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[Fidel staying sharp; I'm afraid I can't say the same for his brother. -
Jeff]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/28/fidel-castro-obama-cuba-trip
Fidel Castro rails against 'Brother Obama' after US president's trip to
Cuba
Country’s former leader responds to
Obama’s visit with long letter in
state media, saying: ‘We don’t need
the empire to give us any presents’
Fidel Castro has responded to Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba with
a lengthy and scornful letter that recounts the history of US aggression
against Cuba and reasserts its independence with a warning to the
American leader that “we don’t need the empire to give us any presents”.
The 1,500-word letter published in state media, titled “Brother Obama”,
was Castro’s first response to the president’s three-day visit last
week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two
countries’ history of cold war hostility.
Speaking in Havana, Obama said it was time for the two countries to look
forward “as friends and as neighbours and as family, together”.
But in his letter Castro dismisses Obama’s comments as “honey-coated”
and said that Cubans “ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing
these words from the president of the United States”.
The former president writes that Obama is asking them to forget “a
ruthless blockade that has now lasted for almost 60 years,” as well over
half a century of US aggression against Cuba including the decades-long
trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack and the
1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner by anti-Castro exiles which killed 73
people.
Obama did not meet – or mention – the 89-year-old former ruler during
his three-day trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother
Raúl Castro, the current Cuban president.
Obama’s visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his
opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban
government that a half century of US attempts to overthrow the communist
government had ended, allowing Cuba to reform its economy and political
system more quickly.
Fidel Castro writes of Obama: “My modest suggestion is that he reflects
and doesn’t try to develop theories about Cuban politics.”
Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in
2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His
biting letter reflects that style, presenting a sharp contrast with
Obama’s tightly focused and forward-looking speech in Havana last week.
The letter opens with descriptions of environmental abuse under the
Spaniards and reviews the historical roles of Cuban independence heroes
José Martí, Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez.
Castro then goes over crucial sections of Obama’s speech line by line,
engaging in an ex post facto dialogue with the American president with
pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama’s
failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro’s prohibition of
racial segregation after coming to power in 1959.
He also blasts Obama for ignoring the extermination of native peoples in
both the US and Cuba, not recognizing Cuba’s gains in health and
education, and not coming clean on the US role in helping apartheid
South Africa obtain nuclear weapons.
“My humble suggestion is that he reflects [on the US role in South
Africa and Cuba’s in Angola] and not now try to elaborate theories about
Cuban politics,” Castro says.
Castro does, however, acknowledge Obama’s good intentions. “In a certain
way I wish to say that Obama’s conduct was correct. His humble origins
and natural intelligence were evident,” he writes.
In the letter Castro also takes aim at the tourism industry in Cuba,
which has grown further since Obama’s rapprochement with Raúl Castro in
December 2014. He says it was dominated by large foreign corporations
which took for granted billion-dollar profits.
The focus on US-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled
with Castro, who nationalised US companies after coming to power in 1959
and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now
introducing gradual market-based reforms.
The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the US
will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled
to escape from overdependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard
currency.
In response Castro writes: “No one should be under the illusion that the
people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and
its rights, and the spiritual wealth that is has gained with the
development of education, science and culture.”
The former president ends his letter with a sort of “thanks but no
thanks” to Obama’s offer of assistance.
“We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need
with the work and intelligence of our people,” he writes.
This report includes material from the AP
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