Carlos Alzugaray wrote:

Mr. MacNichol seems to ignore that there are elections in Cuba and that,
as opposed to the US where only around 50 per cent of the electorate
votes, 95% of the electorate participates.

MacNichol:

I would ask Mr. Alzugaray, who runs against Castro in these elections
where 95% of the electorate vote?  And how often has Castro been up for
reelection? Cuba has a communist government that is headed by a communist
dictator who has been in power for over 40 years.  I infer from Mr.
Alzugaray that the Cuban people are not brainwashed.  My point is that in
a dictatorship it doesn't matter whether they are or not.  It only matters
what Castro (a dictator) wants.  All this talk of Batista as a dictator is
rather meaningless when one considers that the alternative is yet another
dictator.  I infer from this that Mr. Alzugaray would have it that Batista
was a bad dictator while Castro is a benevolent one (or not really one
because Cuba has some sort of elections).

Mr. Alzugaray's response on Grenada is one that I disagree with.  US
troops were even fired upon by Cubans, while US forces were protecting US
citizens who said as much upon their return home.

Mr. Alzugaray might agree that during the Carter years Cuban "nationalism"
was not only *not* being repressed, but at the same time Cubans were
increasing their Soviet supporting activities in other parts of the World
as a result.

Mr. Alzugaray's mention of Noriega and the CIA is, I belive, overly
simplistic.

Mr. Alzugaray's mention of Cubans helping the US defeat Spain is well
taken.  I hope someday Cubans and the United States can work together to
defeat communism in Cuba as well.

Mr. Alzugaray does not of course see that communism is a form of
repression.  If I interpret correctly, Castro provides Cubans with a
measure of freedom by allowing for lesser elections. But as long as Castro
gets to remain at the helm of Cuban thought, and choice, Cuban nationalism
is still being repressed.

As for Mr. Alzugaray's tragic story about the girls being shot at while
riding in a truck, the crime the US committed against those young girls
may have been not to have destroyed Castro right then and there, once and
for all and establish democracy on Cuba.  At least these pilots were at
war, and probably saw the truck as a target from the air.  Given how
events become buried in fractured communist history, we will never know if
there were perhaps a dozen trucks on the ground that day and one was
filled with children rather than troops.  In fact, we will never be sure
of how much purging and liquidation went on long after the Bay of Pigs.
Dictators do not have to answer for their actions.

Robert MacNichol

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