The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, died and the world wonders if the human rights violation will continue in the country.
Since Castro came to power, the accusations of human rights violations did not stop in all the years that the deceased president remained in power.
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The American press announced the death of the Cuban leader reminding him as “the man who challenged Washington.”
“He was as repudiated as he was loved (Fidel Castro). He was among the world’s most repressive leaders, a lifetime president who banned freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of the press, and imprisoned thousands of political opponents”, The Washington Post noted.
The Organization of American States (OAS), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are just some of the international organizations that have been dedicated to warn about the terrible dictatorship that lives on the Caribbean island.
The “lack of freedom of expression, political persecution, and arbitrary detention” are some of the violations that have been alerted year after year in Cuba.
Since 1962, in the midst of the Cold War, Cuba was suspended from the OAS because of the link between Fidel Castro and the nations of the Sino-Soviet bloc. That same year, the United States imposed the commercial blockade on the island.
Years later (2009) Cuba was accepted again in the OAS, nevertheless, Fidel Castro always was critical before the organism and accused it of being dominated by the interests of the American government.
The following year, Castro’s pupil, Hugo Chávez, former president of Venezuela, created the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), as an alternative to the OAS, but this organization would not integrate two of the American countries. (The US and Canada).
The body that allegedly urged “to strengthen democracies and human rights for all”, said the president of the island during the pro tempore presidency of the body, was widely criticized because the detractors of the Cuban regime argue that precisely Cuba has had no free elections, political parties or independent media for more than half a century.
The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation, an independent human rights organization that the government considers illegal, received more than 3600 reports of arbitrary detention only between January and September 2013.
“The Cuban government continues to repress individuals and groups that criticize the government or claim fundamental human rights. Officials apply a variety of tactics to punish dissent and infuse fear among the population, including beatings, acts of repudiation, dismissals, and threats of long prison terms. In recent years, the number of short-term arbitrary arrests has increased dramatically, preventing human rights defenders, independent journalists and others from being able to meet or move freely”, said the latest Human Rights report of January 2014.
The New York Times today noted in its news that Castro will go down in history as the apostle of the revolution that brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere.
“He displayed his power as a tyrant, controlling all aspects of the island’s existence. But it was more than repression and fear that kept his totalitarian government in power for so long, “the paper added.
The repressions has not ceased in all these years of government, the dictatorship has continued. Despite the continuation of relations between Cuba and the United States, promoted by the still president of the North American country, Barack Obama, the violations of human rights are maintained. The island and the world is waiting for the next actions to be taken in the Caribbean country, since the history of Cuba could change.
The Cuban opposition has denounced how the continuation of relations with the United States has affected the island’s citizens because of the increased repression by the Cuban regime. According to figures from the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, in the last two years of the “thaw”, Cuban authorities have carried out 17,741 arbitrary arrests of activists and opponents.
“The repression has increased a lot, there’s statistics but there is also the form of repression that does not collect statistics. A temporary arrest is not the same thing as a violent arrest, with blows. State security is much more violent, harassment is much greater, “said the coordinator of the Forum for Rights and Freedoms, Forum for Rights and Freedoms.
Some world leaders have not lost this opportunity, and have manifested themselves after Castro’s death, and described him as dictator and oppressor.
Among them is Esperanza Aguirre and Donald Trump. The first, PP spokesman in the City of Madrid, said that the balance of Fidel Castro in Cuba is “58 years of criminal dictatorship and a country ruined and demoralized.” “Two million exiles, thousands of murders, 58 years of criminal dictatorship, a ruined and demoralized country,” she said. For his part, Trump, by means of a communiqué, classified him as dictator and oppressor.
Source: La Nación; El Universal; Ecodiario.