BS: Obama and Castro

Subject: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:50 AM

For years many Canadians have been perplexed about the relationship between Cuba and the USA. The time has long passed to mend fences but perhaps Obama is making a small first step. Castro is not the ogre that he is portrayed to be. His human rights record is not stellar but it is far better than what China imposes. Education and medical care in Cuba is among the best in the world despite economic hardship brought on by US foreign policy. I hope that the relationship between two countries that we consider as friends will continue to warm!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Wesley S
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 11:05 AM

I can't imagine how Cuba would change if there was a sudden influx of American tourist dollars. Daily flights from Miami International Airport? I'm not sure Cuba would want that to happen. But I'd love to see Havana myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: meself
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 11:06 AM

As would I - BEFORE it opens up to the US ...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sawzaw
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:09 PM

"His human rights record is not stellar but it is far better than what China imposes."

The Inter-American Commission received testimony taken secretly from the Mar Verde prison in Santiago de Cuba. It reports that "in Mar Verde prisoners suffer from constant harassment, and the cells are too small for the number of prisoners locked up in them. For example, in the so-called Detachment Nº 44, there are nine prisoners held together in cells that measure approximately 2 m by 3m. In Detachment No. 1, the cubicles are 6 by 5 meters, and each holds 18 prisoners. In Detachment Nº 7, where the cells measure 1.5 by 2.5 meters, there are six prisoners in each compartment. The prisoners sleep in three-place bunks with mattresses made of canvas and stuffed with unrecognizable materials". This testimony also relates how the "common prisoner Jose Ismael Martínez Lavigne, confined in Detachment Nº 4, was brutally beaten on April 26, 2000, by an internal security officer named Angel Luis Fonseca, as a result of which Martínez Lavigne suffered inflammation of the testicles and the right eye. This attack occurred when the officer objected to the prisoner's walking in the prison corridor, which, as he explained, he was doing at the orders of the physician, because of a pulmonary illness. In protest at this cruel treatment, Jose Ismael Martínez Lavigne stabbed himself in the stomach with a piece of thick wire."

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:11 PM

Hey, I'd like to go to Cuba just to check out all them old US built cars...

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sawzaw
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:36 PM

Raul Castro ties a blindfold on a prisoner awaiting execution

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sawzaw
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 10:46 PM

Cuba: Torture of women prisoners

Juan Carlos González Leiva, State Security Prison. Holguín, Cuba. October 27, 2003.

The Cuban Foundation for Human Rights reports the agonizing conditions of terror and torture suffered by women detained at this penitentiary, a unit of Cuban State Security in the province of Holguin, Cuba.

Day and night, the screams of tormented women in panic and desperation who cry for God's mercy fall upon the deaf ears of prison authorities. They are confined to narrow cells with no sunlight called "drawers" that have cement beds, a hole on the ground for their bodily needs, and are infested with a multitude of rodents, roaches, and other insects.

These female prisoners lack all sort of necessary personal possessions and almost always have no water, even for bathing, often drinking this precious liquid full of insects. The food distributed to them is terrible, smells rotten, and is stored in receptacles lacking in hygiene. Even prison officials have complained of the small quantities served.

In these "drawers" the women remain weeks and months. When they scream in terror due to the darkness (blackouts are common) and the heat, they are injected sedatives that keep them half-drugged.

They are supervised by men who personally administer the feminine products they need and who so often open these "drawers" without respecting their privacy.

One female prisoner cried out, "get me out!", "get me out, I'm suffocating!", and an official called Marino replied: "stick your nose out through a hole and shut up!"

If anyone in the penitentiary protests out loud, they are taken to assigned punishment cells where they must abide by a ruthless discipline.

Testimony provided by:

Juan Carlos González Leiva
Blind lawyer in prison and President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights

Provided via telephone from Cuba by Maritza Calderin, wife of Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva
Address: Honorato del Castillo # 154, entre Republica y Cuba, Ciego de Avila, Cuba. Tel: + 53-33-222235
Taped, transcribed and translated to English: Coalition of Cuban-American Women/LAIDA CARRO

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: GUEST,MarkS (on the road)
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 07:51 AM

"economic hardship brought on by US foreign policy"
?????????
Doesn't Cuba trade freely with everyone else in the world?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 08:39 AM

The government of Cuba was born from violent revolution. That is never nice but sometimes necessary. In comparison to what came before the Castros the Cuban people are much better off. That is by no means to say that much improvement can be made. I think that Sawzaw has swallowed a bit too much CIA propaganda. The worst human rights violations on Cuban soil are to be found at this prison:

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 08:44 AM

"improvement can be made" should read can not

Sorry link missed:

A Prison In Cuba

Subject: RE: BS: Obama and Castro
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 08:56 AM

"Doesn't Cuba trade freely with everyone else in the world?"
The USA has used a bully bill to try and extend it's jurisdiction.

Helms-Burton Act