Raul Rivero knows a lot about repression. Don't expect George Clooney to make a movie about his life in one of Castro's political prisons. Nevertheless, Rivero is a prize-winning journalist and poet who was jailed for political reasons with dozens of other Cuban dissidents in March 2003. He was released from prison on medical grounds in the fall of 2004 and now lives in Madrid.
Rivero has just written a wonderful article: "False Friends: Fidel's newfound supporters are doing ordinary Cubans no favors".
For years, we have watched Latin American lefties, as well as many others in the West, make excuses for Castro. They overlook his political prisons and repression. They do this because they hate the US more than they love the Cuban people.
Years ago, Castro visited Buenos Aires. He was greeted by a group of youngsters, who treated him like a grandfather.
In reality, none of these Buenos Aires youngsters would survive one day in Cuba. As Rivero points out, most of these lefties would reject living in Castro's Cuba:
"The food-ration card that dates back to 1962, a totally controlled press, a legal gag order on free thought, and paramilitary brigades with clenched fists on the lookout for counterrevolutionary tendencies. For me, who like so many other Cubans wound up in jail for daring to speak out and report on the harsh realities in my country, the public, uncritical embrace that certain political leaders bestow on Fidel Castro only serves to prolong the suffering of my people. He milks those encounters for all the propaganda he can to feed to his apparatchiks."It's time for Latin American leaders to get over their "anti-yankismo" and start seeing the true Castro. The Cuban people could use a little support rather than more embracing of their corrupt dictator.
