Last Friday’s speech by Barack Obama on Latin America raised distinct reactions in Cuba. In an article published yesterday in Granma, former president Fidel Castro assailed Obama’s speech which called for increased freedoms in Cuba and continuing trade sanctions against the island. Castro called Obama the “most progressive candidate” for the presidency, yet he strongly rebuked the Illinois senator’s remarks:
Presidential candidate Obama’s speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.
Unlike Castro, a vocal Cuban dissident group backed Obama’s speech. The all-female “Women in White” expressed in an open letter their “great hope” that Obama could help in the “immediate, unconditional liberation” of sick Cuban political prisoners. The letter hesitated to endorse Obama or any other candidate yet urged that the U.S. could “begin an era of political realism toward Cuba” if Obama is elected president.
Sources- Associated Press, Granma, Reuters, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist, BBC News
Image- BBC News
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