Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Fidel Castro Owns a Gold Mine

From the Miami Herald:
Fidel Castro once claimed that he lived a life of exemplary revolutionary frugality on a salary of merely $36 per month.

“Lies,” said Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, 65, who served as a bodyguard for the former Cuban leader for 17 years and has published a book of memoirs portraying Castro as a sort of feudal lord who ran the island like it was a personal fiefdom.

Castro controlled about 20 luxury homes, a Caribbean island getaway with a pool and dolphins, the 88-foot yacht Aquarama II, and several fishing vessels whose catch was sold for dollars deposited in his accounts, according to Sanchez...

Only special friends were allowed on the island, according to Sanchez. Welcomed in were the late Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, CNN owner Ted Turner and Erich Honecker, head of then communist-run East Germany.

“He always claims he lives frugally. Lies. He lives in a luxury that most Cubans can’t even imagine,” Sanchez told el Nuevo Herald in his first interview after writing his book, The Secret Life of Fidel Castro, published Wednesday in France...

His 325-page book says Castro, now 87, controlled several numbered bank accounts abroad as well as the finances of several state enterprises — including a small gold mine in the Isle of Youth — that reported to him as president of the ruling Council of State. When Castro received a Cohiba cigar box full of Angolan diamonds, he told an aide to sell the gems on the international market “and you know what to do,” Sanchez said...

Castro moved about with at least 10 bodyguards, including two with matching blood types who could give him a direct transfusion in case of an emergency because he did not trust stored blood, according to the bodyguard.

5 comments:

  1. "“Lies,” said Juan Reinaldo Sanchez, 65, who served as a bodyguard for the former Cuban leader for 17 years and has published a book of memoirs portraying Castro as a sort of feudal lord who ran the island like it was a personal fiefdom."

    Sounds like Mike Bloomberg.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only poverty for the little people. With Bloomberg, just like how he is surrounded by armed bodyguards but the little people can't protect themselves with a gun. This was a great question posed to Bloomberg: "In the spirit of gun control, will you disarm your entire security team?"
      "Why can you defend yourself but not the majority of Americans?"

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCC-rEx81PE

      Delete
    2. Newly Released Documents Show Outgrowth of ‘Homeland Security’ Is Corrupted Federal and Local Law Enforcement

      By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 27, 2014

      Last week, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) released a trove of some 4,000 documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that the movements of the mostly peaceful participants in the Occupy Wall Street protests were subjected to an “enormous spying and monitoring apparatus” that included coordination between the Pentagon, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, local police, private security contractors and corporate interests.

      http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/05/newly-released-documents-show-outgrowth-of-%E2%80%98homeland-security%E2%80%99-is-corrupted-federal-and-local-law-enforcement/


      seems we should be more concerned with what's happening here, no????????

      Delete
  2. "The Market's Not There" - One World Trade Center Lowers Asking Rents By 10%

    As WSJ reports, things are not going well for One World Trade Center...

    No private office tenant has signed a lease at One World Trade Center in nearly three years. The 3.1-million-square-foot skyscraper, formerly named the Freedom Tower, is 55% leased.



    The owner—a venture of developer Douglas Durst and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey—is cutting asking rents nearly 10% to $69 a square foot for larger tenants on the building's middle floors, down from $75 a square foot, Mr. Durst said in an interview Friday.

    The reason appears to be a total lack of real demand despite all the mal-investment -driving indicators of economic health that a trillion dollars here and there can create...

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-27/markets-not-there-one-world-trade-center-lowers-asking-rents-10


    ReplyDelete
  3. Vietnam central bank admits intervening in gold market to support its currency
    Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2014-05-27 04:55. Section: Daily Dispatches

    Only in a nominally communist country does a central bank tell the truth.

    * * *

    Vietnam Central Bank Vows to Intervene in Gold Market to Maintain Stability

    From Tuoi Tre (newspaper)
    Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
    Monday, May 26, 2014

    http://www.gata.org/node/14036

    ReplyDelete