Batista Again? Dream On

No doubt CAFC is watching the developments of Castro’s illness and perhaps salivating, as his brother Raul handles his duties. CAFC is wasting time. After 20 years of Batista, Cubans aren’t going to allow another puppet regime to take over.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been quietly pushing for Cuban reform.
 
She chairs the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (CAFC), in order to “explore ways the US can help hasten and ease a democratic transition in Cuba.�

Of course as it goes, she never asked the Fidel Castro government their position on this “assistance.� Back in 2005 Castro called the CAFC “a group of shit eaters who don’t deserve the world’s respect.� On Dr. Rice, he stated she was a “mad woman who talks of transition,� and further declared he is more determined to press on with socialism and communism.
 
This is the same Condi who as a little girl frequently complained about brutal racist tactics to her friend Juliemma Smith while growing up in Mississippi: “Did you see what Bull Conner did today? 

“She was just a little girl and she did that all the time,� said Smith. Well Juliemma, meet Bull Condoleezza Rice. The truth is Madam Secretary, had the US recognized and welcomed Castro when he and an international and industrial delegation took the trouble to come here back on April 15, 1959 coached by a US PR firm, instead of the White House still pouting over the Batista ouster, they wouldn’t be in need of what you consider reform.

Of course Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz’s legacy will always be defined by his relationship to the US and the former USSR. This ended up with open hostility beginning with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion back in 1961.
 
Condi’s continuation of the right wing Castro character assassination is a completely boneheaded stance made by a woman who should know better, and is nothing compared to his surviving some 663 literal assassination attempts by US intelligence. Personal Note: If you tried to kill someone 600 times, and you failed, then you’ve got mo business criticizing them about anything ever again. Yup, 600, that’s my cutoff point.
 
It bears mentioning that Castro was fighting US Imperialism during the same period Dr. Rice’s father, the Reverend Wesley Rice Jr., kept armed guard over his home in Titusville AL during the early years of civil rights, while little Condoleezza practiced over the piano inside. It’s not that Dr. Rice doesn’t see the correlation to American Imperialism and white supremacy, the problem is those are non-issues to her.

After being snubbed by President Eisenhower back in 1959 Castro joined the USSR’s circle. Castro’s communism still allowed its citizens to own land, but no more than 993 acres (First Agraria Reform of May, 1959) and banned foreign land ownership. No doubt CAFC is watching the developments of Castro’s illness and perhaps salivating, as his brother Raul handles his duties.

CAFC is wasting time. After 20 years of Batista, Cubans aren’t going to allow another puppet regime to take over.

Black Star News contributor Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion, email comments to him at [email protected]

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