Cuba can't match the bodycount of Colombia: 19,000 deaths a year, and that's just the
official killings claimed/boasted by the army from 2002 - 2008. Colombia's government if anything is more Authoritarian than Cuba, far more likely to kill it's critics (those figures do not count people killed by the death squads, sources such as Washington Post claim that 70+% of violent deaths in Colombia were by the right-wing Death Squads over 40 years). Cuba's got major issues but at least they don't have rampant death squads running around.
Colombia is a democracy on paper, but opposition politicians are more or less guaranteed to be assassinated if they have any chance of winning.
Also the number of trade union members murdered each year in Colombia is greater than the rest of the world combined. This has been the case for at least the last 20 years, probably much longer.
EDIT: felt like linking a couple of death squad related links. To show whats happening
right now.http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,COL,,4dc2b53228,0.html"Black Eagles", Paramilitary group, Colombia
The extreme right-wing militias called the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which were created to help the army fight the extreme left-wing guerrillas, are far from being disarmed. According to official figures, a major programme for dismantling the AUC from 2003 to 2006 resulted in the demobilisation of 30,000 of its fighters in exchange for a broad amnesty. Most of them have turned to contract killing and drug trafficking, but between 5,000 and 8,000 reportedly regrouped in about 20 bands that resumed paramilitary activities in 12 departments.
The most feared of these armed groups, the "Black Eagles," continues to impose a reign of terror, killing journalists or forcing them to censor themselves or flee the country. This armed group has been responsible for many cases of intimidation and violence against the press in the Caribbean coastal region since late 2006. The danger it poses has since extended throughout the country and its targets include journalists who criticize the so-called "democratic security" policies launched by President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and still in force.
http://en.rsf.org/colombia-black-eagles-step-up-threats-21-03-2011,39834.htmlReporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of a new message from the “central column” of the Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) paramilitary group voicing threats against journalists, civil society figures and NGOs.
Dated 14 March and sent from a Gmail account in the name of “fenixaguilasnegras,” the message promises the “extermination” and “purge” of a wide range of organizations, including women’s groups, peasant and Afro-Colombian associations and human rights NGOs, many of whose representatives or members have been the victims of paramilitary terror in the past.
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Topic: Chill and Relaxed Progressive Irritation and Annoyance Thread (Read 878679 times)