Cuban repression escalates

And who might be surprised by that?

As The Wall Street Journal's Mary O'Grady writes and Cuban exile bloggers John Suarez and Marc Masferrer amplify:

The nongovernmental organization Capitol Hill Cubans has reported that in the first 12 days of September, authorities detained 168 peaceful activists. These "express detentions" are designed to break up dissident gatherings, which risk spreading nonconformist behavior. Locking up offenders for long periods would be preferable, but the regime wants people like Mr. [Bill] Richardson to go around saying that human rights have improved. The regime is also making greater use of civilian-clothed "rapid response" brigades that are trained, armed and organized to beat up democracy advocates.

Mr. Richardson told me he considers Cuba's record improved because 52 political prisoners were sent to Spain in 2010. Yet exiling promising opposition leadership hardly qualifies as a humanitarian gesture. Nor are gruesome Cuban prisons anything to ignore.

Any hope of protecting these patriots lies in international condemnation."

Meanwhile, look who's talking just a few days ago.
(I wonder if he might be talking about someone who really IS surprised?):

"How kind! How intelligent!  Such kindness still has not allowed him to understand that 50 years of blockade and crimes against our country have not been able to bow our people."  (Original comments in Spanish by El Jefe via his online diary at the oxymoronic Cuba Debate site here.)

If this is [the result of a strategy of] winning friends and influencing enemies, I think it is time for some new (or refresher) courses on both The Good Book and The Golden Rule.