Ana Quintana is a policy analyst for Latin America and the Western Hemisphere in The Heritage Foundation. Ana is a first-generation Cuban American who knows this story “all too well.” Her piece is posted over at The Daily Signal. She writes:
Late Friday evening, Cuban state media reported the death of their former leader, Fidel Castro, at age 90. Some will mourn his passing or even glorify his life. But for many others, not even his death will fill the void caused by his life.
For over five decades, Cubans suffered under the tyranny of Fidel and then his brother Raul, now 85. They watched the regime destroy a country and export the same perverted model of social justice throughout the developing world.
My grandfather would often tell us of how he would hide indoors while Fidel’s firing squads would slaughter innocent people nearby.
Religion was criminalized, dissent was violently punished, and Cuban citizens became property of their communist state. Fidel’s rule brought the world to its closest point of nuclear war during those fateful 13 days in 1962. He indoctrinated hate and pushed millions out of their country.