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Jokowi offers condolences to Cuba

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Sunday expressed his deep condolences over the death of former Cuban President and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died at the age of 90 on Friday

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta/Havana
Mon, November 28, 2016

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Jokowi offers condolences to Cuba

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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Sunday expressed his deep condolences over the death of former Cuban President and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died at the age of 90 on Friday.

“I express my deep condolences for the government and people of Cuba on the loss of Fidel Castro,” Jokowi told reporters on the sidelines of a National Teacher Day commemoration event in Sentul, West Java, on Sunday.

Earlier Vice President Jusuf Kalla said he remembered Castro as a good friend to Indonesia’s founding father and first president Sukarno, both leaders of developing countries during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US.

“Fidel Castro is a close friend to Bung Karno. They both supported the non-aligned movement [during the Cold War] and fought for their people in their respective countries,” Kalla said Saturday as quoted by kompas.com.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry separately expressed condolences to Cuba. “Indonesia prays that his family, government and the people of Cuba are given strength on the passing away of the honorable Fidel Castro,” the Ministry said in a statement. “May he rest in peace.”

Meanwhile Reuters reported Sunday that the death of “El Comandante” has added to worries among Cubans that US President-elect Donald Trump will slam the door shut on nascent trade and travel ties, undoing two years of detente between the estranged neighbors.

Obama reached an agreement two years ago with Castro’s younger brother President Raul Castro to end half a century of hostilities.

But late in his election campaign, Trump sought to reassure the Cuban-American vote in Florida that he was firm in his opposition to the Castros, and pledged that, if elected, he would close down the newly re-opened US embassy in Havana.

After the 90-year-old Castro’s death, Obama called him a “singular figure”, while Trump described the bearded communist revolutionary as a “brutal dictator”.

Castro began his career as a revolutionary by toppling a US-backed government, repelled a CIA-backed counter-revolutionary invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and faced off against president John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis a year later.

During 49 years in office, he crossed swords with ten US presidents. After retiring in 2008, Castro never stopped warning Cubans that the American government was not to be trusted. His younger brother never gave much ground to the Obama administration in liberalizing Cuba’s one party political system.

But many Cubans reckon they could do with their late leader’s charisma and way with words to counter Trump’s bombast.

“With ‘El Comandante’ gone, I am a little fearful of what could happen because of Trump’s way of thinking and acting,” said Yaneisi Lara, a 36-year-old Havana street vendor and flower seller.

“He could set back and block everything that’s been going on, all the things Obama has done, and he did a lot, managing to get the US closer to Cuba,” she said, admitting she would consider moving to the US herself.

Obama did not succeed in convincing Congress to lift the US’ tough economic embargo on Cuba, but he personally opposed the sanctions and used executive action to allow more contact and commerce.

The first US commercial flight to Havana in about half a century is due to arrive on Monday. Trump could easily review such measures. He has included Mauricio Claver-Carone, a leading advocate for maintaining a tough economic embargo, in his transition team. Trump said on Saturday that his administration would “do all it can” once he takes office on Jan. 20 to help increase freedom and prosperity for Cubans after Castro’s death.

“Trump is the polar opposite of Obama,” said burly Havana taxi driver Pablo Fernandez Martinez, 39.

The US has brought in more dollars, which Martinez fears could dry up once Trump moves into the White House. “There will probably be less tourist traffic,” said the father of one, who earns US$100 to $120 a week driving for foreigners.

Pedro Machado, 68, is a retired engineer in marine research who now rents out rooms in his airy apartment near Havana’s “Malecon” seafront.

Watching television with his wife, Machado said, “Trump’s policies are very aggressive. […] it certainly looks like bad news for Latin America and for Cuba in particular,” he said. “My generation benefited from Fidel’s revolution, in terms of education, the poor were helped. Not everything was a bed of roses, but Fidel helped us,” he added “The United States has acted as an empire, and that’s what Trump represents. Given what he has said, the future is not looking great.”

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