Opinion: Fidel Castro, human rights violator he was, did plenty of good for Cuba

To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s column on the passing of Fidel Castro relegates what ought to be a serious discussion of the late Cuban leader’s political legacy to a kind of non-historical rhetorical jousting. (“Fidel Castro died as he lived — praised by useful idiots,” Opinion, Nov. 28)

Certainly there needs to be a full accounting of the failures of Castro’s leadership. But there also needs to be an acknowledgment of his successes. No one is denying that his regime, relentlessly under siege from its hegemonic neighbor to the north, resorted to stringent security measures that, regrettably, resulted in the suppression of civil liberties and a host of egregious civil rights violations.

But Goldberg’s intellectually dishonest assessment of the revolution takes it out of its historically critical geopolitical context, dismisses its very real socioeconomic policy achievements and evaluates it as if it did not face constant and unyielding threats from the U.S.

Andrew Spathis, Los Angeles

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To the editor: When we look at U.S. military actions in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam and Iraq — places where millions of civilians were targeted and killed, and whose deaths and suffering were viewed euphemistically as collateral damage — having a journalist like Goldberg focus on the abuses of the Castro regime after the revolution borders on pure hypocrisy.

Concerning Castro’s abuse of human rights, U.S. historians have reported that most of the captured and executed Cubans who were part of the toppled Fulgencio Batista regime were accused of torturing and murdering Cubans who were opposed to Batista’s corrupt mafia-affiliated government. It has also been reported that the public trials and executions were supported by the Cuban population.

Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park

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To the editor: I guess folks on the left can forgive a murdering dictator who wore two Rolex watches at the same time if you remind them he got rich by “serving” the people.

Patrick M. Dempsey, Granada Hills

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