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Former Cuban president Fidel Castro

Hildegarde The Arena
FORMER Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz has a larger than life personality. He remains newsworthy and also controversial despite having retired from active politics several years ago. That is no fault of his because true revolutionaries never lose their appeal. In the past fortnight Fidel has

been at the epicentre of criticism for daring to air his opinion about the downing of the Malaysian jet flight MH17 on July 17 in the restive eastern part of Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed. He also voiced concerns at the escalating Gaza crisis.

Castro courted the ire of the Western media when he wrote about the tragic shoot-down. Writing in the Cuban public media, he said: “This morning’s (July 17) news was saturated with the astonishing bulletin that a Malaysia Airlines plane had been hit while flying at 10 100 metres high over the territory of the Ukraine on the path under control of the warmongering government of the chocolate king, Petro Poroshenko.

“Cuba, which was always supportive of the people of Ukraine, and in the difficult days of the tragedy of Chernobyl attended the health of many children affected by harmful radiation from the accident and will always be prepared to continue such aid, cannot fail to express its rejection by the action of such an anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian, pro-imperialist government.

“In turn, coinciding with the crime of the Malaysia plane, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of a nuclear state, ordered his army to invade the Gaza Strip, where in the preceding days hundreds of Palestinians had died, many of them children. The US president supported the action, calling the heinous crime an act of self-defence. Obama did not support David against Goliath, but Goliath against David.”

Castro continued: “As is known, young Israeli men and women, well prepared for productive work, will be exposed to die without honour or glory. I do not know what military doctrine the Palestinians will use, but I know a fighter ready to die can defend even the ruins of a building as long as he has a rifle, as demonstrated by the heroic defenders of Stalingrad (in World War II).

“I only wish to express my solidarity with this heroic people defending the last inch of what was their homeland for thousands of years.”
For daring to say this, Fidel did not know that his opinion would bring back memories of a small island that believed in itself, stood up against giants and called their bluff.

According to the Associated Press, Castro’s remarks were made a week after he welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin during his tour of Latin America.

The more than half a century when Cuba has demonstrated its resilience against the economic embargo imposed by the West is unforgivable, more so when Russia and China are on its side as demonstrated when both presidents Putin and Xi Jinping went to Cuba and paid courtesy calls on Castro. It was like a reincarnation of the Cold War era.

When Air Algerie flight AH5017, flying from Burkina Faso to Algeria, crashed in Mali a week later on July 24 under unclear circumstances, it seemed like payback time.

Some sections of the Western media lost no time in reporting that among the 118 people on board the ill-fated flight was Fidel Castro’s niece, Mariela Castro.

Information from Escambray’s website states: “CNN news agency spread the news that Mariela Castro was one of the passengers on board the Air Algerie plane that crashed in Africa this Thursday.”

They also claim that according to CNN, “the airport at Ouagadougou published an update in its Facebook page saying that Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, was on board the crashed plane”.

But Mariela Castro Espín (not just Mariela Castro), Castro’s niece, was not on that flight. According to reports, she was in Havana despite the stories that started doing the rounds that she was among the 118 people on the plane.

The Herald also checked with the Cuban embassy in Harare and was informed that Mariela Castro Espín was not on flight AH5017 and neither was she in the Burkinabe capital at the time.

Reports say Castro Espín confirmed during an interview with Venezuela’s Telesur TV that she was safe and not involved in the plane crash: “I’m alive, happy and healthy . . . Maybe the media that published that news needed a bit of publicity, but here I am,” Castro said.
“I learned from a friend who is a journalist that it seems that on the list of passengers there is a Mariela Castro but with a Spanish passport,” she said. “I’ve found other Mariela Castros on the Internet but only one with the second last name Espin. That’s me.”

It was classic that the plane crash and the possible presence of President Raul Castro’s daughter should have been cheapened to make it look like AH5017 crashed a week after Fidel blamed the Ukrainian government for downing the Malaysian jet.

It was also cheap to ignore the real issues that have seen three planes crashing in one week, and Malaysia MH370 still missing without trace. It was also sickening that the upbeat from the Western media was coming at a time Netanyahu is declaring an all-out war against the Palestinian people, women and children in particular.

The questions that beg for answers are: Before it was finally established that the Mariela Castro being referred to was a Spanish citizen, and not President Raul Castro’s daughter, why was the Western media in such a celebratory mood?

Since the Malaysian jet had been shot down, was the Western media also inferring that the Algerian plane might have met the same fate since its flight path was not secure?

Mariela Castro Espin, who was reported to have died in the recent Air Algerie plane crash

Were they saying that Mariela Castro Espín deserved to die in the Algerian plane crash just because her uncle Fidel had voiced strong opinions about the shooting down of the Malaysian plane in Ukraine and about the bloodbath in Gaza, which the West seems to be conveniently ignoring, arguing that Israel has the right to self-defence?

The writer checked on Mariela’s profile and noted that despite coming from one of the most powerful Cuban families, she is also her own woman, whose achievements are celebrated by people who share her vision and beliefs. She is also a Cuban citizen inasmuch there were victims from different nationalities.

Feeling compassionate is an important human trait. The world has joined all nationalities whose citizens perished in the plane crashes and has also noted that Europe, more than any other part of the world, has suffered major losses.

It is unfortunate, whether this happens through an accident or an act of war that a civilian passenger plane should be shot down, and the act of aggression must be condemned in the strongest terms in the same manner we condemn how Gaza has been turned into a killing field.

So, should the anger have been poured on Castro, especially when there is need to give balanced and objective viewpoints on the prevailing issues in the geopolitical sphere?

Mariela Castro Espín did not also need to be identified as Fidel Castro’s niece because her father Raul is the head of state and commander-in-chief of Cuba’s defence forces. She is part of Cuba’s First Family, and not just Fidel’s niece.

Raul Castro Ruz like his brother Fidel is also one of Cuba’s most decorated revolutionaries. They fought the colonial and imperial forces together and before assuming the presidency, he was Cuba’s defence minister.

At Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in December 2013 in Pretoria, he demonstrated that he does not live in the shadow of his well-known brother. According to Fidel Castro, when US President Barack Obama shook hands with Raul Castro at the memorial service, the Cuban leader told Obama: “Mr President, I’m Castro”.

In the same vein, when the death rumours circulated on social and mainstream media, it was not Fidel Castro who issued a statement that she was alive and in Cuba, but Mariela Castro Espín did it herself.