A Boston Heraldeditorial.
Saturday, January 27, 2001.
The intelligentsia and officialdom of Europe, who are usually nonchalant
about Fidel Castro's brutality, are up in arms over the detention of two
prominent Czechs. It's too bad for the Czechs, but at least attention in Europe
has been focused on the nature of Castro's regime.
Ivan Pilip, a former finance minister and currently a member of the Czech
parliament, and Jan Bubenik - who, as a student leader, played a key role in the
overthrow of Czech communism - were arrested on Tuesday for meeting with Cuban
dissidents.
The regime has announced that the Czechs will be held for at least 60 days
and could be sentenced to six months in prison for ``counterrevolutionary
activities.''
In a telegram to Castro, the president of the European Parliament, Nicole
Fontaine, charged that the arrests ``demonstrate that the Cuban regime has no
respect for fundamental rights . . . the most basic of which are free expression
and free association.''
We're glad the Europeans are catching on at last. Better late than never.
Americans can only hope that this provokes opinion leaders in Europe to a
greater realism in their dealings with a few other tyrannies such as those of
the mullahs in Iran, the corrupt Palestinian Authority and Saddam Hussein.
The arrest of the Czechs reflects Castro's schizophrenia about contacts with
the outside world. On the one had, to lure badly needed foreign investment to
the island, he seeks to cultivate a warm and friendly image of Cuba.
Still, he's terrified of growing opposition to his regime, non-violent
though it is. According to pro-democracy groups, almost 300 dissidents were
arrested in December alone.
We have argued that a complete end to the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba is
now in order to penetrate the island with the connections and ideas that will be
needed to rebuild a decent civil order when Castro goes - and go he will, by the
death that comes to all men if in no other way - and lay the foundations of
democracy. But there are personal risks involved in such an enterprise that no
one should neglect.
Castro's appeal to foreigners seems to be: Bring your tourist cash and
investment funds with you, but leave your conscience at home.
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