Castro s Cuba Americans, for some reason, need be reminded is the most repressive society in the Western hemisphere, and one of the most repressive on earth. According to Freedom House, Cuba s respect for political and human rights ranks lower than that of Cambodia, Iran, both Congos, and Serbia and no better than Vietnam and the Sudan. We are here talking not just of Castro s crimes against would-be emigrants, grisly though they sometimes are. Nor is it merely a question of the laws Cuba applies to the unfortunates it manages to retain. Rather, it is the way Castroism treats families and children that renders ludicrous the notion that any Cuban father can speak freely about what is best for his son.
Family members are Cuban hostages.
It is a routine. Orlando El Duque Hern ndez, now of the New York Yankees, was banned from Cuban baseball for life because his brother defected to the United States. Before El Duque himself boarded a raft for the Bahamas and freedom, he was earning nine dollars a month mopping floors in a hospital and living in a cinderblock outhouse. Arroyo was convicted of hoarding toys. Not even the daughter of Ra l Castro, Fidel s brother and designated successor, was allowed to accept a scholarship to study in Mexico, for fear she would defect.