Castro

In the weeks that followed Fidel Castro’s successful revolution in Cuba, I saw, for the first time, real people being executed on television. Castro had, I as I recall, about 400 to 500 of his prisoners shot. I remember one black prisoner, an impressive young officer, who looked his firing squad in the eyes with defiance. He’d been bound tightly to a post and slumped when killed. 

By then I’d read Albert Camus and opposed the death penalty, but that alone would not have turned me against Castro. I supported the very few American governors who commuted all death sentences, but politicians like that have been rare. I voted at times for candidates lacking balls who reluctantly “followed the law” and sent prisoners to their deaths. I wasn’t a one issue voter. But I was a democrat, and Castro was a dictator. I didn't support him (or his assassination).  

Castro wasn’t always wrong. Democracies aren’t always right—in my life I’ve seen Presidents elected who were paranoid or senile. We just elected a minority President who is a narcissistic sociopath. But he can’t be a dictator, much to his and his voters disappointment.