This man tried to change something in the latinamerican third world.
It was a war for god’s sake! Batista had placed a mercyless regime, and in spite of an existing middle-class it WAS a murderer regime.

It seems you would have preferred the pre-60s hyper turistisized (prostituized, etc) Cuba,
no wonder you’re from the US!! Your country has poisoned the citizens minds with those ideas.

-a south american citizen-

pd. Vargas LLosa is not a trustable reference (he’s pro-facist)

This site = garbage

You mean Castro told del Toro how he (Castro) finally wanted Che dead? So, are you saying that Castro told del Toro about how he told Bolivian Communists to give Che no help whatsover, “not even an aspirin.” The underfunded, outnumbered, and outgunned Che Guevara was hunted down and killed by the Bolivian army and the CIA. Fine by Castro, because now he had a dangerous, too-popular rival out of the way, and he had his own Horst Wessel-like martyr for Cubans and other useful idiots to celebrate.

Did Castro neglect to mention any of this to Benicio?

“Neil Clark says that he went to Havana in search of a left-wing Utopia and discovered instead an island fortress of poverty, corruption and currency apartheid

It’s a country where the vast majority live in poverty, while a tiny, corrupt elite live in luxury. It’s a place where, 14 years after South Africa abolished apartheid, a form of it still operates. And it’s a country where you can be threatened with prison not just for criticising the country’s leadership, but also for querying a medical bill….

…My wife and I, as unreconstructed paleo-lefties who support Clause Four, free school meals and NHS dental provision, had long wanted to visit Castro’s Cuba…But we returned home terribly disillusioned. Neither of us had been to a country which was so utterly decrepit.

Stay on the officially approved tourist trail round the newly renovated streets of ‘Old Havana’ and you’d get the impression that Cuba was a tropical version of Switzerland. There are smart restaurants, designer shops and modern hotels. Wander a few streets away, however, and you’ll witness scenes of incredible dereliction. Dilapidated buildings with wires hanging out, streets that haven’t been resurfaced for more than 50 years, balconies that look like they’re going to fall down at any minute. In my travels in the Middle East and Asia, I’ve certainly witnessed squalor, but nothing prepared me for the back streets of Havana.

The average wage in Cuba is a pitiful $17 a month. The monthly ration which includes 283g of fish, 226g of chicken, ten eggs and 1.8kg of potatoes is barely enough for a fortnight, meaning most Cubans need to work the black market to stay alive. Things that we in Britain take totally for granted — such as toilet paper, toothpaste and pens — are luxury goods in Cuba. I’ll never forget the look of joy from an old lady when I handed her a couple of old marker pens and a coloured pencil.

For Fidel’s chums, life is somewhat easier. Despite its calls for further belt-tightening, the Cuban government last year ordered Series 1, 3 and 5 BMWs for all its ambassadors and a Series 5 model for Raúl Castro, who had taken charge of the country after his brother’s hospitalisation.

The heartbreaking consequences of Cuba’s currency apartheid were bought home to my wife and I on a Saturday afternoon visit to Havana’s Coppelia ‘Ice Cream’ park. To the right of the park gates was a long queue of Cubans who had only Cuban pesos. They have to wait on average two hours every weekend to get their weekly scoop of ice cream. On the left, there was walk-in access to tourists and the lucky locals who had convertible pesos…”