| “ | We cannot continue guarding the borders of the United States while they send their CIA to instigate riots in Havana. That is when incidents like this occur, and the world calls the Cuban Government cruel and inhumane. And so, until there is a speedy and efficient solution, we are suspending all obstacles so those who wish to leave Cuba may do legally, once and for all. We will not stand in their way. | „ |
| ~ Castro's speech. |
Fidel Castro is the secondary antagonist of the book Refugee by Alan Gratz, serving as the main antagonist of the Isabel story. Serving as an homage to Fidel Castro from real life.
History[]
Fidel Castro is the totalitarian Dictator of Cuba who now has a people whom are suffering of starvation after the Soviet Union collapsed. Cuba had been communist too and the purchasing of Sugar Cane is what kept the economy rolling now had led to a low point in the country. Although Fidel Castro didn't do anything to help and let his people suffer as there was mass hunger in the country. Men like Isabel's father (the father of the main character of one of the three stories) had tried to escape Cuba two times and the second of which he was caught and thrown in Jail by Castro's regime. Castro wanted nobody to leave the country and had made that strict. This in turn caused riots by angry Cubans who had decided that Castro had dictated them long enough. The police and them had a confrontation and the resulting fight was a great mess for Fidel. He had to address this on national television and through the broadcast framed the Americans for the chaos as he avoided the fact that only Cuban citizens were really involved. With this Isabel and her family decided to leave like most Cubans after Castro gave them permission to do so but it was unknown at the time whether this was a lie.
Personality[]
While Castro seems affable enough to care for his fellow Cubans he in reality doesn't seem to care what happens to them. He let them starve with no empathy for what state the country was in without the Soviets and only seems to give this encouragement to the Cubans that they can leave whenever they want just so they would end this chaos in his country.