Cuba’s Future After Castro Is Gone

As a Cuban American, I found William M. LeoGrande’s article regarding Cuba and its future after Fidel Castro quite interesting (Opinion, July 15). I have a different take on what will happen in Cuba after the passing of Castro. Following the Spanish model, Cuba will slowly but surely evolve into a democracy, with its ills and virtues, and after 20 years Castro will be as irrelevant in the island as Gen. Francisco Franco is in Spain today.

The main roles, except for the economy, will be played by Cubans in Cuba, as opposed to Cubans in exile, and a good starting point will be the small dissident community active in Cuba today. Only time will tell, but I’m willing to bet my money on this scenario.

Alexis I. Torres

Burbank

Re “U.S. Embargo Undermines Cuban Opposition,” Commentary, July 17: It is profoundly true that the U.S. embargo of Cuba is a moral statement. That statement is that the U.S. government is immoral and hypocritical! The real question in regard to U.S. policy toward Cuba is will the U.S. government allow the free determination of the Cuban people?

If there is a real human rights issue in Cuba, it is totally insignificant. In contrast, the U.S. government provides military support to various governments around the world that regularly torture and murder their citizens, while the most profound complaint ever lodged against Cuba involves a few prison terms. Under Castro, the Cuban government has never had death squads, but the U.S. government has paid for and and trained death squads all over the world.

Which is the greater threat to human rights? The government of Cuba provides milk to all children as well as education and health care to all citizens; the government of the United States funds the brutality in Colombia and (if the Bush administration gets its way) the terror in Indonesia, while a quarter of our children live with hunger and poverty. And yet some people have the unmitigated gall to suggest that the Cuban government is anything other than a shining beacon of hope to oppressed people the world over.

Richard Curtis

Rancho Cucamonga

Joe Davidson’s essay on the futility of the Cuban embargo fails to mention the most influential factor that keeps the 40-year fiasco from being abandoned: the millions of dollars of campaign contributions that pour out of South Florida into the coffers of the Republican and Democratic parties and candidates.

We are embarrassed by a tiny island nation whose literacy rate is higher and where poor people get better medical care than in any major U.S. city.

Alan Nestlinger

Santa Ana