 |
| |
|
|
SlowwHand
|
 |
of The Cooler
Sep 1999
time: 23:27
|
|
Something on your hero, Che.
Cuba’s traditional supporters among the strongest critics of island’s crackdown on dissent
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Carlos Fuentes called Cuba a “suffocating dictatorship.” Jose Saramago said Fidel Castro “cheated his dreams.”
Leftist intellectuals and authors were shocked at Cuba’s recent crackdown on dissent, and many find themselves criticizing a government they spent years applauding. The backlash appears to have caught Cuba off guard, forcing officials to defend themselves in the Communist Party daily Granma.
Although still accused of human rights abuses, Cuba had largely halted the high-profile crackdowns on critics it was once known for. There were greater freedoms with the island’s growing tourism industry, and even Republican U.S. lawmakers were calling to ease more than four decades of U.S. imposed sanctions.
But that changed earlier this month, when Cuba executed by firing squad three men accused of terrorism in the unsuccessful hijacking of a ferry full of passengers. Just days before, it sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms of up to 28 years on charges they worked with U.S. diplomats to undermine Castro’s government.
The actions prompted criticism around the globe.
In Sweden, Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said the trials and executions could harm the island nation’s prospects for a better relationship with the European Union. Protesters in the Czech Republic chanted “Shame on Fidel” and “Cuba si, Fidel no!” in front the Cuban Embassy in Prague. And both Canada and Italy condemned the actions, sending letters of protest to the Cuban government.
Puerto Rico’s secretary of state said the actions were a step backward for the region, and Nicaragua recalled its envoy in Cuba for consultations after the Cuban government accused several nations — including Nicaragua — of acting as the United States’ “lackeys.”
But some of the strongest criticism came from Cuba’s traditional voices of support.
Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, who once praised Castro as a “symbol of national dignity,” wrote an essay in which he reluctantly acknowledged that the crackdown did nothing but fuel opposition claims that the Cuban leader was a brutal dictator.
“Must they learn the bad habits of the enemy they are fighting?” he said. “The death penalty is never justified, no matter where it is applied.”
Fuentes, a Mexican novelist known for his past support of Cuba, was even more disillusioned, declaring himself “against Bush, and against Castro.”
“As a Mexican, I wish for my country neither the dictates of Washington on foreign policy, nor the Cuban example of a suffocating dictatorship,” he wrote in a letter published in Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper.
He wasn’t alone. Saramago, a Portuguese writer who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for literature and considered himself a close friend of Castro, said Cuba “has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, cheated my dreams.”
Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who lives part-time in Cuba, has been silent on the issue. But his magazine, Cambio, published an article saying that Cuba’s actions had alienated even the island’s friends.
“Few other repressive waves have left a government so isolated and rejected,” it said.
The communist government responded by publishing rebukes in Granma.
In one letter that appeared Saturday, a group of well-known Cuban intellectuals urged their colleagues to stop criticizing the island. The letter, entitled “Message from Havana to our friends in faraway places,” said the recent statements by leftist intellectuals “are being used in the great campaign trying to isolate us and prepare the stage for military aggression by the United States against Cuba.”
Still, Cuba has its supporters. The U.N. Human Rights Commission failed to get enough votes to condemn the recent crackdown, and instead called for a U.N. rights monitor to visit Cuba. And, despite recent events, the state of Maryland is sending the Pride of Baltimore II clipper ship to the island in an attempt to promote the state’s seafood, poultry, pet food, cake mix, juices and spices.
Also, it’s unclear how long Cuba’s traditional supporters will stay angry.
But Fuentes, for one, appears unapologetic. He accused Castro of needing “his American enemy to justify his own failings” and said the Cuban president was preparing “the way for his own exit from the world stage in a hail of flames.”
|
|
| |
|
|
|
MRT144
|
|
Seattle Washington
Oct 2002
time: 21:27
|
|
fez, to be honest, youre more like spear and spink than anyone else here.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
MRT144
|
|
Seattle Washington
Oct 2002
time: 21:27
|
|
next thing you know youll post a picture of yourself wearing a che guevera t shirt
|
|
| |
|
|
|
MRT144
|
|
Seattle Washington
Oct 2002
time: 21:27
|
|
please, i wish communism on no one. its the opiate of the desperate and deluded.
Last edited by MRT144 on 25-04-2003 at 21:49
|
|
| |
|
|
|
MRT144
|
|
Seattle Washington
Oct 2002
time: 21:27
|
|
there were at least 2 polls asking if people actually missed you
|
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:27.
Apolyton Time is 00:27. |
top of page
|
| archivepost |
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
25-04-2003 20:00
haha, Fez has class 
|
|