Tragedy is an African child dying from an easily curable disease. Tragedy is Afghan men women and children dying as a consequence of a brutal occupation which serves only to profit from the resources and general de-stabilisation of the region. Tragedy is that Cuba has been for decades blockaded by the 'civilised' West who have declared war on a tiny island for the soul reason that it no longer serves U.S interests (as did the previous Tragic regime of Batista) and is a ray of hope for millions of impoverished Latin Americans.

Tragedy is that the fucking two faced provocateurs of Amnesty International are taken seriously by a large section of the Western World who pretend to have a conscience.

Get some perspective. Look at those dying in and out of your country as a direct result of your countries brutal policies. I think ul find the figures are unmatchable.

Totally agree! Those sad-ass so-called political prisoners should stay behind bars in Cuba....coz they are working for US interests and would love to see the yanks back in control of Cuba. They are probably backed and funded by the yanks...or doing it for the money or other crimes. Bastards like them with the backing of the whining support by Am.international, are best of where they are, behind bars, because given the chance they would restore US domination over the island, violate its independence and sovereignty, restore capitialist relations dictated by the Yanks and drive the people back to slavery. Yea, and if Cuba has its own problems that need sorting,(largely due to the yank blockade against Cuba, then its up to the Cubans to sort it and not the fascist yanks and their puppet agents Amnesty International.

I'm not sure why the two posters above have reacted so violently, but regarding their comments on Amnesty International, I wasn't aware that it was some sort of agent of the West or the US in particular. On that basis, one can only assume that Amnesty's criticisms of Cuba and its oppression of opposition parties (apparently funded so effectively by the US that people are willing to starve themselves to death) is probably true.

It's just highly amusing that such a well respected organisation fails to spot the mass murder that is committed by the so called first world and is able to mention every single death in custody in the 'third world'. Of course it needn't assess deaths in custody within the UK as we already have the very impartial and fair IPCC which does a terrific job at that.

Organisations such as Amnesty should not be given the time of day.

P.S

I never said the man that died was an agent I merely pointed out that Amnesty's attempt to selectively demonize specific states whilst ignoring others (UK/US) which are directly responsible for the deaths of far more people is at least suspect.

50 years of oppression, torture and murder. You dictator appologists should be ashamed of yourselves!

"50 years of oppression, torture and murder. You dictator appologists should be ashamed of yourselves!"

Presumably as an anarchist you're against all states?

You're posting on a website which is openly against the bias of the press, including its lopsided reporting of Cuba.

You can froth at the mouth all you like about Cuba, just like millions of right wing Americans do every day and it will make no difference whatsoever. Any activist in a campaign being directly financed by the Iranian or Cuban states in the US could expect what exactly?

It is no secret that the US state finances opposition groups in Cuba, and its not really for a love of democracy, is it?

I doubt any anarchists are Castro lovers. So what is your beef exactly?

As to the article, its a copy and paste from the BBC with a bit of liberal tosh about Amnesty International added on at the beginning and end. I'm sure its a fair and accurate report by a journalist who really cares about the issue.......

"It's just highly amusing that such a well respected organisation fails to spot the mass murder that is committed by the so called first world and is able to mention every single death in custody in the 'third world'. Of course it needn't assess deaths in custody within the UK as we already have the very impartial and fair IPCC which does a terrific job at that".

Amnesty frequently condemns the human rights abuses of the UK (and USA for that matter - especially the death penalty and Guantanamo).

Because of the way Amnesty works where Amnesty UK and groups in the UK do not comment or campaign about abuses here (except in the case of Asylum Seekers), but do comment and campaign on countries overseas - you won't see AI reports about UK abuses on the AIUK website.

This is not the case in other AI countries though. Other countries around the world are campaigning against UK human rights abuses - although you won't see any evidence of this in the mainstream media!!

Amnesty has the reputation of upsetting right wing governments and being called "communist", they are not liked by left wing governments are called fascist, Iran calls AI campaigners lackeys of the USA and when AI activists criticise the USA over they way treat Muslims theior government accuses AI of sucking up to Iran / Iraq or whatever.

It is better to upset all these governments and carry on the grassroots work of trying help people being abused by their governments than to keep everyone sweet and do nothing.

Peace with Justice

Cuba is a brutal state. On the other hand, its people are better off in many respects than most in third world countries. In many countries that are US allies in the region, it is quite likely that such a dissident would have been murdered by the state years ago. By contrast, this guy decided to starve himself to death. However this won't stop right wingers having a field day, for example a raving lunatic called Brett who writes for the ultra-Zionist, islamophobic neocon blog Harry's Place has exploited Tamayo's death to slag off Amnesty International, anarchists, the left, Indymedia, Moazzam Begg and and and.

What a nutter!

 http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/02/24/amnesty-prisoner-of-conscience-dies/#comment-451731

Just because Cuba is hated by capitalist states like the US and has some good points doesn't mean we should worship it unconditionally. It is still an authoritarian state.

I've no idea if this guy was pro-capitalist, a US stooge or just anti-authoritarian, but it still looks pretty bad how Cuba oppresses people, even if they do have a fine health system, etc.

Are the commenters here the same ones that pop up brown-nosing the North Korean regime?

Yes, its amazing how fast people forget what Saddam Hussein, Chemical Ali and all the other cronies did in Iraq. Twisting it to make it look like the US and the UKs fault that all those hostages that had their thoats cut on video.

Completely irrational.

Ex what you on about? If you recall, Saddam and 'Chemical' Ali were US/UK allies during the invasion of Iran and the reprisal attacks on the population of the north of Iraq with chemical weapons. Chemical weapons which I must add were provided to them primarily by the US and UK. Hopefully you will regain your long term memory soon ex.