Fidel Castro, Longtime Dictator of Cuba, Has Died

Sandokan · Dec 19, 2018

Two main round-up of unfit people took placed in November 1965 and June 1966. Most of them were taken to the camps through a false notice to appear for military service. They were transported by bus, truck and train to hundreds of concentration camps, built in isolate areas of Camagüey Province, under unsanitary conditions without water and food. The camps were surrounded by 10 feet tall electrified barbed-wire fences, patrol by guards with machine guns and police dogs, and had no running water or electricity.

According to many internees, the quantity of food provided at the camps was insufficient. They were force to work from dawn to dust six days a week in agricultural tasks, mostly cutting sugar cane. They have daily quotas and those that did not meet the quota were deprived of food. They were paid only 7 pesos a month, one-tenth of the regime monthly minimum wage in agriculture. During family visits, the recluse were force to were uniform and march to give the impression they were in the Obligatory Military Service (SMO).

Sandokan · Jan 13, 2019

UMAP was created with a double purposed in mine. One to neutralize those considered potential long-term threats to the regime, like religious groups, homosexuals and other members of the civil society whose loyalty to the regime were in doubt. The other one with the purpose to compensate a severe agricultural labor shortage with the force labor of the internees and their economic exploitation without any regard for the human cost. The concentration camps of the UMAP subjected the internees to a regime of forced labor and political reeducation, similar to the Russian GULAG.2

In 1958, there were 14 prisons in Cuba and 4,000 prisoners. According to Human Rights Watch in the 1990s the prison system consisted of over 200 work camps, 40 high-security prisons and 30 minimum-security prisons that hold around 100,000 prisoners at one time, the highest number of prisoners per capita in the Western Hemisphere.

2. Joseph Tahbaz, Demystifying las UMAP: The Politics of Sugar, Gender, and Religion in 1960s Cuba, DeRLAS, Vol. 14 No. 2 December 31, 2013 (University of Delaware | Page not found Enrique Ros, La Umap: El Gulag Castrista, Ediciones Universal, Miami, 2004.

Sandokan · Jan 29, 2019

Fact 5. He condoned and encouraged torture and extrajudicial killings. He forced nearly 20 percent of his people into exile, and prompted thousands to meet their deaths at sea, unseen and uncounted, while fleeing from him in crude vessels.

The documentary “Nobody Listened” 1987 by filmmakers Néstor Almendros and Jorge Ulla about the Castro Revolution transformation into a tyranny is told by those who witnessed the struggle firsthand, including repression, imprisonment, torture, and execution of political dissidents, while the rest of the world turned a blind eye. The film won the International Documentary Association Award in 1988.

Sandokan · Feb 13, 2019

By 1958 about 12,000 Italians and Spaniards had applied for Cuban visas, since the standard of living and working conditions in Cuba were better than in their own countries. Until 1959 Cuba was a country of immigrants.

The Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE) estimated the Cuban population in 2017 at 11.22 million. The UN migration data for Cuba in 2015 was 1.61 million, of which 1.21 million were Cuban immigrants in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2017 there are 2.32 million Cubans living in the U.S., of which 1.31 million are Cuban born and 870,000 American born. Another 640,000 Cubans are living in other countries, of which 450,000 are Cuban born. The 1.76 million Cuban borne living abroad account for nearly 16% of Cuba population, and the 2.96 million living abroad represent 26% of the population. Most Cuban Americans do not regard themselves as typical immigrants, but rather as political exiles.

Individual · Feb 13, 2019

Sandokan said:
Fact 5. He condoned and encouraged torture and extrajudicial killings. He forced nearly 20 percent of his people into exile, and prompted thousands to meet their deaths at sea, unseen and uncounted, while fleeing from him in crude vessels.

The documentary “Nobody Listened” 1987 by filmmakers Néstor Almendros and Jorge Ulla about the Castro Revolution transformation into a tyranny is told by those who witnessed the struggle firsthand, including repression, imprisonment, torture, and execution of political dissidents, while the rest of the world turned a blind eye. The film won the International Documentary Association Award in 1988.

No wonder the Left admire him so much.

Sandokan · Feb 28, 2019

Individual said:
No wonder the Left admire him so much.

Your commentary is right on target.

This large and continuous migration began in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the government of Cuba. By 1973 about 500,000 Cubans had migrated to United Estates. During the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 near to 124,800 Cubans arrived in Florida by boat picked up by relatives living abroad, which were forced by the Castro regime to take also prisoners, people with mental disorders, homosexual and prostitutes. Between 1995 and 2015 close to 650,000 Cubans were admitted to the United States with and without visas. These Cubans exiles through their own efforts, blood, sweat and tears, have contributed significantly to United States society in politics, business, music, sports, visual arts, academia, and literature.

The Castroit regime got rid of the people who would make Cuba a better a place to live in. The initiative, the drive, the work-ethic and educational diligence, the determination to succeed exhibited by the Cuban exiles in America, could have been the bed-rock for a beautiful economically successful Cuban democratic republic. Instead, universal destitution, misery and starvation are the Castroit regime legacies to the Cuban people.

As George Gilder wrote in “The Spirit of Enterprise” 20 years ago: “Cuban-Americans are the most successful immigrants in the history of this nation of immigrants.”

Individual · Feb 28, 2019

Sandokan said:
Your commentary is right on target.

This large and continuous migration began in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over the government of Cuba. By 1973 about 500,000 Cubans had migrated to United Estates. During the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 near to 124,800 Cubans arrived in Florida by boat picked up by relatives living abroad, which were forced by the Castro regime to take also prisoners, people with mental disorders, homosexual and prostitutes. Between 1995 and 2015 close to 650,000 Cubans were admitted to the United States with and without visas. These Cubans exiles through their own efforts, blood, sweat and tears, have contributed significantly to United States society in politics, business, music, sports, visual arts, academia, and literature.

The Castroit regime got rid of the people who would make Cuba a better a place to live in. The initiative, the drive, the work-ethic and educational diligence, the determination to succeed exhibited by the Cuban exiles in America, could have been the bed-rock for a beautiful economically successful Cuban democratic republic. Instead, universal destitution, misery and starvation are the Castroit regime legacies to the Cuban people.

As George Gilder wrote in “The Spirit of Enterprise” 20 years ago: “Cuban-Americans are the most successful immigrants in the history of this nation of immigrants.”

I was referring to his actions, not the peoples reaction.

Of all immigrants to the U.S., and other countries as well, some are good and some bad. But the same could be said of natural born citizens as well.

Sandokan · Mar 3, 2019

Individual said:
I was referring to his actions, not the peoples reaction.

Of all immigrants to the U.S., and other countries as well, some are good and some bad. But the same could be said of natural born citizens as well.

I was referring to Fidel actions too, not the Left reaction.

Of course, “all immigrants to the U.S., and other countries as well, most are good and some bad.” That is absolutely true with regard to “natural born citizens as well.”

I only mention the Cubans migration to the U.S., and no any other people migration, since the post is about Fidel Castro actions that forced about 20% of Cubans into exile. The contribution of other immigrants to the U.S., a nation of immigrants, their incredible efforts and sacrifices have been significant as well.

As a matter of fact, the U.S. has been shaped by successive waves of immigration from the arrival of the first colonists through the present day

Individual · Mar 4, 2019

Sandokan said:
I was referring to Fidel actions too, not the Left reaction.

Of course, “all immigrants to the U.S., and other countries as well, most are good and some bad.” That is absolutely true with regard to “natural born citizens as well.”

I only mention the Cubans migration to the U.S., and no any other people migration, since the post is about Fidel Castro actions that forced about 20% of Cubans into exile. The contribution of other immigrants to the U.S., a nation of immigrants, their incredible efforts and sacrifices have been significant as well.

As a matter of fact, the U.S. has been shaped by successive waves of immigration from the arrival of the first colonists through the present day

Fidel is dead, perhaps a great loss to those who admired him, not so for many others.
I'm no longer subscribed to this thread, and not interested in changing its topic to a discussion on immigration.

Sandokan · Mar 17, 2019

One significant example of a success story of a Cuban exile is Roberto Goizueta that graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering in 1953. He returned to Cuba and eventually became Chief Technical Director of Coca-Cola bottling plants.

When Castro confiscated Coca-Cola assets in 1960, Goizueta defected to the U.S., and worked for Coca-Cola in Miami. He was re-assigned to Nassau, Bahamas as a Chemist for the Caribbean region. In 1964 he was moved to the headquarters of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. He became Vice President of Technical Research and Development, and in 1975 was promoted to lead the Legal and External Affairs department. In 1979, he was appointed President of The Coca-Cola Company and in 1981 became CEO. He remained in that position until his death in 1997. Coca-Cola, a symbol of America, during his tenure became the best-known trademark in the world. Castro got Coca-Cola assets, the U.S. a great industrial leader.

Goizueta later said: “Material things-your property-can be lost, stolen or even forcibly confiscated. This happened to me and many of my countrymen some 20 years ago in Cuba…. No one can take away from you what you have stored inside your head.” What he and other Cubans exiles brought with them to the U.S. was more important that what they left behind.

Sandokan · Apr 6, 2019

Rafters’ death toll is extremely high. The estimate number of the victims was derived by Dr. Armando Lago econometric research from data in studies by the Oceanographic Institute of the University of Miami and the University of Havana, and reports by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The estimate number of Cuban rafters attempting to escape from 1959 to 2016 surpass 240,000. The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that only one in four rafters who have attempted to escape from the island, mostly by sea in small boats and makeshift rafts keep afloat by using inner tubes and disregards tires as floating devises, has been successful, about 60,000; another 35% have been captured, over 84,000, and most of them send back. Another 40%, more than 96,000, have died at sea attempting to escape. This is a staggering figure that is never mention by the mainstream media. “When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic.”

Sandokan · Apr 24, 2019

Fact # 6. He claimed all property for himself and his henchmen, strangled food production and impoverished the vast majority of his people.

Forbes magazine on May 5, 2006 in the article “Fortunes of Kings, Queens and Dictators” Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators, estimates Fidel Castro personal fortune at $900 million. “For another controversial dictator, Fidel Castro, we assume he has economic control over a web of state-owned companies, including El Palacio de Convenciones, a convention center near Havana; Cimex, retail conglomerate; and Medicuba, which sells vaccines and other pharmaceuticals produced in Cuba…. To be conservative, we don’t try to estimate any past profits he may have pocketed, though we have heard rumors of large stashes in Swiss bank accounts. Castro, for the record disagrees, insisting his personal net worth is zero.

On May 16, 2006, Castro, on a TV program refuting Forbes story about his personal fortune, claims his net worth is zilch and that he earns a salary of just 900 Cuban pesos a month (equivalent to $36).

Defectors who were close to Castro’s inner circle say that the figure used by Forbes was not even close to the Castro family real fortune. Due to the fact that the Castroit tyrannical regime has total control, everything related to Castro and his family are state secret, and it is very difficult to estimate the actual figure.

Sandokan · May 19, 2019

Excerpts of the excellent research paper of 20 pages by Maria C. Werlau “FIDEL CASTRO, INC.: A GLOBAL CONGLOMERATE” (https://ascecuba.org/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v15-werlau.pdf)

In Fidel Castro’s Holdings, she says “Arguably, Fidel Castro “owns” most of Cuba. As supreme ruler of one of the world’s most tightly-held and closed economies, the level of usurpation of a country’s resources by one person that he has managed to carry out seems comparable in modern times only to that of present North Korea under the Kim Jong Il and his father, the late Kim Il Sung, before him. For nearly five decades, Fidel Castro has arbitrarily controlled and had at his sole disposal practically all of Cuba’s financial and economic resources.”

In The Comandante’s Reserves she writes “What insiders commonly refer to as “the Comandante’s reserves,” consists of an integrated system of overseas bank accounts as well as the national reserve of fleets of automobiles and trucks, fuel, and stores of food and consumer and luxury goods for the elite.10 A large and complex web of enterprises inside and outside Cuba funnels funds and goods to these reserves and are commanded by high-ranking members of the nomenklatura and the Armed Forces, both in active service and retired.” And in The Corporate Conglomerate says “Corporations created both inside and outside of Cuba to engage in international business are said to be a primary source of revenues for Castro. As a former Cuban government official explains, “these were enterprises created to generate funds outside the planning system, as if they were the private property of certain government officials.”12 Many of these businesses are involved in joint venture arrangements or other business relationships with foreign interests. The companies are not subject to audits or any type of disclosure, so it is impossible to assess the extent of their activities and revenues. Revenues from many of these corporations are said to go directly, often in full, to the Comandante’s Reserves.13”

In WHAT DOES THE COMANDANTE DO WITH HIS RESERVES? She says “there seems to be no limit to the resources available to Fidel Castro, whether for his pet projects or his personal security and enjoyment. Although top members of the nomenklatura enjoy privileges unavailable to the population,96 the lifestyle of Fidel and Raul’s families and their access to all sorts of goods and services not available to the Cuban population is unrivaled. Yet, they together with the highest members of the government elite have strict orders to avoid appearing ostentatious and to stay out of the limelight.97”

In Drug Trafficking, Criminal Activities and Money Laundering, she writes “The money-laundering question was recently fueled by a May 2004 US $100 million fine imposed by the New York FederaDrug Trafficking, Criminal Activil Reserve Bank on UBS (Union of Banques Suisses) Investment Bank of Switzerland…. UBS had been caught buying and selling U.S. dollars to countries under U.S. sanctions—Iran, Libya, Yugoslavia, and Cuba—and filing fraudulent reports to conceal this activity.84 The transactions with Cuba, totaling US$3.9 billion over a period of seven years, were by the largest by far. In essence, UBS had knowingly been accepting old dollar bills from Cuba and, instead of exchanging them for new bills, as required, had been crediting accounts held by Cuba or unnamed sources from Cuba and filing phony reports. Importantly, UBS has refused to publicly reveal in whose name are the accounts controlled by Cuba, alleging “client confidentiality.”85 This is strange, as the obvious holders of such accounts would be official entities of the Cuban government, the Cuban Central Bank the most logical one.

Sandokan · Jun 6, 2019

Fidel Castro claimed that he lived a life of exemplary revolutionary frugality on a salary of merely $36 per month. Lieutenant Cornel Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, who was a personal bodyguard of Fidel Castro for 17 years from 1977 to 1994, as well as intelligence officer from the Ministry of the Interior, wrote a book of memoirs, “The Double Live of Fidel Castro”, where he describe Fidel secret live, dismiss his claimed of frugality, “He always claims he lives frugally. Lies. He lives in a luxury that most Cubans can’t even imagine.”

Castro’s immense personal fortune, including about 20 luxury homes, a getaway island named Cayo Piedra (Stone Cay), located south of the Bay of Pigs, with a huge pool, a heliport, a dolphinarium, a turtle lagoon, an 88 foot luxury yacht and several fishing vessels, and appropriation of public money. He said Castro had his own hospital boat. Only special friends were allow in the cay. Guests were looked after by attractive young women.

Sanchez said he went deep sea fishing, scuba-diving or spear-fishing with the Cuban leader “hundreds of times” watching him wash down his own freshly caught lobster with his favourite scotch, 12-year-old Chivas Regal.

Fidel Castro mansion in Stone Key

Sanchez writes, “Castro was like a God to me. I had always been prepared to die for him. But after hearing a 1988 conversation involving Castro and Colombian drug dealers, it was as if the sky had fallen in on me.” He alleged that Castro approved a drug-smuggling operation that led to the execution of Cuban army Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa in 1989.

Others defectors have confirmed Sanchez story, like Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez, an intelligence officer from the Ministry of the Interior, who spent many years as one of Castro bodyguards, the last 5 in his innermost ring of bodyguards.

In his book Sanchez says “Castro, now 87, controlled several numbered bank accounts abroad and the finances of several state enterprises — including a small gold mine on the Isle of Youth.”

None of the bank accounts or enterprises were in Castro’s name, but they didn’t have to be, the bodyguard said. “He didn’t have to report to anyone. He had sole control” over economic activity that Sánchez estimated at “hundreds of millions of dollars” over 10 years.

Manuel de Beunza, a defector who used to handle the finances for the Ministry of the Interior when he was a top officer in Cuba’s intelligence services, said that Castro has the Havin Bank LTD in the UK that is completely controlled by him. He also said that the regime has created 270 corporations around the world that report directly to Castro.

Sandokan · Jun 25, 2019

Fact # 7. He outlawed private enterprise and labor unions, wiped out Cuba’s large middle class and turned Cubans into slaves of the state.

On January 15, 1960, Castro begun the purge, persecution and jail of more than 50% of the labor leaders, most of them members of the 26th of July Movement, who had been democratically elected in the 10th Congress of the CTC on November 1959, thus destroying the rights attained by the workers and the labor movement as a whole.

On October 13, 1960, the Castro regime expropriated without compensation most of the private property, including all banks owned by Cubans and 375 large companies, which include sugar mills, commercial industries, transport, construction and railways companies, textile mills, dairy products, distilleries, breweries, soap and perfumes factories among others, most of them owned by Cubans.

In September 1961, the Castro regime confiscated all private schools and universities, including all the assets such as facilities, buildings, bank accounts, etc., without any compensation to their rightful owners. The regime intention was to implement its socialist ideas. From early age, children are indoctrinated in their schools with the regime political beliefs of communism.

To be continuous.

Sandokan · Jul 8, 2019

On March 12, 1962, the Castro regime decreed by law the rationing of supplies. This was the beginning of the ration book, supposedly for only a year, but after 60 years still is in effect. The creation of the Office for Consumer Control Supply and Distribution (OFICODA), instituted to assure the “equitable” distribution of food products, would also serve as an apparatus for citizen control, under pretense of controlling food distribution.

On March 13, 1968, Castro announced the implementation of the “Revolutionary Offensive”, aimed to take full control of the economy and total control over the population. In a few days more than 55,600 small businesses were nationalized. About 33% of the businesses were closed, and all that remained were around 150,000 small farmers that owned 30% of the land and produced about 70% of the food. The so call “offensive” exacerbated the shortage of consumer goods. The regime took control of about 90% of the economy and crippled it.

Sandokan · Jul 24, 2019

Fact #8. He persecuted gay people and tried to eradicate religion.

The Castroit regime draconian anti-homosexual policies are coherent with their enslavement of the Cuban people. These policies share a totalitarian underpinning that bars basic human choice, like where you can live, whom you can love, etc. A regime that reduces human beings to personal property is hardly willing to allow manifestation of particular affection.

Sandokan · Aug 6, 2019

Pre-criminal danger to society is a legal charge under Cuban regime law which allows the authorities to detain people whom they think they are likely to commit crimes in the future. Under Cuba's penal code, the charge covers behaviors contrary “to the standards of communist morality.” The charge carries a penalty of up to four years in prison. By using this law the regime imprisons people without justification. Many LGBT people through the years have been jailed under those charges.

Sandokan · Aug 22, 2019

Sandokan said:
Pre-criminal danger to society is a legal charge under Cuban regime law which allows the authorities to detain people whom they think they are likely to commit crimes in the future. Under Cuba's penal code, the charge covers behaviors contrary “to the standards of communist morality.” The charge carries a penalty of up to four years in prison. By using this law the regime imprisons people without justification. Many LGBT people through the years have been jailed under those charges.

The implementation of this controversial law replaced the first labor camp established by Che Guevara in the Guanahacabibes region in western Cuba in 1960, to confine people who had committed no crime punishable by law. This camp was the precursor of the concentration camps established in Camagüey province from 1965 to 1968 called Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), to confined dissidents, homosexuals, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and other such “scum.” In those camps homosexuals were often beaten, and occasionally raped, by criminal gangs in the camps. Some gays were killed; others committed suicide. The western left didn't care of what was going on, and did nothing in defense of those confined in the concentration camps. Their imprisonments take place based on the law of pre-criminal dangerousness, which according to its own text, include “therapeutic,” “re-education” and “vigilant” measures by the “organs of the National Revolutionary Police.” . The western left didn't care of what was going on, and did nothing in defense of those confined in the concentration camps.

Sandokan · Sep 8, 2019

The Castroit regime policy regarding homosexuals was implemented during the First National Congress on Education and Culture regarding Homosexuality in Cuba that took place on April 1971. This is a quotation from the report

The cultural organs cannot serve to proliferate pseudo-intellectuals who try to make snobbism, extravagance, homosexuality, and other social aberrations into expressions of revolutionary art, so far away are they from the masses and the spirit of our revolution…. Although homosexuality should not be considered a central or fundamental problem of our society," it requires attention as a "social pathology" and its "manifestations" should be rejected in all their forms….An in-depth analysis was made of the preventive and educational measures that are to be put into effect against existing locusts, including the control and relocation of isolated cases and degrees of deterioration . . . it was resolved that for notorious homosexuals to have influence in the formation of our youth is not to be tolerated on the basis of “artistic merits” . . . homosexuals should not have any direct influence on our youth through artistic and cultural activities. It was resolved that those whose morals do not correspond to the prestige of our revolution should be barred from any group of performers representing our country abroad. Finally it was agreed to demand severe penalties be applied to those who corrupt the morals of minors, depraved repeat offenders and irredeemable antisocial elements.

Sandokan · Sep 25, 2019

From 1986 onward persons testing HIV positive were quarantine in the “Sidatoria.” In 1993 HIV-positive patients whom the government considers "responsible in their sexual behavior”, have been allowed either to live at home or make weekend home visits, But under the Castros’ regime the majority of homosexual with AIDS still are kept in sanatoriums against their will. An Orwellian nightmare come true.

Sandokan · Oct 9, 2019

Fidel Castro has made insulting comments towards homosexuality. Castro's in his description of rural life in Cuba said that "in the country, there are no homosexuals”, manifesting the idea of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced "maricones" (faggots) as "agents of imperialism."1

These are Fidel Castro comments about homosexuality in 1965 interview: “We would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true Revolutionary, a true communist. A deviation of that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant Communist must be.”2

Fidel Castro got rid of criminals, mentally ill patients and “homosexuals” by forcing, according to the regime “this scum out of Cuba”, and sending them to the US during the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

1. Gay Rights and Wrongs in Cuba,, Peter Tatchell (2002), published in the "Gay and Lesbian Humanist", Spring 2002. http://www.pinktriangle.org.uk/glh/213/cuba.htm

2. Lockwood, Lee (1967), Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel. p.124. Revised edition (October 1990) ISBN 0-8133-1086-5

TheParser · Oct 9, 2019

I agree.

Fidel Castro was a very bad man.

He and his henchmen did terrible things.

We should pity him.

He had a priceless opportunity to do good.

Instead, he chose to do bad.

What a wasted life.

Sandokan · Oct 26, 2019

Fact #9. He censored all means of expression and communication.

Castro control over all means of communication was one of the tools he used to retain absolute political and remained in power until his death. Cubans were denied access to foreign books, newspapers and magazines that did not tow the official line. He got rid of those who criticize his actions, forcing them into exile, imprisoning or executing them.

Sandokan · Nov 11, 2019

Under Castro regime freedom of the press and information came to an end. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs, movie industry and Internet were controlled and censor by the regime almost a hundred percent. He abolished freedom of assembly, the right to write and express ideas that criticize the regime. Distribution of copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was considered enemy propaganda.