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Castro Says US Wants Cuba to Be Slave
HAVANA - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Thursday derided U.S. steps towards improving relations with the communist island, saying the United States wants Cuba to act like a slave willing to "accept again the whip and the yoke."
The 82-year-old Castro, writing in a column published on the Internet, said "the adversary should never be under the illusion that Cuba will surrender."
Cuban President Raul Castro gives a speech on January 1, 2009 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in Havana. Fidel Castro blasted US President Barack Obama Friday in provocative May Day remarks, saying the United States only wanted Cuba to return "to the fold, like slaves." (AFP/File/Rodrigo Arangua) President Barack Obama has said he wants to recast U.S.-Cuban relations that have been hostile for 50 years, but insists on maintaining a U.S. trade embargo imposed against the island since 1962 to use as leverage for Cuban change.
He recently eliminated travel restrictions for Cuban Americans and called on Cuba to release political prisoners and improve human rights to get more concessions from Washington.
But Fidel Castro and his younger brother, President Raul Castro, view U.S. conditions as infringing on Cuban sovereignty, or worse.
"The collision between the great power of the North and the Cuban revolution was inevitable. The heroic resistance of the people of our small country was underestimated," Castro wrote.
"Today they are willing to forgive us if we will resign ourselves to returning to the fold as slaves that, after knowing freedom, will accept again the whip and the yoke."
Both Castros have expressed a willingness to talk with the United States, and informal, low-level talks have already begun in Washington.
But they publicly insist that Cuba does not have to make concessions to move the diplomatic process forward.
In Thursday's column, Castro said a wary Cuba was carefully studying Obama to determine his true intentions.
"We are not arsonists as some imagine, but nor are we idiots easily fooled by those who believe the only things important in the world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production," he said.
"There still exist those who have the illusion that people can be manipulated like puppets."
Castro did not mention it, but on Thursday the U.S. State Department issued a report on terrorism in which Cuba remained on a list of countries regarded as "state sponsors of terrorism."
There had been speculation Cuba would be taken off the list as part of the Obama administration's efforts at reconciliation.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez brushed the report off, telling reporters in Havana, "I don't think anybody reads those documents ... because they know that the author is an international criminal in many of the issues it criticizes."
- Posted in
63 Comments so far
Show AllHey Obama, how about pressuring the government of Haiti, I mean the US installed puppet in Haiti, to release political prisoners there? Prisons are so overcrowded (I know, we kind of have a thing for overcrowded prisons) that being sent to prison in Haiti is considered a death sentence. Our hypocrisy is astounding. I thought you, President Obama, would be different.
Castro is exactly right. Were Cuba to accede to all the US demands in order to have the embargo lifted, Cuba would become a puppet state of the USA within decades with all her industries owned by US MUltinationals, with her recently found Oil resources belonging to Exxon and with the US claiming any Socialist elected to power a "Terrorist" and a "Dictator.
The NED and the CIA and other such organizations would then start funding opposition groups and encouraging them to resort to violence as these groups do in Eastern Europe, Venzuala, and Bolivia.
People DO remember the "Rose Revolution" and the "Orange Revolution" in Georgia and the Ukraine respectively. Both of these funded by the US Government in order to get US friendly Governmnets in place so as to expand NATO.
They now do the exact same thing In Moldava. They did much the same In Serbia.
Open Cuba a crack to US Infiltration and the same would happen.
Cuba should convert to Judaism, that way the United States would pour in Billions of dollars in aid, Cuba could invade any country it likes with the blessing of the American Government, not have to worry about human right violations, and have a friend in the U.N. who would veto any resolution that goes against it's interests.
The only problem is Cuba wasn’t mentioned in the bible (go figure) and therefore there is no self fulfilling prophecy to delude the ignorant masses. It’s all about end times in these fools dreams of reality.
heh. Too funny. Castro bros have leverage and they exploit it to their advantage.
Nxf6
Obama's move
Obama should be concerned about American's freedom to travel and talk to Cubans, spend a little and enjoy the free expression of ideas, association and speech.
More on the Blockade http://www.granma.cu/INGLES/2009/march/mier11/multa.html
William Worthy isn't worthy to enter our door, he went down to Cuba so he's not American anymore, but somehow it is strange to hear the State Department say..."YOU ARE LIVING IN THE FREE WORLD AND IN THE FREE WORLD YOU MUST STAY".
from the ballad of William Worthy by Phil Ochs.
Phil Ochs. There is a name I have not heard in a LONG while :)
For the U.s. to have Cuba on a short list of countries which support terrorism is, literally, like the Devil calling Jesus a criminal. There are no human rights violations which are sanctioned by the Cuban government. In fact, Cuba's grand reputation in the world far surpasses anything that the U.s. could aspire to. The UN's former human rights body was dissolved because it was so corrupted by the U.s. and when the General Assembly voted for members of the new human rights council the U.s wouldn't even put their name forward because it was an election by secret vote. Cuba was an overwhelming first choice.
I must say, coming from Reuters, that I was really surprised to see a cuban given the last word, especially since it is most poignant. Maybe there really is some mortar shaking loose between the evil bricks of unfettered capitalism. But if they were to give a true flavor of Fidel's column then they should have included this jewel; "Los éxitos de nuestra Patria en las esferas de la educación, la salud, la ciencia, la cultura y otras ramas, y en especial la fuerza y la unidad del pueblo, lo están demostrando, a pesar del bloqueo despiadado," which, roughly translated, says, "The successes of our Homeland in the spheres of education, health, science, culture and other fields, and especially in the force and unity of the people, they continue demonstrating, in spite of the inhuman blockade."
-U.S. State Department issued a report on terrorism in which Cuba remained on a list of countries regarded as "state sponsors of terrorism."
Nobody has said it yet so I feel I must...
HaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!! What is Cuba guilty of, ...torture? HaHaHaHaHaHa!!!
Castro and Che were demonized as communists because terrorists wouldn't have worked in the 1960's. The American sheeple feared Russia, China and what the whore press called the "Red Menace". Whether you agree with communism or not; the only reason the fascist, corporations feared communism is it took away their money and power and had nothing to do with the canard of the Cubans losing their freedoms and being a threat to the U.S. Communism was a major threat alright, a major threat to American hegemony in Cuba and what scared the hell out of the corporatocracy was that could happen in other latin American countries. What a lot of people forget, is Castro would have been welcomed with open arms by the U.S., if he would have become another corporate puppet, like Batista. There is no good or bad guys only the flow of $.
You are so right. The corporatists were so concerned about the "freedom" and welfare of the Russian people for decades, whining incessantly about the need to "remove the yoke of communism" from those poor devils. But of course when the Soviet Union fell, the US corporatists, in collaboration with the Russian oligarchs and their drunkard leader, threw the Russian people under the bus so fast they never knew what hit them.
HAVANA - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Thursday derided U.S. steps towards improving relations with the communist island, saying the United States wants Cuba to act like a slave willing to "accept again the whip and the yoke."
No, we just want the Mafia to migrate back to Cuba and take over things again, kind of like the way they were before Fulgencio Bautista fled the island. The actual gangsters can then manage the place for the political gangsters in Warshington. Somehow, I don't think the Cubans will allow this to happen.
Its their country, its their choice. If they want to leave it as it is, we should accept their decision and leave it at that. We owe them nothing, they owe us nothing.
"....... nor are we idiots easily fooled by those who believe the only things important in the world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production,..."
OUCH!
J ust like we owe the people alive and dead in the middle east nothing.
Castro has cast O'Bamba into the glaring sun for all to see his true color. O'Bamba will continue to throw crumbs at his supporters while shoveling truckloads of coal at the imperial steamroller. As long as they get to work as cogs in the machine, O'Bamba supporters seem satisfied with the crumbs. Removing the US blockade would wipe out Cuban progress. El Diablo of Washing-town is counting on it. Castro won't allow it.
As usual Fidel Castro places a worthwhile issue under an electron microscope which means that it appears much larger and much more threatening than it really is. I do not think that president Obama intends to send the Mafia back into Cuba as Mordechai Shiblikov argues.
From the vantage point of the Washington DC cabal of US Government and lobbyists that is not a desirable "solution". For that cabal Cuba is a land of cheap labor, huge needs for US products, and some cheap raw materials. I believe that it is capitalist penetration that the cabal is about. Yes, threatening but hardly slavery.
Fidel meant indentured slavery, like the dominant system today in the U.s., and that fits precisely within the definition of slavery.
Maybe Castro could help us with our new healthcare, education and farming.
And do it all on practically no money. That should make the teabaggers happy.
Right on!
If you remember, Castro offered to send Dr.'s and medical help during Katrina but was rebuffed by Bush.
Mayday is the big anniversary in Cuba and they typically have more than a million people marching in Havana. As with most else, the cubans are very good at making a statement and anyone with an internet connection can visit their sites and see pictures of the tremendous crowds with their banners and portraits of martyrs and heroes. The U.s., which has an "interest section", instead of an embassy, in Havana, sees that march every year and the U.s government knows very well that the cubans are not a divided people. The U.s. government also knows that no amount of pressure is going to make the cuban people give up their just society, so it makes one wonder what are the real reasons that the U.s. continues with such an obviously failed foreign policy.
There are so many great posts on here, about Cuba, about Zionism and its choke hold on our government - I only wish more people would get to read these posts, people in power - Obama needs to read these posts, the ZIONISTS need to read these posts so that they know we are aware of their presence and that we are ALL tired of it. The suppressed peoples like those in GAZA and Iraq and Cuba need to read these posts as well, so they know the American citizens are NOT for the Puppets in the White House and Are NOT for the ZIONIST puppet masters, and that we are on the same side they are on.
We ALL Need to continue to spread the word - Keep Up The Great Work - Let's Take Our Country Back!
You got that right. What is with the Zionist's anyway? How can they have so much power?
Is it some kind of christian "we can't let the holy land fall to the enemy" thing or what?
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tells it like it is. The U.S.A. has little or no credibility on the issue of torture and terrorism and Obama isn't helping matters.
Great posts.
Now that Cuba has some help from other socialist countries, they can deal from a position of some strength.
The embargo could have been a blessing in disguise. It kept them from becoming US.
It keeps U.s. tourists out of Cuba and 800,000 Canadian tourists a year love that.
Good one.
Well, it looks like it's all over. The U.s. is sending the message that they want to give back Guantanamo to Cuba, according to Julia E. Sweig in her article "Give Guantanamo Back To Cuba" in the Washington Post,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/04/30/ST2009043003416.html
Now if they'll only start doing things in a timely fashion instead of trying to spin it until it's gold.
Hey Castro, the US corporate elite want EVERYONE to be their slave. Don't feel all special about it!
Face it, you spit in their faces and they are still wiping it off 60 years later.
Castro flatters Cuba. The USG wants to make slaves of the people of every country. The USG has a good model to be successful. The USG has taken its own people who arose in freedom from revolt and has made slaves of them. The USG has done the same with many other peoples. Cuba isn't special to the USG and Castro should know this. He is egotistical.
"Cuba isn't special to the USG and Castro should know this."
Not so. America's avarice for Cuba is longstanding and particular. While it is true that the US (as a single transitory manifestation of industrial civilization) is hungry always for slaves and resources across the planet, Cuba's proximity makes it an especial target. In 1767 Benjamin Franklin sought to buy Cuba from Spain (with no input from Cuba's inhabitants of course); in 1805 Thomas Jefferson said: "In the case of war between Britain and Spain, the United States would take control of Cuba for strategic reasons to defend Louisiana and Florida." It has been going on this long. It continued with John Quincey Adams' Ripe Fruit Doctrine, the Monroe Doctrine, the Spanish-American War and Platt Amendment, all up through the Bay of Pigs, Guantanamo Bay, and the current embargo. Few other countries can claim to have endured so many consecutive years of continuous interference and abuse at America's hands.
I've always respected Fidel Castro. It remains to be seen if Obama is worthy of respect.
"We are not arsonists as some imagine, but nor are we idiots easily fooled by those who believe the only things important in the world are the laws of the market and the capitalist system of production," he said.
"There still exist those who have the illusion that people can be manipulated like puppets."
Makes such prefect sense. Why can't America understand this?
The history of Cuba is the history of the MAFIA's influence over American politics. Back in 1959 when I was 12, Cuba was a haven for gambling casinos because it was seen as the East Coast Las Vegas. Nevada was the only state where gambling was legal. Instead of taking a propeller plane out West to lose your money, it was more convenient to go to that little casino 90 miles from Florida. When Castro went to improve the life of his citizens the gambling interests were cultivated by Jesse Helms and the southern Democrats (who are now known as Republicans).
Cuba deserves our apology delivered upon bended knees. The political prisoners who make the conservative media bread and butter were never more than a bunch of Tony Soprano wannabes. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Cuba tells truth -- as always . . . .
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
Hey, President Obama, Take Cuba Off This List Of Nations That Support Terrorism & Put The U.S.A On It
"Based on?"
"As Reverend Wright pointed out last year, the sordid and bloody history of America, from the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq."
"Anything else?"
"The crimes committed by former president George W. Bush, including but not limited to his having ordered prisoners to be tortured."
"Why is the president so down on Cuba?"
"For the same reason that former President Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to take down the Salvadore Allende government of Chile in 1973."
"Namely?"
"Fear of the good example."
bligh4
Rather than worry about traveling to Cuba, we should wait for Cubans to travel here. Oh Wait, they can't. Or anywhere else for that matter.
Any of you that think Castro is some sort of paragon of democratic virtue must be truly deluded. Leave them alone, let them leave us alone.
The emabargo will stand as long as gusanos like Sen. Rob't Menendez (D-NJ) have anything to say about it. He's the head cheerleader for making ending the embargo conditional on extraditing the black liberationist Assatta Shakur, a.k.a. Joanne Chesimard.
Shakur was charged and convicted of the murder of a New Jersey state trooper, but she escaped and fled to political asylum in Cuba. Anybody who knows the history of the FBI's COINTELPRO death squads will understand her situation, not much different from that of Leonard Peltier or Mumia Abu Jamal---targeted, framed and nearly executed for their effectiveness as leaders in the people's struggle against corporate neocolonialism.
I say let the embargo stand. The pendulum has swung; Cuba is ascendant, along with anticapitalist Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, while the US is becoming more like post-Empire Britain every day.
Hasta la Victoria siempre!
Well, at least more than 90% of the Cuban population vote and are very much a part of the voting process. When the needs of the people supersede the need for money, the people get free education and health care. Must be nice...
bligh4
Voting is nice, it would be better if the slate included someone other than the Castro brothers...
Agreed; but considering their location, America's history of rigging elections in the western hemisphere, and America's longstanding, unhidden desire to take control of Cuba by force or treachery, it's not hard to see why they don't risk becoming the latest in a long line of CIA-installed puppet juntas.
Seems the preference for one's own bastards, when faced with a choice from a myriad of bastards, is universal. :)
"the people get free education and health care. Must be nice"
Really? How come poor americans never get on inner tubes and float to Cuba en masse? I mean by reading the comments it's all milk and honey there.
How about you go to Toronto get on a flight to Cuba and look around then talk?
800,000 Canadians went there in the last tourist year, which Cuba has recently released the results of, (and they are the single largest national group to take their vacations in Cuba) so I imagine whoever went to visit Cuba would find a culture that is the richest in the western hemisphere. Any new visitors would also find that there are no commercial advertisements polluting the intellectual environment and that there is no better place to vacation during a pandemic.
"is no better place to vacation"
when i said look around i meant rent a scooter and ride around town, talk to people. staying put in the resort does not tell you anything about a country.
the point i am trying to make is, Cuba is not the paradise you guys think it is. besides what michael moore says did anyone go into one of them hospitals? not the one for the party elite, the regular oens where regular folks go.
"Any new visitors would also find that there are no commercial advertisements polluting the intellectual environment"
maybe because there's nothing to advertise?
Or maybe you are just not aware yet what paradise is. There is only one nation in the western hemisphere which can proclaim on it's radio that they are a Free territory in the Americas. All Cubans know that they are a free people and that singular political state makes them unique in the world, and it shows in their national and individual character. People from all over the world like going to Cuba because of it's inspirational reputation, it's magnificent culture, it's beauty and whatever else. The fact that Cuba is poor is certainly no fault of it's own, but, even so, they could have easily beautified all of the lovely Spanish architecture but instead they have used their resources in acts of solidarity which are having tremendous results. The Cubans know that they are winning the Revolution and that they can paint the place later.
"Or maybe you are just not aware yet what paradise is"
Really? I lived in a paradise like that. My best friend was killed with a shovel by border guard thugs when he was attempting to get out of the "workers paradise".
people go to Cuba to *visit* cuz it's cheap. They do not want to live there. Not as things stand right now. Also, Cuba is poor not due to the US embargo. It's poor due to the inefficient centralized economy just like every other country that tried that.
Last time I checked anyone else could trade with them if thay wanted, including Canada.
I like your paraphrasing of Castro tho. "revolution now, democracy later." I miht know something about Cuba after all ;)
Really? Well, I'm more than a little skeptical of the synopsis of your life, because it sounds too much like one of those packaged identities that the secret services have all of their moles use. But, of course, I wouldn't have had any doubts or questions if your posting rang true and revealed a mind knowledgeable of the subject. For instance, Cuba's economic performance is staggeringly efficient. For the last several year their GDP has been growing at over ten percent per annum. They have a revolutionary program called the Battle of Ideas and they push themselves to perfection. They can do that within their country because all of the ordinary citizens, (the very type of ordinary citizens in the U.s. who have no say in anything) who are 99% supportive of the Revolution, are intrinsically involved in the direction and support of their Country.
well then, sorry i failed in my mission to convince you that Cuba is not the place you think it is. The US reestablishing trade relations with Cuba might help its people more than any of castro's programs.
Like someone very astutely observed it in one of the previous posts, it was the US embargo that allowed Castro to stay in power that long.
Also, the numbers of economic efficiency coming out of centralized economies are to be taken with a grain of salt. Those numbers are being inflated as they move up the party hierarchy.
Talk to you on another thread. It's been nice to see someone who does not call me a moron or idiot. I hope one day you will see the light as well.
The effect of the U.s. blockade is having increasingly less affect on Cuba as Cuba can now obtain almost everything they need from friendly nations. Cuba and Venezuela even have an underwater cable connecting both countries so the lack of direct access to the internet by the faster option of cable becomes a moot point as far as the Cuban government is concerned. It is arguable that the U.s. is the pariah nation and is in a steep decline and is actually in danger of disintegrating in the future. One thing is for sure, they will never be the powerful nation they once were because now not only does every other country know that they can never put trust in the U.s., but every citizen of the world knows that the U.s. is an aggressor nation which preys on the weak.
And Cuba is every bit as good as I know they are. On
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/
there is a section on the left side of the page called "Discursos de Fidel" which contains many of Fidel's speeches dating back to the early years and up until the present, which includes his current series of Reflexiones. Until 1998 they are essentially in Spanish, but for the last decade they are in several language, including English. If anyone was to read those speeches then they would get to know that Fidel is the best politician in the history of the world and that his people love him as a father figure. His continuity is not, and would not ever be, dependent on who Cuba's enemies are. The Cubans love Fidel because he is an honest man. And that can't be said completely about any leader of any capitalist country, past or present. Fidel's stature in history can only be compared to the most renowned figures, such as Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, or Bolivar. But what sets Fidel apart from all those others is that his leadership led to the inclusion of a just society in the historic fabric of the world and that accomplishment is going to outlast, and outshine, any accomplishment in the past or future.