Civil & Human Rights - Cuba

[Zam-Zam]

The Cuban government represses and punishes dissent and public criticism. Tactics against critics include beatings, public shaming, travel restrictions, short-term detention, fines, online harassment, surveillance, and termination of employment.

In October 2019, Miguel Díaz-Canel was confirmed as president of Cuba, with nearly 97 percent of the votes of National Assembly members. His presidency has seen little change in the government’s human rights policy. Arbitrary detention and harassment of critics continue. Under his government, Cuba has used Decree-Law 370/2018, which came into effect in July 2019 and severely limits free speech, to detain, fine, and harass critics.

Arbitrary Detention and Short-Term Imprisonment
The government continues to employ arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate critics, independent activists, political opponents, and others. From January through August 2020, there were 1,028 arbitrary detentions, according to the Cuban Human Rights Observatory, a Madrid-based human rights organization.

Security officers rarely present arrest warrants to justify detaining critics. In some cases, detainees are released after receiving official warnings, which prosecutors can use in subsequent criminal trials to show a pattern of “delinquent” behavior.

Detention or the threat of detention is often used to prevent people from participating in peaceful marches or meetings to discuss politics. Detainees are often beaten, threatened, and held incommunicado for hours or days. Police or state security agents routinely harass, rough up, and detain members of the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco)—a group founded by the wives, mothers, and daughters of political prisoners—before or after they attend Sunday mass.



Complete text: World Report 2021: Cuba | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)


Also:

Everything you need to know about human rights in Cuba 2020 - Amnesty International Amnesty International



Wherever Communism goes, oppression follows.

 

[EatTheRich]

The U.S. has much more broadly suppressed free speech, including sentences of decades for dissidents (as opposed to Cuba holding people overnight so they won’t lob bombs during important events), giving as a pretext the terrorist threat which has proportionally killed far more Cubans and to which Cuban repressive measures come largely in response. Feel free to link to credible evidence of detainees being beaten anywhere in Cuba other than occupied Guantanamo Bay.

 

[God of War]

The U.S. has much more broadly suppressed free speech, including sentences of decades for dissidents (as opposed to Cuba holding people overnight so they won’t lob bombs during important events), giving as a pretext the terrorist threat which has proportionally killed far more Cubans and to which Cuban repressive measures come largely in response. Feel free to link to credible evidence of detainees being beaten anywhere in Cuba other than occupied Guantanamo Bay.

Cuba is a communist hell hole as any Cuban in Miami with family in Cuba will tell you. I'll take their assessment before yours any day of the year. You have no links to contradict that.

 

[Zam-Zam]

The U.S. has much more broadly suppressed free speech, including sentences of decades for dissidents (as opposed to Cuba holding people overnight so they won’t lob bombs during important events), giving as a pretext the terrorist threat which has proportionally killed far more Cubans and to which Cuban repressive measures come largely in response. Feel free to link to credible evidence of detainees being beaten anywhere in Cuba other than occupied Guantanamo Bay.

I notice you have not attempted to dispute any of the facts in the top post. I assume this means you realize you know you can't.

Thus, they are not in dispute.

Since you seem to want some more, here's some more:


Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group


Various arms of Cuba's government have "systematically" jailed and abused demonstrators who took part in July protests against the government, according to Human Rights Watch.

“The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021,” the group said.

“Officers routinely subjected many of them to brutal abuses, including gender-based violence, in detention, and prosecuted dozens in trials that violated basic due process guarantees,” it said.



Complete text: Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group | TheHill


If you want even more, just ask.

 

[God of War]

I notice you have not attempted to dispute any of the facts in the top post. I assume this means you realize you know you can't.

Thus, they are not in dispute.

Since you seem to want some more, here's some more:


Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group


Various arms of Cuba's government have "systematically" jailed and abused demonstrators who took part in July protests against the government, according to Human Rights Watch.

“The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021,” the group said.

“Officers routinely subjected many of them to brutal abuses, including gender-based violence, in detention, and prosecuted dozens in trials that violated basic due process guarantees,” it said.



Complete text: Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group | TheHill


If you want even more, just ask.

Zam, repost to the Che Guevara groupie- @EatTheRich . Cause I'm on your team with this. :0)

 

[Zam-Zam]

Zam, repost to the Che Guevara groupie- @EatTheRich . Cause I'm on your team with this. :0)

I believe that poster is not happy about the facts I've posted here.

Facts, however, are important. And I've got more.

I'm just getting warmed up.

 

[God of War]

I believe that poster is not happy about the facts I've posted here.

Facts, however, are important. And I've got more.

I'm just getting warmed up.

Give em hell. :0)

 

[Zam-Zam]

And, as promised, more:

Cuba: Peaceful Protesters Systematically Detained, Abused
Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment, Abusive Trials Affect Hundreds

(Washington, DC) – The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. The consistent and repeated patterns of abuses by multiple security forces, in multiple locations across Cuba, strongly suggest a plan by Cuban authorities to repress and suppress the demonstrations.


Complete text: Cuba: Peaceful Protesters Systematically Detained, Abused | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

 

[EatTheRich]

Cuba is a communist hell hole as any Cuban in Miami with family in Cuba will tell you. I'll take their assessment before yours any day of the year. You have no links to contradict that.

Alianza Martiana, an organization of pro-revolution Cuban-Americans, has thousands of members in Miami. But of course the plantation owners and torturers under the Batista regime and the cocaine and sex trafficking cartels which have so much influence in Miami are virulently hostile to the Cuban revolution.

 

[EatTheRich]

I notice you have not attempted to dispute any of the facts in the top post. I assume this means you realize you know you can't.

Thus, they are not in dispute.

Since you seem to want some more, here's some more:


Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group


Various arms of Cuba's government have "systematically" jailed and abused demonstrators who took part in July protests against the government, according to Human Rights Watch.

“The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021,” the group said.

“Officers routinely subjected many of them to brutal abuses, including gender-based violence, in detention, and prosecuted dozens in trials that violated basic due process guarantees,” it said.



Complete text: Cuba 'systematically' abused demonstrators, says human rights group | TheHill


If you want even more, just ask.

Does socialist Cuba, like capitalist Cuba before it, have arbitrary detention? Yes. Is it used much more sparingly, in the face of a much more palpable terrorist danger? Also yes. Can people in Cuba be arrested without the permission of the local elected CDR leader of their neighborhood? No. Do people who join CIA-organized groups to overthrow the government find themselves subject to fines, loss of employment, spontaneous public shaming by their neighbors, and travel restrictions? Yes. Are jails in Cuba awful? I’m sure they are. Should Cuba close hospitals and schools so it can afford to improve conditions in their jails? The Cuban people through their government say no. Are people roughed up by “bad apples” in Cuban security? Unlikely since there would be far more attention given in the capitalist press … and among the most often cited examples were proven hoaxes involving self-infliction of injury, caught on camera. Are there restrictions on free speech in Cuba that go beyond what is needed to stop people bent on overthrowing the elected government and establishing a right-wing dictatorship, and which are used by corrupt bureaucrats to secure their privilege? Sure. Has Cuba become more democratic as the world revolution advanced and more autocratic as the world revolution retreated? Of course.

 

[EatTheRich]

And, as promised, more:

Cuba: Peaceful Protesters Systematically Detained, Abused
Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment, Abusive Trials Affect Hundreds

(Washington, DC) – The Cuban government has systematically engaged in arbitrary detention, ill-treatment of detainees, and abuse-ridden criminal prosecutions in response to overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests in July 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. The consistent and repeated patterns of abuses by multiple security forces, in multiple locations across Cuba, strongly suggest a plan by Cuban authorities to repress and suppress the demonstrations.


Complete text: Cuba: Peaceful Protesters Systematically Detained, Abused | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

2021 is when the government really started crossing the line from repressing counterrevolutionaries to suppressing the just demands of the working class. Of course this had its previews with the anti-“Trotskyist” and antigay persecutions of the 1960s and 1970s, but reactionary as those were, they were carried out with the support of the majority. The persecutions of this year in which the government squarely took the side of counterrevolution have their parallels only in the 1970s Soviet-style censorship of artists and reflect the growth of a privileged social layer as a result of the obligatory retreat to allowing small-scale capitalist enterprise.

 

[God of War]

Alianza Martiana, an organization of pro-revolution Cuban-Americans, has thousands of members in Miami. But of course the plantation owners and torturers under the Batista regime and the cocaine and sex trafficking cartels which have so much influence in Miami are virulently hostile to the Cuban revolution.

You don't say that there are Cuban communists in America? You know they aren't allowed to immigrate to the U.S. Oh, born here millenial communists. Got ya. And related to the communist elites and not the ordinary Cubans. I see.

 

[God of War]

2021 is when the government really started crossing the line from repressing counterrevolutionaries

So the repressing of "counter revolutionaries" is okay. ha ha

 

[Zam-Zam]

Perhaps more evidence of oppression is required....Here goes:

Cuba: 60 Years of Revolution, 60 Years of Oppression

Cuba: 60 Years of Revolution, 60 Years of Oppression | by Human Rights Foundation | Medium

 

[EatTheRich]

So the repressing of "counter revolutionaries" is okay. ha ha

Yes. Maintaining freedom against its enemies.

 

[EatTheRich]

You don't say that there are Cuban communists in America? You know they aren't allowed to immigrate to the U.S. Oh, born here millenial communists. Got ya. And related to the communist elites and not the ordinary Cubans. I see.

Many working-class Cubans who know life is hard in Cuba come here, seduced by the promises of Hollywood, and then become convinced communists once they have had the chance to experience capitalism firsthand. Many others are among the great majority of Cubans who sympathize with communism even though only a minority are Communist Party members.

 

[God of War]

Yes. Maintaining freedom against its enemies.

How absolutely demented that sounds considering all your other posts concerning rights. ha ha

 

[God of War]

Many working-class Cubans who know life is hard in Cuba come here, seduced by the promises of Hollywood, and then become convinced communists once they have had the chance to experience capitalism firsthand.

And they don't go back to Cuba? How come? Because that sounds stupid.

Many others are among the great majority of Cubans who sympathize with communism even though only a minority are Communist Party members.

If you say so. Sounds like a club of 20-30 recovering alcoholics really.

 

[EatTheRich]

Perhaps more evidence of oppression is required....Here goes:

Cuba: 60 Years of Revolution, 60 Years of Oppression

Cuba: 60 Years of Revolution, 60 Years of Oppression | by Human Rights Foundation | Medium

Your link alleges:
Press censorship in Cuba. Certainly true, and largely unjustifiable. However, corrupt elites would have far less opportunity to justify their censorship if not for the state of siege the country faces.
Mass imprisonment, beatings, and executions in the 1960s. True. The government used slave labor in concentration camps, mostly by political and religious dissidents, sexual minorities, and criminals, to boost agricultural production thereby liberating peasants from toil and preventing large-scale famine while terrorizing opponents of the government. This practice was abandoned as communist leadership associated with Fidel Castro and Ricardo Alarcon edged out the Maoist clique associated with Che Guevara and Raul Castro. Fidel Castro has since apologized for his government’s role in these atrocities. The U.S. on the other hand still is torturing people in concentration camps.
Harvesting the blood of executed prisoners to sell to Vietnam (presumably to keep their soldiers alive): I’ve never heard this claim before and the link in your article returns a “page not found” error. But the bottom line is that there were fewer executions in Cuba since 1960, including all those who were killed in the concentration camps, than there were in the U.S. last year alone.
Killing of minors: Surely true, especially with the worst antigay persecutions in the late 1960s. Perhaps there were also minors among those killed for being Batista’s torturers in 1959-1960. I wonder, though, whether your propagandist counts as “extrajudicial killings under Castro” the Cuban youths lynched by U.S.-backed mercenaries for volunteering to teach peasants how to read. Also, as I’m sure you’re aware, the U.S. has judicially and extrajudicially killed hundreds of minors during the same time period.
Executing hundreds of Batista’s torturers: God damn right they did!
Concentration of arbitrary power in the hands of Fidel Castro and his allies in 1959-1976: Certainly, and this reflected on one hand the bureaucratic counterrevolution seeking to stifle socialist democracy, and on the other the popular will taking revolutionary dictatorial form. Your article soft pedals that through Castro’s socialist democratic reforms national elections were resumed starting in 1976.
Lack of citizen participation in drafting the Constitution: absurd. Not only was the Constitution approved by referendum, but it was widely discussed in every aspect in workplaces and through unions and mass organizations throughout Cuba.
Facing shortages during the “Special Period”: certainly. As many countries have at one time or another. But Cuba is the only one to have weathered such a severe challenge while not closing a single school or hospital and without allowing homelessness to return.
Pushing pro-capitalist measures and consolidation of government power through the 2019 constitution: absolutely, and there’s no defense for it. At the same time the constitution did have the broad support of the majority partly for its advancements in human rights guarantees.
“Arbitrary” imprisonment of the 75 “human rights activists”: nonsense. They were convicted on clear and convincing evidence of taking money from the CIA to help organize attempts to overthrow the government.
Executing the 3 hijackers: Cuba doesn’t like terrorism … sorry!
Muzzling dissent under recently passed “dangerousness” law and decree 349: true. This represents the offensive of the bureaucratic counterrevolution against Cuban communism.
Controlling jobs, wages, prices, and consumer goods: a government that will do that is what the Cuban people have fought for for 60 years. Hello?
Lowering educational standards: a monstrous lie.
Having shortages of medical equipment: due to the blockade, yes. How much more impressive the tremendous advance in health care (fudged or not, you don’t make up a ten-year increase in life expectancy out of thin air) over a system that was already world-class by semicolonial standards.
Forced labor of doctors: they’re volunteers who could easily defect if they wanted to.

 

[EatTheRich]

And they don't go back to Cuba? How come? Because that sounds stupid.


If you say so. Sounds like a club of 20-30 recovering alcoholics really.

About 1 in 4 Cuban-American immigrants do go back to Cuba to live. Many more live here because of the economy (made possible by the systematic exploitation of the third world).