Berlin and Havana
Peter's marvelous posts commemorating the anniversary of President Reagan's Berlin Wall speech give us all a chance to think about (and be thankful for) how far the cause of human freedom has advanced in just a few decades. This story from The Hill, however, is a bracing reminder of just how severe life can be in places where the struggle against tyranny has not yet played out to its conclusion:
A Cuban dissident who testified before Congress last week via video about repression by the island's communist regime has been arrested and “brutally beaten,” according to reports from the U.S.-based Cuban exile community.
Pro-democracy leader Jorge Luis García Pérez "Antúnez" was “arrested on Saturday afternoon, brutally beaten, doused with pepper spray until unconscious and violently removed from his cell by the authorities that evening,” his wife told Miami-based Radio Republica, according to the website Capitol Hill Cubans. Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera reportedly has not heard from him since.
Thoughts and prayers to the Cuban people. And may freedom come sooner rather than later to the tropical gulag.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Berlin and Havana
Troy,
I can say that it would please me no end if Romney picked Rubio and Marco helped preside over the end of Communism in Cuba.
What a beautiful dream!
Regards,
Jim
Mar '12
Re: Berlin and Havana
Well said, Troy.
Feb '12
Re: Berlin and Havana
Unfortunately, most of the former Soviet Union drifted back to tyranny. Of 15 republics just 4 (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Georgia) are in the top 100 according to Transparency International. Whether it's Soviet-style Belarus, Presidency-for-life in Uzbekistan, or Gangster capitalism of Russia - over 90 per cent of Soviet population do not enjoy the freedom that the fall of Berlin Wall was supposed to usher...
Re: Berlin and Havana
Well, you can't make an omelette without breaking some legs. At least the people of Cuba have a high literacy rate, so even though they won't read about that case in Gramna, if they could, they'd understand it all.
In related news:
May '12
Re: Berlin and Havana
Virshu, perhaps you're right, but there's also the rest of Eastern Europe to consider. "We" (I'm from Eastern Europe) certainly gained a lot. So did the Russians and the rest of former Soviet Republics, even if not as much as we would have liked on the political side (there's also economic freedom, on which they have advanced considerably, even in dictatorships like Belarus)