Former Cuban President and leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, took leave of this earthly realm on November 25, 2016 at the age of 90. Coincidentally, his passing took place on the anniversary of the Granma’s departure from Mexico in 1959 to liberate Cuba. Despite the prevailing Washington narrative of […]
@David and Lt Truth, for all practical purposes why is “… what is feared to happen again under Trump Republican administration to suspected terrorists” such a big deal!
Torture as a mean of exacting data from a terrorist can be absolutely useful if one believes that immediate data can forestall major catastrophe. If you are captured on the ‘battlefield’ in a very dynamic situation (or sent to Gitmo) then it’s incumbent on the capturing officer to get info to benefit his forces.
He can use inducements or torture.
Data suggests that maybe 90% of officers and leaders abhor torture and also believe that it can elicit erroneous info as the prisoner says anything to ease the pain. However it’s also documented (truthfully or otherwise) that valuable info was gleaned from ‘torture’ during the real dog days of the terror fight.
Trump cannot revert to any pervasive torture – waterboarding or otherwise – PERIOD. …because it’s illegal! But he certainly can surreptitiously direct black ops teams to use it outside the US and then insulate them from prosecution.
That’s realistic and likely still happening!
But for all practical purposes, the intelligence services in no less a person than the 4-star Lt General touted as Sec of Defense says bluntly that there are better ways then torture, so what Trump says on that subject is really a moot point.
Military officers will not simply torture folks on his grand mouthings and eventually have to endure the witch-hunt destruction of their careers long after the Don has reverted to his 3 floor luxury suite in NY!!!
@ SergeantSergeant
(Infant deaths per 1,000 live births)
Country Infant mortality rate
United States 6.2
Cuba 5.8
European Union 5.7
Italy 5.5
Most Cuban doctors are poorly trained and cannot pass other countries medial board tests.
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2016/11/18/guyanese-messengers-of-death-from-cuba-have-returned/
Medical boards
Truth on
Not slow enough to recognize that waterboarding is the best strategy to employ when dealing with the likes of Isis. With that being said, I would like to know your reason for objecting against waterboarding in a world of Isis?
Sargent so are those statistics meant to justify the horrors done under castro regime horrors that created wide spread poverty and enough dissidents fleeing his country. For most citizens in Cuba those statistics means little or nothing when having to go to bed regularly on empty stomachs and when poverty is wide spread ..so what good is longevity if one is living in deplorable conditions what purpose does it make except to prolong a life of misery.
I compare those statistics to the KKK holding themselves in high esteem quick to buy blacks school supply but denying them any means by which they can provide for themselves
AC
I really don’t agree with all Fidel Castro has done to his people and his country, but the same can be said for many of the earlier presidents of the United States, who were unmoved by the racial aparthied this country practiced back in the day, but I haven’t read of any nation instituting trade embargoes against the United States for its treatment of minorities.
AC
Look at communist China record of human rights violation, but yet the United States and Barbados can see no problem in dealing with this nation.
Watch CNN for the Cuban Americans in Miami flying their Trump placards while dancing and singing at Castro’s death. Not a black Cuban in sight.
Cuban Americans have always been in the fascist side of politics.
@Hal Austin
They are flying the Trump placards because he promised during his election campaign he would roll back what Obama had recently agreed with Cuba which they saw as strengthening the Castro tyrannical Regime they fled from.
@AC
The evil that men do lives after them……
I have been as critical of Castro as anyone but “Yuh gotta give Jack e Jacket”, could you answer this question Did he leave the country better than he found it? I didn’t come to praise or bury Castro but a dispassionate look at Cuba over the last half century would provide an answer to that question. Castro also helped to liberate Southern Africa when the world’s super powers were more interested in maintaining the status quo of kith and kin. We can debate the quality of Cuban trained Doctors but they also helped in improving the health of many in those impoverished nations.
History will absolve me (Fidel Castro October 1953)
See these same Cubans are the same ones who had belived Fidels lies and gave him power.isnt it ironic that after fifty years they would believed a man Donald Trump who has used lies and politicial propaganda to streamline himself all the way to the presidency
Could it be a fate of nature that the Cubans would endorsed Trump a masquerador and a extravaganza of enormous lies
Or could it be history repeating itself through the lens of the lost tribe of Cuba
Castro couldn’t have been all that bad because the late Nelson Mandela, a man who stood for equal rights and justice embraced Castro with open-arms a visited to South Africa. In any event, as a younger in Barbados the more I read about and studied Castro,the more I grew to love and respect what this man stood and fought for at a time in our history. But one day at District A Police Station, Invader number 2 the brother of the late Invader 1 of the CID, who was fluent in Spanish and a lover of Castro, told me in no uncertain terms don’t believe everything you read about Castro, take some time and study the man, and I took that advice and embarked on my own study of Castro, and shortly there after I grew to love and respect what this man stood to represent.
No Cuba is not better off..Reason being Fidel accomplishment of getting rid of imperialist was not sufficient and by all means Fidel was unable to provide the financial support that would uplift and drive the country economic and social enviroment to a better standard of living after making all those glorious and unrealistic promises
A country where the vast majority are living on bottom line of poverty and relying on govt rations for food . There is nothing in any sense of the word can mean good
The most i can say is that Fidel stood firm holding on to a dream that had become a nightmare while trying to affect the change he had promised by diplomatic grandstanding aligning himself to great notables like Mandella for obvious reason one of keeping himself in the spotlight and avoiding running the risk of total isolation
AC
Though Castro may have made some serious mistakes, I still do believe that his heart was initially in the right place. I do still believe that Castro had the interest of the Cuban People at heart, when he embarked on the quest to free his nation and its people from vice grip of American exploitation. Let us face it though, Castro came from the upper-class of the Cuban society, and you’re asking me to believe that this man of a wealthy father was motivated by dictatorial power alone?
Dompey fair enough. Unfortunately history has the last word something Fidel should have thought about in his quest to bring about change for his people
@ Dompey
For once you have hit the nail on the head.
Fidel Castro lived in opulence whilst the people in Cuba suffered meager State hand outs.
Fidel Castro lived like a king with his own private yacht, a luxury Caribbean island getaway complete with dolphins and a turtle farm, and travelled with two personal blood donors.
In La Vie Cachée de Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro’s Hidden Life), former bodyguard Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a member of Castro’s elite inner circle, says the Cuban leader ran the country as his personal fiefdom like a cross between a medieval overlord and Louis XV.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/fidel-castro-lived-like-king-cuba
Truth
Fidel lived in Havana in a four-bedroom house, drank brandy occasionally, owned a powerful boat, was protected by a security detail and had access to a network of safe houses located across Cuba.
So what. The Americans and their Cuban clients were constantly trying to kill him, so it made sense for him to take practical steps to defend himself, particularly because the viability of his government depended heavily on his.personal charisma. To claim that he was living a life of luxury is BS.
@ Chad
So you know more about Castro’s personal lifestyle than one of his former bodyguards joker.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/fidel-castro-lived-like-king-cuba
A different side of Fidel Castro through the eyes of a former exiled Cuban
13:34, November 26, 2016
2582 views
<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = "[default] http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" NS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" />
While some mourn the passing of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and praise him for standing up against American capitalism, others celebrate the death of a dictator who suppressed his people and silenced opponents.
Among those who have long offered a different view of Castro was Carlos Moore, a former lecturer at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies.
I first met Moore while studying at the Institute of International Relations, UWI, in 1996.
Short in stature with grey-white hair sharply contrasting his jet-black skin, he was an enigma to us students. He was energetic and fast-talking with an enthusiasm that made him stick out from the rest of faculty.
His favourite topic was Cuba.
Cuban by birth, he said black Cubans were no better off under Fidel Castro’s Revolution. In a region where the late dictator is widely admired, Moore’s thesis was a bitter pill to swallow.
The basis for his claim is contained in his book "Pichón, Race and Revolution in Castro’s Cuba" (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2008).
Moore provided the context for his teachings through a look at his life in pre-Castro Cuba, the racism he encountered as a child, his introduction to civil rights issues and the dawn of his black consciousness as a teenager in the United States, his return to Castro’s Cuba and his fight to end racism under the Revolution, his exile and attempts to dodge Castro’s long arm internationally, and his eventual return to the land of his birth.
Published in November 2008 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Pichón’s predominant theme is race. The title itself is a derogatory term used to describe the Cuban offspring of West Indians and Haitians.
When the Great Depression of 1929 hit Cuba, many West Indians and Haitians were out of jobs. Those who escaped deportation, Moore writes, roamed the countryside begging and picking up leftovers from slaughterhouses. They were likened to scavenger birds called Jancrows.
“Because of their scavenging forays, the white peasants dubbed these black buzzards. It stuck, as did the name reserved for their children—Pichóns. Foreign-born blacks, especially Haitians, were also often accused of stealing corpses from cemeteries for consumption, so the notion of cannibalism was also implicit in the term Pichón,” he wrote.
Moore was schooled in the realities of race relations while living in the US and credits his friend, renowned poet Maya Angelou, among his many teachers (she wrote the foreword to his book). Moore is mentioned in Angelou’s book "Heart of a Woman" for his involvement in the 1960 protest at the United Nations headquarters following the assassination of Congolese president Patrice Lumumba, mere weeks after he helped the country to win independence from Belgium.
Moore became a Marxist at 18 and met Castro when he visited Harlem in the 1960s. That meeting encouraged him to return to Cuba to support the Revolution.
“I fell in love with the Cuban Revolution and I decided to go back to Cuba at 19 and I joined the Revolution. I had gone back to Cuba with this whole awareness of race and there, black religions were banned, black clubs were illegal. To me this was wrong, so I tried speaking to the authorities to tell them they were wrong,” he said.
His open challenge to Castro, who preached that under the Revolution all Cubans were one and there was neither black nor white, got him arrested and landed him in prison and, on a second occasion, a work camp. Fearing for his life when he was released, Moore sought asylum at the Guinean embassy and fled Cuba.
Moore spent 34 years exiled from Cuba. He lived in France, Senegal and Guadeloupe during that time. He worked as a journalist, earned two Phds from the University of Paris-7, and started a family. Through it all he kept up his cause in conjunction with close friends Césaire, a poet and philosopher; Trinidadian Stokely Carmichael, who later changed his name to Kwame Ture; Malcolm X, for whose assassination Moore was partially blamed as part of a smear campaign; and the Nigerian Pan-Africanist Fela Kuti, on whom he wrote a biography called "Fela Fela, this bitch of a life"(London: Allison & Busby, 1982).
The Cuban government, unforgiving for what they considered his counterrevolutionary stance and his escape, did all they could to silence Moore.
“The Cuban regime tore my reputation to shreds and demolished my character internationally. Being branded a CIA agent was the most damaging charge. Wherever I went, people shunned me. I wonder that I retained my sanity before the relentless thrashing I was subject to wherever I showed my face,” he wrote in his book.
Thanks to mediation efforts from former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, who acted on Moore’s behalf on the urgings of his friend Jamaican scholar Rex Nettleford, Moore’s banishment was rescinded in 1995 and he was allowed to return to Cuba.
In 1997, Moore set foot in his native country to find that racism was still alive but some used the issue, now discussed openly, for profiteering.
“The dollarization of Cuba’s economy, with tourism as the engine, created new situations whereby a pragmatic ex-Communist elite could reposition itself. The racially discriminatory practices of the tourist industry had created social tensions and heightened social awareness among the black population. The tourist boom, in turn, produced a dollar-crazy folklorization of Afro-Cuban culture. Western European tourists evinced an inordinate interest in black Cuban religion, music and dance; things black became exotic and being officially commoditized as never before,” Moore wrote in Pichón.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/~/article-3975062/index.html
Fidel Castro’s U.S. sister Juanita will not go to Cuba for his funeral.
In 1964, she accused him of turning Cuba into ‘an…….
Fidel Castro: Friend to the Caribbean and Anti-Imperialist Hero
Posted on November 26, 2016 by caribbeantradelaw
fidel-alejandro-castro-ruz-63039_960_720pixabay
(Photo source: Pixabay)
Alicia Nicholls
Former Cuban President and leader of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, took leave of this earthly realm on November 25, 2016 at the age of 90. Coincidentally, his passing took place on the anniversary of the Granma’s departure from Mexico in 1959 to liberate Cuba.
Despite the prevailing Washington narrative of Comrade Castro as a “brutal despot and tyrant” who trampled human rights and impoverished his people, most of us in the Caribbean remember “El Comandante” as a revolutionary figure, a freedom fighter, a friend to the Caribbean and an anti-imperialist hero.
In these few paragraphs, I will outline some of the things that are often forgotten in the common narrative about the bearded Commander who seized power from corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and ruled Cuba for nearly five decades, until transferring power to his younger brother, Raul Castro, in 2006 during a period of illness. On February 24, 2008 Raul Castro officially became President.
Friend to the Caribbean
Since the 1970s, Caribbean countries have enjoyed close diplomatic ties with Cuba and have repeatedly called for the US to bring an end to the embargo. Thanks to Mr. Castro, thousands of Caribbean students have benefited from Cuban government scholarships to study medicine at Cuban universities. Many other persons have benefited from medical treatment, particularly ophthalmological treatment, by Cuban doctors.
Cuba’s solidarity with its Caribbean sisters has continued under current President Raul Castro. Cuba has sent medical doctors to assist Caribbean countries in the wake of disasters, including to Haiti following Hurricane Georges in 1998, the earthquake in 2010 and more recently, sending over 30 additional doctors to the country to provide assistance after Hurricane Matthew.
Mr. Castro’s Cuba was a founding member of the ALBA, pioneered by the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez Frias, and which in English translates to the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.
Social Justice Icon
“Today it hurts us if a Cuban is hungry, if a Cuban has no doctor, if a Cuban child suffers or is uneducated, or if a family has no housing. It hurts us even though it’s not our brother, our son or our father. Why shouldn’t we feel hurt if we see an Angolan child go hungry, suffer, be killed or massacred?” — President Fidel Castro, March 30, 1977
Despite his well-off social status, being a law graduate from the University of Havana and the son of a Spanish-born sugar planter, Mr. Castro fought for social justice for the Cuban people and drew inspiration from the late Jose Marti “Apostle of Cuban Independence”.
Comrade Castro, along with eighty other revolutionaries including another iconic figure, Argentine-born Ernesto “Che” Guevara, set sail from Mexico on November 25, 1959 aboard a yacht called the Granma with the aim to liberate Cuba from President Batista. Under Batista’s rule Cuba had been a hedonistic enclave for wealthy Americans and US multi-national companies, while income inequality in Cuba widened and the Cuban economy stagnated.
During his presidency, Mr Castro proposed reforms to return sovereignty to the Cuban people, including land reforms, agrarian reforms and economic diversification. He started a literacy campaign and introduced free universal education and health care for each Cuban citizen. By controversially expropriating foreign owned lands, he sought to end US domination of the Cuban economy and retake Cuba for Cubans. Criticism is made of the poverty under which many of Cuba’s 11 million residents still live but little mention is made of the role the US’ illegal trade, financial and economic embargo has played in retarding Cuba’s economic progress.
Moreover, very little is generally said in western media about the social strides Cuba has made despite the embargo. For example, Cuba has the lowest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the Caribbean, and one of the lowest in the world. Its literacy rate of 99.8% is one of the highest in the world, while its low infant and maternal mortality rates were praised by the UN Population Fund in 2012. Even in the face of the US embargo, Cuba has pioneered medical research as noted in this Huffington post article, and has willingly shared its medical, education and scientific expertise with other developing countries. Cuba has also distinguished itself in the area of sport.
In the early years, Cuba sought to export its revolution to the world with Soviet help. Castro’s right hand man, Che Guevara, was murdered in Bolivia in 1967 while trying to promote revolution in that South American country. In more recent years, Cuba has shifted to soft power, exporting its highly-trained doctors and other health care professionals to countries in need of humanitarian aid. His offers of assistance were not limited to allies and developing countries. Notably, in 2005 then President Fidel Castro offered to send 1,600 Cuban doctors, field hospitals and medical supplies to the US after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, a gesture which Washington refused.
Anti-Apartheid
Mr. Castro also fought against racism and oppression. When western governments unapologetically supported the racist apartheid government in South Africa, Mr. Castro’s Cuba instead supported anti-apartheid movements in that African country, a fact which Jacob Zuma, current South African president reiterated in his statement on Mr. Castro’s death:
“[Fidel Castro] inspired the Cuban people to join us in our own struggle against apartheid. The Cuban people, under the leadership and command of President Castro, joined us in our struggle against apartheid”. – Jacob Zuma
Anti-Imperialist & Anti-colonialist Hero
“Cuba is not opposed to finding a solution to its historical differences with the United States, but no one should expect Cuba to change its position or yield in its principles. Cuba is and will continue to be socialist. Cuba is and will continue to be a friend of the Soviet Union and of all the socialist states.” President Fidel Castro, December 20, 1980
For anti-imperialists, the “David and Goliath” analogy is no more blatant than in a small island state like Cuba openly defying and provoking the ire of the United States, the most powerful country in the world. Located just 90 miles off the Florida coast, Cuba went from being “America’s whorehouse” to becoming Washington’s public enemy number one because of its embrace of Communism and of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. As a result, successive US governments have since the 1960s punished Cuba with an illegal economic, trade and financial embargo, which despite the detente started by now outgoing US President Obama in 2014, remains in effect.
While weaker men would have bowed to western pressure, Mr. Castro’s defiant fight against western imperialism was not limited to Cuba. Cuba provided soldiers, military training and moral support for revolutionary movements in Latin America, and anti-colonial, independence movements throughout Africa, including most notably Angola.
Recalling Cuba’s assistance to the people of South Africa and of other African countries, then South African President Nelson Mandela is reported to have said on his 1991 visit to Cuba as follows:
The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character, President Nelson Mandela
In global politics, Castro’s Cuba also played a leading role, including being a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and later assuming the presidency of that organisation from 1979-1983 and again from 2006-2009.
Global Reaction to his passing
Mr. Castro was a polarising figure in both life and death. Predictably, US President-elect Donald Trump in a statement released following news of Mr. Castro’s death noted that “Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.” Aside from the nausea-inducing rejoicing by US media, politicians and Cuban-Americans at the news of Mr Castro’s passing, the heart-felt reactions of many of the world’s leaders are testimony to the friend and Great man which many regarded him to be:
Irwin LaRocque (Secretary General of the Caribbean Community – CARICOM) – “The passing of Fidel Castro marks the end of a life dedicated to fighting for the dignity of all people which ensures his place in history.”
Enrique Pena Nieto (President of Mexico) – “Fidel Castro fue un amigo de México, promotor de una relación bilateral basada en el respeto, el diálogo y la solidaridad” (A.N. Translated: Fidel Castro was a friend of Mexico, promoter of a bilateral relationship based on respect, dialogue and solidarity.)
Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India) – “Fidel Castro was one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century. India mourns the loss of a great friend.”
Xi Jinping (President of the People’s Republic of China) -“the Chinese people have lost a close comrade and a sincere friend.”
Justin Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada) – “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.”
Outgoing US President Obama’s carefuly worded statement was not marked by effusive praise of Mr. Castro, possibly not to offend the Cuban Americans, but it avoided the inflammatory tone of the President-elect’s. Mr. Obama did, however, make note of the warming of relations between the US and Cuba under his watch and stated that “the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America.”
His Legacy will live on
“Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.” — Fidel Castro while on trial on October 16, 1953
A thorn in Washington’s side, Mr. Castro has survived over 600 assassination attempts, as well as the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. He was not perfect (No leader is!). He jailed dissenters, for example, and publicly accepted responsibility for the persecution of LGBT persons during the 1960s and 70s. But despite his faults, he was far from the inhumane despot the West portrayed him to be and is generally beloved by the Cuban people. Moreover, western countries’ support of brutal and repressive regimes in the name of preserving their geopolitical and economic interests while demonising Fidel Castro smacks of nothing less than hypocrisy at the highest level.
Comrade Castro’s contribution to the anti-imperialist movement is immeasurable. His strength of conviction in the face of opposition by the world’s most powerful nations was without comparison. He was a freedom fighter and revolutionary hero who was quick to lend humanitarian support and expertise to other countries and provide global leadership against imperialism, racism, fascism, foreign aggression and oppression.
Whatever his faults, his heart was in the right place. His failings were outweighed by his achievements. For us in the Caribbean, Castro’s Cuba will always be a symbol of anti-imperialist strength. His friendship to the Caribbean region and to other nations of the Global South will always be remembered. His death leaves an unfillable void, but his legacy is indelible. I express my empathy and solidarity with the Cuban people as they endure these days (and years) of mourning.
Que descanses en paz, camarada Fidel (Rest in peace, Comrade Fidel).
Alicia Nicholls is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.
“Today it hurts us if a Cuban is hungry, if a Cuban has no doctor, if a Cuban child suffers or is uneducated, or if a family has no housing. It hurts us even though it’s not our brother, our son or our father. Why shouldn’t we feel hurt if we see an Angolan child go hungry, suffer, be killed or massacred?” — President Fidel Castro, March 30, 1977”
What a monumental admission of failure? in any democratic institution where fair and free elections were held the guilty report card of this larger than life figure would have been the subject of scrutiny by the electorate and he would have been booted from office but no we continue to denigrate Dictators on the right and left with similar tyrannical convictions but for some reason seem to turn a blind eye to the failures of one who has kept his people except the chosen few virtually in subjection for over 60 years under the guise of giving them free education and health something we have had in Barbados longer than the granting of Independence. In 1977 the much touted revolution was 18 years old and people were up to then and now still lining up with their ration books to access the basic of foods at the behest of their Saviour and Master Commandante Fidel.
I posit the question to those singing his humanitarian praises that and on what basis then given the reasons for the overthrow of one dictator with the replacement of another would you would seek to convince me that the revolution has been a success
Share this post:
It worries me that throughout Latin America, including Cuba, black (African) people are rarely seen in positions of influence or authority (outside entertainment).
In this a coincidence? Our curiosity alone should make us question this.
@ Chad9999
Are you sure that Fidel Castro only had a 4 bedroom average house?
Castro kept 20 luxurious properties throughout the Caribbean nation, including his own island, accessed via a yacht decorated entirely in exotic wood imported from Angola, Sanchez wrote while the Cuban people starved.
Taking control of Cuba on New Year’s Day 1959, after his guerrilla army routed the quarter-century-long dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Castro vowed that unlike his hated predecessor, he’d share the nation’s wealth with its poorest citizens.
http://nypost.com/2016/11/27/inside-fidel-castros-life-of-luxury-and-ladies-while-country-starved/
“Taking control of Cuba on New Year’s Day 1959, after his guerrilla army routed the quarter-century-long dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista,”
Another Myth- Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973) was a Cuban army officer who rose to the presidency on two occasions, from 1940-1944 and 1952-1958- What quarter century long dictatorship you talking about.
“Castro vowed that unlike his hated predecessor, he’d share the nation’s wealth with its poorest citizens.”
I challenge you Mr Chadd to point out to me where after 60 years of unchallenged rule that this has really happened.
“David November 26, 2016 at 7:37 PM #
Castro the revolutionary.”
So is President Mugabe.
‘chad99999 November 26, 2016 at 9:53 PM #
ac
The reason Castro ruled with an iron fist is that his enemies were as ruthless as he was. The dispossession of Cuba’s elites was a good thing because the resources transferred to the poor relieved their suffering.”
I ask again if the lives of the poor except for free education and health have improved for the better since the revolution.
Here is a comment made by Hector Soris to a Daily Mail column about Fidel Castro:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for exposing the jailer of my father and so many others for exposing the Fidel Castro that I knew the despot demagog and bloodthirsty tirant as many such as our own presiident Obama and many others that have fallen under the spell of this dictator trying and downplay his criminal carreer and empire is just simply insulting to those who shed blood under one of the most brutal regimes not quite known in history but I lived it as a child I met my father when I was 5 yrs old since he was condenm to 40 yrs of prison in Isla de Pino so much were the mind and phisycal torture as to he was submited that while living in a free country after his release from prison he commited suicide by hanging himself those are my thoughts and memories of what the some leaders of the free world call him President thank you again for this article
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3977050/100-million-bed-hopping-hypocrite-claimed-lived-20-month-Fidel-Castro-20-luxury-homes-private-island-88ft-yacht-mistresses-galore.html#ixzz4RK4RJf4h
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Justin Trudeau under pressure for referring to Castro as a remarkable leader.
@ David,
Trudeau’s father was a friend of Castro. Like father like son.
“Canada-Cuba relations can be traced back to the 18th century, when vessels from the Atlantic provinces of Canada traded codfish and beer for rum and sugar. Cuba was the first country in the Caribbean selected by Canada to locate a diplomatic mission and official diplomatic relations were established in 1945, when Emile Vaillancourt, a noted writer and historian, was designated Canada’s representative in Cuba. Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the hemisphere not to break relations with Cuba in the years that followed the Cuban revolution in 1959.”
@Hants
It seems Justin is being an honest politician.
PE Trudeau was an ideologist. He likely would have preferred visionary. However listening to Dr. Beckles speech made me think of him, for he was known for the “Just Society”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_society
“Whatever his faults, his heart was in the right place. His failings were outweighed by his achievements. For us in the Caribbean, Castro’s Cuba will always be a symbol of anti-imperialist strength. His friendship to the Caribbean region and to other nations of the Global South will always be remembered. His death leaves an unfillable void, but his legacy is indelible. I express my empathy and solidarity with the Cuban people as they endure these days (and years) of mourning.”
I express my sympathy as well with that small group of Cuban people and sycophants who would have benefitted from their association with the regime and do hope that with his passing the ideals which he purportedly fought for would be eventually brought to fruition and the broad masses of the Cuban people would be able to enjoy an experience the meaning of true liberation where they would be able to congregate and socialise and criticize their rulers without fear and intimidation and have the wherewithal to enjoy the fruits of their labour and education.
VIVA CUBA LIBRE Y MUERTE A REVOLUCION-
In my view, the facts do not subscribe to your notion that that Cuba under Mr Castro was a symbol of anti-imperialist strength and his friendship to the Caribbean region and to other nations of the Global South will always be remembered and that his death leaves an indelible void.”
The facts would indicate that Mr Castro was a puppet of the USSSR with his unbridled support for the Russian invasion and suppression Of Czechoslovakia and murder of its leader Alexander Dubcek. In addition, the economy of his country was totally dependent on Moscow for substantial aid and propped up by sheltered markets with Moscow paying 11 times the world market price for sugar until the collapse of the Soviet Union which triggered a rapid depression in Cuba from which they have not recovered up to now because of poor planning and their inability to transform the system. Remember that when Cuba was flying high with the towering Soviet embassy as a sign of power on their soil and SAM missiles on our doorstep and preaching belligerence against their removal and trying to export revolution throughout Latin America that they had little interest in the Caribbean until the end of communism in Europe which resulted in the thawing of Cuban-Soviet relations which saw the withdrawal of this substantial aid on which Cuba was totally dependent.
I find it interesting that Cuba was actively involved in the struggle against apartheid and sent many doctors to impoverished nations of Africa.
Most Caribbean governments paid lip service to the struggle , just words accompanied with few symbolic actions.
Some here would speak ill of medicine in Cuba but their words tare strongly refuted by the existence of medical tourism in Cuba.
But we have always boosted ourselves by trying to pull others down (Americans are stupid) and then claiming we are punching above our weight. Even when there is no need, some of us will always sing for our supper. Such is our nature.
Mayhe RIP.
“David November 26, 2016 at 10:00 PM #
@chad999999
Are you saying the! Trade embargo would not have contributed to Cuba’s poorer economic state?”
No it is a hoax. Over one hundred and seventy- six countries trade or traded with Cuba embargo or no embargo and strikingly the USA is reported to be Cuba’s fourth largest trading partner. It is bad management by a group of out of touch with reality old men bolstered by antiquated ideas with a lust for power.
@ Charles Skeete
You are losing your balance.
Do you think that US sanctions only mean a loss of official trade with the USA…?
How do you then explain the impact on Iran, Libya, and the USSR itself?
Everyone KNOWS that the USA, behind the scenes, threaten, brow-beat, and cajole other nations to support their sanctions – and even when allowed, the resulting trade is designed to frustrate the business of the victim. (for example they would encourage the sale of tractors and then ensure that vital spare parts cannot be assessed)
Castro was a man among men.
Castro was an Evil man among men. Holding his people as political hostage in defiance to their human rights of liberty and the pursuit of happinnes
His exit would not be missed by those who stood in long lines waiting for his daily rations of foods or those who are living in exile having to flee his tyrannical rule or even those warehoused in his dungeons call prison .
As one listened to the sanctimonious espisode of good will heaped on Castro by some in leadership it makes on reflect on the many comments of Martin Luther King and his struggles for human rights a goal that he fought to the bitter end a struggle that most leaders might have forgotten as they stand on line heaping unadulterated praises on this world reknowned architect of evilness
It is interesting to note that most Caribbean people (including regional leaders) are/have been sympathetic to the Cuba revolution. It is West Indians who have transplanted to the developed countries who are in the main expressing anti Castro sentiment.
“Castro was a man among men.”
So are you Bushie- so are you-
No David.
I am not anti-Castro, but where are the black Cubans?
Truth,
What do you know about the objectivity of the Daily Mail?
@Hal
Where are the Black Bajans? Stated against a background that 5% of the wealth is said to be controlled by minority interest.
On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 3:51 PM, Barbados Underground wrote:
>
@ Charles Skeete
“Castro was a man among men.”
So are you Bushie- so are you-
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yuh got THAT right Charlie… 🙂
What a difference a little ‘adoption’ can mean…
It is interesting that all the so called West Indian leaders sympathetic of Castro revolution never lift a finger to help him in his cause but in the same breath never shy away from begging bread at the imperalist doors
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.