You're quite correct, Rick, that Castro had no choice. I've read the history of Cuba both before and after Castro. What Castro did was replace an utterly corrupt dictatorship with a far less corrupt one. He threw out the Mafia, the casinos, the prostitution rings, and the American corporations which were employing Cubans under virtual slave labour conditions to grow sugar. He gave that corporate land to the people who actually worked on it, and also gave them education, health care, housing, and a viable future for the first time in their lives.

It is indeed true that some Cubans risk their lives trying to reach Florida. It is also true that Mexicans, Guatemalans, Costa Ricans, El Salvadoreans, Panamanians, Chileans, Bolivians, and everyone else in Latin America similary try desperately to get into the USA...and frequently risk their lives doing so.

I wonder why? Because they are POOR, that's why! I'll tell you this, the poor in Cuba are way better off than their counterparts in the rest of Latin America. If Mexico was that close to Florida, you would see a lot more boat people coming.

All this has nothing to do with "loving" Castro. It has to do with recognizing reality, and focusing on the whole situation, not the fragment that suits your special interest group.

Castro is a dictator. Nobody except dictators has ever been able to maintain a government in Cuba for more than a handful of years. Castro does what he must in order to survive.

And the reason the USA is down on Castro is not because he's a dictator. The USA loves dictators who cooperate with corporate America, and hates those who don't. The reason they're down on him is because he threw out their corporations and their casinos and their whorehouses, and gave the land back to the people....and because the Cuban-American community in Florida can always be counted on to vote as a bloc...and vote Republican.

Florida, as everyone should know by now, is a key state in federal elections.

By the way, I've got a good Cuban friend coming up in May for a visit. He's a well-educated and very smart guy. We'll see what he has to say about the recent crackdown, and I'll let you know.

- LH