[A]s Frank Calzón, director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C., told Clyne—after Castro staged a huge anti-Bush rally on May 17, rounding up many thousands of Cubans—the staging of that event showed Castro “feels threatened by this group [organizing the May 20 meeting].” After all, as Calzón’s remarks were paraphrased in the Sun:
“A legitimate and freely elected leader doesn’t need to rally hundreds of thousands of people to support him when confronted with hundreds of nonviolent dissenters.”
While most of the American media were sleeping during the Cuban dissenters’ preparation for May 20, Meghan Clyne reported that the House of Representatives had passed (392 to 22) a resolution, H.R. 193, expressing “support and solidarity to the organizers and participants of the historic meeting.”
Among the 22 who voted against the resolution was New York’s Charles Rangel because, he complained to the Sun, American politicians “refuse to give the government [of Cuba] the respect that it deserves.” As for the imminent assembly on May 20, Rangel said, “I don’t think it helps to be supporting insurgents overthrowing the government.” It would be better, Rangel continued, to try “to reach out to the government to see what we can do to help both the government and people of Cuba, not just isolating them by dealing with dissidents.”
I have to agree with Rangel that USA politicians, by and large, do refuse to give the Cuban government the respect it deserves: none. The Cuban government will be getting the respect it deserves when they start treating it as an illegimate stain on humanity.