Fear of freedom

For this editorial, a writer in Cuba could be sent to prison for 30 years. That is the upshot of measures that Fidel Castro pushed before the island's National Assembly. These penal ``reforms'' also bring back the firing squad for drug trafficking and stiff sentences for theft, prostitution and people-smuggling.

But the ultimate threat came in a ``law'' designed to smother Cuba's dissidents and independent press. Not that Cuba's regime has ever needed a law to systematically violate human rights. Those who express ``counter-revolutionary'' views -- for example, publicly warning of a dengue-fever outbreak -- long have been harassed and jailed.

Now, though, tougher provisions outlaw the ``supply, search or gathering of information'' and ``collaboration . . . with radio and television stations, newspapers, magazines and other mass media.'' Also criminal is the giving, receiving or requesting of material or financial aid when the aim is to endanger ``state security,'' however the state defines it. For this, Cubans will be jailed up to 30 years and fined the equivalent of 38 years of salary.

In other words, Castro is terrified of recent U.S. measures making it easier to send cash and aid to groups independent of the government and promoting people-to-people contact.

It's tempting to think of Castro's pathetic tactics as the last gasps of an obsolete authoritarian. But the man is so stubborn . . . he may live 20 more years out of sheer spite. No secret, either, is Cuba's habit of torpedoing moves by the United States that might improve relations. Cuban exiles and the U.S. government must not take the bait now. The U.S. measures to encourage cultural and other exchanges and humanitarian support for Cuba's people must continue.

Clearly the regime is desperate. Its economic and social policies have failed, as have tries to lure foreign investment. That's why theft and prostitution are rampant. People without access to dollars somehow must find ways to survive.

Though he engineered Cuba's moral and material bankruptcy, Castro still blames the United States and the trade embargo. Of course. That's bait, too, for world leaders who love to hate America. The King of Spain and Ibero-American heads of state plan visits to Cuba this year. Shamefully, they pay the dictator respect that is not due.

If it wasn't plain before, it should be now: Castro will stop at nothing to hang on to power. The least that celebrity visitors to his kingdom can do is to call him to account for human-rights crimes.