Untitled Document
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
some of what Amnesty reports may be true, it's also important to note what it
leaves out. It pays little attention 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. Amnesty also doesn't
explain how the US recruited and used various non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) to act as spies under the cover of their supposed missions. The Cuban
government has every right to arrest, prosecute and imprison the ones they catch
committing these acts of subversion against the island state for the US authorities
that hired them, and Amnesty and other human rights groups fail to fulfill their
obligation for full disclosure by not explaining this.
Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has also been a US target for elimination but charted
a somewhat 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
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blogspot at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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