There seems a sense among other nations that the United States, in its rankling distaste for Fidel Castro, is perhaps too harshly critical of his
                                 regime. Abroad, Castro is treated as a leader who, though he has his unfortunate eccentricities, has done much for Cuba.

                                 Now a report from the United Nations, an organization never accused of being excessively critical of Castro, calling his harsh imprisonment of 75
                                 democratic activists an "unprecedented wave of repression." The author is French, no less, a judge named Christine Chanet who wrote the
                                 report for the U.N. Human Rights Commission's annual meeting next month. Chanet, according to the Associated Press, did all her work off the
                                 island because Cuba refused to let her into the country. The regime cited sovereignty issues, but one suspects the Cuban officials know that what
                                 they did to 75 of their fellow citizens is wrong.

                                 Cuba said the prisoners were guilty of conspiring with American diplomats to overthrow the socialist regime. Not quite. The 75 activists were
                                 seeking democratic elections and such civil liberties as a free press and freedom of assembly. Perhaps in the sense that if they had these rights
                                 the Cuban people might vote Castro out of office the activists were guilty of seeking to oust the government.