49 years. Think about everything that's happened in the world over the past 49 years.During all that, Fidel Castro has been El Presidente. I wouldn't say he's a decent man, and it's impossible to say whether Cuba would be a better or worse place without him, but he did do some good things, and some bad things. I think, in the final analysis, he did help Cuba. Maybe not as much as others could have, but I think Cuba is better off than if there had never been a revolution. Heck, I think much of Central America has benefitted from the fact of a Castro government. But, at what cost? like his sponsers in Russia, Castro wasn't a true Communist. What he practiced was more of a totalitarian state capitalism: that is a market economy wherein the state is the primary buyer and seller of goods. The difference is huge. It's a difference between a "dictatorship OF the proletariat" versus a "Dictatorship OVER the proletariat". It's not such a hard concept to grasp; Had Cuba truly been a Communist state, there would be no President, only a committee of civil servants chosen to represent various factions within society, and hired on by voters, and thus, able to be fired by the voters at any time.
In the end, I think the History books will mostly talk of how he outfoxed Washington, over and over again. For a quick and dirty example: remember when he opened all the prisons, and mental hospitals onto miami? Brilliant, in its way, don't you think? We'd been saying for him to free prisoners, and we'd been saying that they were repressing people, so, he said "Sure, take all of our rapists, and murderers, and show them your freedom".Wow, you know?
But, equally, he'll be remembered as the guy who kept Cuba isolated, and who did engage in a cold war wherein his people suffered for his ego. Can't say i'll laud that.
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