The recent frantic scramble for freedom by thousands of Cubans via the Peruvian embassy and in chaotically dispatched boats is an eruption of long-simmering anguish, not a sudden, new development. But the island might just as well be in the China Sea as ninety miles from the U.S., considering how little is known or acknowledged about life under the Revolution. There are several reasons for the misconceptions that have prevailed these twenty years. Castro's brilliantly orchestrated propaganda managed to conceal the darker realities, while in the U.S. the shrillness of right-wing attacks detracted from their credibility. Then there were the leftists, most of whom regarded Cuba as sacred territory: One did not dare criticize Castro's regime for fear of dooming revolution elsewhere.

lonas Jurasas, director of The Suicide now on Broadway, formerly headed the State Theatre of Kaunas in his native Lithuania. After his Moscow production of Macbeth was banned, he wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Culture in protest. He was immediately stripped of his position and, two years later, was permitted to emigrate together with his wife and son.

Involuntary disappearance within the Latin American region has been a frightening phenomenon over the past decade. Here I will deal with the two salient cases of Chile and Argentina, with briefer reference to other countries.

Involuntary disappearances, in the sense I will use the term, involve the arrest or surreptitious kidnapping of persons thought to be out of sympathy with the regime in power, carried out by agents of the government or by semi-legal organizations abetted by, if not fully responsible to, the authorities; the disappeared person is not heard from again, and the fact of his or her arrest, incarceration, or assassination is, in the situations we are dealing with, routinely denied by the agencies of government. In numerous instances, especially in Chile, the person's very existence is officially denied until government documents attesting to the person's birth, identity card number, etc. are brought forth.