The payment for kindness
From Argenpress
The complaints voiced by the former Cuban prisoners who arrived in Spain have irked Argenpress’ correspondent in Madrid, Jaime Richart. Below are excerpts from his column “Send Them Back to Cuba.”
MADRID – I read that the former Cuban prisoners who just arrived from Cuba say they were deceived by the Spanish government because “it has not honored the commitments it made before they left Cuba.” Sources at the Foreign Ministry refused to make any statements in this regard and simply said that they’re working on a regimen of protection for the former prisoners and their families. So much for the news.
What the government should do is return them to Cuba. Of course the government is to blame, because whose idea was it to bring over such a rabble? It was the idea of a government that […] pretends to be humanistic with gestures as foolish as this one, granting admission to militants who have committed crimes against Cuban socialism.
So now the questions are, what is the government trying to do by welcoming these prisoners that Cuba is getting rid of? And, what did these Cubans, imprisoned for their attempts against the political regime in their country, expect from this country?
The political action adopted by the Spanish government is as ridiculous and stupid as it is counterproductive for the very cause of the Socialist Workers Party. Spain does not welcome Cuban dissidents voluntarily, the way Miami does. But I don’t know what’s worse, to do that or to shelter released dissidents and then worry about keeping them happy. […]
No sooner do they arrive here and they’re already denouncing an alleged breach of promise by the government. Did they imagine that this country is a stream of freedom that floods the streets of its towns and cities? Well, here in Spain they’re getting a taste of capitalist democracy.
Shakespeare says that it’s not enough to lift the fallen man; you have to prop him up afterward. And keeping these troublemakers on their feet is going to be hairy. Most probably, they will become the government’s crab lice, after causing the Cuban government’s itch, and will tour the television and radio stations, displaying their miserable, rightist and repugnant condition until they leave this land. […]
Anyway, let the government prepare for the headaches these Cubans are going to create, as soon as they discover that Spain has as much freedom or lack of freedom as Cuba, and as soon as they learn that in our jails, too, there is a bunch of dissidents, even though this regime doesn’t call them that.
Here, they’re locked up for disturbing the public order, for contempt, for insults to the Crown or for being separatists. When it comes to the latter, the cause for imprisonment is something called “justification for terrorism.”
In sum, the best the government could do is either return them to Cuba for being unbearable and ungrateful, or catapult them to Miami as soon as possible, or shove them in prison here for refusal to adapt. Let’s see if they learn once and for all what political freedom means in any country.
http://www.argenpress.info/2010/07/que-los-devuelvan-cuba.html
