Is It Wrong, Just To Say That Some Cubans Like Fidel And Some Don't?

[THUNDER HANDS]

I mean, maybe it's 60-40 in true popularity down there and Castro just keeps hanging on because he knows that a majority still support him?

Obviously it's not everyone who supports him, or else nobody would want to defect to Florida.

But if another country had a semi-Democracy with no term limits for president, and someone kept winning every election by close margins, 55-45, 51-49, ect, does that necessarily make the winner a dictator?

I have to point out that I know absolutely NOTHING about what Cuba is like.

(in case that wasn't totally obvious already) :)

I've heard both sides of the argument, and since I've never been down there and talked with anyone, I don't know for sure.

But what's the true definition of a dictator and does Fidel Castro fit that description?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Ask these folks:

Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org/
Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/

[robcon]

2. Human Rights Watch on Cuba:

"Thank you for your invitation to address the human rights situation in Cuba and to discuss U.S. policy towards that country.
Human Rights Watch has been monitoring human rights conditions in Cuba for more than 15 years. Severe political repression has been constant throughout this time. Cuba has long been a one-party state. It has long restricted nearly all avenues of political dissent. It has long denied its people basic rights to fair trial, free expression, association, assembly, movement and the press. It has frequently sought to silence its critics by using short term detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, threats, surveillance, politically motivated dismissals from employment, and other harassment.

But this year's crackdown on political dissent in Cuba, in its scale and intensity, is the worst we've seen in a decade or more.

The crackdown was a reaction to the flowering of civil society in Cuba over the last several years, and to the growing activism and ambitions of its dissident community. It followed the success of the Varela Project, led by dissident Oswaldo Paya, in gathering signatures from Cuban citizens on a petition calling for political reform..."

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/cuba090403-tst.htm

[NoMoreRedInk]

3. I doubt he'll ever call a vote, and my guess is that it's...

because he doesn't want to know the answer.

My disclaimer is the same as yours though, I know nothing about Cuba.

[newyawker99]

4. Hi NoMoreRedInk!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: