Marlins Suspend Ozzie Guillen Five Games Over Remarks About Castro

The Miami Marlin’s manager, Ozzie Guillen said he loves Fidel Castro and now, it’s no surprise that he’s been mobbed with publicity, and surrounded by angry Cuban exiles protesting his statement.  He’s attempted to repair the damage he’s done within the community by offering dramatic apologies, saying:

“I feel as though I have betrayed the Latino people,” Guillen told reporters at a packed news conference, which was televised nationally. “I’m very embarrassed, very sad and I’m very, very, very sorry.”  Guillen says that it was a translation misunderstanding that resulted in the remark.

But that’s not enough.  In one of the most flagrant examples of a corporate censorship in this decade, the team suspended him for his supposed pro-Castro remarks.  He’s also been put on unpaid suspension for 5 games for the remark, and $150,000 is being donated to human rights charities.  We checked the calendar to see if the date was somewhere in the 1950s but it turns out it’s still 2012.

And the remarks that sparked all the trouble, really weren’t all that pro-Castro after all.  “I love Fidel Castro,” Guillen told Time magazine. After a beat, he went on to explain: “A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that [expletive] is still here.”

We want to know what you think.  Should sensitivity to your local community’s political feelings be a requirement of working in baseball?

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[merlic_poll id=”18954″]

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Read more at miamiherald.com.