Cuba’s immensely wealthy Castro family, which Forbes magazine pegs for just under a billion provable dollars, is beginning to look outward for asylum with their money. That’s why the Chilean press yesterday reported that Mrs. Castro, the second or third wife of the Cuban dictator, has just bought a parcel of land straddling the Chile-Argentina border. That way, if something goes wrong on an extradition or truth commission subpoena, she can step over the boundary and remain on the estancia. It’s an amazingly shameless effort to launder out the ill-gotten Castro fortune into potential palaces of exile. In Cuba, the word is sinverg????enza.

But it does tell us one powerful thing: The Castroites are no longer confident that tyranny will remain in Cuba after Castro’s trip to the ash heap of history. They see democracy on the rise and slyly recognize that all of their ill gotten gains will not be strong enough to halt its inevitable advance as millions of people at long last seek freedom. They see it coming. And like rats on a sinking ship, they are bailing out with the loot, now.

George and Henry at Babalu have the whole story, including translations from the Chilean press and a lovely photo of Mrs. Castro in this first-rate post here.