Few nations follow U.S. in condemning Cuba

[Say_What]

<clips>

The Bush administration is campaigning to get more international condemnation of abuses in Cuba. So far, there have been few takers.

WASHINGTON - Shortly after an ailing Fidel Castro handed power to his brother Raúl last summer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called her Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

With Havana seemingly on the edge of change, Rice hoped the European Union would issue a statement urging Cuba to adopt democratic reforms. As the leader on Latin American affairs within the EU, Madrid had the clout to make such a declaration happen, diplomats familiar with the outreach say.

The Spaniards declined.

To this day, the EU and most Latin American democracies have been conspicuously quiet on Cuba despite a stepped-up U.S. effort to garner those kinds of declarations on Cuba. Diplomats and analysts say the silence shows that many nations are both unwilling to be associated with U.S. policies toward Cuba and reluctant to anger Havana by criticizing its communist government.

''The embargo focus of U.S. policy has been ineffective,'' said Kenneth Roth, president of Human Rights Watch, a group critical of both U.S. sanctions on Cuba and the island's repressive ways. ``It's driven away natural allies who otherwise might be willing to help promote human rights.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16515475.htm

[Kutjara]

1. Keep beating that same old drum Condie.

America's anti-Cuba rhetoric was tired in 1970, so it's positively necrotic by now. Nobody outside of the U. S. buys a word of our hysterical tub-thumping. Instead, they see the world's most powerful country pursuing a 50 year vendetta against a tiny, poor island that presents no threat at all.

If the two countries were human beings, the equivalent would be the 50 year old CEO of a global corporation repeatedly harrassing, starving and beating-up an anorexic eight year old. We have a term for that: gross abuse. The kind that people spend decades in jail for committing.

No, Fidel's government is not a model of very much (except perhaps universal healthcare), but its existence does not justify the systematic torture of the Cuban people by successive U. S. governments.

It is time for this shit to end. As usual, we're the last ones to catch on.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Having the US condemn abuses in Cuba, while we have our Guantanamo concentration camp

in full torture mode, is like having Satan endorse Jesus for deification.

[Lilith Velkor]

3. World to U.S. - Shut the fuck up, ya goddam hypocrites!