Stephen Lendman

Approaching age 90 this summer, Fidel Castro’s physical capability isn’t what it used to be. His intellect remains keen, his judgment sound, his passion for keeping Cuba free from US predation and control uncompromising.On March 20, Obama arrived in Cuba representing former US colonial control over the island state, wanting it regained in new form - intolerable for the vast majority of Cubans, unwilling to sacrifice their socially responsible sovereign state to yankee imperialism.

Obama snubbed Fidel during his visit, disgracefully meeting with anti-government dissidents instead, symbolic of US hubris and arrogance.On March 28, Fidel commented, his article titled “Brother Obama,” blasting US imperialism, saying:

“We don’t need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, because our commitment is to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet” - anathema to America’s ruling class.

Imperial echoes remain in Cuba, he noted, Guantanamo the most outrageous example, America unwilling to return sovereign island territory to its rightful owner, using it instead as a torture facility for Muslim political prisoners, a modern-day Devil’s Island, the mid-20th century closed facility a permanent stain on French history.

Fidel reflected on famous Cuban heroes, notably Jose Marti, apostle of Cuban independence from Spain, “glorious Black leader Antonio Maceo,” Cuba’s greatest military hero Maximo Gomez and others.

He mocked Obama’s demagoguery in addressing the Cuban people, hollow words saying:

“I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.”

His policies belie his rhetoric, his credibility sorely lacking, his fronting for wealth and power exclusively an affront to people everywhere wanting to live free from the scourge of yankee imperialism.

“The native populations don’t exist at all in Obama’s mind,” said Fidel. “Nor does he say that the Revolution swept away racial discrimination, or that pensions and salaries for all Cubans were decreed by it before (he) was 10 years old.”

“The hateful, racist bourgeois custom of hiring strongmen to expel Black citizens from recreational centers was swept away by the Cuban Revolution…”

Fidel blasted US imperialism for trying to terminate Cuban sovereign independence in its infancy, “the perfidious (Bay of Pigs) attack “which cost our country hundreds of losses, including deaths and injuries.”

Obama’s “sweetened words” in Havana wanting bygones to be bygones left Cubans watching on national television aghast.

Has he forgotten over half a century of illegal blockade still in place solely for political reasons, endless US acts of violence against Cuba and its people, hundreds of failed attempts to kill Fidel?

“Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country,” its ruling class, “will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained” at the expense of ruthlessly exploiting others.

Cubans renounce US imperialism, the scourge of planet earth.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs