The Cuban Revolution

What went wrong? I'm not going to rehash the whole history; tons of ink have already been spilt on this and you can spend years studying the history.


Firstly I believe that the Cuban Revolution of 1958/9 was necessary to get rid of the dictator Batista, who was turning Cuba into the gambling den and whorehouse of the US. After that, the actions of the US pushed Cuba into the arms of the Russians, where they stayed until the fall of the Soviet Union. The US maintains a trade embargo with Cuba and also imposes secondary sanctions on third parties who trade with Cuba. For example, there are no direct flights to Cuba from the US for people unconnected with Cuba, e.g. relatives of Cubans, tourists have to transit places like Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, or European countries. In the US the embargo is supported by the Cuban exiles who lost their homeland and properties in the revolution or are otherwise opposed to Castro. Like the fable of the wind, the sun and the man with a hat, this embargo has simply made the Cubans more intransigent and strengthened Castro's hand.


The wretchedness of the Cuban economy cannot be blamed solely on the embargo. The system is inefficient and during the Cold War years, was propped up by the Soviet Union, who traded oil and consumer goods for sugar. Cuba was far too dependent on too few products. And incentives to advance are non-existent. I remember an anecdote where an Eastern European goes to work in Cuba. One day he was taken aside and told that he's working too hard and making his comrades look bad. So he slacked off and life was good again. Until the fall of the Wall. Without their major sponsor, the Cuban economy plunged into a Special Period.


The Revolution did bring benefits such as improvements in living standards, literacy and health to Cubans. But along the way it turned into another kind of dictatorship, rule by central planning. Perhaps the system could have changed and adapted, perhaps it was doomed to fail because of one stubborn man; I'll leave that for others to argue.


What would become of Cuba when Fidel Castro dies, everyone asks? Some say another revolution, some say anarchy, some say Raul Castro would take over. Fidel's certainly a colourful figure, a great survivor of many assassination attempts by the CIA. The party officials who sleep through his hours long monologues on speech days are also survivors. Remember, Fidel's the man who delivered a four hour long speech prior to sentencing for leading an attack on Moncada Barracks in 1953, which concludes with the famous line La historia me absolverá (History will absolve me). It's sold as a small paperback in Cuba, and actually a reconstruction by Fidel later, since no record was kept of his speech. On a humourous note, I think that he should give a speech to the US Congress. After a couple of hours the members would say enough enough, end the embargo, anything to shut this man up.


It's interesting that Che Guevara figures more prominently on billboards than Castro. Che is safely martyred and beatified by Cuba; schoolchildren sing of their desire to be like Che. His legend lends authority to Fidel. But apparently when he was a minister for industry he wasn't so hot. He was the type looking for action.