Brazil's Lula has Rául's back
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came to the Castro dictatorship's defense Tuesday, saying he respected the Cuban "justice" system's decision to imprison political dissidents.
Lula revealed his pro-Castro sympathies — again — as Cuban dissidents implored him to intervene with Havana to save the life of Cuban hunger-striker Guillermo Fariñas, who is demanding the release of some two dozen critically ill Cuban political prisoners.
Here's guessing Lula's response will be very unlike that from France, where the government has demanded Cuba release its political prisoners, or from Spain, which has offered asylum to Fariñas — an offer he rejected.
"We have to respect the determinations of Cuba's judiciary and government in detaining people under Cuban legislation, as I would want them to respect Brazil's," he said.
"I wish that (the detention of political prisoners) did not happen, but I cannot question the reasons why Cuba detained them, just as I wouldn't want Cuba to question why there are prisoners in Brazil."
Lula, a former labor union leader who used hunger strikes to protest Brazil's military dictatorship during the 1960s and 1970s, also questioned Fariñas' use of a hunger strike to protest Cuba's military dictatorship, by comparing him and other Cuban protesters to Brazilian "bandits."
"Imagine if all the bandits who are imprisoned in Sao Paulo started hunger strikes and demanded freedom," Lula said.
Fariñas' protest and the preceding death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo are forcing the world to pick sides in the struggle for Cuban liberty.
I guess we can be grateful Lula is clear on where he stands, but his defense of the Castros illustrates how far we must go for freedom to prevail.
For more, read Alberto de la Cruz's commentary at Babalu.
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