The False Prophecy of Fidel Castro About Obama and Pope Francis

The False Prophecy of Fidel Castro About Obama and Pope Francis / 14ymedio
Posted on July 25, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 24 July 2015 — A phrase supposedly attributed to the
former Cuban president Fidel Castro has become, in the last few months,
one of the symbols of the thaw between Washington and Havana, announced
last December after 54 years of enmity. "The United States will come to
talk to us when we have a black president and the world has a Latin
American pope," the former president supposedly replied to a question
asked by the foreign press in 1973. However, there is no proof of the
existence of this quote prior to 2014.

Fidel Castro's alleged prophecy has circulated widely on the social
networks and in the international press, translated into several
languages, generating amazement among users and readers, shocked by the
ex-president's ability to foresee the future.

Among the most cited sources to substantiate the claims is the blog
Maoist Rebel news, or the labor union forum on the island, Cuba
Sindical. The anecdote even made it into the French paper Paris Match,
which attributes it to a joke about a hypothetical conversation between
the ex-president and Che.

The urban legend could be linked to Fidel Castro's 1977 response to a
journalist from US TV, although he made no allusion to a "black
president" or to a "Latin American pope." On that occasion, the then
president said that he expected a normalization of diplomatic relations
between Havana and Washington during a hypothetical second term of
president Jimmy Carter, between 1980and 1084. However, Carter was not
elected for a second term.

Source: The False Prophecy of Fidel Castro About Obama and Pope Francis
/ 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-false-prophecy-of-fidel-castro-about-obama-and-pope-francis-14ymedio/