[My mother] closed the school the next day [after a visit from Castro's soldiers], because she knew that the purpose of education was the broadening and opening of children's minds. And she couldn't be a party to the systematic closing of minds, borders, freedoms and ideals.
The Castro government is disproportionately white given the color of the island. It doesn't look like Cuba.
My whole thing is I don't take from Castro being an intelligent man as long as he is doing the thing that needs to be done. But the thing is at the end of the day you're not bettering the island. You're only making it worse. So, for me it's just making sure that people have the right to speak their minds and have an opportunity in life to better their life.
The Cuban economy is a disaster. No, I do not praise Fidel Castro.
Fidel Castro is one of the most inspiring leaders of the 20th century.
Fidel Castro was loved and hated passionately.
Many who later lost faith in Fidel Castro can remember how they once admired the man who needed just a dozen men to launch the Cuban revolution.
Historians debate to this day whether Fidel Castro was a communist from the time he took power or only became one after he was spurned by the United States. What is not disputed is that he was always an autocrat moving ruthlessly against anyone who dared oppose him.
Fidel Castro was a born rebel.
Fidel Castro was not interested in personal enrichment. His supporters say he deployed his enormous authority on behalf of health, education and welfare programs that brought Cuba attention around the world.
Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.
Fidel Castro claimed that history would absolve him, but it can also condemn him.
Fidel Castro was a charismatic revolutionary and a ruthless leader who allowed no dissent.
Fidel Castro takes up so much space in the Cuban mind. It's hard for us to imagine as Americans - isn't it? - how much of everyday conversation he's dominated for 50 years.
Fidel Castro rhetorically championed the poor. He also held the Cuban economy in a kind of arrested state. He called for racial equality but often cracked down - but did crack down on the press and dissidents and Cuban gays.
For a man who likes to talk, Fidel Castro does very few interviews.
The feeling is that Fidel Castro's much bigger than he actually is.
The word 'charismatic' was made for Fidel Castro. You would have liked him, I would have liked him. Then you had to stop and say, 'Just a minute. This is a man who does not believe in freedom of the press...does not believe in democracy as we know democracy, had political prisoners.'
The promises of Fidel Castro's so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy, were and continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights.
The executions, persecution and imprisonment of political dissidents and the LGBT community, denial of free press, elections and religious freedoms, continue to be Fidel Castro's legacy.
The collapse of the Soviet bloc ended the massive subsidies that had kept the Cuban economy afloat. The once-vaunted education and health care systems fell into disrepair. Fidel Castro's stubbornness, meanwhile, made political and economic change difficult in Cuba.
As his country crumbled around him, Fidel Castro's stature diminished abroad and at home.
Fidel Castro outlasted U.S. presidents determined to overthrow him, survived the collapse of the communist bloc that sustained him and outlived many of those who wanted to replace him. For those reasons, he will go down in history as among the world's most skillful politicians, even if his achievements largely die with him.
Fidel Castro had universal health care for all Cubans, and universal education for all the Cuban people, no money required. This was his challenge.
Some people say to me, "My God, but Fidel Castro is a communist!" I say: "No, he was a messenger of God."
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