A dinosaur encased in an iceberg

Published Wednesday, October 15, 1997, in the Miami Herald

A dinosaur encased in an iceberg

This editorial, on the recently concluded Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, has been translated and is reprinted from the conservative Madrid daily ABC.

THE PARALLELISM between the twilights of dictatorships is astounding. When a political regime hangs from the tidiness of someone's beard, the strength of his voice, or the length of his speech, something is amiss in the concept of politics as the pursuit of the common good.

Fidel Castro was in the news recently for all the above reasons, even if he couldn't conceal the symptoms of sclerosis evident in his regime. And he demonstrated that a political system based on personal power has but one mission: to prevent its own extinction by whatever means necessary.

Castro behaves like a patriarch on an island, the beautiful Cuba, still unable to realize that his role in the Cold War drama was only as an extra, a pawn on the chessboard of world supremacy. The problem was that he ended up on the losing side and refused to admit that by siding with the losers, he was leading his people into a dead end.

Castro remained in Utopian bliss at the opening of another frustrating Cuban Communist Party Congress. The dictator was hailed by an ideological claque that has eliminated all self-criticism and blames alleged foreign enemies for the blunders of Castro's economic and political system, a dinosaur encased in an
iceberg.

But even though he has stifled the voices of dissenters, the anguish of the alienated, and the wailing of the poor, the people of the Western world -- even those who applauded with adolescent admiration his revolutionary agenda -- turned their backs on him long ago.

It is true that the barely flexible policies of Cuba's neighbor to the north are not pleasant. But it is also true that the criminal acts that the Castro government has committed amply deserve the kind of condemnation expressed by harsh isolation.

To Spain, Cuba is not a minor issue; quite the contrary. Its past and its future are rooted in our collective sentiment; they are near and emotional. For that reason, the Spanish government should not lose heart -- despite the Castro government's infuriating standoffishness -and must continue to press for a democratic and peaceful way out, a solution that eschews resentment and resolutely protects human rights and political
freedoms.

Because even though Castro believes that he can leave everything neatly bundled and wrapped, reality will overtake him, as it has in the past. Far better it would be for Cuba if the bindings were loosened, if a reasonable transition were effected, and if a way could be found to reverse the suicidal stubbornness of those who confuse their desire for power with the interests of the people whom they claim to serve.

The outlook for this congress could not be more disheartening, however: a hunkering down behind statism, despite the ``temporary'' problems besetting the domestic economy and despite the slogans of unity.

As Castro said last Wednesday [Oct. 8], ``we'll do anything but retreat.'' The dictator has brought Cuba to the edge of the abyss and is asking it to take a step forward.