The death of a great man and a leader of his people.

He will be missed.

I remember doing Cuban Revolutionary History in third year and in Honours at Uni.   His regime had it's problems but the Americans were really annoyed that they could not dispose of him as easily they wanted to.   They hated that.  In 1963 it all boiled over in the Missile Crisis which was not quite the victory Washington painted it as.

Bobby. wrote on Nov 26^th, 2016 at 6:24pm:


Really?  I thought it was a huge game of bluff being played by Kennedy and Khrushchev.

Castro was no hero

had he been he would not of subjected his people to 60 years of draconian dictatorship.

Getting rid of the corrupt US influence in the early days was a good thing .... but he turned that to shyte.

Why is it that so many Cubans risked their lives trying to escape by swimming,sailing,rowing to the USA?

Castro & his family were self centered grandiose arzeholes.

Gordon wrote on Nov 26^th, 2016 at 6:39pm:


Only after sex.

Brian Ross wrote on Nov 26^th, 2016 at 6:15pm:




that is of course true.. however why did so many escape from Cuba if it was so wonderful???...

like m ost dictatorships he ruled with an iron fist.. which means if you didnt like it you disappeared..

I am sure there is no record of that...

bugger. I hope this doesn't create a resurgence of people getting Che tattoos.

Bobby. wrote on Nov 26^th, 2016 at 6:57pm:


Yes, he did Booby.

I wonder if this is Mr Trump's favourite Dragon song.

cods wrote on Nov 26^th, 2016 at 6:42pm:


Your question should be why the overwhelming majority didn't try and escape.  Those that did so were those that supported the Batista regime or were not interested in Castro's socialist experiment.  They gained in their opinion nothing with having to share their skills and their profits with their fellow Cubans.   Those that remained weren't held in Cuba after 2012 (although restrictions had been steadily eased after about 1985).  Most restrictions on Cuban travel, particularly to the USA were made by the USA, rather than Cuba.

Quote:


Where to, the Isla del Pinos?  There are a lot of myths which the USA has promulgate over the decades about what happens to Cuban critics of the Fidelista regime, Cods.   One of which was that there was an infamous map published of the Cuban Gulag which listed the Isla del Pinos as the location of a camp for political dissidents.  In reality, it was a youth camp.  I don't doubt that if someone persisted with their criticism of the Fidelistas they may well have "disappeared".   However, it took a lot of effort to get that far up their noses.  Most "disappeared" people fled to the US.

Quote:


Actually the Cubans have a lot of records of what people did and didn't do, in Cuba.  The US has a lot less of them.   I'd take anything the CIA claims about Cuba between 1960 and 2015 with a massive grain of salt.   I don't doubt that the Fidelista regime was bad in many ways but the CIA likes to ice the cake a great deal.