ill-treatment and torture - according to internationally recognized definitions of the terms - when trying to extract from Palestinian security suspects confessions or information about third parties. This pattern has continued in 1994, despite the peace process now underway.
Israel's ill-treatment of Palestinians under interrogation is notable for the enormous number of persons who have experienced it. Well over 100,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the intifada in December 1987. Of those arrested, reliable sources indicate that some 4,000 to 6,000 are subjected to interrogation each year. The figures appear to have declined only slightly during the first quarter of 1994.
The overriding strategy of Israel's interrogation agencies in getting uncooperative detainees to talk is to subject them to a coordinated, rigid and increasingly painful regime of physical constraints and psychological pressures over days and very often for three or four weeks, during which time the detainees are, almost without exception, denied visits by their lawyers and families. These measures seriously taint the voluntariness of the confessions that they help to bring about, and therefore, compromise the fundamental fairness of the military courts that try Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The methods used in nearly all interrogations are prolonged sleep deprivation; prolonged sight deprivation using blindfolds or tight-fitting hoods; forced, prolonged maintenance of body positions that grow increasingly painful; and verbal threats and insults.
These methods are almost always combined with some of the following abuses: confinement in tiny, closet-like spaces; exposure to temperature extremes, such as in deliberately overcooled rooms; prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation; and degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to eat and use the toilet at the same time. In a large number of cases, detainees are also moderately or severely beaten by their interrogators.
malaise
(294,166 posts)
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)until the last political prisoner is free , I will not be celebrating.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,848 posts)you celebrate this or not. I could be wrong.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)and that's ok.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,848 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)What's your point?
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,848 posts)to his list of spamming. So I guess it's good he's expanding. You got a problem with that?
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)Has the OP posted lies? The same story over and over? I certainly haven't noticed that at all. I notice plenty of people stick with one topic or another - whatever interests them. I've never felt compelled to call them out for feeling the way they do. Perhaps when a topic brings so much ammunition to argue a cause, there's a reason for that.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,848 posts)Enthusiasms... What are mine?...." Calling out trolls.
Someone doesn't have to lie to be a troll. Posting nothing but stories about just how terrible these muslims are, along with little snide comments about "religion of peace..." or "DUers think we should just cuddle terrorists....". You don't feel compelled to call out bigotry. That's your business not mine. I really don't give 2 shits. If someone showed up here posting nothing but stories about how awful black people or hispanics or hindus or whatever. They'd rightfully get called out. Now if you share this particulars poster's views. Then good for you, I guess.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)times you called out those who bash Christians all the time. Who feel the need to counter every story that puts Muslims in a bad light with juvenile bullshit about how our fundies are just as bad - or would be given half the chance once we point out ours aren't cutting people's head off. Or doesn't constant moronic moral relativism count as trolling in your book?
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,848 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Are you referring to the political prisoners in Guantanamo Bay held by that Star-Spangled Bastion of Awesome-sauce, the USA?
malaise
(294,166 posts)
You're replying to yourself
Violet_Crumble
(36,382 posts)It's the internet equivalent of someone sticking their fingers in their ears and going 'LA LA LA. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!'
I got a chuckle out of this gem in this thread: 'HRW and Amenesty tell the truth.'
I suspect he meant to add: 'unless I disagree with them!' at the end. Because here's some truth from HRW and AI that he won't like...
Amnesty International - Obama should follow UN lead on Cuba embargo
Amnesty International - Israel: The injustice and secrecy surrounding administrative detention.
'Starved of justice: Palestinians detained without trial by Israel’ documents human rights violations associated with administrative detention – a relic of British control of the area that permits detention without charge or trial on indefinitely renewable military orders.
The report also calls on Israel to stop using these measures to suppress the legitimate and peaceful activities of activists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It urges the immediate and unconditional release prisoners of conscience held just for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Then there's the other info from HRW about Israel's human rights violations that have been studiously ignored because, y'know, it's apparently totally awesome when Israel does it...
Israel's two main interrogation agencies in the occupied territories engage in a systematic pattern of ill-treatment and torture - according to internationally recognized definitions of the terms - when trying to extract from Palestinian security suspects confessions or information about third parties. This pattern has continued in 1994, despite the peace process now underway.
Israel's ill-treatment of Palestinians under interrogation is notable for the enormous number of persons who have experienced it. Well over 100,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the intifada in December 1987. Of those arrested, reliable sources indicate that some 4,000 to 6,000 are subjected to interrogation each year. The figures appear to have declined only slightly during the first quarter of 1994.
The overriding strategy of Israel's interrogation agencies in getting uncooperative detainees to talk is to subject them to a coordinated, rigid and increasingly painful regime of physical constraints and psychological pressures over days and very often for three or four weeks, during which time the detainees are, almost without exception, denied visits by their lawyers and families. These measures seriously taint the voluntariness of the confessions that they help to bring about, and therefore, compromise the fundamental fairness of the military courts that try Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The methods used in nearly all interrogations are prolonged sleep deprivation; prolonged sight deprivation using blindfolds or tight-fitting hoods; forced, prolonged maintenance of body positions that grow increasingly painful; and verbal threats and insults.
These methods are almost always combined with some of the following abuses: confinement in tiny, closet-like spaces; exposure to temperature extremes, such as in deliberately overcooled rooms; prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation; and degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to eat and use the toilet at the same time. In a large number of cases, detainees are also moderately or severely beaten by their interrogators.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5972756
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)If not, what is the point of this?
If so, the step in the argument that you need to convince people of is not that Cuba is a repressive dictatorship (there are DUers who deny that, but not many) but that the fact that it is a repressive dictatorship is a reason not to trade with it, when the US trades with so many other much worse regimes (most DUers, including me, think that it isn't, and that normalising relations is likely to do more good than harm for human rights in Cuba).
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)I suppose its probably the right move but I wouldn't have done it without the release of ALL political prisoners.
As for worse, maybe. I understand the realities of the world.
I guess my Amnesty beliefs didn't go away as I got older.
Thanks for asking.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)
okaawhatever
(9,565 posts)
eissa
(4,238 posts)which is not much, I admit, I do share your views. I'm in the same boat as Carlos Franqui and Comandante Huber Matos -- leftist revolutionaries (among many others) who despised the Castro brothers. You can be pro-revolution and anti-Castro. Those who oppose Fidel are not all pro-Batista. Far from it. His biggest critics were those who fought alongside him and believed his promises of "Cuba Libre" -- one where the 1940s Constitution would be restored and open and free elections held. I'm optimistic with the news of normalizing relations; it's long overdue. The embargo only compounded the suffering of the Cuban people, and they get enough of that from the dictatorship.
malaise
(294,166 posts)not holding my breath
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)malaise
(294,166 posts) 
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Both Amnesty and HRW support lifting the embargo on Cuba. I'm not sure what your point is.