Editor,

The American indictment against former Cuban president Raul Castro is reprehensible. To charge him with murder because the Cuban air force shot down a marauding airplane 30 years ago dropping anti-Castro leaflets on the city of Havana, after the Cuban government asked the American government to intercede to prevent such actions, is not justice, it is the actions of a bully regime. Imagine how long a Cuban plane would have been allowed to fly over Miami dropping anti-American leaflets. The Cubans have the right to defend their sovereignty.

The Americans have done everything possible over six decades to make life difficult for the Cuban people. Imposing strict sanctions and upholding a trading embargo has made it difficult for Cuba to trade for food and medical supplies. The people are going hungry and have lost medical care. The indictment has more to do with shoring up Trump support in his Florida base than it has to do with justice. Given the American bombing of schools killing children in Iran, given the Americans destroying fishing boats coming from Venezuela, killing those on board without proof and on the pretext that these people were terrorists, last week’s charges are more than hypocritical. This American president thinks that the rule of law and accountability applies only to other people. He has never accepted legal rulings against him.

Surely the international community, including a much more vociferous Canada, must speak up against this miscarriage of legal proceedings and raw aggression. Congressional members in the U.S. have failed to do their part to uphold American constitutional law. It is equally unacceptable for the international community to do nothing to intervene to protect a small, struggling hemispheric neighbour from this attack on its sovereignty.

Carl Hager, Gatineau