It’s too unhealthy Cuba’s Fidel Castro is just not round.
Donald Trump might have labored out a cope with him.
Even given the staunch communist that he was, Castro would have realized that after Venezuela, the jig was up, although the Cuban dictator would nonetheless have delighted in needling the U.S.
However the communist revolutionary died in 2016 at age 90, and Cuba, already a communist/socialist financial backwater, descended into the basket case it’s right now.
Whereas Fidel was a well known, worldwide political superstar, one could be hard-pressed to call the person who runs Cuba right now.
It’s Miguel Diaz-Canel, 66, who succeeded Raul Castro, Fidel’s youthful brother, in 2018. Raul ran Cuba after Fidel stepped down for well being causes in 2008.
Diaz-Canel was born after the 1959 Cuban Revolution and, though skilled as a communist operative, by no means knew Fidel.
Which is just too unhealthy. Fidel might have taught him a factor or two in the case of coping with American presidents and surviving, even after the 1960 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Up till now, Diaz-Canel had a powerful relationship with Maduro, whose Venezuela was a significant supply of low cost oil and financial and navy help to Cuba.
These days are over as a result of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro now sits in a jail cell in New York awaiting trial on quite a few drug-related expenses
And Cuba, a closed communist police state, has misplaced Venezuela, its main benefactor.
“There shall be no extra oil or cash going to Cuba — Zero,” Trump wrote on Reality Social the opposite day. “I strongly recommend that they make a deal earlier than it’s too late.”
Trump added, “Cuba is able to fall … Cuba has no revenue. They acquired all of their revenue from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. And Cuba is actually able to fall.”
In response, Diaz-Canel stated, “ Cuba is free, impartial and sovereign nation. No person dictates what we do.”
Proper. That’s what Maduro stated.
Fidel may need stated the identical factor, too, if he have been round, however he would have labored the again channels nicely.
This isn’t to make a saint out of Castro. He was removed from it. However he knew easy methods to cope with U.S. Presidents and survive.
I met Castro in Havana in 1984 throughout a visit to Cuba masking Jesse Jackson, the Chicago left-wing Democrat who was operating for president. Jackson was in Cuba to hunt the discharge of some 22 Individuals held captive as political prisoners.
Jackson and the press masking him ended up in Cuba after visiting Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Havana again then was as dismal as it’s right now. Time stopped in Cuba after the communists took over.
After efficiently negotiating with Castro over the prisoners, Fidel threw a lavish reception for Jackson, full with wine, champagne, booze and meals that was unimaginable to the common hungry Cuban.
Castro was standing with Teofilo Stevenson, the nice Cuban three-time Olympic heavyweight boxing champion, after I met him on the reception.
Stevenson, on the time, was simply as well-known as Castro. Boxing promoters needed him to battle Mohhamed Ali for tens of millions in battle cash. He by no means did.
Stevenson had a crushing handshake. He spoke no English and my Spanish was restricted to “Quanto” and “No habla espanol.”
Castro, as large, strapping, and charismatic as Stevenson, did communicate English, and I interviewed him together with different reporters. He handed out Cuban cigars. It was arduous to not be taken by the person. He had a giant and charming persona.
So, you needed to remind your self that he was a killer. He and his important executioner, Che Guevara, summarily killed hundreds of political critics and opponents after they took energy.
Turned out these 22 launched Individuals weren’t political prisoners in any respect, however drug sellers. They have been scooped up, handcuffed, and led off the airplane by ready FBI brokers who had stormed the airplane once we returned to Washington.
Cuba Libre!
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas may be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
