Respect Ozzie Guillen’s right of free speech and stop this nonsensical phony war against Castro’s Cuba!

The difference is that Castro is still alive, doing damage, ruining lives. Slobbering Ozzie is catching it for tearing off the scabs again.

If corporations are doing business in America, and are going to wave the flag and parade the troops like MLB, Americans need to start insisting that these corporations follow our fundamental values which includes free speech whether it is a violation of the First Amendment or not.

Utter and complete BS. Cuba was a client state/ beneficiary of the Soviet empire for 30 years and then has been propped up by Chavez and Venezuela (and a little by China) for the last decade. The rest of the world does not have an embargo against Cuba, does it?

I’m sick of Castro apologists who say he only became a brutal and repressive dictator because the big bad United States made him. My grandfather knew him before the revolution and he was a communist then, and as we can see by all communist regimes that have existed, communism = totalitarian dictatorship.

http://www.newsfromtheend.com/2012/04/entire-state-of-florida-sobers-up-not.html

My disagreement is with the assertion that only “Batista” Cubans hate Fidel. That is very much untrue. Latin America is a complex social society with many viewpoints and political leanings. In the US alone you can find significant populations with very different philosophical leanings. Why do you assume Latin America isn’t the same?

Many people in Latin America love Fidel, many people hate him. In fact many Chileans hated Pinochet, many others Loved him. That absolutely has nothing to do with the governments being elected and their political leanings. As you pointed out Chile recently voted in a conservative government. What, does that mean all people in Chile now HATE Castro? Also elections are hardly one sided affairs, the majority always shifts. You will have 60-40 results, 55-45 results, etc. It doesn’t mean people of a certain political stripe cease to exist once a government with an opposite political leaning is elected into power.

The governments being shifted have far more to do with their incompetence and general inability to improve the lot of their electorate than anything specific the US has or hasn’t done in the last 20 years.

Hardly semantics. Those two facts are not the same. Let me give you an example. Castro financed and supported guerrillas in Venezuela during the 60′s. They even staged a short lived invasion. The objective was to specifically topple the government to install a new one friendly to them. There was no ‘regime’ to support. Same thing with Che and Bolivia.

That is different from saying that today Castro supports the government of Nicaragua under Ortega because he opposes Honduras and Mexico which are pro US nations.

In other words there is a difference in attempting to undermine existing regimes in countries through guerilla warfare and supporting existing regimes that are ideologically aligned with you in opposing your main enemy.

You should know this.

“As far as being accused of labeling, it does not hold water.”

Just because you say so doesn’t make it so. I specifically pointed out how your characterization labels everyone who fled Cuba when Castro came to power as a Batista supporter (your use of the word “benefitted” has negative connotations, and I disagree with this characterization.)