Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Both loved and despised” (November 29). Cuba’s gross domestic product is less than the US bailout of a stricken AIG in the 2008 crisis. Yet, this small island nation under the leadership of Fidel Castro, had the gumption to politically defy the US for decades. With sparse natural resources, chiefly nickel, it could incite little avarice in the US to annexe it.
Perhaps an abundant cache of crude oil brought Cuba’s extinction as an independent nation long back. It was the tide and times of the despotic Batista regime, manipulated by US big business, that brought in Castro. He created the best with what he had to work with. He knew what he was doing and was even brutal at times. Despite the hegemony of the US and the withering away of his ideological ally, the USSR, Castro helped his nation survive amidst adversity to prosper, albeit haltingly.