Castro's Record

As a recent interview appearance shows, Fidel still has his fingers in the Cuban political pie.

Since 1959, Fidel Castro has remained a hero to many Cubans for toppling the dictatorial and corrupt Batista regime. The nostalgia lingers on for some Canadians too, perhaps largely because of the good quality of education and medical care he made available to virtually the entire Cuban people. Let’s look briefly at the record.

For context, the Spanish conquest after 1511 enslaved 100,000 indigenous Cubans, whose descendants were virtually wiped out a century later from various factors. The unsuccessful 1895 war of independence, led by Cuba’s national hero Jose Marti, resulted in little change. Rural people were herded by Spaniards into the forerunner of 20th century concentration camps, where many died from starvation and disease.

Following an explosion on the American battleship Maine in Havana’s harbour in 1898 and the ensuing Spanish-American War, Cuba achieved full separation from Spain, but at the price of less than full independence from the U.S. In 1906, following a disputed election, Americans named their own governor, but thereafter Cubans did obtain self-government, albeit with ongoing American interference.

Fulgencio Batista was elected president democratically in 1940 and achieved some major social reforms, but finished third in the 1952 election. He subsequently staged a coup and hung on until Castro’s popular insurrection drove him into exile on January 1, 1959.

Castro In Power

The Cuba Castro took over was the second most prosperous country in Latin American (after Argentina), with a burgeoning economy and a rapidly expanding middle class. By 1964, he had expropriated most private property with little or no compensation (of the total amount in the $25 billion range, only about $1 billion was owned by Americans) and, far less controversially, eliminated the gambling sector controlled by U.S. crime bosses.

By late 1960, all radio and television were in government hands and opposition newspapers closed. Moderate teachers and professors were purged. Dissenters, including some religious practitioners and gays, were imprisoned. An unknown number of persons were executed. By 1961, hundreds of thousands of Cubans had left for the U.S., totaling about 1.2 million by 2002.

Human rights quickly vanished. Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Cubans “are systematically denied basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, privacy, movement and due process of law.” In the 1990s, HRW reported that Cuba’s prison system comprised 40 maximum-security facilities, 30 minimum-security facilities, and over 300 labour camps, with political prisoners and others all living in substandard and unhealthy conditions. In 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Cuba was the world’s second largest prison for journalists after China.

Economy

The economy is deeply depressed. In 2006, public sector employment was 78 per cent of the work force, with the government setting most prices and rationing goods. Private sector employees in joint ventures with foreign firms aren’t paid directly; instead employers pay the government, which in turn pays individuals, as of 2005, an average of 334 pesos monthly (US$16.70). The average pension was $9 per month. Cubans cannot change jobs without government permission. Food is now mostly imported.

Castro’s apologists blame the U.S. trade embargo. It did indeed make life more difficult, just as did the ending in the late ’80s of Russian subsidies, moving grain from Canada on Russian ships, and generous aid from Moscow. An increase in tourism and medical tourism, financed by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, has helped, but the UN Human Development Index today still ranks Cuba 51 out of 180 countries. Raul Castro, 79, as president since 2008, has introduced significant market-oriented reforms.

Television Interview

Castro’s recent reappearance in a television interview was clearly linked to the release of 52 of 72 political prisoners held since 2003 although he did not mention them. He is doubtless hoping that European Union members will end their common position of linking aid to Cuba based on its human rights performance, which undoubtedly helped in obtaining the release of the 52.

Much of his commentary focused on the danger of nuclear weapons in Iran and on the Korean peninsula. Again, he was out of touch with much of the world in siding by implication with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nuclear ambitions for Iran. With an estimated 300-year supply of natural gas and vast oil reserves, Iran has no need for nuclear energy except to make nuclear bombs. Castro must know that such a development would be a huge setback for regional and world peace.

Conclusion

Castro's partial recovery in health and his continuing meddling in policy has impeded his brother, who might otherwise have pushed more aggressively for reform. Life remains unnecessarily bleak and unfulfilled for most Cubans. In short, Castro’s admirers at home and abroad are unlikely to alter their viewpoints, but hope for the people of Cuba lies in new leadership more interested in the well-being of 11 million citizens than in ideology.