The truth hurts, even Fidel Castro
George Weigel has this good commentary on Castro, with some personal insight behind that amazing visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba. I recall watching Castro’s transfixed face as the Pope captured the island nation’s attention, and heart. Turns out, he didn’t like that being commented on publicly by Weigel, whose book Castro actually read.
What I had written in “Witness to Hope” was the plain truth: The papal pilgrimage to Cuba in January 1998 was the first time in almost 40 years that Fidel Castro had not been the undisputed center of attention at a public event in Cuba. I also had recounted other aspects of the papal visit that Castro would have preferred to ignore, such as the fact that John Paul II had not mentioned the Castro regime once in five days; that the pope had tried, in various ways, to give back to the people of Cuba the rich spiritual culture that was their birthright; that he had challenged Cubans to be the protagonists of their history, rather than thinking of themselves, as Castro had so long proposed, as victims of “Yanqui aggression.” El Jefe was not pleased.
Weigel’s opinion piece is also a stark reminder of who this man has been all these years, lest some sentimental whitewashing start to appear soon.
Whenever Castro dies, the temptation to afford a measure of respect, however grudging, to the man who continued to defy the world’s lone superpower will be strong, at least in some quarters. It should, however, be firmly resisted.Castro is not a mass murderer in the same league with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao Tse-tung, but he is a murderous dictator nonetheless. The stories of the vile and grotesque conditions in which he keeps political prisoners should not be forgotten. Nor should the injustices of previous Cuban regimes be cited as excuses for this wicked man who reduced a proud and vibrant nation to penury and international military prostitution in Africa.
In a statement read after his surgery, Castro assured his countrymen that the defense of the island was secure against the U.S. To the end, it seems, Castro will love the revolution more than he loves Cuba. That is why he destroyed so much of his country, and that is why no tears should be shed for him.
There won’t on this side of the water, judging from the pictures coming from the Cuban exile community this week in South Florida. This is a new day, and they’re dancing in the streets, already.
