Patrick Comer: Facts on Cuba still elude many Americans

[Judi Lynn]

Patrick Comer: Facts on Cuba still elude many Americans

By Patrick Comer
Posted: 12/29/2015 05:10:31 PM MST | Updated: about 3 hours ago


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People watch a free concert given by Puerto Rico's Olga Tanon, from a building flying a Cuban flag in Havana, Cuba, on Dec. 12.
(Desmond Boylan / AP)
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In his guest opinion (" Freedom Still Eludes Cubans&quot , Mark Read appears to believe that Latin America, and Cuba in particular, remains frozen in the Cold War era.

News flash: A lot has happened over the past 50 years, and Cubans have seen truly historic change in just the past few years! Both U.S.-based imperialist capitalism and Soviet-style communism long-ago demonstrated their failings and have steadily given way to innovative mixed economies throughout the hemisphere. But this transformation has not been easy.

Those who tie their fortunes to the oppression of others never give up without a fight. If you check your facts (try Amnesty International) you will find that the number of people oppressed by left-leaning regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador, while substantial, is dwarfed by horrific sacrifice of peasant farmers, journalists and human rights advocates at the hands of right-wing dictatorships and their death squads. Most right-wing oppression — from Chile to Haiti — was financed or covertly supported by the U.S. government and U.S.-based corporations throughout the 20th century.

I recall, in my travels through Guatemala in the mid-1980s, the harrowing stories of aid workers and indigenous farmers, after whole villages were massacred by the Guatemalan military; most made up of teenaged thugs sporting U.S. weapons and U.S. army uniforms. I remember, as a Peace Corps worker in 1989, how the mercenary Contras — still well armed by the Reagan administration, but then left unemployed by Central American-driven Peace accords — became the most violent criminal gangs ever seen as they spilled over the border into northern Costa Rica.

More:
http://www.dailycamera.com/guest-opinions/ci_29322226/patrick-comer-facts-cuba-still-elude-many-americans

[Mika]

1. Did you read Mr Read's op/ed?

5 loads of horseshit in a single load wheelbarrow.

[Judi Lynn]

2. He really had to strain to get that much crappola into one sad opinion article.

Don't know how he was able to get that much garbage together. Unbelievable! A real feat.

It would be hilarious if someone blindfolded him, flew him to Havana, and turned him loose. It would make one fantastic video, wouldn't it?

Love to see Mr. Big Mouth from Boulder surrounded by all those poor people, and all the heavily armed police keeping them prisoner there.

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[BlueMTexpat]

3. Unfortunately, facts on

just about anything elude many Americans.

But yes, the US has almost overwhelmingly been on the side of RW dictatorships in Cuba, as well as throughout Central and South America throughout our mutual history.

Just as has been the case with our record of association with repressive governments throughout the rest of the world.

We have managed to tarnish the word "freedom" badly, when we have not trashed it outright.