I think I banged that girl.

lotsa support for dictator's in this thread. it italy, mussolini made the trains run on time.

i don't support dictators in any shape or form, be they Castro or the aforementioned Fulgencio Batista. lets hope cuba becomes a representative democracy after this.

I got an idea... why dont those of you who are attending Internext next week drive down to Little Habana and ask the cubans there what they think?

Good idea ... it worked well with the Iraqis in the US ... gave a good pulse of the " walk of freedom " to come ...

Note: everytime there is a regime change in a country ( even thru elections ) , the ones that were advantaged are not to happy ...

Those Cubans are todayès equivalent of the Baath party in Iraq .... not happy they lost their grip.

I don't think anybody necessarily supports dictatorship. It's more about seperating fact from fiction, or reality from propaganda. One shouldn't have to make up stuff about somebody to dislike them. I also believe it's very possible to have a benevolent dictatorship, although I would still never prefer that form of government. For me, this is an exercise in revealing just how insidious politics can be. We're not always the 'good guys' so to speak, as much as I'd love for it to be true.

I respect the fact that you spent time among us in Cuba and learned the culture and I'm sure you left with a sense of pride and respect in how we live our lives, even in complete poverty.
If anyone is to blame for Cuba's current economic state and Political issues it's the Cuban exiles that left. In 1959 - 1967 my family began supporting Castro then opposed him in the later years.
Castro was earning people's support because he had promised a free Cuba once again, unoppressed. He was charismatic and Strong willed.
He defeated Batista's weak Military and marched into Havana.
Castro came to the United states to work on changing the terms of the Platt Amendment, (look it up) and had not set up an appointment to see the president and was refused entrance to the whitehouse by his secretary. Castro waited hours for an opportunity to meet with Eisenhower and felt insulted by his refusal to meet with him.
Castro returned to Cuba, struck a better deal with Russia than he had had with the US And the rest is history.

When my family members began speaking out against him, going to visit him in his chambers in Havana, he began to arrest them. My grandfather was arrested 12 times in one year for walking over to his brother's house on suspicion of corraborating against the regime (My grandfather was the last person to finally give up hope for castro in 63, so he was arrested for no reason)

4 of my mother's uncles were shot on television.
My mother's family lived underground for 2 years in fear of religious persecution. Castro had killed my mother's teacher and principe a week earlier for refusing to pray to him instead of God.

My family owned the largest milk pasteurizing plant and had thousands of head of cattle. WE owned 40 large plots and our largest plot consisted of 6,870 acres. 500 acres was leant to Castro to train his troops prior to his battle with Batista the 3rd time. After castro gained power and turned communist he took our land and money from us.
The wealthy left cuba with nothing to escape death and prison. If they had stayed I beleive they would have prevailed and defeated Castro.

Castro rullezzz :thumbsup

true...this is a classic example of only the good die young..

Mr. Romance

Some of the best moment of my life have been spent in Cuba. Truly wonderful and magical moments that could not have happened anywhere else on earth. Regardless of who leads the country or who is right or wrong, the people I have had the pleasure of sharing time with there have left a positive and long lasting impression on me. Beautiful people all.


:Oh crap I'm sorry to hear that. I have never heard about him killing anyone because they did not worship him. That is seriously fucked up.

That's why I like to give people facts before I judge them. A lot of people don't realize what an animal he was. I want to emphasize WAS, he became a lot more endearing around 75. Che was worse by many's accounts. My grandfather didn't fear anyone and he would shiver when he'd mention Che.

I do not fault anyone for not knowing the details that lead to the wealthy and educated leaving Cuba. But ask any exile about what happened and I'm sure they all had family arrested or shot.
The first waves to flea cuba were doctors, attorneys and businessmen. THey set up their businesses here in the US mainly In Miami and flurished just as they had in Cuba, the crazy and impressive part is that they did it without a support structure and with nothing to their names.