Cuba�s curmudgeon, Fidel Castro, is now in
his 80th year, having struggled as constant revolutionary, lawyer for the poor,
the conquering guerilla who overthrew the corrupt President Batista and the
oppressive history he represented in 1959, driving Batista to the Dominican
Republic. In doing so, Fidel also stood up to the most powerful nation on
earth, the US, for the next 49 years, protecting his and Cuba�s independence in
the face of incredible odds. So, hats off to Fidel, one-time baseball pitcher
and bit Hollywood actor. Take a bow, if it doesn�t hurt too much!
What with an
estimated 638 CIA assassination attempts, we find him still kicking at 80,
joking with Hugo Chavez that he never expected to live this long. We find Fidel
responding to George Bush�s wish that �One day the good Lord will take Fidel
Castro away� with �Now I understand why I survived Bush�s plans and the plans
of other presidents who ordered my assassination: the good Lord protected me.�
Checkmate.
Nevertheless, he
recently resigned as Cuba�s president,
a position he feels he no longer has the physical strength to hold. As with
most things, he takes it as a matter of conscience: �It would betray my
conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total
devotion that I am not in a physical condition to offer.�
Yet, despite his son
from his first wife, five sons from his second wife and two daughters from his
mistress, perhaps his life-long love child has been Cuba, which he has reared
through corruption and poverty to worldwide recognition as the master of its
own fate.
But the many of the
one million-plus Cuban exiles of Miami�s �Little Havana� and others see him as
a dictator. I see Castro as a liberator who in his passion to protect the poor
perhaps forgot those of the middle and upper classes who supported him (or not)
once and saw their fortunes and life�s work fade as he nationalized industry
for the �the people.� That impulse
in my humble opinion was love for the �people,� the land, the masses of campesinos whose blood, sweat and tears
nurtured it too long, with scant reward from United Fruit, the casinos, the
Mob, the corporatos and the wealthy elites.
Meanwhile, this
�impoverished� country Cuba has achieved the lowest infant mortality rate, one
of the best educational and medical systems in the world, plus a green and
healthy environment second to none. No wonder. Average Cubans haven�t had a new
car since the 1950s. And those that are left remain in mint condition or are
used as spare parts to refurbish those still in one piece. You have to love too
these people that made do for their political ideals, who were willing to
sacrifice so much to retain their freedom and equality. Hint hint, America.
From birth to adulthood
Born out of wedlock
to a well-off Galician sugar-cane plantation owner and his household servant,
Fidel Alejando Castro Ruz did not become Fidel Castro until his 17th year when
his father, Angel Castro y Argia took Lina Ruz Gonazalez as his bride,
divorcing his first wife. Perhaps tha aura of illegitimacy instilled in the boy
lingered in the man, the sense of the outsider, the disenfranchised, the boy
raised in various Catholic foster homes, far from his father�s house. In fact,
Fidel was not baptized in the Roman Catholic faith until he was eight.
Whatever the reason,
his loss was Cuba�s historic gift. He finished school at the Jesuit El Colegio
de Belen in Havana in 1945. Rumors still float that the 21-year old Castro
pitched for the school�s baseball team and was scouted by US baseball teams.
In 1945, he went off
to law school at the University of Havana and moved to the center of the
volatile political culture of Cuba. In the following years, his passion for
social justice grew. Suffice it to say, the Partido Ortodoxo formed by the
charismatic and emotional Eduardo Chibas, which fought rampant corruption, helped
form Castro�s outlook. Reform was called for and independence from the United
States, which included dismantling the power of the elite over Cuban politics.
Though Castro�s
mentor Eduardo Chibas lost the presidential election, Castro stayed committed
to working for his cause. In 1951, Chibas ran again for president, shooting
himself in the stomach during a radio broadcast. Castro was by his side and
went with him to the hospital where Chibas died. This tragedy spurred Castro to
go deeper into Cuban politics.
In 1948, he traveled
to Bogota, Colombia, to a political conference of Latin American students and
the Pan American Union Conference. A few days later, the populist Colombian
Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated, which triggered
massive riots in the streets in which mostly poor workers were hurt or killed.
Rioting spread to
other cites in Columbia, opening an era of unrest known as �La Violencia.�
Students were caught up in the violent chaos that shook the city, grabbing rifles
and passing anti-US pamphlets to stir a revolt. Castro, pursued by Columbian
forces, took refuge in the Cuban Embassy and was flown back to Havana.
Experiencing the power firsthand of popular insurrection was a milestone in his
political thinking and his life.
The Cuban Revolution
As discontent over
Batista�s coup grew, Castro left his law practice to form an underground group
of supporters, including his brother Raul and Mario Chanes de Armas. The trio
plotted Batista�s overthrow, collecting guns and ammunition, finalizing plans
for an armed attack on Moncada Barracks, Batista�s largest garrison outside
Santiago de Cuba. They attacked on July 26, 1953, a disaster, since more than
60 of the 135 militants were killed.
Castro and the other
survivors escaped to the rugged Sierra Maestra Mountains east of Santiago and
were eventually captured. The tale goes that perhaps an officer recognized
Castro from their university days and went easy on the rebels despite the
�illegal� unofficial charge to execute the leader. Castro was tried and
sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1953. During his trial, he gave his famous
defense speech, History Will Absolve Me,
full of the bold rebelliousness that would characterize the rest of his life .
. .
�I warn you, I am just beginning! If
there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, love for humanity,
love for justice, listen carefully . . . I know that the regime will try to suppress the truth by all possible means;
I know that there will be a conspiracy to bury me in oblivion. But my voice
will not be stifled -- it will rise from my breast even when I feel most alone,
and my heart will give it all the fire that callous cowards deny it . . . Condemn
me. It does not matter. History will absolve me.�
In the prison for political activists (sound familiar?) on
Isla de Pinos, he plotted Batista�s overthrow. On release, he�d reorganize and
train in Mexico. After serving less than two years, he was out in May 1955, the
result of a general amnesty from Batista, under heavy political pressure. Fidel
then went to Mexico.
The 26th of July
Movement
In Mexico, Castro kept his singled-minded focus, reuniting with other
Cuban exiles, founding the 26th of July Movement, the date of the failed
Moncada Barracks raid. This time the plan was to employ underground guerrilla
attacks, a still unknown form of combat at that time. It his appropriate that
here Castro met
Arentine-born Che Guevara, a former medical student and proponent of guerrilla
warfare. Guevara joined the rebels and helped shape Castro�s beliefs, based
on Che�s experience with the misery of the poor in Latin America. His
conclusion was that violent revolution was the only way to unseat power.
The guerrilla war against the Batista government that
followed in cities, towns, and countryside, picked up momentum, supporters, and
the succor of the people. The New York Times� Herbert Matthews came to interview
Castro. A TV crew of Andrew Saint George, said to be a CIA contact, followed.
Thus television plus Castro�s fractured English and charismatic persona, gave
him a direct appeal to a US audience.
Operation Verano
Operation Verano which aimed to crush Castro fell apart,
even though it outnumbered by far Castro�s rebels. At LaPlata, his forces
routed an entire battalion. Despite the fact that Castro�s small army often
came close to defeat, he secretly pulled his troops out of a military trap by
opening negotiations with General Cantillo.
At the Battle of Yaguajay, December 1958, columns under the command of
Guevara and Camil Cienfuegos advanced through Las Villas province. They put off
fierce assaults and won Yaguajay. Defeated on all sides, Batista�s forces
crumbled. The provincial capital was theirs after less than a day of fighting,
December 31, 1958.
The rest is
history
It is not my purpose nor do I have the space to tell the
whole story, which you can find linked in the first paragraph. I would remind
you that threaded with revolutionary conviction and the mantle of the Cuban
people, Castro and his brave men were able to conquer a US-supported dictator,
survive the US itself, and turn Cuba around. In the following years, Castro�s
desire to run his country with a revolutionary agenda made him a US outcast,
despite his celebrated visits here, especially in 1960 when he met with Malcolm
X at the Hotel Theresa in New York.
Castro and Cuba weathered the Bay of Pigs invasion, a reduced US sugar
import quota, and finally a crippling US embargo. This while the rebels
nationalized some $850 million in US property and businesses. They
collectivized agriculture, and sought to work for �the common good,�
unfortunately alienating members of the middle and upper classes. Revolution is
not pretty in that context, unless you are the poor handed a bowl of food,
collective land to work, and have the yoke of corporate oppressors removed from
your neck, making you feel like a human being not an ox.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
and beyond
Having spurned and been spurned by the US, Castro�s
allegiance veered to the Soviet Union, which aided in supporting Cuba by buying
its products, and supplying weapons. Both Cuba and the Soviets crossed a line
when they began to build missile installations 90 miles from Key West, Florida.
John F. Kennedy was swift to tell them clearly, remove them or else.
Khrushchev, if not Castro, understood the full meaning of �or else� and swiftly
brokered a deal with Kennedy to remove the missiles.
It is also interesting to note that despite Cuba�s longstanding
relationship with Russia, Castro privately
criticized the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, duly noted in the
Wayne Madsen Report. So, once more Castro put his money where his principles
were.
Yet, at the heart of US/Cuba disaffection is a clash of ideologies,
which to this day lingers and hurts the Cuban people. But Castro has outlived
the ups and downs, the battles and attempts at peace, welcoming Pope John Paul
II to Havana, perhaps softening himself in his twilight years. He also in that
time has become a friend of Canada, via former Prime Minister Trudeau, which
trades with Cuba. More importantly, Castro remains a hero and the leader of the
Third World, the genuine and incarnate enemy of wealth and greed.
In 1998, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa bestowed the Order of
Good Hope upon Castro. Last December Castro made good on his promise to send
100 medical aid workers to Botswana to fight HIV/AIDS, which is devastating
that country and all of Africa.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian president Evo Morales
called Castro �The Grandfather.� What�s more, Cuba is the only country to have
embassies in all independent countries of the Caribbean Community.
In December 2001, the European Union opened dialogue with Cuba with a
weekend of talks in Havana. The EU lauded Cuba�s openness in discussing
questions of human rights.
Trade with individual European countries is strong since the US trade
embargo on Cuba leaves the market free from American rivals. The EU is Cuba�s
largest trading partner.
Retirement
As capitalism�s loyal opposition or royal pain in the ass, Castro the
communist sina qua non remains a towering if not venerable political figure,
even in his stepping down from the presidency. His human rights record is still
blasted though I don�t think he�s outdone our own in the more than 50 US
military and CIA interventions since WW II, brilliantly noted by William Blum
in his book, Killing Hope.
Cuba as Castro stands at the other end of the political spectrum, being
an island country that has no dreams of empire, and for the most part has, as
Voltaire said, tended its own garden and tried its best to sustain its people.
The impetus, the vision, the energy that has powered Cuba�s pre and
post-revolutionary life has been supplied by its battery and helmsman, Fidel
Castro.
Bizarrely, there are those in the US press, including Forbes magazine, that count him among
the world�s richest people, tagging him with an estimated net worth of $550
million, which is a fraction of Warren Buffett�s fortune let alone Bill Gates�
billions. Castro responded, �If they can prove that I have a bank account
abroad, with $900 million, $1 million, $500,000, $100,000 or $1 in it, I will
resign.�
The President of Cuba�s Central Bank, Francisco Soberon called the
claims �grotesque slander.� He pointed out that money made from various state
owned companies is pumped back into the island�s economy, �in sectors including
health, education, science, internal security, national defense and solidarity
projects with other countries.�
The heir elected
Having said all this, the question of who will take over for Castro when in retirement and beyond was
answered yesterday, when Raul
Castro was named the new president by the Cuban National Assembly. Raul
Castro, Fidel�s brother who filled in since Fidel was sidelined by illness, is
a pragmatist more concerned with putting food on tables than spreading
revolution abroad. The question is will Cuba endure as an independent nation,
or will it succumb to the forces of globalization?
As the New York Times
reported �In his first words as president, Mr. Castro made it clear that any
changes would be limited, promising to continue to consult his brother on every
important decision. He said his brother was still alive and alert, and the time
had yet to come when the leaders of the revolution in the 1950s had to pass the
baton to a new generation.
��Fidel is Fidel, you
know that well,� he said to the National Assembly shortly after it voted him
president. �He is irreplaceable and the people will continue his work even
though he is not physically here.'�
Raul went on to say
that �the government needed to change to survive in the new era. He proposed
putting more power in the hands of provincial governments and streamlining the
bureaucracy in Havana. �Today a more compact structure is required.�"
The
Times added, �But other actions by the Assembly ensured the continued power of
Cuba�s old guard. It not only chose as president Ra�l Castro, who is 76 and the
long-time defense minister, but also selected another veteran of the
revolution, Jos� Ram�n Machado Ventura, 76, as the first vice president. A
former health minister, Mr. Machado Ventura has a reputation as a Communist
hard-liner fiercely loyal to the Castros. And the Assembly re-elected Ricardo
Alarc�n, 70, as its president.�
Or course, this is just the beginning. Who knows who the �non-apparent
heirs� are, waiting less than a 100 miles north. And only god or the devil
knows what�s going in their minds. Meanwhile, all the best to Raul, and to you,
Commandante Emeritus, hero of my
youth. Viva Fidel! To life!
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York.
Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.