Monday, September 13, 2010

The Fidel Castro we didn't know

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

In 1962, Fidel Castro threatened the U.S. with nuclear missiles, however, in the XXI century, the former Cuban dictator seems to prefer to launch rockets against other targets, this time directed at Latin American leftist ideology, of which himself was a notorious representative.

"The Cuban model doesn't even work", echoed last week across the international press. Normally someone would hear this phrase and would think it is from a speech by Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, but no, not even are words from a neo-conservative Republican, they belong to the commander of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, no more and no less.

For less counter-revolutionary phrases than this, Castro sent to jail dozens of people, many were shot and several others were beaten, tortured, or lynched. Notwithstanding, Castro now says something similar and his words receive the respect of all the spokesmen of the revolution, and there is no one who dares to imprison him. A fact that, paradoxically, is in agreement with the sentence Fidel said about the Cuban model, since it is also an example of the double standard of Castro's socialism.

Amazingly, Castro spoke these words when the world is just emerging from the financial crisis that many believed would destroy capitalism, and less than 20 days before the parliamentary elections in Venezuela, where his main wannabe, Hugo Chavez, will face a tough fight for the control of the legislature.

This year, Fidel has made several controversial comments. Initially, he said that socialism and communism are the same, then admitted that he made a mistake by brutally persecuting homosexuals (they were imprisoned and made to work in concentration camps), then he called for respect for the Israeli people, and now claims that the Cuban political-economic model, that that the Latin American left presented as an unparalleled wonder, is not adequate to generate social welfare even in Cuba, which debunks some of the ideological tenets of radical leftism both in and outside Latin America.

They said the poverty in Cuba was the product of the U.S. trade embargo, but Fidel's words show he's aware that the real culprit is the socialist model that he copied from the Soviet Union.

Years ago, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his article "The Fidel Castro I know," spoke about the same legendary leader who was promoted by the Cuban Revolution's propaganda. But the current is a more real character, the Fidel Castro we didn't know.


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1 comment:

  1. Castro and all his afilatted, are only perssuing fame, power and fortune. a bunch of gansters whose only intention is to perpetuate in the position for ever until they die. Every one knows that all of those , like Hugo Chavez, he found out that using Castro strategy will give then a chance for what they all really want. M O N E Y, M O N E Y and more more and more M O N E Y

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