Your Castro Reader

As Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban President, we round up some of the best reporting on his five decades in power.

-- Arthur Miller in The Nation: A visit with Castro

-- Jon Lee Anderson in The New Yorker: Fidel's last battle?

-- James Fallows in The Atlantic: Should we boycott Cuba?

-- Anthony DePalma in The New York Times: For a post-Castro Cuba, Castro Lite

-- Christopher Hitchens in Slate: The eighteenth brumaire of the Castro dynasty

-- Daniel Hannan in The Spectator: Last hours of a monster

-- International Herald Tribune: Profile of Fidel Castro Ruz

Comments

[John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada]

I don't defend dictators, but there are qualities about Castro every open-minded person must admire.

I was a young man when he first liberated Cuba, and many of my generation first regarded him as a heroic figure. It is not widely known now, but the style of military cap he wore became for a while a pop-culture item in the United States.

He stood up to American bullying, and he did it with flair and intelligence. Who does not admire the little guy who stands up to bullying?

American interests in Cuba had been to a great extent gambling, nightclubs, prostitution, and other dark activities. Castro did largely end this, making an enemy of the American Mafia interests who owned what had been goldmines.

Castro did genuinely try to help his people, and he did some very worthwhile things.

In a poor country, the average 8th grader is better educated, by far, than he or she is in the United States. Tests and observations have shown this many times. His health care system and medical training were remarkable achievements.

He resisted numerous attempts on his life by the CIA and its agents, he resisted an invasion, and he withstood a senseless embargo.

These facts tell us something about Castro not widely appreciated in the U.S. He was a popular figure despite having opponents just as all politicians do.

I was looking on the Internet for information on Cuban travel a couple of years ago, and I came across some comments from Americans who had managed to sidestep the ridiculous restrictions on travel. One man wrote, I'll never forget, along the lines, "It's a great place. Get there quickly before the U.S. gets back in and screws everything up."

He stands at the center of several major historical events of the 20th century. The Missile Crisis, of course. His position in this was not as unreasonable as Americans often think. He simply wanted the same security that American tactical weapons offered Western Europe at the time. The U.S. never stopped threatening him, attempting to kill him, and supporting and arming some vicious Cuban émigrés who regularly shot things up from boats and blew things up in Cuba. It was a bigger terror establishment by far down near New Orleans and other locations than the mountain redoubt of Osama, and it was government sponsored to the tune of millions.

And there can be little doubt that at least part of the plot to assassinate Kennedy revolved around an effort to discredit Cuba, perhaps making an invasion possible. I’ve always thought the violent émigrés who came to hate Kennedy for his settlement with the Soviets were behind the assassination.

[Santiago Perez]

Mr. Chuckman:

You forgot to mention the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people Mr. Castro has had killed simply because they oppose him. And all of Cuba may be literate, but they are not free to read whatever they want, they are told what to read.

Get your head out of ..... the sand.

[Walter Maletych]

Mr.Chuckman, I could not help noting that in your opening statement you declared that you do not defend dictators. Then you proceeded to do just that.

The qualities that you so admire in Fidel Castro do not outweigh the fact that he enslaved his people and executed or imprisoned all of his political rivals, and it didn't matter if they were real or imagined.

It's true that Cubans have a very good health care system. They need one. They don't have enough to eat.

I know. I was there.

[Greg Miller]

Fidel really has accomplished much in the half century he has been in power. The average wage has skyrocketed to about 25 USD per month and the much vaunted medical system has been stripped bare of doctors who are now in Venezuela to help pay for the oil Hugo Chavez sends to Cuba. The best medical clinics are still available to foreigners with hard currency, but not to Cubans. Don't get sick if you're a Cuban. Prescription drugs of any kind are impossible to find as are common drugs like Aspirin. Many Cuban women have to turn tricks with tourists to survive because it's simply impossible to live on the normal wages. After all one trick is a mininum of 50 CUC (Convertible Pesos) or more than 2 months average salary. Even Fidel once boasted that in Cuba, even the hookers have a University degree. Quite something to brag about.

Let's not forget the fact that the average Cuban does not have access to the Internet or any outside news sources and Cubans are banned from all hotels and most beaches frequented by tourists. Second class citizens in their own country.The secret police and informants are everywhere. The CDR ( Committe for Defence of the Revolution) on each block are my personal favourite. That's where you tell on your neighbours for anti-revolutionary activities, like talking to a tourist.

Of course this is all the fault of the US Embargo or Blocada as it's called there. What Fidel doesn't want people to know is that the "Embargo" has been relaxed for over 5 years and that the US is Cuba's 4th largest trading partner.
Many of the restrictions on US companies were removed to allow US companies to freely and openly sell specific goods to Cuba, as long as the Cubans paid up front for the goods. Not a bad policy since the World Courts are filled with cases of people trying to collect money for goods and services sent to Cuba and not paid for.

Yep, quite the accomplishment for "El Commandante e Jefe". 50 years of oppression . Viva Fidel!!!
Viva Socialismo!!! Viva la Revolucion Cubana!!!

[libsukbad]

Liberalism is a mental disorder. It is readily apparent that logical, fact based arguments are of no use when attempting to talk to a leftist whose level of emotion clouds any capacity to think lucid thoughts. Take the comment that does not "defend dictators" while doing exactly that !!!

[Tom Albright]

"Adios Comrade!!!"
Say Hello to Stalin in Hell!!!

[Pancho Perico]

For dissident, non-conventional views on Castro, visit these sites:

Tyrant Aficionado
http://www.intelinet.org/tyrant/

Fidel Castro Supermole
http://www.intelinet.org/sg_site/intelligence/sg_supermole.html

[Tom Stringley]

Mr. Chuckman that is a beautiful defense of a dictator. Unfortunately it is filled with inaccuracies.

Someone of the same opinion once commented on Castro and how he raised the literacy rate in Cuba to something like 80%. This is all fine and good but what is the purpose when you live in poverty? So now one can boast they are literate but live in conditions you can never imagine?

If Fidel has produced such a paradise then why have 100,000s of Cubans risked their lives over 90 miles of water to seek freedom in the US? This is something you can never appreciate.

You commented on people you know that described Cuba as beautiful. Well like the Wizard of Oz, Castro has reached out to Spain for them to build hotels. I mean Haiti has nice hotels, you can find them and travel there yourself. However your friends never ventured far into Havana nor the countryside to see the destituted millions Fidel can call his own. Now if your vacationing friends were to ever become ill they can go to the second tier facility (there are three, the top rated ones for military and govt., the second for tourists and the abandoned wastelands is for the common Cuban citizen).

It is convenient to blame the US and our policy towards Cuba in an effort to explain away Castro's dismal revolution. However Mr. Chuckman doesn't Canada have trade with Cuba along with the European Union? I have no idea what trade policies Cuba has with South America or Asia. You see Cuba was never a model of ethical government even pre Batista. The country is a tropical island, so casinos and hotels were a natural tie in.

No Castro's revolution failed because of Castro just like all other dictatorships in the end. The revolution was always about Castro and no one else.

[Thomas Sharrad]

Castro retired? You must be havana laugh.

News reached me yesterday by good old-fashioned word of mouth that long time thorn in America’s side, Fidel Castro, has decided to retire aged 81.

How bloody inconsiderate.

My plans for a sojourn in the Cuban capital to soak up the 1960’s atmosphere and cheap rum have been thrown into disarray as every Tom, Dick, Harry and José books their flights for a bit of last minute.communism.

However, fear not ladies and gentlemen, help is at hand in the form of Raul Castro, Fidel’s spring chicken of a brother, aged a mere 76 and sprightly with it.

Raul, who has effectively been running the country since July 2006 (if any form of dictatorial communism can be considered “effective”) has pledged to continue his brother’s policies into the 21st Century, thus ensuring that the Castro Brother’s (think Marx but less funny) bizarre breed of communism continues unaffected.

In a move that any Bond villain would surely be proud of Castro has replaced Castro. Forget dolly the sheep, this is the real thing.

Admittedly it’s something of a temporary fix, not unlike fitting a second hand clutch - good for the minute, but may well start slipping just around the corner.

[Jake Mist]

One should be careful when using Liberal-Capitalist values to debunk a Socialist-Castroist-non-materialist state, and vice-versa.