U.S. Embargo Against Cuba

* In response to “We May Get Burned by the Cuba Embargo,” Column Left, by Jesse Jackson, Nov. 28:

No one on this planet is more eager to see the U.S. embargo against Cuba end than the Cuban exiles, for two main reasons: First, those starving and lacking access to even an aspirin are, in Jackson’s language, our brothers and sisters, and secondly, it is costing the Cuban exiles a lot of money. Letters from relatives, friends and even acquaintances arrive in the United States almost on a weekly basis, requesting medicine or food, or both.

However, as callous as the majority of us may sound, we cannot and should not place human material needs in front of those more important, although intangible needs, like freedom and respect for human dignity and human rights, totally absent in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

Those like me, who are against the lifting of the embargo, are totally convinced that resuming trade, travel and full communications with Castro’s regime will extend the suffering of the Cuban people instead of helping its collapse, as suggested by Jackson.

Jackson, an advocate of human rights in South Africa who fiercely attacks apartheid, should be advocating the same rights for the Cuban people instead of promoting relations with a government whose own people have been denied access to even the public beaches because these are reserved for the dollar-bringing tourists.

ABEL PEREZ

Editor and Publisher, 20 De Mayo

Los Angeles

* As a Cuban-American who has lived in this country 32 years, I was appalled to read the distortion of facts presented by Jackson on behalf of Fidel Castro.

Yes, Castro did confront Jonas Savimbi in Angola. Jackson failed to mention Cuban combat troops fighting in Angola and troops occupying Ethiopia. All this taking place on the continent of Africa.

Jackson fails to mention “Cuban advisers” in such places as El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Nicaragua, who did aid liberation wars.

Cuba has links to training camps in Libya and Sudan, havens for terrorists. Let’s not forget Castro’s support for Hussein in the United Nations. The list goes on and on.

Mr. Jackson, you should use your talents as a minister to pay your respects to the thousands of victims the Castro regime has executed for their religious and political beliefs.

MODESTO B. PERALES

Anaheim