Fidel Castro: Tyrant or Hero?

Do yo think these problems could be solved if Cuba had all sanctions lifted and the economy got better.

At least, the problems could be alleviated somewhat. Cuba is still a poor country relying heavily on sugar and other cash crop exports and tourism. Since the government owns everything related to healthcare and education, they need to buy everything. What I'm doubting is their ability to afford US products beyond their current level of spending. At least it will increase their opportunities for exports.

So to answer, not solved, but alleviated.

Fidel has become less and less relevant thanks to the political maneuvering by his brother Raul. Raul is much less fervent when it comes to US hatred and much less strict when it comes to matters of freedom of speech in general; at least, that's his track record up to now. We could see a further easing of the embargo as the government becomes much more flexible.

That seems to bode well, just as long as the government being 'flexible' doesn't become a euphemism for letting US and multi-national companies take advantage.

Well, depends on your definition of "to take advantage". If you mean that all or almost all the major companies in Cuba would be owned subsidiaries of US companies, then I agree with you. This is of course in the long run. In the short run, you can have this and use the wealth generated by them to sponsor human welfare projects and promote Cuban companies by lending them cheaply.


I think that's a valid worry about the export-oriented growth model though but it's something many countries have overcome. However, remember that Cuba is mostly a one party dictatorship like China, so the companies are going to have trouble buying politicians; since Cuba's Congress is mostly for the personal use of Castro anyways.

I don't know your position on foreign investment or politics, so I refrain from further commenting for now.

More then likely once Castro has died the country will go down an path like China did after Mao died.

I hope it doesn't go down that path too far like China has if that does happen.

This is fricking B.S. Castro is a terroist, i bet he will never tell you about bombing the theatre
my great grandmother was in when she lived there eh? Im sorry but with batista at least cuba had automobiles,
avearage living, and not getting trown into conscription for bad behavior in a class. Dammit, some people on this
forum think there some kinda intellectual even debating this.

As for vacationing my dad ate metalic bread at a hotel with NO a.c. fuck you castro you
didn't even help the people of the country side like you promised...

EDIT: Also in Cuba charges of Contra Revolución {counter-revolution} is a crime punishable by death!

How is my post bullshit? I'm not saying castro was good or bad I was asking peoples opinion on it.

Well folks we heard what a true Cuban had to say. Castro is "meh" at best.

One party politicians difficult to buy?
Have you ANY idea how corrupt the PRC is right now? There are entire PURGES being done by the party to get the corruption out. Look at Kali's 'Chinese Peasents getting uppity' thread. The whole cause was corruption. Even the whole 'human rights' issues aside, the PRC has alot of problems in the government. They are just good at dealing with it themselves/ covering it up.
And these guys are used to having alot of money. Think of how the Cuban officials would react to suddenly becoming so powerful and wealthy. We have seen before what happens.
Remember, these guys are in total control.

And don't talk about the Triad...

With Fidel Castro more than likely soon to be upcoming death, it is important to look back and reflect on the revolutionary and later leader of the Cuban state: Fidel Castro.

But before I can talk about Fidel Castro one must look at how life was like for the average Cuban citizen before he was in power. Cuba long many of the Latin Americas was quickly colonized by the Spanish empire, which is main purposes where for sugar and for the slave trade. Which has caused the nation to become racial mixed and has suffered up until recent history great hatred against the African America community of Cuba. After the Spanish-American war the Americans quickly began speeding up “forced” production and outsourcing the sugar to which Cuban sugar was equal to more than 30% of the world’s supply. The united states placed its eye on Cuba and never blinked until the first world war, however once the war was dealt the current Wilson administration went right back to keeping a careful lookout on Cuba especially when it looked like another colored revolt was on the way. The new relationship between the United States and Cuba lead to the “Dance of the millions” which had significant impact to the Cuban presidency. Cuban nationalism began to surge and General Gerardo Machado used this as a rally cry with his slogan “All for Cuba, Cuba for all” he won the election and quickly began a form of stroking the ego of the American businessman while doing nothing to help the Cuban people out. The people’s love of General Machado did not last and quickly the Cuban people turned on him The events that led to Machado’s resignation included student and labor opposition and a decline of support from the united states and the Cuban military, Machado eventually resigned and Carols Manuel de Cesepedes was named the president on August 12, 1933. Cuba than experienced the revolt of the sergeants which is another subject matter in its entirety, what happen was this eventually gave way to the rise of Batista and his mafia backed power state who rain the country from behind the scene for most of the 30s,40s, and 50s.

Before we talk about Cuba it also noteworthy that we say some things about Batista was the very example of what the United States wanted their Cuban neighbor to be. He took over power after the revolt of the sergeants in 1933 and was quickly supported by the FDR administration of the United States as well as the Cuban mafia who ran rampant in the streets of Havana under Batista’s rule. Batista enacted a harsh rule and anyone caught speaking out against the rule was quickly gunned down or vanished from thin air. Batista input a huge burden of taxes on the Cuban people who were forced to work the sugar fields in order to pay for their debts. March 10th 1952 almost twenty years after the revolt of the sergeants, Batista took power once more against the elected Cuban president Carlos Socorras (Also running the election was Fidel Castro, Both scored higher in polls than Batista. ) Batista immediately got to work suspended the Cuban constitution and the right to protest. Batista yet again open way up for the mafia and once again Havana was the Latin Las Vegas with mob members like Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, the Genovese family all had connections and influence over the Cuban state. Batista allowed and support this, even encouraging mob backed singers like Frank Sinatra to sing debut for him. Batista continued to feed off his people’s wealth and did nothing to stop the rampant crime problem. By the later 1950s rampant anti-Batista felling had become wide spread all over Cuba and Batista hold on power began to tighten more and more and he sent Military units to stop student protestors. Eventual his actions against the protestors sought to lose him United States support and with the lack of support his power base slowly started to weaken. And on January 1st 1959 he was overthrown by Fidel Castro and the July 26th movement. Down with Batista, long live Fidel.

Fidel Castro, was born on august 13th 1926 to the owner of a successful Creole sugar plantation owner, and already at a young age showed a distaste for the Bourgeoisie tactics of his father though this is because he spent many of time interacting with his father’s African workers at an early age. This is quoted by Fidel Castro as being the only reason that he didn’t become a Bourgeoisie like his father. At the age of 13 he led a strike of sugar workers on his father’s plantation. He attended a Jesuit Roman Catholic school in his youth where he learned to read and write. He was extremely gifted in sports, especially baseball. Only in History did his academic grades surpass his athletic achievements. He later attended the University of Havana in order to get his law degree, it is here that he witness government crack downs on student protestors and increased his anti-imperialist views. After graduating and qualifying as a lawyer in 1950, Fidel Castro and two of his friends set up a firm for Cuba’s poorer people where he would take the cases of the poor residents of Cuba and never ask them for more money, it is for this reason he was constantly short on money in his youth. 1952 Fidel Castro runs for congress of the Cuban people’s party and parliamentary seat of the Orthodox party, he was very well liked and was considered the most likely to win. But then a Coup lead by General Fulgencio Batista (a western backed dictator) canceled the election. Castro was later jailed in 1953 after forming an arm resistance unit with his brother Raul Castro, and attacking the Moncada army barracks which was in retrospect a complete failure, leading to the deaths of 8 fellow revolutionaries and much later 159 disappearances all connected to the attack. He was arrested and after giving what is considered his most important speech of all time (Entitled: History will absolve me which can be viewed in detail here http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1953/10/16.htm)
Castro was found guilty and sentenced to a fifteen years in prison, Batista under intense pressure by the people let him go in under 2 years and promised free and open elections. When it was clear this would not happen, Fidel fled to Mexico where he began to make plans to overthrow the Cuban government. It is here he meet the great Che “Ernesto” Guevara. In 1956 Fidel and Che along with 80 others arrived back in Cuba in order to overthrow the government. Their plan was to set up shop in the sierra Maestra Mountains. They arrived with only 16 men and twelve weapons between them. For the next few months Castro raided army garrisons’ building up his stock of weapons and ammunitions. Meanwhile more and more political pressure landed on Batista who was faced by a rebel assassination attempt, although Batista managed to survive his execution of civilians and those suspect of the plot lead to a decreased between relations of the Cuban government and the united states. Batista instead increased his Military crackdown on the people of Cuba, which only helped increase the love for Castro and his Movements. When Castro’s guerrillas took over a new piece of land they gave the land to the peasant population and in return many of the peasants joined Castro’s cause and fought for him. Even though Batista army outnumbered Castro’s by a huge 20,000-40,000 margin, they Rebels where successful everywhere they went. On May 24th 1958 the already weaken Batista army launched Operation Verano which sent 12,000 of Cuba’s best soldiers into the Sierra mountains in order to kill the rebels. This was a colossal failure for the regime, in one battle the battle of La Plata which lasted ten days the Cuban rebels managed to defeat the 18th and 17th battalion of Batista’s army. Eventually the Cuban government army began to fall back, with the rebels winning more and more victories as time went on. Many Cuban soldiers began to desert there post and join Castro (much like how the ones deserted Gaddafi in the Libyan revolution) Batista even using the latest Napalm technology could not stop the freight train of the rebels. The United States offered that Batista hold elections, which the people responded in a 98% margin by not voting. Castro was now confident he could take the fight to Batista. It is here that the important note of treatment of political prisoners be viewed, when the government forces captured rebels or anyone suspect of being rebels they shot them on the spot without question, when the rebel forces captured Cuban soldiers they gave them their bread and water and offered them a place in the rebel forces. On New Year’s Day 1959 Batista the murderer of 20,000 or more Cuban people fled the country, Castro and his victorious rebels entered Havana entering the state into a new era of equality and Justice. Castro quickly went to work in the new government passing several new laws such as housing rents being cut by 50%, a redistribution of property to the peasant class. The telephone company was the first of many to be nationalized and the segregation between the black and white communities was abolished (something the United States still was reluctant to do) Salaries of all people where increased and the most successful education campaign to date was launched. Before the revolution the good majority of Cubans where Illiterate (much like his Father and Mother) however Castro asked the young ones of the country to travel across and teach people to read and write, Prompting the slogan “If you do not know. Learn. If you do know. Teach” this has lead Cuba to having the highest level of literacy rates in Latin America and perhaps the world with an astonishing almost 100% result. This education reform was also used by President Kennedy in other locations in order to quiet down the increasing anti-capitalist felling of the world. Cuba even early on had free university education something that has yet to be used in the western world, except by European states that have seen its far reaching success. Increased United States hatred of Cuba happened when Castro nationalized out the united fruit company and many other pro-united states businesses. Relations finally hit a halt in February 1960 when the Cuban government agreed to buy oil from the soviet government. Eventually Castro announced himself a Communist and that he was going to model his Cuba after the Soviet Union. While United States stopped all relations with Castro, Castro continued to enact more reform, specifically health care reform disturbing the doctors of Havana across the country side and giving free medical aid to all Cuban peoples. The mortality rate of the country continued to decrease and is now far lower than many other developed nations such as the United States, France, and Brazil. Cuba health care system is the envy of the Latin Americas and perhaps if they could get more doctors the world. Cuba’s life expectancy is well above 80 which is even better than the United States. Though Castro did suffer some negative reaction when he ordered the execution of 600 people associated with the Batista regime that had killed 20,000 people over the years, so this act though cruel can be justifiable. On April 17th, 1961 a force of about 1,400 Cuban refugees/exiles/ and strong Batista supporters trained and financed by the CIA launched an invasion of Cuba landed on the Bay of Pigs. The assumption was the people would lead an uprising against Castro, there was no such uprising and instead the invasion force was captured and the United States withdrew support at the last minute. Pope John XXIII excommunicated Castro from the Catholic Church, even though no longer a Catholic, Castro continued to hold many of his morality views and closed down many alcohol shops, banned night clubs and casinos (which lead to a hatred by the Cuban Mafia who were later paid up to 150,000 by the FBI to assassinated Fidel Castro) he also increased his crackdown on the homosexual community, it is important to note however the treatment of homosexuals in Cuba has improved by a large margin and at the same time as Castro was cracking down homosexuals in Cuba, the united states was running experiments on them, the Anti-homosexuals rhetoric was not just isolated to Cuba but spread across the vast majority of the globe. October 1962 the Cuban missile crises occurs, in response the a united states missile station in Turkey the Soviet union places Nuclear missiles on the Island of Cuba while thankful the two governments managed not kill everyone in the world with nuclear fire, increased trade embargos where placed on Cuba by the western world and Castro grew more and more reliant on the Soviet regime. Castro continued to be an icon of struggle against United States imperialism, promoting revolutions across all of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With his ally and friend Che fighting and eventually dying in many of them. Though the anti-Cuban settlement decreased across the western world (except for the united states) many nations still hate Castro for nationalizing the country from private companies, However Prime minister Pierre Truedeau of Canada increased relations between the two nations even quoted as saying “ "Long live Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro. Long live Cuban-Canadian friendship." Infact Canada and Cuba have such a wonderful friendship that Pierre statue is in Cuba’s largest airport. Castro has turned with the soviet support Cuba into a model of Latin America. However Soviet support would not last and in Dec 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved and Cuba was hit by major economic depression. Anti-Cuban communities have long since argued his fall from power was bound to happen soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, however popular sentiment has kept the revolutionary Fidel Castro in power. Though Castro could easily hold elections he has chosen not to, though he claims this is because this will undue all that he has done to help the Cuban people. However he no longer holds power in Cuba, this has fallen on his brother Raul Castro. Castro is an example of a man who cares for the people and his reforms have saved Cuba, only the United States embargo on the country has stopped Cuba from being a strong power in the Atlantic. Castro can hold his head up high knowing that even though the united states attempted to assassinate him over 638 times, they have not succeeded and he will instead die the hero comrade revolutionary of Cuba. Cuba also come back in touch with its catholic side in allowing the freedom to practice Christmas as well as having many visit from the Catholic pope and even one from the head Patriarchal of the orthodox church. Castro’s education reform has made it so at least everyone in the nation has a ninth grade level education, under his medical reform life expectancy has increased by 25 or more years from what it was during Batista time. Cuba has eradicated/stop the spread of Polo, Malaria, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, whooping cough and dengue have been eradicated; others like tetanus, meningococcal meningitis, hepatitis B, leprosy, hemophilus meningitis and tuberculosis, as well as created a vaccine for lung cancer which has been made not for profit gain. Under his housing reform 85% of the population does not pay a property tax while the remaining 15% who do are the rich elite who pay with 10% of their salary. Under Castro discrimination against women stopped who now make up 65% of the work force and the hatred against blacks the Batista government copied from the southern United States has seized. Castro living a life of luxury is just another attempt at Operation Good times by the United States. Although the author would like to make note that he does not support Castro’s crack down on counter revolutionaries although all nations crack down on counter revolutionaries from Saudi Arabia to Belarus to Cuba and we must condone all of them instead of a select view for not giving the people enough freedoms to its people even the most basic ones like to speak out against the government. The anti-Castro felling most get is from the aristocrat of the Batista regime that escaped the country and even if you point out that the majority of Cubans support Castro and do not want to leave they still treat it as though you’re lying and Cuba is a horrible place and Castro is worse than Hitler. Castro is no Hitler; Castro is the greatest thing to ever happen to South America and its time the embargo on Cuba be lifted. One of the main complaints against Cuba is that its communist, to hate Cuba because of communism is to hate the united states because its capitalist economical ideology do not play a factor when viewing the large scale success the Cuban government under Castro has brought, It is also important to note that Cuba is not entirely 100% communist as 25% of the economy is owned by the private sector, (It is really Entrepreneurial Socialism) the private sector which will only increase once Castro has died and the Cuban economy starts to copy the Chinese model and Castro becomes another Mao. So the people who try to argue against Fidel because he is communist need to look at what the country really is, it’s like the people who argue that he owns hundreds of millions of dollars in bank accounts however no evidence has made to support this or Cuban government corruption. Cuba also has one of the highest ratings in the human development index with 3rd in the Americas behind America and Canada and 4th overall when you take in all of the North and South Americas. While Cuba is not a perfect nation by any means and it could work along way such as allowing more freedom of speech, information (although this has been relaxed) and travel, It can also be proposed to the united states that it ends its embargo on the nation of Cuba and worriers about its own social and economic problems instead of the nationalization of another. The Cuban model and polices intimated by Fidel Castro have been widely proven to be successful and should be at least admired if not used in many other nations. To say Castro has done nothing for his country is an absolute lie and they need to study the history of the country and what Castro has done, if they still choose to not see it then they are either blinded by u.s propaganda or paid Cuban aristocrats living in Miami. Castro is the greatest person Cuba has ever had and It is for these reasons one must always say….

VIVA LA REVOLUTION, VIVA LA CUBA, VIVA LA COMANDANTE CASTRO

After Viking's wonderful speech, I would have to say Castro would be no where without Che... Flegel.

Nah, but really with out Che Gueverra, Castro would not have toppled Batista's Dictatorship.

Viva Castro, Viva Che, Hasta La Victoria Siempre!!!

Che would be Proud of you and this thread.

At least one of the US assasination plans is coming along nicely.

Someone should sent it to him and SovietempireUSSR.

Which one of his accounts?

All of them.

Except the fascist account. Because the US obviously only sends them to commies.

Fuck Castro, i wish che never lived, and i only agree to the last one because we {more like they i
consider myself American now} deserve a break...

But honestly the embargo has got to go, its has done absolutely nothing but keep Cuba from rising in economic power throughout the years, the goal of using it to oust Castro has failed (My opinions on him are clear) and instead has only giving him another reason to hold a tight leash on the people.