Just when I thought I'd heard it all

i must confess i read Granma, Cuba's official "newspaper" (i.e. government mouthpiece) almost every day. to misquote a good movie, the b.s. piles up so fast there you need wings to stay above it.

anyway ... just when i thought i'd heard just about every lie and distortion of the truth possible, along comes this gem from King Fidel (Retired):

In any case, is it not a a calumny the affirmation, repeated millions of times, that Cuba practices torture and violates human rights? We have never tortured anyone, nor have we deprived anyone of his life through extrajudicial methods.

(¿Acaso no ha sido calumnia la afirmación, millones de veces repetida, de que en Cuba se tortura y se violan los derechos humanos? Nunca hemos torturado a nadie, ni privado de la vida a alguien por métodos extrajudiciales.)

Source


holy longest reigning dictator in the world, Batman!

extrajudicial processes? there are no judicial processes in Cuba. defense lawyers are Army officers whose "defenses" amount to "he/she is guilty, let the Revolution be merciful." show trials, such as those of General Arnaldo Ochoa, are just the tip of the iceberg. every single political "trial" in Cuba is summary and purely academic, with the conclusion foregone. does anyone believe that less than two weeks from arrest to execution represents a fair judicial proceeding?

and no torture in Cuba? i happen to know personally three people who were tortured in Cuba. one was kept in a room where temperatures were alternated between freezing and boiling, deprived of sleep, and beaten when he refused to retract his "crime" (he had written an anti-government poem ... heavy crime indeed).

another (who had tried to leave the country illegally) was kept in a cell with mentally unstable prisoners for five days. several of them were deprived of medication and became violent, beating other prisoners. one of the mentally unstable prisoners was a known murderer, and even the other "unstable" prisoners had to take turns holding him down because he had become so violent no one could sleep unless he was restrained.

another was kept standing for over three weeks in a room roughly the size of a telephone booth. she was barely fed ... but did receive plenty of water ... one does not want one's prisoners to die of thirst. of course, she had to urinate and defecate standing up. her legs became swollen and so painful she could barely sleep minutes at a time. during these three weeks, she got her period, and was denied any hygiene products, including toilet paper. guards passing by could open a window into her "cell" and mock the smell coming from her.

and these are just stories from people i know well. i have heard reports from many Cuban ex-political prisoners of being kept in tiny cells, fed next to nothing, denied medication, denied pain killers despite begging for them. i have read sworn affidavits from Cubans who witnessed severe beatings (several culminating in death) administered to fellow prisoners.

i have seen a grown man break down as he recounted being told to get a doll to fall asleep and being beaten repeatedly when he "failed" to get the doll to go to sleep. i heard a man tell of how he was stripped, made to squat on the floor, and being threatened with a knife drawn to his genitals.

not too long ago, pictures of the "cell" where Dr. Elias Biscet is kept were made available. this "cell" is the size of a port-a-potty. spend just a few hours in there in Cuba's tropical heat, and you will know what torture is.

no torture in Cuba. says King Fidel (Retired) with a straight face.

if it weren't so tragic it'd be laughable.