Opinions Split Over an Island of Contention

Re “Spain Cracks Cuba’s Jailhouse,” editorial, Dec. 2: Why is it that people in the U.S. who take money from our enemies to fund their anti-government activities are called “terrorists,” while you call Cubans who have been convicted in Cuban courts for the same thing “journalists” and “dissidents”? Why do you feel that Cuba should have “political or economic change” forced on it? What are your empirical sources for your claim that the majority of Cubans are “enduring” Cuban President Fidel Castro, rather than supporting him?

Why do you hope the U.S. will have an “advantage” over Cuba when Castro dies? Is there some doubt that Cuba is a sovereign nation that makes you wish the U.S. could once again rule it?

There is no homelessness in Cuba. Nor is there a lack of healthcare delivery, hyper-commercialization, money corrupting politics or a vast private-public prison system housing more than 2 million.

There is torture in Cuba, and hundreds of people are held in a concentration camp without legal rights or legal status, but that is in Guantanamo, which is occupied by the U.S.

Diana Barahona

Long Beach

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The simple act of Castro releasing certain prominent political prisoners, as you clearly point out, to give Spain “more leverage at a forthcoming meeting of the European Union to discuss the future of EU Cuban policy” is the very reason that dealing with Castro is a losing proposition for the Cuban people and anyone who thinks that being friendly to this 45-year-old communist dictatorship will yield any good, lasting result.

Castro has a system that imprisons dissidents on a daily basis. Executions by firing squad are commonplace in Cuba, following quick trials without due process of defense.

Castro recently executed by firing squad members of a hijacked boat who were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent back to Cuba, some of them young black Cubans seeking freedom.

He releases five dissidents and gets high marks, but those are replaced by at least five more immediately, to the blind eye of those who befriend him, such as the new socialist Spanish prime minister. Ten U.S. presidents from both political poles have treated Castro for what he is, a murderous thug.

Jorge Rodriguez

Cerritos