Summary Of Franma By Fidel Castro

For this week, I read on CNN a story about what Fidel Castro thought about President Obama’s visit to Cuba written by Patrick Oppmann. The relationship between Cuba and the US has not been great ever since the embargo’s and Fidel Castro. Ever since Castro took over Cuba, the US has had embargo’s and bans placed on Cuba and have not really allowed Cubans to migrate to the US and vice versa. Neither the US or Cuba have had an embassy in each others country for quite some time, until the US lifted the embargo and made a deal with Cuba, which allowed the embassies to reopen. In this article, it talks about how a communist Cuban paper, the Granma, published a full page column titled “Brother Obama”, in which the former Cuban president rejected Obama’s visit and his words of reconciliation.
In his own words, Castro says, “We don’t need the empire to give us anything”.
From there, it talks about how, even though Fidel Castro is officially retired, much of an influence he still wields in Cuba. During the visit, in which President Obama was the first US president to visit in 88 years, Obama and Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother and the current Cuban President, were seen frequently together in meetings, dinners, and baseball games. Obama did not meet with the elder Castro brother during his trip. Many of the listeners believed in what President Obama was saying about how, “both countries should move beyond decades of mistrust and animosity”. It then states how it seems Fidel Castro isn’t so eager to bury the past and says that Obama’s speech “risked giving one a heart attack” , before listing many abuses that the US had held against
Cuba. This article is very relevant to international affairs because of the seriousness of the alliance between Cuba and the US. If this were to fall apart, no one would know if it would revert back to how it was before, or if something worse would happen. Ever since I was little, I have always been fascinated with any kind of history, so naturally I have followed Cuban history. I had always found Fidel Castro to be a little scary, because in the mind of a 12 year old, one could not understand what he was doing. The fact that Fidel Castro came out and degraded Obama’s visit when they didn’t even meet is really bad for the US and even worse for the delicate relationship that was just reestablished with Cuba. Since Castro still has very influential ties, it would make sense that he would use these to fix this situation. However, since he is not the President anymore, I don’t know how far his power reaches. The US certainly doesn’t need what Cuba provides, since we went 88 years without anything. However, I believe the US made this strategic move for reasons that I have not yet figured out, and it would not be beneficial for our alliance to crumble. I believe that Fidel Castro doesn’t like President Obama because he has probably felt the same about all of our presidents because they impede on Cuba’s independence, so I can understand where he is coming from. However, I don’t see an immediate fix to this situation, other than continuing talks and being nice to Cuba.