by | February 19, 2008 · 10:36 am

Castro Resigns – But His Cruel Legacy Lives On

Castro_Owen_Arthur_Gay1.JPG

Remembering the executed, the disappeared, the imprisoned…

40 Comments

Filed under Barbados, History, Human Rights, Political Corruption, Politics, Politics & Corruption, Slavery

40 responses to “Castro Resigns – But His Cruel Legacy Lives On”

  1. Sam Gamgee
    February 19, 2008 at 11:16 am

    You up real early with that caption. I barely read the story just now online and here you are. Wow.

  2. Eyebother
    February 19, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    I would give your anti-Castro remarks more credit if you spent any time at all describing:
    (a) the far far more serious human rights abuses: massacres, torture, lives lived in utter poverty in Cuba 1900-59, under governments put in power and restored or replaced by repeated US interventions ever since the US in 1901 imposed the Platt amendment on the Cuba constitution which gave it a perpetual right to intervene whenever it wanted
    (b) when you spend any time talking about how US trained soldiers, operating in close collaboration with the US army and intelligence services were responsible for the deaths of a few hundred thousand people in Central America between the 1954 overthrow of the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala, through the death squads and contra terrorists of El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s, and after (read Greg Grandin’s The Last Colonial Massacre or EMPIRE’S WORKSHOP if you want to know more)
    (c) ditto for the thousands upon thousands of victims of US backed military coups and regimes in Brazil from 1964, Chile from 1973, Uruguay and Argentina — the ‘disappeared’ who were stolen from their families and dropped from planes over the ocean, the people tortured in a dozen ingenious ways (the CIA man Dan Mitrione liked to train the Uruguayans in running thin electric wires between the teeth of detainees, and the forerunner to ‘waterboarding’ ‘la banera’ or the submarine also found its origins there

    (d) when you tell your readers that Cuba since today has the highest school retention rate (almost 100% up to the age of sixteen) in the Americas. It has thirty university graduates for every one before the Revolution. Life expectancy has increased by fifteen years. Infant mortality, at about six for every thousand live births, is lower than in either the United States or Britain. The life chances of a child born in Cuba are significantly better than any poor child born anywhere in the New World. And there are no prison camps in Cuba, unless you count the concentration camp run by the United States on Guantanamo Bay

  3. Anonymous
    February 19, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    I would rather be born in USA or UK any day, than in Cuba, especially me being black. Cuba a is a racist place, why isn’t the leader of Cuba black, since most of its people are black. You must be tripping on something that you could find it in yourself to come here and insult our good sense with this pro Castro nonsense.

  4. Tony Hall
    February 19, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    Eyebother,
    Even though Fidel Castro was no saint I have to agree with your comments. No one wants to look at the damage the USA caused during the periods mentioned. Regardless of what one says about Cuba today that country has something called “healthcare” which the average American if she or she doesn’t have medical insurance will never have access to. Persons have to be evenhanded when discussing these matters as US foreign policy has caused irrepairable damage to many countries, especially in South America.

  5. Khaidji
    February 19, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I hear so many mixed feeling about Castro and Cuba. I understand that some people in every country will cry out against the administration there but by way of the public’s eye, what has been so bad about Cuba, recently? At a time when nations are suffering the tolls of progress, Cuba seems to have come to grips with its health care program, it’s culture and many of the areas which directly affect people. How large is the per capita homeless? And how does it score in the social status categories? When it all comes down to it, wouldn’t we rather the majority in the haves than the have-nots

    Castro Resigned

    Call him what you may but millions disagree
    Ailing Fidel Castro doesn’t leave a cruel legacy
    So many criticized the way that he lead
    They would prefer the US model instead
    Refusals to health care where there is no insurance
    Or millions homeless and there are million dollar residence
    Roads to success paved with deceit
    Executives trampling laborers at their feet
    States recalling spinach, motors and now beef
    It’s hard to believe when Presidents lie through their teeth
    Governments all over are challenges to control
    Nuisances, criminals and greed as they play their role
    Every since 1959 he ruled and the Cuba I know
    Does great in the above, Castro’s exodus will be a blow

    Have you noticed the message in the left spine? See other Poetry on Topics In The News from Khaidji

  6. Anonymous
    February 19, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Tony, Their healthcare system is only for a certain few, like Castro and his family and his cronies. The best and well maintained hospitals are for them, but for the ordinary Cuban people, well it’s a whole different story. What I as a black woman want to know is why Cuba does not have a black leader when taken into account the majority of Cubans are black.

  7. Adrian Hinds
    February 19, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Eye Bother we can talk about both. I don’t think it would matter which one was occurring at this moment in the history of Cuba. The fact is it is still occuring, and our focus is on the cause of it. FIDEL CASTRO

  8. degap
    February 19, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Fidel is a great Pan Africanist and liberator. Viva La Revolucion!

  9. Jerome Hinds
    February 19, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    Thankfully……Comrade Fidel has joined the ranks of former leader……just like that REPROBATE Owen Arthur !

    A wonderful scenario indeed !

  10. Cancerman
    February 19, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    I find it amazing that we have no clue about the history of the US imperialism in this region.

    We talk about murder, false imprionment and disappearnce and I think you are speaking of the US with the FBI and CIA taking the lead.

    I can say as a black man who lived in the USA the most frighteneing thing was always a white policeman.

  12. Pat
    February 19, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Eyebother:

    Thanks for your comments. I got raked over the coals about a year ago for similar comments.

    Anonymous:

    What is with this “black man” leader you want? As a black woman, why dont you espouse a female leader? Blacks are a minority in Cuba. The majority are a mix of the Taino Indian and Spanish (white), mixed black and Taino, and mixed black and Spanish. The mixed black dont call themselves black, but Cuban. I guess that characterization developed from the fact they were born there of the stock on the island at that time as opposed to those brought in. (In the same way Rihanna is Bajan, but her mother is Guyanese.) For some reason, race does not seem important to the mixed folks. In speaking to the old people (mixed), they seem to consider them selves the true “Cubans”. The blacks there thought I was Cuban because of my complexion.

    It is a beautiful country with beautiful people. All apparently living in harmony, from what I saw on the two occasions I have visited. However, I would need an extended visit like 3-6 months to really gauge what is going on.

    The health care there is for everyone and it is free. It is also excellent. I have had to use it twice on visits. Once for myself and the second time for my son. Too much sun/sea. We are black and the clinics we went to were in the local areas. The Doctor I had was trained in Cuba and got specialization at the Mayo Clinic. The one my son had has certificates from Spain, Germany and Cuba.

    I would sugest that many of you go, while it is still reasonable and relatively crime free. If the yanks get a foothold, it will be spoilt and probably turned back into a Las Vegas, as it was before the Revolution.

  13. Jerome Hinds
    February 19, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Adrian Hinds
    February 19, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    ***************************************
    Adrian Hinds,

    A wonderfully researched and presented document.

    It was quite rivetting to see that RUM – PUFFED megalomanic ( Owen Arthur )…..displaying his dictatorial traits.

    Too bad……that imbecile FRANKOLOGY did not see those traits before being INCLUDED !

  14. Eyebother
    February 19, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    Anonymous: what do you know about Cuba’s health system? The best care is available for all for free– I have seen it with my own eyes. And I have lived in the US and seen how health care is rationed by price.
    And it is not true that the majority of Cubans are “black” — if by that you mean visibly dark-skinned — Cuba has a very large pale-skinned, mulatto of all shades and chinese population as well as people who are “black” — and you will find that “black” cubans are among the most stalwarts supporters of the revolution. When the USA under Reagan and Britain under Thatcher were giving every help they could to white south africa, Cubans, many of them black, were fighting for the liberation of southern africa. It was the defeat of the South African and CIA led insurgents in Angola in 1976 which set the way for the collapse of the Smith regime in Rhodesia and the independence of Zimbabwe, and it was the defeat of the South Africans again at the Battle of Cuito Carnavale in 1988 which opened the way for the independence of Namibia and then the collapse of apartheid in South Africa

  15. reality check
    February 19, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    Eyebother is absolutely correct when he says that US foreign policy has a lot to answer for over the past 60 years or so. Neither of these nations should get away with their behaviour without a diligent and vigilant free press and effective opposition party.

    Unfortuneately, there is only a one party state in Cuba and no free press. The price of any advancements they may have been made have exacted a heavy toll on basic human rights and the quality of life.

    Barbadians came very close to losing all their basic rights to a Republican dictatorship, aided and abetted by a group of self-entitled and self -indulgent drones. Some of these people still have influence but Barbadians should not forget the staggering cost of having trusted and in some cases elected them.

    Thank-you BFP for continuing to ask these probing and critical questions for all Barbadians.

  16. Pingback: » Castro resigns as Cuba’s president Keltruth Corp.: News Blog of Keltruth Corp. - Miami, Florida, USA.

  17. eureka
    February 19, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    It would be most interesting to see the way that George Bush is immortalized after his murderous and far more cruel tenure comes to an end.

    What a pity that many people can’t see the beam in their own eye but can see a little moat in someone else’s!

    I respectfully submit that Fidel Castro has done his share of dirty deeds but they pale in comparison to those of others.

  18. Wry Mongoose
    February 19, 2008 at 11:06 pm

    Anonymous,
    The majority of voters in the US are white, with African Americans consisting about 12% of the total population … Does that mean that Barack Obama should not be president?

    Disqualify Castro on the basis of his human rights record, but leave his colour one-side. To do otherwise is to be a ‘black-neck’, no better than any other racist.

  19. Bush tea
    February 20, 2008 at 12:38 am

    I wonder how many have actually visited Cuba? It was a life-changing and view-changing experience for me..
    Only a true genius could have done what Castro has done in Cuba with the little that he was allowed, in the face of a half century of unjust blockade by the world’s bully.
    To say that health care is for the elite only is just ignorance – the statistics alone of life expectancy, child mortality etc puts the lie to that nonsense.

    Any leader of a country at war tends exceed the bounds of decency -as we see now with the USA in their War on Terror’s rampage in Iraq and even with their ‘homeland security’.
    It is known that the CIA was actively seeking to kill Castro and to destabilize Cuba for decades. What was he to do? fast and pray?

    Cuba has been a shining light by any reasonable standards, and Castro will go down in history as one of the all time great leaders EVER. In particular he will be remembered for developing Cuba in Health, Sports, Culture, and his defiance of bullying by successive US presidents.

  20. Anony
    February 20, 2008 at 2:24 am

    I feel he dead long time. Resign my foot.

  21. Pingback: Global Voices Online » Caribbean: Castro - End of an Era?

  22. Bimbro
    February 20, 2008 at 6:15 am

    ‘Eye Bother’, your description of Cuba makes it sound, idillic!! Why then are the Cubans disenchanted and trying by any means, to escape to the US!!

    I suspect there’s another side which you’re not telling us about, don’t you?!!!!

  23. rumboy
    February 20, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Eyebrother,
    You said it all and to those who do not know, one of the 5 commandants of the revolution was black. Who knows what his future would have held if he had lived. Racism is Cuba, what rubbish.

  24. young one
    February 20, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    it is amazing how we sat back at take everything the USA says. well done Eyebother, and you only touch the top of the bag.

  25. Technician
    February 20, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    Bush tea
    February 20, 2008 at 12:38 am

    I wonder how many have actually visited Cuba? It was a life-changing and view-changing experience for me..
    Only a true genius could have done what Castro has done in Cuba with the little that he was allowed, in the face of a half century of unjust blockade by the world’s bully.
    To say that health care is for the elite only is just ignorance – the statistics alone of life expectancy, child mortality etc puts the lie to that nonsense.
    —————————————————————————————-
    I wonder what BFP has to say to this report by Bush Tea.
    One of their own was there for a while and has nothing good to say about Cuba,
    Now we have a first hand look from a different perspective completely contradicting BFP.
    Maybe they were on different sides of the Island 🙂

  26. Get it Right
    February 20, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    Anon:

    why don’t we have a black prime minister?

  27. yatinkinkiteasy
    February 20, 2008 at 8:07 pm

    Its easy to blame the US embargo over the past decades for the failure of Cuba to provide sufficient food for its people.(particularly milk, bread and meat)…but could they not have developed trade with Mexico, Canada, Latin American Countries..etc, that have NO embargo in place? Cuba is a large country with very arable land, rivers, mountains,great weather (with no winters to cope with) ….they could be and should be self sufficient without “the Gringos”…but they are not…they are a poor, starving people who dont have the most basic right…that of freedom of movement. They are imprisoned there, and can not leave unless they risk their lives on a home made boat. All this, thanks to their “great Leader” Fidel, who has been able to brainwash generations of his people that the “gringos” are the cause of all their problems.(Repeated now by Chavez in Venezuela about their problems, even though there is no embargo on Venezuela)
    Perhaps good times will come to Cuba again, but it will only happen after all the Castros are gone.

  28. Eddie
    February 20, 2008 at 9:34 pm

    It’s amazing how some folks can look at only one side of the coin – we have to look at 3:
    Castro’s side!
    The unadulterated evidence!!
    The truth!

    Yes, Cuba has made gigantic strides, notwithstanding the embargo. However, this has been achieved through sacrifice – and bloodshed.
    Let us not bury our heads in the sand. Dictators reign via blood. If you want first hand proof, ask any of the millions of exiles in Miami. That’s easy, Miami is bursting with them, you can now say the native language of Miami is CUBAN SPANISH.
    If things were so rosy, why would some many of them risk their lives to escape?

    The USA is no saint and perhaps in some divine way may have to answer for all the wrongs it has comitted against millions. But let us not fool ourselves, Castro and his murderous regime are no better. They are also good doctors of “spin propagana” which finds furtile soil with the gullible and certain intelligensia.

    By the way – I belive Castro died last year.

    Eddie

  29. Rumplestilskin
    February 20, 2008 at 10:39 pm

    Eddie above notes fair comment. In addition, his belief that Castro has already passed on is also reasonable.

    Disclosure of his death would cause too much difficulty if the administration is trying to ‘continue’ the ways of the Castro regime.

    Thus, maintenance of the ‘Castro’ aura, calms the sea and ensures that continuity can go ahead without as much opposition.

    Having said all that, I also believe that other Caribbean islands, such as Barbados, had better hope that the Castro regime lasts much longer.

    This sounds selfish, but the reality is that as soon as Cuba ‘opens up’ our own tourism industry will be pretty much gone.

    With much of our own visitors coming from Europe, our own loss may be mitigated somewhat, but I am not sure by how much.

    Certainly, our land prices will come to a standstill and maybe even drop.

    An open Cuba will become very worthwhile for real estate investors and for those wishing holiday homes in the sun.

    Peace

  30. Citizen First
    February 20, 2008 at 10:59 pm

    Eddie wrote “By the way – I belive (sic) Castro died last year”. On 15 January, 2008, President Lula of Brazil met with Mr Fidel Castro for over two hours, please refer to :

    http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1553619220080116

  31. Anonymous
    February 21, 2008 at 12:41 am

    I have never visited Cuba and I have no desire to visit in this lifetime. Any country that does not allow freedom of religion is not a place that the Lord would want me to visit. I am saddened to see Owen Arthur in in that hovey dovey picture with Fidel Castro, because I have heard that in his day Fidel Castro was a brutal man.

  32. Socialist
    February 21, 2008 at 1:30 am

    Fidel Castro is a great man, he fought in another country to stop the invasion of the former appartied regime

    South Africa was on their way to invade Angola a peaceful and law abiding country with a small army. The nasty apartied regime atempted to take the hearts and dignity of the angolian citizens but the revolutionary father of freedom ,Fidel Castro brought their dreams to a halt .

    The stinking corrupt American constitution aided the South African government to spread the abominated apartied ideology . Guest what? The squeeky clean Americans did trade with South Africa after the world had nothing to do with them ,talk about multiple standards?

    George W.Bush is a brutal and wicked man , he reminds me of a female centipede that when threatened it eats its young . He invaded Iraq saying that his objective is to help the people of iraq. He only wanted the oil reserves , yet he stood and watch the citizens in Rowanda being victims of genocide and did nothing ,this self proclaimed humanitarian who loves to help people ignored the mayhem in Rowanda because they are black

    Fidel Castro never invaded or exploited no country ,just look at his donations to scholerships in thirdworld countries

  33. Maat
    February 21, 2008 at 1:41 am

    Thousands upon thousands of British/Canadians/ Americans, leave their country of birth to live in other countries where they feel they can live a better life. This is not just true of Cubans. That many Cubans risk their lives to get into America is as much to do with US immigration policy regarding Cuba, as it is to do Cuba’s policies.
    What is the measure of a good government? Is it the quality of life they provide for the majority of their citizens?
    Our problem is that many western governments accept the principle that life is about the survival of the fittest, or it is a dog eat dog world and that there is nothing unjust about some accumulating great wealth, while others live in abject poverty.
    We sometimes boast that we have a free Press. Well we do now, with BFP, but the established media is far from free to express the views of the population. They are more often used by the establishment as a propaganda tool (as is the Cuban media).
    People give Castro too much credit when they suggest that his death will cause a big difference in the fortunes of Cubans. There are far too many intellectuals and well educated people in Cuba for one mans idealogy to hold it together.

    Peace

  34. Anonymous
    February 21, 2008 at 9:31 am

    I tell you that picture of Owen Arthur (or as I pronounce his name O-win R-tuh) speaks volumnes. Look at how the two of them cozy up to each other like they trying to stay warm or something. Anyway, in the last decade of the last century a friend of mine gave me a CD titled Celia Cruz – Siempre Vivine for my Christmas gift. I thought to myself what I gun do wid dis CD. I don’t speak Spanish to enjoy this ting. Well I didn’t play this CD for a long time, so one day after listening to some jumbie toyi toyi music on the radio of a certain South American country I decide to play this CD, and I tell you, I could not stop listening to that CD. I was jumping up and singing like I had the holy ghost. This Celia Cruz CD turned out to be the best music I had ever heard in my life. Well from that time on I became hooked on Celia Cruz. I saw her in concert in Miami, and I tell you Rihanna and her kind cannot hold a candle to Celica Cruz, that woman was music, salsa, and fashion, and to boot she was advanced in age. Well anyway I read a story where Castro had allowed Celia Cruz and her husband Pedro Knight to go on tour of Mexico, and while Celia and Pedro were in Mexico they defected to the great nation of the USA. Ceclia and Pedro had quite a career in the great USA, well, Celia’s dad had passed in Havana, and she wanted to go to the funeral, well she contacted the Cuban authorties who in turn gave the request to Castro from Celia, and the request was turned down by Castro himself, on the grounds that Castro was so kind to let Celia and Pedro go to Mexico to entertain and they turned around and betrayed him and the revolution by defecting to the USA. Now you can say what you want about Castro, but I say he was/is a bad man.

  35. Anonymous
    February 21, 2008 at 9:41 am

    Fidel Castro’s scholarships only worked if you understood Spanish. I don’t think they teach in French, English Ki-kongo or Xhosa. I had a relative that fell through the rotten wood floor of my house which gave her a deep gash on the cheek. I rushed her in hire car to a certain hospital in South America that had Cuban doctors. The Cuban doctor did not speak an ounce of our language, and tried to stitch up my relative’s wound with out anesthesia, but it is a good thing the South American nurse stopped him and went out to get a South American doctor who spoke in our language, because my poor relative would have been in terrible pain.

  36. Technician
    February 21, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Maat says..’We sometimes boast that we have a free Press. Well we do now, with BFP……..’.

    Do we now?
    Not when every comment I make has to be checked by them and sanitized to their standards before posting …if at all.
    All this because I took them to task for the ML story.
    What free press what!!

  37. Citizen First
    February 21, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    This from the Trinidad Express (today 21 Feb, 2008):
    http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161281770

    Quoting from that report –

    “Thompson said Castro’s legacy is in the example he gave to all small island nations.

    “We value very much its friendship with the people of Cuba and wish to place on record our acknowledgment of the contribution that Fidel Castro has made to the development of Cuba, but also to the perspective of the right of small nations to self determination” Thompson said.”

    So while we excoriate Mr Arthur for his friendly behaviour towards Mr Castro, Mr Thompson goes on record extolling Castro’s legacy as the example he gave to all small island nations.

  38. Get it Right
    February 21, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    Citizen first..

    I agree with you on this. Only the right eyes of some of the people who post on this sight work so that what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander.
    But i suppose that’s barbadiana

  39. rumboy
    February 21, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    Eddie –
    You mention the Miami exiles but they were the chosen few who lived well under Batista and when Castro came they had to run or feel the retribution for their abuse. Their children who should not be labeled as exiles shout and scream about a free a Cuba today but yet not one would ever venture back as they would miss the ‘ sweet life ‘ that Miami has to offer as well as the ‘ Big Macs ‘. They are jokes, all of them and given the opportunity to go back and fight for their ‘ free Cuba ‘ I bet that not one would go but instead would stay safely in Miami and do what they do best – nothing but talk.

  40. Eddie
    February 21, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Socialst
    Cuba did support Angola and fight for the eradification of US Imperialism, but the majority on the battle front lines were Black, yes, Black like you and me.
    The Blacks in Cuba are treated as 2nd class citizens, just like those in Brazil.

    Rumboy
    Cuban exiles are not only the ones who left in the
    50’s and 60’s, they are very current, very current.