It is the most enormous paradox that Western liberals should have this reverence for Castro, for he hates so many of the things they say they love. He is a great, and committed, supporter of capital punishment. Amnesty International, an organisation dear to the hearts of all Leftists, reports how 72 dissidents were rounded up and jailed in two separate incidents in 2003 and 2005: this is just a soupçon of the viciousness with which Castro treats dissent.

The journalists who find him frightfully witty, and claim to adore his country, are perhaps the biggest hypocrites of all. He runs a press that makes the Soviet-era Pravda look like a hotbed of radical debate. When a leading Cuban journalist was found "guilty" a few years ago of having contacts in the outside world he was promptly given 20 years in prison. It is no wonder so many people find Cuba so awful that they risk their lives on flimsy boats in shark-infested waters trying to get away.

For good measure, Castro also routinely imprisons homosexuals for no reason other than that he does not share their preferences. He has special quarantine camps for anyone who is HIV-positive. His commitment to multiculturalism is such that he sought, for the first 35 years of his rule, to have an atheist state, locking up priests and closing down churches and church schools. He has relaxed that slightly, perhaps with an eye to his future.

For all his ranting about collectivism, he is thought to be one of the richest heads of state in the world. Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $900 million, and it seems much of it has come from his cut of a lucrative drugs trade. He maintains power through a network of informers and a reign of fear. Poverty is endemic, food scarce, and the regime's determination to exert control means that wealth-creating technology such as the internet or mobile telephony are almost unknown.