Is Fidel Castro one of the richest men in the world?
In 2005, American business and financial magazine Forbes listed Castro among the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of $550 million. The estimates claimed that the Cuban leader’s personal wealth was nearly double that of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, despite evidence from diplomats and businessmen that the Cuban leader’s personal life was notably austere. Forbes later increased the estimates to $900 million, adding rumors of large cash stashes in Switzerland. The magazine offered no proof at all of this information.
Of course it was all entirely bogus – the bunk methodology they used was based on the lie that Fidel Castro owns everything in the entire country of Cuba. Even in their article they admitted their “estimate” was “more art than science” — or in other words, bullshit.
Fidel’s response?
“PRESIDENT Fidel Castro has challenged and called on Bush, the CIA, the 33 U.S. intelligence agencies, the thousands of banks in the world and the ‘servants’ of Forbes magazine, which claims that Fidel has a fortune of $900 million, to prove that he has even one dollar in an overseas account.
“In exchange for just one shred of evidence, he said that he would offer them everything that they have tried and failed to do over almost half a century, during which time they have tried to destroy the Revolution and assassinate him via hundreds of conspiracies. ‘I’m giving you everything you’ve tried,’ he said, ‘and don’t come with your foolishness and wayside stories. Show me an account, of just one dollar,’ he emphasized.
“If they can prove that I have one single dollar, I will resign from all my responsibilities and the duties I am carrying out; they won’t need any more plans or transitions, if they can prove that I have one single dollar,” the revolutionary leader said emphatically.” – Granma newspaper
Later:
“Bush has not uttered a word and neither have the State Department, Congress or the CIA. Only the Nuevo Herald, a Miami newspaper, has tried to defend [the Forbes article] at the request of the Cuban-American mafia [the handful of rich white Cubans who left the country after the revolution because they didn’t want to be equal with the rest of the people]. This silence by the US Administration demonstrates the extent of its weakness.” – Radio Habana
Even the Miami Herald, a rightwing newspaper with ties to the Cuban-American mafia that is historically hostile to the Cuban Revolution admits that Fidel Castro lives in about the same conditions as everyone else in Cuba. The newspaper has previously printed articles in which it acknowledges that “The houses of Fidel and Raúl are large but simply appointed…. The living room of [Fidel’s] house is described by visitors as furnished with simple wood and leather sofas and chairs and Cuban handicrafts…. The only luxury visible to visitors is a big-screen television….”
lol! Wow, the CIA should open a Bank Account for him. Oh, wait, that’ll be Castro’s argument once they REVEAL his secret bank accounts. Remember Arafat’s billions?
Sorry, no thinking person takes the faith-based anti-communist arguments of people like you and the Miami Mafia seriously.
There’s zero proof of any account with even a penny in it, because no such accounts exist.
That’s what Yassar used to say…until his widow was about to inherit $5B of PLO/UNWRA kickback money.
So because Yassar Arafat, a leader of a movement in Palestine, had a personal account, that proves something that the 33 U.S. intelligence agencies haven’t been able to?
I don’t think so.
What makes you think that they’ve been unable to prove it? Because it hasn’t made the front page of the NY Times?
From PBS “Frontline”
Ms. GEYER: Fidel has as many duck blinds and hunting lodges and houses on the sea and swimming pools and Japanese bowling alleys as the Eastern Europe communist dictators did.
NARRATOR: In communist Cuba, some are more equal than others. Nor is Fidel Castro the only high official to have benefited from this double standard. The evidence came to light at the embassy in Panama. Jose Luis Llovio-Menendez was a civil servant in Cuba’s ministry of finance In December, 1979, he was sent to Panama to audit the books of the Cuban embassy. It was while going through the financial records there that he discovered dozens of secret bank accounts.
Mr. MENENDEZ: Then I saw Fidel’s account and Raul Castro’s account. In Fidel’s account there was everything. He had a man that went to Panama almost–about two times a month and he bought a lot of consumer products–air conditioner, Rolex, digital watches, perfume for women, perfume and things like that–all consumer–all luxury consumer goods.
NARRATOR: One of those sent shopping was Manuel de Beunza, a former Cuban intelligence agent who posed as a businessman in Panama and Canada.
MANUEL de BEUNZA: [through interpreter] They wanted all sorts of things, from the most ridiculous to the most sublime. If they were going fishing and the batteries had run out, they would call me and wake me up to go and buy them some batteries.
NARRATOR: Castro’s secret account was spending at least $25,000 a month, mostly on items for women. Other purchases went as presents to members of the ruling elite. The more favored the official the more prestigious the gift.
Mr. de BEUNZA: [through interpreter] The members of the political group headed by Fidel and Raoul Castro, the high officials of the army and the security forces, don’t live like the people. They live in real capitalism. They don’t lack anything that you can have in a democratic society. And they want to live that way and they want the people of Cuba to live under socialism–I mean, in a very poor way.
NARRATOR: The people living here are the mayimbes. It’s an Afro-Caribbean word meaning “big shots.” Mayimbes have cars, TV’s and air conditioners.
Mr. MENENDEZ: One of the things that the people in Cuba resent the most is the difference of life between the mayimbe and the common worker. When you go to a very good neighborhood in Havana, you see a house that is very well painted, everybody know that a mayimbe lives there. The common people, they don’t have the paint to paint the house.
NARRATOR: Off the main streets and away from the eyes of the common people, mayimbes have special subsidized restaurants where they pay 1959 prices. Mayimbes have their own shops where ordinary Cubans and TV cameras are not welcome. Mayimbes need no rationing cards.
Mr. MENENDEZ: I did not have a rationing card. I could get, you know, from the fishing ministry fish, lobster, shrimp. I could get from the state farm all the agricultural products that I wanted.
Mr. SZULC: Corruption is a–is a manipulative form of government. He has corrupted the “pure socialist man” of the Caribbean. He has tolerated corruption on lower levels, on provincial party levels. Why? Because it works for him or he thinks it works for him or he rationalizes or he does not know every detail.
Mr. SMITH: Corruption in the Cuban government is much less than corruption in most–most other governments, but it is there. It’s especially galling to people because of the moral claims of the revolution. If you claim to be honest and above all this and people see that you’re not, it has a more telling impact.
That 1992 episode ran under the heading “The Rise and Fall of Fidel Castro.” That about sums up how accurate it was.
Claims made by turncoat exiles should be taken with a mountain of salt, especially when included in a television show run on public television (that repeats a number of known lies, such as that Fidel persecuted homosexuals).
Words with nothing behind them are pointless. I can say that you eat children. Without proof, it means nothing to anyone capable of thinking.
You sir, like those you frivolously quote, have provided no proof, because there is none to provide.
LOL. PBS. That’s the Left-wing channel, buddy.
Only in the confused world of mainstream U.S. politics. The “left” in the U.S. is miles to the right of the rightists of other countries.
Well, the entire world can’t be as well educated as the US.
The U.S. is the most poorly educated country in the world. Over there, they think that indoctrination is education and that everything that’s shown on television is God’s truth!
Over there they believe that greed is a virtue and that killing thousands of people in foreign countries is a form of pest control. Each American thinks they are ten foot high and rival Einstein for genius.
America is inhabited by comic book characters which only have two dimensions!