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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (874556)	7/22/2015 4:48:13 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578501

Successive US Administrations have indeed raised human rights issues with the Saudis....strategic considerations dictate that we can not cut off our nose to spite our face...however there re no such strategic considerations with Cuba, nor is there the history, embargo, nationalization of billions of US assets, arrests and jailing for extended periods of time of US citizens on trumped up charges (Alan Gross) etc. ....

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (874556)	7/22/2015 4:51:32 PM
From: jlallen	1 Recommendation Recommended By Bill Respond to of 1578501

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

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (874556)	7/22/2015 4:54:46 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578501

Healthcare[ edit] Main article: Healthcare of Cuba The Cuban government operates on national health system and assumes full fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of its citizens. The government prohibits any private alternatives to the national health system. In 1976, Cuba's healthcare program was enshrined in Article 50 of the revised constitution which states, "Everyone has the right to health protection and care". Healthcare in Cuba is also free. However, there is no right to privacy, or a patient's informed consent, or the right to protest or sue a doctor or clinic for malpractice. [54] [55] Moreover, the patient does not have right to refuse treatment (for example, a Rastafarian cannot refuse an amputation on grounds that his religion forbids it.) [54] [55] Many Cubans complain about politics in medical treatment and health care decision-making. [54] After spending nine months in Cuban clinics, Katherine Hirschfeld asked in her paper "My increased awareness of Cuba’s criminalization of dissent raised a very provocative question: to what extent is the favorable international image of the Cuban health care system maintained by the state’s practice of suppressing dissent and covertly intimidating or imprisoning would-be critics?" [54] Family doctors are expected to keep records of patients "political integration". [55] Epidemiological surveillance has become juxtaposed with political surveillance. [55]

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (874556)

7/22/2015 5:01:33 PM

From: jlallen

Respond to of 1578501

Freed dissidents expose Castro's brutal regime

Omar Pernet Hernández had his collar bone broken

By Graham Keeley in Barcelona

3:01PM GMT 23 Feb 2008

Four dissidents freed this week after five years in inhumane conditions in a Cuban prison have revealed the dark side of Fidel Castro’s regime.

The four - José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Omar Pernet Hernández, Alejandro González and Pedro Pablo Álvarez - described regular beatings, humiliation and arbitrary punishment with long periods of solitary confinement in cramped cells with cement beds.

They said they were deprived of food and water in conditions which resembled "a desert".

Arriving in Spain to be reunited with their families, they exposed the routine abuse of political prisoners which marked Castro’s five decades in power.

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The four were part of a group of 75 dissidents who were jailed in 2003 by Castro’s regime in a move which caused an international outcry. The official reason given for their release was "health reasons".

But behind the scenes pressure from the Spanish Government on Havana is believed to have been the key to setting free the long-term opposition activists, who all have relatives in Spain.

Mr Castillo, 50, a journalist who wrote articles critical of the regime, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It was terrible. It was like being in a desert in which sometimes there is no water, there is no food, you are tortured and you are abused.

"This was not torture in the textbook way with electric prods, but it was cruel and degrading. They would beat you for no reason even when you were in hospital.

"At other times they would search you for no reason, stripping you bare and humiliating you. There was one particular commander at a jail in Santa Clara who seemed to take delight in handing out beatings to the prisoners."

Mr Castillo, who claims he was denied proper medical aid for diabetes and heart problems, added: "We are nothing more than a reflection of the human cost of the fight being waged by the Cuban people."

While the dissidents tasted freedom, 58 of the original 75 jailed for long terms in 2003 are still behind bars.

It is estimated another 250 political prisoners languish in Cuban prisons. Mr Castillo was not hopeful that the departure of El Comandante from the helm of power would bring great changes.

"Nothing will change with the resignation of Castro. He will still be manipulating things behind the scenes," he said.

"His resignation could be a small step but I have my reservations. We were only released because (Castro) wants to clean up his image as a human rights violator. He is still present. He is a ghost governing the country."

Omar Pernet, a steel worker also in his fifties, was jailed for being an opposition activist, suffered an accident while being moved from one jail to another in 2004.

He also suffered lung problems in jail, a broken leg, a broken collar bone.

He said he was kept in solitary confinement in a cell measuring four metres square with a cement bed.

In all, he has spent 21 years behind bars for opposing the regime. Mr Pernet was jailed for 20 years after being accused of aiding the US secret services - a charge he says was trumped up.

In a statement, Amnesty International called the release of the four a "positive step" but called on Raul Castro, who has been Cuba’s acting president since his brother, Fidel, fell ill in 2006, to also release all other political prisoners held by the regime.

telegraph.co.uk

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (874556)	7/22/2015 5:05:53 PM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 1578501

Cuban Dissident Who Warned Obama Engagement With Castro Would Fail Injured By Castro’s Thugs Mike Gonzalez / @Gundisalvus / July 06, 2015 / 7 comments 140205 Screenshot of Antonio Rodiles after his attack. (Photo taken from EstadodeSats Youtube video youtube.com COMMENTARY BY Mike Gonzalez @Gundisalvus Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, is a widely experienced international correspondent, commentator and editor who has reported from Asia, Europe and Latin America. He served in the George W. Bush Administration first at the Securities and Exchange Commission and then at the State Department. His book, "A Race for the Future: How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans," was published in September. Read his research. When President Obama confidently asserted “this is what change looks like” during his Cuba embassy announcement last week, he couldn’t possibly have had in mind the picture of a bloodied and bandaged Antonio Rodiles. And yet, the dissident leader warned Obama that very day in a tweet that appeasement meant more repression of dissidents. Rodiles had to be operated on overnight to repair his nose after receiving a beating at the hands of state security agents. He had been arrested on Sunday along with 20 other people who had the temerity to march to Mass demanding that human rights and individual freedom be respected in Castro’s Caribbean island Gulag. His prophetic tweet to Obama and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power the day of the announcement simply asked, “How to talk about engagement after 11 Sundays of strong repression.” Get our emails for free. We'll respect your inbox and keep you informed. Sign Up Rodiles was responding to Obama’s statement “I strongly believe that the best way for America to support our values is through engagement,” which the White House tweeted out and Power retweeted. My retweet of Rodiles said, “. @AmbassadorPower @BarackObama Pls listen to this dissident. He risks his life every day in #Cuba. Do u know better?” And that’s just it: apparently they think they do. It’s either this hubristic belief that Obama and the people around him know better about how to advance democracy and human rights than the Cubans actually fighting for it, or they think that dissidents like Rodiles are a nuisance that get in the way of the state-to-state exchanges between the grownups. There is sadly a history of such dismissal of democratic forces for this administration. Its very first on the world stage was to stand by as pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran. (Warning: Graphic image below.) Iranian Neda Agha Soltan, who was killed when hit by a bullet during a protest in Tehran. (Photo: Splash News/Newscom) The White House was not even swayed by the gruesome murder of dissident Neda Agha Soltan. So why would it have a moment of contrition over Rodiles’ broken nose? For this arrogant belief in their own intrinsic knowledge of how to bring democracy to Cuba—or the worse dismissal of those suffering for speaking their minds—Obama has broken the law by attempting to open an embassy in Havana. The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 requires the fulfillment of two conditions before the restoration of diplomatic relations. The first is that the president must determine that “a transition to a democratically elected government in Cuba has begun.” Not even Secretary of State John Kerry in his worst moments of euphoria could make this claim. The second condition is “the satisfactory resolution of property claims by a Cuban Government recognized by the United States.” The Castro regime’s seizure of some $8 billion in U.S. assets remains the largest theft in U.S. history. The 12th Sunday of repression in Cuba is unlikely to stop Obama’s legitimization of the Castros, just like skullduggery on the part of the mullahs will not slow down the rush “to get an agreement” with Iran. Congress, on the other hand, has a responsibility to make sure that the president acts within the law and does not “fundamentally transform” America’s history of supporting democracy and freedom. http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/06/cuban-dissident-who-warned-obama-engagement-with-castro-would-fail-injured-by-castros-thugs/