White House hardliners like Karl Rove and Otto Reich (who are against easing travel restrictions for Americans to Cuba) want to make it about human rights. In a Sunday New York Times article, White House spokewoman Claire Buchan says that “[t]he president’s Cuba policy part of his overall foreign policy of promoting freedom and democracy around the world.”
We all know that this isn’t true and from China to Uzbekistan to Saudi Arabia, the administration deals with governments just as repressive if not more so than Cuba. So we have economic and strategic interest at stake. Fine. Can we stop with the political bullshit that this is about human rights? Let’s stick with the wink-wink that it’s not about Florida. But go no further.
Here are excerpts for Human Rights Watch’s annual reports on China and Cuba.
China:
The leadership turned to trusted tools, limiting free expression by arresting academics, closing newspapers and magazines, strictly controlling Internet content, and utilizing a refurbished Strike Hard campaign to circumvent legal safeguards for criminal suspects and alleged separatists, terrorists, and so-called religious extremists. In its campaign to eradicate Falungong, Chinese officials imprisoned thousands of practitioners and used torture and psychological pressure to force recantations. Legal experts continued the work of professionalizing the legal system but authorities in too many cases invoked ‘rule of law’ to justify repressive politics. After the September 11 attacks in the United States, Chinese officials used concern with global terrorism as justification for crackdowns in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Cuba:
The Cuban government's intolerance of democracy and free expression remained unique in the region. A one-party state, Cuba restricted nearly all avenues of political dissent. Although dissidents occasionally faced criminal prosecution, the government relied more frequently on short-term detentions, house arrest, travel restrictions, threats, surveillance, politically-motivated dismissals from employment, and other forms of harassment.
Cuba's restrictions on human rights were undergirded by the country's legal and institutional structure. The rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, movement, and of the press were strictly limited under Cuban law. By criminalizing enemy propaganda, the spreading of "unauthorized news," and insult to patriotic symbols, the government curbed freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. The authorities also imprisoned or ordered the surveillance of individuals who had committed no illegal act, relying upon laws penalizing "dangerousness" (estado peligroso) and allowing for "official warning" (advertencia oficial). The government-controlled courts undermined the right to fair trial by restricting the right to a defense, and frequently failed to observe the few due process rights available to defendants under domestic law.
Let’s just call it a draw and say both countries are repressive. The only difference is one enjoys full diplomatic relations the U.S. and the other, for the better part of four decades is a pariah in our backyard.
<< Home