In today’s Impromptus, I have some notes supplementary to a piece we published in a recent NR: a piece on Felix Rodriguez, the ex-CIA man. (He helped hunt down Che Guevara in Bolivia, and had a remarkable final conversation with him.) Rodriguez was born and raised in Cuba. But, like many others, he found it uncongenial to stay there.
On the subject of Cuba, I’d like to publish a letter I received from a reader two days ago:
Jay,
Was in Washington, D.C., last week with my daughter when we stumbled upon a rally of 25 or 30 protesters who were demanding the release of the “Cuban Five.” [They are now the Cuban Four, by the way — one is back in the Castros’ care.] When I explained to my daughter that the Cuban Five are convicted Castroite spies, she was surprised there would be a rally organized for them in front of the White House — complete with signs, chants, bullhorns, the works.
To make clear to her I was not mistaken, I walked up to one of the leaders and asked, “Are the Cuban Five working against Castro?” He immediately responded, “No! They are working for Castro!” To which I replied, “So this rally is in favor of Castro’s government?” He answered, “Yes, of course!”
At that point, I began a very loud chant of my own: “Free the Cuban people from the brutal Castro!” Honest to goodness, they all stopped chanting just to stare furiously at the interloper. My daughter looked on with a big smile, getting quite a kick out of the scene. The police seemed amused as well.
Anyway, I kept it up just for a few minutes [an eternity, in my view] — but I walked away glad I’d taken the trouble.
Some people have you-know-whats of brass. I am agog at our reader.
P.S. This summer, two Democratic congressmen held a reception in support of the Cuban Five on Capitol Hill. Of course.