Fidel Castro and the United States

Rosa Martínez

HAVANA TIMES — In recent weeks, social networks were once again filled up with comments about the life – or, better said, the death – of the world-famous leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro.

Probably no one was surprised to read that Castro was dead on some web-site. While president, they tried to assassinate him hundreds of times, and people have announced his death a fair number of times since he passed on the torch to his brother in 2006.

His opponents in Cuba have drunk and sung with joy more than once since he grew ill eight years ago. As for the anti-Castro lot in Miami, well, they’ve been dreaming about his death for more than 50 years and don’t forgive themselves for having been unable to take him out. And while few people actually care about how he’s doing now, many are not happy to know he’s alive, breathing and pissing people off.

I, who once believed Fidel was immortal, also thought he had died, as this occasion was the longest he’d been away from the public (a year and then some).

We even talked about his possible death at home, and how little of an impact it would have on Cuba and the world today, after eight years away from authoritarian power on the island. Though many are followers of his ideas, things are unquestionably not the same.

If anyone was sure he had gone, if they believed his last resting place was being prepared in Havana, it seems as though they were wrong again, as his last letter attests to the fact he’s alive. It’s not that I doubt someone else could write those words (something entirely possible), but this business of “I don’t trust the United States,” those words could only have come from him.