Not that the comandante will be brought to trial as a result of
Lewisch's efforts. Unlike Pinochet, Castro is an incumbent tyrant, not a
retired one. And he will have learned from what befell Pinochet not to
travel to countries where the rule of law is taken
All the same, it will be instructive to discover whether Lewisch's
attempt to bring Castro before the bar of justice is supported by those
who cheered Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish magistrate who requested
Pinochet's extradition from Britain. Kofi Annan, for example. The United
Nations secretary general hailed Pinochet's arrest as sign that
``international human-rights law is coming into its own.'' Will Annan now
say the same thing about the suit against Castro?
Amnesty International (despite its name) favors putting Pinochet in the
dock and so testified before the British Law Lords. ``It is vital now,''
says David Bull, Amnesty's director, ``that justice is done.'' Does
Amnesty consider it vital that justice be done in Castro's case, too?
Intellectuals have been especially insistent that Pinochet answer for
his felonies:
Where do Rushdie and Dorfman stand on calling Castro to account?
We know where Bill Clinton stands. On Jan. 5 the administration
announced a series of changes to America's anti-Castro embargo. The flow
of dollars into Cuba will be increased, direct mail delivery will be
established, the sale of U.S. goods to ``independent'' Cuban farms and
restaurants will be authorized and cultural and athletic exchanges will
take place -- including a visit to Cuba by the Baltimore Orioles.
All of which is likely to have the effect not of making life better for
ordinary Cubans but of strengthening Castro's grip on power -- and of
eroding what little remains of the lonely U.S. campaign to isolate and
exhaust the last dictator in the Western Hemisphere.
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the putsch that launched
Castro's despotism. These four decades have been the worst in Cuban
history.
It is true that the junta in Havana is no longer as homicidal as it
once was, but that is only because it no longer needs to be. The Cubans
who most hated Castro's communism, who most yearned to live in a free
democracy, are dead now. Or in exile. It is natural for tyrannies to
become less murderous as time goes on; there are fewer resisters left to
murder. He massacres when he wants to, though. And not only Cubans.
In February 1996 three U.S. citizens and one legal U.S. resident were
massacred when Cuban MiGs blew their two tiny airplanes out of the sky
over international waters. Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña,
Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales were killed in cold blood as they patrolled
the Florida Straits for the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue,
searching for Cuban boat people in need of help.
Like all of Castro's victims, these were real human beings, men with
families and friends and dreams for the future. In an earlier era, the
naked murder of four U.S. civilians by a strutting dictator would have
ignited a terrible American fury. Today it ignites nothing. After 40
years, we have grown so accustomed to Castro's barbarities that we treat
Cuba's enslavement as a normal fact of life.
Bring Castro to justice? We'll leave that to idealistic French lawyers.
Americans can't be bothered.
Bringing Castro to trial
seriously.
©1999 The Boston Globe
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald