Jeff Jacoby nails it:

''CUBA IS AN anachronism in our hemisphere, an anachronism on the face of the earth,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell remarked the other day. ''And the whole international community should be condemning Cuba.''


Who could disagree? In a ruthless crackdown just four weeks ago, the Castro regime rounded up 75 peaceful dissidents - economists, journalists, pro-democracy petitioners, even a poet or two - and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 28 years. The combined total of their sentences was a stunning 1,454 years. One US official characterized it as ''the most despicable act of political repression in the Americas in a decade.'' No less barbaric was the fate of three Cubans who attempted to escape Castro's island gulag by hijacking a ferry to Florida: They were killed by firing squad. Of course the whole international community should be condemning Cuba.

But it isn't. Last week Cuba was elected to a new three-year term on the UN Commission on Human Rights. There it will serve with such other human rights luminaries as Libya (which chairs the commission), Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Saudi Arabia. The American ambassador, disgusted by the commission's deference to the foremost human rights violator in the Western Hemisphere, walked out. No other country followed suit, not even the democracies. So much for the outrage of the ''international community.''

At least the UN commission didn't issue a statement defending Castro's dictatorship. That is more than can be said for the 160-plus ''artists and intellectuals'' - well, that's what Reuters calls them - who decided this would be a good time to issue a ''declaration of support'' for Cuba. Their statement parroting Castro's claim that the United States is plotting to topple him, warns that Washington's ''harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an invasion.'' Two entertainers, Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, are among the signers. So are a few Nobel laureates, including such icons of the left as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Rigoberta Menchu.

Gotta love those Nobel Laureates and their celebrity comrades.