Cuban Regime Disguises Paramilitary Agent as Red Cross Worker

Yoani Sanchez - Award-winning Cuban blogger

Cuban Regime Disguises Paramilitary Agent as Red Cross Worker
Posted: 05/11/2012 9:53 am

During the last week, the official media have greatly emphasized the
origin and workings of the Red Cross in Cuba. Around May 8th, the
founding date of this humanitarian body, they published several reports
about its helping character and neutrality. Prime time news has featured
interviews with those who have acted with self-sacrifice to save victims
of accidents and conflicts. Undoubtedly, there are stories of personal
altruism and philanthropy that have saved a life or prevented injuries.
But the reason for these tributes and chronicles is not just to
commemorate and recognize the committee founded by Henri Dunant in 1863.
National TV is also trying to clean up the lamentable image left by one
of those Cuban volunteers during Benedict XVI's Mass in Santiago de Cuba.

At this point, there are few people on this Island who haven't seen the
video where a man -- wearing a Red Cross emblem -- hits and beats with a
stretcher Andrés Carrión, who had shouted an anti-system slogan. The
scene elicits such revulsion, shows so much baseness, that even
government supporters express their rejection of such practices. They
are moved by the disproportion of power between someone who can't defend
himself, and another who slaps him and attacks him with first aid
equipment. The incident led the International Committee of the Red Cross
to request an explanation, and even to an unpublished note of apology
from its Cuban counterpart. But it hasn't been enough. What has become
clear are not only the wrath of a paramilitary agent disguised as an aid
worker, and the ideological rancor that is fomented at every pass with
no consideration for the consequences. What has been revealed, also, is
that the authorities of our country lack ethical limits when it comes to
suppressing a different opinion. If, to camouflage their shock troops,
they have to dress them like sports teams, "spontaneous students," or a
medical group, they will do so. They don't hesitate to take in hand
international emblems and even to use the prestige of foreign NGOs for
political ends. This has to be known, enough with naivete.

Little Red Riding Hood doesn't stand a chance: the wolf of intolerance
can disguise itself as grandma, the mother who gave her the cakes, or
even the woodsman himself who comes to her rescue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuba-andreas-carrion-beating_b_1508420.html