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....and is everything we read about Cuba accurate?
of TheColumnists.com
The lead paragraph in The Los Angeles Times on Feb. 25, after Cuba named Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, to replace him, was fairly representative of the way Cuba has been treated here by the press during the Castro regime.
It read: “Cuba’s parliament signaled yesterday that the status quo of a stunted state-run economy and strained relations with the United States will persist for now as it named Raul Castro to replace his ailing brother, Fidel, as president and chose another aging revolutionary as the nation’s No. 2 leader.”
All of that is true, but the article didn’t
put into perspective the fact that the United States is a significant
reason for Cuba being “a stunted, state-run economy with
strained relations with the United States.”
It is almost forgotten now that the United States quickly recognized
Castro’s government after he overthrew the regime of dictator
Fulgencio Batista in January, 1959. Tensions arose, however,
when Castro initiated far-reaching reforms. He nationalized factories
and plantations owned by United States companies, thereby ending
U.S. dominance of the island.
In January, 1961, the John Kennedy administration broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba, after which Castro declared Cuba a socialist state on April 16. On the following day a group of Cuban exiles trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and armed with U.S. weapons, invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The attempt to overthrow Castro ended in disaster and humiliation for Kennedy. And in February, 1962, the U.S. imposed a full economic embargo on Cuba. The policy, widely regarded as a failure, continues to this day.
Ovcr the years we read much about the suppression of dissent in Cuba. No doubt there has been an often harsh crackdown on dissenters there. For sure the people don’t enjoy the civil liberties we have here.
But a question: if the United States were invaded by a foreign force just after it achieved independence, how much would we have tolerated dissent if we had to stave off an immediate invasion a la the Bay of Pigs debacle? Of note, too, is a new British documentary, "638 Ways to Kill Castro" that underscores Cuban paranoia.
And how good is the civil liberties record of this George Bush administration in the wake of fears--real and imagined--in the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy?
The LA Times lead emphasized that there won’t be any changes in the shift from Fidel to Raul as the new leader of Cuba. It pointed to the selection of 76 and 70-year olds to high posts. Yet, a few days earlier a Philadelphia Inquirer story noted several moves by Raul that indicated something of a change of direction from his brother’s policies.
“As acting president,” it read, “he has encouraged more debate about Cuba’s economic woes, sponsoring a series of town hall-style meetings last fall to allow people to speak out freely about their economic woes and limits on their right to travel.
“He has lambasted farmers for being inefficient. He has criticized the high cost of milk. He has acknowledged that the woefully low official salaries of the Cuban government do not meet the minimum needs of a family.
“He has criticized the level of corruption in the society, even letting state-controlled newspapers publish investigative articles about the looting and bad management going on in many state-controlled companies”
I admittedly have a sympathy for Cuba because of a visit I made there in 1997. I went on assignment from Newsday to cover an Ernest Hemingway Society conference in Havana. I came away with tremendous admiration for the courage and spirit of the Cuban people in the face of their hardships.
The Cubans were friendly and curious about us as Americans. “We like you but not your government” was a constant refrain. We met the woman caretaker of one of the three synagogues left in Havana. She was open about criticizing the government. She lamented that professionals had to drive taxi cabs to make a living. She pointed out deficiencies galore, but admitted she was an old revolutionary, an admirer of the revolution and Fidel, and wouldn’t change.
She pointed out a room stocked with drugs that were being sent to the synagogue by American Jews. She told us they had wonderful doctors at the Havana hospital but that they were short on drugs. “The doctors often come to us for the drugs they need,” she said.
Like most tourists, we were impressed by the Cubans’ ability to keep old, junker American cars running. And there was a memorable visit to a cigar factory where hundreds of workers sat at desks rolling cigars while a man on a platform read from a book into a public address system. .
One of the cynics in our group said, “I’ll bet it’s Communist propaganda.” I went up to the platform and noted the book he was reading: it was the French Devils Island novel, “Papillon.” (It had been made into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman.)
We noted that new hotels were being built in partnership with Canadian, Dutch and German companies-and wondered what the state of the Cuban economy would be if the United States hadn’t tried to embargo them out of existence for almost 40 years at that point.
The Hemingway scholars were given the insiders’ privilege of access to the interior of Hemingway’s house in San Francisco de Paula just on the outskirts of Havana. He wrote “The Old Man and the Sea” there. I noted that among his 9,000 books was “Who Struck John,” a collection of columns by Jimmy Cannon, the sports writer who wrote like Hemingway.
It has been said that Cuba seems to have the same effect on American administrations that the full moon has on werewolves. I try to read between the lines in all the dispatches about Cuba.
©2008 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The cartoon is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted March 10, 2008.
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