September 11.
In commemoration of September 11 I would like to post a letter I sent to the Los Angeles Times after Augusto Pinochet died. It was on this tragic date in 1973 when a military coup backed by the CIA toppled democracy in Chile. Elected president Salvador Allende was assassinated and general Pinochet became a dictator.
My note was a response to a text by Jonah Goldberg and it was not published. Like a stubborn communist that justifies Stalinism as the only way to stop capitalism and Nazism, he justified Pinochet in relation to Fidel Castro and in order to stop communism.
December 19th, 2006.
My father's friend Victor Jara had his hands chopped and was forced to play his guitar until he bled to death in a packed Santiago stadium. My first drawing teacher Eugenia had to spit her teeth in a class in front of me and other kids in Mexico City. She got them weak after electrical shocks in her gums and her genitals in Chile. She was arrested for being a teacher in the University. Pregnant women were tortured, forced to abort and often killed. Soldiers would adopt the sons of the parents they murdered. Like in Germany books were burned. In fact Nazi Germans assisted the Chilean, Bolivian and Paraguayan armies.
The Cuban revolution certainly has not led to a "socialist paradise" and has not been the solution as you point out. However the problems are the extreme inequalities, corruption and other humiliations from colonialism and U.S. intervention. The Batista dictatorship was not "destined for First World Status" as you preposterously claim (where the hell did you get that?). People in Latin America have tried social change through democratic means. Unfortunately the U.S. has constantly undermined these efforts and supported military coups, dictators and electoral fraud in Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, etc. It was the impossibility of democracy what led to armed struggle. Allende strongly differ with Castro in his belief in democracy and died as a consequence. You do not seem to see the difference.
I have also Cuban friends that came to Mexico on their way to the U.S.A. Most of them artists that want to earn hard currency and are critical of the Castro regime. However they were not tortured, had the best art education in Latin America and the possibility to migrate to the U.S. You mention that a lot of people die crossing the ocean in their way to Miami escaping the failures of communism. More people died every year in the deserts of the U.S. Mexico border escaping the failures of capitalism and free trade. The Cubans are given residence and are martyrs of freedom. Poor Mexicans are prosecuted and considered criminals in their former land. Is this a Castro achievement?
One thing is to criticize Castro, another thing is to justify fascism. You should be more careful if you do not want to end as a bar of soap.
My note was a response to a text by Jonah Goldberg and it was not published. Like a stubborn communist that justifies Stalinism as the only way to stop capitalism and Nazism, he justified Pinochet in relation to Fidel Castro and in order to stop communism.
December 19th, 2006.
My father's friend Victor Jara had his hands chopped and was forced to play his guitar until he bled to death in a packed Santiago stadium. My first drawing teacher Eugenia had to spit her teeth in a class in front of me and other kids in Mexico City. She got them weak after electrical shocks in her gums and her genitals in Chile. She was arrested for being a teacher in the University. Pregnant women were tortured, forced to abort and often killed. Soldiers would adopt the sons of the parents they murdered. Like in Germany books were burned. In fact Nazi Germans assisted the Chilean, Bolivian and Paraguayan armies.
The Cuban revolution certainly has not led to a "socialist paradise" and has not been the solution as you point out. However the problems are the extreme inequalities, corruption and other humiliations from colonialism and U.S. intervention. The Batista dictatorship was not "destined for First World Status" as you preposterously claim (where the hell did you get that?). People in Latin America have tried social change through democratic means. Unfortunately the U.S. has constantly undermined these efforts and supported military coups, dictators and electoral fraud in Guatemala, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, etc. It was the impossibility of democracy what led to armed struggle. Allende strongly differ with Castro in his belief in democracy and died as a consequence. You do not seem to see the difference.
I have also Cuban friends that came to Mexico on their way to the U.S.A. Most of them artists that want to earn hard currency and are critical of the Castro regime. However they were not tortured, had the best art education in Latin America and the possibility to migrate to the U.S. You mention that a lot of people die crossing the ocean in their way to Miami escaping the failures of communism. More people died every year in the deserts of the U.S. Mexico border escaping the failures of capitalism and free trade. The Cubans are given residence and are martyrs of freedom. Poor Mexicans are prosecuted and considered criminals in their former land. Is this a Castro achievement?
One thing is to criticize Castro, another thing is to justify fascism. You should be more careful if you do not want to end as a bar of soap.
Labels: letters, textos censurados
posted by Rubén Ortiz Torres at
10:37 PM
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