Fidel Castro Resigns

Smordnys s'regrepsA writes "Fidel Castro, the leader of the island nation of Cuba has declined the possibility of keeping his seat as President, after the February 24th National Assembly election. "I neither will aspire to nor will I accept — I repeat — I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote almost 19 months after a severe illness caused him to hand power temporarily to his brother Raul."

Thank God

Now maybe I can get good cigars legally.

Re:Thank God

But there aren't a lot of French people living in Florida or any other swing states.

Re:Thank God

Remind me again... why is the U.S. mad at them? France has pulled worse shitball stunts against you than Cuba has.

They nationalized property without compensating international businesses. This earned them the initial embargo. Then they became Soviet puppets. This made it permanent. And when they refused to change when Carter dropped the embargo they lost the sympathy of future administrations that restored it. Various acts like supporting leftist guerrillas or shooting down Cessnas with MiGs continued to earn them international contempt.

I'm not arguing for the embargo, but I just think it is wise not to paint Cuba as some super free haven that has the best health-care and education in the world. It is not as bad as the neo-cons paint it nor is it as good as the far left paints it. Hopefully Castro's resignation will spark a multi-party democracy.

Mission accomplished!

The Bay of Pigs Invasion finally draws to a successful conclusion, a mere 47 years behind schedule.

Re:Mission accomplished!

The Bay of Pigs Invasion finally draws to a successful conclusion, a mere 47 years behind schedule.

The only thing that ever beat Duke Nuke'm Forever in terms of a release date.

Re:Mission accomplished!

That remains to be seen.

Ironic statement

"I neither will aspire to nor will I accept -- I repeat -- I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief"

Funny... he said something very similar when he and his revolutionaries kicked out Batista in the first place.

At this point, it's not about that.

You can't be elected by Florida without the Cuban-American vote. You won't get that vote by dropping the embargo on the nation those people fled.

So, does this mean

...we can finally end this sad old Cold War charade and finally end the damn embargo?

If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...

Before corporate America invades, and it's Wendys, Burger King, McDonalds and Starbucks on every street in Habana.

For those of you that have never been to Cuba, it really is a unique place.

Not for much longer, I fear.

Re:If you want to see the real Cuba, go now...

Freeing the country will do wonders to bring the truth to light, especially with the renewed faith in this system amongst the poor of Latin America.

Yes, they can look up to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvidor, Honduras, Guatemala, etc as a testament to the triumph and prosperity of capitalism and democracy.

Thorn in the Side?

From the article: "Castro...turned tiny Cuba into a thorn in the paw of the mighty capitalist United States."
Bay of Pigs was really the fault of Kennedy. So other than the Cuban Missile Crisis, I don't recall Cuba doing anything significantly irritating. I don't think one incident qualifies Cuba for "thorn in paw" status. Perhaps someone more historically enlightened could explain this to me?

nothing to see here

As someone who has actually lived in Cuba for more than a year, I thought I should inform some of you that, while it is of some historical importance, this news changes very little politically. His brother Raul is as much of a communist as Fidel. It is highly unlikely that any Cuban policies will change due to this development. I think what we are all waiting for is for both Fidel and Raul to actually die. When that happens there is at least some possibility of real change. And since Bush didn't change his position wrt cuba when Fidel 'temporarily' stepped down due to illness I doubt if he will do so now that the change has been made permanent.

Castro's bum rap

For all his faults, in some ways Castro valued human life more than you'd expect from all the propaganda in the U.S. about "communism." He kept his people from starving in the 1990's after the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off a lot of Cuba's oil supply (unlike North Korea's Kim, who clearly doesn't give a crap about the starving people under his heel); at least Cubans don't have to eat dirt, literally, like their neighbors on Haiti. He's kept up a basic healthcare system and invested his country's meager resources into finding treatments for tropical poor people's diseases ignored by Western pharmaceutical companies. He had moved his country's population out of harm's way when the inevitable hurricanes rake across the island. And he even offered to send medical help to the U.S. for Hurricane Katrina's victims. So in some nontrivial respects he wasn't a totally bad guy.

Re:News For Nerds

It means the return if the Cuban Bride business. We no longer have to suffer with the long shipping delays of the Russian bride business and now can get women to marry us sight un-seen in a few hours instead of a few months.

Nerds everywhere are that much closer to being possibly able to touch a boobie.

Re:News For Nerds

Link please.

No really, please.

Ohh god...I want to know a woman before I die....

*whipmer*

Re:News For Nerds

Although I agree with your point that US relations with Cuba isn't exactly news for nerds, news about Brad and Angelina isn't news for ANYBODY. They're just actors. Nothing thay doe will affect the world, let alone MY world. Castro resigning does, in fact, affect me.

Re:Yawn...

Good idea. While we're at it, let's pretend China doesn't exist, either. There shall be no discussion of any computer made there.

Re:Yawn...

OK, let's discuss the computers made in Cuba. You go first.

Re:Yawn...

Free the political prisoners.

Are you sure that USA wouldn't object to such actions on its military base?

Re:Cool

Does this mean the expat's in Miami will finally shut up and I can visit Havana soon (legally).

The Miami crowd has too much to lose to allow that to happen. And they have enough political influence to prevent someone from dismissing them any time soon, despite a willingness by the American public to adopt a new perspective, keen interest by big business, and numerous attempts over the years by legislators and other interested parties who consider the current policy a long and drawn out failure to change the situation.

Besides, who in Cuba do you think is, or is going to be, running things?

On a side note, the term "expats" (no "s" needed, thankyou) I would reserve for someone like the English hanging out in the bars of Santa Monica, CA, watching football and drinking Guiness. The Miami crowd, on the other hand, will carry their memories, resentments and feelings forward for generations to come. Think of the Kurds in Iraq, the Palestinians in Israel, and both the Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, among countless other examples, and you'll get the idea.

Tourists, cigar afficionados and late 50's model car enthusiasts will have to wait.

Re:Cool

It's important to note that, if it weren't for the embargo to blame all of Cuba's economic troubles on, Fidel Castro likely wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as he did.

The political lobbying by the Cubans in Florida had the exact opposite affect from the one the wanted.

Re:Cool

The candidates have their work cut out for them!! When will they find time for the debates, primaries, national conventions...

Did you mean to use the plural there?

Re:Idea

Exactly. When Castro met up with Che Guevara after the Guatemalan government was ousted, he wanted to know what happened. He couldn't believe that such a popular socialist (and democratic) government was overthrown. Guevara told him that the US had infiltrated the press and the unions and was spreading propaganda and stirring up trouble (which it was). Not surprisingly when Castro ousted the US-backed dictator Batista, he cracked down on the press and unions for fear of US infiltration. So the US taught an unfortunate lesson. i.e. If you have a government we don't like, and you have an open society, we will use that openness to attack and undermine your government.

Now I don't approve of the Castro dictatorship, even though it is better than the US-backed Batista dictatorship. However, I acknowledge how difficult it would have been to have a socialist democracy in Cuba without the US subverting the whole thing very quickly. They almost succeeded quite recently in Venezuela during the failed coup in 2002 and they are also supporting opposition groups in Bolivia right now. The governments in Central and South America are really quite sick of the US trying to control them all of the time and there is a real backlash taking place.

Re:So does this mean

So does this mean that we can get our fancy cigars again?

Ironically, the end of the embargo will probably make it harder for Americans to get genuine Habanos, at least for a while. As of now, it isn't difficult to have Cubans cigars delivered to the USA from an authorized Habanos SA [habanos.com] retailer. However, the demand for Cuban cigars already exceeds the supply (unless you're interested in the infamous Glass Top Cohibas [cigaraficionado.com]), so the influx of Americans interested in trying these forbidden cigars will result in shortages around the world. The newly-legal cigars will also be met by large numbers of fakes [www.cbc.ca], making it even more difficult to get the real thing.