I do believe that we may be witnessing the final days of Cuba’s squalid communist regime:
The first wave of dissidents rounded up in a nationwide crackdown went on trial Thursday as Fidel Castro’s government moved to wipe out growing opposition. Prosecutors sought life sentences for 12 of the 80 defendants.
“While the rest of the hemisphere has moved toward greater freedom, the anachronistic Cuban government appears to be retreating into Stalinism,” department spokesman Philip Reeker said in Washington.
When governments start incarcerating their political opponents for life, it is because they are frightened and deeply worried and usually with good reason. I suspect the game is nearly up.
And, just as an aside, doesn’t this show up the juvenile, publicity-seeking, egocentrism of the ‘Bush is Hitler’ mob in sharp relief? While genuine freedom fighters risk their very lives by taking on ‘Il Presidente’, the likes of Michael Moore can pose as ‘oppressed heroic victims’ while being chauffeured around to their various awards ceremonies and public speaking engagements.
Castro no! Bush No!
In the past few weeks there have been three highjackings originating in Cuba involving two planes and a boat. In addition, a few months ago 2 Cuban coast guardsmen fled in a government vessel to Key West to seek asylum in the US.
Does this sort of thing not happen regularly in Cuba?
I am trying to find Prof De Genova’s interviews and commentarys he gave about these recent dessident roundups in Cuba.I have been using Google,but alas it has been futile….
I was wondering if anyone here would be good enough to point me to the correct sites.
Thanks alot……..
“When governments start incarcerating their political opponents for life, it is because they are frightened and deeply worried and usually with good reason. I suspect the game is nearly up.”
The USSR founded its first concentration camps in 1920, but it took another 70 years for the regime to collapse.
Don’t hold your breath…
Hijackings from Cuba are not common, though there has been a steady flow of refugees (coming via boat) and corpses for decades. As the Cuban government cracks down in Cuba however, I think we may see more people attempting to reach Florida.
To stolenelectioncoin.com:
I don’t particularly like posting this here, but it will have to do. I see this site does not offer any facts as to why President Bush was not elected legitimately. This site also has reader feedback turned off: “OUR SINCERE APOLOGIES. REPEATED SPAM DELUGES HAVE FORCED US TO UPGRADE TO ANOTHER GUESTBOOK THAT WILL ALLOW US TO PREVENT PROFANE AND DAMAGING ATTACKS IN THE FUTURE. THE LEGITIMATE MESSAGES OF VISITORS HAVE BEEN DELETED BY THESE CRANKS. WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF INSTALLING THE NEW GUESTBOOK. ”
If this site can’t post facts to backup assertions, can’t take legitimate criticism, and can’t be managed well enough to prevent messages to be deleted, the site itself is illegitimate.
Stolenelectioncoin?
That sounds like it should be a Japanese commercial.
“Drink stolenelectioncoin for sublime smiles and long life!”
Even more amusing, a native Japanese speaker would pronouse “stolenelectioncoin” as “stolenERectioncoin”.
Stolenelectioncoin is a mighty corporate logo!
Stolenelectioncoin is a mighty corporate logo!
i always find it interesting when people get into a lather over insignificant bloggers, in this case stolenelectionscoin.
time is the best measure of competence and time is treating George W very kindly, as he addresses those ills he inherited.
stolen election is raised only when those who oppose George have nothing else to talk about. i expect to hear alot more about it.
David, first of all, you are using a red herring to do all your talking. Even though I believe he was really elected(2 recounts and the Supreme Court said same thing) that is not the point. I’m also sure your guestbook posting wasn’t using personal/vulgar attacks towards any one person to prove one of your points.
Stolen election.dumb fuck
All ican say is….
WHAT A DORK.
Jeez get a life…
Greetings from sunny Florida
Neil V
Greg,
Depends on whether it was really personal/vulgar attacks or if the site in question simply is discouraging dissent.
Oh nooo! Quick, get the CIA in to help kill the dissidents! You can’t put a civil-rights-respecting government in cuba, they might decide to close down camp x-ray and prosecute the jailors for torture and imprisonment without trial or access to lawyers.
What is interesting about Fidel’s reaction now is the fact that the impetus for change is coming from within Cuba and not from Miami or Washington.
What is also interesting is the fact that Oswaldo Payá was not arrested. I have been making the argument that Payá could very well be Cuba’s Sakharov. The European Parliament gave him their human rights award earlier this year and the most extreme elements of the exile community. This gives him “street cred” in Cuba and may have made him largely untouchable. if he were to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, I think that would only add to his rep and make it even harder for Castro to retaliate.
This is a generalization, buy it seems that Europeans are more blind to the nasty things done by left-wing dictators than right-wing ones. The specific example? Pinochet verses Castro. A court in Europe tries to arrest Pinochet. Castro is greeted as a hero. Is this because Batista’s thugs were meaner than Castro’s? That was before my time.
That is a generalization, Steve. It’s worth remembering that Margaret Thatcher and many other Tories threw a lot of support behind Pinochet and always regarded him as a hero. Aznar was also hostile towards Judge Garzon’s attempts to prosecute Pinochet.
It’s also worth noting that a number of governments (Belgium, Netherlands, France) were seeking to have Pinoche tried for the disappearance torture and/or murder of their citizens.
My personal sentiment is a plague on both of their houses. If some on the left cannot vigorously condemn Castro for his human rights abuses, then they lose their credibility in condemning Pinochet’s abuses. Similarly, if some on the right cannot vigorously condemn Pinochet for his human rights abuses, they lose their credibility in condemning Castro’s abuses.
One thing that I will call attention to is this: Bob Novak commented on “The Capital Gang” that “in many ways he [Pinochet] was a great man.” I have yet to hear a commentator from the left with stature equal to Novak’s (and they do exist: Molly Ivins, Mark Shields, Al Hunt, etc.) make such a comment about Castro.
For whatever Pinochet’s actual crimes were, he did step down and have elections in Chile, didn’t he? Somehow I just don’t see Castro stepping down like that.
John,
You’re probably right about that with Castro, but the sequence with Pinochet is wrong. He had the plebisicite which he lost and then stepped down.
Regarding the plebiscite, about two years ago General Matthei, who was head of the Air Force at the time of the plebiscite, said in an interview that the night of the plebscite, when it appeared that the “no” vote (i.e. no to more of Pinochet’s rule) appeared to have won, Pinochet wanted to send troops into the streets to invalidate the election. Matthei, the commander of the Caribineros and the commander of the Chilean Navy all told Pinochet that they would not allow that to happen. According to Matthei, someone from Pinochet’s inner circle, it certainly appears that if left to his own devices, Pinochet would have invalidated the election that ended his rule.
After the plebiscite loss, before he left office, Pinochet commented in an address to a conservative Chilean’s women’s group regarding the plebscite, that there was another such plebscite centuries ago and that the people chose Barabbas and not Jesus Christ. The man was grandiose and runk with power.