November 29. Mild, overcast.
"CASTRO IS DEAD! .."
When a political fixture like Fidel Castro moves on it's best to keep to the fundamentals in wording your communique ...
, Mr Trump hit the right note, Mr Trudeau, following his father's example, got it wrong, IMO. "Controversial leader" is young Trudeau's admission that Castro was a brutal dictator ..... seamlessly papering over the evidence. Controversial doesn't describe the
contrived brutality of Castro. (The guy was a lawyer, after all, a communist lawyer
)
"... It's hard to single out the worst
atrocity committed by the Castro regime. One might surely be the execution of 166 Cubans back in 1966. Before they died, their bodies were drained of blood – an average of seven pints a person. The blood was sold for $50 a pint to Communist Vietnam, in order to support the Viet Cong aggression and gain hard currency for Cuba. After the victims were exsanguinated, their limp bodies were carried off to the firing squad."
[M. Wente, Globe & Mail]
I spent 2+ weeks filming in Cuba, August, 1972. Prior to that I had only been to Mexico which I enjoyed and I
loved Cuba ..... the beer and rum were good, the people were lean and polite, they believed in their revolution and the transformation of the society in 13 years was clear, but what was also clear was that it was a closed political system and society ... and capable of any action ... however outrageous ... as long as it was
expedient.
Veterans of the Africa Wars against the Portuguese and South Africans were never allowed "home" but were deposited on the Isle of Pines because most had AIDS .... some will say that was
smart public health policy, but it was cold punishment for men who had fought well in Africa and had bought
credibility to the expansionist Soviets.
If we can believe the movies ... Hanoi Hilton ... Cuban interrogators in North Vietnam were an especially nasty lot.
So Castro is Dead is welcome news but Mr. Trump will have to respect the fact that Castro transformed Cuba ... but that transformation is hardly to be desired by anyone who loves freedom.