“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel
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| Castro regime delegation undergoes the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva |
Today the third
Universal Periodic Review of Cuba took place at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a circus.
The Castro regime cannot debate the facts. Instead it tries to flood the process with propaganda to drive out serious reports presented by non-governmental organizations,
block dissidents from traveling to attend the review, and limit the time that democratic member states have to raise questions with cheer-leading by repressive regimes that take up time and
limited interventions to 50 seconds.
Hillel Neuer of UN Watch exposed the rampant cheating of the Cuban government to avoid being evaluated during the Universal Periodic Review.
When that fails and serious issues are raised the representatives of the dictatorship engaged in
ad hominem attacks
such as guilt by association to generate confusion in order to not have to answer the tough questions on its systematic violation of human rights.
According to the representatives of the Castro regime the only Cubans that can be called human rights defenders are those
who fight for the revolution, i.e. the 59 year old communist dictatorship that has turned Cuba into an Orwellian nightmare.
But when Sirley Avila Leon, who believed the promises of the revolution,
sought to see them fulfilled and went through the official channels to open a school for Cuban children she was shunned, marginalized, harassed, and was nearly killed in a machete attack in 2015. Following the attack state security let doctors know that she was not to be treated.
When Dr. Eduardo Cardet, a medical doctor, followed the existing constitution to effect changes to improve the human rights situation in the island, restoring sovereignty to Cubans, and expressed his views
he was beaten up, jailed and sentenced to three years in prison.
The claim by the Castro regime that it is committed to human rights is false. The dictatorship in Cuba has spent decades
undermining international human rights standards. They even defended right-wing military dictatorships from being condemned at the UN Human Rights Commission and in the 1960s
recruited former Nazis to train
their officials.
Gabriel Salvia of the Center for Opening and Development of Latin America ( CADAL in Spanish)
tweeted about the complicity of the Castro regime with the Argentine military junta and I translated it to English.
The Castro regime runs roughshod over human rights in Cuba, and spends an exorbitant amount of money to cover up its repressive nature. In the current worsening international human rights climate
there may not be much that can be done, but one must speak truth to power and protest. Let the world know the cynical nature of this exercise.
