Fidel Castro is getting up there in years, having turned 80 this past August. In 2003, President Bush created the Commission for Assisistance to a Free Cuba. The group's stated mission is to rid Cuba of Castro if at all possible, but also to prepare for the eventual post-Castro world. (Though it might not be that post-Castro -- Fidel's brother Raul is considered the leading contender to take power.) The head of the commission is Caleb McCarry, a former chief of staff to the House International Relations Committee under Henry Hyde.

In presenting the commission's second annual plan for Cuba, McCarry was asked by a reporter if it made sense to partner with Cubans moving forward, given their scant experience in having dominion over their own lives. Yup, it is, he said, adding:

Cubans are demanding their rights. Cubans are asking their government to give them freedoms that Americans take for granted in our own nation.

I'll give you a specific example. Guillermo Fariñas is an independent journalist. It also happens his background is that he's a wounded Angola war veteran. And he's been on a protracted hunger strike. What for? He's asking for uncensored internet access for ordinary Cubans. Cubans are making their demands known to the government and it is they who will define a democratic future for their country. And the Compact and the report are a very concrete expression of the support of the United States for their efforts. (emphasis mine)

Reporters without Borders -- Reporters sans Frontières for the more French among us -- reported on July 4th that Fariñas is still being treated at the Villa Clara hospital in Cuba. He's back on an intravenous food drip, after having disconnected it several days earlier.