January 25, 2007

No Signs of Tropical Trepidation in Havana

Cuba at the Crossroads?

By HOLGER W. HENKE

There is also no effort being made in this article to justify the imprisonment of journalists, writers, and activists who disagree with the government's imperatives and have the personal courage to openly profess their opposition. Such practices cannot easily be excused--even if one considers the fact that the United States has the highest per capita prison population in the world and still practices the death penalty, for which the country is almost universally criticized by international human rights bodies. But if the recent Florida execution of Angel Nieves Diaz (which took over half an hour to be conducted, obviously causing him physical pain) had occurred in Cuba, one wonders whether the public reaction against Havana would have been as understanding and accommodating as it was in Diaz's case.