This post is not about Fidel Castro or the one party society he created in Cuba. This post is about how PCG's leaders have used him to spread fear among their followers so that we can better understand how PCG's 1% are able to maintain the loyalty of their lay members.
They made their followers fear him by fixating on his relations with rivals of the United States.
Friendly gestures he made to the Vatican were presented as a sign that the Catholic Church would soon rise to great power there and in Latin America generally.
They insisted that he would have soon fallen due to economic pressure ignoring evidence to the contrary such as how the Castro regime's survived through the "special period" of the 1990s which PCG's leaders never bothered to discuss in their writings on their website dating back to 1998.
They stirred up painful memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Gerald Flurry even scare mongered that Castro may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination in his 2016 booklet, Great Again. (If so then why did the US government not publicize such information back then?)
PCG's leaders also used him to attack leftists they did not like revealing their alignment to the political right.
Criticism certainly deserves to be made especially when authorities make it difficult to share such feelings but one can scarcely imagine what could possibly justify the grotesque and uninformative ad hominen attack which talked of him in the following way while hypothetically wondering what would happen after his death: "the ailing dictator Castro finally yields his diseased body up to death." (Gareth Fraser and Ron Fraser, U.S. Enemies Align With Cuba to Claim Gulf Oil, January 3, 2007.)
There is no appeal to any kind of higher idealism with that statement. Referring to him as a "diseased body" does not say anything about his wrongs. That was a grotesque, crude and superfluous thing to say that does not treat political affairs with the seriousness they deserve.
Also worth noting is the instance of plagiarism in a March 2015 article by Gerald Flurry which plagiarized passages from an article by Jeremiah Jacques dated January 5, 2015. It is highlighted below,
Below is a compilation of writings by PCG's 1% using Fidel Castro as a prop to insist that their view of the world is correct and convince PCG's lay members that they are worthy of being followed. They include articles by Gerald Flurry, the late Ron Fraser, Gareth Fraser, Mark Jenkins, Jeremiah Jacques, Andrew Müller, Robert Morley, Richard Palmer. Stephen Flurry and Tyrel Schlote.
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Watch for increasing initiatives from the EU to woo Cuba into the EU camp as Castro gradually loses his grip on that nation in his waning years. These will present, to that rising phoenix of the old Roman Empire, the prospect of plucking its ripest plum in Latin America from right on the doorstep of a United States increasingly revealing the signs of its decline. (Cuban Pawn, May 2001.)
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Squeezed between the seemingly all-powerful United States to the north and the giant Catholic countries within the huge continent to its south, Fidel Castro’s Cuba has seemingly taken a most uncharacteristic, yet, given the economic and political circumstances, a most obvious, position. With U.S.-sanctioned embargoes limiting trade with North America, Castro must see the writing on the wall. ...
Preparing for the inevitable, Castro began easing formal restrictions on religious worship. In 1992, the Cuban government, officially atheist since 1962, declared it was now adopting a secular approach. The people immediately commenced a religious revival.
Castro visited the pope at the Vatican in November 1996. An invitation was issued to John Paul II to visit Cuba. The pope accepted, but on his terms, which included free movement, equal participation of the church in organizing the visit, and free expression of faith in services. Castro submitted to the pope’s demands.
As a gesture of goodwill to the Vatican, Castro re-introduced the Christmas holiday on December 25, 1997. Roman Catholic parishes in Havana were packed with worshipers that day. Church bells rang out in celebration all over Cuba. Two days later, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana and leader of the Catholic Church in Cuba, cried out to a gathering of 1,200 young, newly religious hopefuls, “In your search for sense in your life, look for a centering place: the Catholic Church.” Religious fervor increased the closer the Cubans got to January 21, 1998—the date of the pope’s arrival in Havana. (Ron Fraser, From Communism to Catholicism? May 2003,)
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A year ago, the EU, which has continuously opposed the U.S. trade embargo against Fidel Castro’s Cuba, reached out to that island nation and opened an office in Havana. Already, the EU, Cuba’s most significant trading partner, accounts for 80 percent of Cuba’s imports. (Ron Fraser, The Other America, February 2004.)
Even in the tiny, deprived nation of Cuba, Fidel Castro fetes both Catholic and Orthodox leaders as he seeks a patron to finance Cuban development following the loss of aid from the old Soviet Union. Will it be the Catholic EU, or Orthodox Russia, that moves in once the aging dictator fades from the scene? Castro has enough of a mind for history to understand that unfashionable communism must be replaced by another ideology as an “opiate to the masses,” to steal a phrase from Karl Marx. (Ron Fraser, Return of the Religious War, May 2004.)
Since January 2003, Cuba’s trade with Brazil and Mercosur has doubled. The president of Brazil said that he favors trade with Latin American countries over the U.S. or the European Union. He and the president of Argentina have opposed the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba and want to increase their own trade with President Fidel Castro. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made a point of putting his friendship with Castro in the public eye and painting the U.S. in the most wretched colors possible. The state-run oil firms of Brazil and Venezuela plan to begin construction on a $20 million lubricants factory in Cuba. (Trade Bloc Courts Communist Cuba, May 2005.)
Perhaps no other visit to that region demonstrated this more vividly than the pope’s call on Fidel Castro’s socialist state of Cuba. Unable to resist the power of John Paul’s charisma, Castro acceded to the pope’s request to reinstitute Christmas as a public holiday for the first time since the socialist revolution. Unprecedentedly, he permitted the live telecasting of John Paul’s papal mass delivered before an enthralled public, starved of religion, in Havana. (Ron Fraser, Karol Wojtyla: How He Set the Stage, June 2005.)
Consider also that Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba might have collapsed by this point if not for the aid he has received from President Chavez. Without the Soviet Union to subsidize Cuban oil after the Cold War, Castro might not have been able to maintain his position without relief from Caracas. (Is Hugo Chavez a Threat?, March 3, 2006.)
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A simple reading of international headlines would tell anyone that the U.S. has two main opponents in Latin America right now: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the seemingly immortal Fidel Castro of Cuba. What might not be so evident is the support both countries have from China. ...
Latin American and African countries may be poor, but they are rich in resources, and China wants those assets. Right now, Beijing is systematically planting its feet in those regions. At the same time, the U.S. is being pushed out of Latin America by leftist leaders like Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and the newly elected Bolivian president, Evo Morales. U.S. power is fading, and the Chinese are grabbing as much of that power as they can. (Mark Jenkins, China’s Quiet War, April 2006.)
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Commentators missed the real news in their observations on this EU/Latin America summit. They failed to see that despite the posturing of petty despots such as Chavez, Morales and their aging mentor, President Fidel Castro of Cuba, the trend is fixed. Inevitably there will exist a trade nexus between the European Union and Latin America. (Ron Fraser, The Religion Factor, August 2006.)
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During the Cold War, this man brought the world to the brink of hot war by allowing America’s enemy to install nuclear missiles in his island nation. The country: Cuba; the leader: Fidel Castro.
Do we really want Latin American leaders to emulate Castro?
That is exactly the direction things seem to be heading. Consider Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Without this man’s support, Castro’s regime in Cuba might have collapsed by now. Having lost the Soviet Union’s subsidization of oil after the Cold War, Castro found relief from Caracas. Perhaps the best example of what is happening to Latin America as a region is embodied in this man who would remake Latin America in Cuba’s image. (Mark Jenkins, Latin America Swings Left, August 2006.)
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So personal to Kirchner is the issue that he has gone so far as to enlist the support of other left-leaning leaders in South America such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Kirchner’s quest for sovereignty over the Falklands, according to Buenos Aires-based political analyst Rosendo Fraga, has evolved from being an issue of mere sovereignty for Argentina to one that is “provid[ing] a rallying point to gather left-leaning Latin American governments into an anti-colonial bloc” (Guardian, June 30). (The Anti-colonialists, September 2006.)
Then there is Fidel Castro—that perennial gadfly of the U.S.—whose poor health has left Cuba’s future uncertain. (Joel Hilliker, Crisis Overload, October 2006.)
Whether by design or circumstance, this huge indebtedness of Cuba to Venezuela has placed Chavez in a strong position to heavily influence the political outcome in Havana when the ailing dictator Castro finally yields his diseased body up to death. (Gareth Fraser and Ron Fraser, U.S. Enemies Align With Cuba to Claim Gulf Oil, January 3, 2007.)
Critics say Chavez’s actions are a continuing threat to democracy, and that the president is trying to model Venezuela after Cuba. Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro are good friends. (Chavez Calls for Changes to Consitution, August 16, 2007.)
Cuba’s oldest despot, Fidel Castro, raised eyebrows this week with an announcement that he is ready to take a reduced role in running Cuba. The most interesting reaction came from Spiegel Online: “German opinion on the Communist leader’s announcement was united on one front: the chance for Germany and Europe to take action on Cuba is now.” Watch for relations between Latin America and Europe, with Germany as its economic hub, to improve. (The Week in Review, December 22, 2007.)
Fidel Castro on Saturday scoffed at the idea of major political change after Cuba’s parliament chooses a new president. Writing on the front page of the Communist Party Granma, the 81-year-old Castro, who announced his retirement after 49 years as head of Cuba on Tuesday, laughed at suggestions in news reports that his retirement would pave the way for political changes. It’s almost as though “Comrade Fidel” has an inside track on how his brother might run Cuba. (Stephen Flurry, The Weekend Web, February 24, 2008.)
The moment the U.S. awaited for 50 years finally arrived: On February 19, Cuban despot Fidel Castro announced his resignation. Ever since Castro brought the world to the brink of war by allowing the USSR to install nuclear missiles in his island nation, he has been the poster boy for anti-Americanism. He has also inspired a host of imitators in Latin America, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales. The Cuban National Assembly gave the reins of power to Fidel’s 76-year-old brother Raul, guaranteeing no substantial change in the direction of the country for the present. (WorldWatch, April 2008.)
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter concluded a nine-day tour of the Middle East on Monday, during which he met with Hamas leaders Khalid Mashaal and Nasser Shaer, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, among other terrorists and terrorist sponsors. This is simply the latest in a long line of foreign-policy initiatives by Carter that have helped legitimize and strengthen America’s enemies, dating back to his own presidency when he aided the likes of Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe and North Korea. (The Week in Review, April 26, 2008.)
It is worth remembering that, before he was elected, Mr. Obama received notable if unwanted endorsements from North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and number-two Hezbollah leader Sheik Naim al-Kassim (who said a vote for Obama was a step toward “peace with Islam”). (Joel Hilliker, Can He Deliver?, January 2009.)
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In June last year, the European Union agreed to lift limited sanctions against Cuba. As the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, this was “a hotly contested move designed to encourage the country’s new government under Raul Castro to liberalize. [T]he move was a victory for Cuba and put the EU at odds with U.S. policy” (June 20, 2008).
This move by the EU came only three months after the Vatican suddenly appeared on the scene as the very first of the murderous Raul Castro’s guests. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone touched down in Havana just one day after Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced the end to his 49-year reign of terror. Time magazine observed that this was “perfect timing for the Vatican, which is aiming to play a central role in the island nation’s transition into what many hope will be a post-Communist future” (February 20).
Was there a connection between the Vatican’s early endorsement of Raul Castro’s regime and the lifting of EU sanctions?
Join the dots! (Ron Fraser, Reaching Out to Our Enemies, April 20, 2009.)
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The very fact that Russia’s President Medvedev and Cuba’s Fidel Castro lauded the awarding of this much-sullied prize to the American president does little to install confidence in those (such as Poland and the world’s whipping boy, the tiny nation of Israel) who once looked upon America as their protector and the defender of peace in an increasingly shaky, disorderly world. (Ron Fraser, Nobel Appeasement Prize, October 12, 2009.)
President Obama has found an unexpected—and perhaps unwelcome—supporter for his agenda: Fidel Castro. “The extreme right hates him [President Obama] for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country,” the former Cuban president wrote in his state newspaper column on August 25. “I don’t have the slightest doubt that the racist right will do everything possible to wear him down, blocking his program to get him out of the game one way or another, at the least political cost.” Clearly, Castro knows a socialist agenda when he sees one. (WorldWatch, November-December 2009.)
Fidel Castro said Washington’s plan to establish military bases in Colombia amounts to the annexation of Colombia and that the people would oppose it. (WorldWatch, November 14, 2009.)
While successive U.S. presidential administrations have been ignoring Cuba for decades, Pope Benedict XVI and his Vatican hierarchy have been working behind the scenes to collaborate with Havana to combat the U.S.-led embargo and to support the Cuban government’s incremental economic reforms. This strategy is now paying off for the Vatican, as the Castro regime has recently come to recognize the Catholic Church as a legitimate interlocutor between the government and the Cuban people. Given this new recognition and the advanced age of both Castro brothers, Archbishop of Havana Jaime Ortega may soon emerge as a major power broker shaping the post-Castro destiny of the island. (Andrew Müller, America Is Losing the Battle of the Caribbean, December 26, 2012.)
On Friday, Putin visited communist revolutionary and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana to reignite relations with the communist island. Russia’s history with Cuba is no secret. Some of the most tense moments in the 20th century centered on relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba. At the height of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world as close as it’s ever been to nuclear war. Cuba was the Soviet launchpad into the United States. (Tyrel Schlote, Putin Works to Rekindle USSR, July 16, 2014.)
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[Note the plagiarism that occurs in the following two quotes. The passages in question are highlighted.]
Critics of American foreign policy in general and of the United States’ embargo of Cuba in particular have a tendency to romanticize Cuba’s ruling regime. That is a grave error. Under the Castros, the people of Cuba have suffered political terror and rampant human rights abuse. Fidel and Raúl have run the nation like a totalitarian police state, and they continue to model it after its former patron: the Soviet Union. Cubans are the only people in the Western hemisphere who haven’t been able to elect a leader in more than 55 years.
When Russia and Venezuela, the main sponsors of the Castro regime, started reeling in 2014 due to plummeting oil prices, it looked as if the corrupt Castro government might finally collapse. Such a collapse could have paved the way for democracy to prevail on the island. What the Castro brothers needed to survive was an economic lifeline from the United States.
That is exactly what the pope delivered. As a bonus, it bestowed international legitimacy upon their government. (Jeremiah Jacques, Why Did Pope Francis Push for a U.S.-Cuba Thaw?, January 5, 2015.)
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Critics of American foreign policy in general and of the U.S. embargo of Cuba tend to romanticize Cuba’s ruling regime. That is a serious error! Under the Castros, the people of Cuba have suffered political terror and human rights abuses. Fidel and Raúl Castro have run the nation as a totalitarian police state, and they continue to model it after the Soviet Union. Cubans are the only people in the Western Hemisphere who haven’t been able to elect a leader in more than 55 years.
When Russia and Venezuela, the main sponsors of the Castro regime, started suffering in the last few months due to falling oil prices, it looked as if the Castro government could finally collapse. That could have paved the way for democracy to finally prevail for Cubans. What the Castro brothers needed in order to survive was an economic lifeline from their enemy, the United States. And that is exactly what the pope and President Obama delivered. The deal also gave their criminal government international legitimacy. (Gerald Flurry, The Deadly Dangerous U.S.-Cuba Deal, March 2015.)
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“I had before me a man who made history,” said French President François Hollande after meeting former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. That’s a curiously positive response to a meeting with the man who could well have ended history had the Cuban Missile Crisis gone down a little differently. But it is typical of the positive response Cuba is getting from Europe right now.
The world is going through a kind of “Cuban spring.” Except not much is actually changing in the nation’s dictatorial government. Instead, other nation’s attitudes toward Cuba are thawing. (Richard Palmer, Courting Cuba—The EU Is Eager to Move In, May 15, 2015.)
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But in 1964, he [Pierre Trudeau] made it to the Communist island, gaining an audience with Fidel Castro. The two later became close friends. At Trudeau’s funeral in 2000, a frail and ailing Fidel made an unprecedented trip to Canada to be an honorary pallbearer. Justin Trudeau’s mother recounted how Castro would get drool marks on his shirts while pacifying the younger Trudeau boys on his shoulder during the family’s visits to Cuba. A Canadian ambassador to Cuba said that Pierre Trudeau and Fidel Castro were fast friends and “intellectual soul mates.” (Robert Morley, Like Father, Like Son?, January 2016.)
The Castro regime in Cuba has a half century of history of collaborating with Russia, Iran, Syria, North Korea and a myriad of authoritarian regimes that seek the downfall of America. Along with President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran, the thawing of relations with Cuba will likely be remembered as one of the premiere diplomatic feats of his presidency! (Andrew Müller, Can Americans Finally Trust Communist Cuba?, March 24, 2016.)
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Did the Castro brothers have a big hand in assassinating the U.S. president? I’m not saying that happened, but with this report it certainly seems like you could make a strong case for it. ...
Do you suppose the Soviets and the Castros were wrathful against John F. Kennedy? His administration ruined a plan that would have either held America at nuclear gunpoint—or would have destroyed it in gigantic nuclear balls of fire! I would think that would make them very angry and revengeful! Just over a year later, Kennedy was dead. (Gerald Flurry, Great Again, Chapter 3, 2016.)
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And so it may be seen that PCG's 1% used Fidel Castro to prop up their tapestry of beliefs among their followers to maintain the loyalty of the lay members.
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