Over the past 10 years, I’ve travelled to Cuba three times, driving from Havana across the island to Santiago de Cuba and back on one occasion. Each time I went, I filmed documentaries on a variety of issues including the country’s political prisoners, the young dissident movement and the state of the Catholic Church on the island. During my travels, and my conversations with Cubans around the world, there was one analogy that keeps coming to mind, an analogy that the international community, leaders and every-day citizens alike, need to remember.

Cuba is a human zoo. Fidel Castro was its vicious zookeeper. We, the international community, have enabled this zoo to stay “open” for far too long.