To the Editor:

Today I read the Letter to the Editor sent by Ziva Sahl, And that is the best answer possible to the letter of self determination.

I was a teenager when Fidel Castro “defeat Batista.”

Batista already lost the elections in November and Dr. Andres Rivero Aguero won the election and was supposed to be inaugurated on May 20, 1959.

What Batista did was a resignation before the change of power, and left the country, and if the constitutional transition happened, Castro did not have an excuse to continue the war. So he accelerated the offensive and took the country and changed history his way.

We, the Cubans who believed in the constitution, began an internal war. I was taken prisoner, and spent the next 14 years in forced labor concentration camps and prisons.

I saw many of my comrades executed for no reason, and just to talk about human rights violations, I need a thousand pages. He talks about embargo. There are over 150 countries that he has commerce with. Canada and Mexico sell to him everything he needs, the old Soviet Union gave Cuba more help than the Marshall plan gave to Europe after WWII, Europe flushed, and Cuba misused the money in expeditionary war.

The most important – Angola where 22,000 soldiers died out a population of 11 millions. For USA it’s a problem, the loss of 54,000 out of 200 million in Vietnam. Based in that proportion, Cuba shall be traumatized. The bodies of fallen American troops – most of them are returned home and their families can go to place a flower. Cuban soldiers bodies were never returned. So this monster called himself President (non elected) is good for that person, and for a Senator that went to Cuba recently. That is impressive!

Thanks to your newspaper and to Ziva Sahl for that great letter.

Hector Aballi

Miami, Fla.