Get me a Spanish doctor too

Dissident Hector Palacios went to Spain last October for medical treatment. With his spunk and optimism fully restored, he traveled to Warsaw and declared that the fiftieth year of Cuban socialism, which began January 1, will be its last: “Every Cuban who lives at least a year will see a free Cuba.” He also said, “We, the opposition, are prepared for the moment when Castro will disappear and we will have to assume a transition toward democracy, we are prepared and we are capable of governing the island and taking it out of the misery in which it has been left by so many years of dictatorship.”

Palacios also differed with Spain’s policy toward Cuba, saying that it’s impossible to have a “dialogue with killers, much less to talk with them about human rights.” That sounds like he is saying that no one should talk with Cuban officials about human rights issues. I have never heard him or anyone in Cuba’s opposition take that position, and I have to assume that something is missing in the account of Palacios’ statement from Warsaw.