Good riddance. One down...

Planet Earth finally rids itself of evil mass-murderer Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro has finally met his long overdue death.  Good riddance. If you think that sounds harsh, you’re probably not among those who were victimized by his barbaric ascent and brutal 50-year dictatorship. You can read my family’s direct, personal, connection to Castro here.

Castro and his crew were (and still are) murderers - a gang of cold-blooded killers who promised liberation and delivered death, torture, and servitude.  They line their pockets and live like kings while those beneath them toil away their lives for a pittance.  Step out of line, and you vanish.

There is nothing to revere here. 

Those who praise Castro’s lifelong ability to thumb his nose at the United States turn a blind eye to decades of hubris, violence, mass graves, and vicious cruelty.

Normally, when world leaders pass on - even those with whom I have vehement disagreement - I go the “don’t speak ill of the dead” route. Fidel Castro’s death is a different story.

It’s joyous news for a great many people, as evidenced by the celebrations erupting this morning in Miami.

The celebration in Miami after the death of Fidel Castro. @USATODAYpic.twitter.com/xWl1lbwfsC

— Alan Gomez (@alangomez) November 26, 2016

Now, there are questions about which direction Cuba will go.  It’s important to remember that, if Castro was the brains, Raul and Che Guevara were the muscle.  Fidel may be gone, but his just-as-evil brother Raul remains and his grip on power appears to be airtight. He’s surrounded himself with a cadre of trusted top level military members, just as his brother did so many years ago.

Still, some believe that his meetings with Obama signal that he’s not quite the hardline communist that Fidel was.

As the New York Times writes:

With Fidel now gone, a lingering question may now be answered: Did the weight of his legacy hold Raúl back, preventing him from substantially dismantling the cherished system his brother had constructed?

Or were the slow, halting steps toward change a reflection of Raúl’s own desire to insert new life into the ailing Cuban economy — without weakening the structures of state power?

 Roberto Veiga, director of Cuba Posible, an organization based in Havana that promotes political dialogue, said that Fidel’s passing would “deeply affect people” on the island, but it would not change the course of the country.

“It will have an emotional impact,” Mr. Veiga said. “It will have a political impact. But it won’t have any impact on how the country is governed.”

Time will tell if Raul has any actual interest changing Cuba’s course, or if his dalliance with Barack Obama was just a wise play against a weak opponent.  I suspect the latter, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, Fidel has been set up with his own private corner in hell. ...And that’s good news, indeed.

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Robert Laurie --