|
Carlos Alberto Montaner. Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2003 in
The Miami Herald.
Fidel Castro is facing a new enemy. He calls it, with great contempt, ''the
little gang.'' The little gang is Europe. It's 25 countries: Spain, Italy,
Britain, France, Germany and so on. They are the 15 members of the European
Union with 10 others who are waiting at the door.
As Castro puts it, the head of the little gang is Spanish Prime Minister José
María Aznar. But both Aznar and the little gang supposedly are pawns of
Washington and follow, like lackeys, the policies of the State Department.
The Comandante lies. True, Europe has revised its assessment of the Cuban
situation, but not under White House influence. Rather, it did so by verifying
in situ that Castro is an incorrigible tyrant, intent on preserving a cockeyed
model, who has rejected each and every gesture of good will coming from the Old
Continent.
Castro has not moved one inch from his Stalinist bunker, overflowing with
imprisoned democrats, where the execution wall has never interrupted its
cheerful chore.
The opposite is happening. The United States is nearing the European
position conceived by Spain in 1996. A phenomenon of convergence is occurring
among the democratic nations in the face of the last communist dictatorship in
the West.
The developed nations of the First World are not the only ones to coincide
in that stance. A short while ago the Latin American Parliament, at the urging
of Uruguayan deputy Jaime Trobo, also denounced Cuba's violation of human rights
and asked for an in-depth investigation of the imprisonment and mistreatment of
dissidents sentenced for reasons of conscience.
Felipe González, Spain's former prime minister, told Herald
journalist Andrés Oppenheimer that Fidel Castro today is a pathetic
character, comparable to the exhausted Franco who was oblivious of reality in
the final days of his long mandate.
Castro is not aware of his remarkable anachronism.
The dictator doesn't realize that he's a relic of the Cold War. He is
propped up by repression, inertia and the immense fear he instills in Cubans
inside and outside the circles of power, but he lacks legitimacy and
institutions that can continue to function after his physical disappearance.
To the more-lucid members of Cuba's ruling class -- Carlos Lage, Ricardo
Alarcón, Remírez de Estenoz, even the powerful Gen. Abelardo Colomé
Ibarra -- Fidel Castro's choleric senility is extremely embarrassing. His
aggressive behavior, typical of an emotionally ill person incapable of
controlling his emotions, endangers the regime's continuity.
To call Europe a ''little gang'' and force government leaders to march
carrying placards that depict Aznar as Hitler and Italy's Prime Minister
Berlusconi as Mussolini is a profoundly ridiculous act that only humiliates
those ordered to perform it.
And that's not unusual behavior. Castro has insulted many presidents:
Mexico's Vicente Fox, Uruguay's Jorge Batlle, Peru's Alejandro Toledo, Chile's
Ricardo Lagos, El Salvador's Francisco Flores -- even Argentina's Eduardo
Duhalde, whom he called a "boot licker.''
Castro's government is heading for political isolation, as tried years ago
against racist South Africa. The next step will be to ask investors in Cuba to
abide by an ethical code like ''the Sullivan principles,'' once adapted by Cuban
dissident Gustavo Arcos to the Cuban reality. International businessmen will
have to pack their bags if the workers are not granted their rights and if the
same standards are not applied to Cubans and foreigners.
It is inconceivable that Cubans, like the blacks in South Africa's
apartheid, cannot own property or stay at hotels used by tourists. It is
intolerable that they don't have the right to strike and that 95 percent of
their salary is impounded.
We're witnessing the final act of Castroism. All the elements for regime
change are there: The economic crisis is unstoppable; the ruling class is
totally demoralized; the system lacks political legitimacy, and the dictator --
a key element of the power structure -- has lost his reason through cerebral
spasms. He has become an unbearable and blithering old man who mindlessly leads
the country to the edge of the cliff.
What's needed to turn the page and begin a transition to democracy? That's
obvious: Castro's death or a worsening of his mental health that prompts his
merciful removal from power.
I'm sure that thought crossed the minds of the ministers and generals
compelled to shout slogans against ''the little gang'' while they marched under
the inclement Havana sun. In their gestures we could notice a deep moral and
physical exhaustion, the effect of so much arbitrariness and stupidity.
The final slogan may very well be: "Prozac or death!''
www.firmaspress.com
©2002 Firmas Press | 
