LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27 (UPI) — Singer-actress Cher, actor Andy Garcia and recording artist Gloria Estefan are speaking out about the weekend death of former Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Castro died Friday night at the age of 90.
“Fidel Castro Was a Murderous Dictator..He’s Dead. Like ALL Strong-Man Despots,He Let His Ppl Suffer & Die Because Of His Insane Ego,” Cher tweeted.
Garcia, who was born in Cuba, issued a longer statement to the entertainment industry trade newspaper Variety.
“It is necessary for me to express the deep sorrow that I feel for all the Cuban people both inside and outside of Cuba that have suffered the atrocities and repression caused by Fidel Castro and his totalitarian regime,” Garcia wrote.
“The promises of his so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy, were and continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights,” he continued. “The executions, persecution and imprisonment of political dissidents and the LGBT community, denial of free press, elections and religious freedoms, continue to be his legacy. He claimed that history would absolve him, but it can also condemn him.”
“Although the death of a human being is rarely cause for celebration, it is the symbolic death of the destructive ideologies that he espoused that, I believe, is filling the Cuban exile community with renewed hope and a relief that has been long in coming,” Estefan, who is also Cuban-American, said in an Instagram post. “And although the grip of Castro’s regime will not loosen overnight, the demise of a leader that oversaw the annihilation of those with an opposing view, the indiscriminate jailing of innocents, the separation of families, the censure of his people’s freedom to speak, state sanctioned terrorism and the economic destruction of a once thriving & successful country, can only lead to positive change for the Cuban people and our world. May freedom continue to ring in the United States, my beautiful adopted country, and may the hope for freedom be inspired and renewed in the heart of every Cuban in my homeland and throughout the world.”
Comedian Patton Oswalt and television personality Billy Eichner joked about the historic event on social media.
“Florence Henderson and now Fidel Castro. Weird how the stars of I LOVE LUCY passed away so close together,” Oswalt tweeted.
“RIP to everyone’s favorite television mom, Fidel Castro,” read Eichner’s post.
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