Havana ushers in 56th year of the Cuban revolution

"El marxismo me enseñó cómo era la sociedad. Era como un hombre con los ojos vendados en un bosque, que ni siquiera sabe dónde está el norte o hacia el sur es. Si usted no tiene el tiempo llega a comprender realmente la historia de la lucha de clases, o por lo menos tener una idea clara de que la sociedad está dividida entre los ricos y los pobres, y que algunas personas subyugar y explotar a los demás, estás perdido en un bosque, sin saber nada -

"Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything." - Fidel Castro, quoted in My Life: A Spoken Autobiography, by Ignacio Ramonet (2009).

Guadalajara -
From an MGR post on Oct. 26, 2011:

"On the evening of December 31, 1958 the president of Cuba was a swaggering dictator named Fulgencio Batista. An old friend of Washington and the American mafia alike, Batista knew the end was near. Cuban rebels, long his nemesis, were on the outskirts of Havana, and occasional gunfire could be heard in the distance. U.S. political support was quickly evaporating. Officials of the Dwight Eisenhower administration told Batista that it was time to pack his bags. At a New Year's Eve party, over a champagne toast, he told his cabinet ministers that he was leaving the country in a few hours. At 3:00 a.m. on January 1, 1959, Batista boarded a plane with supporters and flew to the Dominican Republic, under the careful watch of U.S. officials. With him, crammed into the cargo hold, went cash and art work estimated at $300-$700 million USD, all of it property of the Cuban state.

"A week later one of those young rebels rode into Havana in a jeep, dressed in trademark army greens and with a customary cigar stuck in his mouth. His name was Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Castro has managed to outlive or outlast 10 U.S. presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, Bill Clinton and George Bush II. He may just outlast Barack Obama as well." The U.S. Embargo of Cuba - a paradigm for how not to conduct foreign policy.

Dec. 18 - Mariela Castro: Cuba will never go down capitalist road
Dec. 17 - Cuba swaps Alan Gross for "Miami Three" prisoners

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