Castro brother pleased by honors for Fidel

Despite all the demands for democracy and change, many Cuban exiles also say their homeland is unlikely to undergo a major transformation as long as Castro’s brother, 85-year-old Raul Castro, and his allies remain in charge. It marked a stark contrast to the somber atmosphere in Cuba, where a funeral procession carrying Castro’s remains criscrossed the country, with tens of thousands lining the streets to pay their respects to their former leader.

“For us in Namibia, we value the bond of friendship that has grown between Namibia and Cuba, as this was shaped by our common desire for self-determination”, he stated.

And for many of us who have been traveling to the island often in the past few years, attention is now turned to two focal points: the incoming U.S. administration’s policymaking toward Cuba, and Castro’s brother Raúl Castro.

The urn with the ashes of Cuban leader Fidel Castro is driven through the streets of Havana.

From Havana, Fidel’s brother Raul, who became acting president in 2006 and president in 2008, has been slowly opening Cuba’s centrally-planned economy “without haste and without pause”, maneuvering between factions within the leadership who want faster and slower reforms.

Fidel Castro’s ashes began a four-day journey across Cuba on Wednesday from Havana to their final resting place in the eastern city of Santiago. His dictatorship killed thousands of dissenters, imprisoned gay people and “enemies of the state”, and treated Cubans with HIV like pariahs.

Bob Augelli, director of the KU School of Business Multicultural Business Scholars Program, is available to discuss the effects of Castro’s death and the climate for American businesses regarding Cuba.

The ashes will be interred Sunday, ending the nine-day mourning period for the man who ruled the country for almost 50 years.

Fidel Castro was a controversial figure. But according to Priebus, the president-elect’s incoming chief of staff, Trump would reverse Obama’s opening to Cuba unless there was “some movement” from Havana.

All three said that, in general, they believe normalizing relations with Cuba is the right way to go, and that the 50-year embargo failed, partly because other nations continued trade with Cuba, and partly because it was an embargo often bypassed even by USA citizens and businesses.

Upon learning of Castro’s death, Wheeler asked a woman cooking nearby what she thought.

After Cuba began providing free health care and public education, Castro was embraced by progressives around the world for offering a functioning alternative to capitalist nations they saw as dominated by avarice.

She added that the “first order of business” was to rally the global community around trying to free political prisoners. And after the failed US -backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Castro was celebrated in the Third World for having dealt imperialism a rare defeat.

But younger Salvadorans worry more about the government’s offensive against violent street gangs, themselves partly born of the civil war, when young Salvadorans fled to the United States and formed the feared Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs.

As a constitutional lawyer and teacher, I know that freedom of speech, the press and political association are fundamental rights that should never be abridged. She said she had a reason to smile today and the days to come because of the death of Castro.