Fidel Castro rumours

[devilchicken]

Has anyone heard the rumours floating around that Fidel Castro has died? There's nothing on the news of course, but curious to know if anyone else has heard anything.

Some South American folks on the immigration forum I participate in seem pretty convinced. Ordinarily I wouldn't listen to baseless rumours, but they seem to be gathering some momentum.

[lemec]

no, I did not hear of that yet.


the world is in greater turmoil at the moment though.


I always wondered who was going to step in next? There probably will not be any change for the people,right?

[Morgan Kane]

for the present time, a rumour !

[Mikey_C]

These rumours appear to be greatly exaggerated:

Castro is 'extraordinarily healthy': Alarcon Wed Jul 12, 6:57 PM ET

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who turns 80 next month, is an "extraordinarily healthy" man who continues to work very hard every day, parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcon said.
"Fidel Castro has been given this privilege: he is an extraordinarily healthy man," Alarcon told AFP in an interview. "He has always been and remains health, although that angers George W. Bush."
Alarcon rejected as "completely unfounded" rumors that surfaced recently in Venezuela about the death of the Cuban leader.
"These jokes surface from time to time and collapse," the speaker joked. "There have been so many of them that I believe that when it really happens, nobody will believe it."
Speculation about Castro's health peaked after his 2004 fall, during which he injured his right arm and left knee.
Last November, the Cuban leader, who stopped smoking cigars in 1985 and now exercises every day, said he had recovered from these injuries.

[L'Etranger]

Has anyone heard the rumours floating around that Fidel Castro has died?

The moment that happens every available boat in Florida will be seized for the ensuing landrush to take over what people a) used to own in old Cuba, b) say they to own in old Cuba etc. Every bathtub will be commandeered to steer across to join the landrush!
I am not a great friend of Fidel, but it is the the aftermath that I fear.

[Hawksun]

I am not a great friend of Fidel, but it is the the aftermath that I fear.

True, there seems to be such a cult of personality around Castro, that once he's dead, there doesn't seem to be any obvious successor. Once he's gone there could be the potential for the whole society to collapse.

[Miqque]

I do hope he has not died of natural causes.
I wanted to kill him myself.

[Talisant]

True, there seems to be such a cult of personality around Castro, that once he's dead, there doesn't seem to be any obvious successor. Once he's gone there could be the potential for the whole society to collapse.

The word is that there's a plan to resurrect him via his beard a la Woody Allen's Sleeper.

[Theocrat]

These rumours appear to be greatly exaggerated:

He will probably be living in a glass bubble like a certain emperor in
Granbretan, reaching the extraordinary age of 2000?

[Mikey_C]

I've just found a fascinating article on Cuba in the light of Castro's illness, by Che biographer Jon Lee Anderson. It seems fairly even-handed (if such a thing's possible). Here.

[Miqque]

Still hope he's suffering. Very evil thought, definitely regularly confessed, but I want the bastard to suffer. Sorry I have to iterate this, but my feelings are so strong that they demand public airing. Please excuse me (and those who pray, pray for me to learn forgiveness for this jerk having a 9-year-old boy assassinated to get back at his father.)

[Mikey_C]

Please excuse me (and those who pray, pray for me to learn forgiveness for this jerk having a 9-year-old boy assassinated to get back at his father.)

That would indeed be an evil act, but I've never before heard any reference to Castro having committed it. Where, when? Do you have any documented sources?

[Miqque]

That would indeed be an evil act, but I've never before heard any reference to Castro having committed it. Where, when? Do you have any documented sources?

Will I do? I was there. I know the circumstances. It happened. He was my best friend. It is a venom against Fidel that I cannot shake. Documentation? No. "Suicide." Never, not him - and in the circumstance not even a possible accident. So, not documented, but factual. Not the least of any other single act, but one that has haunted me.

[Mikey_C]

Will I do? I was there. I know the circumstances. It happened. He was my best friend. It is a venom against Fidel that I cannot shake. Documentation? No. "Suicide." Never, not him - and in the circumstance not even a possible accident. So, not documented, but factual. Not the least of any other single act, but one that has haunted me.

Well, I can see now why you feel so strongly about it. I must say I'm intrigued. I've read loads of stuff both for and against Fidel Castro, but never this. In fact, I have to admit to being the type of left-wing useful idiot who still thinks Cuba might have something to offer. Free healthcare, for instance, for the poor, in Latin America?

But then I hear about this type of shite, and I can't reject it out of hand. "You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" as Trotsky is supposed to have said. I gather that Raul (who's been put in charge now) had the reputation of being the most bloodthirsty, but once you've crossed that moral threshold of thinking its okay to shoot a few hundred people to get them out of the way, who knows what you might do?

Politics depresses me. We all know that, if and when Cuba does change, it will be so the gangsters and corporations can take over. Why does the baby always have to go out with the bathwater?

I'm sorry about your friend, whatever happened.

[Reinart der Fuchs]

Will I do? I was there. I know the circumstances. It happened. He was my best friend. It is a venom against Fidel that I cannot shake. Documentation? No. "Suicide." Never, not him - and in the circumstance not even a possible accident. So, not documented, but factual. Not the least of any other single act, but one that has haunted me.

You actually witnessed Fidel Castro killing a 9 year old boy?