Fidel Castro and the Media
Fidel Castro dies at the age of 90 years and the press all over the world presents the man who for 25 years occupied a first row seat not only in his country, but also in many Third World countries; the one who made of his country, one on whom all the looks have converged.
The following are a few excerpts from various newspapers following the death of the “Marxist Leader.”
Melodie FM and Haiti en Marche
Fidel and Haiti!
PORT-AU-PRINCE, November 26th - The man was a legend. But not a Living God, as was considered Papa Doc. The same with Balaguer, successor of the Dominican dictator Trujillo. Nevertheless, his influence covered several continents.
We were fortunate enough to have met Fidel Castro thanks to an invitation by President René Préval (1996-2001) as a journalistic group that accompanied him during an official visit to Cuba.
The highlight of the visit was the reception held at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana.
The protocol was at its highest. The honor guard had a parade within the building. It was a military-civilian government like any revolutionary government desires.
Both heads of state made their speeches. To our surprise, the Marxist leader did not only know the history of Haiti, he knew it better we did. This was due to the fact that he was a history buff, a crazy admirer. For him, the history of Haiti and of Cuba are closely linked. This goes back to Hatuey in Cuba and the Cacique Henry for us, both Indian chiefs who unequivocally refused to submit themselves to the Conquistadors, just like the heroes of the War for Independence in Haiti.
After the victory of the former slaves against the French in November, 1803, many colonists from Santo Domingo took refuge in Cuba where they reproduced the sugar industry which had made Haiti “The Pearl of the Antilles” under colonialism.
Fidel considered that Cuba held a large debt to Haiti because it alone implanted the seed for a real revolution in the New World, while the United States continued to practice slavery for several more decades.
The Guardian, 26 November 2016 by Richard Gott
“Fidel Castro, who died at the age of 90, was one of the more extraordinary political figures of the 20th century. After leading a successful revolution on a Caribbean island in 1959, he became a player on the global stage, dealing on equal terms with successive leaders of the two nuclear superpowers during the cold war. A charismatic figure from the developing world, his influence was felt far beyond the shores of Cuba. Known as Fidel to friends and enemies alike, his life story is inevitably that of his people and their revolution. Even in old age, he still exercised a magnetic attraction wherever he went, his audience as fascinated by the dinosaur from history as they had once been by the revolutionary firebrand of earlier times.
The Russians were beguiled by him (Nikita Khrushchev and Anastas Mikoyan in particular), European intellectuals took him to their hearts (notably Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir), African revolutionaries welcomed his assistance and advice, and the leaders of Latin American peasant movements were inspired by his revolution. In the 21st century, he acquired fresh relevance as the mentor of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia, the leaders of two unusual revolutions that threatened the hegemony of the US. Only the US itself, which viewed Castro as public enemy No 1 (until they found an “axis of evil” further afield), and the Chinese in the Mao era, who found his political behavior essentially irresponsible, refused to fall for his charm. It took until Barack Obama’s presidency for US restrictions to be eased – but by then an intestinal illness had compelled Castro’s resignation as president in favor of his brother Raúl, who saw in the historic normalizing of relations between the two countries. Nonetheless, Fidel maintained his antagonism until the end, declaring in a letter on his 90th birthday this year that “we don’t need the empire to give us anything.”
Fidel Castro "torments" multiple American presidents
AFP Washington
The American media drew an unforgiving portrait of the Cuban ex-leader Fidel Castro, who died on Friday at the age 90. "Repressive leader" for some, "agony" of about ten presidents of the United States, wrote others.
In their electronic online editions, these media dedicated a wide part of their spaces to the "revolutionary leader who challenged" the United States, as wrote The New York Times.
"He brought the Cold war to the western hemisphere, tormented 11 presidents and brought the world at the edge of the nuclear war," recalls the Times. It also notes "the importance" in the twentieth century of this "international figure," who only managed a quite small island in the Caribbean with 11 million inhabitants.
For the Los Angeles Times, Fidel Castro was "a revolutionary icon whose influence was well felt far beyond Cuba." This point of view shared by Miami Herald, for whom his "shadow" propagated during almost fifty years through Latin America and world.
For his critics he was a "repressive leader who transformed his country into a Gulag,” asserts the Washington Post.
It remains to be seen whether his death will bring significant changes in Cuba. For Peter Schechter, expert at the Think Tank Atlantic Council based in Washington D.C., stability must prevail.
by Focus On Haiti Initiative Team
If ever a country and its people needed a good day, it was Haiti and the Haitian people. Over the past two months, they have been battered by a monstrous hurricane and, more recently, by widespread flooding and mudslides. Over the past year, they have been subject to fraudulent elections and, when the country’s political, social, civic and economic leaders sought to rectify them, resistance and pressure to accept the election results status quo from external forces who ironically often present themselves as Haiti’s ‘friends.’ And, in the five years prior to those denigrating elections, the country and its people were subject to a government more known for organizing carnivals, engaging enthusiastically in debt-inducing political patronage and shady dealings, and disrespecting democratic process and practice than for leading the country to a stronger, more prosperous future.
It is through this lens that Sunday, November 20, 2016 was a very good day for Haiti. On that day, the bruised country held an election and determined citizens went to polling places around the country in what has been described by the head of the elections council as “a successful day… that unfolded in calm, serenity… and, in general… without violence.” Voters went to cast ballots for president, and in certain constituencies, for senators and lower chamber deputies engaged in a run-off election. Should no single candidate for the presidency receive more than 50% of Sunday’s votes, a presidential run-off between the two top vote getters is scheduled for January 29, 2017.
In view of the tepid and rather late support of Sunday’s reformed balloting by international actors (including the U.S.), Haitians who have chaffed for years over the dominant role outsiders have played in their political process must have a sense of vindication over Sunday’s ‘calm, serene’ outcome. Joining the interim government and its Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) in relishing this absolution is the multitude of civil society, church, and business leaders who supported the push toward Haitian assertion of ‘ownership’ of its presidential election. Without doubt, Haitian ownership contributed significantly in the positive outcome on November 20th. Haitians all along the country’s socio-economic spectrum now had something to prove with this election. With determination and dignity they demonstrated that they can lead their own political process, and conduct – and pay for - their own elections. They must now be accorded all due respect for this important step in strengthening Haiti’s democratic process. After all, it must be asked, what truly democratic country does not ‘own’ its own elections?
Kudos are thereby accorded to the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that organized the election and to the workers it engaged nationwide to organize and guide the electoral process; to the Provisional government that stood against pressure to accept electoral fraud and that successfully found the $55 million needed to finance their election; to both the Haitian National Police (HNP) who provided unflinching security for the process and the United Nations peacekeepers and police trainers who worked alongside them; to the Haitian election monitoring organizations that exposed the prior fraud and remained engaged as watchdogs to assiduously monitor the election on November 20; and to the citizens of Haiti who voted in calm and serenity, and by doing so showed their commitment to this manifestation of democratic process.
That process improved significantly in large part because the CEP implemented much-needed reforms in arrangements for electoral observation by political party operatives. Their number was reduced; they were given photo IDs; and they were permitted only one vote, at their home polling station. A year earlier, the jaw-dropping number of close to one million of these ‘mandataires’ were empowered with generic ID badges that infused the process with fraud, repeated voting in multiple polling places, and the crowding of polling sites which certainly intimidated ‘ordinary’ voters.
The ballot also improved because of the determination of the CEP and Haitian security officials to clearly disseminate the rules of the electoral process and to take quick, appropriate action against those who sought to break them either leading up to the election or on Election Day itself. Early reports indicate that some 43 arrests were made on Election Day of individuals seeking to disrupt voting transparency. Happily, violence feared for Election Day – heightened by the HNP’s interception of several illicit deliveries of weapons during the run-up to elections – did not occur.
One good day, however, does not make a successful election outcome. Much work remains in the aftermath of the actual voting. Ballots must be secured and counted – unfortunately still a painfully long process in Haiti. Results must be released fully and with the transparency needed to instill greater confidence in them among both Haitian citizens who have become apathetic toward and distrustful of elections, and the international actors who have become accustomed to accepting controversial and flawed election results, sending a message that Haitians must be satisfied with a ‘second class’ democracy.
Beyond doubt, when those results are released, losing candidates will cry ‘foul,’ accusing the process of fraud and of bias against them. This has become standard practice in Haitian elections… sometimes, as was seen in the 2015 so-called elections, with cause. It will be up to Haitian election authorities to respond quickly, clearly and fairly to contestations, as it will be the responsibility of losing candidates to accept transparent and honest results. Spoilers – with or without guns - still lurk in the shadows seeking to undermine a process or an outcome that does not satisfy their goal of gaining power and protecting their privilege. Vigilance is called for to monitor them and thwart any even tentative moves they make toward disruption. And, as the country moves toward a probable presidential run-off election on January 2017, flaws in the reformed process, including those that created confusion among certain voters as to where they could actually vote, must be corrected.
As always, many challenges remain ahead, as reflected in the oft-cited Haitian proverb ‘dèyè mòn, gen mòn,’or, ‘beyond mountains there are more mountains.’ Nevertheless, Sunday, November 20, 2016 was a very good day for Haiti’s besieged and fragile democracy, and a very good day for Haiti. Haiti’s true friends hold fervent hope for many more very good days to come.
Robert “Bob” Maguire, Ph.D.Director, Focus On Haiti InitiativeElliott School of International AffairsThe George Washington University, Washington DCNovember 21, 2016
Fidel Castro: A Global Revolutionary
The original source of this article is Granma (Cuba)
Copyright © Sergio Alejandro Gómez, Granma, 2016
The Cuban Revolution and Fidel’s ideas have inspired all those searching for a different world; looking to overcome the contradictions which world powers try to present as inevitable.
At a time when it seemed as though all was lost following the fall of the Socialist camp in Eastern Europe; the light that had been lit in 1959, began to shine even brighter. Defending socialism in order to resolve humanity’s problems, even during the most difficult times in the country’s history, placed Fidel on the short list of revolutionaries who have known how to interpret “the significance of the historic moment.”
Such conviction was never tied to dogmas. In the same way that Cuban weapons and resources supported guerillas fighting against dictatorships across our continent, Fidel – the fighter from the Sierra – knew how to recognize when the time for armed struggle had ended, and that of political transformation had begun.
He has had the privilege of seeing various generations of Latin American revolutionaries come and go, individuals who have had the good fortune of benefiting from his support: from Salvador Allende to Hugo Chávez, to name just two of the many brave regional leaders.
“To me Fidel is a father, a comrade, a master of impeccable strategy,” stated Chávez during an interview with Granma in 2005. The two leaders first met in 1994, where Fidel received the recently freed lieutenant colonel at the foot of his plane’s stairway, on arrival in Havana.
Chávez’s 1999 presidential electoral victory marked the beginning of a new era for Latin America and the Caribbean which, as has been noted by protagonists of this process, from Evo Morales to Rafael Correa, would have been impossible without Fidel’s leadership.
Although a counter-offensive is currently underway by right wing forces, attempting to destroy all the gains made over the last decade, there exist concrete examples of the fulfillment of over 200 years of integration efforts, such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, founded in 2010.
Much earlier however, in a meeting during the 1993 Sao Paulo Forum in Havana, the Cuban leader had told leftist forces: “What more can we do, what more can the Latin American left do than create a consciousness promoting unity? This should be inscribed on the flags of the left. With socialism or without socialism.”
In addition to his tireless revolutionary work, Fidel’s humanist ideas have alerted many to the major problems facing humanity, from climate change to the possibility of global destruction by nuclear weapons.
No one can look back over 20th and 21st century history, without studying the work and ideas of this Cuban who wrote a small Caribbean island into the pages of “true global history,” as told by the people.