Silence Broken, Silence Enforced

How very lucky the Cuban people and the whole world are today! Raul Castro has emerged to give an interview. He has broken his silence of the past few weeks. We are informed that Fidel Castro is recuperating and that the doctors are doing a marvelous job.

Raul Castro, 75, thanked the doctors and others who have cared for his brother, saying they "have attended to him in an excellent manner … with much love and dedication. This has been a very important factor in Fidel's progressive recovery."

Raul Castro, the nation's Defense Minister, said he mobilized the island nation's troops in the hours after his brother's illness was announced July 31.

"We could not rule out the risk of somebody going crazy, or even crazier, within the U.S. government," he told Lazaro Barredo, editor of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

"I decided to substantially raise our combative capacity … including the mobilization of several tens of thousands of reservists and militia members," he said.

A noticeable but still discreet increase in the number of reservists on Cuba's streets was evident in the first days after it was announced Fidel had undergone intestinal surgery. Cubans were asked to affirm their allegiance to the government and willingness to fight for it in the event of an attack.

Raul Castro, has been at his brother's side since launching the revolution with the attack on the Moncada military barracks in 1953 and fought with him in the Sierra Maestra mountains against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As No. 2 man in the government, the younger Castro is constitutionally designated to replace his brother should he die or become incapacitated.

Yes, indeed we certainly are lucky to hear from Raul. There are a few other people it would be nice to hear from as well, though:

Ricardo González Alfonso; Víctor Rolando Arroyo; Normando Hernández González, Julio César Gálvez; Adolfo Fernández Sainz; Omar Rodríguez Saludes; Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez; Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo; Pedro Arguelles Morán; Pablo Pacheco Avila; Alejandro González Raga; Alfredo Pulido López; Fabio Prieto Llorente; Iván Hernández Carrillo; José Luis García Paneque; Juan Carlos Herrera; Miguel Galván Gutiérrez; José Ubaldo Izquierdo; Omar Ruiz Hernández; José Gabriel Ramón Castillo; Léster Luis González Pentó Alfredo Felipe Fuentes; José Manuel Caraballo Bravo; and Oscar Mario González: We would like to hear their voices.

But they cannot speak to us from the cells they are being kept in by Raul Castro and the Cuban government. While Raul is free to speak to us, their silence is enforced by the Cuban authorities. They cannot speak to us because people like Raul and Fidel don't want them to speak. Instead they are jailed for daring to speak.

Here in America it is a popular pastime among some people to proclaim, long and loud – endlessly in fact - about how they are being silenced. They will be pleased to give television interviews to explain it to everyone, too. They will write endlessly about the way they are being oppressed. They will shout down anyone who tries to articulate a different opinion.

But in Cuba, there is silence from those who oppose Castro. It is enforced by putting those who would speak in prison and letting them rot there. It is reinforced by people around the world who admire Castro's Cuba and do interpretive dances to glorify Fidel. It is strengthened by those who cheapen the meaning of oppression by claiming their victimhood on television and in print. Silence enforced by indifference to real oppression.

I'll join Val Prieto in refusing to cooperate in that indifference.