<<I'm also amused by the hypocrisy of people who will justify Castro's use of political prisons and torture as ok, because it "supports the revolution." I've seen it before around here...>>
That's funny because I'm amused by the sophistry of people who will try to conflate Castro's alleged political prisons with his alleged use of torture, as if the issues were one and the same.
For the record, IF Castro used torture in the defence of the Revolution, it would be wrong. I don't know of a single poster in this group who ever approved of torture, even by Castro's government, even in the defence of the Revolution. Nobody. That's just one more example of the lies and hypocrisy of the lunatic right, which we should all be used to by now.
I don't believe that there is torture in the Cuban system. ALL Cuban prisons are probably more at the "hell-hole" end of the prison scale than the air-conditioned, wired-for-TV hotels with bars that the U.S. is pleased to call its prison system, but enemies of the Revolution, IMHO, do not deserve air-conditioning, TV or other amenities of life paid for on the backs of the peasants and workers of Revolutionary Cuba. Most if not all of the accusations of torture in Cuban prisons can be traced back to Armando Valladares, a lying sack of gusano shit who has spent a virtual lifetime as an enemy of the people and will do or say anything to try to attack Fidel and diminsh his reputation. The Revolution will shoot enemies of the people, but it will not torture them.
As far as political prisoners are concerned, that is total myth. Another lie. Each and every one of the so-called Cuban "political prisoners" was jailed for acts of espionage or for taking money from Americans to further their own counterrevolutionary activities. These are legitimate crimes in ANY political system.