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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Master (Hijacked) who wrote (6597)	5/29/2000 12:41:00 AM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9127

Complicating assumptions about Cubans "fleeing Castro" is the constant stream of people fleeing all sorts of poor countries, many at risk of their lives. There was a Business Week article, I think three weeks ago, that dealt with a very analogous circumstance--the thousands who have drowned trying to make the sea voyage from Morocco to Spain, where they seek to become migrant farm workers. These people surely aren't "fleeing Castro", unless they are demented. It is mainly economic, as has been the flow of Mexicans across our borders (many of these have lost their lives in the immigration attempt as well). Now, conditions in both Mexico and Morocco are abysmal, and few Americans would recognize either of these places as a land of freedom. I must say, however, that the King of Morocco is welcome in the halls of power here any day (brush off that red carpet!). Try moving to Rabat and setting up a website criticizing the King--you'll be treated to a burial at sea. Now, none of this excuses Castro. But it is simplistic to say that all Cubans fleeing are doing it out of personal animus toward Castro. I believe it is largely an economic migration. If it's dictators we don't like, it's time to fire up that embargo against Morocco, Saudi Arabia and, oh yes, Alberto Fujimori's Peru. (You know Fujimori, don't you?--when the press started criticizing him, he seized the main television station & made its owner flee to Miami under threat of death). Castro is a petty dictator, much like others we warmly embrace, and a very common type in Latin America and elsewhere. To say that people want to leave Cuba mainly because of him, rather than the poverty we find in so many places, is to ideologically cloud an issue that is simpler (and more disturbing) than we would like to contemplate.