Castro's Latest Sycophants

The American Indian Movement awarded their highest honor, the Eagle Feather to Fidel Castro yesterday in Havana:

Daniel Cheng Yang, leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) youth group, presented the award to Castro in Havana, along with a declaration honoring ''the man who represents respect, success, honor and bravery,'' Cuba's official National Information Agency said. During his visit, Cheng also condemned the U.S. economic blockade against the communist-governed island and expressed the Indian organization's solidarity with five Cuban spies held in U.S. prisons, the news agency said. Cheng also read a letter from imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who thanked Castro and the Cuban community for supporting efforts to free him. Peltier was convicted in 1977 of participating in the slaying of two FBI agents on a South Dakota Indian reservation in 1975.

Not a word about the recent conviction of dissidents, the continued crackdown on dissent, including the attempts to smear Elizardo Sánchez's reputation, nor was there any mention of the fact that Cuba is the only country in the Western hemisphere to deny access to its prisons to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Too bad they didn't get the perspective of Jorge Luis García:

Jailed Cuban dissident Jorge Luis García is staging a hunger strike in prison to press demands that he be given the medication he needs to treat a respiratory ailment, an exile group in Miami said Thursday. García, also known as Antunez, started his hunger strike on Sunday, when he was sent to an isolation cell after his jailers found him preparing a report on human rights violations inside the Cuban jail, the Cuban Democratic Directorate said. It said that during the 13 years he has been in prison, García has often been denied medication as a form of torture.

If Leonard Peltier or any of the five convicted Cuban spies were being treated as badly as García appears to be, I would be right there alongside AIM protesting this treatment. I certainly wouldn't be honoring George Bush. Why, then, are they honoring a man whose repressive actions have been condemned by Amnesty International, an organization that has appealed for the release of Leonard Peltier?

Comments

[Michael J. Totten]

Good question. Why honor Castro? What does he have to do with American Indians, anyway?

I'm not a radical leftist anymore. September 11 changed that for me. But I still understand at least some parts of the radical left, even though I no longer agree with them. I never have been able to grok the Communists, though. These people know all about the Gulag and the torture chambers and the prison systems. And they honor it all anyway.

(Shudder.)

[the talking dog]

It continues to be a fascinating relationship between Castro and the United States. By keeping the embargo unabated, we hurt our own farmers and businesses who might like the trade, and of course, we keep the Cuban people decades behind the standard of living they should be enjoying, AND we keep Castro in power.

I have little doubt that if the embargo were lifted lock, stock and barrel, and a flood of goodies hit Cuba (not to mention a flood of ex-pats) Castro would be toast.

Yeah, its too bad that the American Indian movement sees the need to honor a thug like Castro-- but then, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, perhaps?

[Randy Paul]

TD,

I certainly agree with you about that. I'm in the middle of the book by Isadora Tattlin (which is a pseudonym) Cuba Diaries: An American Housewife in Havana and the contradictions inherent in life under Castro are fascinating.

I'd like to go to Cuba and pass out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What bothers me about AIM honoring Castro aside from the obvious reasons is their completely ignoring the Cuban dissidents and supporting Cuban spies who entered the US with an eye toward infiltrating exile groups.

[Joel]

When Castro sloughs off his mortal coil, I tremble to think what will happen. I don't particularly like him and I don't particularly like what the Cubans in Miami intend to do should they replace him.

HELP!

[Randy Paul]

Joel,

Let's hope his brother Raúl predeceases him. I think that change will come from within Cuba and the Miami organizations are slowly beginning to come around to that as witnessed by their support of Oswaldo Payá and the varela Project.