Fidel Castro

I found “Castro Helps Crack Case of Guerrilla Terrorism” (June 29) rather amusing. To us Cuban Americans, it constituted yet another attempt by the mainstream media at somehow softening and reshaping the image of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Those who remember the adulatory frenzy in which so-called respectable journalists engaged at the time of Castro’s visit to the U.N. last year can’t help but smile and say “here they go again.”

Castro has never, and will never, help combat terrorism, more so when he thinks of it as the “rightful struggle” against the ruling classes. He only acts when it serves his political goals, mainly the perpetuation of his grip on power in Cuba. In this case, he provided safe passage to his island-prison to a group of inconsequential kidnappers who were already on their last ropes after many of their followers had been arrested by the Colombian government.

Of course, the kidnap victim was none other than the brother of the current secretary general of the OAS, someone who can help Castro as he tries to justify the barbaric downing of two civilian airplanes last February off Cuba’s coast.

RENE V. BELLO

Burbank