Hoping for change in Cuba

Re “Castro hints at a younger ruler in the coming Cuba,” Feb. 20

You could have saved all the ink you spilled over the resignation of dictator Fidel Castro and summed it all up in four words: “Goodbye and good riddance.”

Arnold G. Regardie

Los Angeles

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Castro calls it quits, and so should the United States. Our government’s embargo on Cuba must end. It is a vestige of our fear of the Soviet Union, a superpower long gone. Terrorists have replaced superpowers. The Cuban embargo is like the human appendix, a vestige of our evolutionary past with no present use except to create inflammation and pain.

Lloyd A. Dent

Studio City

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I visited Cuba in the 1990s, and on my flight met many U.S. citizens traveling for eye surgery. I thought this strange, in view of U.S. laws. While in Cuba I stayed with locals and saw the lack of basic commodities and rationing. I also observed the high level of their education and healthcare systems. Puzzled by these drastically contradictory policies, I asked my host his opinion of Castro. “He is Cuba.” This explains the people’s affection and reluctance to overthrow their leader. My hope is that the Cuban people retain their independence, but not at the cost of democracy and a society that practices social justice.

Brian McMahon

Elsternwick, Australia

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Re “Fidel’s slow fade,” Opinion, Feb. 20

The article by Jon Lee Anderson led me to ponder the refusal of the expatriate Cuban community to recognize and accept a change in Cuba as a result of Castro’s slow withdrawal from political life. It seems to me that this attitude is a wish for political suicide; a disavowal of their country of origin under any circumstances. What do they want? A return to the banana republic that was extant in the pre-Castro years, a return of national illiteracy, a return to no national healthcare? If they have, however, an image of a democratic nation that would return wealthy elites to power, I am afraid that this is a wispy dream. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in which they garner political power and money as a tipping point in our electoral system.

Russell Blinick

Chatsworth