Castro Was Not A Great Leader, and Communism/Socialism is Not Great Either.

Castro wasn't a great man. He was, alongside the communists in power in Cuba, a man that didn't care for human rights. He executed people simply for having a difference of opinion, or for not being pro-socialism and pro-communism. He even ordered the execution of other socialists within his "revolutionaries" for noticing and voicing their concern that "communists" were infiltrating the "revolution".

One of the problems why so many people, who never lived their lives as a Cuban, believe the propaganda from a communist regime is because for more than 67 years the regime has had control over information and news in Cuba, and from Cuba. Only during the last couple of years did Cubans begin to use "social media" and voiced some of their concerns, as well as trying to tell the truth that the people of Cuba, my people, have had to live with for decades under a communist, regime meanwhile the rest of the world "believed" the lies and propaganda from a communist dictatorship.

To start, we have to look at some vintage videos which show how Cuba was before the castros and communism took control over the island.

here are some videos showing Cuba before the revolution.



Here is a video compilation showing Cuba before and after the revolution.



Here is the account of a Cuban woman who was there before, and after the revolution took place, and she explains some of the things that happened.

The government of Batista was corrupt, but still Cubans thrived and were not as hungry as Cubans became after communism took over. If you were not a revolutionary inciting violence you could have a good life in Cuba without getting involved in any type of corruption.

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The chief of Police, the head of the Army etc. went to see Batista, who had returned to Cuba, after going into a voluntary exile in 1944 after the very honest elections when the idiots voted for Dr. Grau. Batista returned under Dr. Prio's regime after he ran for senator [from his exile] and was elected and thus was under legal protection and could come back. Batista agreed to carry out a coup-d'état, in the face of the gangsters' war and lack of security facing citizens. Not a single shot was fired. Batista went to the Columbia Military Camp; the guard said "Who is there?" Batista replied, "General Batista," and the guard's answer was, "At your command, General." People were happy at the time. But Batista had a new wife. She had a child every year, was a very poor woman full of ambition and she wanted money & power. Batista came into power on March 10, 1952 and should have had elections within at least in two years. But he did not. The Army became very corrupt, and Batista's wife's brother was one of the top power brokers. They felt it was their time to become millionaires. The Cuban military planes were used to bring merchandise, all electrical equipment, from Miami. It was sold from a big store at lower prices than its competition. It had electrical appliances and equipment bought in the U.S. with no cost of transportation and no customs duties. People flocked to buy these "bargains" and the other merchants were livid because they had no sales and were losing money. The friends of the military became boutique owners. It was the same thing, they sold cheaper and people went to them to do their shopping.

People were very upset. The communists saw the opportunity. Fidel Castro was a gangster, a coward that shot people in the back, or sent others to be the killers. His was a very black history. But either people did not know or ignored it. When you told people, as I did as a very young student, about Fidel Castro's gangster days they said, "He was very young then, he has changed....." All that people wanted, and mainly the younger people, young professionals, was a fast growing middle class [clean/honest and hard working] with honesty in government. That Fidel Castro promised. However his first action, unknown to people, was to take a check made to the Republic of Cuba for several millions [for products sold] and deposit it into a foreign account of his. This was the beginning of a billionaire fortune.

We know the rest of the story. Fifty years of murder, thievery, divisions...you name it ...it happened in Cuba and the saga continues. The U.S. government has given visas to murderers, to those in State Security, they go in our face with their crimes unrepentant with their money taken from the Cuban people. Living in luxury with their families. Move on....nothing to see here.
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www.sjsu.edu...

A Wall Street Journal article titled "Counting Castro's Victims", states about the possible number of deaths since the revolution as:

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Cuba Archive President Maria Werlau says the total number of victims could be higher by a factor of 10. Project Vice President Armando Lago, a Harvard-trained economist, has spent years studying the cost of the revolution and he estimates that almost 78,000 innocents may have died trying to flee the dictatorship. Another 5,300 are known to have lost their lives fighting communism in the Escambray Mountains (mostly peasant farmers and their children) and at the Bay of Pigs. An estimated 14,000 Cubans were killed in Fidel's revolutionary adventures abroad, most notably his dispatch of 50,000 soldiers to Angola in the 1980s to help the Soviet-backed regime fight off the Unita insurgency.
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www.wsj.com...

The Harvard trained economist Dr. Armando Lago was a Cuban who archived for more than a decade the murders, and deaths of Cubans by the castros since the revolution.

Dr. Lago estimated that there were about 78,000 Cubans who died trying to leave the communist regime. That's not counting the 14,000 Cuban soldiers who have died trying to spread "la revolucion" to other countries, and it does not include the number of Cubans soldiers who were executed by the communist regime which according to Lago's documents are at least 15,000. Nor does it count the 5,300 Cuban farmers who tried to fight castro's regime.

Before the castros and communism took over,Cuba was the wealthiest country in the Caribbean and Ibero-America.

Here is a 2010 study made by Marianne Ward and John Devereux about the decline and impoverishment in Cuba after the revolution.

The Road not taken: Pre-Revolutionary Cuban Living Standards in Comparative Perspective*

Cuba had the third highest per capita income in the western hemisphere. Cuba had higher the income of Spain and Italy. Stores were ALWAYS fully stocked, and people could buy food, or other staples any time they needed or wanted. That was before communism and the castros.

That is until the castros and communism took over.

Here is another vintage video showing how stores were fully stocked, before the castros took over. Havana was a "true progressive city" and not in the way the left thinks "progressivism is". You can turn subtitles on for English subtitles in case you can't hear the commentary.



You have got to wonder, why in this day an age there are still people claiming socialism and communism are great and help the people when so many regimes which embraced socialism and communism turned into the world's worst dictatorships that even incited genocide against their own people.

How dare you say el comandante was not the perfect role model, he was anti American to the bone, who cares is he killed and made the life of his people miserable.


That seems to be the opinion of a chunk of this place and it makes me sick.

You have got to wonder, why in this day an age there are still people claiming socialism and communism are great and help the people when so many regimes which embraced socialism and communism turned into the world's worst dictatorships that even incited genocide against their own people.

Because leftists are academics. Their entire philosophical construct is based on hypothesizing, conceptual theorizing, and outright propaganda.

Its really easy for well fed and happy liberals to take academic views of these things and analyze them within the confines of their ideological bubble.

Proof of this is the oft used "but we haven't gotten the right people in" idea.

a reply to: projectvxn

There is also a lot of disinformation that most people who live outside Cuba do not know about. Such as the claims that infant mortality in Cuba has gotten better since the revolution. Or that the standard of living of most Cubans got better. These are lies you, myself, and many other Cubans in the island and around the world know about, but which most other people are completely ignorant of.

For example. In 2014 a movie "Un Paraiso" was shown at the Chicago Film Festival directed by Brittish filmaker Jayisha Patel about about the ongoing situation of the increase in the amount of children in Cuba who commit suicide since the revolution, which is contrary to what the Cuban regime claims.

marvinwayne.com...

www.martinoticias.com...

www.chicagofilmfestival.com...

In the Cuban Archive's Truth & Memory Project you can find some of the statements from eyewitnesses who saw the Cuban people who have been murdered because of the "revolucion".



It has subtitles in English and shows some of the people who have been killed because of the "revolucion" which includes children that were murdered, such as the children of the Cuban boat "13 de Marzo" (March 13th).



Here is another video in English about the reality of the communist regime of the castros.

If not for sanctions Cuba would be 1st world country

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Castro is Dead!
Donald J Trump

You can rest assured that Cuba's days of socialism, their exemplary education and health care systems, will soon be history, as Pres. DJ Trump's capitalistic wet dreams come true, and his golf courses, hotels and resort shops carrying his family's Chinese made shirts, ties and knock off shoes, handbags and jewelry, along with the TRUMP name, are spattered from coast to Cuban coast!

originally posted by: suvorov
If not for sanctions Cuba would be 1st world country

That's a complete myth.

If that were the case Venezuela wouldn't be Cuba 2.

a reply to: windword

Do tell us windword, what is your experience as a CUBAN of the "exemplary education and health care systems in Cuba"?...

Please go ahead, and try to enlighten Cubans who actually lived the hell hole you want to claim is paradise...

BTW "windword" this thread is not about Trump...

a reply to: windword

I don't know about crappy trump merchandise made in china, but you can buy crappy Zara merchandise made in china since the last decade, you see Europe do business in Cuba since the 90s and they got resorts and all.

But the benefits of it were only seen by the government.

You do have a point. He was no saint. But look at who he deposed. Was a dictator who was in bed with the mafia any better?

Castro seems to have been a pragmatist, and when the U.S. strengthened its economic embargo against Cuba (it is important to note that while the US seemed to prefer Batista, there was an arms embargo when he was in power), it stood to reason he would turn to the other superpower.

Whether or not Castro took over, the Cuban people were screwed.

a reply to: projectvxn

Your country sucks too, stop using mine as an example all the time, we got into it we will get out of it...

People would flock to Cuba for a better life if not for sanctions

originally posted by: suvorov
People would flock to Cuba for a better life if not for sanctions

Really? like people are flocking to Venezuela which embraced Cuba's Marxist/Leninist ideology?.... Oh wait, no one is trying to flock into Venezuela either...

And to think what Obama has been embracing the last 8 years. His model was the same as Castro's only he didn't have enough time or the right circumstances to really make it happen. But he did change a lot of things to almost copy the Castro model. Glad he is almost gone.
Castro was a butcher who it isn't even known for sure the exact millions he has caused to die in the past.

Lets not overlook Fidels role in a little thing called the cuban missile crisis.The world was that close..

Obama wanted Florida votes for Hillarious hilly

originally posted by: ElectricUniverse

originally posted by: suvorov
People would flock to Cuba for a better life if not for sanctions

Really? like people are flocking to Venezuela which embraced Cuba's Marxist/Leninist ideology?.... Oh wait, no one is trying to flock into Venezuela either...

Whats wrong with you, Fidel was in Cuba. You cant compare the two. Also CIA was stationing riots and paid protestors for over 30 years, trying to kill chavez. So if not for CIA Venezuela would have been pretty good country too and so is equador and other small countries where Government pedophiles get little girls from

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: projectvxn

Your country sucks too, stop using mine as an example all the time, we got into it we will get out of it...

Venezuela is an excellent example. I was born in Costa Rica, and my parents are Cuban. The only country I call home is the United States, which, thanks to Obama and congress, is worse off today, but not anywhere near the level of social and economic destruction visited upon Venezuelans by socialists.

originally posted by: suvorov

originally posted by: ElectricUniverse

originally posted by: suvorov
People would flock to Cuba for a better life if not for sanctions

Really? like people are flocking to Venezuela which embraced Cuba's Marxist/Leninist ideology?.... Oh wait, no one is trying to flock into Venezuela either...

The he is wrong with you, Fidel was in Cuba. You cant compare the two

Fidel and Hugo Chavez were very good friends. Chavez modeled his socialist revolution after that of Cuba. Even the propaganda used is the same.

If you praise Fidel Castro, don't expect anyone to take your criticism of Donald Trump seriously.