# Fidel Castro **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2000, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fidel-castro/11309 "2000-04-28T13:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robbespiere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/47e85d/32.png) [@Robbespiere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robbespiere)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fidel-castro/11309/1 "2000-04-28T13:14:00Z")
Why does the government hate him so much. There have been and are far worst. Some of them have even been our “friends” ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fidel-castro/11309/2 "2000-04-28T13:41:00Z")
Mainly because our “friends” have been people the U.S. helped take power in the first place. Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Soeharto in Indonesia, numerous African dictators, etc. Fidel, on the other hand, not only threw out a U.S.-backed dictator but did it in their own backyard (read: one of the trees they’d pissed on) and thus earned the undying enmity of those who were around to witness the event and those who were just kids playing in schoolyards but now run the country. * * * All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fidel-castro/11309/3 "2000-04-28T15:54:00Z")
I find it deliciously ironic that Mr. Castro is currently the longest serving actual ruler (apologies to Her Majesty Elizabeth, Queen of the United Kingdom, etc., but she doesn’t actually run the country). Fat lot of good isolating him has been. (laughing) ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fidel-castro/11309/4 "2000-04-28T19:53:00Z")
not to mention that he expropriated all property owned by foreigners without compensation.