Castro’s hidden legacy

Castro initiated a reverse course on his puritan anti-gay attitudes around about the time that his chief benefactor was on its knees. The collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the end of the significant Soviet subvention propping up the weak Cuban economy left Castro vulnerable. Already a cult figure amongst many young people internationally it is possible he wanted to ingratiate himself further with his international audience by giving them one less reason to criticise him.

But Castro didn’t have to do a lot of work to obscure his actual record. There are plenty who will forgive him practically anything due to his peculiar appeal as a romantic revolutionary warrior. During his lengthy tenure Castro financed and gave refuge to an endless stream of terror groups. In Columbia he supported the FARC in its war against the Columbian state despite its role in massacres of civilians and drug smuggling. Cuba is fast becoming a destination for those seeking to purchase sex with minors, with the implicit knowledge of the Cuban government.

Though he was Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement he dispatched the armed forces of Cuba to fight in the Angolan Civil War which claimed half a million lives, including 2,300 Cuban soldiers. His most influential foreign policy contribution remains his decision to prop up the murderous regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the dictator of Ethiopia, whose campaign of ‘Red Terror’ brought Ethiopia to the point of famine which claimed upwards of 1 million lives.

A ‘remarkable’ life in one sense or another.