I learned most of what I know about human rights from Amnesty International. When I was younger (I still feel young!) it just seemed that they always took the right side, no matter what the issue was. They were consistent, they had principles and they used mostly volunteers. How idealistic could you get?
Contrast that to the “leftist” movements, who claimed to support Amnesty International then when it was on their side, but who now criticize when AI blasts their heroes, whether Fidel, Hugo, Lula and the imitation autocrats that have unfortunately taken over power in Latin America. And shame on Dilma Rousseff for using the “sovereignty” argument when she went to Cuba to visit the two bloody Dictators, Raul and Fidel, and failed to even defend another woman, Yohani Sanchez, who has been trying for years to travel abroad. The link is that Rousseff was being beaten up by right wing thugs at the same time when I first became acquainted with Ammnesty International. The difference is that while AI keeps hitting hard, Rousseff is in her own La-La land, oblivious to human rights violations around the region, in the incorrect and naive belief that the horror she lived through, will never come back to the region.
Oh, Dilma! How power corrupts intelligence. Ask Venezuelans, we never thought our democracy would be threatened and look what a Thugo fate brought to us! And you have not criticized him and remember, you are not immune!
But I digress…
Because the whole point of this post is that Amnesty International is still at it. Today, the Secretary for Education for their Venezuela Chapter Vivian Diaz was there, reminding the Venezuelan Government that recruiting kids is illegal under international law. Moreover, Ms. Diaz reminds the Government that AI has complained about this before and that the recent pictures simply makes the problem more visible.
Kudos to AI, who continues hammering at it, right and left, defending everyone’s rights in the face of the fake democrats that believe that rights can be suspended whenever their own political projects justify it.
The Devil's Excrement 
February 4, 2012 at 9:22 pm
From Babalu, “For the nineteenth time, the dictatorship of Raul Castro has denied Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, permission to travel outside of Cuba, this time to a film festival in Brazil.”
… and this, a day or two after Dilma completed her visit to Cuba?
http://babalublog.com/2012/02/castro-dictatorship-denies-yoani-sanchez-permission-to-travel/
February 5, 2012 at 3:35 am
They’re not just tyrants, they have no sense of timing either.
February 4, 2012 at 11:11 am
Dilma Rousseff has gotten a taste of power and keeping it comes first.
Cashing in on the one sided trad withe Venezuela will help her keep it.
She’s smart enough to know that Chavez is Castro’s puppet and says’s how to spend Venezuela’s Petro-Dollars.
Selling out the Cuban and Venezuelan people will be justified to herself by “I’m doing it for the Brazilian Poor” the usual “the ends justifies the means”. something akin to “I was just following orders”
February 4, 2012 at 5:47 am
The unfortunate part is that this government does not listen to AI or Human Rights or anybody else. When there is a critical report they just tell the “faithful” via VTV that it’s an attempt by the US to put down the glorious revolution.
The crowning act of ignorance is the arrival of the president of Haiti along with AH Sean Penn to celebrate the murder of innocent civilians on Feb 4, 1992.
It just disgusts me.
February 4, 2012 at 10:45 am
What does “AH” mean?
February 4, 2012 at 11:52 am
A.. H…
February 4, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Posterior Sombrero
February 5, 2012 at 3:33 am
Oh! A-hole!