MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90; hero and bastard, revolutionary and dictator
Fidel Castro, the fiery communist politician and Cuban revolutionary who led his country for almost half a century, has died. His health had been deteriorating since 2006, when he suffered from intestinal bleeding. He was 90 years old. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWow, I can't wait to see the Mausoleum. Will he be chemically mummified and put on display in a crystal coffin? Will people queue up in lines to see him year after year? It's all so “Socialist.”
Nov 26th, 2016 - 10:34 am - Link - Report abuse +1At some point in the future his body should be hauled out of where ever they stash him and thrown into the ocean for the misery his ideology has caused the people of Cuba.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:05 am - Link - Report abuse +5Hasta siempre...
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:15 am - Link - Report abuse -9No I'm not
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:24 am - Link - Report abuse -6The commie bastard died a multi-million Dollar millionaire, just like all the 'good' commies throughout the world. Just look at N.Korea, China, et al.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 01:52 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Pity the citizens never see any respite to the grind of their life and the prostitution of their children.
Let's hope his brother is next and soon.
No doubt Cuba has already got 'replacements' of suitable 'soundness' to carry on the great commie traditions waiting in the wings.
A giant has died...and the chorus of hyenas will be heard. But no amount of hypocrisy will be able to mute the fact that the people of a small tropical island just a jump from the most powerful empire was able to construct a society where in spite of a tough blockade were able to offer themselves free health care and education for all--something the famous empire still insists “cannot afford.”
Nov 26th, 2016 - 03:39 pm - Link - Report abuse -11Fidel, who survived no “several” but over 600 assassination attempts, was able to end his life in the country he built, together with his Argentine brother Che Guevara.
So long, comandante.
@ EM
Nov 26th, 2016 - 03:54 pm - Link - Report abuse +3You make some interesting points and some I agree with though you completely omit the failures.
Have you been to Cuba? I have.
It has already been stated that his body will be cremated.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 05:45 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Mr. Enrique, you big dumbass,
Cuba would never have been self-sufficient, nor able to offer free medical care for their people without the support and subsidies of the USSR and the entire Communist community.
Energy and oil were subsidized by the USSR.
Sending doctors abroad was used as a political tool, just as the Soviets and the Comintern used Cuban troops as pawns to back Communist insurrection around the globe.
Despite having the entire world to trade with, except the US, Cuba was in dire straits when the Soviets abandoned them.
For 25 years, people survived on rice and beans, as their infrastructure collapsed around them.
Beef raised on the island was illegal for ordinary Cubans to eat.
Every summer school children were interned in spartan agricultural collective barracks to bring in the harvest.
Many older people still revere Fidel. Many younger people feel he made mistakes.
They are resentful and discontented that Fidel threw his lot in with the Communist bloc, and when it collapsed they were abandoned and a pariah state in the West.
Cuba could only produce 15% of their energy needs. Chumming up with Chavez, by sending military and ideological “advisors” led to alliance giving Cuba free oil in exchange for making Venezuela what it is today.
After '89, Cuba had to look to other sources of revenue to survive.
A government initiative to enter into joint ventures with Spanish and Italian tourist resort companies has started bringing the economy around in the past 10 years.
The militarily administered tourist industry means that availability of food and other products has started to improve, somewhat.
The well-educated Cuban professional class that used to be compensated with cars and homes provided by the State, are now eclipsed by those making money from the tourist industry, and small capitalist ventures.
The people want a better life than they had under Enrique's utopia.
Hoooray, Castro is dead!!! Hope he enjoys the fires of hell.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 07:34 pm - Link - Report abuse +1I'm always baffled by the Castro fans who tout the free and wonderful healthcare and education, yet they avoid the “little” things like lack of freedom of movement, no freedom of speech, no free elections..... Even the export of doctors and other medical professionals, who actually did provide real care to other countries, had minders in case they wandered a little too close to the embassy of a country that didn't happen to be Cuba.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 07:56 pm - Link - Report abuse +4So, yeah free healthcare and education, but what didn't they have? He also had his little buddy Che murder lots and lots of people.
Just by the headline, proclaiming the shitty little dictator's death, I knew we'd be seeing comments from our resident communist (Reekie, for those who haven't recognized him), praising Castro.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 08:52 pm - Link - Report abuse +6His opinion on the 'miracles' which occurred in Cuba, such as “free health care and education for all ”, are grossly exaggerated. These things may have been free and extensive to all, but were not of a very high standard. Proof of this is the level of medical qualification of the several thousand Cuban “doctors”, that were temporarily imported to Brazil by our ex-idiotic President Dilma, to ostensibly make Brazil's public healthcare system the 'best' in the world....it was laughable....the so-called “doctors” are no more than glorified nurses, or paramedics.....they were sent to the remote areas of Brazil, where real doctors wouldn't go, due to the lousy pay and the complete absence of decent medical infrastructure ; Two other things which confirm their lack of qualification, was that Dilma refused to allow them to take the mandatory revalidation exams for 'imported' medical professionals, plus the fact that while Brazil paid Cuba US$ 10,000 per month per “doctor”, their salary was only US$ 400....there are very strong suspicions this programme was used by the PT to get hard currency out of the country, into their offshore stash. And what happened to Chavez when he went to Cuba to be treated ? he kicked the bucket ...just as well he didn't take Lula up on his offer to be treated - at the taxpayer's expense - in Brazil. He might still be alive. And Maduro will now be able to claim that besides getting messages from Chavez, through a little blue bird perched on his shoulder, he also gets messages from a buzzard perched on his other shoulder. Good riddance !
Fidel Castro attempted to run for Congress in the June 1952 elections, but in March 1952 Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup, cancelled planned presidential elections, solidifyed ties with both the wealthy Cuban elite and the United States, severed diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, suppressed trade unions and persecuted Cuban socialist groups. Castro brought several legal cases against the government without results, after which he began thinking of alternate ways to oust the regime.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:10 pm - Link - Report abuse -9As shown, Fidel did attempt avenues to legally participate in Cuban politics. However, as in too many Latin American countries, progressive people were customarily barred from participation by reactionary local forces with unrelent U.S. support, causing grief and decades of development delays.
Canada did not participate in the U.S.-decreed blockage. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's statement is a ray of light amid much hypocrisy:
“Fidel Castro...made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.
“I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.”
Hasta la victoria siempre comandante!
Good news, but 60 years too late. Fidel was a tyrant and a fool who destroyed what freedom and prosperity existed in Cuba, enslaved its people, and murdered his political opposition. Hell can't be hot enough for him.
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:30 pm - Link - Report abuse +4@Enrique Once he was in power, why didn't he allow free elections for the Cuban people? Why did he require all Cubans to get permission to leave the island simply if they wanted to visit another country? Why did he murder so many people?
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:39 pm - Link - Report abuse +4If a government requires its citizens to get permission to leave the country, you know there's something wrong.
Mr. Massot
Nov 26th, 2016 - 11:55 pm - Link - Report abuse +2According to what you say, Castro failed to be freely elected by the people of Cuba.
Perhaps his Communist leanings didn't appeal to them.
Batista took over in a coup and cancelled democratic process, then Castro did the same.
One dictator replaced by another with a Communist ideology - still no Democracy, no opposition permitted.
Industries and assets stolen from the legal owners by the new regime. The People are simply exploited under new masters.
The free education and healthcare are not what all they are made out to be.
There is still a two-tiered standard for Cubans.
Everything or nothing.
I remember how Castro encouraged the persecution of homosexuals with his speeches, and put people with AIDS in a concentration camp to die tormented and untreated. I also read that he recently tried to apologize for this. Too bad the victims didn't get to hear his apology, and a tragedy as well that the talented tango duo Gauchito Drink and his partner Kamerad/Komrade Rique were not afforded the same “tender mercies.” ;)
Nov 27th, 2016 - 03:14 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Komrade Enrique, in Canada, must rely upon his sources for news from
Nov 27th, 2016 - 09:46 pm - Link - Report abuse +3RT News, Sputnik, and Argentine and Venezuelan State media.
Likewise, Think/Voice has never been there - can't afford it without hocking his Order of Lenin.
So sad that Cubans had to live under a dictatorship.
Nov 28th, 2016 - 03:20 am - Link - Report abuse -6I am sure they are green with envy for flourishing democracies such as Haiti, Guatemala or Honduras.
Just a little reminder, Kamerad/Komrade Rique. You torturers are all the same...
Nov 28th, 2016 - 04:20 am - Link - Report abuse +2http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b521/imoyaro/fidel-pinochet_zpseqxbxoir.jpg
@Enrique
Nov 28th, 2016 - 08:07 am - Link - Report abuse +3Have you been to Cuba? I think not.
Have you spoken to the people? Again, no.
There are many very poor countries.
Many a result of their own government corruption.
I seem to remember a Haiti under a dynastic dictatorship, Papa Doc and Baby Doc, ruled by fear and intimidation.
Is Cuba any different?
For that matter, what similarities do we see with Venezuela the Bolivarian Utopia, or even Argentina, where Federal Prosecutors end up dead after challenging the ex-President who is now charged with corruption and theft?
Life in Canada is good, right?
Where would you have your children live?
Communism as an economic model fails under its own weight.
Nov 28th, 2016 - 04:12 pm - Link - Report abuse -2Commodity wise, much of the Caribbean is rendered irrelevant by high fructose corn syrup.
Cuba is a part of this region.
Cuba has squandered half a century of potential capitalistic economic expansion by exporting it best and brightest to the USA.
Fidel, you truly liberated your fellow compatriots from everything they valued.
@Reekie
Nov 28th, 2016 - 07:44 pm - Link - Report abuse +6I'm not saying Batista was good for Cuba, he was just another lousy little latin-american dictator, imbued with ideas of his own greatness.....that Castro got rid of him, might not have been such a bad idea, but why turn to Soviet-style communism ? shows Castro's ideals had little to do with people's well being...it was all about power ; if it was the paradise he proclaimed it to be, why did so many hundreds of thousands risk their lives to get the hell out (to Florida) ? Once he had control over everything, why not start to humanize Cuban government ? instead, to maintain his grip on power, he 'eliminated' 7,000 political adversaries....really democratic, just like Chavez and VZ's 'democracy'...
You say 'so sad the Cubans had to live under a dictatorship'...yet, you praise the dictator who subjugated them, took away their personal freedom, and made them 'sad'....you crazy ? only those born under his yoke would have thought he was great, because they knew nothing better...and Castro made sure it stayed that way.
““Fidel Castro...made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation”....well considering that probably under Batista, education and healthcare were quite primitive, I suppose “any” improvement would be significant....but yet, despite how 'wonderful' some people might think they are, the fact remains they are still not a patch on what the first-world has to offer.
So Reekie, being a dyed-in-the-wool communist, you must be unhappy in Canada ....there's still time to make it to VZ before they turn the lights out...
Trying to justify Cuba's dictatorship by poking a finger at Haiti, Guatemala and Honduras, is quite senseless, as they've all paid the price (and still are) for their 'dictatorships', but with one big difference : if anyone in those 3 countries wanted to leave, they could....You Reekie, using EB's expression, must be a member of the 'champagne-socialist's group..
Sic Semper Tyrannis.
Nov 28th, 2016 - 08:14 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Another undesirable bites the dust. Hope the Clintons are not far behind.
Jack Bauer:
Nov 28th, 2016 - 09:35 pm - Link - Report abuse -4Fidel Castro enjoys and will enjoy lasting popularity in Latin America because not only he deposed a tyrant, but also defied the giant neighbour just a few miles by building a non-capitalist country--something many in Latin America wished to do but did not succeed and often paid the ultimate price for rebelling.
Now, to be able to build a new society while counteracting U.S.-sponsored invasions, assassination attempts, sabotage of all sorts, an international blockade and other niceties while providing education, work and health care to all is a task that defies imagination.
And to be clear, the Cuban way is not a desirable way for other countries to follow. Peace and democracy is always preferable.
Had the United States opposed dictator Fulgencio Batista with the same might they did with Castro and had all political sectors been allowed to participate in a democratic system, the Cuban revolution may have never happened.
As for your statement:
“...well considering that probably under Batista, education and healthcare were quite primitive, I suppose 'any' improvement would be significant.”
This is indeed a very low-flying argument. If you are at all interested in debate with basis, go take a look at neighbouring Caribbean countries and watch at what Cuba did instead of coming up with such a smug generalization. People from some of those countries have been flown for quite some time when they need first-class health care for some serious illness.
I can't resist the temptation to compare your statement with what was said after Nestor Kirchner took Argentina out of its bottom-pit 2002 situation and began improving the situation in less than six months. “Because it had been rock-bottom the only way was up...”
Well: here you have another president who is managing to sink Argentina, also in record time.
In any event, I enjoy responding to arguments instead of insults that show the strong democratic vocation of their authors.
Yes, reekie, there are also a lot of Che Guevara t-shirts in Letrine America and for much the same reason: there are a lot of spoilt children who still worship marxist murderers and who expect Cuba to continue exporting its “revolution” as it has done so successfully for that wonderfully successful case now seen in Cubazuela.
Nov 28th, 2016 - 11:13 pm - Link - Report abuse +5Enrique,
Nov 28th, 2016 - 11:50 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Yes it's true. One thing that Castro managed was to provide superb education and health for the people of Cuba.
But you should remember some historical facts on Castro's regime and what the revolution had in mind from day 1.
http://www.infobae.com/politica/2016/11/28/fidel-castro-el-gran-simulador/
The revolution has struggled with breakfast, lunch and supper.
Nov 28th, 2016 - 11:55 pm - Link - Report abuse -6@Reekie
Nov 29th, 2016 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse +5Sure Castro deposed a tyrant....but then became one himself. His popularity exists only amongst Cubans who never knew anything different, and socialists spread around the world who praise him without ever having had to experience the hardship which he imposed on his people...as they say here, “pimenta em cú de outro não arde” (or “pepper up someone else's rear doesn't burn”).
So your brilliant conclusion as to why he maltreated his peole, killed off thousands of opponents, was the US's fault ? did they teach that to you at school ?
“And to be clear, the Cuban way is not a desirable way for other countries to follow...”
Well, that is obvious, but why do you salute a man that promoted this “undesirable way” ? there's no logic in your thinking...
Your question as to why Batista was not 'persecuted' by the US, as Castro was, is plain and simple : Batista did not nationalize US interests on the island without compensation ...that's what Castro did, thus the embargo.
“This is indeed a very low-flying argument. If you are at all interested in debate with basis, go take a look at neighbouring Caribbean countries and watch at what Cuba did instead of coming up with such a smug generalization”
Not at all. If, you consider the comparatively obsolete medical care in Cuba - despite it being universal - to the first-world, this implies that before Castro came along it was even less reliable. Maybe you have medical stats showing that Cuban healthcare is renowned for it's excellence ? And, btw, comparing Cuba's healthcare system to neighbouring Caribbean countries', is hardly a certificate of 'top quality'...
It's interesting that you should have mentioned what was supposedly said about Nestor K, “Because it had been rock-bottom the only way was up...”, because one, it seems like you admire him and support the comment, and two, it confirms that after Batista ”the only way was up”... in other words, confirming what I said.
So Enrique and Think (and CFK) oppose repressive right wing dictators, but pay tribute to a repressive left wing dictator? I guess it wasn't the dictator part you objected to then?
Nov 30th, 2016 - 08:05 pm - Link - Report abuse +1“One thing that Castro managed was to provide superb education....”
Nov 30th, 2016 - 09:27 pm - Link - Report abuse +2This allows hungry people to read the labels on empty food boxes.
One would hope that the general education is better than the medical schools.
Dec 01st, 2016 - 07:33 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Commenting for this story is now closed.
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