Cuba’s President Raul Castro, left, and Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, review troops during a welcoming ceremony at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016.

Cuba’s President Raul Castro, left, and Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, review troops during a welcoming ceremony at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016.
Photo Credit: Enrique de la Osa

Twitter users savage Trudeau after his praise for Fidel Castro

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has found himself at the receiving end of a biting satirical backlash by thousands of Twitter users after he issued a statement about Fidel Castro’s death that portrayed the former Cuban leader in a positive light, glossing over the many human rights abuses committed by the Communist regime.

“It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest serving President,” Trudeau said in a statement released on Saturday. “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.”

News of the controversial statement quickly spread on Twitter and began trending on Saturday afternoon under the hashtag #trudeaueulogies, mocking Trudeau with fake eulogies for a long list of real and fictional tyrants, murderers and villains.

The relationship between Castro and the Trudeau family goes back to the 1970s.

In 1976, then prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau rankled many when he became the first Western leader to visit Castro’s communist Cuba. The two developed a close bond that endured for decades after that encounter.

Castro served as an honorary pallbearer at Pierre Trudeau’s funeral in 2000.

In fact, Justin Trudeau was in Cuba on an official visit two weeks ago. But Castro’s health was already declining and the two didn’t meet.

Criticism of the prime minister’s words wasn’t unanimous. Robert Wright, who wrote a book about the relationship between Castro and Pierre Trudeau, said it made sense Trudeau would express warm condolences for Castro.

“He has to walk a knife’s edge,” said Wright, author of Three Nights in Havana. “Canadians have a long, rather proper diplomatic relationship with revolutionary Cuba.”
“On the one hand Justin Trudeau has his family inheritance: his father’s very, very warm (relationship with) Cubans,” Wright said. “And on the other hand, he has to face criticism when Raul Castro says Cuba will take its own time on democratic reforms and won’t be rushed by Obama or Justin Trudeau or anyone else.”

With files from The Canadian Press

Categories: International, Politics
Tags: , , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.