How does cuba treat its people

Foreign tourism investors are seizing every opportunity to open hotels. Every year, 3. Spanish, French, Canadian and UK firms have already purchased land.

American chains such as Hilton and Marriott are likely ready to pounce on Cuba as an investment destination; however, the US and Cuba have yet to fully patch up their relationship. American firms are still not allowed to enter Cuba. This gives companies in other countries a chance to enter the Cuban market, which is why the US is working quickly on resolving their issues with Cuba. Massive cruises are routing through Havana.

The Tallapiedra Electric plant is being renovated and will have a gallery similar to the Tate Modern in London, and the Nico Lopez Refinery is slated to be made into a science center. Foreign companies are competing for a share of the Cuban market. Cubans living abroad who want to invest in the country are sending money to their families in Cuba to make investments and purchase property.

The locals who are already involved in the tourism sector are aware of future opportunities. The money has started flowing to both the government and the people. Change is inevitable. After 50 years of not being able to leave the country with a few exceptions, such as academics and artists , the government lifted the ban in The flavors in the movie stood for different sexual preferences: for example, someone who bought only strawberry ice cream was signaling that they wanted to meet only gay men.

In his later years, also Fidel began to soften his tone. So Cuba today is more tolerant than it was in the past. Internet — Access to the internet continues to be extremely limited in Cuba today.

There is no internet in houses; it is only available in some public squares. Even in the sprawling metropolis that is Havana, there are only 5 parks where you can purchase internet access. Moreover, internet costs are high; it costs 1.

Even when you can find internet and pay for it, your exposure is limited because it is too slow to watch something or to make a call on WhatsApp. Your GSM mobile operator will provide internet services to you as a foreigner, but not to Cubans. There are a couple reasons for having a Revolution Committee in every neighborhood in Cuba today: To provide support for the elderly, to put together entertainment activities and street parties, to assist with anything related to security and to monitor any activity against the revolution.

Six citizens who wanted to flee Cuba drove a car through the gates of the embassy of Peru, killing a Cuban guard in the process. After hearing that Peru refused to give up these 6 asylum seekers, Fidel removed the Cuban police from the Peru Embassy and announced that Cuba will be withdrawing its security forces from embassies and consulates refusing to cooperate with Cuba. It was a strategic mistake.

Now that there were no gatekeepers, thousands of Cubans who wanted to apply for asylum fled to the Peruvian embassy in a matter of a couple of days. Upon hearing the news that so many people wanted to leave the country, Castro announced that anyone who wanted to leave through the Mariel port was free to do so.

The US announced it would be welcoming Cuban refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans showed up to flee the country. The crisis was getting bigger and bigger. Each departure encouraged others to leave too. The US took in , Cuban political refugees during this time. Fidel had a plan in mind to make the US stop taking Cubans. He began sending criminals and people with mental health problems from prisons, and the US had no other choice but to close its borders.

On the other hand, Cubans overall feel a great amount of admiration for figures such as Fidel Castro — as well as his comrades Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and Camillo Cienfuegos — and regard them as founding fathers of the country.

When Fidel passed away in , the entire country went into a state of mourning. Fidel continued to be president until , 49 years of popular rule. It is one thing that has really affected life in Cuba overall. Here is a summary of some of the advancements Cuba has made in education:. Like education, health care is also free of charge. Cuba is able to train doctors really well. In Cuba today, there are doctors and 94 dentists per , people.

Compare this to America, which has doctors and 54 dentists per , people. However, another problem is the lack of infrastructure and medicine, which is largely due to the American embargo. Cuban hospitals now have treatments for some specific illness like lung cancer. A lot of people from all around the world come to Cuba for treatment. Because of the shortages of houses, usually three generations of a family share one house. Some houses are huge, and some are like tiny boxes. It makes one wonder how the government decides to distribute houses to families.

The state provides monthly assistance to Cubans for basic foodstuffs like rice, milk and meat. The state created diet templates based on age and condition of health, and hands out rations according to nutritional needs. There are stores like the one in the picture, but they only have a maximum of types of product. None of the products are packaged, they come in bulk. Shopkeepers will weigh before selling it to you.

The prices are subsidied by the government to make them affordable to its citizens. When the Spanish brought over Africans for enslavement in Cuba, they had tried to convert them all to Catholicism.

When Nigerians were brought to Cuba, they also brought with them their Yoruba faith which has multiple gods. The Spanish forced slaves to become baptized and converted them to Christians, banning Yoruba in the process.

Many of the slaves wanted to make it seem like they were following Spanish orders, and so they combined Christian saints and icons with Yoruba gods, and began praying to them. As an example, they would make it seem as if they were praying to John the Baptist, but they would really be talking to Yoruba god of wind.

Hundreds of years later, these two beliefs melded into one and became Santeria. Santeria combines ritual dancing with Christian iconography under one roof. All real estate belonged to the government. The government provided all sorts of services for free. When it comes to putting a price tag on different products and services, Cubans are a little inconsistent.

For us, the price of renting a bike for the day was 5 euro, while renting a snorkel was 15 euro. Interestingly, this is also the case in the property market.

No one really knows how much anything costs, so they just name a price and see if it sticks. In Cuba today, companies operate with a laid-back mentality that might not always be ideal for some fellow travelers. But such is life in Cuba. The transportation system and companies that rent vehicles are largely monopolized by the state. Officials at these businesses have an interesting attitude when it comes to working.

There was no one to be found from 12 pm to 4 pm when we attempted to rent a motorcycle from the rental place, even though the sign on the door said it was open until 5.

Our bus was at 3. Should we miss the bus or get on the bus without getting our deposit back? Where should we leave the keys? Sometimes the buses come to the bus stop an hour early and leave without waiting for passengers who have tickets.

This is a substantial improvement compared to 40 years ago when there were 46 deaths per 1, children. This strong healthcare system is a great success for the country and brings a higher quality of life to its citizens.

Labor Rights — Cuba possesses a corrupt labor climate. As the largest employer in the country , the government has immense control over labor and the economy.

The state is able to dismiss employees at will. Political Prisoners — The Cuban government has wrongfully imprisoned several political dissidents. For instance, Dr. In addition, a family was sentenced to prison for leaving their home during the state-mandated mourning period for Fidel Castro. The government continues to use other repressive tactics against critics, including beatings, public shaming, travel restrictions, and termination of employment. In February, a new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba was approved in a referendum, which entered into force in April.

Prior to the referendum, authorities repressed activists opposing its adoption, including through raids and short detentions, and blocked several news sites seen as critical of the regime.

The Cuban government continues to employ arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate critics, independent activists, political opponents, and others. The number of arbitrary short-term detentions, which increased dramatically between and —from a monthly average of incidents to —started to drop in , according to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent human rights group that the government considers illegal.

The number of reports of arbitrary detentions continued to drop in , with 1, from January through August, a decrease of 10 percent compared to the 2, reports during the same period in Security officers rarely present arrest orders to justify detaining critics.

Detention is often used to prevent people from participating in peaceful marches or meetings to discuss politics. Detainees are often beaten, threatened, and held incommunicado for hours or days. Police or state security agents routinely harass, rough up, and detain members of the Ladies in White Damas de Blanco —a group founded by the wives, mothers, and daughters of political prisoners—before or after they attend Sunday mass.

The protest supported the Ladies in White and other persecuted groups, and rejected the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the Cuban government and the European Union. It coincided with a high level European delegation visit to Cuba. The government controls virtually all media outlets in Cuba and restricts access to outside information.

A small number of independent journalists and bloggers manage to write articles for websites or blogs, or publish tweets. The government routinely blocks access within Cuba to these websites. In February, before the referendum on the new constitution, it blocked several news sites seen as critical of the regime, including 14ymedio, Tremenda Nota, Cibercuba, Diario de Cuba and Cubanet.

Since then, it has continued to block other websites. Only a fraction of Cubans can read independent websites and blogs because of the high cost of, and limited access to, the internet. In , Cuba announced it would gradually extend home internet services.

Since reforms in , many people who had previously been denied permission to travel have been able to do so, including human rights defenders and independent bloggers. The government restricts the movement of citizens within Cuba through a law, Decree , designed to limit migration from other provinces to Havana.

The decree has been used to harass dissidents and prevent people from traveling to Havana to attend meetings.

In November , authorities told journalist Camila Acosta that she was not allowed to leave the country. An immigration official stopped her when she was trying to board a plane for a human rights event in Argentina. Prisons are often overcrowded. Prisoners are forced to work hour days and are punished if they do not meet production quotas, former political prisoners report. Detainees have no effective complaint mechanism to seek redress for abuses.

Those who criticize the government or engage in hunger strikes and other forms of protest often endure extended solitary confinement, beatings, restriction of family visits, and denial of medical care. While the government allowed select members of the foreign press on controlled visits to a handful of prisons in , it continues to deny international human rights groups and independent Cuban organizations access to prisons. In April, to reduce the risk of Covid spreading in prisons, the government suspended family visits, restricted the type of food family members could send prisoners, and, in a welcome development, released more than 6, people.

Independent media have reported cases of detainees being isolated with suspected Covid cases in some prisons. However, as of October , the Ministry of Health had not confirmed any cases of Covid in prisons. Despite updating its Labor Code in , Cuba continues to violate International Labour Organization standards it has ratified on freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Cuba deploys tens of thousands of health workers abroad every year to help tackle short-term crises and natural disasters. The workers provide valuable services to many communities but under stringent norms that violate their rights, including to privacy, liberty, movement, and freedom of expression and association.

In , Cuba deployed around 4, doctors to help nearly 40 countries respond to the Covid pandemic. They joined an estimated 28, Cuban health workers deployed prior to the pandemic. The Cuban government still refuses to recognize human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity and denies legal status to local human rights groups.

Government authorities have harassed, assaulted, and imprisoned human rights defenders who have attempted to document abuses. Other members of the group had been detained to prevent them from attending the event. The constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Following public protest, the Cuban government removed language from the final draft of the constitution approved in February that would have redefined marriage to include same-sex couples.

The government says that in March , it will introduce a new version of the Family Code, which governs marriage, in the legislature for review, and then put the code to a vote in a referendum.

In May , security forces cracked down on a protest in Havana promoting LGBT rights and detained several activists, media reported.