Who Cares About Cuba?

IT is a bald question, and one that pops up from time to time: Why are Americans so indifferent to the plight of Cubans? Why do Americans, particularly our elites, scorn the exile community in Florida? Why do our elites continually excuse, or defend, or outright champion the Communist regime in Cuba? Why do the media ignore the heroics of Cuban dissidents, which should be the stuff of page-one stories, and magazine covers, and Movies of the Week? Why?

This is a question that Cubans and Cuban-Americans ask all the time, in anguished and bewildered tones. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former U.N. ambassador, says that all this is “both a puzzling and a profoundly painful phenomenon of our times.” What is “especially puzzling,” she continues, “is the extreme selectivity of concern over terrible, terrible suffering, the deprivation of all rights.” Americans followed the saga of South Africa with intense interest, and activism. The abuses of the Pinochet regime in Chile are the subject of film, song, and much else. The victims of right-wing dictatorship can usually count on the world’s attention. But those who dare to resist and challenge the regime in Cuba work in near-total darkness.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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IT is a bald question, and one that pops up from time to time: Why are Americans so indifferent to the plight of Cubans? Why do Americans, particularly our elites, scorn the exile community in Florida? Why do our elites continually excuse, or defend, or outright champion the Communist regime in Cuba? Why do the media ignore the heroics of Cuban dissidents, which should be the stuff of page-one stories, and magazine covers, and Movies of the Week? Why?

This is a question that Cubans and Cuban-Americans ask all the time, in anguished and bewildered tones. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former U.N. ambassador, says that all this is “both a puzzling and a profoundly painful phenomenon of our times.” What is “especially puzzling,” she continues, “is the extreme selectivity of concern over terrible, terrible suffering, the deprivation of all rights.” Americans followed the saga of South Africa with intense interest, and activism. The abuses of the Pinochet regime in Chile are the subject of film, song, and much else. The victims of right-wing dictatorship can usually count on the world’s attention. But those who dare to resist and challenge the regime in Cuba work in near-total darkness.