Human Events and the Castros -- Right From the Beginning

Human Events and the Castros -- Right From the Beginning
by Humberto Fontova
01/14/2010

To say that from 1957-59, America's liberal elites were smitten with
Fidel Castro seriously understates their infatuation with the communist
dictator. And now, with the advent of his brother Raul's regime, both
the liberal media and the Obama administration seem to be back on the
same path their forebears ran down headlong.

And I'm proud to say that HUMAN EVENTS was right about Castro from the
beginning. As history will prove we are today.

How lovely was Fidel? A little sampling of the adoration heaped on him
shows.

"Fidel Castro is humanist, a man of many ideals including those of
liberty, democracy and social justice. This amounts to a new deal for
Cuba, radical, democratic and therefore anti-Communist." (New York
Times. Feb. 1957.)

"Castro is honest, and an honest government is something unique in
Cuba. Castro is not himself even remotely a Communist." (Newsweek, April
1959)

"We can thank our lucky stars Castro is no Communist," (Look
Magazine, March 1959)

"The Cuba of Fidel Castro is free from terror. Civil liberties have
been restored. These are large steps forward, and they were made against
fearful odds." (Readers Digest April 1959)

"It would be a great mistake even to intimate that Castro's Cuba
has any real prospect of becoming a Soviet satellite." (Walter Lippmann,
Washington Post July, 1959)

"Fidel Castro is a good young man trying to do what's best for
Cuba. We should extend him a hand." (retired president Harry Truman
July, 1959)

At one point in 1958, in order to accommodate the adoring U.S. media
multitudes, Castro and Che's camp in the Sierra Madre mountains actually
had a big, bright sign reading: "PRESS HUT." By that time reporters
(male and female, young and decrepit) from Look to Life to Boy's Life
had all made the "terrifying" trek to obtain an interview with the Cuban
George Washington/Robin Hood/St. Thomas Aquinas/Davy Crockett.

But whoops! Amidst the overwhelming adulation, one Beltway media source
begged to differ:

"Fidel Castro was a ringleader in a bloody uprising in Bogota,
Colombia in April 1948," started the HUMAN EVENTS article on August 17th
1957. "That uprising was engineered and staged by communists. The
Colombian government subsequently published documentary evidence of
Fidel Castro's role as a leader. The appearance of this Cuban at the
head of the uprising in his own country stamps his insurrection as
Communist."

And, of course, anything resembling such principled conservatism did not
sit well with enlightened parties of the time.

Fast forward to February 2008 and Fidel's "succession" by baby brother
Raul. NPR gathered the Beltway's darling academic and media "Cuba
Experts" for a program to showcase their expert prognostications:

"Raul Castro represents potential change. He will have to seek an
improvement for Cubans' standard of living. He has also signed two human
rights accords," (Marifeli Perez-Stable, V. Pres. at Washington D.C's
Inter-American Dialogue, Florida International Univ. professor, Miami
Herald contributing editor.)

"This is a time when Cuba's leadership moves toward generational
change. It's Carlos Lage for Cuba's next President." (Phil Peters, vice
president of Washington D.C's Lexington Institute, often quoted and
published in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal
AP, Reuters, etc. etc. etc.)

"Raúl Castro said in recent months that he has an obligation not
only to lead but also to yield to a younger generation of leaders.
(Julia Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin
America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations.)

"Castro is now going out on his own terms, securing a smooth
transition to his brother and to a younger generation of leadership in
Cuba such as Vice President Carlos Lage." (Peter Kornbluh, director of
The National Security Archive at Washington D.C's George Washington
University)

Not to be outdone, after a visit to Cuba early last year the gentleman
from Indiana, Republican Senator Richard Lugar, stressed the following
in a letter to president Obama "It is clear that the recent leadership
changes in Cuba have created an opportunity for the United States to
reevaluate a complex relationship marked by misunderstanding, suspicion,
and open hostility."

(Carlos Lage, by the way, vanished from the Cuban leadership scene
almost a year ago and appears to be either in prison or under house arrest.)

Last month Human Rights Watch issued a report they describe as "our most
comprehensive analysis of conditions for Cuba since Raúl Castro took
power." Its titled New Castro/ Same Cuba. "Raúl Castro's government has
used draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores of people who
have dared to exercise their fundamental freedoms," it summarizes.
"Rather than dismantle this repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept
it firmly in place and fully active."

A recent Samizdat by Elizardo Sanchez, President of the (dissident)
Cuban Commission on Human Rights, reports: "The wave of repression we
witnessed on Dec. 10th is the worst we've seen in this country in
decades." The smuggled report details how during an attempted march
commemorating "Universal Human Rights Day," on Dec. 19th, hundreds of
Cubans were arrested and/or beaten by regime goons. Sanchez also has
testimonies from at least five people who were injected in their
buttocks by these goons. "The injections produce dizziness and
nausea...this is something totally new in terms of regime repression,"
stressed Sanchez. "The regime is in a panic right now. The international
community must hear of this!"

So according to those cursed by fate to live under Cuba's Stalinist
regime, things have actually worsened under Raul-rule. In 2009's Index
of Economic Freedom, The Heritage Foundation had already found Cuba as
more economically repressive under Raul than under Fidel. Under Raul
rule's, Cuba slipped down 1.1 notches to number 155 where it ranks
almost neck to neck with North Korea.

We turn now to a HUMAN EVENTS article from February 21, 2008 on the
succession from Fidel to Raul in which we prognosticated: "Neither of
the Castros come close in ideological outlook to a Deng or Gorbachev. So
wazzup for Cuba under Raul?

SSDD: same stuff, different dictator.

Human Events and the Castros -- Right From the Beginning - HUMAN EVENTS
(14 January 2010)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35183