By Brian Carnell

Tuesday, December 7, 1999

Somewhere along the line, Fidel Castro went from defender of the people's revolution to the funniest stand-up comedian in all of Latin America. In his latest monologue, Castro compared the reaction of police in Seattle to that of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Commenting on television images of the conflict between police and protesters in Seattle, Castro said, "They are images that not were even not seen in the era of repression in Chile, in the era of Pinochet."

Maybe Castro missed it, but several thousand people were murdered by Pinochet's regime, and quite a few were also killed and imprisoned for long periods of time under Castro's dictatorship for far less than the transgressions of the protesters in Seattle. Castro contrasted the way U.S. police handled protesters with the way he handled protesters during a riot in Havana several years ago.

Of course Castro left out a full description of how he would have handled protests in Seattle. Based on his actions before a recent international conference in Cuba, here's what the Castro plan would have looked liked: first, the leaders of the major anti-WTO organizations would have been arrested on charges of advocating counterrevolution. Second, the government would have arranged for "independent" pro-WTO demonstrators to gather in large numbers and then assault the anti-WTO contingent while police sat by and twiddled their thumbs. Finally, newspapers that reported anything contrary to the official Party line would be harassed, and journalists who were especially egregious jailed for several years.

Instead, in America we wait until people do millions of dollars in damages before firing tear gas and then have a very public debate over whether even that was an overreaction. Don't get me wrong, I don't think police in Seattle handled the WTO demonstrations very well, but the difference between Cuba and the United States is that I can say that without worrying about being indicted for counterrevolutionary activities.

There's a reason why so many people die trying to make get to the United States on inner tubes while, aside from a handful of convicted murderers, few Americans are in any hurry to emigrate to Cuba.

Source:

Castro says Seattle police "worse than Pinochet" Reuters, December 5, 1999.

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