OPINION & EDITORIAL
Oppression and murder only 92 miles away
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Also by Matt Modell:
- Taking responsibility for your decisions (April 24, 2003)
- Feingold-McCain 'Incumbent Protection Plan' fails (November 13, 2003)
- An honorable and just battle (November 20, 2003)
- Fixing the problems of ASM (November 25, 2003)
- The key word is 'illegal' (December 4, 2003)
Related Stories:
- Jail time for tire slashers right call for sake of voting integrity (April 28, 2006)
- Not above the law (April 22, 2002)
- Terrorists' actions unpunishable (September 13, 2001)
- Hypocrite in chief (April 11, 2002)
- 'Right to bear arms' stands up to scrutiny (November 27, 2007)
by Matt Modell
Thursday, May 8, 2003
What do Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Bill O’Reilly, and Chris Matthews have in common? They and many others U.S. citizens have all been sentenced to jail terms of 15-27 years. Their crime? They all spoke out against the U.S. government or its actions at some time or another in the recent months.
Obviously these Americans have not been jailed, but if they were jailed we would be rightfully outraged. Sadly, for over 75 non-violent Cuban dissidents, many of whom are independent journalists, this is reality. Three people were also executed by firing squad for trying to take over a ferryboat and come to the United States. They were tried, convicted and executed in three days — how do you like that for swift “justice”?
Since March 18, Fidel Castro has been rounding up and jailing pro-democratic activists and critics of his oppressive regime in large numbers and sentencing them to long jail terms in secret courts.
These people have been targeted because they signed the Varela Project petition, a petition signed by more than 11,000 Cubans and called for a referendum that would essentially give Cubans freedom of speech and fair and open elections — two things we take for granted here in the United States.
These arrests and lengthy sentences are clear human rights violations — yet it does not end with these few instances. Cuban citizens are frequently jailed for “illegal exit.” That is, trying to leave the island without permission from the government; permission that usually involves buying an expensive exit permit, and even then, the Cuban government can deny a request arbitrarily.
A man was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence in 2000 for carrying a Cuban flag upside down and carrying anti-abortion placards. Others in Cuba have been sentenced to a year in jail for “disrespect.”
No country in the western hemisphere has a worse record on human rights than Cuba.
This fact makes it amazing that people in this country actually support Castro and his government. There is also an irony in hearing actors like Danny Glover and other critical leftists who are in support of Castro and speak against the United States. It is that right to speak against your own country that would confine these people in jail for 15-27 years if they decide to move to Cuba and realize living under an evil dictator isn’t so fun after all.
Earlier this week three Cubans jumped off a small rowboat two miles off the northern coast of Key Largo and decided they’d rather risk their lives and try and swim the remaining two miles, then get picked up by the Coast Guard and be sent back to Cuba.
Thankfully these men made it to shore, where local residents greeted them with applause and American flags.
It doesn’t speak highly of a regime if its citizens would rather risk their lives making a 90-mile trek in a small rowboat and than swim the remaining two miles than be sent back to their home country.
What is worse is that the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which is the international body that is supposed to work to apply world political pressure to stop such violations from occurring, is ignoring the problem. If you thought that the Security Council had become the most insignificant part of the United Nations, you should look at the Human Rights Commission, because it is at least as embarrassing as the Security Council.
The Human Rights Commission decided not only to not condemn the Cuban government for the recent arrests and executions, but also rewarded the communist nation by actually re-electing Cuba to another three-year seat on the Human Rights Commission. This is a Commission chaired by Libya, a country that has, according to Human Rights Watch, “a dreadful human rights record.”
As White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer bluntly put it, “Having Cuba serve again on the Human Rights Commission is like putting Al Capone in charge of bank security … Cuba does not deserve a seat on the Human Rights Commission. Cuba deserves to be investigated by the Human Rights Commission.”
This is like having the inmates run the insane asylum. An international body cannot expect to be taken seriously if it puts the criminals in charge of monitoring crime.
Cuban citizens deserve to be free. They deserve to get out from under the evil dictator who has ruled that country for the last 44 years. They deserve to be allowed to come and go as they please, say what they want to say and choose their own leaders. The U.S. government needs to use as much political and diplomatic pressure as possible on Cuba and other nations who can then also apply pressure on the Cuban government to release the jailed dissidents and works towards a free Cuba.
Matt Modell (mmodell@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.
