Bardach to Stone: You’re an idiot, aren’t you?

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One of my favorite writers on Cuba, Ann Louise Bardach, has interviewed Oliver Stone about his new documentary on Fidel Castro. The interview is really breathtaking for the idiocy and ignorance that Stone spouts. It is especially sad because I think Stone is representative of so many people who want to believe the myth of a just Cuban revolution. Here are some choice snips:

ALB: But Cuba’s leader for life is sitting in front of these guys who are facing life in prison, and you’re asking them, “Are you well treated in prison?” Did you think they could honestly answer that question?

OS: If they were being horribly mistreated, then I don’t know that they could be worse mistreated [afterward].

ALB: So in other words, you think they thought this was their best shot to air grievances? Rather than that if they did speak candidly, there’d be hell to pay when they got back to prison?

OS: I must say, you’re really picturing a Stalinist state. It doesn’t feel that way. You can always find horrible prisons if you go to any country in Central America.

ALB: Did you go to the prisons in Cuba?

OS: No, I didn’t.

ALB: So you don’t know if they’re any different than, say, the prisons in Honduras then?

OS: I think that those prisoners are being honest.

…

ALB: Did it strike you as interesting that at one point in the scene with the prisoners, Castro turned to the prisoners’ defense lawyers, who just happened to be there, and he says, “I urge you to do your best to reduce the sentences”?

OS: I love that. I thought that was hilarious. Those guys just popped up.

ALB: Is there a show-trial element here?

OS: Yeah. I thought that was funny, I did—the prosecutor and Fidel admonishing them, to make sure they worked hard. There was that paternalism. I mean “father knows best,” as opposed to totalitarianism. It’s paternalism, that’s what I meant. It’s a Latin thing.

Apr 15, 2004 | Comments

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One comment posted

  1. Posted by Syntacticus - 04/19/2004

    Check out this idiotic article on Cuba by columnist Courtland Milloy in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22945-2004Apr18.html.

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