I've never understood the soft spot many artists have for communists like Fidel Castro and his Venezuelan lackey, Hugo Chavez. Harry Belafonte is the latest to endorse the Latin American thug, claiming "millions of the American people ... support your revolution."
I haven't talked to any of these millions of Chavez acolytes, but I did recently chat with a Venezuelan living in America, who confirmed that dissent was kept to a whisper in his home country. What a surprise. Can you name one Communist stronghold that ever allowed free expression?
As a writer, I value nothing more than my right to be a contrarian. That right doesn't exist in Venezuela or Cuba, or China, for that matter, just like it didn't in the Soviet Union.
Maybe Belafonte should brush up on his Alexander Stolzenhein, or Vaclav Havel. Art and communism don't mix.
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