SECTION: EDITORIAL & COMMENT; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 04G

LENGTH: 345 words

HEADLINE: EMBARGO EDITORIAL IGNORED CUBANS' PLIGHT

BODY:
The July 17 Dispatch editorial detailed for us the deleterious economic impact the trade embargo of Cuba is having on the American economy. According to the newspaper, the airline industry, the auto industry and the agricultural industry are all suffering because of the prohibition on trade with Cuba.

If these are consequences of the trade embargo on the largest economy in the world, imagine what must be the impact of the embargo on the tiny, desperately poor and underdeveloped Cuban economy. No wonder Fidel Castro has been busy mobilizing all his devotees in the media to agitate in favor of changing the U.S. government policies toward Cuba. As readers may recall, there is a list of human-rights demands put on the table by the American government as a prerequisite for lifting the embargo. It amounts to this: Castro, grant the Cuban people freedom to work and to keep the fruit of their labors, and we will lift our embargo on you.

It is ironic that the same media commentators who are so concerned about the rights of criminals in the United States are so unconcerned about the rights of innocent Cubans. The Dispatch , it seems, is willing to overlook the abuse and oppression inflicted on the Cuban people by Castro. Castro, in turn, is willing to starve the needy (the consequence of the embargo, according to the newspaper) rather than yield 1 inch in his uncompromising stance against human rights.

While The Dispatch appeals hypocritically to the interest of the business community in advocating an end to the embargo, Castro is unwilling, even in the smallest measure, to make any concession in the liberalization of his regime.

After a century of abuse, oppression, gulags, ration cards and starvation, when are the do-gooders in the press going to learn that the only solution to alleviate the misery of the people subjugated by communism is to aid them to be free of their chains? All the appeasing and all the acts of surrender to their tyrants would only contribute to the solidification of their bonds.

LUIS F. CASO

Worthington

LOAD-DATE: July 29, 2002