Don't go to Cuba

Don't go to Cuba
National Post Published: Friday, November 20, 2009

As the weather turns against us and holidays approach, many Canadians
will eagerly begin to plan their winter escapes to hotter climes. Each
year, hundreds of thousands of us travel to the island of Cuba, to enjoy
the sun, surf and hospitality for which the island is justly famous.

But the island is infamous, too. While tourists rarely bother to venture
far beyond their comfortable resorts, if they would, they would see a
nation where the worst excesses of authoritarianism remain as entrenched
as ever. This point is well made by the recent Human Right's Watch (HRW)
report, New Castro, Same Cuba, that lays bare the state of freedom in
Cuba, under the new leadership of the slightly younger Castro brother, Raul.

In Raul's Cuba, as in Fidel's, dissent remains punishable by indefinite
imprisonment, unemployment is considered antisocial and the government
can lock away anyone a summary trial finds guilty of "dangerousness," a
legal catch-all.

Once incarcerated, political prisoners are denied medical care, family
visits and legal aid. Solitary confinement is a common and seemingly
arbitrary form of discipline.

We have criticized HRW's biased, anti-Israel reporting in the past, and
will continue to do so. But in this report, it has produced exemplary
work. Cuba's eagerness to welcome Westerners is limited only to
tourists, and the HRW's research was conducted clandestinely, as
international rights organizations are not welcome there. While they did
their best to protect the anonynmity of their sources, changing names,
dates and locations, they concede that their efforts were not entirely
successful, and some of the Cubans who co-operated by providing
first-hand accounts and documents have been punished by the Castro regime.

While many in the West hoped that Raul would move Cuba away from the
worst excesses of his brother and into a new era of freedom, as this
report makes clear, for Cuba's jailers and torturers, it's business as
usual.

Canadians should not be subsidizing this tyranny -- directly or
indirectly. If you want sun, try Miami, the Dominican Republic or St.
Lucia. Don't go to Cuba.

Don't go to Cuba (20 November 2009)
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=2245068