A new human rights watch report finds that Cuba is continuing to violate human rights and using draconian laws to repress its citizens.
Despite the switch from Fidel Castro's rule to his brother Raul, the country has not shown much of a difference in conditions; keeping abusive laws firmly in place.
According to BBC.com, Human Rights Watch has issued several accounts of the unfair and horrid laws of conduct that is still in effect in Cuba:
The report says political and religious activists live in constant fear, and that persistent aggression is placed against dissidents.
Raul Castro has relied in particular on a Cuban law that lets the state imprison people even before they commit a crime, Human Rights Watch said.
"Despite significant obstacles to research, Human Rights Watch documented more than 40 cases in which Cuba has imprisoned individuals for 'dangerousness' under Raul Castro because they tried to exercise their fundamental rights," the report said.
Because the Cuban government strictly controls the media, Human Rights Watch went on a secret co-op mission to do their report. The report was secretly researched on unauthorized visits to the Caribbean island, and got data from interviews with around 60 people.
As Al Gore would put it, this is an inconvenient truth-- being that US President Barack Obama wants to re-set ties with Cuba.
Photo Source: BBC Americas, 2009
3 comments:
Not to belittle Cuba's abysmal record on the right to free speech, to assembly, and others, but this is literally the only time we talk about the country. It is hard to ignore Cuba's great advantages in the areas of education and health compared to almost everywhere else in Latin America. One could argue (and I would tend to agree) that these advantages come at too high a cost, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Cuba, particularly those in leadership, could learn a lot from other more open societies in Latin America, but as a sociologist, I tend to think the reverse is true as well.
You know there are conditions to the free educational and healthcare systems in Cuba. Just briefly, in Cuba you just can't study any career you want - just must be approved for that career. Secondly, after you graduate you "pay" them back by working for them at $20 per month for the rest of your life!
Health care, yes it's free, but there are no medicine, no resources - heck no bed linens.
There are good and bad things to every system, but the cost to the Cubans is very very high.
Marie
I'm in agreement that there is A LOT wrong with the Cuban system. I hope that I don't sound like an advocate or defender of that government. I just research some aspects of society in Latin America and some things stick out. And you are right in that there is no freedom in secondary education. I think I am referring more to their primary education which bests every other Latin American country in nearly every benchmark. As for the healthcare, most of the hospitals in Cuba that I've visited do lack many resources. They are deficient in many of the services they provide, and in some case they can't even offer the service. But somehow (and I'm not sure exactly how) the system manages to do pretty well on several indicators that are commonly used to compare healthcare systems across national lines.
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