I can feel your angst. Your perception of the Cuban reality may be based more on adverse historical events that may, or may not have been the case but exceptions. The unfortunate thing about changing regimes in any country is that the new government becomes so much like the old and perpetuates the very things that were so hated in the old.

Your reference to the French revolution is an excellent case in point. It would be hard to imagine a nation more repressed than Batista's Cuba. I doubt that the repression under Castro came close, but I readilly agree that any is too much. Looking at UNESCO reports I see exponential improvements in literacy, infant mortality rates, public health care, and education. I recently talked to a 19 yr old girl about what she had to do to be eligible for licensure as a dentist in Florida. The amount of training she had already achieved was remarkable.

Whatever the evils of the Castro rule and in spite of the demonization of the Castros, talking to young, educated Cubans like this inclines me to have a very positive prognosis for the future of Cuba. We do need to remove this stupid right-wing directed punishment of the embargo and let Cuba enter the world of nations and evolve according to the path she chooses.

Oh, and I agree with you assessment when you say, "I decided then and there that the simplest way to identify a dictatorship was if a state restricted the right of its citizens to travel abroad freely." With this in mind, doesn't it give you pause to ponder that the US citizen can freely and legally travel to Viet Nam, Cambodia, and China---but not to Cuba?

Publius