Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t backing down from his defense of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s literacy program.
During a Monday CNN town hall with host Chris Cuomo, the Vermont senator was asked about the blowback he’s received from both sides of the political aisle over his recent praise of Castro’s education programs. Sanders defended his comments by saying that Castro’s literacy brigade helped teach those who were illiterate.
“He formed the literacy brigade. You may read that. He went out, and they helped people learn to read and write. You know what? I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing,” he said. “I have been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world … I happen to believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.”
Sanders noted that China’s economic system has “taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history.”
“I get criticized because I say that, but that’s the truth,” he added.
However, Cuomo pressed Sanders on the issue, asking him to respond to Democrats, saying, “You don’t say good things about Fidel Castro. He destroyed freedoms in that country. He picked winners and losers and killed them and put them in prison forever. You don’t give him a pat on the back for anything.”
“Truth is truth,” Sanders said in response, noting that those who raised such concerns oppose his campaign. “The truth is the truth. And that’s what happened in the first years of the Castro regime.”
Sanders was met with backlash over comments he made about Castro in a Sunday 60 Minutes interview.
“We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But, you know, it’s unfair to simply say, ‘Everything is bad.’ You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?” he said at the time.
Sanders’s remarks, however, echo those of previous presidents. In 2016, President Barack Obama made moves to open diplomatic relations with Cuba, even attending a baseball game with communist revolutionary Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother in November 2016. During his trip, Obama subtly praised the country’s schooling program, saying it was “an extraordinary resource — a system of education that values every boy and every girl.”
