Fellow travellers

The arrest and continuing harassment of dissidents in Cuba by the Castro regime is unlikely to get much coverage in the mainstream media, either in the United States or elsewhere.

But I bet you a cold beer or two that there will be plenty of interest globally in this media release issued by Pastors for Peace, a group of publicity-savvy US Christians and other fellow travellers who collect and then deliver donations to Cuba every year or so.

The group, which has a long and shameful history of supporting the Castro brothers through thick and thin, is complaining that agents from the Homeland Security Department seized more than 30 old computers bound for Cuba.

The computers were confiscated at the US-Mexican border, prompting a spokesman for the Pastors to complain of having been “intentionally provoked and harassed” by American authorities.

Now, let's be charitable here and give the Pastors and their supporters the benefit of the doubt - after all, they are well-meaning Christian folk, aren't they?

But if they are serious and want to learn more about provocation and harassment from other, well-meaning Christians, this is what they should do when they get to Cuba, with or without the old computers: they should have a chat to the likes of Osvaldo Paya or the Damas de Blanco and their relatives. Don't hold your breath.