Trucker_Joe

Who escaped, and what did they have to say?

The U.S. Coast Guard has documented interdicting 74,375 Cubans at sea from 1982 to 2015. Many more fled between 1959 and 1981. Haven't you ever heard of "Little Havana" Miami where thousands of Cuban exiles live? Are you that oblivious or just being obtuse on purpose? That's just the ones that try to escape to the US, they escape elsewhere too, that. That doesn't count the many that perished, killed or imprisoned on the attempt.

You know the Cuban government has killed people trying to escape? Sick fucking government.

"My father is a plumber, and I have four brothers and a sister. We are poor, like most Cubans. Our house in Havana has just one large room; 11 people live in it—or did. Food was scarce and strictly rationed. About the only fun I had was playing baseball and walking with Maria Esther along the seawall. When I turned 16, the government shipped me off to vocational school in Betancourt, a sugarcane village in Matanzas Province. There I was supposed to learn welding, but classes were often interrupted to send us off to plant cane."

"Young as I was, I was tired of liv­ing in a state that controlled every­one’s life. I dreamed of freedom. I wanted to become an artist and live in the United States, where I had an uncle. I knew that thousands of Cubans had got to America and done well there." - Armando Socarras Ramirez (escaped as a stowaway in a wheel-well a DC-8 and nearly froze to death, his 17 year old friend that was with him wasn't so fortunate and is thought to either have died or got locked up in a political prison for attempting escape)

https://www.rd.com/true-stories/survival/escape-from-cuba-dc-8/

How about Livan Hernandez the MLB pitcher who escaped Cuba. He talked about how he and other members of the Cuban national team would look forward to international road trips in order to collect soap, toilet paper and other amenities provided for free in their hotel rooms to bring back home to their families. He was only making $6-a-month salary in Cuba before making millions in the USA.

Go ahead and read some yourself or go talk with them yourself, the stories are all pretty consistent in talking about poverty, lack of freedom of expression, lack of opportunity, forced labor camps, political prisoners and executions, mass censorship, beatings, scarce food and basic amenities,

The US has corporate/private propaganda.

It's a free press in the USA that give multiple angles to stories, many outlets big and small. Cuba is a great example of that, a lot of MSM in the US actually try to sugarcoat the Castro's rule and horrible policies/actions. What I've said can be backed up by evidence, while Pollyannic views of Cuba post revolution are dangerously delusional. You're free to criticize the leaders of the USA in US press and even investigate, you can write opposing opinions to the mainstream politic. Try dissenting or writing critique of the Castros and Cuba while living there.

What exactly has Cuba specifically done that you find so offensive?

Would take more time than I'm willing to spend on you to be specific so I'll speak of it more broad: Violated people's human rights to free speech and expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of commerce, rights to own property, freedom of religion, rights to choose their leaders, rights to vote. Political killings and terrorism, political prisoners, stolen property and wealth, extrajudicial and arbitrary arrests, isolating themselves from the world economy making their people suffer.

Imagine USA imprisoning people that spoke bad about capitalism, Trump or organized political movements not approved by the state. Imagine not having a say in who governs you. You wouldn't like that very much huh?

Why would that many thousands of people risk their life and harsh long term imprisonment to attempt to escape a place like Cuba if it was a nice place to live. Get real.