Book Note

This book need not fear the Cuban censors. Its basic mantra is “Castro good, the US bad!” This paean to Castro seeks to give a human rights orthodoxy to the notion that it is acceptable to suppress the political and civil rights of a people in order to achieve economic, social, and cultural rights. While it is no doubt true that insufficient attention has been paid to economic, social, and cultural rights, a correction to that imbalance is underway. Moreover, the strategic wisdom of the US embargo is certainly open to question. Nonetheless, it is disheartening to see a human rights scholar essentially justifying the suppression of basic human rights on so dubious an altar.