He’s alive!

Earlier this week, Fidel Castro made a public appearance last week, posing for fotos and speaking at Cuba’s World Economy Research Center proving that despite the never ending rumors, he is not dead yet.

No doubt the appearance was meant to draw attention away from the releasing of 52 political prisoners from behind Cuban bars. Some of the released prisoners will stay in Spain. The U.S. and Chile have offered asylum to the prisoners still on the island that are expected to be released shortly. Some of the prisoners, whose release was secured with intervention from Spain and the Catholic Church, have said that they do not want to leave Cuba.

As much as many Cubans in the United States don’t like to admit it, Cuba and the United States share something in common, something mentioned in the above clip, the denial of the existence of political prisoners. Had the United States been more directly involved in the Cuban prisoner release, Cuba could have very well asked for the release of the Cuban Five the same way the U.S. released alleged Russian spies (something about this story still doesn’t sit well with me) in exchange for U.S. spies.

Regardless, the release of the Cuban political prisoners is seen as a positive step, even if it is, as some critics have argued, purely cosmetic. Meanwhile in the U.S., late last month, The House Agriculture Committee voted to ease up the travel sanctions imposed on U.S. citizens that prevent the majority from traveling there and to allow U.S food producers to sell to Cuba. That legislation, however, has a long way to go before becoming law and perhaps will happen over a certain bearded one’s dead body.

Image Via / Granma