Little Elian is a superb present to the regime, I judged from watching Fidel Castro listening to these interventions. Demonstrating for Elian does not feed the eleven million Cubans, but it does divert public opinion from the regime’s failures. It also provides a unique opportunity to crack down on opponents – so-called counter-revolutionaries.
When Elian’s mother decided to risk her and her son’s life, it must have been because she thought that beyond the dark sea lay a better world. Freedom may have been the reason for her fatal escape to the US.
