I seem to recall hearing that Castro "opened his jails" on Florida. A rather bizarre thing to do, but makes sense in a certain context. What, you're accepting any refugees from Cuba? Here, we don't want these, take them!" Cuba wins big, US gets a political win with a social loss. Castro was probably greatly entertained by the whole affair.
As I recall the great majority of the "prisoners" Castro released to the United States were political not criminal prisoners. So Castro got rid of most of the Cuban troublemakers and turned what was becoming a nasty embarrassment into a magnanimous gesture. Had the U.S. failed to accept the released prisoners it would have made us appear as the villains in the eyes of the international community and our own people. So no matter what your opinion of him, Fidel Castro, once again, proved himself to be a brilliant political strategist. By-the-way the vast majority of those prisoners released to the United States are now hard working tax payers making substantial contributions to the culture and economy of this country. So don't sell them short either.
Castro very successfully played the role of an international political buffoon to lull the U.S. and the U.N. into consistently underestimating him. He was demonstrably an economic and social failure but his political buffoonery kept the U.S. and other world powers off his back and enabled him to retain power in Cuba long after his time had passed. The U.S. trade sanctions were successful in impoverishing the Cuban people but they also set up a "them and us", "big bully and little victim" situation that enabled Castro and his cohorts in remain in power.
To me, Castro and his political strategies are terrifyingly similar to those of our apparent president elect, Donald Trump. 👺
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
