(USA Features) A major state-run newspaper in Communist-controlled Cuba has come out in praise and support of leading 2020 Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The paper’s report comes just days after the long-serving Vermont senator spoke favorably of the late dictator Fidel Castro and his “literacy” and healthcare programs.
“Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, prominently displayed a report about Sanders and his praise of ‘some of the social programs implemented by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro,’” The Miami Herald reported.
“Adding its own analysis of the Democratic race, the newspaper said Sanders seemed ‘unstoppable’ in his move towards the nomination,” the Herald continued.
Sanders has been criticized by many in Miami’s large Cuban community as well as by Republicans for his praiseworthy remarks of Castro, who brutally repressed political opponents through imprisonment, torture, and murder.
One of the GOP critics is Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose parents escaped Castro-run Cuba and fled to the United States.
“Granma and several state media outlets reported the comments made by Sanders in an interview with Anderson Cooper for ’60 minutes’ on Sunday, in which the senator said it was ‘unfair’ to say that ‘everything is bad’ in Cuba, and praised the literacy campaign implemented by Fidel Castro shortly after he rose to power in 1959,” the Herald added.
The Cuban paper then attacked Cuban Americans who fled Castro, writing that Sanders’ “comments sparked the anger of the most extremist sector of Cuban-Americans in South Florida, who oppose any rapprochement with the Caribbean island.”
Even some Democratic presidential contenders were critical of Sanders’ remarks.
“Fidel Castro left a dark legacy of forced labor camps, religious repression, widespread poverty, firing squads, and the murder of thousands of his own people,” Michael Bloomberg said in a tweet. “But sure, Bernie, let’s talk about his literacy program.”
Another candidate, Pete Buttigieg, tweeted a link asking for donations, writing, “Chip in if you don’t want to have to defend Fidel Castro.”