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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFidel Castro's Terrible Legacy (from Washington Post Editorial Board)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fidel-castros-terrible-legacy/2016/11/26/0659042c-b3de-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.a6d79819e79aFor those “achievements,” however, the Cuban people paid a terrible price — far higher than they could have expected when Mr. Castro roared into Havana, promising to restore political freedoms lost under the U.S.-backed dictatorship that he ousted. Though counterproductive to his ostensibly humane social policies, Mr. Castro’s political repression reached an extreme that would have made his predecessor, Fulgencio Batista, blush.
It began with mass summary executions of Batista officials and soon progressed to internment of thousands of gay men and lesbians; systematic, block-by-block surveillance of the entire citizenry; repeated purges, complete with show trials and executions, of the ruling party; and punishment for dissident artists, writers and journalists. Mr. Castro’s regime learned from the totalitarian patron he chose to offset the U.S. adversary — the Soviet Union, whose offensive nuclear missiles he welcomed, bringing the world to the brink of armageddon. Mr. Castro sponsored violent subversive movements in half a dozen Latin American countries and even in his dotage helped steer Venezuela to economic and political catastrophe through his patronage of Hugo Chávez.
And that's from the Washington Post Editorial Board, not exactly Breitbart. It's honestly sad to see people here praising this POS.
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JHan
(10,173 posts)both can be acknowledged. Many treat it as an either/or scenario unfortunately.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)even tho people here ought to not see the American system as an "enemy" but as something to be improved upon. That's the difference between old fashioned liberals and leftists.
Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)JHan
(10,173 posts)Erasing Castro's crimes from the narrative doesn't do us any favors, regardless of who ends up owning WaPo.
Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)Castro's crimes. They, unlike Jeff Bezos, are simply weighing those against the good he did AND framing them in the context of the crimes committed by his neighbors.
Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)Last execution in Cuba was 2003
http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=Cuba®ion=&method=
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)It was very serious to the country that people were stealing boats especially the ferry that is transportation for so many. After that happened someone tried to steal a Cubana plane.
That can't be allowed in an impoverished country. I don't agree they should have been shot, but it was the only time in a long time and it's because things are so dire there.
You ask why so dire? Multiple reasons but the MAIN ONE is the US Embargo that has killed a lot more Cubans than Fidel.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)I turned off my outrage meter when the American people elected a racist, xenophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic, authoritarian to be their president.
We surrendered the right to criticize any foreign leader , for anything...
Oh, spare me the sermon that Trump is not those things because he was democratically elected. In Germany's last free election before WW ll Hitler's National Socialist party won a plurality.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)nor will he start executing them en masse or putting them in mental hospitals en masse.
