My Take | Fidel Castro’s death a reminder of American brutality
Cuban leader’s battle cry to end exploitation, inequality and greed still resonates in our age of extreme inequalities
Can a statement be factual and still be disingenuous and morally reprehensible?
Yes, it can. Just read Donald Trump’s statement on the death of Fidel Castro. The US president-elect tweeted: “[A] brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades, Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”
Few people would deny Castro was a dictator. But it’s hard to see how he was any worse than those countless fascist autocrats Washington have supported in the past half century, first during the cold war and now in the ongoing “War on Terror”.
Castro’s greatest crime, as far as America is concerned, is not so much his dictatorship but that he dared to defy Uncle Sam for such a long time for a leader of such a tiny country. But that also makes Castro a powerful worldwide symbol of resistance against American imperialism.
After the Cuban missile crisis, it would be hard to argue Cuba posed a serious security threat to the US. Yet Washington kept up relentless and brutal sanctions against Cuba for five decades until Barack Obama terminated them. It was simply vindictive punishment against the Castro regime and the Cuban people.