[Reader-list] Cuba in News

[A. Mani]

Source: People's Democracy
29th Jan'2012



Cuba’s Truths


OVER the last few days, the media and representatives of certain
governments traditionally committed to anti-Cuba subversion have
unleashed a new campaign of accusations, unscrupulously taking
advantage of a lamentable event: the death of an ordinary prisoner,
which possibly only in the case of Cuba, is converted into news of
international repercussion.



The method utilised is the same one as always: fruitlessly attempting,
through repetition, to demonise Cuba, in this case through the
deliberate manipulation of an incident which is absolutely exceptional
in this country.



This so-called political prisoner was serving a four-year sentence
after a fair legal process during which he was at liberty and a trial
in accordance with the law, for a brutal physical attack on his wife
in public and violent resistance to arrest by police agents.



This man died from multi-organ failure due to an acute respiratory
infection, despite having received appropriate medical attention,
including specialised medication and treatment in the intensive care
room of Santiago de Cuba’s principal hospital.



Why did Spanish authorities and certain members of the European Union
hasten to condemn Cuba without any investigation into the incident?
Why do they always utilise pre-fabricated lies in the context of Cuba?
Why, in addition to lying, do they censor the truth? Why is the voice
and truth about Cuba openly denied the smallest space in the
international media?



They are acting both cynically and hypocritically. How would they
describe the recent manifestations of police brutality in Spain and a
large part of "educated and civilized" Europe against the indignados
movement?



Why is there no concern over the dramatic situation of overcrowding in
Spanish jails with a high immigrant population – in excess of 35 per
cent of total prisoners in the country – according to the most recent
report by the ACAIP prison union, dated April 3, 2010?



Who has made any effort to investigate the death in July of 2011 in
the Spanish penitentiary of Teruel, of Tohuami Hamdaoui, an ordinary
prisoner of Moroccan origin after a hunger strike of several months?
Who has reflected the fact that he has insisted he is innocent?



Has the Chilean spokesperson slandering us by asserting that the dead
man was a political dissident on his 50th day of hunger strike lost
his memory and sense of reality? He must remember his days as a
student leader linked to Pinochet’s troops, who massacred Chileans and
instituted disappearances and torture throughout the Southern Cone via
Plan Condor, while there have been no statements about the harsh
repression of students peacefully demonstrating in defense of the
human right to universal and free education. Is he one of those who
supported re-labeling the Pinochet dictatorship a military regime in
school textbooks? Has he made any statement about the repressive and
arbitrary Anti-Terrorist Law implemented against Mapuche prisoners on
hunger strike?



The United States government, the principal instigator of any effort
to discredit Cuba in order to justify its policy of hostility,
subversion and the economic, political and media blockade of Cuba,
could not be missing from this campaign.



The hypocrisy of spokespersons for the United States, a country with a
poor human rights record at home and abroad, is staggering. The UN
Human Rights Council has acknowledged frequent serious violations in
this country of women’s rights, in the treatment of persons, racial
and ethnic discrimination, inhuman conditions in prisons, neglect of
inmates, a differentiated racial standard and frequent judicial errors
in imposing capital punishment, and the execution of minors and the
mentally ill. This is compounded by abuses of the migratory detention
system, deaths along the militarised southern border, atrocious acts
against human dignity and the killing of innocent civilians by  the US
  army troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, not
to mention arbitrary detentions and acts of torture perpetrated in the
illegally occupied Guantánamo Naval Base.



It is barely known that three people died in the United States last
November 2011 during a mass hunger strike of prisoners in California.
According to testimonies from prisoners in adjoining cells, prison
guards offered no assistance whatsoever and ignored their cries for
help, as opposed to the abusive practice of force feeding hunger
strikers.



A few weeks previously, African American Troy Davis was executed
despite a large body of evidence demonstrating legal errors in his
case. The White House and the Department of State did nothing about
this case.



A total of 90 prisoners have been executed since January 2010 to date
in the United States, while a further 3,220 remain on death row. The
government frequently brutally represses those who dare to expose
injustices within the system.



This new attack on Cuba is clearly politically motivated and has
nothing to do with legitimate concerns for the lives of Cuban men and
women. It is fuelled by the complicity of the financial-media
corporations such as the Prisa Group and the corporation running CNN
en Español, in the finest style of the Miami mafia. It is irrationally
accusing the Cuban government without having made any investigation
into the facts. Condemnation and judgment are made a priori.



It is apparent from the immediate and crude response of authorities
and the apparatus in the service of media aggression against Cuba that
they did not even take the trouble to confirm the information. The
truth is unimportant if the intention is to fabricate and sell a false
image of alleged flagrant and systematic violations of civil liberties
in Cuba which could one day justify an intervention in order to
"protect defenseless Cuban civilians."



The attempt to impose a distorted image of Cuba meant to indicate a
notable deterioration in human rights, to construct an allegedly
victimised opposition dying in prison, where health services are
denied, is evident.



The humanist vocation of Cuban doctors and health personnel, who spare
no effort or the country’s scant resources – to a large extent the
result of the criminal 50-year blockade imposed on the Cuban people –
to save lives and improve the health standards of their own people and
in many other nations is well known.



Cuba is respected and admired by many peoples and governments who
recognise its social undertakings at home and abroad.



Deeds speak louder than words. Anti-Cuban campaigns will not inflict
any damage on the Cuban Revolution or the people, who will continue
improving their socialism.



The truth of Cuba is that of a country in which human beings are most
valued: a life expectancy rate at birth of 77.9 years; free health
coverage for the entire population; an infant mortality rate of 4.9
per 1,000 live births, a figure exceeding that of the United States
and the lowest in the continent along with Canada; a literate
population with full and free access to all levels of education; 96
per cent participation in the 2008 general elections; and a democratic
process of discussion of the new economic and social guidelines prior
to the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.



The truth of Cuba is that of a country which has taken its
universities and schools to penitentiaries holding inmates who had
fair and impartial trials, who receive the same wages for work
undertaken, and enjoy high levels of medical attention without any
distinction in terms of ethnicity, gender, creed or social origin.



It will be demonstrated yet again that lies, however much they are
repeated, do not necessarily become truths, because, as José Martí
stated, "A just principle, from the depths of a cave, can do more than
an army."

 ________________________________________________________


Best

A. Mani




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A. Mani
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http://www.logicamani.co.cc