Castro's Death

Fidel Castro died. I get these news updates from the BBC on my phone and I glanced at it quickly the other day. My first thought was “It’s about time; no one has gotten more mileage out of a legacy than that old warhorse.”

Remember the character Scar from the Lion King (yes the cartoon)? Anyone who wants to understand Cuba since Castro need only watch the Lion King after Scar steals the throne. Animals starve and turn on each other to fight over scraps and barren patches of earth. Scar only cares about control and ignores the well-being of the kingdom as oppression and infighting overtake the land. He schemes new ways of getting power and uses crooked associates as poverty and starvation overtake a formally prosperous land.

Lion King is maybe an oversimplification, but only slightly. Art imitates life after all and the Disney story isn’t all that old, early nineties.  Cuba provides a striking real world example of what happens when evil leaders get control of the levers of power. Havana was never a model of decent governance even before Fidel Castro took over though. In fact, it was the rampant corruption of officials during the Batista regime that created the seeds for a Communist revolutionary like Fidel to rise. The government was basically open to the highest bidder; the mafia ran drugs and prostitution there. In the The Godfather: Part II Hyman Roth describes his involvement with the ‘friendly’ regime like this:

What I wouldn't give for twenty more years! Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without Kefauver, the goddamn Justice Department and the F.B.I. ninety miles away, in partnership with a friendly government. Ninety miles! It's nothing! Just one small step, looking for a man who wants to be President of the United States, and having the cash to make it possible. Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel. 

 So the government was awash in mafia money in the fifties and most of Havana’s hotels, restaurants and night clubs were tied in with American business. The Cuban people can be forgiven for wanting to be rid of the corrupt dealings of Fulgencio Batista and his military dictatorship. But once Castro proved a tyrant locking up opponents and killing political prisoners they should have tired of him too. Especially after witnessing the decay, the starvation and the rafts loaded with exiles desperate to leave the failed state. His long reign is an example of how far a country can regress economically and still refuse to blame the leader for the desolation.

We in the US always hear stories about how much the Cubans loved Castro. It always seemed unlikely to me. I understand the myth of the defiant leader thumbing his nose at the United States and going his own way. Being allied with the Soviet Union and encouraging ships loaded with missiles to cross the Atlantic wasn’t just a ballsy move, it nearly started a nuclear war. The so called ‘love’ for Castro had to be rooted in nationalistic pride because what else is there? Industry and agriculture suffered immensely with the trade embargo and only in the last 10 years could private citizens own their own restaurants and actually keep a portion of the income for themselves.

  After that near catastrophe the war against Communism became strictly ideological and mostly fought through proxies. The CIA tried to take out the Latin American dictator with a grab bag of silly tactics, exploding cigars and methods to make his beard hair fall out. Once the Soviet Union fell apart the real power behind Castro (if it was ever really there) ceased and he ceased to be a real threat.    

I’ve already read countless biographies of the Cuban strongman since his death so I won’t retell ancient history. What is important to me is winning the BIG war of ideas. The one that says American capitalism and the democratic process won this battle so admit it! Your poor country is a result of bad policies and anti-free ideas you’ve worked so hard to keep out of the public! This is the long war and I am not sure we can win it now. In some ways these ideological battles are never won, just advanced. The BIG ideas should serve as a signpost in history of how NOT to run a country, how NOT to stifle freedom and how NOT to oppress religion.

There are too many frustrating aspects of Cuban Communism to cover here but the biggest one for sure is the positive reception Castro receives by much of the American press. The press always mentions the universal education that all Cubans get and the ‘wonderful’ health care. The quality of the learning is never questioned, only the amazing achievement of universal schooling is lauded--as if no difference exists in the types of health care or education. Most public schools in the US have a second language requirement for Americans to graduate high school. How many people can honestly say they speak a second language? According to education statistics most American kids know at least one second language; the truth is quite different.

So making something 'universal' doesn’t fix what it is supposed to fix?

Fidel Castro actually lived to see a small victory in diplomatic relations. The president of the United States dismantled much of the embargo and took steps toward full relations in commerce. It is a hell of a thing to walk back when you think of the effort Americans have spent clothing and feeding Cubans who escaped the poverty stricken island. The hope is that Havana looks more like Miami instead of Mosul in 20 years. But Cuba needs a democratically elected government with a non-political police force and relatively free markets. Doing it the way Obama has is doing it on the dictator’s terms. It cements anti liberal dominance and even encourages further oppression from future leaders.

By killing the embargo and starting relations with Havana, the US acquiesces to a cruel government without any preconditions. The worst part is Cuba doesn’t offer the US anything but industries that are a shell of what they were 40 years ago. The sugar plantations are a tiny fraction of the nation’s wealth and the tobacco leaves have been mostly replanted in Costa Rica and Honduras.  Any questions about President Obama’s leftist ideologies were answered with this foolish détente. There is a shred of hope that the Cuban people will get a taste of capitalism and reject communism.

Just like in the Lion King though, nothing will change in the land until the evil and greedy ruler is deposed. Fidel Castro’s death is a positive development towards removing some of the darkness hovering over the once lush island country.