Fidel Castro dies at 90

[Alejo]

From RT:

Fidel Castro, Cuba’s longtime leader, dies at 90

https://www.rt.com/news/368238-fidel-castro-dies-90/

After years of dealing with failing health, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution who steered the country through decades of a US economic blockade, has died, state media report.

Castro died in Havana on Friday at 10:29pm local time, Cuban television said. His death was announced by his brother Raul, who took the reins after Fidel stepped down.

This is something i absolutely knew would happen in my lifetime, but it somehow feels strange. Wow

 

[neema]

May he rest in peace. Definitely an end of an era.

 

[PhoenixToEmber]

90 is a nice, long life and he certainly led an interesting one. My mom, who came to the U.S. from Cuba when she was a little girl to get an operation on her legs (she has Cerebral palsy), never held a favorable view of him. She claims Castro seized her family's farm (which I'm going to assume was under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959).

 

[bjorb]

Fidel dying a natural death is the ultimate final middle finger he can give to the Empire. He survived hundreds of assassinations.

May he rest in peace.

 

[Joe]

Fidel dying a natural death is the ultimate final middle finger he can give to the Empire. He survived hundreds of assassinations.

May he rest in peace.

And on the consumerist feeding frenzy that is "black friday" too! How appropriate!

 

[Laura]

Growing up and living in a highly "Cubanized" area in FL, I knew people who loved and hated him. The ones who hated him seemed to be those who were from upper middle class to upper class, and those who loved him seemed to be lower classes.

When Castro ousted Fulgencio Battista, I heard that it was because Battista had kickback deals with gangsters and organized crime that were running hotels, prostitution and casinos and such in Cuba and had basically taken over the country. It was a rich man's paradise and all the poor were pretty much slaves.

Of course, when Castro kicked out all the corruption, mainly from the US, the US imposed sanctions and embargoes and Cuba barely survived. But, it certainly seems to be true that there were a lot of people caught in the middle of all this who had no clue then or since.

 

[Redrock12]

Adios Fidel. You really snookered all the 3D STS attempts to punch your ticket. You had the last laugh.
Welcome to 5D.

 

[Aeneas]

Fidel dying a natural death is the ultimate final middle finger he can give to the Empire. He survived hundreds of assassinations.

May he rest in peace.

Yes, indeed, may he rest in peace.

One can not help to think about what he was up against, the moment he said no to the empire and had to endure crippling sanctions apart from hundreds of assassination attemps. There were no sanctions by the US, when their chosen dictator was in power. But in the extreme time of anti-communism that ruled America and still does, one can ask, "what would you have done if you had been in the shoes of Fidel Castro"? at that time. He had the great advantage of being very intelligent and valuing and caring about the people of Cuba.

An end of a great statesman, from what I know about the person, even if he had his faults.

 

[Nienna]

Growing up and living in a highly "Cubanized" area in FL, I knew people who loved and hated him. The ones who hated him seemed to be those who were from upper middle class to upper class, and those who loved him seemed to be lower classes.

When Castro ousted Fulgencio Battista, I heard that it was because Battista had kickback deals with gangsters and organized crime that were running hotels, prostitution and casinos and such in Cuba and had basically taken over the country. It was a rich man's paradise and all the poor were pretty much slaves.

Of course, when Castro kicked out all the corruption, mainly from the US, the US imposed sanctions and embargoes and Cuba barely survived. But, it certainly seems to be true that there were a lot of people caught in the middle of all this who had no clue then or since.

I had been wondering for some time if those who hated him were, as you said, from upper middle class to upper class? Thank you for the info.

 

[Alana]

I also think he did good for the majority of the population of Cuba. See the results: they have one of the finest education, health care and agriculture systems in the world. And along with JFK and Khrushchev, in their secret communications with each other, they kept the Cold War from getting Hot.

So Trump is showing his ignorance with this message after Fidel's death:

https://www.rt.com/news/368243-fidel-castro-death-reaction/

US President-elect Donald Trump has called Castro “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.”

“Fidel Castro’s legacy is of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty, and the denial of fundamental human rights,” he said in a statement.

With Castro gone, Trump promised that his “administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey towards prosperity and liberty.”

Compare to Putin's:

https://www.rt.com/news/368267-world-leaders-castro-condolences/

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his condolences to the Cuban government and people on Saturday. The Kremlin statement said Castro’s name “is a symbol of an entire era in modern history.”

“The free and independent Cuba built by him and his associates has become an influential member of the international community, and an inspiring example for many countries and peoples,” the statement said. It also underlined Castro’s personal determination to develop lasting relationships between Moscow and Havana.

“This man of strength and wisdom always looked straight into the future,” it stressed. “He represented the highest ideals of a politician, citizen, and patriot who firmly believed in his cause.”

 

[Yas]

I also heard many different opinions about him and, overall, I think he was benevolent and really had the people's best interests at heart. And he did some pretty good things from what I read and hear from people who visited or lived in Cuba. Of course, he also made some mistakes, and things weren't perfect in Cuba, but he is indeed a man to remember who inspired and will probably continue to inspire others. May he rest in peace!

So Trump is showing his ignorance with this message after Fidel's death:

https://www.rt.com/news/368243-fidel-castro-death-reaction/

US President-elect Donald Trump has called Castro “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.”

“Fidel Castro’s legacy is of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty, and the denial of fundamental human rights,” he said in a statement.

With Castro gone, Trump promised that his “administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey towards prosperity and liberty.”

Compare to Putin's:

https://www.rt.com/news/368267-world-leaders-castro-condolences/

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his condolences to the Cuban government and people on Saturday. The Kremlin statement said Castro’s name “is a symbol of an entire era in modern history.”

“The free and independent Cuba built by him and his associates has become an influential member of the international community, and an inspiring example for many countries and peoples,” the statement said. It also underlined Castro’s personal determination to develop lasting relationships between Moscow and Havana.

“This man of strength and wisdom always looked straight into the future,” it stressed. “He represented the highest ideals of a politician, citizen, and patriot who firmly believed in his cause.”

Quite telling!

 

[bjorb]

Was looking for pictures of Fidel, this one I think is pretty cool, Mandela and Fidel where best of friends and allies :

Without Fidel Cuba would have been just another poor and oppressed US client state. The newer generations demand more working opportunities because the sanctions restricted much potential growth for the Cuban people. But I am pretty sure that when the global economy crashes. They will be glad that there is thanks to Fidel already a system resilient enough in place to survive the turmoil ahead, I can't say the same about the Western World.


This is what Nelson Mandela once said about Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution :

“From its earliest days, the Cuban Revolution has also been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist-orquestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gain made in the Cuban Revolution. … Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro.”

 

[loreta]

I always liked him because he was against US. And because always he was criticised by the PTB. Some very intelligent artists always admired Cuba. One of the best dancers of flamenco, in Spain, Antonio Gades, has been buried in Cuba. Cuba has always been a reference of culture for the artists. So a country who have so good artists and respect for art and culture, and good doctors and people that help others is a good country with a good government. Castro was also hated because he helped other countries to be free, like Angola.

I went to give my condolences to a Cuban family that have a little store here, in my neighbour. The woman was sad and told me that Castro was a good man. Others, in my neighbour were very happy of his death and launched fireworks. One friend of mine that is in the communist party was evidently very sad.

For me Cuba is a reference of courage. And this courage is associated with Castro.

 

[Faith]

With the words of Trump the propaganda against Fidel Castro prevails.This really makes me angry. But as Fidel said: "Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me." I've seen a lot of interviews with the historian Dr. Daniele Ganser. Of course you know the story, just thought I put this extract from a Sott-Interview with him here. I always have to remind myself, that it didn't start with 911, just got much worse. I wish I had a counter-propaganda button I can push whenever something like that pops up. BEEP!

Daniele: Operation Northwoods was in operation in the Caribbean in the 1960s. The idea of the US at the time was to have a regime change in Cuba and overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. And so what they did is in 1961 they had the Bay of Pigs invasion carried out by the CIA and it was obviously illegal but they did it and it failed. The Bay of Pigs invasion by the CIA failed in 1961. And then the Pentagon said "Well the CIA messed it up. Now we have a good plan because we're much cleverer than the CIA people here at the Pentagon." And the Pentagon generals drew up this plan and said "Let's blow up an American ship on Guantanamo Bay" which is the US military base in Cuba. And that was a very diabolic idea again. Blow up your own ship and then blame Fidel Castro for it. And say "Oh you know, Fidel Castro blew it up."

And this is again the same trick of the fireman that I said before; set fire to the house and then present yourself as the solution. And the second idea was not only to blow up a ship, the second idea of Operation Northwoods was let's take civilian planes, fly them over Cuba and then blow them up, so they would be drones, you wouldn't put people in them. But blow them up and say on the American television, say "Fidel Castro shot down planes and in these planes we had American girls who want to go to Bolivia to help the poor people there." So if you connect a very strong story with a false flag terrorist attack, then you have everybody in shock and then people go "Oh, let's invade Fidel Castro's Cuba and overthrow this dictator. He's really bad."

And the third idea was to carry out terrorist attacks in Miami and in Washington, and then prepare fake documents that would say "These were communists, these were Cubans." Now this Operation Northwoods, and we have the original documents and we know that the Pentagon generals, the highest members of the Pentagon the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed it. That was Lyman Lemnitzer. And then Kennedy, President at the time, didn't want it. At the time he was really fighting the military industrial complex and he said "We don't want that." And Lemnitzer was then transferred to Europe as supreme allied commander of NATO. So he was actually going to Europe and worked within NATO at a time when he was in the US thinking about strategy of tension terrorism in Cuba. And the European researchers and I tried to find out is it possible that Pentagon generals have carried out strategy of tension terrorism in Europe. And we can't prove it, we just have...

Joe: Circumstantial evidence.

RIP Fidel

 

[Navigator]

How he stood up against the empire, how he saw the US government for what it was, a pathocracy, remains as one of the key elements of his legacy. He was an inspiration for other movements/revolutions in some parts of LATAM and was their model in some cases. But in my opinion, in geopolitic terms, the embargo crushed the economy of the island. And this same book procedure was applied with Chavez in Venezuela and we see an avalanche of generalised poverty and never ending problems in that country. The ideology adopted by Fidel was polarizing enough for the US to justify decades of forced aisolation and to justify interventions elsewhere.

Nevertheless, hasta siempre comandante!