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posted by takyon on Saturday November 26 2016, @12:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the west-triumphs dept.

Fidel Castro's death has been announced by Cuban state television:

Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, one of the world's longest-serving and most iconic leaders, has died aged 90. His younger brother and successor as president Raul Castro announced the news on state television.

Castro toppled the government in 1959, introducing a Communist revolution. He defied the US for decades, surviving many assassination plots. His supporters said he had given Cuba back to the people. Critics saw him as a dictator.

Ashen and grave, President Castro told the nation in an unexpected late night broadcast on state television that Fidel Castro had died and would be cremated later on Saturday. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday)," he said. "Towards victory, always!" he added, using a revolutionary slogan. A period of official mourning has been declared on the island until 4 December, when his ashes will be laid to rest in the south-eastern city of Santiago.

Also at Bloomberg (world leaders react), Washington Post, NYT, The Guardian, CNN, NPR, WSJ, PBS, and Reuters. Editorials at the Miami Herald and Daily Beast.


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  • (Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Saturday November 26 2016, @04:21PM

    by wisnoskij (5149) <{jonathonwisnoski} {at} {gmail.com}> on Saturday November 26 2016, @04:21PM (#433273)

    We have some very different opinions, I guess. I see no possible way to allow the ex-ruling elite stay in the country. It would cost way to much financially, and in good will, to keep them safe. And protecting them from the masses would be paramount to imprisoning them.

    As for the Missile Crisis, it really did not seem like America was going to allow an independent communist country to exist so close to their borders.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:33PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:33PM (#433363) Journal

    The ruling elites have to start reform well before revolution breaks out. If they instead quash reform, go so far as to use force to end strikes and demonstrations and the like, they're stoking the hate and trapping themselves. Once mass violence breaks out, then exile or death may indeed be the only options, as you say.

    But things don't always turn violent. Gorbachev didn't have to leave when the Soviet Union fell, as he didn't try resorting to force to hang on, and he was one of the victims of the putsch, and had been trying to reform. Even the perps, the Gang of Eight, didn't have to leave, though many did spend 18 months in prison when their putsch collapsed.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26 2016, @07:54PM (#433369)

    Yes. It was clear to Castro that disempowering the Aristocrats was essential to disassemble the existing Oligarchy.
    Those folks were what was propped up the murderous monster Fulgencio Batista.

    In your previous post, you said
    I have never heard anything bad about his regime

    Cuba is a pretty impressive place on several levels. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [dissidentvoice.org]
    Under the Castro brothers, homelessness in Cuba is essentially zero.

    Cuba has a very high literacy rate.
    They have gratis education--as far as your abilities can take that.
    Cuba is especially great when it come to producing doctors.

    They have very effective gratis healthcare which concentrates on prevention and early intervention via high availability.
    They export medical personnel in order to generate cash.
    N.B. Cuba has repeatedly offered medical personnel to USA e.g. after Hurricane Katrina.
    USA.gov has consistently rejected those offers of help and instead lets its (most impoverished) people suffer.

    When you look at the participation rates in Cuban elections and compare that to the huge number of USAians who think "Why bother?", you realize how much more democratic Cubans think their system is than do USAians.

    Some Soylentils have used the term "dictator".
    I see Castro as being like Tito in Yugoslavia:
    He -could- intervene any time he thought his vision of the country was being threatened, but mostly he let things play out.

    .
    All of that said, Cuba has really fallen down in its promise of "socialism".
    While I commend them for not allowing megacorporations or even chain store operations, they -do- allow an exploitation of workers via Capitalist ownership of (small, single location) businesses.
    They have NOT made a significant effort to promote the notion of worker-owned cooperatives the way that e.g. Italy has using Italy's Maracora law. [google.com]
    (I have this same critique of Chavista Venezuela.)

    Cuban political prisons have also been mentioned in this (meta)thread.
    ...though, if it would be interesting to look at the number among USA's prison population of 2.4 million who didn't take other people's property nor pose a physical threat to someone else and compare that to the number in Cuban prisons for thoughtcrime.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]