Human Rights Day: Handshake in South Africa, Repression in Cuba
There’s been no shortage of coverage (and speculation) regarding U.S. President Barack Obama’s handshake with Cuban dictator Raul Castro during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
We believe this encounter was unfortunate and untimely — albeit inconsequential.
It was unfortunate and untimely, as simultaneously in Cuba, democracy activists were being brutally repressed for trying to commemorate International Human Rights Day (December 10th).On the eve of International Human Rights Day alone, there were over 130 peaceful activists beaten and arrested by the Castro regime.
Today, over 60 members of the pro-democracy group, The Ladies in White, have been arrested throughout the island.
Additionally, dozens of other democracy activists are currently missing or imprisoned.
Information is slowly trickling out, as the Castro regime has disconnected the cellphones of independent journalists, bloggers and other human rights observers.
But the handshake is over and The White House has itself dismissed it as inconsequential.
So how about focusing coverage on the repressed?
For International Human Rights Day.Here are some images of dissidents being dragged away by Castro’s secret police today:
2 thoughts on “Human Rights Day: Handshake in South Africa, Repression in Cuba”
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Of course. Capitol Hill Cubans treated Mandela’s hypocrisy as inconsequential, which makes this handshake no worse than an optical illusion. I mean, how could this gesture possibly mean anything in terms of Obama’s character and his concept of the Cuba situation? Only “those people” would fixate on something so trivial (you know, like Mandela’s blatant, uh, inconsistency).