Indexes which monitor political freedoms, such as Freedom House’s Freedom in the World, Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, and Polity IV, consistently give Cuba the worst scores in the Americas and label it the only dictatorship in the hemisphere. Western-based journalists, as well as the US government, give it exceptional priority for criticism for political repression.

Nonetheless, many material detriments to political freedom are most severe in other Latin American countries. Politically-motivated murders that involve state forces claim hundreds, if not thousands, of victims a year across Latin America; none of which take place in Cuba, as the last politically-related execution took place decades ago.

If Western journalists, politicians, media outlets, and NGOs are interested in decrying political violence and protecting activists, their obsession with Cuba is misplaced. Furthermore, the lingering Cold War tradition of prioritizing criticism of communist states while disregarding crimes committed by capitalist or US-backed governments contributes to a focus on Cuba as well.

Repression in Cuba

Each year, the reported number of arbitrary detentions in Cuba reaches a few thousand, though the exact number of which are committed for political reasons is unknown [1]. Most detainees are released the same day they are detained, with some released a couple days afterwards. Though it’s common for Cubans to freely criticize specific governmental policies, detention may occur if an individual is suspected of opposing fundamental government principles or supporting the overthrow of the government [2].

There are varying estimates of political prisoners in Cuba, though the estimates range between 50 and 200. Human Rights Watch says there are “dozens” of persons in jail for their political views [1]. Politifact compiled an extensive list of names from multiple monitoring groups, ultimately identifying 97 political prisoners [4][5]. A Cuban dissident group reports 60 “prisoners of conscience,” and over 100 before the government released 50 political prisoners ahead of Obama’s 2014 visit [6].

There are no prisoners on death row in Cuba. The last executions in Cuba took place in 2003 against 3 men convicted of hijacking. The last executions to take place for politically-related activities is unknown, but likely was well before 2003 [7].

Colombia

Some human rights groups claim there are “hundreds” of political prisoners in Colombian jails [8], while others go as high as 22,000 [9]. Colombia is consistently described as the most dangerous place to be a labor union leader [10], as 2,500 trade union leaders have been murdered mostly by right-wing paramilitaries in the past 20 years [11]. While the Colombian government condemns paramilitary violence verbally, many officials are accused of supporting their activities. Twenty members of Congress, Colombia’s highest law-making body, were convicted of collaborating with paramilitaries, and another 150 were suspected of other ties [12]. Furthermore, local officials usually refuse to investigate trade union murders. Only 25% ever get investigated [12] and only 2% of investigations result in convictions [11].

The Colombian police and military themselves have also been involved in extensive violence. Human Rights Watch says the Colombian military frequently executes civilians suspected of sympathizing with rebels, and report the dead as “combatants.” Currently, such extrajudicial killings involving up to 2,300 victims are being investigated [12].

Honduras

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that 43 journalists have been murdered from 2010 to 2014, of which only 12 cases have been brought to trial. During the same 4-year period, 86 lawyers and 22 human rights defenders were killed [13].

As many multinational agricultural corporations buy Honduran land, many small-scale farmer organizations have opposed their expansion. Over 90 political leaders involved in farmers’ organizations have been murdered, most presumably by private security forces backed by the corporations. The government by law supports the companies’ right to claim land and the vast majority of such murders are not investigated.

Mexico

103 journalists were killed in Mexico between 2010 and 2014. Torture is rampant in state prisons, with thousands of alleged instances every year. The state is notorious for participating in massacres. 22 civilians were executed by government forces in the Tlatlaya massacre in 2014, and 43 civilians were killed in the infamous Ayotzinapa massacre with governmental collaboration.

Conclusion

What do these set of facts tell us, and how can we compare the “political repression” of Cuba to other Latin American states?

Political atrocities which stem from “corruption” are seen as mere aberrations in political systems which are theoretically free, and these crimes are often absolved by Western observers. For example, Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras, all three US allies, are supposedly electoral democracies where journalists, activists, and political organizations de jure have the right to free association and expression. In reality, the state has not only facilitated the murder of protesters and journalists committed by cartels, paramilitaries, or private assassins, but the police and army commit their own massacres as well. Politicians, prosecutors, and judges with ties to those responsible encourage such violence through negligent pursuit of the perpetrators, and even tacit support for them. Cuban state security is highly centralized, so the perpetrator of any abuse is more clearly identifiable; it is not an abstract concept such as “corruption” with invisible actors and hidden motives, but a system of control deliberately guided by laws and political figures. Mexico, Honduras, Colombia are, therefore, referred to as simply “corrupt” and much less commonly “repressive.”

This conception fails to recognize that corruption can be repressive: that government collaboration with paramilitaries or private assassins is necessarily an incorporation of their activities into the operations and orientation of the state. It also relies on the premise that material repression is less significant than intention of the state. Mexican President Pena Nieto surely wouldn’t say he “intends” to run a state that silences dissent. Yet, his government commits and is complicit in far greater amounts of political violence than the Cuban regime in almost every regard: imprisonment, torture, and murder. Furthermore, while there are up to 100 political prisoners in Cuba, there are currently 150 in Colombia from just one labor union, and likely several hundred or thousands in jail for other political reasons. While Honduras has seen hundreds of activists and journalists murdered, Cuba’s repression consists of merely short-term detention. While torture in Mexico is too common to quantify, reports of the practice are sporadic and unreliable in Cuba.

Lastly, the method by which NGOs measure “political freedom” inherently gives greater attention to intended systemic repression rather than supposed “unintended” corruption-inspired repression. To activists who face the possibility of murder or torture, the distinction is probably unimportant. Therefore, despite claims to neutrality, index methodology ironically distracts attention from activists who face the most urgent human rights situations.

As many social theorists worldwide have pointed out, academic discourse coming from NGOs, think tanks, and scholars has the potential to be subversive of dominant patterns of thought, but can often unintentionally justify and reinforce their own society’s biases. The Western world has been thoroughly inundated with anti-communist propaganda for about a century, and has been trained to ignore Western-inspired human rights abuses. Scores which claim to investigate and measure “democracy” unsurprisingly produce results reflecting such propaganda by focusing on communist-led Cuba, while far greater human rights violations are ongoing in neighboring capitalist states.

Citations

[1] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/cuba

[2] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/20/cuba-dissidents-protesters-arrested-president-obama-visit/82048950/

[3] https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/cuba/report-cuba/

[4] http://www.politifact.com/global-news/statements/2016/mar/22/raul-castro/are-there-political-prisoners-cuba/

[5] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1siaMh6GyGPhakic7SyYPn27akKyF6l1BEX4fuCmqgDA/edit#gid=0:

[6] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-prisoners-idUSKBN0OZ26H20150619

[7] http://www.handsoffcain.info/bancadati/schedastato.php?idcontinente=21&nome=cuba

[8] http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/campaigns/prisoners/

[9]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Political-Prisoners-Human-Rights-in-Colombia-Are-Being-Ignored-20150203-0035.html

[10] http://www.ituc-csi.org/worldwide-survey-repression-of.html

[11] http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/campaigns/union-rights/

[12] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2011/country-chapters/colombia

[13] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/honduras