this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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Mandatory Note: Castro is certainly an interesting figure, and certainly not devoid of praiseworthy qualities.
Yep, plenty of flaws. But then so does any human. But you're not wrong. I think the necessity of focusing at home and isolation are the two things that saved him from doing/being worse. It's still sad to see in many ways. Despite the blockades and barriers that the west put up around the Cuban people, that he was only second to them.
I mean, considering how international the Cold War was, and how active Cuba was in foreign affairs, I think it's fair to say focus at home and isolation were not major factors in Castro's policies. I think he was legitimately an idealist, just one who went down a dark path.
But an idealist going down a dark path is still preferable to a shithead going down the same. At a time in the Cold War when people starved while their dictators - Soviet or Western aligned - celebrated in style, Cuba maintained a reasonable standard of living instead of wasting its immense aid on rampant corruption.
On the downside, he made Cuba reliant on that aid, and when it dried up with the fall of the Soviet Union, so did Cuba's fortunes.
So we are largely agreed. I have a bad habit of favoring entandre to the point that I become cryptic.
About the last paragraph, being under american sanction makes it hard to trade with neighbours or occidental nations so quite a hard situation.
That's a common misconception. During the Cold War, Cuba could trade with the entirety of the Eastern Bloc and nonaligned countries; after the Cold War, nearly everyone, including the very valuable markets in Europe, repudiated America's ongoing embargo. The EU even has laws forbidding companies in the EU from cooperating with US sanctions. Even allies as close as Canada trade massive amounts with Cuba.
The ongoing sanctions primarily affect Cuban access to American markets - which are legitimately important, but should not be the difference between economic ruin and prosperity in a functioning economy.
TIL Thank you
Castro had enough sense to fire Che for wildly incompetent leadership.
Spoke in full sentences too.