Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolution and its lessons for Latin America

By Rodrigo Acuña

Blog of the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney

20 December 2016.

Cuba’s nine days of national mourning for former leader and founder of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro Ruz recently ended. Expectedly, cheers upon the news of Castro’s death at age 90 were heard around the world. In Miami, Florida the old guard of right-wing Cubans, many of whose parents worked for the Washington backed dictator Fulgencio Batista whom Castro overthrew in 1959, took to the streets.

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under PPE and tagged Cuba Fidel Castro CIA.

VII Summit Of The Americas: The New York Times Versus Reality

By Rodrigo Acuña

New Matilda

23 April 2015

Given the roasting the United States recently received by numerous Latin American presidents at the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama, it may have been no coincidence Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano passed away shortly after.

In his acclaimed book the Open Veins of Latin America (1971), which was banned by several US-backed dictatorships in South America during the 1970s and ‘80s, Galeano passionately denounced the history of Spanish and US imperialism south of the Rio Grande.

Posted on May 25, 2019 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under New Matilda and tagged Panama Eduardo Galeano Summit Of The Americas Cuba.

Whose Che?

By Rodrigo Acuña

New Matilda

9 October 2007

It is 40 years since Ernesto “Che” Guevara - the Argentine revolutionary who had helped Fidel Castro overthrew the US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 - was captured with the aid of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and executed by the Bolivian military.

Ceremonies commemorating Guevara's death have been held throughout Latin America, with the largest taking place in Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua and, ironically, Bolivia - a country whose population once denounced Guevara to local troops as he attempted to ignite another revolution.

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under New Matilda and tagged Cuba Che Guevara Fidel Castro.

Cuban detainees' hope for fair trial

By Rodrigo Acuña

Eureka Street

3 October 2007

Outside the alternative media, last month saw nearly no coverage of the incarceration in the United States of Cuban agents Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles and René Gonzáles.

Now into their ninth year of imprisonment, the Cuban Five — as they are otherwise known — are serving a variety of sentences that include convictions for conspiracy to commit espionage and homicide. By most credible accounts, the Cubans are in prison — some on life sentences — for political reasons and not because they have broken any serious laws, other than overstaying their visas.

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Rodrigo Acuña and filed under Eureka Street and tagged Cuba USA Human Rights.