Fidel, my hero

Fidel Castro, an absolute hero of mine, passes away.

His speech oft labelled "History will absolve me" is brilliant. He was a great man.

 

https://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1953/10/16.htm

 

I wonder if there's any truth in the press reports that mass street parties are being held in Cuba to celebrate his death? A possibility I suppose - there were street parties here to celebrate Thatcher's death.

I had a little inward chuckle when I read the BBC report online earlier. It reported that his ashes were to be buried on 4th December - a somewhat basic error that has since been corrected.

 

Is there anyone alive in our present age of the same calibre ? He can now rest in peace alongside Che Guevarra. True Marxist ideology wanted to make a World in which history was no longer written about the 'greats' of our World - in which it was written by the people themselves. How the personality cult of Castroism fits that ideal others can judge. Like Che he believed that the end justified the means - a belief which I cannot share in the way they did. For me the means which you use will actually shape the end achieved. There were other ways to deal with political opponents than the ones used. Nonetheless another phase of history, which was a part of our youth, has passed away. RIP.

 

Certainly a historic figure on the world's stage...... but caught between the US and Russia....

 

It is the reporting of Cuba that made me realise the 'banana republic' that is Britain. The media shamelessly lie about Cuba. I remember being there and when I came back I saw John Simpson's report of something I had witnessed. It was full of lies and deliberate misreporting - the sort of thing we are led to believe the British are above. Nonsense. Our media are at the beck and call of our government and a Latin American regime that puts the health, education and opportunity of all its citizens above the ruling elite, must be undermined at all costs. Sorry Britons, but that's a fact.

 

Good riddance to bad rubbish.My brother in law is Cuban, all those who revere this terrorist and his partner in atrocity Guevara need to take a serious look at themselves. I for one am glad along with my Cuban relatives that this evil terrorist is no more wasting oxygen on our planet. To those who were there did you speak to the natives when nobody was listening? Its the same as Libya was before Gadaffi went, nobody would speak against the regime in country but the very same people opened their hearts and mouths when free to do so. I hope he is not allowed a seconds peace in hell which for sure is where he is. Just like his followers in Venezuela he amassed incredible personal wealth through the oppression of a complete nation. Pure scum that deserved to die a long and painful death which I have comfort in knowing happened...

 

Before venting your spleen on here - and I don't apologize for that comment because I have never celebrated anyone's death in the way you are obviously doing. It might have done you a lot of good to have known Cuba before the revolution - a den of prostitution, drug trading and gaming casinos, presided over by the mafia and their good friend Batista (the then dictator of Cuba). The rich and the famous enjoyed Cuba then whereas the majority lived in poverty. Nobody deserves to die a 'long and painfull death', so just take your poison off somewhere else.

 

The two Cubans I know here won´t be sorry he´s gone.

 

No, I will not take my opinion elsewhere. I vent my spleen because I have family who lived there before the "revolution" and compared to post revolution it was a paradise. In a similar manner to how you might feel about my opinion I consider anybody claiming Castro or Guevara as heroes to be highly offensive but just as I am entitled to opinion so are they. Indeed so are you. These two individuals along with many other leaders hard left and hard right have oppressed the people of South America beyond anything that can be called humane. I am celebrating yes celebrating the death of a dictator, a figurehead of the far left who has caused more misery to the people of Cuba than the Batista regime or any other previous administration. Have you visited communist cuba? whilst the casinos may have been well hidden the other vices of prostitution and drugs are rife, the regime has been complicit with cartel de los soles and are amongst the most powerful drug runners in the world but they see it as OK as its part of their war on the west. Perhaps before getting on any moral high horse you should take the rose tinted specs off and assess the truth through a neutral rather than politically motivated perspective. As I say I have direct relations who have suffered at the hands of this scum as I had very close friends executed, yes killed by Gaddaffi so please do not attempt to lecture me on what the truth in these socialist paradises is.

 

We are not talking about whether people were on the left or on the right but of openly celebrating someones death in the way you are doing - on a thread which was meant as an obituary. I despised everything which Thatcher stood for, although I knew many who suffered under her regime, but upon her death I did not celebrate, or party, or do anything at all, or even comment on the threads of the time - I respected other people's feelings. Because once a person is dead the slate is clean - whoever they were.

 

Never pleased to celebrate the death of someone unlike many - remember "ding dong the witch is dead" - but he was just another tin pot dictator. Nearly caused a nuclear war. Human rights in Cuba were non existent. Hero ? - don't make me laugh.

 

Wonderfull logic ! According to the Munroe doctrine the Americans saw the whole of middle and south America as their own backyard. Had well over two thirds of the world's nuclear weapons. Kept tinpot dictators like Pinochet in power - helped to put down democratic movements such as in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Have considered it as being their right to do exactly what they want with middle America for over a half a century - yet it is Cuba which forced the World to the brink of war - pull the other one.

 

Not logic - history. Read some. Cuba put Russian nukes on their soil a few miles from the USA. Kruschev was forced to back down. If the US had put nukes in Finland how would Russia have answered? Typical to blind yourself to what Castro did so you can knock America. Nobody says they are great but be honest at least about Castro's nukes. You were probably not born so only get it from your Cuban books.

 

I do not consider Castro to have been human. His war crimes and those of Guevara lost them any right to any respect or classification as human, they were both sub human of the same quality of person as pol pot, adolf hitler and stalin. "Meant to be an obituary" I think not, the OP was idolizing Castro, an individual who committed thousands upon thousands of innocents to death for the crime of thinking differently. Comparing Castro to Thatcher, give me a break calling the Tory government a regime is way of the mark. The suffering in the UK is nothing compared to the suffering in latin america and it's not a socialist issue, its an extremist issue at both ends of the spectrum. The slate with the Castros is far from clean. Until we see regime change in both Cuba and Venezuela there is a massive axe to grind, the blame for abject poverty in these nations falls firmly on the shoulders of the Castro family (look into the training and early life of Maduro and the rise of Chavez). This is very very personal to me, it costs me immense worry about the safety and simple ability to feed themselves for family. I am unable to set foot in Venezuela and other family members are unable to set foot in Cuba. If you think this even remotely compares to the cozy lives we live in Europe I urge you to go and spend just 3 months living in Cuba or Venezuela to see the damage this individual has caused to literally millions of lives. See how many people who have been impacted directly by these folk would call them "hero".....

 

Don't make any insinuations about my age I was born before the Cuban revolution. Bearing in mind the amount of nuclear weapons based on American soil, and how antagonistic the USA was against Cuba at the time then it is logical to assume that Cuba needed some kind of security against possible American attack. The situation was exactly the reverse of what is now happening with NATO encroaching on Russia's doorstep.

 

So, you are now taking it upon yourself to declare people as sub human ! Che, presumably because he shot a few prisoners (there are no other war crimes as far as I know), something which I would condemn, but. the British have done the same in more than one of their ex colonies - look at the history of Malaysia or Aden. Were the British governments of the day sub human ? Under Castro the life expectancy in Cuba has risen to above that of the USA - the health and education systems are the envy of many western states. On the other hand Castro built a personality cult around himself which had nothing to do with pure Communism, and a system which had no tolerance for deviation, which I cannot condone. For the majority of Cubans their country has been a better place for his existence - for those who have fled to Miami this is not the case.

 

So you support NATO encroaching do you? Bet not. Same thing but two rules eh? Castro was evil. World will not be worse for him having gone and more will be happy than sad. He was 90 so had a fair shot.

 

Are you aware that since 1945 over 20 million people have been killed as a result of US military aggression ? Spanning over 37 victim states. How many by Cuban forces ? Bearing that in mind, is there any reason to assume that the USA would have respected Cuban sovereignty without those weapons ? Bearing in mind how the Americans have interfered in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile to name just a few.

 

You dodged the NATO question then.
Now you give some figures - from where? - about USA. Even if right maybe they were defending freedom -not denying it like Castro.
Castro educated his people and kept them healthy did he? Where - in the prison camp that was Cuba.
When I went there the people were afraid to talk as his spies were everywhere.
Cuba is nothing 10 million people - compare America with Russia if you want world aggression.
Castro was ready to destroy the whole world with his Russian nukes.
Only Reds and Fellow Travellers care about Castro.