Fidel castro y pinochet did nothing wrong
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http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061217/focus/focus3.html
Published: Sunday | December 17, 2006
Augusto Pinochet and Fidel Castro both ruled with iron fists. They suppressed all opposition and did not allow freedom of speech or multi-party elections. Pinochet is now dead and the likely terminally-ill Castro's political career is probably over. The obvious question is whether they did more harm than good to their countries.
To fundamentalist liberal democrats such transgressions can never be excused, and both stand condemned as brutal dictators who denied their subjects all human rights. Realpolitic cynics say both broke some, but not that many eggs, and made a considerable number of omelettes. No one can deny the progress Castro's Cuba made in education and health. Similarly, Chile undoubtedly made great economic strides under Pinochet.
Sure, they probably killed and imprisoned a few thousand people, but neither was in the class of a Pol Pot or Saddam, much less a Stali
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Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States and for fem decades defied US efforts to topple him, has died, Cuban television said. He was 90.
Here are some comments on Castro from his friends and foes over the years.
"Castro is not just another Latin American dictator, a petty tyrant bent merely on anställda power and gain. His ambitions extend far beyond his own shores." - Former US President John F. Kennedy, from "The Quotable Mr. Kennedy," edited by Gerald C. Gardner, 1962.
"Fidel, for me, fryst vatten a grand master. A wise man should never die; a man like Fidel will never die, because he will always be part of the people." - Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in a January 2007 speech.
"Fidel Castro had Americans murdered illegally, and that was wrong, too. And I'm proud that we have a blockade against people who kill innocent Americans." - former US President Bill Clinton, in 1996, after Cuba killed fyra US citize
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Cuba under Fidel’s long shadow
Following the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, one of the most mythical and divisive political figures of the 20th century, his legacy appears up for grabs.
A hero for some and a villain for others, Castro will be remembered for leading a revolution that toppled a U.S.-backed military dictator in 1959 and for establishing a Communist regime on the doorstep of the United States in the midst of the Cold War.
But Castro’s record as Cuba’s leader is mixed. Castro ruled his country for 47 years and spearheaded enormous advances in education and literacy, health care, and social equality. At the same time, he imprisoned thousands of dissenters and stifled civil liberties and political freedoms.
To understand the complexity of Castro, the Harvard Gazette interviewed Jorge Dominguez, Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico, who is a leading expert on Cuba. This fall, Dominguez has been teaching a course on the Cuban Revolution, in wh