Editorial

So much for Fidel Castro's charm offensive. Cuba's communist dictator tried to put a happy face on his tyrannical regime after the Soviet Union collapsed and brought his island's state-run economy down with it.

To calm the growing rumble of hungry bellies, Castro went so far as to legalize the dollar, encourage tourism, ease up on political arrests and allow families to open tightly regulated mom-and-pop restaurants. He even took to wearing business suits instead of military fatigues when welcoming such dignitaries as Pope John Paul II and former President Jimmy Carter.

But, while America's attention has been focused on Iraq, Castro's government has seized the opportunity to round up and charge dissenters on an unprecedented scale.

Since March 18, the government has arrested at least 78 prominent human rights activists, independent trade union leaders and independent journalists and charged them with ambiguous state crimes. Some face possible life in prison for allegedly collaborating with the U.S.

Many of those arrested are associated with the Varela Project, a courageous initiative that captured world attention and Carter's endorsement during his visit last year. The organizers collected more than 30,000 signatures on petitions calling for free speech, free association, free enterprise and other democratic reforms.

Facing long prison time as a result are poet and journalist Raul Rivero; dissident economist Martha Beatriz Roque; opposition labor activist Pedro Pablo Alvarez; prominent Castro critic Oscar Elias Biscet; and Ricardo Gonzalez, editor of Cuba's only dissident magazine.

Cuba launched a pre-emptive strike against its international critics by scolding the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva for becoming an "instrument" of "pious pontificating" from Western leaders.

It probably is not coincidental that two skyjackings and a ferry hijacking have occurred in Havana since the crackdown began. Like Haitians, Cubans tend to escalate their efforts to flee across the Florida straits when tensions rise back home. Cuba's peso has collapsed, its economy is in crisis and criticism of the regime has been growing, even from the island's normally passive Catholic Church leadership.

The European Union, which, unlike the United States, maintains diplomatic and business ties with Cuba, is among the critics. Nine U.S. senators who favor easing economic and travel sanctions against Cuba have called for political prisoners to be spared from Castro's crackdown and released from prison.

Whether Castro saw the war in Iraq as an opportunity, or he is growing worried that economic chaos will breed dissent, he has made a terrible misstep here. He can try to silence Cuban dissidents by hauling them off to prison, but the very act assures that their voices are heard more loudly and clearly around the world.