Castro dictatorship takes its fear to the streets

Pro-government supporters surround members of the "Ladies in White", a group made up of family members of imprisoned dissidents, preventing the group from marching in Havana April 18, 2010. Cuban authorities blocked the weekly protest march by the dissident group on Sunday and set government supporters shouting and jeering at them for more than two hours. (Reuters photo)

The Castro dictatorship cannot help itself.

As a thugocratic dictatorship it has no legitimacy drawn from the will of the Cuban people so it must exercise force and other tools to generate the fear that ensures, at least in the short term, its survival.

That's why the dictatorship couldn't help itself on Sunday when it unleashed a mob to try to threaten and intimidate a small contingent of the Damas De Blanco, or "Ladies In White," who wanted nothing more than to attend Mass and then march through Havana to demand the release of their imprisoned loved ones.

For years, the dictatorship had ignored the Damas as they gathered each week to peacefully protest for the release of their husbands, fathers, brothers and other relatives. The government ignored them and, for the most part, so did the rest of the world.

But in recent weeks, especially since the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the dictatorship has turned hard against the Damas, as if it had conceded that the heightened attention on its dismal human rights record was threatening its very existence. Its fear is rising.

To survive, the dictatorship realized, it has to act like a dictatorship, even against a group of women armed with nothing more than flowers and the force of their own will.

The dictatorship would be smart to retreat from this battle of wills with the Ladies In White. It may have the mobs on its side, and that is all.

For the more that it shows its true colors, like it did on Sunday, the more it reveals its fear, and how it knows its days are numbered.