Hacker News Reader

Comment by formula1 | Hacker News Reader

Why are cubans in miami celebrating his death? Are they misguided minorities that should follow the example of armchair politicians in privledged countries?

View on HN

Because they are descendants of the middle and upper classes who benefited from the previous regime and lost everything when Castro came to power.

So his exiling of over a million cubans is acceptable, then?

Yes.

All of them? There was no poverty in cuba after Castro? Those that spoke out were capitalist pigs and deserved their punishment?

Right after obama came to cuba there was a large influx of cubans who made the journey through the carribean to the us to gain the guarenteed citizenship [0]. Why would people risk their lives to leave? Are these individuals also upper class escaping slaughter?

[0] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/05/cuban-immigr...

I would say everyone other than those in the government of Cuba or associate with its members lost out.

They are actually descendants of the people who had a good life under the dictatorship of Batista.

Cuban Revolution was not for a wimp.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista

Not sure your point. The claims here indicate that most plantations were american owned and that likely frustrated cubans to the point a revolution was intreresting. But immigration from cuba isnt just 1 time. There has been a consistant flood of migrants that risk their lives to escape. Back in the 90's there was the Emilio Gonzolez contreversey where the mom died to get her son to the US.

In every colonial system, the resources were owned by the foreign power, but the management of these resources were made by a privileged class of locals which constituted a local elite. This elite lives a very comfortable life, gives a "local face" to the regime for the population, but ultimately answers to the foreign power who retains the bulk of the profits sent overseas.

It's important to note that even if this elite is the "1%" of the country, this 1% amounts to a significant number of people.

Ah yes they lost everything because they supported the previous dictatorship. Then when they may have been in danger as others were when they were living the high life they fled the country.

>> "Why are cubans in miami celebrating his death?"

Because they didn't like him and got out. There were people who celebrated Margaret Thatcher's death. There would be people who would celebrate the death of some current world leaders. On the other hand there would be people who would mourn those deaths.

Did Magret Thatcher execute people? Did she create an air of fear and enforce isolationism at the expense of a country they ruled?

These are apples and oranges

In case you completely misunderstood my point here it is again:

"Why are cubans in miami celebrating his death?"

Because they are a group of Cubans who don't like him. There are also Cubans mourning his death. Like all politicians some people liked his policies (because they benefited from them) and will be sad he's dead and others disliked his policies (because they did not benefit from them) and will be happy he's dead. Ultimately what he did or didn't do has no relevance to your question.

Margaret Thatcher sent British troops to train the Khmer Rouge, I doubt Castro ever did anything as sick as that.

For many of them it's due to direct experience with the arbitrary and capricious nature of the Castro regime:

"... all three of us — papi, mami and me — got visas to leave. It took five years to get those visas and my folks were immediately fired from their jobs when they applied.

"On that July 1967 day when we were scheduled to go, the three of us made it to the boarding ladder of the Eastern Airlines Freedom Flight bound for America. But a Castro soldier stopped us before we boarded and demanded to see the family’s papers. I remember this as if it was yesterday. That bearded guerrilla in green and carrying a rifle confirmed all three of us were cleared to leave Cuba.

"But, he added, that only two of us could leave because that’s what he personally was deciding. He then told my father to pick who goes and who stays. What ensued next is hazy to me. I know there were tears. I know there was drama. But suffice to say only my mother and I got on that plane.

"My dad stayed behind, and for three years he was unable to reunite with us. Other family members never were able to reunite with us."

Armando Salguero, Miami Herald sportswriter, in: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com