Castro was both friend and foe
Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader and president from 1959 to 2008 has died at age 90. Because he was in the background of Cuba’s and international politics for the past eight years, the grand celebration at his death by South Florida Cubans seem anticlimactic.
However, thinking objectively, some may appreciate Cuban exiles celebration of Castro’s death as the end of a difficult era. Thousands fled Cuba after 1960 as Castro unfolded communist policies, including state control of land and businesses, restriction on the free press, arrests of dissidents and cancellation of free elections.
For others, Castro was a paradoxical personality. Some, despite his autocratic control of Cuba, and his fierce reaction to opponents of his policies, nonetheless herald him for his resilience, and tenacity for his ideological beliefs. Fidel Castro never swayed from his belief in social equality for his people. His beliefs brought him strong aggression from American presidents since 1960 when he removed Cuba from being the playground of rich Americans and American mobsters, towards a close relationship with America’s arch-enemy, the Soviet Union.
Cuba’s significance in the international policies of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, and the resistance Khrushchev received from former US President John F. Kennedy over building Russian missiles on a Cuban base almost led to nuclear war in 1962. And, even when the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990’s resulting in Cuba losing Soviet financial and other support, Castro didn’t flinch in his commitment to achieve social equality among Cubans.
For five decades, Castro steadfastly resisted opposition and several US attempts to remove him from power. He remained one of the world’s more tenacious leaders, despite all the hardships Cuba incurred, particularly from the US trade-embargo which denies the Cuban people of provisions most of the free world take for granted.
Jamaicans old enough to remember will recall the influence Fidel Castro had on former Jamaican PM Michael Manley in the 1970s. The recollection for some Jamaicans may be similar to the contempt some Cubans have for Castro. Hundreds of Jamaicans fled Jamaica for refuge in the US because they believed Castro had too strong an influence on Manley. These Jamaicans, and the US government, were weary Manley was determined to transform Jamaica under communist ideals.
However, other Jamaicans will recall the Manley/Castro relationship resulted in Cubans building schools in Jamaica, assisted in developing the inland-fishing industry, provided Cuban doctors and nurses for Jamaican hospitals, and provided scholarships for Jamaican students to study in Cuba. Although in 1980 Manley’s successor, Edward Seaga, reversed Jamaica’s close relationship with Castro, he allowed Cuban medical personnel to remain and work in Jamaica.
Jamaican and other Caribbean people who labored under adverse socio-economic conditions similar to the pre-Castro revolution in Cuba, admired Castro for his outreach to the region. Many have not forgotten Castro’s involvement to have the region provided with oil as oil prices surged. When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to supply Cuba with oil on very soft terms, Castro helped broker the deal between Chavez and the Caribbean to receive oil on similar terms under the PetroCaribe agreement.
Caribbean leaders and people also admired Castro’s will to lead Cuba by self-determination and alternative indigenous economic strategies; and his anti-imperialistic stance.
Despite Cuba’s shortcomings under Castro, it cannot be denied through him Cuba developed a first-class healthcare system. Cuba also enjoys an impressive educational system, and is relatively free of the deadly crime wave some Caribbean and North American neighbors.
Even among the harsh opposition and criticism Castro received in the 1970s, people, mostly black South Africans, will favorably recall his stance against the dreaded apartheid system, and Cuba’s intervention in Angola against that policy.
There’s little doubt that Castro was paradoxical. There’s little doubt some people, including his own Cubans, saw him as a tyrannical dictator. Others, including another set of Cubans, saw him as a friend. He may have made mistakes. Maybe he could have relented his harsh anti-imperialistic policies to allow more international intervention to assist in the development of Cuba’s economy. Maybe if he did, more Cubans would have remained in Cuba. But, very few can deny for over fifty years Fidel Castro remained a colossal figure in world politics.
Cubans in Miami are celebrating Castro’s death, marking his passing as “freedom,” and promise of a “glorious” future. Fulfilment of this promise will need major social and economic development in Cuba. Ironically, this development rests with the US that Castro so opposed. The new Cuba which Cuban exiles expects, depends on policies, including possible removal of the existing trade embargo, of the incoming Trump administration.
