Fidel does not love us!

 

"Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that "we don't need the empire to give us any presents."

The 1,500-word letter in state media titled "Brother Obama" was Castro's first response to the president's three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries' history of Cold War hostility. Obama did not meet with the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.

Obama's visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of U.S. attempts to overthrow the Communist government had ended, allowing Cuban to reform its economy and political system without the threat of U.S. interference."  CBSnews

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Well, well, not everyone in Cuba likes Obama or the US.  Perhaps they should stew in their own broth for another fifty years.  pl 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fidel-castro-cuba-doesnt-want-presents-from-u-s-empire/

Comments

[Walrus]

With respect Col. Lang, I think you are being a little uncharitable. What did Cuba ever do to the Unitled States? Do you want them to invite the Russians back for a rerun of the missile crisis?

[oofda]

Off topic, but Capital complex in lockdown after shots fired

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/gunshots-reported-at-us-capitol-complex/2016/03/28/f1b961ba-f515-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar

[505th PIR]

Fidel is raging against the dying of the light...and the fact that his people have a desire to move on beyond his conceptions/aspirations for them...

[turcopolier]

walrus

Well, my fellow Mayflower descendant, the cigar rolling, cane chopping bastards invited the Soviets to install IRBMs that covered all of eastern America and then I and my brethren chased people like Che all over Latin America as they tried to install Stalinist dictatorships everywhere. That is enough for me. you should have been there. pl

[ked]

Agreed, though I think it's more like whimpering.
And making himself (& his bro, & the hangers-on, and what he stands/stood-for) increasingly less relevant to the people's future.

[Outrage Beyond]

In cases like this, I recommend reading the actual text, to see what Fidel actually said, rather than the spin from the corporate media.

While some people might take issue with the tone, in reading the letter, I didn't find anything that was objectively false.

I also found it interesting that Fidel touched on the South African nuclear weapons program, and stated that Reagan and Israel helped. While the Israeli participation is well-known, I wasn't aware of US participation. So that might be worth further study.

Most piquant in that section, Fidel asks if Obama knew about this participation. A point of connection with this query can be found in a recollection of one of the first questions Obama was asked at one of his earliest press conferences: if he know of any country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons. The reporter, Helen Thomas, was of course referring to Israel. Obama replied that he "didn't want to speculate."

What a chickenshit answer.

[Dave Schuler]

Anybody who expect a thaw until the old revolutionaries have died off is being unduly optimistic. That's the way it was with the Soviet Union and I expect the same with Cuba.

[A Pols]

Not to be polemical, but for the Cubans: "Paranoia runs deep; into your mind/life it will creep". And then "Greeks bearing gifts" etc. For them, American money, tourists, and business may spell co optation and assimilation, hence they may have real and legitimate fears that their autonomy, threadbare though it may be, will be lost once the doors are open.
They probably should be apprehensive about where this will all lead.

It probably won't take too long for them to become another dependency, then long corporate memory starts to push for return of property. hmmm.

[Norbert M. Salamon]

With great respect, Colonel, vassals did not have anything to say when the BOSS hath spoken in the 50-s, this applied both to Cuba with respect to Russian Missiles, as it applied to Turkey with respect to USA's Missiles on Russian Border.
Perhaps. today some vassals do not show enough respect to the BOSS at least in the Borg's opinion - notwithstanding the EU's slave like behavior regarding Russian sanctions.

[cynic]

Does Cuba matter any more? Why not ignore them, or just dump all your criminals and socialists there and refuse to let them out of Great Guantanamo?
What is likely to happen when the Castros die?

[J]

Walrus,

Once 'inside' Cuba, we can begin to dismantle Castro piece by piece. In a hundred years they will ask 'Castro who?'.

[bth]

One can assume that the next US presidential visit to Cuba will be for a state funeral. While the Castro brothers dictate their lengthy letters, the Cuban population is hauling ass to Mexico and across the US border seeking asylum in the thousands. Any Cuban watching current US/Cuban relations unfold must know that the change is probably measured now in months and not years.

[BraveNewWorld]

Gee, you try to kill a guy a few times and all this hostility comes boiling out of no where.

[robt willmann]

This appears to be the letter to president Obama from Fidel Castro--

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-03-28/brother-obama

A documentary called "Looking for Fidel" was made from interviews of Fidel and others in 2003 by Oliver Stone, and one of the most telling things said in the film was Castro's statement in response to questions from Stone: "I am not a theoretician of revolutions. I am an activist. I am not a man who only elaborates ideas and theories, but a man who does things and executes ideas." There it is. That is the source of the support and the opposition to him.

The many attempts to kill Castro became quite a publicized item. A book and film on the subject claim around 638 attempts. Castro says in the Stone documentary that is has been 734. Whatever the number, it apparently was quite a few. At the time of the Cuban revolution, Santo Trafficante, a significant leader in the Italian-American Mafia, was jailed in Cuba. Castro subsequently let him go. Some have theorized that as a result of his being released, Trafficante became an informant for Castro, and then whenever the U.S. government through the CIA got in bed with the Mafia to try to kill Castro, Trafficante let Castro know what was coming. Whatever the machinations were, Castro certainly had no illusions about the situation and kept an eye on survival.

Stone also interviewed Castro in 2009 for another documentary called "Castro in Winter", but I have not seen it.

[optimax]

Fidel's days are numbered. The Cuban people want more than he or his regime can give them. The people welcomed Obama and that is what counts in the end.

How can they resist a friendlier America:

http://webneel.com/sites/default/files/images/project/Daniel-Adel-Uncle%20Barack%20Der%20Spiegel.jpg

[doug]

I've always thought of communism as so unworkable long term that contained, but without the US opposition to blame, they would have died on the vine much earlier. But we also had to confront communism. As unstable as it was, as long as it was expanding it had a tremendous base of support and many clueless eggheads believing in its scientific man myth. Communism, like any force that unites peoples on a fervent goal, can produce expansion and empire. Indeed, it was necessary for its survival. But, it suffered the afflictions of empire and the resultant decay more quickly than capitalist structures. Of course, capitalism, particularly the financialization part of it, has it's own issues.

The economist F. Hayek was particularly insightful over half a century ago. Highly recommend "The Fatal Conceit"

[Amir]

If USA and USSR can get over their enmity (sort of although at this point in time there is a "reset" in the opposite direction), why would a client state be treated more harshly?

As a side note; I agree with you that it is difficult to compare Che with Pinochet as the latter had actual power while the former, as an underdog, had the luxury of not having to use the iron fist to begin with. Maybe if his revolution had won, it would have devoured its children too, like the French, Russian, Chinese, ...

In that sense, maybe USA is unique although I am not well placed to comment on this as I have a very superficial knowledge of it's history. More than a century after independence, Civil War can not be considered as a devouring of children, I presume.

[Amir]

You mean, will Mexicans forget Emiliano Zapata or French the Joan d'Arc?

[turcopolier]

Amir

I find it amusing that so many of you are still entranced by the romance of Cuban revolutionary communism. Perhaps this has something to do with your deep hostility to the United States. Buy a few more Guevara T-shirts as an investment. pl

[V Roux]

The Cuban revolutionary slogan most feared by the current regime "yo quiero x-box."

[optimax]

The image of Che isn't iconic with all Cubans.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/03/25/rolling-stones-havana-first-cuba-show/82248196/

[Medicine Man]

Eh, the world is going to move on without Fidel. If he wants to spend his time nursing old grudges, that is his privilege, but his country is far better off husbanding better relations with the USA.

[Sil]

Obama had to start the process now because the VP and expected next President of Cuba is seen by US as *NOT* a revolutionary. Start the long talks, like with Iran, then the NGO forces will slide in and "do their thing". These things are already talked about in LA press. Fidel is talking to the Cuban people and the world reminding how relations have been last 50 years. He never misses a good opportunity to keep details fresh in the minds of the people.

[Thirdeye]

According to the British journalist John Wilson Hudson, who was detained along with Trafficante, he was visited by Jack Ruby. Ruby had previously told Robert McKeown, a gun runner that he was acquainted with, that he was going to Cuba to arrange for freedom for some friends.

I'd read of the double agent theory as well, only centered on Johnny Roselli.

[William R. Cumming]

The death of the Castro brothers IMO will prompt a FP crisis in the U.S.A. Why? The Borg and IC are unable to contemplate that these brothers will die. Np plans or analysis yet to my knowledge but again IMO the President's Cuban efforts not planned by the Borg or IC!