Castro is Dead
I have always been leery of libertarians, finding that most of them come from one of two infuriating groups: those who pretend negative externalities are trivial and (a much smaller group) those who are open about negative externalities not being trivial but look forward to the opportunity to inflict them on other people.
That said, this post at Popehat (a libertarian blog that focuses on first amendment issues) about Castro and his death is absolutely spot on. Years ago I wrote some of the same things here at Angry Bear, but never this well.
Was thinking the same thing. I met many Cubans on base while stationed in Cuba. Many who escaped and many given sanctuary after escaping Castro’s Cuba. Sanctuary ones were mostly the landowners. The others came across the fence.
At least the Castros and Che didn’t get millions of people killed like Ho.
Castro would capture Batista’s troops and then let them go for a propaganda ploy.
In the same 1950s on the other side of the world Ho would send his terror squad into a village — read off the names of five boys who participated in some government (Vietnam not colony since 1949) education and sports program — kill the five boys — and when the villagers got the idea send in his admin guys and the terror guys to the next village.
Nothing in particular to free the villagers from — in the north 98% of the peasants owned the land that they tilled (70% in the south). Just pure bloodbath ideology (Ho met his bloodbath match in Westmoreland — the tale of two bloodletters.)
The Castros FWIW would never have been so ruthless. There’s bad and there’s worse.