POINT OF VIEW

How Fidel Snookered Everyone

The summit exposed Castro's peers in Latin America, not Obama, as the real innocents abroad.

By Jorge Castañeda | NEWSWEEK
Published Apr 25, 2009
From the magazine issue dated May 4, 2009

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  • Posted By: wstephenjackson @ 04/26/2009 3:37:47 PM

    One of the most astute analyses of the politics of the region I have ever read (I have lived in both Chile and Venezuela, and loathe the term 'Latin America' as it implies a homogeneity that ignores the very uniqueness of these peoples). Fidel is a ruthless dictator and has always been. He is an opportunist who snookered the paranoid cold war Soviet Union into giving him absolute control over a country, and snookered us into giving him the justification at home to maintain that control. The President, in playing chess rather than OK Corral, shines a light on this entire affair that better allows everyone to see these players as they really are. Well done, sir!

  • Posted By: Humberto Capiro @ 04/25/2009 7:49:55 PM

    Am I the only person who tihinks Fidel is either dead or comatose and what we see in picures it's a stand in (plastic surgery can do wonders). I guess for me iit's hard to beleive a man with such an ego wont show up LIVE for 5 minutes and thumb his nose at the USA and the MIAMI MAFIIA!

  • Posted By: PaulStewart @ 04/25/2009 4:54:16 PM

    Good insights. I think it is a bit early to judge Obama's results at his first conference. I think he did well. The photo ops with a smiling Chavez, while fodder for the right wing extreme in America, are actually good for America. It makes Chavez look foolish. He is ranting and raving about America and its devils for President. Even saying bad things about Obama. But he looks like the Cheshire cat in the picture with Obama. He is obviously thinking he is the winner, but indeed he is not, or will not, be the winner in due course. And Castro? Well his lights are gonna go out soon enough and then common sense will prevail. He will either go quietly into the night or otherwise, but he will soon enough go....

  • Posted By: PaulStewart @ 04/25/2009 4:52:47 PM

    Good insights. I think it is a bit early to judge Obama's results at his first conference. I think he did well. The photo ops with a smiling Chavez, while fodder for the right wing extreme in America, are actually good for America. It makes Chavez look foolish. He is ranting and raving about America and its devils for President. Even saying bad things about Obama. But he looks like the Cheshire cat in the picture with Obama. He is obviously thinking he is the winner, but indeed he is not, or will not, be the winner in due course. And Castro? Well his lights are gonna go out soon enough and then common sense will prevail. He will either go quietly into the night or otherwise, but he will soon enough go....

  • Posted By: Mark Norling @ 04/25/2009 1:26:20 PM

    Yes Mr. Castaneda, Fidel Castro does care more about deeds than words. He did when he was storming the Moncada barracks, while he and his army were risking their lives in the Sierra Maestras, and when that liberating army, over fifty years ago, rode into Havana victorious. More importantly though, the deed he cared most about then was the maintenance of an immensely unjust institutionalized sociopolitical system that defined inequality in this hemisphere, rewarded foreign thug plunderers in Havana, and subjugated the national rule and pride of the Cuban people to an imperialistic foreign power. That he truly cared about. That he continues, to this day, to care about.

    It???s time to move on, to leave the ossified philosophies, tactics, and rhetoric of the Cold War behind, and to come together as a planet to solve the monumental problems we are now beginning to understand. Only deeds, not words, will create the international trust and cooperation required for the concerted efforts that lie ahead.

    The embargo must end and Obama must end it unilaterally. It is an act of terrorism perpetrated by the Obama administration against the Cuban people. The embargo, and Obama???s holding on to it, are the anachronisms here ??? not Fidel Castro???s principled stance.

    • Posted By: gringogo9 @ 04/25/2009 2:19:29 PM

      The issue is, does Fidel want to be right or happy? The answer is that there is nothing more important to him than to be "right" and maintain the illusion of the glorious "Revolution" that took place 50 years ago instead of admitting that he had nowhere to take the country to after dispatching the prior regime. Have you ever been to Cuba? The place is covered in political propaganda cheering about this ancient event in the midst of enforced idleness amongst its people. For a country that was so rich and industrious prior to Fidel to have fallen to what is basically a subsistence level seems more like "de-evolution". Based on results, he doesn't care about the "happy" part for his people but maintains in practice an ideology and economic system that all of his prior brothers-in-arms have long since abandoned. How do I know whether they are happy or not? All you have to do is watch them voting with their feet to get out of there by raft, speedboat or lottery. The tragedy is that he has consolidated power to the extent that he is still able to thwart the next generation of pragmatists who do want to bury the past and move on to a brighter future. One can only hope that both he and the only ruler left with an equally poor consideration of his nation, Kim Jong Il become nothing more than bad memories in the near future.

  • Posted By: Mark Norling @ 04/25/2009 1:25:15 PM

    Yes Mr. Castaneda, Fidel Castro does care more about deeds than words. He did when he was storming the Moncada barracks, while he and his army were risking their lives in the Sierra Maestras, and when that liberating army, over fifty years ago, rode into Havana victorious. More importantly though, the deed he cared most about then was the maintenance of an immensely unjust institutionalized sociopolitical system that defined inequality in this hemisphere, rewarded foreign thug plunderers in Havana, and subjugated the national rule and pride of the Cuban people to an imperialistic foreign power. That he truly cared about. That he continues, to this day, to care about.

    It???s time to move on, to leave the ossified philosophies, tactics, and rhetoric of the Cold War behind, and to come together as a planet to solve the monumental problems we are now beginning to understand. Only deeds, not words, will create the international trust and cooperation required for the concerted efforts that lie ahead.

    The embargo must end and Obama must end it unilaterally. It is an act of terrorism perpetrated by the Obama administration against the Cuban people. The embargo, and Obama???s holding on to it, are the anachronisms here ??? not Fidel Castro???s principled stance.

    • Posted By: gringogo9 @ 04/25/2009 2:12:06 PM

      The issue is, does Fidel want to be right or happy? The answer is that there is noting more important to him than to be "right" and maintain the illusion of the glorious "Revolution" that took place 50 years ago instead of admitting that he had nowhere to take the country to after dispatching the prior regime. Have you ever been to Cuba? The place is covered in political propaganda cheering about this ancient event in the midst of enforced idleness amongst its people. For a country that was so rich and industrious prior to Fidel to have fallen to what is basically a subsistence level seems more like "de-evolution". Based on results, he doesn't care about the "happy" part for his people but maintains in practice an ideology and economic system that all of his prior brothers-in-arms have long since abandoned. The tragedy is that he has consolidated power to the extent that he is still able to thwart the next generation of pragmatists who do want to bury the past and move on to a brighter future. One can only hope that both he and the only ruler left with an equally poor consideration of his nation, Kim Jong Il become nothing more than memories in the near future.

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