From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Human rights in the USA.
Date: 7 Jan 93 07:14:43 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Greetings Jeremy,

Just some comments...

>Don't forget the HIV+ Haitians who are currently being held
>by US authorities in a jail on the Guantanamo base in Cuba.
>The military refused even to let reporters in until a lawsuit
>brought by some independent journalists and the NY Times, among
>others, forced the US government to permit access a few weeks
>ago.

Just shows the power of the press which exists in our democracy, and the 
effectiveness of our court system to guarantee it.  Such powers are 
inconcievable to the Cuban people, who have no free press.  As for the policy 
on HIV infected foreigners, I don't like it myself and I think it will be 
reversed, after all our government is the one which expends the highest ammount 
of money on the planet in the fight againt a virus which constantly mutates.  
Its about time that those who want the best treatment in the world available to 
mitigate the consequences of this diseases are allowed to come to our country 
and purchase it. I believe Good old Bill will change thing for the better and 
wont comite the atrocities that the Cuban government is doing by puting AIDS 
patients in concentration camps.

>While Cuba's AIDS detention policy can reasonably be questioned,
>at least the patients in their so-called "AIDS jails" receive
>pretty darn good care, 

Well I'm happy you are begining to "question" the Cuban atrocities, and I'll 
give you additional comments to help you find a solution to your questions:

How can HIV treatment of AIDS prisoners in Cuban AID jails be so excellent, 
when there if common Cubans can't even purchase common aspirin in the black or 
white market for a simple headache?  I mean, HIV "treatment" (after all, its an 
incurable diseases) is extremely expensive, and if you cant provide aspirin for 
common headaches, you probably won't provide the costly drugs which slow down 
the progression of this illness, unless of course you simply want to give them 
some of Raul Castro's cocaine, so they'll spend their last days with a high in 
their comfortable jails.

>as opposed to AIDS victims on the
>streets of US cities who are homeless and have no medical
>insurance.  

No, no, no, there is plenty of treatment available for aids patients in the 
U.S., however the more expensive ones aren't covered by insurance companies who 
don't think expensive treatments with innefective drugs should be OK'd since 
all have proven to be ineffective.  I don't blame them, for why should we pump 
so much money into ineffective treatment, when the best cure for the buck is 
found in prevention programs.  Education and clean needle distributions are 
much more effective than these new drugs.  Additionally, research apparently 
shows that this is a virus which mutates, for which an effective vaccine is 
probably impossible to develop.  In any event, we outspend all other nations in 
the plante on  AIDS research, while in Cuba they simply limit the population to 
AIDS jails so that the hooker population is kept clean and Canadian tourists 
can continue enjoying their sex tours. In the latest "Hemisphere" journal there 
is an article on sex in Cuba, where Canadian sex tours are described in full 
detail.  Canadians go help the people of Cuba by promoting excurions which 
substitute the Thailandese sex tours in which 3 15 year old Cuban girls are 
sold at $6.00 a night to each canadian comrade.  Ironically, Between Batista 
and Castro there is no difference, Cuba is a whorehouse for Canadians, and the 
drug running Mafia (Raul Castro) runs the island.  At least under Batista there 
was some agriculture left, but now nothing.  No wonder a friend of mine heard 
the following comments from some Cubans (while visiting Cuba):

"In 1959 we had a sign in the zoo which said: "No le de comida a los 
animales", in 1961 the sign read: "No le de mucha comida a los animales", in 
1989 the sign read: "No le quite la comida a los animales", and today it reads: 
"No se coma a los animales."

>And as opposed to the Haitians being held on
>Guantanamo for no reason other than that they're HIV+.  How
>the US can say anything about the morality of Cuba's treatment
>of AIDS victims, given its treatment of the Haitians and its
>very own citizens, is beyond me.

Haitians are not U.S. citizens.  They are being fed and housed while the 
Federal Government decides to change its policy of letting AIDS patients get 
treatment in in our country.  U.S. immigrations does not allow HIV infected 
people into the country, just as we don't allow people with tuberculosis to 
come in as well, in no way can you compare this with Cuba's policy, the 
equivalent of sending all of San Francisco's Castro district to San Quentin 
(where they have formidable treatment of AIDS).  We simply cannot be provide a 
death bed for the entire world, the same way in we cannot police every country 
in the planet.  In any event, I support the idea that if you want "treatment" 
for AIDS, and you can pay for it yourself, welcome to the U.S. (read todays NYT 
and see what Clinton advisors are suggesting about what to do with Haiti).

Edelmiro