Pope’s Cuba Visit

Re “It’s Time to Ease Rules on Cuba,” editorial, Aug. 21:

It did not surprise me that you back the idea of easing the rules to travel to Cuba during the pope’s visit. It did not surprise me that you call the worst dictator dead or alive “President” Fidel Castro. I don’t know who elected him “president.”

It does not surprise me either that while in the last few months many of your peers in Cuba have been jailed, tortured, exiled and silenced, you, the champions in the fight for freedom of the press everywhere, have kept your mouth shut. Shame on you!

I hope you are right when you say that Castro’s days in power are numbered, then you will know what kind of “president” he was.

MARIO ABELLEIRA

North Hollywood

* I’ve thought for a long time that it’s time to ease rules on Cuba. Why? Because the founder of the religion Pope John Paul II represents, in the most institutional sense of the word, preached a far different philosophy than what our Cuban policy represents: denying a neighbor the essentials of a livable environment with our economic embargo.

And as for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s “open view, saying she sees the pope’s visit as ‘an important development in bringing to the Cuban people a message of . . . the importance of respecting human rights,’ ” shouldn’t we see that message applying just as much to the American people and its government in particular, not to mention international corporate interests worldwide? The charitable and loving message of Jesus should supersede fears that Cuba represents a threat to our national interests in the Western Hemisphere.

AL WILLIAMS

Hidden Hills