Castro rehabilitation

LAT reporter Hector Tobar, in a page one piece this morning labeled news analysis, further tries to rehabilitate Fidel Castro, saying he's "widely admired." Tobar essentially blames the U.S. for Castro's failures, arguing that Castro's "struggle against U.S. 'imperialism' left his [Castro's] people impoverished and isolated." Castro's revolution was "the defining event"of Latin American history in the 20th Century, says Tobar. No other leader was able to "confront the United States for half a century and survive." Tobar's piece includes the obligatory reference to the communist revolutionary Che Guevara, folk hero to the American left.