The Selling of Fidel Castro

Even today, the press continues to treat Fidel Castro as something of a mystery. This is due, in part, to the widely accepted myth that left-wing dictatorships are superior to right-wing, a myth clearly refuted by the historical evidence: no left-wing dictatorship has ever evolved toward democracy, while some right-wing dictatorships have done so. The myth, however, nourished by propaganda, persists; and the perceptions of journalists are correspondingly distorted. Instead of seeing in Castro a man primarily intent on personal power, the press listens to, debates and propagates statements about Cuba.

William Ratliff is senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of Castroism and Communism in Latin America and many other books and articles on Latin America.