Hentoff on Cuba...

The latest nastiness from Cuba's dictator.....

We've seen the worldwide broadcasts showing courageous Iraqi citizens risking their lives to vote. But much less media attention is being paid now to Cubans — still free in spirit and conscience — who plan to gather in Havana on May 20 for a general meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba, an organization comprised of 365 independent groups whom Castro has yet to terrify into silence. Assembly members risk long-term imprisonment in Fidel's gulags.

Among the delegates to that May 20 meeting are two librarians from Eastern Cuba — Elio Enrique Chavez and Luis Elio de la Paz. They cannot attend, however, because in a secret trial they were sentenced to prison on a charge of dangerousness (peligrosidad). Castro does indeed see the attendees to this Assembly, as well as other resisters across the country, as a danger to his brutal regime.

In a statement on the librarians' imprisonment, the executive committee of the Civil Assembly reports to the world: "This case demonstrates that Fidel Castro and his regime are employing all their resources and methods to frustrate the preparations and ultimately prevent the General Meeting of the Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in Cuba on May 20th.

"We are calling the attention of the international organizations and community in general to the risks facing the participants of the Assembly."

Where are all the Hollywood actors who typically fawn on Castro?