Fidel Castro's recent statement that communism doesn't work in Cuba anymore was a stunning admission on his part – kind of a deathbed conversion to the efficacy and morality of freedom and free markets. It was, of course, a horrific blow to the far left, particularly in the United States. Here we are, hurtling full speed toward a communist utopia in America, while Cuba, Vietnam, China and other previously hard-core communist countries are moving just as rapidly toward capitalism.
Some may have warm and fuzzy feelings toward good ol' Fidel, kind of like a Charlie Rangel "retire-in-dignity" thing. But what about the untold numbers of Cubans who have been imprisoned, tortured and executed since Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959? And the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who had to flee their homeland and leave most of their possessions behind?
If I were a Cuban-American who lost family members – or wealth – during Castro's reign of terror, I would be very angry right now. Fifty years of oppressing an entire nation, and now he says communism doesn't work? Sorry, Fidel, but your old-age enlightenment doesn't bring back all the lost family members and stolen wealth. Nor does it bring back the youth of those who have lived under his oppressive regime for more than 50 years.