Cuba on Wikipedia

For the last few days, I have engaged in a heated discussion on Cuba and its government over on Wikipedia. You see, Wikipedia is, as it describes itself, "an international Web-based, free-content encyclopedia ... written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a computer, web browser and Internet connection."

A number of visitors have wanted to define Cuba's government as a democratic republic, reflecting the false claims of the government. I, of course, have wanted to call a spade a spade. However, as an encyclopedia, its purpose is not to echo political opinions (one way or the other) but rather to present facts in a fair and neutral manner.

Here is a sampling of my arguments:

First, let's consider this logically: would a free people continue to elect a president into power when their human rights are continuously violated [1][2][3][4][5], particularly in regards to political freedoms [6][7][8][9]? Cuba has been on the list of UN Country Reports of Human Rights Violators in each year Castro has been in power save for two [10].

Furthermore, Cuba's government is widely recognized as being authoritarian and not democratic. The United States defines Cuba's government as a Totalitarian Communist state [11]. Numerous world leaders of varying backgrounds and affiliations tend to agree. George W. Bush's administration's policy toward Cuba is "designed to encourage a peaceful transition to a democratic government characterized by strong support for human rights and an open market economy" [12]. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton defined Cuba's government as a "communist dictatorship" [13]. Even Ollanta Humala, current Peruvian presidential front-runner, said "obviously, according to our standards, Cuba does not qualify as a democracy" [14].

...Fidel Castro's Cuba would be considered closer to being an autocracy, much like Mobutu Sese Seko used to claim that Congo's government was a democratic republic even though it was clearly an autocracy (from Wiki's Republic page: "Autocrats might try to give themselves a democratic tenure by calling themselves president (or princeps or princeps senatus in the case of Ancient Rome), and the form of government of their country "republic", instead of using a monarchic based terminology"). Per my citations above, Cuba is rarely recognized as a democracy, and even non-democratic republics are named such because the governments' principals and power are not beyond the control of the people.

At one point, I told Bruce Hallman, a certain user who insisted that Cuba was a democracy simply because castro said so: "If instead of substatiating YOUR claims, you would rather dismiss mine with no regard to research or reason, then perhaps you might like to swing by the Holocaust Wiki page and tell some survivors how it never happened."

As I told the users there, "this online Encyclopedia is a place to present the most accurate truths available, not to spread propaganda."

Swing by, if you can, and help me curb their spreading of misinformation.