Revolutionary hero or egotistical despot? Fidel Castro is viewed wildly differently depending on who — and where — you ask.<\/p>\n
Fidel Castro, whose death was announced Friday night on Cuban television by his brother, President Raul Castro, ruled over the island nation for half a century. During that time he was seen as both an inspiration by liberation movements and a threat by anti-communist and civil right groups.<\/p>\n
He will be remembered as one of the most important political figures of the 20th century, especially in Latin America, and Castro also has the added distinction of having outlived many of the main protagonists of the Cold War, including 10 US presidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a figure who drew an incredible amount of attention. He was a global player, which is quite amazing given the relatively small size of Cuba itself,\u201d said Oliver Stuenkel, a political analyst with Brazil\u2019s Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a Sao Paulo-based think tank.<\/p>\n
Castro\u2019s legacy will be the subject of much debate in the days and even years to come, especially as Cuba continues to build stronger diplomatic and economic ties with the US in the wake of the 2014 breakthrough talks with President Barack Obama after decades of estrangement.<\/p>\n
An anti-colonial hero<\/p>\n
Stuenkel said that that Castro\u2019s complex legacy was already clear on social media just hours after news of his death broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the comments on Twitter, you will see he is being both simultaneously praised as a revolutionary — someone who had the courage to stand up to the United States \u2013 and condemned as an autocrat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castro and a band of revolutionaries that included the iconic Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara overthrew the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Despite Washington recognizing Castro\u2019s government in 1959, relations rapidly soured between the two countries as he declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union. On April 17, 1961, US-backed Cuban exiles staged the infamous failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, which aimed to topple Castro.<\/p>\n
Revolutionary hero or egotistical despot? Fidel Castro is viewed wildly differently depending on who — and where — you ask.<\/p>\n
Fidel Castro, whose death was announced Friday night on Cuban television by his brother, President Raul Castro, ruled over the island nation for half a century. During that time he was seen as both an inspiration by liberation movements and a threat by anti-communist and civil right groups.<\/p>\n
He will be remembered as one of the most important political figures of the 20th century, especially in Latin America, and Castro also has the added distinction of having outlived many of the main protagonists of the Cold War, including 10 US presidents.
\n\u201cHe was a figure who drew an incredible amount of attention. He was a global player, which is quite amazing given the relatively small size of Cuba itself,\u201d said Oliver Stuenkel, a political analyst with Brazil\u2019s Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a Sao Paulo-based think tank.<\/p>\n
Castro\u2019s legacy will be the subject of much debate in the days and even years to come, especially as Cuba continues to build stronger diplomatic and economic ties with the US in the wake of the 2014 breakthrough talks with President Barack Obama after decades of estrangement.<\/p>\n
An anti-colonial hero<\/p>\n
Stuenkel said that that Castro\u2019s complex legacy was already clear on social media just hours after news of his death broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the comments on Twitter, you will see he is being both simultaneously praised as a revolutionary — someone who had the courage to stand up to the United States \u2013 and condemned as an autocrat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castro and a band of revolutionaries that included the iconic Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara overthrew the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Despite Washington recognizing Castro\u2019s government in 1959, relations rapidly soured between the two countries as he declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union. On April 17, 1961, US-backed Cuban exiles staged the infamous failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, which aimed to topple Castro.
\nCastro\u2019s revolution introduced sweeping social and economic reforms, but also cracked down on any form of dissent.<\/p>\n
\u201cFidel Castro adopted ideas from the British National Health Service [a universal health care system] to create Cuba\u2019s own model,\u201d said Dr. Stephen Wilkinson, a UK-based editor of the International Journal of Cuban Studies. \u201cOf course people in Britain don\u2019t know that, and in general are very ignorant about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilkinson said that while many in Europe will likely remember Castro as \u201ctyrannical dictator\u201d, his legacy in the developing world is quite different. For many, Castro is more closely associated with freedom and social reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a defender of national sovereignty. He restored the dignity of the Cuban people by creating a sovereign, independent state,\u201d Wilkinson said.<\/p>\n
Wilkinson emphasized that Castro came to power during an era when many countries in Africa and Asia were only just emerging from colonial rule, or were still occupied by Western powers. \u201cHe was seen as a champion of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements,\u201d the UK-based editor of the International Journal of Cuban Studies said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will also be remembered as a social reformer,\u201d Wilkinson added. \u201cHe proved that you do not need a high GDP to create a strong and efficient education and healthcare system. This remains an inspiration for many poor countries and dispossessed people.\u201d<\/p>\n
A shifting Latin America<\/p>\n
In the US city of Miami, where hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles arrived after the 1959 revolution and in the decades that followed, people will undoubtedly remember Castro as the man who forced them to leave their homeland and whose policies brought about economic ruin.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the announcement of his death, thousands of Cuban-Americans took to the streets to celebrate. People cheered, danced, waved Cuban flags and chanted “Cuba si! Castro no!”.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Stuenkel said that in Latin America, Castro would also leave behind a mixed legacy, spun and influenced by the region\u2019s current ideological battles.
\nCastro was a role model for a generation of left-leaning leaders in Latin America, especially the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n
Latin America\u2019s left wing experienced a resurgence in the 2000s, often referred to as the \u2018pink tide\u2019, sweeping into power leaders like Luiz Inacio \u201cLula\u201d da Silva in Brazil and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the good run for the left in Latin America, the so-called \u2018pink tide\u2019 is now coming to an end, and this will chip away at Fidel\u2019s image in the region,\u201d Stuenkel explained. \u201cBrazil\u2019s new centre-right government doesn\u2019t share the same admiration that Lula and his Workers\u2019 Party had for Fidel\u201d.<\/p>\n
The analyst said that while Castro will continue to enjoy a cult-like following among young people and the Latin American left, more conservative governments in the region will not participate in the Castro \u201cmyth-making\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly a few years ago you would have seen a regional outpouring of praise for Fidel from presidents on such a day. You won\u2019t see that now,\u201d Stuenkel said on Saturday, following his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even his critics will recognise that Castro has a very special place in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
(France24)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revolutionary hero or egotistical despot? Fidel Castro is viewed wildly differently depending on who — and where — you ask. Fidel Castro, whose death was announced Friday night on Cuban television by his brother, President Raul Castro, ruled over the island nation for half a century. During that time he was seen as both an inspiration by liberation movements and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}