On meeting Castro, this was what Steven Spielberg had to say:

“The most important eight hours of my life.”

Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Arpad Goncz are less enthusiastic about Spielberg’s pal. Here’s an extract from a letter they published today:

“It is time to put aside transatlantic disputes about the embargo of Cuba and to concentrate on direct support for Cuban dissidents, prisoners of conscience and their families.

Europe ought to make it unambiguously clear that Castro is a dictator, and that for democratic countries a dictatorship cannot become a partner until it commences a process of political liberalisation.”