Fidel on the Olympics: We were robbed

In a long article in the official daily Granma, Fidel Castro commented Monday on the just-completed Olympic Games. Some of his reflections:
• The Cuban taekwondo competitor who attacked a referee was justified in doing so. "The referee suspended the fight when [the athlete] was winning, 3 to 2," Fidel explained. "Amazed by a decision that seemed to him totally unfair, he protested and aimed a kick at the referee. His own coach had been the object of a bribe attempt. He was predisposed and indignant. He could not contain himself."
• The boxing decisions were fixed. "I saw when the judges shamelessly robbed two Cuban boxers in the semifinals. Our boys [...] hoped to win despite the judges, but it was futile: they were condemned in advance. I did not see [Emilio] Correa's fight; he was also robbed. I am not obliged to keep silent about the Mafia. It managed to evade the rules of the Olympic Committee. What they did to the young men in our boxing team, to complement the job of those who engage in stealing Third-World athletes, was criminal. In their viciousness, they left Cuba without a single Olympic gold medal in that discipline." In the past, foreign interests have resorted to "bribery and corruption to strip [Cuba] of its gold medals by buying highly trained and experienced boxers, the way they try to do with baseball players or other outstanding athletes."
• The Cuban baseball players' performance "was exemplary. Twice they defeated the team from the United States, the country that invented that game, which, because of the interests of the big commercial corporations, was expelled from the Olympics." Cuba's opponent in the final game, South Korea, "was an excellent team."
• Cuba should begin to prepare for the 2012 Olympics. In London, "there will be European chauvinism, referee corruption, the purchase of muscles and brains, an unaffordable cost, and a strong dose of racism. [...] To our taekwondo athlete and his coach goes our total solidarity. To those who return today, the applause of all the people. [...] To [their] honor, the gold medal!"
To read the entire article, in English, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Comments

[carlos]

SO FIDEL APPLAUDS AN ATHLETE KICKING A REFEREE FOR DOING HIS JOB? NO WONDER CUBANS DEFECT I WOULD NOT HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR MY LEADER UNLESS HE HELD A GUN TO MY HEAD. OH, YEAH, RIGHT.

[chaz]

Cubans on Castro running Cuba: We were robbed of basic human rights.....

[Cane75]

I love how even though the US had nothing to do with his out of control athlete (more like thug) he had to find a way to blame the US via baseball.... how can anybody take this guy seriously

[David]

Fidel is right; Cuba was robbed by corrupt referees. It was wrong of the athlete to kick the judge in the face, at least in normal terms of how I understand right and wrong. However, he may have been justified in punishing a ref who was trying to fix the fight in favour of his opponent. You people who think that spitting on Castro is a worthwhile sport, you might want to spit on your own president instead for helping to almost bankrupt America through ill-thought economic policies and engaging in unwinnable wars.

[Bumski]

That says it all folks. This thug, a 50-year dictator and murderer, applauds his athletes assaulting Olympic referee officials. THIS, is the role model that Charlie Rangel and the rest of the knuckleheads praise as a great leader.

[Walter Lippmann]

Fidel's full comments, in English:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2008/ing/f240808i.html