Cable Shows Nations Going Easy on Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Cable Shows Nations Going Easy on Cuba
By MARK LANDLER
Published: December 17, 2010

WASHINGTON — Cuba is getting a free pass on its human rights abuses from many of the world’s leading democracies, with visitors from Canada, Australia, Switzerland and the European Union failing to criticize the Castro regime or meet with dissidents while on the island, according to a confidential diplomatic cable sent to the State Department from Havana.

The cable, transmitted in November 2009 and signed by Jonathan D. Farrar, the top American diplomat in Cuba, hinted that there were economic motives behind the accommodating approach. But if so, the cable concluded that these countries were not getting much of a payoff.

The rewards for acquiescing to Cuban sensitivities, it said, are “risible: pomp-full dinners and meetings, and for the most pliant, a photo-op with one of the Castro brothers.”

The cable added, “In terms of substance or economic benefits they fare little better than those who stand up to” the government.

And yet, in a cable sent six months earlier, the United States Interest Section in Havana also lamented that the Cuban dissidents supported by Washington for decades were old, out of touch and so split by internecine squabbles that the United States should look elsewhere for future leaders.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/world/americas/18wikileaks-cuba.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Rex]

1. Well so does the USA...er...I am a patriot and worhsipper of the capitalist

system...

[flamingdem]

2. I bet that diplo never even gets invited to a pig roast in "el campo" nt

[Peace Patriot]

3. The New York Slimes know that the U.S. is full of crap on "democracy" and that THAT is why

the rest of the world (except for the Vatican) finds Cuba no more repressive than, say, the United States (est. a million slaughtered in Iraq; thousands tortured; on-going death and mayhem against civilians in Afghanistan; U.S. support for bloody regimes like Colombia and for absolute tyrannies in the Middle East, not to mention the Patriot Act at home). In fact, Cuba DOESN'T DO ANY OF THIS. It is a peaceful and even benevolent government, which multinational corporate monsters and war profiteers have been unable to penetrate and control (unlike the U.S.). It is arguably a much better democracy than the U.S., for the lack of multinational/war profiteer control, among other things.

On a scale of 1 to 10--1 being tyrannical and warlike and 10 being devotion to democracy, equality, social justice and peace--most governments in the world would fall somewhere in the middle--4, 5 or 6. That's where I would put Cuba, and that's what most of the world sees as well, in Cuba.

And the United States? I'm shaking my head. I'm finding it hard to give our government even a 1. In some respects, it's gone round the bend--a war machine like no other in history, hijacked for corporate resource wars; politicians calling for the assassination of an inconvenient whistleblower; dealing death and mayhem abroad, by proxy, in client states like Colombia and Honduras, as well as directly in U.S. invaded regions; U.S. war criminals running around free, plotting their return to power, while tens of thousands of U.S. citizens languish in horrible "privatized" prisons for minor drug offenses; even our vote counting has been privatized and removed from our view not just by private corporations but by ONE, far rightwing corporation (ES&S, which just bought out Diebold).

Devoted to democracy, equality, social justice and peace? These common aspirations of good government are barely in evidence in U.S. government policy and in our national political establishment, which resembles the Red Queen's regime in "Alice in Wonderland" more than it resembles a functioning democracy with decent aspirations.

On our tradition of democracy and on the aspirations of our people--not our corporate/war profiteer rulers--I will give the U.S. a 2. Maybe it is still salvageable (if we rally to get rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, for starters). Cuba gets a 5. And the U.S. gets a 2. And I am not alone in that judgement. That is how most of the world sees it as well. So why should they beat up on Cuba, on "human rights," and join a punitive, bullying, war-like embargo against that tiny, peaceful country, which manages to provide all of its people with food on the table, free health care and top notch educations?

This is what the New York Slimes does not tell you, in its "analysis" of these U.S. cables about Cuba. They present the U.S. point of view, that the only thing that matters is PROFIT ("economic motives") in other countries' relations with Cuba--that profit-seeking is the only reason that other countries would have normal relations with Cuba, without mentioning how screwed up that view is, in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Yes, "economic motives" certainly are one driver of most countries' policies but there is also the comaraderie of nations--the cooperation among nations to create a peaceful and decent world. That is what is lacking in U.S. motives, virtually everywhere you look, at home and abroad.

This Slimes article fails to provide even a hint of the CONTEXT for other countries' not cooperating with U.S. bullying and domination--and that is not journalism; it is propaganda. Even the title is prejudicial: "Cable Shows Nations Going Easy on Cuba." It is not Cuba that needs a hardline by the rest of the world on war, torture and ripping up international laws. The title should have been: "Cable Shows Nations' Contempt for the U.S. on Cuba."

[blindpig]

4. Diplomat? More like a 2nd rate propagandists.

Seems like people know what's really going on in Cuba, except the people of the United States.

Here is the value of Wikileaks, they show how readily and persistently we are lied to. Take nothing they tell us at face value.