# Cuba and human rights **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuba-and-human-rights/135000 "2002-11-02T14:40:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuba-and-human-rights/135000/1 "2002-11-02T14:40:17Z")
Please could someone point me in the direction of some decent sources regarding Cuba’s human rights record? I was hauled up by a friend last night for drinking Bacardi Breezer because apparently it is an ‘ideologically impure’ drink (in fact her main point was that it’s a girl’s drink and I should have been drinking lager instead, but that’s another issue :)). That got us into the whole “Cuba is a socialist paradise being crushed by the US” vs. “Cuba is a totalitarian state no better than the rest” debate but despite a happy half-hour hurling insults at each other we didn’t really get anywhere. I have had a look through the Straightdope boards archive and a scout around Google, but apparently (according to my friend) much of the online information available is produced by anti-Castro groups and is not exactly unbiased. From my observations, so too is the pro-Cuba information (tends to be written by lefties?). For example, I had a look at [a report by Amnesty International](http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/AMR250022002), but even they begin by saying that > [@](#): > > Amnesty International today released a report reviewing the human rights situation in the country, where a number of fundamental rights continue to be denied **against the backdrop of the United States’ economic embargo**. which immediately makes it look like they have a political axe to grind as well. Also, many of the sources they quote are their own reports so again I’m not convinced they will provide a properly balanced view. Are there any reputable, scholarly studies that I could read to aquaint myself with the situation properly, but which present the cases for and against without excessive ideological posturing ? I’m sure it’s not as black and white as it seems from lots of the sources I’ve read so far… Thanks, – Quirm ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuba-and-human-rights/135000/2 "2002-11-02T19:29:29Z")
No, I’m reading that AI statement as, “Many of these human rights violations can be blamed on the economic hardships imposed by the U.S. trade embargo”. Overall, I think AI is a balanced source for human rights info. But there are other groups out there. Human Rights Watch, main page. Search for “cuba” for more stuff. [http://www.hrw.org/](http://www.hrw.org/) Their 1999 report on Cuba. [http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/](http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/) Their 2000 report. [http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/americas/cuba.html](http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/americas/cuba.html) The U.S. State Department 2001 report on Cuba and human rights. [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/wha/8333.htm](http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/wha/8333.htm) The UN Human Rights Commission. Search for “cuba”. [http://www.unhchr.ch/](http://www.unhchr.ch/) The “just plain” UN Human Rights. Ditto. [http://www.un.org/rights/index.html](http://www.un.org/rights/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuba-and-human-rights/135000/3 "2002-11-03T02:09:24Z")
[This](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat6.htm#Cuba59) provides a compilation from a host of sources about democides in Cuba. The general consensus appears to show that somewhere between 5,000 and 12,000 people have been murdered by Castro’s regime. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2002, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuba-and-human-rights/135000/4 "2002-11-03T10:21:07Z")
Thank you both, I shall start reading 🙂