Fidel Castro has become a revered figure of the Left as the “godfather” of today’s socialist ideology. He has mentored all of the world’s most important tinpot dictators, he has met with Hollywood “royalty,” and he has been praised by the effete liberal elite.
But today Castro’s long journey has finally ended at the age of 90. His brother and successor, Raúl, announced that the former dictator had died at 10:29 pm EST Friday, his voice said to be shaking.
Fidel Castro’s dubious résumé responsibility for the deaths of thousands of innocents and the unjust imprisonment of thousands more. He persecuted Christians, capitalists, democratic activists, homosexuals, and anyone else he didn’t like. He and his subordinates indiscriminately murdered fathers, mothers, and children. They raped, pillaged, stole, and abused anyone who got in their way.
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Fox News provides some the cold hard data:
Within months [of his improbable victory in Cuba], Castro was imposing radical economic reforms. Members of the old government went before summary courts, and at least 582 were shot by firing squads over two years. Independent newspapers were closed and in the early years, homosexuals were herded into camps for “re-education.”
In 1964, Castro acknowledged holding 15,000 political prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled, including Castro’s daughter Alina Fernandez Revuelta and his younger sister Juana…
Castro cobbled revolutionary groups together into the new Cuban Communist Party, with him as first secretary. Labor unions lost the right to strike. The Catholic Church and other religious institutions were harassed. Neighborhood “revolutionary defense committees” kept an eye on everyone.
But he wasn’t content merely to rule with an iron hand over his island nation:
Castro exported revolution to Latin American countries in the 1960s, and dispatched Cuban troops to Africa to fight Western-backed regimes in the 1970s. Over the decades, he sent Cuban doctors abroad to tend to the poor, and gave sanctuary to fugitive Black Panther leaders from the U.S.
The world will be a better place with Castro dead and gone, and in that we find his truest legacy.
As the Washington Post notes, Cubans effectively in exile flooded the streets of Miami late Friday night and early this shouting, “Libertad! Libertad!, Libertad!” (Freedom!, Freedom! Freedom!) But just as importantly, in Havana, the streets remained silent after the announcement of Castro’s passing. As Yoani Sánchez, a popular Cuban blogger, tweeted:
#Cuba #MuereFidelCastro y la madrugada habanera parece no acabarse nunca: es larga, silenciosa, en vilo…
— Yoani Sánchez (@yoanisanchez) November 26, 2016
Translation: “and the dawn in Havana seems to finish never: The long, silent, suspense continues…”. Shorter Sánchez: Uncertainty about the future remains.
Presumably, she was referring to his brother continuing to Fidel Castro’s tyrannical ways, but a larger impact can be seen in the words and action of American “role models” like controversial Seattle Seahawks quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick, who has gained negative attention for his refusa; to stand for the national anthem, said in advance of a game with the Miami Dolphins, that “the United States could learn a thing or two about education from … Castro.”
