I believe that one’s opinion is important. It is the simplest of way of expressing our thoughts, and even though some opinions may be more controversial than others, it is amusing to see how disrespectful, naïve and outright offensive today’s column about Fidel Castro is.
The columnist Anjana Nair’s main point was to prove why Castro’s reformist legacy is unfairly criticized. As she does so, she undermines statements like the following: “Fidel Castro killed many of his own people and caused thousands to flee from Cuba” and “Yes, he is criticized by the entire world for numerous and horrendous human rights abuses.”
After these statements, your columnist tries to brush things off by saying, “But the Western world criticizes Castro without taking into account the tens of thousands of Cuban people who mourn for the loss of someone who felt like a father to them.”
That statement is cringe worthy.
Most of the world’s ruthless leaders, including Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Cesar Chavez were also mourned by tens of thousands of their people. This however, does not justify the right to applaud anything good these leaders stood for. One thing all of these leaders have in common is that they believed the end justified the means.
I urge Anjana to do some more research before misleading her readers, presenting half facts to promote her loose point.
Fidel Castro’s 49-year reign was characterized by a ruthless suppression of freedom of expression. According to the Humans Rights Watch, Fidel’s reign included all the following: Repeated political detentions, political imprisonments, systematic due process violations including hundreds of executions, inhumane prisons where the conditions lead to extensive malnutrition and illness, every day forms of repression like short-term arrests to harass dissidents or prevent them form participating in groups or activities considered “counterrevolutionary”.
To get to power, Castro plotted countless political assassinations and executions, and then expropriated his own people and even Americans from all their belongings and business
No matter what Fidel Castro was able to achieve, he did so by oppressing a country for decades, censuring freedom of speech and press. His reign created systematic repression, creating a climate that hindered the exercise of basic rights and pressured Cubans to show their alliance to the state.
Now anyone could claim that I Goggled facts as Anjana most likely did, however I’m third Generation Cuban and have heard this experiences from family members. I still have family in Cuba and they corroborate every single fact and accusation that the Humans Right Watch blames Castro’s regimen from.
Castro’s legacy is more than fairly criticized and I want to share with Anjana and readers with a common answer that my cousin in Cuba gives to people who tell her about how Castro eradicated illiteracy in her country.
“Yes everyone can write and read in Cuba, but what good is to me, to be able to read if I can’t think differently? What good is to be able to write if I can’t express my own opinion?”
Javier Fernández is an LSU alumnus and former photographer for The Daily Reveille.