Interestingly enough, we are unlikely to hear any words of condemnation from Neil Young or others who accuse President Bush of being a dictator, a Nazi, or of suppressing dissent in this country.

But then again, why should we be surprised. They like real dictators like the tyrant in Havana. And so they don’t mind the use of tactics like beating up old women.

A leading Cuban dissident has said she was badly beaten up by government supporters as she headed for a meeting organised by United States officials.

Martha Beatriz Roque said about a dozen people pushed her to the ground in front of her Havana home and one of them punched her in the face.

The 60-year-old economist was jailed in 2003 with 74 other dissidents but was freed a year later on health grounds.

Fidel Castro's government says its opponents are paid agents of the US.
Ms Roque said that a group of people gathered outside her home on Tuesday.

As she left to go to a meeting at the residence of the head of the US interests section, Michael Parmly, they pushed and shoved her to the ground.

A man then entered the building and hit her in the face after she shouted "Down with Fidel".

"They have been bothering Martha for months, but this is the first time she has been treated so brutally," Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights, told Reuters.

What a pity that JFK lacked the manhood to support the heroes of the Bay of Pigs – nearly half a century of brutal oppression by this molester of grandmothers would have been prevented.

Death to Castro!