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The article is longer than appropriate for a Misplaced Pages article. Would it make sense to spin off some parts into separate, topical pages?
Is Castro alive or dead? (I know he was very ill) I recommend to change the "summary box" on the right side of his page to start with "Born xxxx" and either "Died xxxx" or "Present age, xxxx", as is done for many other personalities. Otherwise, I hunt through the entire article and still find nothing conclusive.
Continuation of why are we refusing to call Castro a Dictator?
I am continuing in response to MichaelW comment if anyone is interested in following the discussion then go to the archives to see prior comments
The way I look at the definition of coup d'etat is a quick grab for power from an existing government and I agree that Castro did manage to do that. Otherwise he will not be in power today. He try without success to get to power by democratic means but he could not by whatever reasons.
Obviously Cubans wanted a change when he grabbed power and many probably though they had something good for a little while with the revolution as long as they were not affected by all the private property confiscations in the name of the people by the revolution (Castro) but we soon learn once he had control of the press that we were going in the path of an authoritarian regime commanded by our commander in chief Castro.
As for your comments on Chavez not being a dictator. You must be blind. He seem to have being elected by the people of Venezuela but was he? Do you think his best friend Castro did not lecture him about how to manipulate Venezuela's poor buying their vote? Something he(Chavez) is actually trying to do in the US by offering discounted fuel for heating to poor people? DO you think Chavez does this things because he cares about them? No he does not he cares about that he cares about the influence he can get from those people that he is helping here.
Yes Chavez is a dictator also. Have we not seen in the news in radio and tv how he arbitrarily stop the license of an independent TV station because it was critical of his government.
What would you have done if Richard Nixon had order using executive power of his government to close the Washington-Post newspaper after that paper showed everyone about the Watergate scandal? I know many of you can not even imagine things like this happening in this country.
Just think for a second how democratic is Chavez that now he had to dissolve the equivalent to the Senate and the representative they all happen to vote in favor of giving him full power to rule on his own without the checks and balance of a congress. Do you think those are not the signs of a dictator? Soon Venezuelan will have one ballot were only Chavez appear on it and unfortuanatelly I believe is too late for them
to vote him out. I am betting the only way he will relinquish power is when he die just like Castro. Do you think is right that just one person should have so much power? If you answer yes to that last question then I am wasting my time here. Is like going back to the times of Kings and Queens even them were not as powerful as today's modern dictators with access to information at their finger tips with advance computers and technology of all kind to control their own people.
Please read Animal Farm if you have not and also 1984. I read those books for the first time when I was in my 30s here in the US.
Do you know why? Because Castro does not let those books be published in Cuba. Those books were portraying the life I and millions of other Cubans had to endure under Castro's rule. Slogans like "Patria o Muerte venceremos" finding and enemy to blame for everything (the US) and the list goes on everything there is a portrait of the Cuba I knew well and that foreigners visiting Cuba hardly experience when they get the government guided tour of the goodness of socialism staying at 5 stars hotels only for foreigners. WHat would you say if all of the sudden all the hotels in this country could be use only by rich Europeans visiting here? (that is what happen in Cuba where any foreigner is above any national)
I was so impress with those little books. Since the guy that wrote them is long gone and he wrote them even before the Cuban revolution existed. I was surprise to see that totalitarian regimes be leftist or rightist create similar systems were they had to repress people and information. Were "we the people" end up loosing against the monopoly of the state over our life. Where the state decide about how many pants and what type and color you can have during the year and even with who you meet. If you like a system like that you probably should vote for some one like Klinton and then let us say we let her do as she pleases! We will soon loose every freedom we have and you will be looking over your shoulder and being very careful what you say and to whom you talk. Being afraid of "Big Brother" spying on you!
Many people do like that kind of system and thrive in it specially is good for the none talented, the snitches the ones that like to live without working hard all they need to do is agree with everything the maximum leader says. that's all.
I and many other people think we should have the right to each of us have their own opinion.
Is not very far fetch that very soon governments will have the power thru technology to be able to watch over each of us like Big Brother. Everything you do or say will be recorded. Do you think governments any government should have that kind of control over individuals? I think is best a system in which you are able to voice your
opinion your POV without fear of getting kill. Without the fear of retribution against your family. Without the fear of losing your job or not getting a job just because you do not happen to agree with what the government think or do. I am a bit sad that many of you have not experience a system like that and think is a good thing.
I believe the individual should have the right to choose no the government bureaucrats. I believe we should all have a voice and not necessarily the same voice singing in unison.
