XPost: soc.culture.costa-rica, soc.culture.puerto-rico, soc.culture.peru   
   From: delacruz@heaven.com   
      
   Fidel Castro has yet to face justice   
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   >      by BONNIE ANDERSON   
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   >      Bonnie M. Anderson is a 27-year veteran of print, radio, Internet and   
   > television journalism in English and in Spanish. She has worked on camera   
   > for local, national and international news organizations, including two   
   > decades with NBC News and CNN. Anderson won seven Emmy Awards, was a   
   > finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has been nominated for the María Coors   
   > Cabot Lifetime Achievement Award which is sponsored by Columbia   
   > University.   
   > Capt. Anderson is now following a family tradition and is running a chart   
   > er   
   > fishing operation out of Culebra, Puerto Rico.   
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   >      It is deeply wrenching to witness a week of lavish celebrations   
   > honoring Fidel Castro's birth when most likely every day, somewhere in the   
   > world, anguished families quietly mourn the death of a loved one at the   
   > hands of this heartless, evil man. That Fidel, himself, may be dying is   
   > not   
   > much comfort to me. I believe in justice and while he will be judged by   
   > God   
   > when he dies, he has yet to be judged on Earth for his crimes against   
   > humanity.   
   >   
   >      My father, Howard F. Anderson, was only one of 20,000 people tortured   
   > and executed by Fidel Castro. Before my Dad's execution by firing squad,   
   > he   
   > had most of his blood drained from his body to be used for transfusions   
   > for   
   > the revolution ary troops. Other political prisoners who watched the   
   > execution from their cells told me years later that my father refused a   
   > blindfold. And he whistled as the bullets tore into his body. One of the   
   > few   
   > memories I have, since I was only 5 years old at the time, was that my Dad   
   > whistled when he was angry. With the ''ready, aim, fire'' order, I, too,   
   > was   
   > wounded forever more. This ruthless dictator robbed me of a lifetime with   
   > my   
   > father, a lifetime of fatherly advice, a lifetime of memories.   
   >   
   >      So no, I don't want to see him die this way, of natural causes, or at   
   > this time. I have always hoped the world would recognize him for what he   
   > is   
   > and that Fidel Castro would be judged, convicted and sentenced for his   
   > crimes against humanity in an international court of law. A death from old   
   > age is far, far too lenient a punishment for a man who has killed so many   
   > people, destroyed the lives of literally millions.   
   >   
   >      As a jour n alist, I refrain from generalities. But I do believe   
   > there   
   > are few Cubans on the island and even fewer Cuban exiles who have not had   
   > a   
   > family member either executed or imprisoned by this megalomaniac. What I   
   > fail to understand is why there seems to be little national compassion for   
   > the pain that Cuban exiles have experienced. Americans show compassion for   
   > cancer survivors, for DUI and rape victims, for people suffering from   
   > depression, physical and mental abuse. We show compassion for famine   
   > victims   
   > in Africa; as an NBC news correspondent, I broke stories about genocide in   
   > Ethiopia, and the world -- but especially the United States -- responded   
   > with millions of dollars of money, but most important, with compassion.   
   > Organizations have sprung up to defend and champion the victims of all   
   > these   
   > issues, and rightly so. There is public acceptance that these people hav e   
   > suffered and have been wronged. It is morally right. So why, I ask, are   
   > Cuban exiles not afforded the same support and compassion?   
   >   
   >      I was a CNN network executive when the Elián González issue was a   
   > major story. I was horrified by the coverage by my network and all others.   
   > It pained me deeply to see sound-bites by people who said about the   
   > Cuban-Americans in this country, ''Why don't they just get over it? It   
   > happened so long ago.'' I spoke up to my superiors at CNN. And I'm no   
   > longer   
   > there. What I told them was this: Would anyone dare tell a Holocaust   
   > survivor, or the sons, daughters and grandchildren of the Holocaust to   
   > ''just forget about it'' because it happened so long ago? Of course not.   
   > Castro did not kill as many as Hitler did, and I would never diminish the   
   > horror and huge dimensions of the Holocaust, but Castro was -- and is --   
   > our   
   > Hitler in Latin America.   
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   >      BORN IN CUBA   
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   >   
   >   
   >      Despite my Anglo name, I was born in Cuba. My mother was born there.   
   > Her parents are buried there. My father was buried there until Castro was   
   > so   
   > ticked off by an article I wrote in 1978 as a Miami Herald reporter that   
   > he   
   > had my father's remains dug up and thrown out. I am most proud of being   
   > Cuban American. And I want the rest of the world to understand our pain.   
   > It   
   > is part of our daily lives, no matter where we live. It is the ache of   
   > losing a country, but it is more than t hat, too. It is a loss we feel in   
   > our blood and in our bones. It is also clearly an emotional demise in many   
   > ways -- a void in our pasts which continues to the present and will   
   > continue   
   > through the future. You can't make up for years of lost family   
   > experiences -- norm al, human experiences that most other people enjoy.   
   > These are memories that have been stolen for all time. For myself, I have   
   > only two memories of my father and what saddens me is that I can't be   
   > absolutely certain that they truly are recollections or whether I've   
   > simply   
   > grasped onto scenes from the few home movies we managed to smuggle out of   
   > Cuba and morphed them into memories. When I think of this, it provokes a   
   > deep, dark cutting sadness in me.   
   >   
   >      Cuban exiles can't expect others who have not experienced what we   
   > have   
   > to actually know our pain and understand our passion for wanting to   
   > address   
   > the wrongs done us. Rape victims can't expect that. Neither can the   
   > parents   
   > of children who have been killed by drunk drivers, or family members who   
   > have lost loved ones in the current Iraq conflict. Or family members of   
   > the   
   > victims of Columbine, or 9/11. The people who survived the genocide in   
   > Ethiopia and in so many other places can't expect anyone to truly know   
   > their   
   > pain. Our pain is part of our spirit. The most we can hope for is   
   > compassion. The day that Castro's illness was first reported, I woke up   
   > very   
   > early and was watching CBS. On their early morning shows, they repeatedly   
   > said that ''Castro is considered a ruthless dictator by some in Miami.''   
   >   
   >      I fired off an e-mail to CBS President Sean McManus. What I wrote, in   
   > short, was this: If a man who murdered 20,000 people, imprisoned for   
   > decades   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)