01 Sun What Are We Waiting Fo

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

01 Sun What Are We Waiting Fo NOVEMBER 30, 2016 The truth about Castro and Trudeau's sickening indifference to reality speaking out against communism, he Stalin, Pol Pot, Franco, Mussolini, Justin Trudeau has praised the late was arrested and endured a 22-year Mao and any number of dictators of Cuban communist dictator Fidel nightmare in Castro’s prisons. the left and of the right could also be Castro as a “remarkable” and Valladares writes that he and other described, accurately, as “controversial” leader, a “legendary prisoners who refused “political “remarkable” and “controversial” rehabilitation” were forced to live in orator” who was “larger than life.” leaders who were “larger than life.” the greatest heat and the dampest cold Mr. Trudeau has probably never met without clothes. They were regularly beaten, shot at and sometimes killed. Trudeau claims Castro improved Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet, who education and health care. Even if describes Cuba as a “totalitarian Guards dumped buckets of urine and true, it’s like saying Hitler built the socialist regime” that uses “terror feces over the prisoners, who warded autobahn, got rid of unemployment and extreme police control over its off rats and roaches. Fungus grew on citizens.” A medical doctor and Valladares because he was not allowed and rectified the injustice of the founder of the Lawton Foundation to wash off the filth. Sleep was Treaty of Versailles, as though these for Human Rights, Biscet has impossible. Valladares’ poems were achievements justify or mitigate spoken publicly about enduring the smuggled out of prison and published horrific evil. Trudeau praises torture meted out by a dictatorship in the West. Amnesty International and Castro’s “tremendous dedication and seeking to coerce him to stop others took up his case. He was love” for his people — a twisted promoting human rights in Cuba. eventually released. cliché used by every tyrant throughout history. Released from prison in 2011, he According to Human Rights Watch, “The Cuban government’s refusal to has spoken of the abuse that he No ideology, and no political suffered at the hands of the political reveal the size of its prison population, and its bar on domestic and program, no matter how well- police, who savagely beat him, intentioned, is justification for disfigured his face and broke his international human rights monitoring, violating fundamental rights and foot. impedes the collection of precise information on the numbers and freedoms: the right to life, freedom of In Cuba, political prisoners are held condition of Cuban political prisoners.” conscience and religion, freedom of alongside those who have expression, freedom of association, committed actual crimes, to make René Portelles was arrested in and the right to own and enjoy them feel as though they are also September 1993 and released into exile property under the rule of law. criminals. According to Biscet, in Canada in April 1998. Cuban prison “they are stripped naked and authorities repeatedly used isolation Trudeau’s weasel words display a tortured with taser guns, left in the and beatings to punish him for sickening hostility to the difference opposing Castro. dark with no medical attention, between good and evil. His remarks drinkable water or ventilation.” are not merely childish and Biscet has described how some The truth about Castro was proclaimed on an ongoing basis by thousands of embarrassing, but testify to a dark prisoners are left dangling with their mind that has no respect for human hands bound above their heads and people who risked their very lives to rights, human dignity, or human life. their feet barely touching the escape his socialist paradise. ground. Yet Mr. Trudeau asserts the Cuban Calgary lawyer John Carpay is One can safely assume Mr. Trudeau people “had a deep and lasting president of the Justice Centre for has not read Against All Hope, the affection” for Castro. As in other brutal Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF.ca) prison memoirs of Cuban poet dictatorships, this “affection” was never Armando Valladares. For peacefully tested by an election. returning the money to parents for education on the condition that parents raise their children in a way chosen by the state..
Recommended publications
  • U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE COMMISSION on UNALIENABLE RIGHTS February 21, 2020 15:30
    U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE COMMISSION ON UNALIENABLE RIGHTS February 2 1, 2020 15:30 Good afternoon. My name is Thor Halvorssen. I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, a position I have held since the organization was founded in the year 2005. I am grateful to the Commission on Unalienable Rights and to Ambassador Mary Glendon for inviting me to share the Perspectives of HRF with you today. The Human Rights Foundation was created fifteen years ago by a group of individuals that included Vaclav Havel, Elie Wiesel, Harry Wu, Armando Valladares, Eduardo Mendoza, and James Q. Wilson. We initially came together to respond to the vacuum that existed in the human rights field when it came to monitoring, researching, and addressing what a group of us saw as the erosion of democracy, as defined by the Inter-American Democratic Charter, taking place in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia . What was occurring in these countries was the slow-motion suffocation of civil society, the destruction of freedom of expression and of the press, the systematic violation of th e separation of powers, and the gradual elimination of free and fair elections by governments ruled by democratically-elected leaders with authoritarian personalities all of whom expressed open admiration for then-octogenarian dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba, anD expressed their will to install dictatorial Cuba -like regimes in their own countries. One would think that the international organizations in the human rights field—the establishment ones with annual budgets in the $50 million to $100 million range— would have the experience, the expertise, and the resources to address these crises.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights in Cuba: Beyond the Veneer of Reform
    Human Rights in Cuba: Beyond the Veneer of Reform HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, CIVILIAN SECURITY, AND TRADE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION July 11, 2019 Serial No. 116–54 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, or www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 37–013PDF WASHINGTON : 2019 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas, Ranking GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York Member ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida JOE WILSON, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois AMI BERA, California LEE ZELDIN, New York JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin DINA TITUS, Nevada ANN WAGNER, Missouri ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York BRIAN MAST, Florida TED LIEU, California FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota JOHN CURTIS, Utah ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota KEN BUCK, Colorado COLIN ALLRED, Texas RON WRIGHT, Texas ANDY LEVIN, Michigan GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania GREG PENCE, Indiana TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey STEVE WATKINS, Kansas DAVID TRONE, Maryland MIKE GUEST, Mississippi JIM COSTA, California JUAN VARGAS, California VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas JASON STEINBAUM, Staff Director BRENDAN SHIELDS, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, CIVILIAN SECURITY, AND TRADE ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey, Chairman GREGORY W.
    [Show full text]
  • Valladares: Dissident I
    Scramble to cover up 'contra' arms affair .. 3 TH£ Meat-packers raise funds for kids' Xmas . 5 What's at issue in Meese pornography report . 7 A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 50/NO. 48 DECEMBER 19, 1986 75 CENTS Bo01bing raids on Nicaragua: escalation of U.S.-run war BY CINDY JAQUITH MANAGUA, Nicaragua-Five combat planes dispatched from U.S. bases in Hon­ duras bombed northern Nicaragua De­ cember 7. The criminal attack left seven Nicaraguans dead and 14 wounded. The most serious escalation to date of the U.S. -organized aggression against Nic­ aragua, the bombing raids were accom­ ----- panied by U.S. troops ferrying Honduran soldiers to the Nicaraguan border. Gen. John Gavin, head of the U.S. Southern Command base in Panama, flew to Honduras to personally supervise the op­ eration. On December 10, Honduran President Jose Azcona threatened Nicaragua with further bombing attacks and said that he "would not hesitate" to call for direct U.S. military support. In a speech the same day, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega identified the planes used in the December 7 attacks as "A-37 aircraft flying from a U.S. base in Honduran territory." He also reported that Azcona has threatened to bomb artillery emplacements in Nicaragua. Background to attack The bombing followed several weeks of U.S. helicopter over airstrip being built in Honduras. Militarization of Honduras is key piece in Washing(on's aggression U.S. government attempts to provoke an against Nicaragua. incident in the Nicaraguan-Honduran bor­ der area that could be blamed on the San­ dinistas and used to step up the military at­ tack against them.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomacy and Human Migration: a History of U.S. Relations with Cuba During the Late Cold War DISSERTATION Presented in Partial
    Diplomacy and Human Migration: A History of U.S. Relations with Cuba during the Late Cold War DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Hideaki Kami Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Professor Robert J. McMahon, Adviser Professor Peter L. Hahn, Co-adviser Professor Stephanie J. Smith Copyright by Hideaki Kami 2015 Abstract This dissertation analyzes U.S.-Cuban relations by focusing on the interaction of diplomacy and human migration during the late Cold War years. It explores how the U.S. government reformulated its Cuban policy in light of Fidel Castro’s institutionalization of power while, at the same time, trying to build a new relationship with the Cuban- American community as the latter forged a new, politically mobilized constituency within U.S. society. Based on historical sources from the United States, Cuba, and other countries, I argue that the triangular relations among Washington, Havana, and Miami formidably reinforced the status quo. As hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans participated in U.S. politics in the hope of toppling the Castro regime, the U.S. government could no longer dismiss their concerns as completely alien to the national interest. But while committing to “freedom” in Cuba in their public statements, U.S. policy-makers in fact placed a higher priority on stability in the Caribbean Sea; they collaborated with the Cuban government to prevent migration crises such as the 1980 Mariel boatlift, one of the largest and most traumatic in modern U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Chomsky Noam
    NOAM CHOMSKY NECESSARY ILLUSIONS THOUGHT CONTROL IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES ESSENTIAL CLASSICS IN POLITICS: NOAM CHOMSKY EB 0007 ISBN 0 7453 1345 0 London 1999 The Electric Book Company Ltd Pluto Press Ltd 20 Cambridge Drive 345 Archway Rd London SE12 8AJ, UK London N6 5AA, UK www.elecbook.com www.plutobooks.com © Noam Chomsky 1999 Limited printing and text selection allowed for individual use only. All other reproduction, whether by printing or electronically or by any other means, is expressly forbidden without the prior permission of the publishers. This file may only be used as part of the CD on which it was first issued. Necessary Illusions Thought Control in Democratic Societies Noam Chomsky Pluto Press London 4 First published in the UK 1989 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA 97 98 99 9 8 7 6 5 Copyright Noam Chomsky 1989 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7453 0380 3 Digital processing by The Electric Book Company 20 Cambridge Drive, London SE12 8AJ, UK www.elecbook.com Classics in Politics: Necessary Illusions Noam Chomsky 5 Contents Click on number to go to page Preface ....................................................................................... 7 1. Democracy and the Media......................................................... 9 2. Containing the Enemy............................................................. 36 3. The Bounds of the Expressible ................................................. 67 4. Adjuncts of Government.......................................................
    [Show full text]
  • EXTENSIONS of REMARKS April 1, 19871 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS
    7730 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 1, 19871 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLA­ persons most closely involved in its implemen­ with this project we can cure this dreaded af­ TION TO REAUTHORIZE CHAP­ tation. I hope to continue to work with my col­ fliction. TER 2 OF THE ECIA leagues in Congress in order to perfect this legislation so that it can best meet the needs COMMEMORATING LARRY VUIL­ HON. WILLIAM F. GOODLING of our Nation's schools. LEMOT'S SERVICE TO THE NATION OF PENNSYLVANIA THE MIAMI PROJECT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 1, 1987 HON. LAWRENCE J. SMITH HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER OF ILLINOIS Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, last week I OF FLORIDA introduced H.R. 1795 which would reauthorize IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES chapter 2 of the Education Consolidation and Wednesday, April 1, 1987 Wednesday, April 1, 1987 Improvement Act through 1993. Chapter 2 Mr. SMITH of Florida. Mr. Speaker, a dedi­ Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to was created as part of the Ominbus Budget commend the work of Lawrence Donald Vuil­ Reconciliation Act of 1981 by combining over cation ceremony is taking place in south Flori­ da that is of interest to the entire Nation. On lemot who is retiring from a career devoted to 30 categorical programs into an educational excellence as the director I superintendent of block grant. Last year Congress appropriated April 3, 1987, the basic science laboratories of the special education district of Lake County $529 million for this purpose. the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis will be in Gurnee, IL.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights in Cuba
    Special Report Human Rights in Cuba Including reports from: U.S.. Department of State Americas Watch Amnesty International Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1990 CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION The Cuban American National Foundation is an independent, non-profit in­ stitution devoted to the gathering and dissemination of data concerning the economic, political and social welfare of the Cuban people, both on the island and in exile The Foundation supports the concept of a free and democratic Cuba. The Foundation promotes an objective view of Cuba and Cubans, and an objective appraisal of the Cuban government and its policies. The Foundation supports a general program to enlighten and clarify public opinion on problems of Cuban concern, to fight bigotry, protect human rights, and promote cultural interests and creative achievement. “Encouraged by the changes in Eastern Europe and intoxicated by the swarming worms in Miami that are forecasting what they call the imminent fall of the Cuban revolution, small groups of local worms are attempting to join in the triumphalistic airs of the empire in an attempt to raise themselves above their crawl. Disguised by alleged humanitarian organizations, hiding and only showing their hairy ears, or crouching in the shadow of hypocrisy, some of those elements underestimate the power of the people and believe that they can have some luxuries.” —Cuban Government commentary on Havana Radio Rebelde Network, March 17, 1990 Contents I. Introduction............................................................................................................................................ i II. United Nations Human Rights Commission Resolution on Cuba, March 6, 1990 ........................ 1 III. Statement by Ambassador Armando Valladares at the 46th session of the U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • Digest : Human Rights in Latin America
    H UMAN R IGHTS & H UMAN W ELFARE Human Rights in Latin America Introduction by Regina Nockerts Ph.D. Candidate Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver As with many regions of the world, human rights are an issue of enduring concern for Latin America. The essays and bibliographies in this digest chart the recent history of human rights issues in this region, beginning, in most cases, with the wave of military coups that began in the 1970s, highlighting their lasting effects on the governments, civil societies, and economies of the region today. The cases of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru are given here; the Organization of American States (OAS) is also covered. In most countries, the military coups that took place removed democratically elected governments, often because of the fear by national and international elites that the elected officials leaned too far to the Left. This was most evident in the military coup in Chile that ousted (and possibly killed) socialist President Allende. Since then, Chile has emerged with a strengthened democracy, as evidenced by two historic moments in recent events: first, Chile has elected President Michelle Bachelet, the first female Latin American head of state elected on her own merits rather than as the successor to a dead or disabled husband (as was the case with Isabella Peron in Argentina). Second, General Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973-1990, and was responsible during that time for the torture and killing of thousands of people, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and put on trial.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on the Cuban Revolution
    NOTES ON THE CUBAN REVOLUTION Saul Landau I recall standing high on the tribune in the Plaza of the Revolution on January 2. 1961' just as I did twenty-eight years later and straining my neck unsuc- cessfully to see the end of the crowd. And Fidel. with five microphones, the number he still uses to ensure that his words will reach even the far end of the rally, denouncing the imperialists with the same fervour and some of the same language as he used on December 5.1988. So much in Cuba has changed in thirty revolutionary years. Fidel at 62 and gray in hair and beard no longer shows that spontaneous grin of wonder. The casinos, beggars, sex shows and aura of free and dirty third world capitalism remain only in the film archives, captured on celluloid. So much remains the same, not just the same as before the revolution, but the same as the 19th Century, and even before. Cuba is Spain and Africa, the old world and the new. It is U.S. gangsters and gamblers, baseball players and novelists. A little of Cuba is the Soviet Union, much of it is Caribbean and Latin American. It is culturally diverse and provincial. It is also. in Fidel's mind. the last bastion of socialism left in the world. The visitor sees the superficial, members of the Cuban militia - more than a million strong throughout the nation - fastidiously dressed, occupying the front position of the crowd. the crack troops. including the Special Forces marching by with precision movements.
    [Show full text]
  • Criminalizing Dissent: a Comparative Study of Chinese and Cuban Revolutionary
    Mitchell 1 Criminalizing Dissent: A Comparative Study of Chinese and Cuban Revolutionary Repression, 1949-1979 Cole Mitchell Laogai Research Foundation 5 May 2014 Mitchell 2 Preface and Introduction It has been said that “No dictatorship can remain in power for so long without violating human rights, without persecutions, without political prisoners, without political prisons.”1 History has certainly proved this theory. Regardless of political ideology, virtually every single-party state has required a penal structure specifically to incarcerate those with dissenting views. Whether it was the fascist regimes of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, or the communist regimes of Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao’s China; criminalizing dissent has proven itself necessary to maintain power. It is with that introduction that I proclaim the political neutrality of this study. Although this study will entertain only the lengths to which Communist China and Communist Cuba have gone in maintaining power, let it be known that ideological affiliation is not the primary reason why one-party states criminalize dissent.2 Rather, one-party states criminalize dissent because their existence depends on it. As alluded to above, this study will focus on the historical efforts that China and Cuba have undertaken to criminalize dissent. In doing so, this study will highlight the surprisingly parallel and interrelated histories of China and Cuba during their decades marked by a hyper-revolutionary culture. This study will also compare the forced-labor prison systems in China and Cuba that were established immediately after each country’s communist revolution and developed up to the international détente that began in the mid-1970s and was accelerated by Mao’s death and Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
    [Show full text]
  • The President's New Cuba Policy and U.S. National Security Hearing Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives
    THE PRESIDENT’S NEW CUBA POLICY AND U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 26, 2015 Serial No. 114–26 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 93–534PDF WASHINGTON : 2015 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:21 May 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\_WH\022615\93534 SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida RON DESANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas TED S.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights in Cuba by Susan Kemp
    R EVIEW D IGEST: H UMAN R IGHTS IN L ATIN A MERICA Human Rights in Cuba by Susan Kemp In 1959, Fidel Castro established a Cuban socialist state closely aligned with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's collapse brought an end to Soviet economic support which, combined with the U.S. embargo, created an economic crisis in the early 1990s. The Cuban government's instability and desire to maintain control overrides the individual rights of its citizens. These events are the background for the lack of fundamental human rights in Cuba today. Cuba's legal system limits civil and political rights, such as the freedoms of assembly, religion, and expression. Citizen opposition is seen as connected to a broader conspiracy against Cuban authority. Therefore, actions taken to compel political conformity—including torture, detention, and imprisonment—are justified based on a security rationale. In 2003, Castro charged and arrested seventy-five pro-human rights dissidents as part of a larger crackdown on civil society. Economic and social rights are also limited by government control. While Cuba is committed to education and free healthcare for all citizens, its policies restrict academic freedom and labor rights. Only educational curriculum that aligns with Marxist principles is allowed. The government also controls all means of production and permits only one labor union, which implements its objectives. As a result of these rights violations, other countries as well as multilateral and non- governmental organizations have spoken out on conditions in Cuba. The U.S. embargo was applied as a consequence to the Castro regime, though the international community widely opposes these sanctions.
    [Show full text]