Gabriel Garcia Marquez was an early supporter of the Cuban revolution. His friendship with Fidel Castro, however, grew out of the Cuban dictator's admiration for his novels. When Marquez was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1982, Castro shipped 1,500 bottles of Cuban rum to Stockholm. Shortly thereafter, he gave the writer a mansion in Havana's elegant Siboney district.
"What outrages Mr Garc -- a Marquez's detractors," the Economist later reported, "is that he has chosen to remain defiantly silent while the rest of the world pours scorn on Mr Castro's repressive policies. Can pure friendship explain his acute case of what one critic called 'Castroenteritis'?"
[Marquez -- who once called Fidel Castro a "very cultured, well-read man" and often asked for his critical literary advice -- helped found the Bogota office of Castro's official press agency (Prensa Latina) and later acted as an intermediary between Castro and French President Mitterand to secure the release of jailed Cuban poet Armando Valladares.]
Sources
The Economist, Feb 12th 2004; The New Yorker, Oct. 6, 2003, p. 102
