Cuba releases 53 of 81 political prisoners

[RobDownSouth]

Well, Cuba kept its word and released 53 political prisoners yesterday, all of them of the "non-violent" variety.

They declined to release 20 prisoners who attempted to hijack aircraft or boats using guns.

They also declined to release 8 prisoners who were caught attempting to smuggle large quantities of firearms into Cuba. The US considers these arms smugglers to be "political prisoners". I'm not so sure I agree.

I hadn't realized the US and Cuba also did a "spy swap" last month as a show of good faith.

 

[Adre]

Who will be the first Wingnut nation member to spin this as very bad thing?

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Who will be the first Wingnut nation member to spin this as very bad thing?

Vetteman, surely. Possibly Ishy. Everyone else will just blindly goose-step behind their elders using echolocation.

 

[RobDownSouth]

:checks Wingnut Situational Outrage Schedule for January 2015:

Busybody has the early shift today.
It's Vetty's day off, JamesBJohnson is covering his afternoon shift.

 

[NeverEndingMe]

Who will be the first Wingnut nation member to spin this as very bad thing?

clearly you are a retarded jackass

 

[Sean Renaud]

Citation is needed.

 

[Que]

Citation is needed.

I assume the numbers are as he said. Not sure what point he is attempting to make. As far as I know we haven't had sanctions on Cuba since before I was born in order to secure the release of some prisoners.

I think it is good that Cuba did not simply accept the unilateral easing of sanctions with a great big "suck it!"

In general, I think that sanctions on Cuba for or against matters not at all to the US, and hasn't for a long time. It is one of those things like when you find an overdue library book, realize you need to take it back, but leave it by the door for a year or two more.

It would have been nice to have the Castro brothers die first, but those $20/month Cuban doctors should be on the USS Enterprise if we ever build it because "Dammit, Jim...they ARE miracle workers."

 

[KingOrfeo]

Citation is needed.

Here.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur is the big chip.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur is the big chip.

Wow, there's a two million dollar reward on her head. (1 million federal, 1 million state of NJ). Nobody's collected since 1984. Your tax dollars at work.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur is the big chip.

Don't hold your breath on that happening, if it didn't come to pass with this deal.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

Don't hold your breath on that happening, if it didn't come to pass with this deal.

Obama is going to feel a lot of pressure from both sides for her to return.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur is the big chip.

But, she's not a prisoner, she's living in Cuba under asylum while fleeing from U.S. authorities. Negotiation of an extradition treaty with Cuba would be way down the road from this point -- and would have to go both ways. Is there anyone living free in the U.S. and wanted in Cuba?

 

[RobDownSouth]

But, she's not a prisoner, she's living in Cuba under asylum while fleeing from U.S. authorities. Negotiation of an extradition treaty with Cuba would be way down the road from this point -- and would have to go both ways. Is there anyone living free in the U.S. and wanted in Cuba?

Is Ted Cruz's dad still alive? He and Fidel were buddy-buddy back in the day. Had some sort of falling out though.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

But, she's not a prisoner, she's living in Cuba under asylum while fleeing from U.S. authorities. Negotiation of an extradition treaty with Cuba would be way down the road from this point -- and would have to go both ways. Is there anyone living free in the U.S. and wanted in Cuba?

True. She is not a prisoner of the Cuban government.

I jumped into this thread because I'm too lazy to start my own.

The question of her extradition is a leaky bag of shit that no one in the Obama administration would want to touch.

 

[Dumpington]

Cuba remains an oppressive Communist dictatorship where the people lack basic freedoms and human rights.

Many Hollywood liberals who have praised Fidel Castro would never want to actually live in that Marxist hellhole, UNLESS they were treated like the Marxist elites who govern that nation and enjoy the best of everything, not unlike Kim Jong-un and his "royal family" live in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea).

Marxist dictatorships don't allow for free elections because they would never survive them.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Obama is going to feel a lot of pressure from both sides for her to return.

There was a little bit of nipple perk-up over her when he announced the thawing of relations with Cuba, but I seriously doubt he's sweating over it from anyone on both ends.

In fact, if he were the actual radical the right paints him out to be, he'd grant her the customary Presidential amnesty at the end of his term, but I wouldn't hold out for that, either.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Cuba remains an oppressive Communist dictatorship where the people lack basic freedoms and human rights.

[shrug] The U.S. has a long, long history of making nice with dictatorships. We trade with China, we trade with Vietnam, we traded with Pinochet's Chile and Trujillo's Dominican Republic and Somoza's Nicaragua and Marcos' Philippines and Hussein's Iraq and the Shah's Iran -- what makes Cuba any different?

Heck, we'd probably trade with North Korea if they had anything to trade and if they weren't always saber-rattling. Cuba has sugar and cigars and sex tourism, and stopped saber-rattling a long time ago.

 

[Dumpington]

KingOrfeo --- So what if Cuba has sugar, cigars, & bananas?

Does that change the fact that the Castro brothers have brutally oppressed their people for over half a century?

During the apartheid era in South Africa, that nation had a whole lot more mineral wealth vital to American interests than does Cuba, but I certainly don't remember anybody saying that we should look the other way and treat that racist regime the same as everywhere else! And I certainly don't recall any Hollywood celebrities visiting the apartheid leaders and then returning with stories about how wonderful they were!

The best thing that could happen to the Cuban people would be a complete COLLAPSE of that island nation's communist dictatorship, the same way that the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, freeing them to seek a modern, representative government such as happened in eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet empire.

 

[PoppingTom]

The best thing that could happen to the Cuban people would be a complete COLLAPSE of that island nation's communist dictatorship, the same way that the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991.

That's right.

But there have to be openings before. Without relaxing the relationships, there would have been no change, neither in Russia nor in East Europe. Without Nixon, there wouldn't have been any changes in China, at last. It would still be the Mao communism like before.

 

[KingOrfeo]

KingOrfeo --- So what if Cuba has sugar, cigars, & bananas?

Does that change the fact that the Castro brothers have brutally oppressed their people for over half a century?

No, it makes it irrelevant.

During the apartheid era in South Africa, that nation had a whole lot more mineral wealth vital to American interests than does Cuba, but I certainly don't remember anybody saying that we should look the other way and treat that racist regime the same as everywhere else! And I certainly don't recall any Hollywood celebrities visiting the apartheid leaders and then returning with stories about how wonderful they were!

Me neither, but I do recall Jesse Helms on the Senate floor raging that the fall of Apartheid would lead to "Commernist" rule in SA . . .

Sanctions on SA worked. They worked because the system was inherently unpopular and unstable, and there was an energetic internal opposition the state could not completely suppress.

But after 50+ years, we have no reason to expect sanctions on Cuba will ever work. Why not would be an interesting discussion, but it appears to be so.

The best thing that could happen to the Cuban people would be a complete COLLAPSE of that island nation's communist dictatorship, the same way that the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, freeing them to seek a modern, representative government such as happened in eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet empire.

Well, I don't know about that. What the Russians learned from that experience is that abandoning a totalitarian command economy all at once is a really bad idea, especially when nobody has any experience running or working in any other kind of economy. The post-Soviet economy was even more dysfunctional than the Soviet economy. I recall a Russian joke from after the fall: "What have two years of capitalism accomplished that 70 years of Communism failed to achieve?" "They've made Communism look good!" They've gotten better since, but it was a really painful transition. One Cuba should be careful to avoid if possible. Perhaps they can gradually privatize various parts of their economy, like China has.

 

[unregistered]

 

[badbabysitter]

Cuba remains an oppressive Communist dictatorship where the people lack basic freedoms and human rights.


Many Hollywood liberals who have praised Fidel Castro would never want to actually live in that Marxist hellhole, UNLESS they were treated like the Marxist elites who govern that nation and enjoy the best of everything, not unlike Kim Jong-un and his "royal family" live in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea).

Marxist dictatorships don't allow for free elections because they would never survive them.

Saudi Arabia ranks 206th out of 216 countries when it comes to human rights

in fact it is only two spots away from North Korea at 208


and yet, Saudi Arabia is considered to be an ally of the west

meanwhile, Cuba ranks at 116th...which still makes it freer society then South Africa and India.... also allies


take your selective outrage elsewhere

 

[KingOrfeo]

Saudi Arabia ranks 206th out of 216 countries when it comes to human rights

On what list?

 

[badbabysitter]

On what list?

Amnesty International