Elections and this thing called democracy 1

During the Clinton administration, the sentiment has been proclaimed on so many occasions by the president and other political leaders , and dutifully reiterated by the media, that the thesis “Cuba is the only non-democracy in the Western Hemisfere” in now nothing short of received wisdom in the United States.
Les us examine this thesis carefully for it has a highly interesting implication.
Throughout the period of the Cuban revolution, 1959 to the present, Latin America has witnessed a terrible parade of human rights violations – systematic, routine torture; legions of “disappeared” people, government supported death squads picking off selected individuals; massacres en masse of peasants, students and others groups, shot down in cold blood. The worst perpetrators of these acts during all or part of this period have been the military and associated paramilitary squads of El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Haiti and Honduras.
Not even Cuba's worst enemies have charged the Castro government with any of these violations and if one further considers education and health care – each guaranteed by the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and the “European Convention for the Protection of Humans Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” - “both of which, “said President Clinton, “work better (in Cuba) than most other countries”, then it would appear that during the more than 40 years of its revolution, Cuba has enjoyed one of the very best humans rights records in all of Latin America.
If, despite this record, the United States can insist that Cuba is the only “non-democracy” in the Western Hemisphere, we are left with the inescapable conclusion that this thing called “democracy” as seen from the White House, may have little or nothing to do with many of our cherished human rights. Indeed , numerous pronouncements emanating from Washington officialdom over the years make plain that “democracy”, at best , or at most, is equated solely with elections and civil liberties. Not even jobs, food and shelter are part of the equation.
From the book 'Rogue State' by William Blum