Reply #79: this thread was about castro and chavez helping the blind [View All]

as usual, though, that produced "see, castro is good! anything else is US propaganda" threads.

I honestly cannot believe that you think that Cuba is an open society where dissent is permitted. Do you also think that Soviet Union did not silence dissent, or that Mugabe is a great and just visionary who is redistributing wealth and building a great new world?

But, whatever, read up on some of the things Human Rights Watch has to say about Cuba
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/10/cuba10306.htm

there is lots more, too, you just have to do some research.

I am sorry, but Cuba does suppress dissent more than US. In the US the worst that might happen to you at a political demonstration is an arrest and a court appearance a month later. That is not the same as being incarcerated for decades. Does Human Rights Watch fabricate? Does Amnesty International? Is every human rights group and NGO in the world in on a large conspiracy to smear Castro? Is it headed by people like Reinaldo Arenas who wrote about their experience in Cuba and escape from there?

Also what are you talking aboutl, anti-homosexual policies are a product of the homophonic culture of Latin America? Why does that make it ok? Also, I don't know of any other Latin American countries where political participation is officially (as in, sanctioned by Castro and his government) denied to someone on the grounds of their sexual preference. Homosexulity is something people in Cuba went to prison for, and you are saying "that's just culture" to excuse this human rights violation?

Also I don't see why my American passport should stop me from condemning Cuban human rights abuses if I condemn the same thing in the US.