Fidel Castro’s Son Backs Russia in Crimea Dispute
HAVANA TIMES — As Russia and the United States/European Union continue in dispute over the former’s annexation of Crimea and troop buildup near the Ukraine, visiting Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart made it clear where Cuba stands.
When receiving an honorary doctorate at the University in Voronezh this past weekend, Fidel’s son, a scientific adviser to the Cuban government and vice president of the island’s Academy of Sciences said in a speech: “During the UN vote, Cuba proved that it remains a friend of Russia and of other countries of the former Soviet Union forever,” reported the Moscow Times.
He also insisted that Cuba is also a friend of the Ukraine. “The people of Ukraine, as I understand it, do not have any claims against the Russians,” he said, following the Kremlin line. “It is those in power who are acting in their own self-interest.”
Castro advised Russia to stand firm noting that “Cuba has extensive experience of living in isolation from the US.”
The oldest son of Fidel and his first wife studied extensively in the Soviet Union starting in 1968. He graduated in nuclear physics from Moscow State University and holds two doctorates, both from Russian nuclear instutions.
The Moscow Times said that Castro Diaz-Balart ended his talk with a quote from his father, “When all great revolutions come to an end, there will only be one left — the great revolution of science and knowledge. And it will never finish.”
As a Cuban I also support his right to do so Have a problem Tell Obama@!
That’s weird… I could have sworn the article above was about the recent Russian intervention in Crimea, not the US intervention in Cuba 115 years ago.
It’s as if emagicmtman has his very own Platt Amendment. Anytime Cuba is mentioned even in passing, the bad old USA intervenes in his mind and it’s all he can think about!
As a matter of fact, before the Civil War the slave states wanted to do just that; fortunately, they failed, as have all the Cuban and American annexationists whov’e come–and gone–afterwards. Also, the U.S. can hardly be said to have kicked Spain out of Cuba, as the Cubans were at the point of doing just that when the U.S., thanks to the imperialist ideology of Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the jingoism of Pres. Wm. McKinnley, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.and Asst. Sec’y of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt, and the yellow journalism of William “Citizen Kane” Hearst intervened at the last minute. (Already, the moribund Spanish Empire was negotiating with the Cubans. Thanks to our intervention, leaders of the Cuban independence movement who happened to be black were “frozen out”
of the proceedings.)
You might note that, in the beginning, these interventions seem like a “cake walk;” after a while, however, “we” become “waste-deep in the big muddy,” as exemplified by Viet-Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan, no name a few of our recent adventures.
The premise of this article is ridiculous. The pampered son of an aged despot deigns to give advice to Russia? is there anyone that believes that Fidel Jr. has sacrificed ANYTHING for the revolution. What would he personally know about “living in isolation from the US”? Besides, is he a member of the Cuban Foreign Ministry imbued with the responsibility of speaking for the Cuban people? Or is he simply a dictator’s son who says what he wants because his daddy stole Cuba?
Diaz-Balart is entitled to his own opinion of course, but I wonder what he’d think if the U.S. decided to annex Cuba because it “claims” that the U.S. kicked Spain out of Cuba and is entitled to restore the island to U.S. ownership since the U.S. owned most major businesses in Cuba during the 1950’s.