Carl:
As an initial point of starting your thinking you might give some
general thought to the Roman Catholic Church and the position of the
Pope therein.
Richard
On 11/27/2016 1:49 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Richard,
I understand what you are saying, regarding the Jesuits, but I find it
hard to associate their life-style and philosophical position with
Communism, in the Marxian sense.
In my own mind, I am unable to equate communism or socialism while at
the same time espousing a belief in an all knowing, all powerful,
eternal God.
Unless the Jesuits have strayed further than I thought, despite my
great respect for them, we have a very big chasm between them and me.
However, I am open to any proof that a dictator can oversee a
socialistic nation.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/27/16, Richard Driscoll <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl:
One day we shall know. Fidel was raised under the auspices of the
Jesuits. That in my opinion caused him to be exceptionally susceptible
to the Jesuit version of communism.
Richard
On 11/27/2016 12:55 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Richard,
It is my understanding that, although raised as a Catholic, Fidel
Castro proclaimed himself to be an Atheist. If this is true, then I'm
not certain what question you gave reference to. Upon closing his
eyes for the last time, the energy that made Fidel Castro the Being he
was, went back to that massive pool of Eternal Energy.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/26/16, Richard Driscoll <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl:
May I comment to the effect that "Mr. Castro now has the answer to the
question he surely must have asked."
Richard
On 11/26/2016 3:06 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
No matter what each of us believe we know about Fidel Castro, he will
go down in history as one of the great revolutionaries.
There is so much misinformation and negative propaganda surrounding
Castro, that getting even a glimpse of the Man himself, is nearly
impossible. But looking beyond the piles of paper and the miles of
shock jock talk shows, and seeing the difference between the life of
the common Cuban today and that of the common Cuban under Batista,
tells the real story. In spite of the efforts of the world's greatest
empire, Cuba stood and flourished. 11 million people against 300
million, but stand their ground they did.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/26/16, Richard Driscoll <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
All:
Fidel Castro, who defied US for 50 years, dies at 90 in Cuba
By Michael Weissenstein and Peter Orsi / Associated Press
<https://www.abqjournal.com/author/quickwire>
Published: Friday, November 25th, 2016 at 10:56pm
Updated: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 6:37am
<https://www.abqjournal.com/?attachment_id=896226>
FILE - In this April 19, 2016 file photo, Fidel Castro attends the
last
day of the 7th Cuban Communist Party Congress in Havana, Cuba. Fidel
Castro formally stepped down in 2008 after suffering gastrointestinal
ailments and public appearances have been increasingly unusual in
recent
years. Cuban President Raul Castro has announced the death of his
brother Fidel Castro at age 90 on Cuban state media on Friday, Nov.
25,
2016. (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate via AP, File)
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
MIAMI — Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory,
embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S.
presidents during his half century rule of Cuba, has died at age 90.
With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television
that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday. He ended the
announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Toward victory,
always!”
Castro’s reign over the island-nation 90 miles (145 kilometers) from
Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and
the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the
brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a
crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of
assassination plots, died 10 years after ill health forced him to hand
power over to Raul.
Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio
Batista,
exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before
triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32,
the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades, he served as an
inspiration and source of support to revolutionaries from Latin
America
to Africa.
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His commitment to socialism was unwavering, though his power finally
began to fade in mid-2006 when a gastrointestinal ailment forced him
to
hand over the presidency to Raul in 2008, provisionally at first and
then permanently. His defiant image lingered long after he gave up his
trademark Cohiba cigars for health reasons and his tall frame grew
stooped.
“Socialism or death” remained Castro’s rallying cry even as
Western-style democracy swept the globe and other communist regimes in
China and Vietnam embraced capitalism, leaving this island of 11
million
people an economically crippled Marxist curiosity.
He survived long enough to see Raul Castro negotiate an opening with
U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 17, 2014, when Washington and
Havana
announced they would move to restore diplomatic ties for the first
time
since they were severed in 1961. He cautiously blessed the historic
deal
with his lifelong enemy in a letter published after a monthlong
silence.
Obama made a historic visit to Havana in March 2016.
Carlos Rodriguez, 15, was sitting in Havana’s Miramar neighborhood
when
he heard that Fidel Castro had died.
“Fidel? Fidel?” he said, slapping his head in shock. “That’s not what
I
was expecting. One always thought that he would last forever. It
doesn’t
seem true.”
“It’s a tragedy,” said 22-year-old nurse Dayan Montalvo. “We all grew
up
with him. I feel really hurt by the news that we just heard.”
But the news cheered the community of Cuban exiles in Florida who had
fled Castro’s government. Thousands gathered in the streets in Miami’s
Little Havana to cheer and wave Cuban flags.
Fidel Castro Ruz was born Aug. 13, 1926, in eastern Cuba’s sugar
country, where his Spanish immigrant father worked first recruiting
labor for U.S. sugar companies and later built up a prosperous
plantation of his own.
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Castro attended Jesuit schools, then the University of Havana, where
he
received law and social science degrees. His life as a rebel began in
1953 with a reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks in the
eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed and Fidel
and
his brother Raul went to prison.
Fidel turned his trial defense into a manifesto that he smuggled out
of
jail, famously declaring, “History will absolve me.”
Freed under a pardon, Castro fled to Mexico and organized a rebel band
that returned in 1956, sailing across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba on a
yacht named Granma. After losing most of his group in a bungled
landing,
he rallied support in Cuba’s eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.
Three years later, tens of thousands spilled into the streets of
Havana
to celebrate Batista’s downfall and catch a glimpse of Castro as his
rebel caravan arrived in the capital on Jan. 8, 1959.
The U.S. was among the first to formally recognize his government,
cautiously trusting Castro’s early assurances he merely wanted to
restore democracy, not install socialism.
Within months, Castro was imposing radical economic reforms. Members
of
the old government went before summary courts, and at least 582 were
shot by firing squads over two years. Independent newspapers were
closed
and in the early years, homosexuals were herded into camps for
“re-education.”
In 1964, Castro acknowledged holding 15,000 political prisoners.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled, including Castro’s daughter
Alina
Fernandez Revuelta and his younger sister Juana.
Still, the revolution thrilled millions in Cuba and across Latin
America
who saw it as an example of how the seemingly arrogant Yankees could
be
defied. And many on the island were happy to see the seizure of
property
of the landed class, the expulsion of American gangsters and the
closure
of their casinos.
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Castro’s speeches, lasting up to six hours, became the soundtrack of
Cuban life and his 269-minute speech to the U.N. General Assembly in
1960 set the world body’s record for length that still stood more than
five decades later.
As Castro moved into the Soviet bloc, Washington began working to oust
him, cutting U.S. purchases of sugar, the island’s economic mainstay.
Castro, in turn, confiscated $1 billion in U.S. assets.
The American government imposed a trade embargo, banning virtually all
U.S. exports to the island except for food and medicine, and it
severed
diplomatic ties on Jan. 3, 1961.
On April 16 of that year, Castro declared his revolution to be
socialist, and the next day, about 1,400 Cuban exiles stormed the
beach
at the Bay of Pigs on Cuba’s south coast. But the CIA-backed invasion
failed.
The debacle forced the U.S. to give up on the idea of invading Cuba,
but
that didn’t stop Washington and Castro’s exiled enemies from trying to
do him in. By Cuban count, he was the target of more than 630
assassination plots by militant Cuban exiles or the U.S. government.
The biggest crisis of the Cold War between Washington and Moscow
exploded on Oct. 22, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy announced
there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba and imposed a naval
blockade
of the island. Humankind held its breath, and after a tense week of
diplomacy, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev removed them. Never had the
world felt so close to nuclear war.
Castro cobbled revolutionary groups together into the new Cuban
Communist Party, with him as first secretary. Labor unions lost the
right to strike. The Catholic Church and other religious institutions
were harassed. Neighborhood “revolutionary defense committees” kept an
eye on everyone.
Castro exported revolution to Latin American countries in the 1960s,
and
dispatched Cuban troops to Africa to fight Western-backed regimes in
the
1970s. Over the decades, he sent Cuban doctors abroad to tend to the
poor, and gave sanctuary to fugitive Black Panther leaders from the
U.S.
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But the collapse of the Soviet bloc ended billions in preferential
trade
and subsidies for Cuba, sending its economy into a tailspin. Castro
briefly experimented with an opening to foreign capitalists and
limited
private enterprise.
As the end of the Cold War eased global tensions, many Latin American
and European countries re-established relations with Cuba. In January
1998, Pope John Paul II visited a nation that had been officially
atheist until the early 1990s.
Aided by a tourism boom, the economy slowly recovered and Castro
steadily reasserted government control, stifling much of the limited
free enterprise tolerated during harder times.
As flamboyant as he was in public, Castro tried to lead a discreet
private life. He and his first wife, Mirta Diaz Balart, had one son
before divorcing in 1956. Then, for more than four decades, Castro had
a
relationship with Dalia Soto del Valle. They had five sons together
and
were said to have married quietly in 1980.
By the time Castro resigned 49 years after his triumphant arrival in
Havana, he was the world’s longest ruling head of government, aside
from
monarchs.
In retirement, Castro voiced unwavering support as Raul slowly but
deliberately enacted sweeping changes to the Marxist system he had
built.
His longevity allowed the younger brother to consolidate control,
perhaps lengthening the revolution well past both men’s lives. In
February 2013, Raul announced that he would retire as president in
2018
and named newly minted Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel as his
successor.
“I’ll be 90 years old soon,” Castro said at an April 2016 Communist
Party congress where he made his most extensive public appearance in
years. “Soon I’ll be like all the others. The time will come for all
of
us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain as proof that on
this planet, if one works with fervor and dignity, they can produce
the
material and cultural goods that human beings need and that need to be
fought for without ever giving up.”
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Cuba’s government announced that Castro’s ashes would be interred on
Dec. 4 in the eastern city of Santiago that was a birthplace of his
revolution. That will follow more than a week of honors, including a
nearly nationwide caravan retracing, in reverse, his tour from
Santiago
to Havana with the triumph of the revolution in 1959.
___
Associated Press writer Anita Snow in Mexico City and AP news
researcher
Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
___
Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mweissenstein
<http://www.twitter.com/mweissenstein>
Peter Orsi on Twitter: at www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi"
<http://www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi>
Following from Albuquerque Journal.
"
