National Lawyers Guild Urges U.S. Media to Cease Misrepresentation of Cuba’s Human Rights Record

[flamingdem]

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/04/28-16



NEW YORK - April 28 - In the wake of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the mainstream United States media published a slew of stories condemning the so-called human rights violations that led to his hunger strike. While Tamayo's death is a tragic occurrence, such factual misrepresentation compounds the tragedy by exploiting the death for political ends.

United States criticisms of foreign state abuses of power often ring hollow. This is especially true when the criticisms are directed at a nation that has suffered from a half-century-long economic embargo and unconstitutional travel ban by the greatest economic power in the world. It also carries little weight coming from a media that pays scant attention to treatment of the ever-expanding U.S. prison population and human rights violations that take place within our own borders.

The political motivation behind this media onslaught is clear. During the Bush Administration, the United States paid Cuban "dissidents" to criticize the Cuban government. Since the overthrow of the U.S.-aligned dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, over $20 million has been funneled to anti-Castro activists and media outlets in both countries. Now the media is utilizing a tragic incident to browbeat the Communist government of Cuba.

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has long opposed this double standard toward the Cuban government and calls on the media to recognize U.S.-propagated human rights abuses, particularly in Latin America. Since 1946, the U.S. government has operated the School of the Americas (now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Fort Benning, Georgia. The 61,000 graduates of the School have been trained in torture techniques and have gone on to overthrow democratically-elected governments in several Latin American nations. These coups and the regimes that follow them have involved massive human rights violations, with hardly any coverage from U.S. media.

NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian said, "The National Lawyers Guild opposes infractions of human rights anywhere, but Cuban prison officials acted properly when Zapata decided to go on a hunger strike. We urge the media to turn its attention to real human rights violations and deadly foreign policies in this country and elsewhere."

*This release was updated at 16:08.
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The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members--lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers and legal workers united in chapters and committees--the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Links:

[naaman fletcher]

1. Notice,

They never actually say that the charges are false, or that the human rights record of Cuba is good.

[flamingdem]

2. That's not the point they are making, it's that the case is being utilized in a way

that undermines making any determination about abuses in Cuba or anywhere else, because it's being manipulated by inter(facistamericansandrightwingfreaks) ests that distort in a coordinated media campaign against Cuba.

It's not going to improve anything, for anyone, except those receiving the LARGE$$ of the US govt.

[protocol rv]

4. That's not the point they ever make

Regime apologizers shoot the messenger all the time, and that applies to right wing and left wing apologizers. The critical issue for Cubans is whether there are human rights abuses or not. Those human rights abuses are real, and they can not be explained away by pointing fingers at the USA. It's common practice for regime apologizers to muddy the waters by pointing out the messenger is flawed. Americans also tend to use a very arrogant and self centered measure: if the US does it, then when somebody else does it, it can somehow be condoned (after all if the mighty pure and superior American race is doing it, then what's the big deal?). I don't think left wing gringos realize they reek of this arrogance.

You know, all of you Americans are a real pain in the behind. Sometimes I wish there would be a way for your country to be cut out of the planet with a saw, so we would have there just an empty ocean, and we can just go on with life without your wise thoughts and your stupid actions. And please take the gringos who are here pumping up the conflict with you. We don't like the CIA, and we dont like Eva Dolinger and friends, they are a bunch of interlopers and filth who just want to grind their own axes. All of you, left wing and right wing, are just the same.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Stop trying to suck up to U.S. Americans. It won't work. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. This is a tremendous organization. They are available to help US Americans

who get charged by the US Government for travelling to Cuba, as well.

It's wonderful to see comments from a truly conscientious group of people like NLG.

Recommend.