Fidel Castro transfers Government to his brother - he's dying

by Fidelista Tue Aug 01, 2006 21:40

Fidel Castro may be ill, but he's not dead yet, and in any case the Cuban Revolution is about more than one man. While the ex-Oligarchy that make up the Cuban Mafia in Miami are baying for Castro's blood and have his grave dug already in their minds, they do not speak for Cuba today. They are merely a blood and money thirsty gang that want to turn back the clock and make Cuba revert to the seedy casino-brothel that it was before 1959.

The Cuban people will see to it that Gloria Estevan and Co. do not get their way.

Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

by iosaf-watcher Tue Aug 01, 2006 22:18

Obviously on the Maximo Lider Trip today (as opposed to the Caudillo Choral ...)

by Noel Hogan Tue Aug 01, 2006 22:46

He was once a socialist - but hasn't been one for a long time.

Now he is just a dictator and should be condemned for his behaviour.

And can someone please explain how the US embargo is responsible for human rights abuses in Cuba? It is responsible for keeping the country poverty stricken, but how does it excuse people being jailed for speaking their mind.

Socialism is democracy taken to the next level. Cuba is not socialist.

by ollie Wed Aug 02, 2006 00:05

I know you're the king of the obituraries iosaf, but this is a pre-death one........

don't worry, you'll get to write it here, in real time, on indymedia Ireland....

In the meantime, for the other other cuba, have a look at.......

by iosaf Wed Aug 02, 2006 01:40

Fidel has spoken from his bedside to journalists and the world, he's had a stomach upset which he is putting down to the horrific last couple of weeks which have had traumatic effect on him.

To recap those last few weeks & the stress they have caused Fidel :-

(1) Fidel attended the Mercosur conference where he joined with the state leadership of central and southern South America who for the first time in history are all lefties. He got very dotish and mumbled about how no-one including himself expected him to make it. On accounts of Fidel holding the world record for surviving CIA assassination attempts. All teh South American leaders then condemned Israel called for Middle East Peace and sent Hugo "the little man" out into the world for eye-catching newspaper grabbing headlines.

(2) Gloria Estafan has confirmed that a new album is in the pipeline.

(3) once you've eaten a rake of CIA poisioned food and even smoked explosive cigars - you take a dodgey tummy seriously.

so........... no obituary :-)
& for the next couple of days Raul Castro is president of Cuba - (has a moustache) and everyone is preparing for peak tourism season - blacklegging Gloria Estafan CD's and getting ready for the Hurricane Season which causes more damage to spanish speaking carribean states than anyone else.............actually.

Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

He's getting better hour by hour! yippee!!!!!!!!!! ( & a bonus Chavez picture )

by needtoknow Wed Aug 02, 2006 03:49

This is the kind of crap that Gloria Estefan is involved with (do make a note of it for future reference) -

"The Estefan clan (Gloria and Emilio) have big plans. They are Bacardi shareholders and thus financiers of terrorist acts in Nicaragua, Angola and Cuba and accomplices to stealing Cuban patents. Gloria and Emilio Estefan sponsor other para-terrorist organizations such as Brothers to the Rescue whose aircraft have been violating Cuban airspace for years."
Source: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/septiembre03/lun22/38l....html

"With more than 30 pilots at his disposal and aircraft funded by Miami pop singer Gloria Estefan and American Airlines, Basulto had the wherewithal to stir up trouble. As a former CIA agent, he certainly knew how to get things done. In August 1962, the CIA sent Basulto into Cuba where he shot up a hotel, fired into a theater, and blasted a Havana residential section. Twenty people died as a consequence of his terrorism."
Source: http://www.swans.com/library/art9/lproy09.html

by blaise Wed Aug 02, 2006 06:08

it's those miami sycophants who should be held contestable for their heinous dance of death - hoping that one of the greatest leaders of all time, dies. These people are creepy. Most of them are from families who had it all when the poor under Batista and the Americanos had no shoes, no health care, no chance for education. Cuba is a poor country but Castro spread enough out to make even the poor happy and they would have been even happier if that damn U.S. with that bleeding greedy exiled Cuban lobby hadn't embargoed the island to death. Still he survived.

The creepy dancing exiles of Miami would love their beloved island to return to American control and huge disparity - the enviable rich and the desperately poor - night clubs galore - crime like Miami - and all will be well again. The beauty of vacationing is Cuba is the absence of Americans. That alone is paradise - never mind the wonderfull people who by and large love Fidel for better or worse.

They can have Miami. Keep their dirty little paws off Cuba.

by Paul Baynes Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:11

You say, quite reasonably:

“And can someone please explain how the US embargo is responsible for human rights abuses in Cuba? It is responsible for keeping the country poverty stricken, but how does it excuse people being jailed for speaking their mind.”

You’re right – nothing can excuse people being jailed for speaking their mind. However, an objective look at the US embargo would suggest that it makes this kind of action by the Cuban state, which you correctly label as a human rights abuse, more likely to take place.

A goal of the US embargo is to weaken the Cuban regime. Keeping Cubans in poverty is a way to generate dissent. The economic vulnerability of Cuba makes it more susceptible to overthrow by political action. It is this threat that leads to Cuban dissidents being targeted in such a severe manner.

I am not justifying Cuba’s quelling of this dissent in any way, but I can see how the US embargo makes the Cuban state feel at particular risk, and contributes to its decision to violate the civil and political rights of its citizens. Perhaps if Cuba was allowed to open its economy more and alleviate its “poverty stricken” situation, the Cuban regime would feel less vulnerable and less likely to stifle dissent? That being said, the ultimate responsibility for these rights abuses lies with Cuba. But this situation must be seen in its wider context of the economic boycott.

by hmmz Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:46

castro sucks, he ruined his country, and now he passes power to his brother, what a larf, if you have ever been to Cuba i am sure you will agree, it is corrupt, seedy and the people are frightened and you are always wary of the **shadow men**

by Kenno - none Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:56

While the Cuban people should demand freedom of speech after Fidel has gone , I don't think they should take any lectures from us about their health and education services. Give them twenty years of corporate laissez faire capitalism and they might be 'free' like us. Our utopia? €500,000 for a badly built dolls-house and a health service for the rich.

by Cuba Libre Wed Aug 02, 2006 13:05

It is very disingenuous of people to suppose that if Democracy was given to the Cuban people, there would be widespread disparity between rich and poor. The Cuban people themselves have a right to decide exactly who governs them. A right being denied them.

If anything, the US embargo has kept Castro in power. But the analysis of the country by the Left is the old “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”. Just because they oppose the US, then Castro must be a good guy.

A good barometer of a society is how the gay population is treated. Cuban people are among the most liberal and accepting in the world in this respect. The Castro regime on the other hand has an appalling record of deportations, disappearances and rounding them up into football stadiums. There’s your Socialist Paradise mate!

by Che O'Grady Wed Aug 02, 2006 13:08

Cuba was a seedy casino-brothel for the Yanks before 1959. What is it now? A seedy brothel for Canadians, Germans and middle aged men of many wealthy nations who come there and are facilitated in glorified sex tourism. The cops are well in on it as are the hotels; by the way working class Cubans are not allowed in the hotels that tourists stay in, except to work. its hard to have a discussion about politics with an ordinary Cuban because people will tell you 'we can't talk about that.' I'd say Raul and Fidel don't go without much despite the blockade. There are good things, the health system, education but people want more and the ability to march up and down shouting political slogans shouldn't land you in jail and I'm not talking about people who want the Yanks back; just those who think they should be allowed read more than Fidel's collected works. Che's image is everywhere, like the Michael Collins of Cuba he symbolizes what might have been. The black market, scamming, ripping people off, all as common as in any under developed economy that hopes tourists might bring in a bit of money. There will be some sort of popular movement agaibnst Raul and it might well be funded by the Yanks or Miami Cubans but it will build on the real discontent at how ordinary Cubans are treated by a regime that puts tourists on a pedestal; its embarrasing to be in a queue and a policeman will come along and march you to the top of it in front of the people in line or to be chatting to a person and the hotel security to say sorry no way can they come in to our bar. if thats socialism.....

by freedom-lover Wed Aug 02, 2006 13:11

Yes, all those who support the Castro Monarchy should log onto Indymedia in Cuba and show your support.... oh wait, there isn't one!

by The Great Djerginski Wed Aug 02, 2006 14:10

Cuba - better literacy rates than in the USA - best health system in the Americas and the least mortality rates. What the US wants to change.

by ollie Wed Aug 02, 2006 17:27

Below is the text of an article I wrote for the examiner on organic farming in Cuba 2 weeks ago.

I didn't mention that Cuba is peak-oil compliant, though did mention that its Co2 emissions are well below those of the rest of the comparable world.

information on a movie worth checking out on Cuba and peak oil can be found at:

http://www.beyondpeak.com/cuba-beyondpeak.html

None of this cancels out other failing, but has to be introduced into a genuine (as opposed to polemical/doctrinal) discussion on Cuba.

Simply put, the organic/peak oil dimension to Cuba suggests that there is mouch for all of us to learn from Cuba.

This dimension also suggests that Cuba is not a one person, or even specifically one party dictatorship, but there is soem sort of adaptability, reciprocity and support flowing top down and bottom up. (yes one party is in charge, but the party adapted to circumstances, and to _some_ extent ceded power and control over it's farming out of need. This resulted in a slight power shift, whereby, for example, there is some private farming land ownership and are some farming co-ops with power - ie not _just_ a one party dictatorship with full and comprehensive power)

Plug: every Thursday, I write a weekly column on organic farming for the Irish Examiner

Article begins:
In the world of political philosophy, there are different types of freedom. You can have freedom to do stuff, or freedom from various types of wants. Cuba is, by Central American and Caribbean standards, a good example of the latter and a bad example of the former. So, for example, they have good health and education standards, but no open press or proper elections.

They have another thing too: Cuba feeds its population on locally produced organic food. You may of course not see this reality if you go to a five star compound on a two week holiday in Cuba. When Dr. Dr. Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington, an NUI Galway Botanist, spoke of her experiences in Cuba at a conference last year, the odd attendee who had donethe compound holiday seemed incredulous.
But the story of organic agriculture in Cuba is fascinating. Cuban agriculture was intensive, monocultural and export-orientated up until 1989. They exported commodities like tobacco and sugar to the Soviet bloc. They also relied on the Soviet bloc for subsidized inputs, including both fertilizers and fuel. They had, for example, been using c.200 kg of imported subsidized nitrates per hectare in farming in this period.

Needless to say, Cuba found itself in a tricky situation when the Soviet Bloc collapsed. What it did then was to essentially reorganise the production, distribution, consumption and to some extent control of agriculture. And they chose the organic route.
Of course “chose” is perhaps too strong a word; there was also an embargo/blockade, which prevented these inputs from getting to the island. However, facing a serious decline in nutritional levels throughout the 1990s, the transformation of Cuban agriculture has been impressive. There have been changes in state policy, in research and education, in control of production and distribution and of course in practices
Here is a summary of the changes:
• Integrated Pest Management
• Organic fertilizers and biofertilizers
• Soil conservation and recuperation
• Animal traction and alternative energy
• Inter cropping and crop rotation
• Mixing crops and animal production
• Alternative mechanization
• Community participation
• Alternative Veterinary Medicine
Adjusting to local conditions
• Reversing rural migration to cities
• Increasing cooperative use of land
• Improving agrarian research
• Changing agrarian education
• Biopesticides
• worker-managed collectives
• quotas for farmers to insure adequate supply for the whole country;
• farmers' markets where excess food crops can be sold by farmers for profit.
During the 1990s the embargo/blockage was tightened, in 1992 and 1996. However, the nutritional levels of Cubans were, from the mid 1990s on, rising, not falling, a trend which continues to this day.
Urban agriculture has been central to this, especially in a context whereby little if any fuel was available to transport food around.
According to Dr. Nelso Campanioni Concepción, deputy director of the National Institute for Fundamental Research on Tropical Agriculture (INIFAT), "The goal of urban agriculture is to gain the most food from every square meter of available space. The secret to the success of urban agriculture in Cuba has been the introduction of new technologies and varieties and an increase in areas farmed."
In 2002, Cuba produced 3.2 million tons of fruit, vegetables and spices in urban farms and gardens on over 35,000 hectares of urban land. Another 2,800 vegetable gardens are expected to be established by the end on 2006.
This is a classic example of necessity breeding ingenuity, and adversity producing abundance. Cubans get fresh organic produce to eat each day, no worries about pesticide drift in built up areas, and no Co2 emissions created.
Dr. Lisa Reynolds has visited Cuba on fact finding missions many times. In her most recent report, she pointed to a number of positive changes. Despite insufficient rainfall and recurring drought in eastern areas, the “agroecological techniques” introduced have stabilised the countryside. Likewise, the introduction of privately-owned farms, co-operatives and a diversified market-based system has increased productivity.
If you want to see this Cuba:
The Cuban Organic Support Group (established in 1997 by members of the Henry Doubbelday Research Association - HDRA) arrange trips. (00 44 24 7667 3491 and http://www.cosg.org.uk )
Likewise, WowCuba also arrange agri-trips. See http://www.wowcuba.com/discovery/ag-intro.html

Article ends---------------

fruit market in Cuba. 3.2 million tonnes of organic fruit and veg are produced in urban settings each year in Cuba

by Ricky Ricardo Wed Aug 02, 2006 22:46

Castro? didnt his own Daughter or Granddaughter flee cuba as well? says a lot. You dont see yanks fleeing to cuba in 1954 fords rigged as rafts.

by blaise Thu Aug 03, 2006 05:09

who cares about those two little greedy tarts in Miami. I've seen both of them interviewed and they're both dimwits. Castro is a beautiful great leader who loves his people and has presided over one of the great cultures of the world - regardless of its poverty - for over half a century. The two little prancing Miami defectees ought to be ashamed of themselves for deserting their noble kin.

You call living in the States, freedom. I call it trash living, regardless of how many cars you accumulate. The cancer rate and illiteracy rate in the states is 10 times higher than Cuba. Everybody gets to go to school there. Poor people in the states have to be brilliant footballers or something to get into good Yankee schools. Crime rate. Let's not go there. Musically Cubans put the Americans to shame with their pure natural rhythms and besides they are lovely people.

He liberated that country from Batista and the Yanks who were ruining it for most of its people. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Under Castro at least everyone had shoes, education, health care, etc. He loves musicians and many of them get government housing for their contributions. Sure there will always be those who are envious of the other life, especially when they see the tourists year after year - but you must look at the big picture - the running of a country - and he has done it brilliantly despite the bleeding embargo all these years. Did you know that the greedy, petty Yanks even stopped donations of old pianos coming into Cuba from Europe. How petty. These are the people you want to take over, who are itching to take over. Scum. Miami scum. Keep sending your yankee dollars but stay away from the home you discarded, greedy pigs.

by DM Thu Aug 03, 2006 09:43

The only way I can see the Cuban Revolution surviving and continuing after Castro dies is if it becomes part of the greater Bolivarian revolution. This would bring it towards democracy and better living conditions for the people because of allies and trade partners like Venezuela.
Chavez has met a few times with Castro so I can only assume that this is his intention. Someone more educated on both revolutions could probably leave a much better comment

by iosaf Thu Aug 03, 2006 23:32

In the article above I linked to another article "as free as a poet" which dealt with both issues of political oppression and prisoners in Cuba and the ending of European Sanctions.

We all are used to seeing Castro in pictures with Chavez and quite obviously there is a relationship - a close one. Hugo's little brother is ambassador to Havana. But overwhelmingly the most financial and long term strategic help over the last years has not come from other South American states but China. & it makes perfect sense. I'll write about it again - because now I don't have enough time. I'd also like to highlight the amount of Cuban medical staff who are to be found in the 3rd world, and the largest concentration of those in Latin america are found in Bolivia.

by blaise Fri Aug 04, 2006 05:46

saw Chairman Bush (those Yanks don't have the decency to call other presidents by their full title) tonight sending out a message to the Cuban people that basically says we see your man is dying and we are ready to take you in - to give you freedom - that's right, that brainlessl wonder of the great superpower will make all well - like Iraq or Lebannon or Afghanistan - well brothers and sisters of the beautiful carribean island - if that's an example of freedom - it's your choice - but personally freedom is not all it is cracked up to be. Some of you might like it a lot and a lot of you might not. Here's my resolution. You can leave the island and the embargo is lifted. Happy now. But leave Cuba alone. Send back your yankee dollars. That's actually a pretty good arrangement. And the criminals, of course they can leave, Fidel was smart is letting them out - first the rich criminals fled - then the poor ones were let out. How come all these little bastards want to come back? They got out. They got what they wanted. Dominos and crime in Miami. Miami Dice, let's call it.

By the way, has the president of the United States no compassion, whatsoever, nor the decency to let the man - the leader who has survived 6 U"S presidents, die is peace. Could he not wish him well? He cannot even utter his name, for Christ's sake, the little hick Americano.

by Bush Is a Dictator Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:43

Blair is a dictator, Merckel is a dictator... though they hide beneath a thin veil
of democracy:- usually one that involves the wealthy half of the electorate.

Pope Benedict is an emperor, and he has a little pool, but he like to play with
the dictators. add G8 to that too....

by Mr. T. Sat Aug 05, 2006 01:14

I hope Fidel lives for a long time - fully conscious and suffering unimaginable pain and misery. That would go a very small distance towards equalising the pain and suffering he has inflicted upon millions of Cuban people.

Oh, and regarding those laughable claims of Cuba having the lowest mortality in the Americas - they clearly haven't counted the thousands of Cubans who have drowned or became a snack for sharks as they attempted to escape the "workers paradise" by swimming or drifting on old tyres across to "oppressive" Florida. Any statistics coming out of Cuba are about as legitimate as a 3 pound note.

by Ñ Sat Aug 05, 2006 01:59

it wouldnt be enough for Fidel just to lie there for months like Sharon. oh no. he has to be awake through it all.

by Kurt Bayerlain Sun Aug 06, 2006 02:38

Fidel Castro is no hero, he's murdered thousands since 1959. He tricked the People with his revolution, they rightly hated that Pig Batista.

Fidel is better how? Cuban citizens have to have Ration Books for food, not under Puneta Batista.

Cubans will flee to america in 1956 fords fitted out as rafts, risking shark infested waters, why?

Fidel's own Daughter fled the "Paradise" to the americas, similar to how Stalins daughter did.

When Your Own Child flees the country You run, that says something no amount of Socialist workers paradise propaganda can refute.

by picky picky Sun Aug 06, 2006 03:04

'Fidel Castro is no hero, he's murdered thousands since 1959'

please back this up.
hundreds perhaps - thousands?

sources please?

by Saul Sun Aug 06, 2006 04:31

Would this count then?

by Liane - AI supporter Sun Aug 06, 2006 04:40

So Hundreds is O.K.?, but obviously Thousands would have to be Untrue? How's that quote go- "one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic"

Amnesty Internationals reports on Cuba Index below

by iosaf Mon Aug 07, 2006 09:42

* The RC cardinal of Cuba also rejected any foreign intervention, saying that it is for Cubans to decide their future without outside inteference. The language of the cardinal was noteworthy in that he asked people to prayer and continue to pray "for the leader of the Cuban people Fidel Castro". Castro and the RC church came to an entente a number of years ago, and their relationship is indeed quite good considering he attended mass for the last pope, and almost all Cubans are roman catholic.

* Meanwhile Condoleeza Rice speaking on Miami Cuban radio stations asked Cubans _not to leave_ Cuba. She then qualified the we don't want any more of you here with the rather sweet "we in the USA are still your best friends".

* a bicycle taxi driver in Havana earns 4€ a month.

* the Cuban christian alliance ( a non RC evangelical pro US group based in Miami ) is lobbying for a US led military intervention - "to stop the kathurlicks & reds".

* Brazilian media is carrying a story which reports Fidel has stomach cancer.

* Chavez devoted 3 minutes of his weekly "hola presidente!" TV show to messages of support for Fidel and claimed his government had high level information that Castro is recovering and will be back in the chair of government by September.

by iosaf Tue Aug 08, 2006 08:36

It's now been 7 days since Fidel Castro handed over power to his litle brother Raul and speculation started as to what was going to happen next. Instead of wholescale chaos and Gloria Estafan fans taking to the streets of Havana and burning the sugar cane crops of the island and inviting the US Navy to cross the minefield which seperates the island of Cuba from the Guantanamo Bay complex -

Most Cubans seemed to just want to get on with it... Indeed there's been remarkably little fuss, and as I reported yesterday even the RC church is offering prayers for the speedy recovery of the leader a.s.a.p. Now there's a bit more :- the national executive president Ricardo Alarcon has started clucking about how a US invasion force would make Iraq look like a juego de muchachos (little boys' game). & the most interesting link I can offer readers is this http://www.larazon.es/noticias/noti_int22946.htm from the right wing conservative & anti-communist Spanish daily "La Razon". They tell their readers today that the little brother Raul Castro faces problems in succeeding "multi-millionaire Fidel Castro" because of his autism... They also point out that Raul Castro hasn't made any public appearances in the last week to confirm his status to the people as "new leader". I rather think that suggests Fidel is in fact recovering, but La Razon have suggested Ricardo Alarcón who is president of the national executive would be in the long term a more popular choice within the Cuban regime to take over.

just in case you're seriously interested here's s wikipedia biography of Raul Castro (who is head of the secret police) and interestingly there isn't one on Ricardo Alarcón.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Castro

Meanwhile most Latin American media seems now to concur that the surgery was for diverticulitis and not as previously suggested (by Brazilian sources) colonic cancer.

by iosaf Wed Aug 09, 2006 09:39

Which I think might make a positive change from the usual mix of sociopaths and psychopaths.

so I thought to leave you a picture of him. Meanwhile Aleida Guevara the daughter of Ernesto Che Guevara has spoken of her trust and affection for Fidel & appealed for the present calm to continue maintaining that "nothing is going to change in Cuba".
http://www.laopinion.com/latinoamerica/?rkey=0000000000...85340

We all know what Aleida's dad looked like, but I wonder how many Irish readers have seen a photo of the British prince Harry Windsor in a Che T-shirt which recently did the rounds of gossip magazines contrasted with his 2005 fancy dress nazi uniform. The gossip press suggests this is yet another sign the young man is very confused, but somehow I read it differently. Perhaps some other reader (since I'm on a low budget) will send him a "to victory" IRA t-shirt & see if he stretches his irony a bit further.

Raul Castro alledgedly the first acting Autistic head of state worldwide. Not a sociopath nor a Psychopath. Can he measure up?

by ollie Sat Aug 12, 2006 01:34

Venezuela starts to go a similiar way (at least with the gardening....)

by birthday happy iosaf Sun Aug 13, 2006 14:58

well i wrote this article too soon, oh yes I did. But still it means thers can share the joy of wishing Fidel a happy 80th birthday as he publishes photos of himself recuperating in a tracksuit on a young leftie commie Cuban website.

He's grand.

Viva Fidel!
viva el papi!
viva Cuba!
rum's good too.

the complete text complete with photos of the grand old man :-
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2006-08-13/me-siento...eliz/