By any measurement, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez was a literary giant. He wrote some wonderful books and was hailed as one of the all time greats of Spanish literature.
We definitely agree with many of the compliments and obituaries, such as this one from CBC:
"Garcia Marquez, who died Thursday at age 87, was eulogized in a brief ceremony Monday evening in the dramatic art deco lobby by the presidents of both Mexico and Colombia, two countries linked by the writer through his birth, life, heritage and career.
Though he was born in Colombia, Garcia Marquez lived in Mexico for decades and wrote some of his best-known works here, including One Hundred Years of Solitude."
My biggest problem is that Garcia-Marquez was just a bit too fond of Fidel Castro, the longest running dictatorship in the Americas. He never called for elections in Cuba and was just a bit too quick to repeat the dictatorship's talking points, such as blaming the US embargo for the economic problems.
Didn't Mr Garcia-Marquez know that Colombia, his native country, and Mexico, his adopted nation, do business with Cuba? Again, the problem is not the US embargo but the failed socialist and communist policies that turned Cuba into an impoverished island, the same one that had to reschedule its debts over and over!
Sadly, Mr Garcia-Marquez is part of a Latin American left that has always loved Castro a lot more than the Cuban people. They love having "rum and cola" with Castro and overlook the plight of the political prisons or the lack of freedoms.
Didn't Mr Garcia-Marquez know that Castro puts people in jails for writing against his regime? Was he that misinformed about Cuba?
Over the years, I've gotten into many debates with Latin American leftists over Cuba.
I've come to the conclusion that many of these leftists hate the US so much that they are willing to support any one as long as he is "anti-Yankee"!
RIP Mr Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. Shame on you for embracing of Fidel Castro.
P. S. You can hear my discussion about Garcia-Marquez with Cuban-American author Victor Triay plus young Colombia conservative Michael Prada & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.