@gauge33 wrote:
Here is the same thing MJW from our trusted CBC.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-obama-castro-1.3869414
This piece really isn't much more than a re-hashing of CNN reporting, certainly not a thoughtful and critical analysis.
What Justin Trudeau said was accurate, even if it didn't go far enough for right-wing capitalists in criticizing Castro. The Cuban people did have a deep and lasting affection for Castro, and they did refer to him as "el Commandante".
You might recall that Pierre Trudeau attracted just as much, if not more, criticism for his détente approach to Cuba and Castro. Yet I think he, unlike the Americans, realized it was better to have a friendly relationship with a communist neighbour than an antagonistic one. There are always possibilities open as long as nations are talking to, and not at, each other. The elder Trudeau also recognized the value of socialism and national sovereignty and so probably had sympathy with a leader who had broken from the American yoke and was attempting to create a social order that was fair to all its people, as flawed as his dictatorship may have been.
Thousands of Canadians over the decades have benefited from Pierre Trudeau's rapprochement with Cuba, as no doubt have many Cubans from all the winter vacationers from Canada.
Certainly part of the Cuban people's affection for Castro was for the wrong reasons (if you're old enough to remember the Bay of Pigs, you'll know what I'm referring to), and part was for the right reasons (egalitarianism, universal health care and education, national coherence without U.S. control).
Cuba was a cesspool of every imaginable corruption and pillage by U.S. mobs and unrestricted capitalists in the 1950's and prior, and the vast majority of Cuban people were the unfortunate victims, effectively enslaved in their own country by outsiders. They certainly didn't share in the booty. American companies and interests treated Cuba as a sort of restraint-free playground for their own benefit, to be plundered at will. In many respects Americans did to Cuba what the Belgians did to the Congo. People have now forgotten about that ugly story and why it led directly to Castro's revolution.
I'm not dismissing the horrible acts committed by the Castro regime, but we should remember that many of the 'dissidents' were people who were allied to U.S. interests and wanted nothing more or less than Castro's murder. Were Castros acts worse than what the Americans did? That really is a matter of viewpoint, and whether you're a Cuban who is thankful for a man who created a nation, or an American ex-pat Cuban republican who thinks someone like Donald Trump is better and would like to see Cuba opened up again to U.S. robber-barons.
If we think being Canadian is like sleeping with the U.S. elephant (as Pierre Trudeau used to say), imagine being a small island just off the coast of the U.S. trying to maintain national identity. Justin Trudeau in his statement was reflecting the fact that Cuban nationals who remained on the island see Castro as a hero and are mourning the end of an era. I think he may also have been sending a signal to Cuba that Canada intends to maintain its friendly relationship with the island. Many Cuban nationals must deeply fear what will come next from an America with Trump as President.
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