National Post editorial board: Don't go to Cuba
Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:30 AM by NP Editor
Editorial

As the weather turns against us and holidays approach, many Canadians will eagerly begin to plan their winter escapes to hotter climes. Each year, hundreds of thousands of us travel to the island of Cuba, to enjoy the sun, surf and hospitality for which the island is justly famous.

But the island is infamous, too. While tourists rarely bother to venture far beyond their comfortable resorts, if they would, they would see a nation where the worst excesses of authoritarianism remain as entrenched as ever. This point is well made by the recent Human Right's Watch (HRW) report, New Castro, Same Cuba, that lays bare the state of freedom in Cuba, under the new leadership of the slightly younger Castro brother, Raul.

In Raul's Cuba, as in Fidel's, dissent remains punishable by indefinite imprisonment, unemployment is considered antisocial and the government can lock away anyone a summary trial finds guilty of "dangerousness," a legal catch-all.

Once incarcerated, political prisoners are denied medical care, family visits and legal aid. Solitary confinement is a common and seemingly arbitrary form of discipline.

We have criticized HRW's biased, anti-Israel reporting in the past, and will continue to do so. But in this report, it has produced exemplary work. Cuba's eagerness to welcome Westerners is limited only to tourists, and the HRW's research was conducted clandestinely, as international rights organizations are not welcome there. While they did their best to protect the anonynmity of their sources, changing names, dates and locations, they concede that their efforts were not entirely successful, and some of the Cubans who co-operated by providing first-hand accounts and documents have been punished by the Castro regime.

While many in the West hoped that Raul would move Cuba away from the worst excesses of his brother and into a new era of freedom, as this report makes clear, for Cuba's jailers and torturers, it's business as usual.

Canadians should not be subsidizing this tyranny -- directly or indirectly. If you want sun, try Miami, the Dominican Republic or St. Lucia. Don't go to Cuba.

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/20/national-post-editorial-board-don-t-go-to-cuba.aspx#ixzz0XV7pGmyt

by RickB
Nov 20 2009
10:36 AM


It's not just the repression; what about the fact that Cuba's socialism is an utter failure, and any tourist dollars will only go towards propping up the Castro myth among misty-eyed Trudeaupians.

It's too bad that that Turks-and-Caicos 11th-province movement didn't advance any further.
by Anonymous66
Nov 20 2009
10:48 AM


Wait a minute ... that seems like a lot lower standard of proof that torture is going on in Cuban jails than what the right wing seems says we need to see to believe that Afghan jails routinely torture prisoners.

Double standard?
by Rhino Party Whip
Nov 20 2009
10:55 AM


Eye, but try telling the jaded Boomers who are spending all their money there in the winter.

They say things like, 'If I had to approve of every government of the soil I walked on......'

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/20/national-pos

Well Blut I hope you know that most of these posts about Cuba fall on deaf ears. Very few of the posters have been to Cuba and even less mingled with the locals to find out the truth. Cuba is a big myth that draws people's curiosity, but only at a superficial level. There are so many layers to peel in order to get to the truth of the revolution, its accomplishments and the people's reality. Good luck on your battle...

so true and thank you for your thoughtful words