Cuba Releases "Political Prisoner" Who Smuggled Guns for Insurrection
Here is another sad example of the types of people labled "political prisoners" by Cuba's highest profile opposition group. Nevermind the actual charge was entering a county with high-powered weapons at the service of a US based terrorist group (who calls themselves insurrectionists, just in case there was any doubt). A respected press organization (AFP) goes along with the charade.
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba has freed a Cuban-American political dissident for health reasons, a human rights activist said Thursday, adding that he was the 10th dissident released in Cuba so far this year.
Adalberto Ramos Monteagudo "was released from jail ... because he suffers from prostate and bladder cancer and his condition is very delicate," Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Committee member Elizardo Sanchez told AFP.
Ramos was sentenced in 1991 to 24 years behind bars for illegally entering Cuba bearing weapons, under orders from the Miami-based, anti-Castro National Insurrection Directory group.
Fellow conspirator Alexis Lozano was sentenced together with Ramos, but was later released for undisclosed reasons and allowed to return to the United States, Sanchez said.
Ramos, he added, has chosen to remain in Cuba.
Sanchez said Ramos was is the 10th political prisoner to have been freed so far this year from Cuban jails, where his group calculates more than 230 political prisoners still linger.
Cuba earlier this year swore in a new president, Raul Castro, brother of Fidel Castro, who retired at 81 in poor health after ruling the country for nearly 50 years.
posted by leftside at
9:45 AM
16 Comments:
99% of the political prisoners in cuba have NOTHING to do with weapons charges and you know that.
BTW, why is Cuba blocking/limiting access to Generation Y Blog?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/26/cuba.news
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/26/809148.aspx
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120638880341660253.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/03/report-cuban-ce.html
http://www.enews20.com/news_Authorities_Block_Access_to_the_Cubas_Most_Read_Blog_06746.html
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20080324/latest-tech-news-25-march/
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/24/cuban-blogger-censored
Why are they afraid of this young woman?
And is MTV still banned in Cuba?
Read the MSNBC link, they have the integrity to actually do some reporting nd figure out that this may all be nothing at all. They report that many customers in Havana have had internet trouble in the last few days. Phil Peters and his friends in Havana have also found the site to be accessible as well. So this is another lie by the mainstream media, who reports what a "dissident" in Cuba says without checking it out. Quite sad. But nice try.
And MTV? Is that another lie or is it true that MTV is banned in Cuba?
No that is not true either. I think you are talking about access to satellite dishes, where the US now broadcasts anti-Cuba propoganda. Reports are that dishes are being tolerated.
Actually, reports are that they've been getting confiscated. The Cuban gov't, if it wished, could allow satellite dishes and program cards to block say, the one or two offensive media outlets that you use to justify denial of access. But instead, they fear access to international media. Like MTV...
Do you support lifting Fidel's ban on cellphones? I do. What else is being banned right now that Raul should ALSO consider lifting? I'd like to hear you list those things that you think Raul should stop banning.
I thought that would trip up a dictatorship apologist like yourself. Now that bans on cellphones, computers and staying in hotels have been lifted, you'll actually have to admit to yourself, for the first time, that such bans did indeed exist, despite your continued state of denial on the subject. I'm glad that these reforms are finally being put into place. No thanks to apologists like you.
...and now they're condemning Facebook:
http://luismgarcia.blogspot.com/2008/04/old-man-and-his-dvd.html
"Ramos explains that the regime did not like his depictions of the militiamen and policemen that were ever present in Cuban life (in other words his paintings were too accurate). They ostracized Garcia Rivera, and finally cut the tendons in his hands so he could no longer paint. He ultimately committed suicide."
And you support this?
http://www.babalublog.com/archives/007949.html
Cubans allowed to hold title to property? Isn't that a great reform? And can you explain why you supported preventing this reform for so long?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=51370§ionid=351020702
Great changes. No thanks to apologists like you.
80% of Cubans are effective owners of their homes/apartments because of the Revolution. No one pays more than 10% of their income in rent/mortgage. This "reform" will affect only a small sector of the housing stock (those who got their home directly from a State entity).
I will comment on the modest changes going on in Cuba and answer your misguided attacks soon.
"Speculation was rife Friday that Cuba could soon scrap unpopular policies requiring citizens to get costly permits to leave and return to the country, ending what effectively amounts to a decades-old travel ban."
Wow, another one. So far there's been quite a rejection of the policies you've supported and defended. What great changes!
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5a0R68DIemPPH-CnZEuIXU9jYQg
I don't think I ever "defended" any of these policies that are being repealed. I might have explained them to folks like you who assume they were all for repressive purposes (which has been exposed as the lie it always was). What I defend is socialism and Cuba's right to follow their own path.
You defended them vigourously. You can't re-write history. You're on record as an apologist for ALL of these restrictions.
And this latest outrage is a pathetic example of cowardly Castrol apologists like yourself:
http://marcmasferrer.typepad.com/uncommon_sense/2008/04/post.html
History will not absolve you, my friend. Not...at...all.
Here's more of the misery you've helped to propagate:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-peso8-2008may08,0,3295419.story
"Cuba is not concerned with the individual connection of its citizens to the Internet," said deputy minister for Computer Science and Communications, Boris Moreno, on Friday."
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gbs2d7rh33vYKZ6hp3xAwhA4BXvQ
Why aren't young people allowed to go to MTV.com or Mother Jones...or The Nation...or Le Monde? And why do you support that kind of restriction?
How many times do I need to explain this? When Cuba offers a public service, it is to be for all. Unfortunately, the US has not allowed Cuba to hook up to the underwater high-speed internet fiber optic line, which means they must use costly, slow and inefficient satellite connections through places like Italy and the like. Therefore, to allow access for all would slow the internet down so much as to render the it useless. Therefore Cuba has a policy of prioritizing internet usage for critical sectors like health, education and government. If the US would just allow access, there would be no excuse and the ball would be in Cuba's court. Similarly, Venezuela is helping to build a fiber optic line that will be done next year. We will see changes then. The situation is like cel phones, which were rationed before the underground lines were improved.
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