Castro vs. Caetano

Photo/Agência Brasil (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Fidel_Castro5_cropped.JPG)

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Photo/José Goulão

It seems Fidel Castro is staying up on current events in his semi-retirement. The ex-Cuban leader has been writing columns about everything from biofuels to the tough immigration law passed by the European Union last week, perhaps making more news than he did when he actively ruled Cuba.

The latest subject to cross his sights has caused a minor stir in Brazil. In the preface of a newly released book, the 81-year-old attacked legendary Brazilian pop signer Caetano Veloso for criticizing Cuba's human rights record in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo last month.

Veloso was talking about a new song of his, "Baía de Guantánamo," which subtly criticizes U.S. treatment of prisoners on its base in Cuba. By the way, if you want to know everything about what happened at Guantanamo, check out McClatchy's epic series about it.

In the interview, Veloso said, "If you're talking about how human rights and about how the questions of freedom are observed and in respect to people, I'm 100 percent more U.S.A. than Cuba."

He also said he found the abuses at Guantanamo especially disappointing because he still thought of the United States as a world champion of human rights.

"If I was the kind of guy from the left, pro-Cuba, anti-U.S.A., what occurred in the prisons of Guantánamo wouldn't be any shock for me."

Veloso has some credentials in this field, having been arrested and expelled by Brazil's military government in the late-1960s for his social criticisms. He has of late walked a middle line politically, criticizing center-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and affirmative action as well as the United States.

To Castro, however, Veloso's statements were fighting words, and the veteran Communist swung back in the book preface.

"In two words: The Brazilian musician asked forgiveness from the empire for criticizing the atrocities committed in that naval base on occupied territory of Cuba," Castro wrote. He also said Veloso's statements were "evidence of the confusion and deceit sowed by imperialism."

Caetano shot back in his blog: "I'm an artist. My words are: Creation and freedom. If I don't submit to North American might, neither do I accept orders from dictators. Fidel owes us explanations about his identification with the police states that Communism created."

Brazilians, for their part, have found all this quite amusing, and the public war of words between one of their favorite pop stars and the former Cuban dictator has fueled countless commentaries.

One cartoon in the newspaper O Globo depicts Veloso singing on stage while backed on guitar by Castro in his ever-present jumpsuit, with the Cuban interrupting Veloso by crooning the words of a bossa nova classic, "If you say that I'm out of tune, my love..."