An impromptu meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has tarnished a successful trade mission by Gov. John Baldacci.

Before the governor left for the Caribbean nation, the Sun Journal asked his office if the trip included a visit with Castro. The answer was a solid no. A copy of the official agenda for the trip also showed no meeting with Castro.

Castro, a showman and tyrant, likely had other plans all along. He showed up at a meeting with the governor. The two, according to the governor’s office, talked about dairy cows. No politics, no way.

The mission to Cuba helped secure $20 million in export contracts for Maine businesses, a better return than similar trips to Italy, France and Ireland provided. The new trade deals are a boost for state producers and are good for the Maine economy.

But Castro, always a master manipulator, was able to exact a political price for the trade deals. Appearing with a sitting U.S. governor gives Castro status he does not deserve.

Castro maintains political power by mercilessly wielding the weapons of an authoritarian state. He sends mobs to the houses of dissidents, his regime is holding an estimated 300 political prisoners and does not tolerate dissent. In March 2003, 75 activists were rounded up during a government crackdown called “black spring.”

Reporters in Cuba are jailed, and the country’s population is isolated from much of the world, confined to poverty and dependent upon the state. According to Human Rights Watch, “The Cuban government systematically denies its citizens basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, movement, and a fair trial. It restricts nearly all avenues of political dissent, and uses police warnings, surveillance, short-term detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, criminal prosecutions, and politically motivated dismissals from employment as methods of enforcing political conformity.”

Despite a decades-old embargo against trade with Cuba, the United States has slowly been expanding trade deals with the country. In 2000, Congress loosened the rules for dealing with the country, and at least 38 states have taken advantage of the change. The United States long ago decided the increased international trade would sometimes require dealing with despotic regimes. Trade with China was almost $4 billion in October of this year alone and approached $34 billion in the first 10 months of 2005.

The deals signed during the trade mission to Cuba will be good for the Maine economy, which has increased its exports in the past four years, shipping goods worth $2.4 billion in 2004 alone.

According to the governor’s office, Baldacci did not ask for the meeting with Castro and had no intention of meeting with him. The trip was about trade, not politics.

But politics intruded. We can understand not wanting to jeopardize $20 million in trade, but given the unwelcome opportunity to speak directly with Castro, the governor had a chance to deliver a message about more than dairy cows.

Perhaps, something similar to what former President Jimmy Carter told the Cuban people during a 2002 speech on the island nation: “After 43 years of animosity, we hope that someday soon, you can reach across the great divide that separates our two countries and say, We are ready to join the community of democracies,’ and I hope that Americans will soon open our arms to you and say, We welcome you as our friends.'”