[lbo-talk] "Criticism From Leftists Surprises Cuba"

[Carl Remick]

Criticism From Leftists Surprises Cuba

Filed at 2:24 p.m. ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Carlos Fuentes called Cuba a ``suffocating 
dictatorship.'' Jose Saramago said Fidel Castro ``cheated his dreams.''

Shocked at Cuba's recent crackdown on dissent, many leftist intellectuals 
and authors find themselves criticizing a government they spent years 
applauding.

The backlash appears to have caught Cuba off guard and forced officials to 
defend themselves against not only their foes -- but also their longtime 
friends.

For years, the communist government appeared to be relaxing its tough stance 
toward critics. Encouraged, even Republican U.S. lawmakers were calling to 
lift more than four decades of U.S. imposed sanctions.

But that changed earlier this month, when Cuba ordered a firing squad to 
execute three men accused of terrorism in the unsuccessful hijacking of a 
ferry full of passengers. The men were trying to get to the United States.

Days before, Cuba sentenced 75 dissidents, many of them independent 
journalists or directors of independent libraries, to prison terms of up to 
28 years. Cuba accused them of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine 
Castro's government -- a charge the dissidents and the State Department have 
denied.

The crackdown was condemned around the globe.

Sweden warned the actions could harm Cuba's prospects for a better 
relationship with the European Union, while Canada and Italy sent letters of 
protest to Castro.

But some of the strongest criticism came from Cuba's supporters, who have 
stuck by the government's 44-year rule despite complaints about its human 
rights record.

``Must they learn the bad habits of the enemy they are fighting?'' wrote 
Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, who once praised Castro as a ``symbol of 
national dignity.''

``The death penalty is never justified, no matter where it is applied.''

Fuentes, a Mexican novelist and longtime Cuba supporter, was even more 
disillusioned. He lumped Bush and Castro together and declared himself 
against both. Castro, he said, needs ``his American enemy to justify his own 
failings.''

``As a Mexican, I wish for my country neither the dictates of Washington on 
foreign policy, nor the Cuban example of a suffocating dictatorship,'' he 
wrote in a letter published in Mexico City's Reforma newspaper.

He wasn't alone. Saramago, a Portuguese writer who won the 1998 Nobel Prize 
for literature and considered himself a close friend of Castro, said Cuba 
``has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, cheated my dreams.''

Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who lives part-time in 
Cuba, has been silent on the issue. But his magazine, Cambio, published an 
article saying ``few other repressive waves have left a government so 
isolated and rejected.''

The government responded by publishing rebukes in the Communist Party daily 
Granma.

In one letter published Saturday, a group of well-known Cuban intellectuals 
urged their colleagues to stop criticizing the island.

Entitled ``Message from Havana to our friends in faraway places,'' the 
letter said the recent statements by leftist intellectuals ``are being used 
in the great campaign trying to isolate us and prepare the stage for 
military aggression by the United States against Cuba.''

Cuba made a similar assertion about several of its Latin American allies 
earlier this month, calling them U.S. ``lackeys'' after the nations backed 
an amendment calling for a U.N. rights monitor to visit the island.

Peru protested the comments by the Cuba's U.N. delegate, and Nicaragua 
recalled its envoy from Cuba for consultations.

Still, Cuba has claimed some political victories recently.

The 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission rejected a tougher amendment 
criticizing Cuba's dissident crackdown.

Maryland also is sticking with plans to send the Pride of Baltimore II 
clipper ship to the island to promote the state's seafood, poultry, pet 
food, cake mix, juices and spices. The ship is scheduled to arrive at the 
island on May 24.

But the Bush administration, unhappy about the Cuban action, is 
contemplating ways to make Castro's government pay a price. It also has 
undercut embargo foes on Capitol Hill.

Fuentes warned it will be hard for Castro to bounce back.

The Cuban president, he said, is preparing ``the way for his own exit from 
the world stage in a hail of flames.''

[end]

carl


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