The Predictions of Fidel Castro
By Pilar Montes
HAVANA TIMES — The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia recently published an anecdote involving Fidel Castro that I had heard before, but I hadn’t put much stock in the source until reading the article. The version published by the newspaper includes a date, names and context.
“Richard Nixon had been sworn in for his second term as president of the United States, the Vietnam War was coming to an end and, following his return from Southeast Asia, Fidel offered a press conference with foreign correspondents.
“The British journalist Brian Davis asked him: “When do you believe relations between Cuba and the United States, countries that are quite distant despite their geographical proximity, could be re-established?’ ”
“Castro answered in a very loud tone of voice, so that everyone could hear him: ‘The United States will sit down and talk with us when it has a black president and the world has a Latin American Pope.’ ”
“Argentinean journalist and writer Pedro Jorge Solans picked up the anecdote during a recent trip to Cuba, while doing a report about the re-established relations between the United States and Cuba. Solans’ source was taxi-driver Eduardo de la Torre, who was in university in 1973.
“De la Torre told Solas he was certain of the veracity of the anecdote. He also recalled the many times they announced the Comandante’s death, inviting Solas to count the number of times the international press reported his death and the many times he came back to life.”
Of course, it would have been impossible at the time to foresee that the humorous phrase would become reality. If such a prediction was unlikely, even less realistic were the words spoken 17 years before at Cinco Palmas, at the foot of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, when the handful of survivors of the Granma yacht landing gathered to continue the fight against Batista.
Faced with the sorry remnants of his troops, made up of a dozen inexperienced combatants and less rifles, Fidel exclaimed: “Now we can be certain we’ll win this war,” leaving the rebel’s brother [today’s president] dumbstruck.
The most recent prediction that came true is perhaps the one regarding the Cuban Five.
Shortly after the trial they were subjected to more than 15 years ago, Castro said “They will return.” It’s true that two (Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez) served out their sentences, but, back then, any kind of negotiation leading to their and the other three Cubans release seemed impossible.
The worldwide campaign calling for their release, which saw the support of personalities from the arts, sciences, parliaments, governments, political parties and religious leaders helped bring this about, but none of that existed when Fidel said: “Have no doubts, they will return.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Eduardo Galeano said that Fidel travels to the future and comes back to tell us how events will unfold.
I could mention other predictions, having to do with climate change (pronounced at the Rio Summit in 1992), the aid to development that an end to the arms race would spell, and others…but those have not come true…yet.
Where is the ref for what castro said?
Ryan;
Sure it is, Sport….SURE it is! [grin!]
It seems that all over the world, people are expressing their admiration of the Cuban government…and are pulling out all the stops in their rush to reside in that socialist paradise it oversees, aren’t they? [smile]
Ryan;
Gosh, you’re good at attempting to justify immoral and criminal conduct, aren’t ya’! [smile]
Do you LOOK at the crappola you’re putting down in black and white before you post it? Do you actually believe that “the majority of the population” think they are doing better under the CURRENT dictatorship in Cuba than they were under PAST ones? If so, why have such numbers of that population chosen to FLEE that tortured land? Or are those numbers of political and economic refugees simply a product of my imaginative “ignorance”? [grin….South Florida must be a grand illusion, ‘eh?!]
At least under past Cuban dictatorships, there existed an element of the ability to travel freely. Now, doctors aren’t “leaving to make more money”; instead, they’re “leaving” in terms of ESCAPING a repressive regime at any chance they get. And I see damn few individuals of any profession – other than outright criminals – fleeing other countries seeking refuge IN Cuba. One wonders why. Weird, isn’t it? [“smile” again]
As for your contention of “support of revolutions”…how do you think you’d feel if an outside entity supported with ACTUAL TROOPS a revolution against that criminal regime that is crushing Cuban citizens today? Or isn’t what’s good for the goose good for the gander? [cackle]
Offered compensation? Are you talking about the BILLIONS of property that the Castro boys EXPROPRIATED? That wasn’t property “left behind” by its owners….it was criminally confiscated property – read STOLEN – that was taken WITHOUT being paid for.
Got other news for ya’, Sport….since when has it been the obligation of property owners “to accept” a sale under ANY conditions if they didn’t want to execute such a sale…REGARDLESS of what he might have declared the value of the property at one time or another? Think people like the Castro’s (and you, apparently) have “the right” to simply TAKE what you want without EARNING IT?
Sorry, but to my mind, such thuggish conduct as YOU apparently are supporting is NEVER justified….especially with the type of lame, dishonest excuses you’re offering-up.
Tell ya’ what, though…if you’re willing to let us consider YOUR property “undervalued” and will stand by while it is taken from YOU, then maybe we’ll see things differently. How about it, Sport? Wiling to put things which YOU value in the same boat? [smile]
The esteem you speak of is not as you make it seem. Sure, they root for little Cuba to continue to resist the big, bad ole’ US. But when it is time to send their kid to college and the choice is between Harvard University and the University of Havana, guess which one they pick? If they have a choice to buy medicine made in the US or LabioFam in Cuba, guess which one they pick? So what that they think Fidel is cool? They don’t want to live in Cuba. How high is that “esteem” really?
There was no apartheid regime in the Congo, yet Cuban troops were there to foment and ideally support a revolution. In the case of Congo, they failed miserably.
Neither by air nor by Jehovah Witnesses on bicycles, it simply didn’t happen. Moreover, some of these alleged attacks were staged by the regime to serve their propaganda purposes.
Take Guatemala for example. Their biggest problems today are self-inflicted. Government corruption and drug crimes are home grown. Cubans leave because they want to be free. Free to work and earn a living wage. Free to speak their minds without fear of a neighbor turning them in to the ‘thought’ police. The embargo is not the biggest problem Cubans must confront to live better lives. It’s not even in the top five.
Ken, your knowledge of history is apparently very limited to US propaganda. The Cuban government offered compensation to those who left property behind when they fled their country. They refused that compensation because the offer was based on their under-estimated values from the previous years for taxation. They paid minimal taxes because they undervalued their property, and then refused to accept what they had stated their property was worth. 🙂
Doctors leave to make more money, not a surprise.
Cuba sent troops to Africa in support of revolutions against apartheid regimes. The US was fighting or supplying weapons in support of those racist regimes.
Food exporting nation before the Revolution? Sure, the oligarchs were exporting sugar and other cash crops while the majority of their population starved.
You really are ignorant of Cuban history- but very well versed in US propaganda. Good for you. You might want to display your ignorance on sites that are going to appreciate it.
It’s plainly obvious you only listen to US media; “World” encompasses more than just the US. And, yes, Cuba is held in esteem by much of the actual “world.”
Yes, some do leave because the blockade has forced severe economic conditions. So do Guatemalans, Mexicans, Hondurans, and much of Latin America. They’re all economic refugees, in part because of the impoverishing conditions created by centuries of imperialist operations mining those countries of their natural resources, minus adequate compensation for the majority of their populace.
Yes. The largest military power in the world made the lives of Cubans miserable for half a century so they would submit to the will of US imperialism. And they’re still providing their population with free education and healthcare, to the best of their ability considering the hardships the blockade has forced upon them. Yes. Success.
And you’re under the belief that “bombing” only happens from air force bombers? I seem to have heard of bombs placed by people on raids not in planes. You should get your own facts straight before you attack others. And raids didn’t have to be by the US Air Force to be sponsored by the US. There’s plenty of evidence of such.
Dear Moses. To your dismay and suffering, Fidel has been the greatest orator in the past 60 years, who has been capable of holding the largest crowds in his presence or attached to a TV screen, sitting on the street at 1:00 AM in front of wide TV screens during his speech at the huge church on the Upper West Side in New York. The longest speech in the UN history with a full pack hall, say something of the man.
To your disgust, the United States, England, France and most countries in the world has not been able to produce any leader with his charisma, tenacity and vision.
Many more predictions can be told. The fight for the Return of Elian Gonzalez, the Viet Nam Victory, the warnings of the country imploding if they did not correct their own mistakes, His commitment to all struggles for the Independence of Africa can be seen in Cuito Cuanavale monumental victory, defeating the most powerful army in Africa with its nuclear weapons. Latin America is nearly Free of Imperial domination as h he predicted in Colombia in 1948.
Let me close by reminding our readers, when all odds was against Fidel Castro in 1956 in Mexico he predicted: This year, we will be Martyrs or Liberators. The world media laughed at him for bluffing. He landed in Cuba on December 2, was bombed into oblivion by Batista’s Navy and Air Force, twelve men survived and when they gathered he said, We Won!
I like your input on this subject
Read more carefully. Mshabazz wrote, “…and bombing sugar manufacturing plants.”
Don’t be dense. The U.S. admits to operations to sabotage Cuba’s economy. Mshabazz never said it was a “bombing raid”.
Spamfish;
What questions? Look at your posts! All I see coming out of them are your unfounded assumptions…and I’ve no doubt that you’re far better suited to “answering” such imaginings than I am.
Beyond that, no insult intended or made. I simply noted the reality of the situation.
Have fun!
So that’s a ” i don’t want to answer your question, so i will resort to insults”. Not really sure how that makes you either my intellectual or moral better, but do keep that smug attitude up it will get you far in life.
Sure, Sport…..sure! Quite “obviously” I’m wrong! [smile]
Then again, I just read today that a doctor the Castro boys had loaned to Venezuela, who had escaped across the Columbian border, has finally been granted an asylum visa to reside in the United States.
“Obviously” a regime that commands that type of loyalty has “achieved” quite a bit, hasn’t it?
BTW, I seem to remember reading several articles in the past few decades about Castro sending troops to Africa and such. Angola comes to mind. I just imagine that, did I? What about Ethiopia? I imagine that as well? What about the Congo? Benin, etc.? All products of my imagination? After all, if they weren’t just imaginations, then that wouldn’t quite jive with your claim of “achievement”, would it?
As for their “literacy”, why don’t you brag to me about how much COMPUTER literacy the average Cub an has? The Cuban citizenry allowed reasonably priced, unrestricted access to the internet, are they? [smile]
Bottom line? You’re supporting a rogue tyranny “Martin”. And no “recognition” of “urban agriculture” (a great term, considering the Cuba, once a net food exporting nation, has been unable to even feed ITSELF since the onslaught of the Castro crowd!) is going to change that fact. And if you think the world doesn’t know it, you’re fooling yourself. Think about it for a second; seen a lot of people utilizing rafts to get INTO that Hellhole have ya’? [last “smile”]
The times are a changing, alright…but Cuba hasn’t changed with them. It’s STILL suffering under the boot heels of bearded.tin pan dictators.
Ken, you are obviously wrong.
Many industrialised countries look towards Cuba for their achievements in urban agriculture and try to learn from them.
Many US citizens would go to Cuba for medical treatment if they were allowed – actually now they can and they do.
Cuba has a good education and a good medical system and unlike in the US they are for free.
Cuba has a higher literacy rate, a higher life expectancy than e.g. the USA.
Freedom is very relative. Freedom in the USA is purely nominal – just listen to George Carlin about the “Owners” and why education sucks. You are owned – and we, too, by the way (I am Austrian).
Cuba has not attacked any country since the revolution, while the USA is more or less constantly waging wars of aggression. This, too, is an achievement.
Thus, yes there are quite a substantial number of people who think we could learn a few things from Cuba, actually rather more than from the USA nowadays. This may have been different a few decades ago, but the times they are a’changing.
Bullsh*t. The US Air Force conducted no such bombing raids. Moreover, the reason had more to do with the lack of irrigation than any other reason. Cite your source if you still believe that crap.
It was very possible for Cuba to harvest 10 million tons of sugar, but the United States carried out a systematic campaign of terror, burning field and bombing sugar manufacturing plants.
Spamfish;
As you’ve already demonstrated, there’s little doubt that an individual such as yourself can “assume” all sorts of things. Again, you’re s.o.o.o. credible, aren’t ya’! [smile]
Give it a rest, “spam”; you have neither the intellectual nor the moral capacity to bicker with your betters.
so i assume you will be advocating for the US to give back Guantanamo bay to Cuba, or is it only poor rich american capitalists you feel for?
Javier;
Right! Obviously you’re REALLY in touch with world opinion, aren’t ya’?! After all, naturally just about EVERYBODY thinks highly – and is jealous – of a third world Hellhole, aren’t’ they? [smile]
Have fun in that rabbit hole you’ve buried yourself in. However, it might be constructive if you came up to breathe a bit of something called “reality” every once in a while.
Your are wrong!!!!! Cuba is seen as a leader around the world, especially among so called third world nations……………
Javier;
‘Stand as a giant in World opinion…”????
Maybe in the world you occupy, but here on the planet we locals call Earth that’s anything BUT the case.
yet Cuba stands as a giant in World opinion……
spitfire gothh
“Monseigneur”
“Rightfully compensated”?!? What cheek!
Great attempt at justifying your lack of ethics, thought. Unfortunately (at least for you), it didn’t work.
No doubt Fidel *IS* your hero! After all, one expects a scumbag to support another simply as a matter of “honor among thieves”, doesn’t one?
When you “confiscate” from a THIEF (USA companies in Cuba, or the Cuban Landowner Class) it’s called RETURNING the goods to their rightful owners, the People of Cuba; you are not intelligent and neither are your arguments. I would gladly break wind in your general direction but never break into your house even if you had gone into my house (the USA into Cuba) and stolen my stuff. I would get Fidel and have him KICK YOU OUT OF MY HOUSE & RETURN MY PROPERTY YOU STOLE FROM ME. Fidel is my hero, together with Pancho Villa, who also returned to his people their goods stolen by the USA’ and who did break into Uncle Sam’s house and kicked his butt in Columbus, New Mexico. Both risked their lives to bring JUSTICE to a very unethical situation. Yet Fidel never had to risk anything, He was a very wealthy man who had a rosy future ahead of him if He had just gone along with the SUPREME INJUSTICE AND GENERAL STATE OF THEFT that existed in Cuba under the USA boot. The real thieves in this world are and have always been the rich, and as far as assumptions, when your first concern is the devolution or compensation for property rightfully confiscated in Cuba, by Cuba and for Cuba, I smell personal interest.
Kinda’ hard to make an intelligent argument to an individual who actually believes that confiscated property should NOT be returned! Which begs the question: what do you do with your spare time? Break in your neighbors houses perhaps?
Sorry, but I don’t believe people lacking ethics to the extent that you just admitted to are in a position to make moral judgements – or any other kind of judgements, for that matter – concerning more honest people. But if you think “Fidel” and his ilk are “heroes” of the everyday working class people, then you go ahead thinking that. Of course, as you’ve made us uncomfortably aware, you’re idea of “working class” seems to consist of thieves and robbers.
By the way, I appreciated your assumptions. S.o.o “credible”, aren’t ya’!?! [smile]
Have a good one!
As I’ve said before, Mac, I am a Cuban Citizen with a Cuban Passport, no one took anything away; I also have earned recognition from the Canadian Government for my work for that Country in the form of citizenship, thank you Canada! If Cuba does not recognize that, it’s of no consequence as I see myself as a Cuban.
I know you embarrassed yourself deeply by admitting personal hygiene, with soap and water was a new concept to you, you can’t stop talking about it; but we practiced this in Cuba before a bunch of filthy Europeans who, like you, had never heard about it either, came to our island and ruined it around 1492. That is until Fidel and Raúl began to fix it again around 1959.
You should learn Spanish, María la Gord0…?
There is nothing in your comments but the same exaggerated criticisms and plain BS that Moses, MacDuff and Griffin are already spreading like manure on the ground. I don’t believe any of the confiscated property should be returned and simply because you say it’s not a Blockade does it stop being a Blockade. But, sour grapes to you, Kenny, it’s coming down soon and with it all your hopes to get back whatever your parents lost 56 years ago.
Now tell me about the “more responsible areas of the world”, Kenny. Are they by any chance those parts of the world, like Europe and North America, where “responsible” means they made their $ off the sweat and blood of us, Brown, Asian and Black folks during the colonial period; and who are still making $ out of our sweat and blood today, during the Neo-Colonial Period. Because in Europe, Fidel is still a hero to the everyday, working-class people, those that you are not. Here in Canada, Fidel, Raúl and Cuba are extremely popular. In the USA the majority (not you) of the people want to take down the Blockade and stop the hostilities (73%). Tsk, Tsk, Kenny, you’re not getting anything back.
What “blockade”? Seems to me that, in spite of your alleged education and all, you’ve succumbed to the hyperbole that the Castro brothers like to broadcast….or, more to that point, that you don’t know what an ACTUAL “blockade” is.
Make no mistake; the Castro’s and their ilk are responsible for their country’s economic history (read “misery”)….and the fact that they’re considered as pariahs in the more responsible areas of the world is no accident or mistake. They EARNED that title.
Do you support the return of expropriated American property? That, to me, is the question. If not, the Cuba you see as being the result of “the Blockade” I see as being the result of a greedy and criminal tyranny that deliberately stole the property of others…..and, as a result, is a country/economy that can not – and should not – be trusted.
I’m trying to figure out how you could term what has happened to Cuba as “successfully resisted”? Shouldn’t you reverse the term? I.e. – it appears to me that, for fifty years, the country has emphatically “resisted success”. Or is the creation and maintenance of a tyrannical Hell-hole your idea of “successful resistance”?
Many more such “victories” and the entire country could be considered flushed down the toilet.
“nothing solid” That about sums up all your arguments about Cuba!!!!!
As usual, ad hominem attacks and nothing solid to defend your position.
Mr Patterson… Are you still on this site talking nonsense? You do know that no one takes you seriously… Your exaggerations of Cuba’s ills are laughable at best… You take one negative and blow it up disproportionately… Yet the Cuban Revolution is still counting its victories. The Cubans have written an exceptional chapter in the annals of World History!!! Long live Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution!!!!
So you do not want to address my comments regarding the article and instead focus on me? Is that because you have nothing to say to counter my assessment of Fidel’s uncanny ability to predict the future and defeat His enemies? Or do you just want to shift the focus, or change the subject once you realized you were defeated in your ongoing campaign to demonize Fidel, Raúl, Alejandro and Mariela, blaming them for Cuba’s problems instead of the USA Blockade, where it belongs. It’s over, we won, the USA is ceasing hostilities; why don’t you just grab your wife and leave if you don’t like it, I would advice you to cease hostilities as well, you can’t win and you are going to continue making life bitter and difficult for yourself and those close to you.
See Carlyle, in Cuba everybody outside Havana, and some there also, wash themselves regularly and no one has to explain to them what to do. Cubans are clean. It’s so telling to hear your reaction to what is obviously a brand new idea for you, washing your private parts.
No one has taken my birthright, I am a Cuban Citizen and travel with a Cuban passport; whether Cuba recognizes dual citizenship is not a problem for me. No one has told me who I am, and I am a Cuban by birth, by choice and by culture.
I want to teach you another brand new concept: being multicultural, that is being versed in other cultures, knowing their History and speaking their languages. Do you speak Spanish? I speak 4 languages and am current in several cultures. But I am also an expert in Cuban Culture, History and Geography and have the degrees (BA, MA) behind me. This is how I stayed current with my roots while in the USA and Canada.
No choice ? They could have gone into the streets like the Romanians, the Iranians, the Haitians, ect, ect, and ousted the government had they wanted. Are you going to make the silly claim that the Cuban government is as brutal as SAVAK ? And by the way, most Cuban do not want to leave. And they are justifiably proud of their country.
Successfully resisted? They left (and are still leaving) the first chance they got. Those that stayed endured hardships because they had no choice. Complaining in Cuba is still a crime. Enough already with the romanticizing Cuban resistance. It’s like when my Black people talk about ‘surviving’ slavery. Cubans did what anyone would do to survive. There’s nothing exceptional about that.
Well Gomezz, thanks for the explanation. Your birth entitlement was taken away by the Castro family regime determining that Cubans couldn’t hold dual nationality. I understand your wish to hold both as I hold dual nationality. No dictatorship has taken away my birthright as the Castros did with yours.
Being in Canada as an immigrant, you were able to build a life. Such privilege is not bestowed upon Cubans living in Cuba.
I cannot understand why one who expresses the views above that you do, can so brazenly support the Castro family regime and all that it represents.
It was not I who told you what you are – that was decided by the regime you so admire.
Maybe you can franchise “The Gomezz Method” in Cuba?
La Gordo ? Confirms my suspicion Scotty. Hit the Spanish books if you want to understand what is going on around you.
Or, she may mean exceptional for being a third world island of 11 million who successfully resisted 56 years of overt and covert military, economic and political aggression from a superpower…
Dear, Dear, I’ve seen a lot of good happen in Cuba since the Revolution, but then I have my eyes open. Did you not get the e-mail that the Blockade was responsible for all of these problems in Cuba?
Getting back to the Article, you can not disagree with the fact that Fidel has been able to foresee the plans of His enemies and taken steps to counter them, as he did during the Mariel Boat Lift. Even when the Soviet Union collapsed unexpectedly and suddenly and the world turned its back on us, He was able to guide us through that most difficult time.
Now, speaking for myself, when I am in Cuba, I am a Cuban; when I am in Canada, I am a Canadian and a Cuban, those are the rights of citizenship I have earned or am entitled to by birth. I live in Canada most of the year where I built a life and have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. I return to Cuba almost every year, recharge my Cuban batteries and have an extensive network of friends and Comrades all over the Island, another life that I truly enjoy. I don’t have to choose and you have neither the authority nor the right to tell me who I am.
As I’ve said many times in this forum, I support small and medium-sized, privately owned business in Cuba and think we need more to grow our Cuban economy. What we do not need in Venture Capitalism, the government of the USA and global corporations making decisions for us in neither Cuba nor Canada.
.
And Fidel predicted Armageddon when the U.S. and Iran were sparring over the boarding of Iranian ships transporting armaments to Yemen.
Thank you for that correction. My mistake. Nixon was inaugurated to his 2nd term in January, 1973. Now can anybody provide a link to document that (a) Fidel Castro actually said the quote cited above, or (b) that Castro visited to South East Asia in 1973.
No, re-read what I wrote – the good thing about Maria La Gordo is that it siphons off the tourist buses from going to the peninsula.
You are correct in saying that I see little in the Castro family regime that is beneficial to the people of Cuba. They have held dictatorial power and control for 56 years – consequences – agricultural production has fallen to a level where Cuba has to import 80% of its food, the infrastructure is crumbling, state controlled property is falling down. Average earnings are $20.68 per month and Cubans continue to flee, often risking their lives to do so.
Cuba as you should know, does not recognise dual citizenship – so you are either a Cuban or a Canadian citizen – you can’t be both.
I note that you claim to have spent half your life in Canada despite your proclaimed antagonism to all that is capitalist. Why don’t you return to Cuba?
Who said ’68? I saw mentioned Tricky Dick’s reelection.
Thanks, I actually claim both as Mine from my citizenship rights, come by sometime, I can show you both…So you want Our Guanacahibes National Park to be overrun by turistas like Banff or Yellowstone, and suffer the consequences? Tsk, tsk, Carlyle, you can’t see nothing but the bad in everything Cuba has or does; and it’s ridiculous. Glad to see you remembered I live in BC, though.
The anecdote does not pass the smell test: it’s just a little too conveniently prescient to be believable. The Argentine journalist pushing it said he confirmed it with a taxi driver in Havana. ..Oh really??? A taxi driver said so? Not exactly solid documentation!
The British journalist mentioned, Brian Davis, would have been 24 years old at the time, and his field was advertising journalism, not politics or international affairs. I could find no record of Davis every reporting on the words of Fidel Castro. If Castro had made that remark, it would have been reported and written down somewhere.
Nor can I even find mention of Fidel Castro travelling to South East Asia in 1968. In the early part of that year relations between Cuba & the USSR were tense. It’s not at all clear that Castro would have been invited to visit the Soviet client states of North Vietnam, and there is no record of him ever visiting Laos, Cambodia, Thailand or South Vietnam during 1968.
Unless somebody can post a link to a verifiable record of the question & answer, I call it bunk. As Charles Dicken’s once said to David Frost, “Ninety percent of what you read on the internet is false.”
I know what can be done at Maria La Gordo. The beach is lousy compared with at least 200 others in Cuba. The access road is badly pitted – even in Cuban standards. The gem is the National Park and Maria la Gordo siphons off the bulk of the coaches. Maria la Gordo has a high level of attraction for divers – otherwise what is there? The National Park on the other hand is unique. What’s unique about cold beer, you can get it at home in British Columbia – and better food! As for Guanacabibes being “our” park, that terminology belongs to Cuban nationals not to emigrants. But I do love your Butchart Gardens!
Again, tirade after tirade of non-sense. You don’t really think Fidel is some kind of seer, do you? Maybe he has a really good Babalao who guides him…But honestly now, he’s done pretty good at outsmarting his enemies: The professional army of Fulgencio Batista, the invasion of Playa Girón, his 200+ assassination plots by both Mafia and the USA Government and their Blockade, Chemo and Bio warfare and multiple acts of terrorism. No one had ever proved as resilient to such a prolonged assault by the USA, over 55 years. Then He steered us through the collapse of the Soviets and 80+% of Cuba’s trading network in one week, the Periodo Especial, the EU Sanctions and brought us to the re-establishment of Diplomatic Relations and an end to hostilities with the USA, and now this predictions…That’s pretty darn good, sirs! Maybe He does have a good Babalao!?!
With respect to María la Gorda, I’ve been there and sent friends there. The beach is fine, water visibility excellent, locals friendly, a military coastal defense base nearby and not a lot of turistas when I was there; you could walk for kilometers in total solitude and absolute safety. This is hardly possible in any other country in Latin America and many parts of the USA. The Island is very thin at that point and you can visit both coasts in 3+ hours on horseback or a 25-minute, guajiro, motorcycle ride; just hang on tight and don’t look. There is archaeological work going on nearby in some caves with cultural remnants of Guanacabey occupation, there are springs of fresh water that sprout under the sea and bring fresh water columns to the surface, attracting very particular marine flora and fauna, there is great fishing and scuba, fantastic Gulf of Mexico sunsets, cold beer, great food and it appears as if now it is taking the visitor pressure off our Guanacahibes National Park. Wow, I had a great time there, you could say I spent a whole month in one week (big mosquitoes though, rum is the antidote).
Yes of course, that’s what history has shown us. ….no?
What a silly comment. Unless by exceptional, you mean sick and tired of being denied basic human rights. In that case Cubans are very exceptional.
Yet it is the Cubans who are exceptional, not the Americans.
Just another re-hash of the three imaginary golf/hotel complexes about which I have written previously. Maria la Gordo has little attraction other than for Scuba divers. The “beach” is lousy but the place serves to siphon of some of those coachloads which might otherwise visit the National Park.
There was the 1988 forecast of 150 dairies to be built in Sancti Spiritus
…and there’s the milk thing.
Not a valid analysis of Fidel’s soothsaying strengths. He also said Cuba would harvest 10 million tons of sugar and breed a super cow. Any loudmouth that loves to hear himself talk so much he gave 5 hour speeches is bound to stumble upon a prediction or two that comes true. When one compares the totality of blather Fidel forced folks to listen to, his batting average is probably pretty low.