Cuba
Under Castro
By Stephen Lendman
28 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Having
just turned 80 on August 13 and undergone major surgery for what may
have been stomach cancer at the end of July, a transitional time may
be near in Cuba with Fidel Castro Ruz beginning to hand over power to
his brother Raul and/or others in the months ahead. It passed without
irony or mention of imperial arrogance in a brief front page comment
in the August 19th issue of the Wall Street Journal that the US won't
invade Cuba but a "dynastic succession" is not acceptable.
It would have been too much to expect the Journal to have noted that
same type succession happened in the US in 2000 and 2004 and in elections
exposed and documented as badly tainted at least and likely stolen at
worst on top of five arrogant Supreme Court Justices refusing to allow
a proper recount of the disputed vote and, in effect, annulling the
voice of the people and replacing it with their choice for president.
It's called "democracy, American style."
It also would have been too much to expect the WSJ to challenge the
language it quoted asking what right does anyone in the Bush administration
have to tell another nation what type succession policy is or is not
acceptable.
No one can know for sure
what lies ahead for Cuba or if Castro will even survive. But now beginning
his ninth decade and clearly facing a long and difficult recovery, the
Cuban leader may have no other choice than to step aside in handling
the country's day to day affairs although his influence will always
be felt as long as he's alive and lucid. When, not if, the time of transition
arrives, an historic era will have passed for the Cuban people and the
region. And, while it won't be easy for a successor replacing a 'legend,"
the history of just Israel and the US alone shows it can happen successfully.
It likely will in Cuba as well because the great majority of people
there won't tolerate a return to the ugly, repressive pre-Castro past
even though most of them never lived through it.
Looking back, one thing for
sure can be said about Fidel Castro. He's the longest serving political
leader in the world having first gained power on January 1, 1959. For
him and Cuba it marked the successful culmination of his quest to do
so that began with his unsuccessful attack on the Moncada army post
in Santiago de Cuba in July, 1953 for which he stood trial and was sentenced
in October that year to serve 15 years in the Isle of Pines penitentiary.
For his efforts and while in prison Castro fast became a legend which
may or may not have helped him win amnesty and release in May, 1955
after which he first became a non-violent agitator against the US backed
oppressive and corrupted Fulgencio Batista dictatorship. Because he
was censored and banned from speaking publicly, that strategy got him
nowhere and he was forced to leave Cuba for Mexico to plan what became
his 26th of July Movement that would be the means to take by force what
no opposition in Batista's Cuba could achieve politically. With few
resources and little support, Castro and 82 of his followers returned
to the Sierra Maestra Mountains in his country in December, 1956 to
begin the revolution that would finally succeed when he and what grew
to 800 loyal followers entered Havana on January 1, 1959.
His small band of determined
resistance guerilla fighters had defeated Batista's army of thousands
and forced the Cuban dictator to flee the country. From that time forward,
the rest, as they say, is history.
The "Liberation" of Cuba, US-Style
From the earliest days of
Cuba under Castro, the US imposed harsh conditions on the island state
and waged an unending undeclared war against it. It wanted to destabilize
the government, kill Fidel Castro or at the least make life so intolerable
for the Cuban people, they'd willingly allow themselves to be ruled
again by the interests of capital and the dictates of so-called "free
market" forces. That many-decade campaign of state-directed terror
never worked and likely never will convince the great majority of the
Cuban people to favor giving up the essential social gains they now
have for a return to what they surely know was a repressive past. They
understand if it ever happened, it would be a throwback not just to
the days and ways of the hated Batista regime but also to the time US
President McKinley "liberated" the island from Spain in an
earlier war based on a lie. From that time forward until the Castro-led
revolution, the US effectively ruled Cuba as a de facto colony and used
it to serve the interests of wealth and power at the expense of the
welfare of the people. In his time, McKinley promised to let the Cubans
govern themselves after the Spanish-American war, but the dominant Republicans
in the Congress had other ideas and were only willing to go along with
the island's self-rule if under it the US was allowed "to veto
any decision (the Cuban government) made."
One of the earliest examples
of US dominance was the Platt Amendment the Congress passed in 1901
after the US "liberated" Cuba in 1898. This federal law ceded
Guantanamo Bay to the US to be used as the naval base we've had ever
since and granted the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs whenever
it deemed it necessary. Theodore Roosevelt later signed the original
Guantanamo lease agreement the terms of which gave the US jurisdiction
over the territory that can only be terminated by the mutual consent
of both countries as long as annual rent payments are made.
The US thus gave itself the
right to occupy part of sovereign Cuban territory in perpetuity regardless
of how the Cuban people feel about it. The Castro government clearly
wants the US out and through the years made its views clear by refusing
to cash every US lease payment check it got other than the first one
right after the successful revolution.
The US Embargo on Cuba
Whatever one's view of Fidel
Castro Ruz, it's clear the achievements of the Republica de Cuba under
his rule for nearly 48 years have been remarkable. He managed to do
it in spite of the oppressive partial embargo the US imposed on the
island state in October, 1960 that became a total embargo 16 months
later in February, 1962 when it was expanded to include everything except
non-subsidized sales of food and medicines and a month later banned
the import of all goods made from Cuban materials regardless of where
they were made. The embargo was further tightened with the passage of
the Cuban Democracy (Torricelli) Act in 1992 that legalized the encouragement
of pro-US opposition groups to act forcefully against the Castro government.
It was made still far worse in 1996 after the passage of the outrageous
Helms-Burton Act that allows the US government the right to sue any
corporation anywhere that does business with Cuba.
Today the US embargo remains
in place but is under siege because of its unpopularity among sectors
of the US business community that want access to the Cuban market. They
include oil and agricultural interests that see the profit potential
of trading with Cuba and want to end the restrictions on it now in place.
For US oil companies there are potential Cuban oil reserves they want
access to, and for agribusiness there's a significant Cuban market for
their exports.
As a result, the pressure
is mounting on the Bush administration which up to now has been defiant
in its opposition to Fidel Castro and remains hostile and punitive.
But of late the action has been in the Congress with attempts to pass
legislation and avoid a Bush veto to ease the current restrictions and
allow some economic relations with Cuba that for decades have been banned.
For now it's uncertain whether the demands of US business will win out
over the fiercely unyielding Bush administration's anti-Castro foreign
policy. This and past administrations have always resisted all outside
pressure to change their multi-decade hostile policy stance that included
ignoring over a dozen overwhelming UN General Assembly votes to end
the embargo. In all those votes (excluding abstentions), it was nearly
the entire world voting to end it and two or three nations wanting to
keep it - the US, Israel and one or another Pacific island.
Travel and Other Restrictions On US Citizens
To destabilize the Castro
government, the US for over 40 years has also imposed travel and other
restrictions on its own citizens. After the Cuban Missile Crisis in
October, 1962, President Kennedy first imposed restrictions on travel
to the island in February, 1963. Through the years, US laws have changed
at times but have grown harsher under the current Bush administration.
Technically no US citizen can legally travel to Cuba without a Treasury
license to do so. Doing it otherwise will subject anyone caught to fines
up to $10,000 and possibly much higher as well as up to 10 years in
prison. Until 2001, the travel restrictions were loosely enforced with
only 16 criminal prosecutions between 1983 and 1999. However, all that
changed post-2001, and now anyone caught travelling illegally to Cuba
stands a real risk of heavy fine and possible imprisonment in this time
of USA Patriot Act justice and the fraudulent "war on terror."
For those US citizens allowed
to travel to Cuba, there are further limitations on the amount of money
they may spend there or send to the country in the case of remittances
to immediate family members there or to a Cuban national living in a
third country. Under US Treasury license authorization, a visitor is
allowed to spend a maximum $50 per day for non-transportational expenses
and an additional $50 per day for transportation expenses. It's also
permissible for persons in the US 18 years of age or older to remit
to an immediate family member in Cuba or a Cuban national in a third
country a maximum $300 per household in any consecutive three month
period.
These restrictions of movement
and a citizen's right to use ones own financial resources freely likely
violate two or more amendments to the US Constitution although nothing
in the Constitution specifically guarantees the freedom to travel. At
the time the Constitution was written, the right to travel freely was
unquestioned and was unheard of before the Cold War began after WW 11.
After that time limitations were imposed, but challenges to them were
made all the way to the Supreme Court which ruled in 1967 that restricting
freedom of movement was an infringement of a citizen's constitutional
rights. Justice William Douglas said at the time that "Freedom
of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart.....it
often makes other rights meaningful." On two other occasions in
1962 and 1984, the High Court ruled otherwise by narrow margins but
only under "the weightiest conditions of national security"
necessitated by the Cold War. It's quite likely a Bush-friendly majority
on the present Court would uphold the harsher restrictions favored by
the Bush administration and permit one more way for them to destroy
our civil liberties.
And they no doubt would do
it despite the fact that the right of free movement anywhere encroaches
on the right to liberty which the Fifth Amendment specifically states
citizens cannot be deprived of without the due process of law. This
restriction also likely violates the First Amendment right of free expression
and to be able to hear the speech of others, gather information and
associate with others as we choose - activities that should be inviolate
in a free and democratic society. In addition, the fact that freedom
of travel was an unquestioned right when the Constitution was drafted
is the reason for the Ninth Amendment which grants the states all other
rights not specifically written into the Constitution.
Any restrictions thus imposed
and enforced in violation of constitutional law are a direct infringement
of our sacred freedoms, fundamental rights and civil liberties and unless
challenged and successfully reversed in the courts are dangerous steps
toward a national security police state under which citizens and residents
have no rights.
US restrictive laws also
violate international law under Article 12 of the UN International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights that guarantees everyone the right to
leave any country, including one's own, and return to it. Article 13
of the non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees
the same thing as does the 1975 US - Soviet Union Helsinki Agreement
committing both nations to protecting the right of its citizens to move
freely across borders.
The US, especially since
the advent of the current Bush administration, has shown its contempt
for international and US constitutional law ruling instead by Executive
Order to pursue whatever policies it wishes in a manner characteristic
of a dictatorship and with no restraint put on it by the Congress or
the courts.
The result is a gross infringement
of our civil liberties that will likely become far worse in the wake
of the Orwellian Real ID Act of 2005 passed by the US Congress to become
effective in May, 2008. This law mandates that every US citizen and
legal resident have a national ID card (in most cases a person's driver's
license) that will contain on it the holder's vital personal information.
It also requires the states to meet federal ID standards. A likely future
requirement will be what now is mandated by mid-2007 for all newly issued
and renewed passports - that they be embedded with a radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology computer chip that will be able to
track all the movements, activities and transactions of everyone having
them. This is an Orwellian dream for any government wanting police state
powers and will let US authorities know the names of all persons in
the US travelling to Cuba or anywhere else in cases where they did it
from third countries so as to remain anonymous. No longer, and with
national ID cards mandatory by mid-2008, the tracking of all US citizens
and legal residents will become even easier.
Nearly Forty-Eight Years Later and Looking Back - the Castro
Revolution and His Government
Fidel Castro's revolution
likely was born in March, 1952 after Fulgencio Batista seized power
forcibly by coup d'etat after it was clear he had no chance of winning
the presidential election that year in which he was running a distant
third in the polls. Batista, with full backing from the US, instituted
a brutal police state that served the interests of capital and turned
the island into a casino and brothel. It was marked by severe corruption,
little concern for social needs, and violent crackdowns against the
people to maintain order. Fidel Castro wanted none of it.
Despite being born into a
wealthy Cuban farming family in 1926, being educated in private schools
and later at the University of Havana to study law, Castro went his
own way. He became politically active early on in 1947 and joined the
Partido Ortodoxa Party of the Cuban People to campaign against government
corruption and misrule and to demand reform. He also began a law practice
in a small partnership after receiving his degree in 1950 devoting most
of his time to representing the poor.
Castro wanted change in Cuba
and no doubt learned back then if it couldn't come about politically
it would have to happen by force. As events dictated, Castro came to
power by the latter path when he became the country's Prime Minister
in February, 1959 following the successful revolution he led. He's held
on to it to this day. He kept his title of premier until 1976 when he
became the President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers
as chief of state and head of the Cuban government and ruling Communist
Party of Cuba (PCC) that was formed in October, 1965.
Under the 1976 Constitution,
the Republica de Cuba vests all legislative power in the country's 619
member National Assembly of People's Power who serve five year terms.
To be elected to it, those candidates must receive at least 50% of the
eligible votes. At the executive level sits a 24 member Council of State
that's elected by the Assembly and headed by an elected president and
vice-president. The Council's President (currently Fidel Castro) is
both Head of State and Head of Government. The Vice-President is his
brother Raul. Executive and administrative power is vested in the Council
of Ministers as recommended by the Head of State.
The PCC has governed Cuba
since being formed and is Cuba's only legally recognized political party.
While other political parties and opposition groups exist in the country,
their activities are minimal and the state views them as mostly illegal.
The Cuban Constitution allows free speech, but the opposition's rights
are restricted under Article 62 that states:
"None of the freedoms
which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary to....the
existence and objectives of the socialist state, or contrary to the
decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism. Violations
of this principle can be punished by law." That one party basis
is how Cuba has been governed since Castro assumed power, and officially
the Republica de Cuba is called a socialist state. It was inspired and
guided by the principles of Jose Marti, Cuba's 19th century born greatest
hero who believed freedom and justice for the people should be the cornerstones
of any government and despotic regimes that abused human rights should
be condemned.
Castro's Human Rights Record In A Climate of Continued US Efforts To
Destabilize and Topple His Government and A Comparison to Hugo Chavez's
Record in Venezuela
Castro's record as Cuba's
leader is mixed at best as judged by the principles its "greatest
hero" espoused.
Unlike his ally and friend
President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela who established a true participatory
democracy by national referendum, Castro chose not to allow Cuba to
be governed democratically. Instead he decided early on that he above
all others would decide what was best for the Cuban people and little
dissent would be allowed. The result is that while Cuba is a model state
in delivering essential social services to be discussed in detail below,
it comes at the expense of the freedom to oppose the ruling state authority.
In the past, Amnesty International
reported on the crackdown on dissent in Cuba and in recent years on
the significant increase in what Amnesty calls the number of prisoners
of conscience. The Cuban government claims only "foreign agents"
whose activities endanger Cuban independence and security have been
arrested, but Amnesty disagrees even while recognizing the threat to
the island by the US and the harm done to it by years of an oppressive
and unjustifiable embargo.
Amnesty was quite clear in
its language stating: "The economic, commercial and financial embargo
imposed by the United States against Cuba has served as an ongoing justification
for Cuban state repression and has contributed to a climate in which
human rights violations occur." Those violations include accusations
of police state arrests, unfair trials, arbitrary imprisonments and
the right to use capital punishment in cases of armed hijacking even
after the Castro government placed a moratorium on the death penalty
in 2001. While it's true what Amnesty reports, it's also important to
note what it doesn't.
No attention is paid to how
for decades the US repeatedly tried to destabilize Cuba under Castro,
isolate it in the region, destroy its economy, and failed in many attempts
to assassinate the Cuban leader.
Hugo Chavez in Venezuela
has also been a US target for elimination but charted a different course
than Fidel Castro in spite of it since being elected President in December,
1998 and assuming office in February, 1999.
From the start, Chavez and his Movement for the Fifth Republic Party
(MVR) wanted and got his revolution by the ballot box. In fairness to
Castro, he too preferred that way but found it impossible under the
repressive dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Hugo Chavez had a more
favorable climate and once elected sought to achieve what few other
political leaders ever do - keep his promises to the people who elected
him. In a nation of overwhelming poverty, he wanted to follow the vision
of 19th century revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar and his spirit of Bolivarianism
to free the Venezuelan people of what Bolivar called the imperial curse
"to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty."
He did it with his own Bolivarian
Revolution based on the principles of participatory democracy and social
justice, convened a National Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution
that reflected these principles, and allowed the Venezuelan people the
right to vote it into binding law by national referendum which they
did overwhelmingly in December, 1999. The new constitution which went
into effect in December, 2000 established the legal foundation for Hugo
Chavez to move ahead with the political, economic and social justice
structural changes he wanted for his people. He wanted to lift them
from poverty, guarantee them essential social services like free health
care and education to the highest level, the right of free expression
to include criticizing the President, and the fundamental principle
of true participatory democracy so that the people have a say in how
their country is governed.
Fidel Castro much earlier
was a model for Hugo Chavez in how he established essential social services
for the Cuban people like world-class free health care for all and free
education through the university level.
These will be discussed in
detail below. But he failed by not fully permitting Cuba to be governed
democratically with unrestricted free and fair elections, effective
opposition parties, the right to speak freely, openly and critically
of the President even though everyone holding political office in the
country including the President and Vice-President must be elected to
it.
The Castro government also
imposes unfair travel restrictions on the movement of its people requiring
them to obtain exit visas to leave the island. More recently these restrictions
were relaxed somewhat but not entirely. They're still imposed on professionals
with essential skills, and in the case of human rights activists who
have the right to leave Cuba but not to return. These freedom of movement
restrictions violate international law under Article 12 of the UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as already explained. Seeing
that Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro appear to be good friends and allies,
it's to be hoped the Cuban leader or his successor will see how successful
the Chavez approach has been in Venezuela and one day wish to alter
the Cuban state model to be in full accordance with the spirit and letter
of Bolivarianism.
Nearly Five Decades of US-Directed Intimidation, Destabilization
and Attempts to Overthrow the Castro Government
The US-directed terror campaign
to oust Fidel Castro began under Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Kennedy
with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, continued with "The Cuban
Project" (aka Operation Mongoose) in 1961 to "help Cuba overthrow
the Communist regime" and Fidel Castro and aim "for a revolt
which can take place in Cuba by October, 1962." It continued under
the same and new names with many dozens of plots through the years to
kill Castro including bizarre ones like using a poisoned wetsuit, poison
pens, a pistol hidden in a camera (that almost worked), exploding cigars,
explosive seashells in Castro's favorite diving places and a special
hair removal powder to make the leader's beard fall out (maybe believing
the latter scheme would remove Castro's power much like the biblical
Sampson lost his physical strength after Delilah had his hair cut).
In the mid-1990s, Noam Chomsky commented that "Cuba was the target
of more international terrorism than probably the rest of the world
combined, up until Nicaragua in the 1980s." And it was conducted
by US-initiated state terrorism against the island state to remove a
leader because he chose not to govern the way the US wished him to.
Besides the schemes listed
above, the list of US terror tactics against Cuba is far too long to
list in total here. They include US attacks on Cuban sugar mills by
air, a 1960 blowing up of a Belgian ship in Havana harbor killing 100
sailors and dock workers, dynamiting stores, theaters, a Havana department
store and burning down another one. In addition, there were dozens of
attacks and bombings and over 600 known plans or attempts to assassinate
Fidel Castro including the bizarre ones listed above. The CIA also conducted
biological warfare against Cuba including introducing dangerous viruses
to the island affecting sugar cane and other crops, African swine fever
in
1971 that resulted in the need to slaughter half a million pigs, and
hemorrhagic dengue fever that caused the deaths of at least 81 children
in 1981. These incidents were later confirmed in declassified US documents.
It's also well remembered
that Cubana flight 455 was terror-bombed in October, 1976 by former
CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles that killed the 73 people on board. The
plot was likely masterminded by Orlando Bosch who devoted his life to
committing terrorist attacks against Cuba and trying to kill Fidel Castro.
Now at age 80, he lives near
Miami and was recently interviewed by Andy Robinson of La Vanguardia.
He told Mr. Robinson he once nearly succeeded in killing Castro in 1971
in Chile (with a pistol hidden in a camera), but the assassins sent
there to do it "chickened out and didn't shoot" even though
they were standing meters away from the Cuban leader and easily could
have done it.
Posada, too, was frank in
at least one interview he gave to the New York Times. He said "The
CIA taught us everything... explosives, how to kill, bomb, trained us
in acts of sabotage." Posada, like Bosch, spent 40 years trying
to overthrow the Castro government forcibly and was personally responsible
for many acts of violence over that period. In April,2005 he sought
political asylum in the US, apparently won't get it as the Bush administration
is seeking a "friendly" country to extradite him to while
ignoring requests for extradition by Cuba and Venezuela to face charges
of terrorism in both countries. Posada was also likely responsible for
other terror-bombings of hotels later in the 1990s to destroy the Cuban
tourist industry with the help of CIA financing to do it.
It's also well known that
CIA trained US based paramilitary groups like Alpha 66 and Brothers
to the Rescue in Florida are free to operate from here where they're
regarded as heros among Cuban reactionaries.
They have no fear of prosecution
or extradition to Cuba for their crimes against the island state.
With all the detail above
and much more than this article can cover, it's easy to understand that
the Cuban government or any other under such continued assault to destabilize
and topple it would be on high alert at all times and would always have
to take all necessary precautions to assure the security of the state,
its leader and people. That's more true than ever today as the out-of-control
Bush administration is committed to regime change on the island and
set up a Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba to help achieve it.
The Commission presented its Report to the President in July this year
detailing its plan to return Cuba to its pre-Castro de facto colonial
status and end the Castro socialist revolution and all the benefits
it brought to the Cuban people. In a word, the Bush administration wants
to do for Cuba what it did in "liberating" Iraq and Afghanistan
and do it by force if necessary. It wants to re-privatize every publicly
operated state enterprise and return the Cuban people to the status
of serfs exploited by capital, set up a puppet government to administer
the changeover, and have it all controlled by Washington and the corporate
giants its beholden to.
Fidel Castro knows he's under
threat and must take every measure to thwart it. To do otherwise would
be foolish and irresponsible. Nonetheless, no leader or government should
ever do this by denying its citizens and residents their civil liberties
nor should the people anywhere allow them to be taken. Benjamin Franklin
understood the danger and wisely explained that "Those who would
give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve
neither Liberty nor Safety." And he likely also said those willing
to make that sacrifice for security will lose both. So while all necessary
precautions are fully justified and necessary against a dangerous and
determined adversary or even in a time of war, under no circumstances
should a free people ever be willing to give up what they always should
be working for to secure and preserve.
Cuba As A Socialist State
In the early years of the
Cuban revolution, the Castro government made a clean break with all
vestiges of the world capitalist economy. It nationalized US industries
like the public utilities, carried out land reform, closed down the
Mafia-owned casinos and ended long-standing and systemic corruption.
Fidel Castro intended to build a socialist state based on the principles
of a largely state-owned, government directed planned economy. He did
it and transformed the nation from one controlled mostly by US capital
interests and the underworld to the current system in place under which
most of the means of production are owned and operated by the state
which employs most of the labor force.
But Cuba has been changing
somewhat since the dissolution of the Soviet Union that provided it
with large and vitally needed subsidies, supplied it with oil at low
prices and provided a ready market for Cuban exports like a large portion
of its annual sugar crop it no longer could sell to the US because of
the economic embargo. Out of necessity to revive its economy that was
severely affected in the early 1990s, the Castro government began to
allow a limited amount of free enterprise. To increase its agricultural
output and relieve food shortages, it changed its farm strategy to an
emphasis on smaller-sized ones and shifted from state-owned to cooperative
production allowing farmers the right to receive a certain percentage
of the profits from their crop yields above a basic required level.
The government's goal was to incentivize farmers to reach their maximum
production potential and earn income for themselves by doing it.
The Cuban government also began to allow commercial Agricultural Markets
to be opened around the country as further incentive for farmers to
produce more and privately be able to profit from seling the excess
amount of it. These Markets have also been a tactical success in neutralizing
the negative effects of the country's black market by making a more
readily available supply of affordable food for the Cuban people able
to avail themselves of it.
The government also introduced
changes in the areas of small retail and light manufacturing enterprises
loosening the restrictions on the right to operate them as private for-profit
businesses. In addition, the government legalized the use of the US
dollar and mounted a concerted effort to take advantage of the island's
desirable Caribbean location to develop the country's tourism industry
by encouraging offshore private investment. In 1995, the Cuban Constitution
was changed to encourage it. It granted 100% ownership to foreign companies
in joint ventures on the island - up from the 49% cap established in
1982.
The change brought about
a dramatic increase in joint venture agreements that jumped from 20
in 1991 to 398 in 2001 (substantially in the tourist sector). Cuba has
benefitted from them all as a way to attract foreign capital, boost
the economy, and provide jobs for the Cuban people. The results so far
are significant as tourism experienced impressive growth in the last
15 years. The annual number of visitors to Cuba in 2004 was about 2
million or a six-fold increase since 1990 and the amount they spent
increased eight-fold to nearly $2 billion. By the year 2000, private
sector employment had grown to about 23% of the total labor force which
was up from 8% in 1981. Over the same period, public sector employment
dropped to about 77% of the total from the 92% level it was at in 1981.
Social Services under Castro
In delivering essential social
services to the Cuban people, the Castro government has had its most
notable and admirable successes. Its through them that the Castro revolution
became firmly institutionalized in the hearts and minds of the great
majority of the people who never before had a government providing for
their essential needs they'll now never relinquish without a fight.
Why should they. Article 50 of the Cuban Constitution adopted in 1976
and approved by 97% of the country's eligible voters at the time mandates
that all Cubans are entitled to receive free medical, hospital and dental
care including prophylactic services. The Constitution emphasizes public
health, preventive care, health education, programs for periodic medical
examinations, immunizations and other preventive measures. It guarantees
that all Cubans will have their health protected, and in Article 43
it stipulates that all citizens have the same rights without regard
to "color of skin, gender, religious belief, national origin and
any distinction harmful to the dignity of man." The Constitution
also provides for worker health and safety, help for the elderly and
pregnant working women having the right to paid leave before and after
birth to ensure maternal and infant health. In 1983, Cuba also adopted
the Public Health Law that makes it a fundamental and permanent state
obligation to assure, improve and protect the health of its citizens
including the rehabilitation of persons suffering from physical or mental
disabilities. These services are intended to restore patients to active,
productive lives and improve their overall welfare.
In 1989, the World Health
Organization (WHO) singled out the Cuban health care system as a "model
for the world." It cited its extensive system of family doctors
and sophisticated tertiary care facilities, emphasis on its nutritional
safety net, its low infant mortality rate at 6 per 1,000 population
that's equal to the average for the developed world and lower than the
7 per thousand for the US. Cuba also equals the US in life expectancy,
has double the number of physicians per 1000 population than the US
and an overall lower mortality rate. It also has the most complete infant
immunization coverage in the developing world and an exemplary national
health and nuitrition education program emphasizing the development
and use of chemical-free, non-GMO, organically grown fresh produce which
it hopes to have enough of in another decade to feed its entire population.
And it accomplishes all this at a far lower cost per capita than its
rich northern neighbor that spends the most per capita of any nation
but doesn't care for over 46 million of its citizens who have no access
to health care services and many millions more with far too little.
At the end of the 1990s,
the WHO updated its findings on health care delivery in Cuba following
the dissolution of the Soviet Union combined with the severities caused
by the US embargo. It reported severe shortages of needed pharmaceuticals
and medical supplies that constrained the ability of the Cuban government
to service all the medical and health needs of its people fully. But
the Castro government has always had to deal with hardships and shortages
of essential goods and services and most often proved its ingenuity
to handle adversity in innovative ways eventually devising solutions
to deal with them. One way its done it is through government investment
in and development of a world-class homegrown biotechnology industry
done in the state-of-the-art research labs of the Cuban Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology Center. Here Cuban scientists invented cholesterol-lowering
drugs, detection tests for AIDS, a meningitis vaccine, remedies for
hepatitis B, and other new pharmaceuticals. The Cuban people reap the
benefit of these discoveries free of charge and the government earns
needed foreign exchange reserves by exporting these products to ready
world buyers for them outside the US.
The Cuban people have every
reason to be proud of the quality and breath of their health care delivery
system. It's world-class in stature as is the country's education system
that's also totally free to all Cubans to the highest university level
and shows Fidel Castro's commitment to the wisdom of Diogenes who said
"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."
Castro offers these services not just to his own people but uses them
to export as well to other nations needing them, particularly in the
region, as a means of barter trade in return for essential products
Cuba needs to import like oil from its ally Venezuela.
Just how good education is
in Cuba is seen in a report on it by the Latin American Center for the
Evaluation of the Quality of Education which is part of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It showed
Cuban students achieved nearly double the scores in math and literature
of any of the other 14 Latin American or Caribbean nations currently
in the organization. It does it because the Castro government is committed
to delivering first class education to all in the country and mandates
the right to it for everyone in Article
51 of the Cuban Constitution.
It says: "Everybody
has a right to education. This right is guaranteed by the extensive
and free system of schools, part-time boarding schools, boarding schools
and scholarships in all types and at all levels of education, by the
free provision of school materials to every child and young person regardless
of the economic situation of the family, and by the provision of courses
suited to the student's aptitude, the requirements of society and the
needs of economic and social development." The quality of teaching
is also high, and class sizes are much lower in number than in the US,
and they may get down as low as 15 on average to allow Cuban teachers
more time to spend with their students than their US, Latin American
and Caribbean counterparts.
Cuba has also virtually eliminated
illiteracy (as has Venezuela with the help of thousands of Cuban teachers
sent to the country) while in the US the Department of Education cites
a functional illiteracy rate of 20% of the population. But that figure
excludes a far higher percentage of the high-school educated population
that can only read at an elementary school level and when seeking entrance
to college must get remedial help to qualify. The same high percentage
of US high school graduates also shows up on low-rated math skills,
again requiring remedial help to advance to to the college level.
The Cuban education system
is much different. It's not just the best in the hemisphere, but it's
one that emphasizes breath as well as quality. All students receive
education in math, reading, the sciences, arts, humanities, social responsibility,
civics and participatory citizenship. The aim is to give all Cubans
the skills they need to make them better and more productive citizens.
Its done so they may contribute as adults to helping the nation improve
and further develop its impressive programs in health, education, the
sciences, ecology, agriculture and the arts.
The results are impressive,
yet life is still hard for the average Cuban because of the US embargo
against the country. It prevents many goods from entering, including
essential ones like certain foodstuffs and drugs, that would ease conditions
and make them more tolerable. It also makes many of those that do come
in more costly because of the greater transportation cost to get them
there from distant places like Europe.
Nonetheless, and in spite
of the overwhelming obstacles it faces, the Castro government has been
committed to serving the basic needs of the Cuban people and through
the years has been innovative and unrelenting in finding ways to do
it well. As a result, the government always managed to avoid a humanitarian
disaster by maintaining in place the pillars of its social model that
affirm a priority to human development and essential needs. Besides
its world-class health care and education systems, Cubans are assured
a nutritious food supply at affordable prices and availability of it
free in schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly. The Cuban government
also maintains a commitment to scientific research that will produce
benefits for the people as well as attention to cultural development.
And it's done it all and more in spite of the severe budgetary constraints
under which it must function making the achievements all the more impressive.
Fidel Castro's commitment
to his people was expressed in Law Number 49 passed one month after
he assumed power. It stipulated that the government would provide social
services to those needing them. The current law assures special assistance
(including financial help) will be provided to the most vulnerable groups
in need to include the elderly, persons unable to work and single mothers.
The Constitution also mandates that all its citizens are to be treated
equally under the law, removed restrictions on religious belief from
the Constitution in the early 1990s allowing Cubans the right to freely
express and practice their religious beliefs as long as they're not
opposed to the socialist principles of the state, and commits the government
to assuring all its people have the right to a job and access to sports
and culture. As a result, the country has full employment and no homeless
people on the streets which compares to its rich northern neighbor that
has a considerable problem in both areas but does almost nothing to
address them.
What May Lie Ahead For Cuba and Its People
A watershed moment may have
arrived for Cuba with the July 31 announcement that Fidel Castro underwent
major surgery for what may have been stomach cancer. In official post-operative
statements by officials and Fidel himself, the surgery went well and
recovery is proceeding normally although it may be long and uncertain.
That certainly is true for a man who on August 13, turned 80. In the
pictures released of the Cuban leader he looked fine but not feisty
as he likely would have prior to his surgery. At this point, it's likely
neither he nor his doctors are certain what his prognosis is, but they
and the Cuban people know one thing for sure. All his life Fidel Castro
has been an unrelenting committed fighter, and he's not likely to change
now, especially as his life and welfare may hang in the balance.
Still, Cuba seems certain
to be approaching a critical moment in its post-Batista history. It
now must address the issue of succession, its commitment to its socialist
principles and how it will relate to the rest of the world, especially
the US that's totally committed to regime change in the island state
and a return of the country to its oppressive former rule by the interests
of capital. What may unfold ahead is anyone's guess so here's one to
consider. Before the Castro revolution, the Cuban people had only known
decades of exploitation, repression and no attention paid to the most
basic of human social needs. But since Fidel Castro came to power they've
gotten them, and it hardly seems likely they'll ever willingly give
them up without a fight. The US may be planning to return the Cuban
state to its ugly past, but the best guess ventured here is it won't
happen because Cubans won't allow it to. The great majority of them
support Fidel Castro and all he's done for them. They know he won't
rule the island forever, and if now is the time for him to step aside,
they expect and no doubt will get a new leader as fully committed to
serving them as the man who more than any other leader in the past half
century is a living legend. Alive or passed on, Fidel Castro will be
a great symbol and hero to the Cuban people. They're not likely ever
to want to let his legacy die.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blogspot at sjlendman.blogspot.com.