From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Cuban Rights Advocate Beaten and Detaine
Date: 20 Dec 92 07:14:11 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Jeremy Barth writes:

>Another follow-up to Edelmiro's posting on Cuba:
>Here we go again:  everything has to be black and white,
>like a fairybook story.  Everything about Cuba is bad
>and nothing good can possibly be said about the government.

Jeremy, my posting had nothing to do with how "good" the Cuban government was, 
it had to to with the government sponsored death squads that are roaming the 
streets of havanna, with walkie talkies imported from abroad by Cuba's friendly 
capitalists.  Generally when I repost some article which mentions the 
activities of these facist mobs, the friends of Castro on this net, including 
yourself, begin with the apologies of the regime invoking its "wonders", and 
simply saying, well is bad to beat up political prisoners, but its good to 
support the government which violates them consistently and deal with it 
commercially, as if such acts of "humanitarianism" do not serve to prop up the 
regimes image of victimization.

>Of course it is wrong to beat up political dissidents.  No decent
>person would disagree with that sentiment.  Human rights groups
>have regularly documented and condemned human rights violoations
>in Cuba.  As Gilberto points out, however, you'd likely be
>"desaparecido y muerto" in many other countries.

Why do they need to invoke other atrocities if one wrong does not make a 
right?  I'll tell you why you and Gilberto do it: you simply give a damn about 
what happens to Cuban dissidents and therefore have to downplay what has been 
done to them by invoking expamles of other atrocities in other countries.  Such 
downplaying of the repression in Cuba pretends to erect a smokescreen on the
represive activities of the totalitarian regime, and that is precisely what 
you do when comparisons with other acts of represion are brought in out of the 
blue in a discussion about Cuban facism.  A clear example of how you have 
deviated from the topic of Mr. Sanchez and other human rights violations is the 
following:

>But there are human rights violations taking place in the US
>everyday that have been substantially eliminated in Cuba,
>such as homelessness and lack of access to medical care.

Well if you call 20 people living in a roach infested shack the elimination of 
homelesness, I won't argue with you.  And as far as the excellent access to 
medical care, it is ironic that in a country where the private possesion of 
aspirin is illegal, you are talking about "access".  Moreover, it is a well 
known fact that party bosses have access to military hospitals while the rest 
of the population qets the ax at some local butcher shop.  Finally, it is also 
a well known fact that Cuba has privatized its medical system by giving 
priority to foreigners (mainly from Brazil and the Dominican Republic) who pay 
cash to the Cuban government in exchange for medical services.  Those are the 
ones with free access to real medical care in Cuba, so please don't talk about 
Cuba as if it were the Nirvana of health care.  But let's se what your 
propaganda says on the matter:

>1.  Pregnant women are guaranteed pre-natal care and close
>    to 100% get it.  

But they can't even get the milk they need since there is practically no milk 
production in the country.  So the pre-natal care must certainly be theoretical 
(it they indeed get it).

>    Almost all women deliver in modern
>    hospitals, a feat it would be difficult to equal
>    in the US, let alone the rest of Latin America.

What are you talking about, there is nothing "modern" in Cuban hospitals.  As 
with trasportation, medical technology frozin in time with Castro's 
"revolution" and the only "modernity" came from the now defunct Soviety Union 
and we all how how "modern" that country is.  As far as the U.S. is concerned, 
recent statistics indicate that 97% of our population has access to medical 
care (the individual who live in isolated rural areas don't) so I don't see 
what the crisis is, and of course our doctors are doctors in medicine, not in 
veterinary science, nor Mengueles who lock up aids patients as if they were 
lepers.  All of this, of course, has nothing to do with the beating of Dr. 
Sanchez.


>2.  Cuba has one of the highest per capita number of physicians
>    in the world, industrialized or otherwise.  It has been
>    argued that there are *too many* doctors, that even trivial
>    problems are being medicalized.

And it has also been argued that many of the "doctors" lack the basic skills 
required of doctors in industrialized nations.  So, again this statistic is 
insignificant, and has nothing to do with the beating of Dr. Sanchez..

>3.  Cuba's life expectancy statistics are *higher* than the US.
>    Of course, if the embargo is tightened, this will be
>    revised downward and the US may "win" again.

Well, perhaps since there is no violent crime in Cuba (other than those 
committed by the facists in power) the Cuban are ahead in this respect. It's 
the price we have to pay for our freedoms.

>Health is also a human right, and it's still not guaranteed
>in the US, in case anyone missed hearing about that little
>secret during the recent presidential election.

Now that you talk about it, the problem with health was not access. it was 
about the costs provoked by inescrupulous beauroctrats.  Other than the costly 
nature of the system (to the government), we have the best system in the world. 
 As I mentioned earlier 97% of our population has acess to health care.  And, 
again, this has nothing to do with the Sanchez case. 

>The aid caravan that brought supplies to Cuba was principally
>bringing material aid such as milk and medicine.  

I see, there is free pre-natal care, but medicine has to be imported in 50 
cars from the U.S.  Likewise theres access to medical care but there's no 
medicine, and of course, this has nothing to do with Mr. Sanchez.  Your claims 
are beinging to strain my eyes. 

>If anything
>of a remotely "military" nature had been in the caravan,
>you can bet your bottom dollar it would would still be sitting
>at the Mexican border and the US government would have
>trumpeted the finding to the world.

>Of course, some people will see children's milk and medicine
>as just a sinister tool to prop up the repressive Cuban regime.
>Maybe the bibles that the ministers in the delegation were
>bringing down will be additional misery to the Cuban people.

The more Castro has to buy milk and medicine the less he has to invest in 
weapons and other mechanisms of repression.  After all, as you said, Castro's 
government is so humanitarian that it will invest everything in milk and 
medicine, before purchasing weapons and operating Canadian whorehouses and 
casinos where the rich and famous can go dip in private beaches. I'm sure the 
caravaners who were greeted by Castro had a wonderful time down there, knowing 
that they would never have to talk about the human rights violations of the 
regime, since any discussion of such would quickly be diverted to issues such 
as pre-natal care in Cuba, etc.

Edelmiro