Castro came to public notoriety with the backing of the United States when he first attempted to overthrow the military coup under Batista in 1953. Cubans had been reeling for change ever since the Spanish-American war and Castro capitalised on their desperation but what replaced it was far short of liberation.
It wasn’t difficult to turn people against Batista (who himself usurped power in 1952) and Castro had gained international attention when he led a failed attack in Santiago De Cuba against a Cuban military base. Released after just two years of prison, he would leave the country with his brother Raul to raise money in Miami and build forces in Mexico to organise another invasion.
Hindsight is a great thing, televising Castro’s trial transformed his handful of supporters into a revolution that rallied the country. After he returned to Cuba with Che Guevara in 1956 he was able to gain even further support among the poorer factions of the country. Our second mistake came after Castro took power, the embargo that followed his assent became the greatest resource for Castro to continue both the regime and the police state. "It’s not socialism that fails Cuba it’s the blockade".
Being one of the few to impose communism from within the country sans an invasion from the Soviets, Castro would never willingly concede defeat. When the US became unwilling to trade with Cuba, Guevara who became head of the Cuban national bank signed a trade deal with the Soviet Union. Their subsidies propped up the Cuban economy until the end of the Cold war which, after an abrupt end brought them to the brink of famine. Still, even when Castro resigned, a decade and a half later the economy was stagnant and income per head was lower than most of Latin America but as one of the richest men alive I can’t help but notice he didn’t do so bad.
Soon "Elecciones y que" became the mantra "Elecctiones y que", "Elections so what". It was understandable why the Americans imposed the blockade, even though I feel it was the wrong thing to do. But before Castro could build relations with the Soviet Union, he would sink even lower. He publicly opposed the Prague spring, and later the Velvet Revolution that would overthrow the dictatorship in Czechoslovakia and reestablish itself as an independent democratic state. In part, this was just a political move but it wasn’t unlike him to support a totalitarian ideology, not only in Cuba and Prague but also through his backing of both the IRA and the FARC.
The La Coubre explosion, the bay of pigs and the CIA assassination attempts on Castro life were all exploited for justification to bring Cuba closer to a Soviet-style regime. Though supporters would try and redeem him some favour by reminding us he opposed South African apartheid but it’s not as though the man really cared for the proletariat over political power.
He never submitted himself to the ballot box and not one election was ever held in Cuba. The polity didn’t even have the pretence of being a democracy. Opposition parties are banned, dissidents are imprisoned or exiled, hostile media was shut down, the Cuban administration was filled with friends and family and Cubans remain unable to travel abroad or even to parts of their own country where tourism is popular.
Let us also not forget, that some of the darkest in word history came in 1961 with American missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles "on that imprisoned island" in Cuba, (which Castro wanted to use) we came to the edge of a nuclear holocaust.
Nothing is more unpalatable than listening to a socialist born and raised in the Anglosphere argue that this is somehow justified by the number of hospitals they produce or their education system being better than certain other American countries.
Castro has failed Cuba and even on his deathbed it remains illegal to discuss the economy, to write letters to the government, to report on political developments, to speak to international reporters, to advocate human rights, to visit friends and relatives outside your local area without government permission. Cubans are arrested without warrants, and prosecuted for failing to denounce fellow citizens or for "other acts against state security" which broadens as far as Castro’s mind bends it to.
We can only hope one day to celebrate liberty and freedom in Cuba.
It's also worth noting that both health and education were significantly better compared to the rest of the world before Castro ever rose to power. Cuba had the second largest number of physicians per person in Latin America according to UN statistics in 1958. In that same year they also had 13.5 per cent higher rate of students per 1,000 in habitants. Second only to the United States.
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