A dictator's greatest enemy

The Cuban dictatorship's greatest enemy is information.

It is why there are more than two dozen journalists imprisoned in the Castro gulag.

It is why the Internet, decried by chief censor Ramiro Valdes as a "wild colt" — and like all wild horses, it is born to run free — is so heavily restricted.

And it is why three foreign news correspondents, a number sure to rise, are being kicked out of the country.

The Cuban dictatorship knows exactly what it is doing. It knows what it is at stake if it doesn't move against those, Cubans and non-Cubans alike, who seek to tell, and learn, the truth about its rule — especially at this pivotal moment in the nation's history.

In the hands of the skilled and the brave and those with just a litttle bit of tech savvy, information has the power to change the world. No one knows that better than a dictator, whose power, in part, is a product of his ability to control and keep hidden what the people know about his dictatorship, their nation and the world. They must operate in the shadows, pushing and pulling the levers of repression — which includes the power to censor — because they know that if their regime, and their people, are exposed to the sunlight of truth, their power cannot last.

The truth can be fatal for a dictatorship, and those who seek to learn it and spread it, whether from a wild horse or a more traditional means, are the greatest threats to its survival.