Human Trafficking in Castro's Cuba

[Sandokan]

Human Trafficking in Castro's Cuba
http://www.capitolhillcubans.com/2011/06/human-trafficking-in-castros-cuba.html

June 28, 2011
The State Department has just released its 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report.

Once again, Cuba received the lowest ranking (Tier 3), as a country that does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.Here's the Report's Cuba summary:

CUBA (Tier 3)

Cuba is a source country for adults and some children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Some Cuban medical professionals assigned to work abroad have claimed that their passports were retained as a means of keeping them in a state of exploitation, thus preventing them from traveling freely. Prostitution of children reportedly occurs in Cuba as prostitution is not criminalized for anyone above 16 years old. The scope of trafficking within Cuba is particularly difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse nongovernmental or independent reporting.

The Government of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government did not publicize information about government measures to address human trafficking through prosecution, protection, or prevention efforts during the reporting period.

Now here's a question for the Obama Administration:According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which mandates this Report, countries on Tier 3 may not receive funding for participation by officials or employees of such governments in educational and cultural exchange programs.

In light of the Administration's focus on educational and cultural exchanges with Castro's Cuba -- is this provision being adhered to?

Castros’ tyrannical regime has been ranked in the lowest tier of human trafficking by the U.S. State Department in their latest Trafficking in Persons report. But in reality the regime has been trafficking in humans since it took power in 1959, enslaving and selling its people to the highest bidders, in this case as force labor in sex trafficking.

 

[Grand Mal]

Castros’ tyrannical regime has been ranked in the lowest tier of human trafficking by the U.S. State Department in their latest Trafficking in Persons report. But in reality the regime has been trafficking in humans since it took power in 1959, enslaving and selling its people to the highest bidders, in this case as force labor in sex trafficking.

Cuba will get the lowest ranking from the State Dep't in any category, won't it.

"Cuba is a source country for adults and some children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking." What does this mean? Is the author saying Cuba exports forced labour and child prostitutes? That's a crock, for starters.

"Some Cuban medical professionals assigned to work abroad have claimed that their passports were retained as a means of keeping them in a state of exploitation, thus preventing them from traveling freely." Cuba exports graduating doctors' expertise to poorer nations. They train them in the use of what's available in their particular host nation in terms of drugs and herbs and whatnot. I'm not surprised they retain the passports of those new doctors- their education was free and the Cuban gov't might well consider that they need to do some service to justify their training.

" Prostitution of children reportedly occurs in Cuba as prostitution is not criminalized for anyone above 16 years old. The scope of trafficking within Cuba is particularly difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse nongovernmental or independent reporting."

"reportedly occurs"? This isn't journalism, never mind State Dep't intelligence.
Ya know, I've travelled a bit and when I was in Cuba I noticed there was no obvious street prostitution, unlike other Caribbean countries. I'm saying this report is crapola.

 

[Mr. Invisible]

Cuba will get the lowest ranking from the State Dep't in any category, won't it.

"Cuba is a source country for adults and some children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking." What does this mean? Is the author saying Cuba exports forced labour and child prostitutes? That's a crock, for starters.

"Some Cuban medical professionals assigned to work abroad have claimed that their passports were retained as a means of keeping them in a state of exploitation, thus preventing them from traveling freely." Cuba exports graduating doctors' expertise to poorer nations. They train them in the use of what's available in their particular host nation in terms of drugs and herbs and whatnot. I'm not surprised they retain the passports of those new doctors- their education was free and the Cuban gov't might well consider that they need to do some service to justify their training.

" Prostitution of children reportedly occurs in Cuba as prostitution is not criminalized for anyone above 16 years old. The scope of trafficking within Cuba is particularly difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse nongovernmental or independent reporting."

"reportedly occurs"? This isn't journalism, never mind State Dep't intelligence.
Ya know, I've travelled a bit and when I was in Cuba I noticed there was no obvious street prostitution, unlike other Caribbean countries. I'm saying this report is crapola.

The thing with Sandokan is that he will post stuff like this, but the fact of the matter is that he could care less about the people's suffering, as long as it lets him slam Castro.

 

[Sandokan]

The thing with Sandokan is that he will post stuff like this, but the fact of the matter is that he could care less about the people's suffering, as long as it lets him slam Castro.

The thing with Mr. Invisible is that he will defend the Castroit tyrannical regime no matter what. He couldn’t care less for the suffering of the Cuban people.

In a speech to the Cuban National Assembly in 1992 Fidel Castro said: “There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily, and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy…there is truly no prostitution healthier that Cuba’s…. “Cuban women become jineteras (prostitutes) because they like sex”.In 1993 Castro remarked that “thanks to socialism Cuban girls must make the cleanest and best-educated prostitutes in the world.” Fidel Castro is the main person responsible for the increased of prostitution, since in order to survive women need to trade in their bodies. It shows the outside world that socialism has failed.

 

[Mr. Invisible]

The thing with Mr. Invisible is that he will defend the Castroit tyrannical regime no matter what. He couldn’t care less for the suffering of the Cuban people.

In a speech to the Cuban National Assembly in 1992 Fidel Castro said: “There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily, and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy…there is truly no prostitution healthier that Cuba’s…. “Cuban women become jineteras (prostitutes) because they like sex”.In 1993 Castro remarked that “thanks to socialism Cuban girls must make the cleanest and best-educated prostitutes in the world.” Fidel Castro is the main person responsible for the increased of prostitution, since in order to survive women need to trade in their bodies. It shows the outside world that socialism has failed.

Would you like to show me where I defended the Castro regime?

 

[Sandokan]

The ECPAT Network is a group of international organizations that works directly with UNICEF to end child prostitution and pornography. ECPAT’s study, “Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism: Cuba” (http://www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/o_connell_1996__child_prost2.pdf) says, "In Cuba, the link between tourism and prostitution is perhaps more direct than in any other country that hosts sex tourists."

Tourism has created thousands of jobs in the sex trade. A higher ratio of tourists goes to Cuba nowadays for prostitution, instead of the beaches and climate, than any other country in the world. The number of children that are being sexually exploited, particularly below the age of 14, has increased noticeable.

 

[Sandokan]

The Revolution supposedly was done to eliminate prostitution, but instead, the number of prostitutes in Cuba now is tenfold higher that before 1959. The Revolution just brought to Cuba’s society more poverty, more deficits of food, clothing, increased the repression, the abuses, and took away the dignity and freedom of the people.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Castros’ tyrannical regime has been ranked in the lowest tier of human trafficking by the U.S. State Department in their latest Trafficking in Persons report. But in reality the regime has been trafficking in humans since it took power in 1959, enslaving and selling its people to the highest bidders, in this case as force labor in sex trafficking.

That's probably true - however: The scope of trafficking within Cuba is particularly difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse nongovernmental or independent reporting.

What they're doing is using a formula to calculate such things and that can only be done with given stats. If the stats are crumped -the results are crumped.

 

[Sandokan]

Who will be able to forget that in our country the Yankees imposed prostitution on 100,000 women?” Fidel Castro speech, July 26, 1972. “The prostitution in this country with a little more than 6 million people had 100 000 prostitutes.” Castro speech, September 28, 1977.

On February 14, 1958, El Mundo newspaper ran a feature that addressed the social problem of prostitution, estimating in 11,000 the number of people engaged in this type of activity, including not only the number of prostitutes but also the beneficiaries of their environment. This figure was confirmed approximately in various official publications of the regime like the Bohemia magazine that reported 12,000 in 1958, the newspaper Revolución in 1959 and some early documents of the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas dealing with the labor relocation of prostitutes. In 1984 the figure was also confirmed by a publication of the Editorial de Ciencias Sociales under the title “In the last year that republic.” Castro by an act of magic increased that number to a 100,000. These official publications figure puts Castro in the prisoners' dock for fraud and slanderer.

The larger number of tourists visiting Cuba before 1959 was 347,508 in 1957. By 2011 the number of tourists visiting Cuba reached 2,716,317 (ONE), close to an eightfold increased. In 1958 the Cuban population was 6.6 million, and in 2010 reached 11.24 million. There are enough tourists, and women between 15 to 45 years of age, for the number of people making a living from prostitution now to be estimate around 100,000, close to a tenfold increase. Castro, the Pimp in Chief, turned the island into the brothel of the Caribbean.

 

[Sandokan]

Before Fidel Castro rose to power in 1959, prostitutes were register by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which issued them a health card, without which they could not exert prostitution. There were zones of tolerance where the prostitutes could “work”, for example: the neighborhood of Colon, in the center of Havana. In 1958 there were about 10,000 prostitutes register by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Cuban prostitutes under the Castroit regime are force to sell their body for a pair of shoes, or for a good meal at a restaurant, a medicine for a child, etc. The Revolution supposedly was done to eliminate that kind of abuse, but instead, the number of prostitutes which Cuba has right now is tenfold higher that before 1959.

Tourism has created thousands of jobs in the sex trade. A higher ratio of tourists goes to Cuba nowadays for prostitution, instead of the beaches and climate, than any other country in the world, except fot Thailand. The number of children that are being sexually exploited, particularly below the age of 14, has increased noticeable.