Advertisement
Fidel Castro Slams President Obama’s Historic Trip to Cuba
| By Kenny Servera
Advertisement - Continue reading below
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted President Obama’s three-day trip to Cuba in an open letter on Monday.
The 89-year-old former president stated that Obama “sweet-talked” the Cuban people and ignored his country’s accomplishments.
In a speech last week, Obama called for change and freedom in Cuba and wanted to bury the hatchet between Cuba and the United States.
“It is time for us to look forward to the future together — a future of hope,” Obama said. “And it won’t be easy, and there will be setbacks. It will take time. But my time here in Cuba renews my hope and my confidence in what the Cuban people will do. We can make this journey as friends, and as neighbors, and as family — together.”
Apparently, Castro was listening and disagreed with everything Obama said.
In a 1,500-word letter titled “Brother Obama,” Castro stated, “One assumes that every one of us ran the risk of a heart attack listening to these words.”
When asked about President Obama’s offer to help the Cuban people, Castro scoffed and said that the country can produce their own foods and material goods.
“We don’t need the empire to give us anything,” Castro wrote.
Castro continued to blast Obama for not mentioning the extermination of the native people to Cuba and in the United States in his speech, not mentioning Cuba’s gain in health and education, and possibly withholding information on South Africa obtaining nuclear weapons with the help of the United States before apartheid ended.
“My modest suggestion is that he reflects (on the U.S. role in South Africa and Cuba’s in Angola) and not now try to elaborate theories about Cuban politics,” Castro wrote.
Castro took power of Cuba during the 1959 Cuban revolution and stayed in power until 2006 when he grew ill and transferred all of his power to his brother, Raul Castro. Since that day, Fidel Castro has rarely been seen in the public eye.
President Obama and Castro did not meet face-to-face during the visit.
It was the first visit of a sitting United States president in 88 years.
Slowly but surely, the U.S.-Cuban relationship is getting better, as both countries recently agreed to loosen travel and trade restrictions. As of right now, there are no plans to fully lift the Cuban embargo, which has been in effect since 1962.
Advertisement - Continue reading below
Share
On Facebook