Commentary By Felicia Persaud/CWNN Editorial Team
WASHINGTON, D.C (CaribWorldNews,) - The U.S. government has wasted no time in condemning alleged assaults on Cuban bloggers Yoani Sanchez, Orlando Luis Pardo and Claudia Cadelo.
Yet there remains silence from the administration on the gruesome torture of a minor teen in the South American nation of Guyana.
The silence is deafening and tells volumes of whose rights are more important to the U.S. administration. From where we sit, it seems the Barack Obama administration is more willing to play politics than have real concern for the human rights of all citizens of the world.
`We call on the Government of Cuba to ensure the full respect of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens,` the U.S. State Department said Monday, just days after reports surfaced that the Cuban bloggers `were forcibly detained by plain clothes security personnel and beaten while en route to a peaceful demonstration in Havana` on November 6th.
The Department also insists it is following up on the personal well being of the three and on their medical condition.
Meanwhile, in Guyana, a 14-year-old boy remains hospitalized with the most horrific injuries suffered at the hands of bullying cops who now seem to consider themselves judge, jury and executioner in Guyana. A child burnt so badly it causes one’s stomach to turn. A child burnt so badly yet left for days in a prison cell without any medical attention.
The investigation is still ongoing into the reasons why two cops allegedly use mentholated spirits and lit fire to the boy`s genital as they tried to coerce a confession over a murder in his neighborhood. But whatever the sick reason behind this behavior, it must be condemned at all quarters.
But there has been no similar outrage expressed by the U.S. on this matter. Why? Maybe because it is the same biased politics as usual that allows for Cubans under the controversial wet foot, dry land policy to be given asylum in the U.S. but Haitians to be immediately sent back without even recourse for Temporary Protected Status.
Guyanese voters and especially those who worked on the Obama campaign should be outraged and let the State Department and the White House know their feelings. It cannot be politics as usual. Concern for human rights must not extend to one group but to all citizens of the world. The police brutality used by the Guyana cops towards an apparent innocent minor must be condemned on all fronts, especially by the State Department, which has seen it fit to condemn lesser acts in Cuba.
It cannot be business and politicking as usual.
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