Re: Prostitution in Cuba

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>]

Who is Armando Diego and why does he
say all these terrible things about Cuba?

>From what he writes, he hasn't visited.

1- US policy to overthrow the Revolution
isn't an "embargo", the sweet-sounding
term Washington uses for its decades-
long campaign to return capitalism to
the Pearl of the Caribbean.

It's a blockade, an act of war as shown
by the fact that Cuba is the only country
on the planet with a piece of national
territory militarily occuped by a hostile
foreign power determined to overthrow
the Cuban government.

2- The question of prostitution is only a
"big question" because US propaganda
has made it one. Compared to Panama
and Colombia, where it's legal, there is
virtually no prostitution at all in Cuba.

As in all countries on the planet through
all of human history. People who have
more money can and do get people
who have less money to have sex with
them. This problem is neither unique to
Cuba, nor is it a massive problem here.

3- There are no "special police", no
"tourist police".  Trust me, there ARE
lots of cops here in Cuba. And there are
cops in the tourist areas, but they are the
regular, everyday, garden variety PNR,
the National Revolutionary Police.

4-It's a lie that Cubans aren't allowed into
the hotels or bars where hard currency is
accessible. This proves you haven't been
to Cuba. All of the major hotels and bars
are accessible to Cubans, and Cubans
use them. However, Cubans are not let
into the hotel rooms. This is justified on
the basis of prevention of prostitution.

Yes, some Cubans are sometimes not
treated politely or hassled when they
try to enter some of these places, but
the opposite also happens. There isn't
a uniform pattern with this. The fact that
you only see one side, the negative side,
just like the US capitalist press, tells us
you are operating with a schema against
the Cuban Revolution and against the
Cuban government.

5- Cuban cops sometimes DO hassle
some Cubans who hustle foreigners so
That can't be denied. Sometimes this is
a pain in the ass, sometimes it helps to
protect the foreigners who are, indeed,
hustled, sometimes quite aggressively.

6- The principal reason the Cubans do
not want another Mariel is because the
US has stated emphatically that it would
consider it to be a threat to US "national
security" with all of the power which the
US has shown it can muster. Cuba has
determined it will to everything that it
can to deny Washington any excuse.

7- A surprisingly large number of those
who left in the Marial boatlift have since
changed their mind and now return to
the island regularly and have become
supporters of the Revolution. They left
for economic reasons, not because of
having lost personal property due to
the revolution. Cubans from the US
are, in fact, the largest number of US
citizens or residents who break the
travel ban.

8- Would I be correct to wonder if
Armand Diego holds the old Trotskyist
view that Cuba is a deformed workers
state which need a political revolution
led by a Trotskyist party to give it what
he, Diego, presumably thinks it needs?


Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba

----- Original Message -----
From: "Armand Diego" <causebellum@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: Prostitution in Cuba