[Marxism] Human Rights Watch and their "higher collective standard"

[Eli Stephens]

Sam B. gives us this unsourced quote:

"In 2003 Cuba again made international news when it cracked down on political dissidents. The Cuban government arrested about 80 journalists, activists, and opposition party leaders for supposedly plotting to undermine the government and threaten national security. During closed trials, the dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths up to 28 years."

This, like the HRW claims, is outright slander. The people convicted in these trials were not convicted of "supposedly plotting etc." They were convicted of plotting directly with, and taking money from, a country whose stated policy towards Cuba is "regime change" - the United States. And, by the way, these arrests occurred just two and three days prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the U.S. demonstrated to the world the lengths it was prepared to go to to effect "regime change."

If you want more detail than you can probably stand, read a day-by-day account from Fidel Castro himself here:

http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2003/ing/f250403i.html

You can read a shorter answer in an interview of Ricardo Alarcon by Saul Landau here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02262005.html


Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


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