There is an overwhelming sense of loss, complicated by fear and anxiety. Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante,” the organization said in an official statement two days after Castro’s death.īLM touted Fidel as a visionary whose methods are an inspiration for revolutionaries, rather than a leader who cruelly oppressed his own people. “And there are lessons that we must revisit and heed as we pick up the mantle in changing our world, as we aspire to build a world rooted in a vision of freedom and the peace that only comes with justice. It is the lessons that we take from Fidel,” BLM continued.

The organization also wrote on the importance of living with integrity while simultaneously calling Assata Shakur an inspiration and praising Castro for granting her political asylum. Shakur is an American citizen named Joanne Chesimard convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1977. Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 before going to Cuba in 1984, Breitbart News reported. She was put on the FBI’s most Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013 and is the first woman to ever make the list. “A final lesson is that to be a revolutionary, you must strive to live in integrity. As a Black network committed to transformation, we are particularly grateful to Fidel for holding Mama Assata Shakur, who continues to inspire us,” the group said. With Fidel’s passing there is one more lesson that stands paramount: when we are rooted in collective vision when we bind ourselves together around quests for infinite freedom of the body and the soul, we will be victorious.

The organization also tweeted in support of Castro after his death, saying “Rest in Power #FidelCastro.” As Fidel ascends to the realm of the ancestors, we summon his guidance, strength, and power as we recommit ourselves to the struggle for universal freedom. In reality, communist dictator Fidel Castro took over the country in a violent siege in 1959, despite never having won an election. Tometi, who is no longer affiliated with BLM, also fawned over the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela led by the socialist dictator, which supposedly championed “participatory democracy” and a “fair, transparent election system.” In a 2015 article by BLM co-founder Opal Tometi, Tometi denounced “the corporate media lies about electoral corruption voiced by Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sander’s defamation of late President Hugo Chavez labeling him a dictator.” (emphasis added).įidel, his successor and brother Raúl, and current figurehead President Miguel Díaz-Canel have all not stood in any election since 1959, despite being the nation’s only leaders in those 62 years.Ĭastro’s regime is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of its own people and brutally tortures political dissidents and prisoners, among a long list of other human rights abused listed here.

The facts do not reflect Tometi’s glowing review, considering Venezuelans are so poor, they fight to survive by eating out of garbage bins. Elections in the country have also come under scrutiny, the most recent of which a coalition of more than 50 countries said, “lacked legitimacy.”īut instead, Tometi maintained that BLM stands with “the Venezuelan people and defend(s) their right to self-determination!” she wrote. (emphasis added).īy 2009, at least 100,000 people met violent deaths under Chávez. Though the Venezuelan government does not readily report statistics on its unlawful killings, NGOs reported thousands of killings by police during his reign. Nicolás Maduro has presided over one of the world’s most repressive regimes since 2013 when his predecessor Hugo Chávez died.

Blm rest in power castro