Castroism does not represent justice

Though costly, that struggle has not been in vain. We Dominicans created a Constitution that prescribes the rights and freedoms universally recognized as inherent in the human person. We elect our leaders through the ballot box. We enjoy the right of free speech unhindered by prior censorship; the right to the inviolability of life and home; the right to individual safety, which protects us from arbitrary arrest, guarantees the right of association, and allows the free existence of political parties; the right of worship, which permits us to choose our personal religion; the right to own property; and the right of transit, which enables us to travel and even to emigrate freely.

We Dominicans may be poor, but we live -- and have lived for the past 37 years -- in the hope (not always vain) that we will enjoy a better life. By the grace of God, Dominicans never have required a ration card or stood in line to buy, with their hard-earned money, a banana, half a pound of rice, or a bar of soap.

We bitterly criticize the failings of our government, but we are proud of it and our freedoms, for which we've spilled so much blood and shed so many tears.

While we fought to make our country a free and independent nation, Cuba installed and nourished a diametrically opposed regime, an intolerant, tyrannical state that does not recognize the right of Cubans to elect their leaders through free balloting or to express their thoughts without prior censorship. It is a regime that recognizes neither the inviolability of life and home nor the safety of the individual. A regime that doesn't acknowledge the right to own property, to associate with others, or to travel. A regime where the will of one man -- Fidel Castro -- ranks supreme, and whose leaders don't hesitate to execute, persecute, or imprison its citizens to enforce that will.

Many Dominicans were extremely disturbed when -- during a ceremony at which Castro received our nation's highest medal -- President Leonel Fernandez stated that the event fulfilled ``the hopes of an entire generation'' and that the Castro regime ``constitutes a living force that has served to channel the hopes for justice of millions of human beings, not only in Latin America but also in other nations in the so-called Third World.'' He described Castro's regime as ``a symbol of the dreams of redemption of a major sector of humanity.''
If what our president said is true -- if the Castro regime represents ``the dreams of redemption of a major sector of humanity'' and if this sector consists ``not only [of] Latin America but also [of] other nations in the so-called Third World'' -- then what does the Dominican government led by Fernandez represent?

Clearly, something is wrong here. Fundamentally, Castroism and Dominican democracy have nothing in common. They're opposite forms of government. If one represents justice, the other cannot.

It pains us to write this, to bring this alternative to public attention, but do it we must: Either Fernandez erred on this occasion, or the Dominican people have been mistaken for almost four decades.