Category Archives: Cuba
The Elian Gonzales Learn to Read Program
Five year old Elian Gonzales escaped from Cuba on a raft with his mother 20 years ago. His mother drowned but Elian made it to Miami Beach. Relatives took Elian in and cared for him. But Elian’s escape displeased Fidel Castro and became an international incident. So Attorney General Janet Reno sent him back. At gunpoint.
What’s that got to do with Bernie Sanders? Well, Bernie recently praised Castro’s Cuban literacy program. While disavowing authoritarian behavior he allowed, “I think teaching people to read is a good thing.”
Castro’s Long Reign
Fidel Castro finally got term limited. He died at age 90. Not a bad run considering he took power in 1959. Castro’s long reign outlasted 10 U.S. presidents. He retired in 2008.
Ben Domenech at The Federalist thinks Castro’s big mistake was joining the wrong team – the Soviet Union. Another mistake may have been stealing U.S. owned businesses in Cuba. That led to the Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S. embargo, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and oddball assassination attempts.
Castro’s Long Reign
Many world leaders treated Castro as a normal public official. MaClean’s thinks Justin Trudeau went from being the most interesting man in the world to “international laughingstock” with his Castro eulogy. Just for laughs, here it is:
“It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest serving President. “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation. “While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante”. “I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba. “On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.”
Prisoners of History Narrative
John Kerry thinks the U.S. and Cuba were ‘”prisoners of history.” Maybe he had a mind meld with White House narrative boy Ben Rhodes. Rhodes told The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg, “America sometimes makes itself a prisoner of our own history. We have a very complicated history with Cuba.”
For its part, The Wall Street Journal editorial board reports that the average monthly wage in Cuba is $20.
Hard to figure how the guy got re-elected.
Terror Wave
President Obama did the wave at a baseball game in Cuba while a terror wave swept Belgium. Last night he tangoed in Buenos Aires. A round of golf would give him a hat trick of indifference to terrorism.
He feels ISIS can only win if it knocks him off his game.
That and he’s just not that into terrorism. According to the WSJ, he says more Americans are killed by gun violence than terrorism. He’s more worried about the weather.
By Obama’s lights the Vietnam War was no big deal. In 1968, the deadliest year of the war, 16,899 Americans died in Vietnam. That same year 53,831 died on American highways.
Mass in Cuba
AP
Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Cuba on Sunday. Standing before a giant image of Che Guevara, he said “Service is never ideological, for we don’t serve ideas, we serve people.” Afterward he met with Fidel but not with Cuban dissidents.
He will meet with dissidents in the United States. President Obama has invited Catholic dissidents to a reception for the pope.
Appeasing the Hard Cases
President Obama hopes that Iran will be a very successful regional power by the time it becomes a nuclear power. Victor Davis Hansen thinks appeasing the world’s hard cases has a poor track record.
