Castro's
achievements should
be allowed to live on
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
August 9, 2006
LONDON - Live or die, the Cubans of
Miami seem to have put the champagne on ice. Just to be
reminded of Fidel's mortality is apparently enough.
Nearly all are convinced that the erstwhile guerrilla of
the Sierra Maestra, scourge of John F. Kennedy, tail
wager of the Soviet Union, unregretful catalyst for a
barely avoided superpower nuclear war, sower of
discontent from one Andean peak to another, and the last
surviving caudillo of Latin America, is finally in sight
of his comeuppance.
No man is an island, not even in
the lush and potentially self-sufficient Caribbean. Cuba,
during its first difficult decades after the revolution
would not have survived without a political mentor and a
military protector in Moscow. But then it could not have
survived without a tolerant Europe that always refused to
sign up for the American embargo. Even among moderate
opinion in Europe, Fidel was more the lead in a
politico-romantic drama than a threat to the soft
underbelly of the United States. My neighbours in my
Tenerife house tell me Raúl Castro has been a
regular visitor even during the years of conservative
Spanish governments to his relatives who live
nearby.
Besides, Castro was always liked by
most of his people. He has given Cubans tangible
improvements on the most important things of life-
education and health. He has never been an East German
Honnecker, grey, tyrannical, aloof and unyielding. Yes,
he has locked up dissidents and on occasion had them
tortured. But he has long allowed the Catholic Church a
good deal of freedom and he always kept a certain
distance from Moscow, constantly reminding the Cubans
that it was their home-grown revolution that overthrew
the run-the-country-like-you-run-a-casino bad guys of the
dictator Batista, not some heavy-footed "liberating"
outsiders. "You know who I mean!"
Castro has charm, charisma, style
and a lot of show, all the things that the no European
Communist ever had. I have on my study wall a photo of my
closest Latin American friend, a nun, Valéria
Rezende, sitting chatting to an alert looking Fidel. He
makes himself look boyish and humble even though this
photo is only ten years old. Valéria was on a
visit to Cuba to look at the role of women. Castro heard
her speak at the opening day of the conference and
invited her home. She chatted alone with him for three
hours, being gently quizzed by the maestro on the
socio-political life of the depressed, backwaters of
Brazil where Valeria works, inspiring young people to
fight for a better life. The next day he invited her
again for another chat. This is how he worked.
The danger of the blanket hostility
towards Fidel that has long been de rigueur in Washington
is that it always misses the opportunities for
détente. Although today Castro still supports the
likes of Chávez in Venezuela and Morales in
Bolivia it is a long time since he has unleashed his
revolutionary fervour on the South American mainland. By
1990 his continental colleagues were relaxed enough to
vote Cuba the traditional Latin American-held seat on the
UN Security Council.
Washington has never forgiven him
for his African interventions, in Ethiopia and Angola in
particular. But the fact is the South African government
only agreed to withdraw its invading force in Angola,
where it was fighting in support of the rightist forces
of Savimbi's anti-government movement and also seeking to
undermine SWAPO, based in Angola, struggling to wrest
Namibia from South African rule, after being stalemated
by the Cuban army and air force. At that point South
Africa decided to take up the compromise proposals that
had been on the table for four years. Arguably without
that Cuban daring-do white rule would still be in the
saddle in South Africa. It turned the tide.
Castro has presided over many years
of bad economic times. His communist convictions
repressed even the smallest kind of individual
initiative. Yet time, if anything, is now working in his
favour. Opening the island to tourism has been a great
success, even if very few Americans can take advantage of
it. Like Brazil and Chile Cuba is benefiting from the
rise in commodity prices. Castro's friendship with Chavez
is giving Cuba low cost oil in return for Cuba providing
more than 20,000 doctors, dentists and sports trainers to
work in the poorer areas of Venezuela.
Washington will make a grievous
error if it believes it can bag a quick success by taking
advantage of Fidel's illness. Change has to come to Cuba.
But the Cubans who live on Cuban soil must be allowed to
do it on their own if bloodshed and chaos are to be
avoided and the good and useful things that Castro has
achieved are not to be destroyed.
Copyright © 2006 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
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