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Cuba - Saddam and Fidel are birds of a feather Despite existing half a world apart, Iraqis and Cubans have many things in common. Both are ruled by autocratic tyrants, both are poor and hungry, both must watch what they say about their leaders and both are denied ordinary human rights.

With the world's attention focused on the war in Iraq, Fidel Castro appears to be taking the opportunity to make life even more difficult for Cubans who don't agree with him. In recent days he has been clamping down on their activities and making dozens of nighttime arrests on trumped-up charges. Pro-democracy dissidents, journalists and intellectuals are being seized at gunpoint and their homes searched. Some face 20-year sentences for their alleged crimes. Castro has also forbidden U.S. diplomats to travel freely about the island. ***

A Cuban wakes up facing only two problems every day: lunch and dinner *** "They were on a life-support system with Moscow holding the plug," said Larry Pascal, a partner with Haynes and Boone, a Dallas law firm. When the money stopped flowing from the Soviets, the Cuban economy went into a tailspin. Many people lost their jobs, and everyone received even smaller rations. In 1993, Castro legalized the use of the U.S. dollar, thus encouraging Cuban exiles to send their families money. The money Cubans receive now can be spent in the black market or at state-owned grocery stores, which garner most of the cash.

That is a source of controversy for many Cuban-American exiles who don't want to see any financial support flowing to the Castro regime. "The notion is that with the desire of helping their own relatives, they're also giving aid and help and support to the Castro regime," said Locay, whose family escaped Cuba when he was 6. That's why bumper stickers saying "Don't support the regime. Stop sending money to Cuba" are common in Miami, where 840,000 Cuban-Americans live. But many Cubans continue to send money because every U.S. dollar eases the daily burden of survival. ***