Fidel Castro Page 14

  That Obama did not meet with Fidel Castro during his March 2016 visit was not a slight on Fidel. For one, it was correct form for the leader to meet with the country’s leader, Raul Castro. Also, Fidel’s health had been steadily deteriorating since relinquishing his control of the country. Obama said, “If his health was good enough that I could meet with him, I’d be happy to meet with him, just as a symbol of the end of the—or, the closing of this Cold War chapter in our mutual histories.”

  How this new relationship will thrive or strain remains to be seen as Barack Obama is about to leave the office of the presidency and a less sympathetic president, Donald J. Trump, is about to take up where Obama left off. It’s likely this new type of relationship will stall several more years before it can develop, or it will revert back to where it was when John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro established the decades-long non-relationship between the countries.

  Whatever happens, it will take time and perspective to fully realize Fidel Castro’s ultimate impact on Cuba and the small nation’s connection to the world. Said Barack Obama in his statement following Castro’s death, “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.”

  But how would the death of El Comandante immediately impact the world?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  THE FINAL FAREWELL

  “[O]ur lives are but a fraction of a historical second, which must also be devoted in part to the vital necessities of every human being. One of the characteristics of this condition is the tendency to overvalue its role, in contrast, on the other hand, with the extraordinary number of persons who embody the loftiest dreams.”

  On November 25, 2016, Fidel Castro passed away peacefully at the age of 90. Raul Castro’s announcement was greeted with mixed emotions around the world. Castro made a significant impact all over the world, over two centuries. While he is gone, that impact will live on.

  Did anyone ever think the world would be free of him? He was certainly aware of how many enemies he had, and how hot a target he’d been for many governments and others. Did anyone, including Fidel, believe that death would come from natural causes?

  In 1988, he quipped, “I think I hold the dubious record of having been the target of more assassination attempts than any politician, in any country, in any era … The day I die, nobody will believe it … If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.” All told, Fidel Castro survived over 600 assassination attempts, according to Cuban officials.

  He died as he lived: with no regrets. Castro has said, “I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I’d do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.”

  The strong convictions from which he never wavered made him villain to most but a hero to many. One controversial set of comments came from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Upon learning of Fidel’s passing, he made a statement expressing “deep sorrow” over the loss of “… a larger-than-life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and health care of his island nation.”

  Many Americans were shocked and even angry at Trudeau’s words, but for Trudeau, “I know my father [late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau] was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honor to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.” Despite the common understanding that Canada has always had a friendlier relationship with the Castros and Cuba, the apparent admiration and even affection in his statement created an uproar for the young prime minister that doesn’t show signs of cooling any time soon.

  Like him or revile him, Castro made some incredible social strides for his country, though, perhaps in true socialist spirit, did not believe it was him, Fidel, that made these things happen. As he said, “Men do not shape destiny. Destiny produces the man for the hour.”

  He was in power nearly five decades. He outlasted 11 U.S. presidents. He created a system with free access to strong health care for all Cubans. Education is strong and also free. Castro has said that “even prostitutes have college degrees.” Passing the baton to brother Raul was the first sign that he was ready; retiring from any role in government in 2008 was more telling. Castro said, “I think that a man should not live beyond the age when he begins to deteriorate, when the flame that lighted the brightest moment of his life has weakened.”

  In stark contrast to the remains of other communist dictators lying in state, Castro was cremated the day after his death, on Saturday, November 26, 2016, at his own request. “I’m not attached to anything,” Castro said, and it makes sense that he would have chosen cremation. “I’m attached to what it feels it’s my duty, to do my duty. I think that I will die with the boots on.”

  A national nine-day mourning period commenced following Castro’s death, and his ashes were interred following a small private ceremony on Sunday, December 4, 2016.

  How his revolution and the United States’s recent friendly relations with Cuba will survive Fidel’s mortality, however, remains to be seen.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CUBA AND THE U.S.: A SHAKY FUTURE

  “With what moral authority can [the U.S.] speak of human rights … the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; where the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated … Where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings.”

  While throughout his presidency, Barack Obama alluded to improving U.S. relations with Cuba, that may be coming to an end along with the end of his presidency. One imagines that a Hillary Clinton victory would have meant a continuation of the restorative work Obama began, but how a Trump administration might attack this initiative could be summed up in the attack Tweet Trump himself posted upon learning of Fidel Castro’s death: “Fidel Castro is dead!”

  A simple statement, made with enthusiasm, and the disdain further concretized in Trump’s official statement, in which he explains that he will be rolling back any alliance-ship advances already made by the previous administration. “The world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty, and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

  There hasn’t been a discussion or meeting planned at the time of this writing between the leader of Cuba and the new leader of the Free World. There likely won’t be.

  Fidel Castro was not a supporter of American politics by and large, but he was always more receptive to American Democrats and Democratic policy. He actually made this statement in 2012, when Barack Obama ran for his second term against Mitt Romney: “The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is—and I mean this seriously—the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been.” He did not make a formal statement when the 2016 election went to the Republican candidate, though in his writings even weeks before his death, he appeared to support a Clinton presidency. “The first debate two weeks ago caused a stir. Mr. Trump, who presents himself as having expert ability, was left discredited as much as Barack (Obama) is in his policies.”

  One thing is fairly certain: If more work is going to be done to try to improve relations between the two nations, it’s going to have to fall on two leaders who may not be all that interested in creating a friendly alliance—a fact on both sides of the divide. Fidel had said, “You Americans keep saying that Cuba is 90 miles from the United States. I say that the United States is 90 miles from Cub
a and for us, that is worse.” Both governments have each regarded the other as the enemy. What could cause this to change?

  There have been small moments throughout the years where it seemed the two governments could make their peace. There was even a point where Castro made a comment that made capitalism think there was a victory. He said, “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” but he quickly backtracked on that, stating that any nation and economic system could use a change. He clarified his statement this way. “My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system no longer works for the United States or the world. How could such a system work for a socialist country like Cuba?” The explanation doesn’t quite align with the original statement, but for Castro, it was explanation enough.

  Castro did not live in a bubble; he followed the state of American politics fairly closely. In fact, during Jeb Bush’s run for the presidency, Castro made a comment about his weight. The criticism incited ire, which he smoothly and skillfully spoke to defect. “Forgive me for using the term ‘fat little brother’” he said. “It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don’t you think? I’m doing this for the gentleman’s health.”

  Likely he was doing it for both reasons, though he had long stood against people who criticize without action. Fidel has said, “All criticism is opposition. All opposition is counter-revolutionary.” He has criticized the United States and capitalism the world over for doing exactly, ironically, what his critics have taken Fidel to task for: oppressing the masses.

  Fidel wondered:

  “Why do some people have to go barefoot so that others can drive luxury cars? Why are some people able to live only 35 years in order that others can live 70 years? Why do some people have to be miserably poor in order that others can be extravagantly rich? I speak for all the children in the world who don’t even have a piece of bread.”

  For him, capitalism was the root of all evil, and that philosophy carries through in his legacy to Raul Castro and likely to the next head once Raul can no longer rule. Castro believed that capitalism took freedom and perspective away. Castro said, “A large percentage of those living in developed societies are told what brand of soda they should drink, what cigarettes they should smoke, what clothes and shoes they should wear, what they should eat and what brand of food they should buy. Their political ideas are supplied in the same way. Every year a trillion dollars is spent on advertising.” For Castro, capitalism meant being fed what the government and business wanted you to eat. Interesting, as capitalism makes the same criticism of socialism and communism.

  One of the more interesting differences between the Castro and staunch supporters of capitalism like Trump, however, is that Fidel Castro realized in his lifetime that it would be impossible to eradicate the planet of capitalism—and impossible for capitalism to overtake socialism without irreversible and even apocalyptic measures being put in place. Castro said, “I don’t think that the contradictions between capitalism and socialism can be resolved by war. This is no longer the age of the bow and arrow. It’s the nuclear age, and war can annihilate us all. The only way to achieve solutions seems to be for the different social systems to coexist.”

  Still, the effects of capitalism for the ones who were not “winning” at the game weighed heavily on Castro. “Nowhere in the world, in no act of genocide, in no war, are so many people killed per minute, per hour, and per day as those who are killed by hunger and poverty on our planet,” he had said.

  For all the criticisms of the Cuban government, the fact remains that the small island nation has made great strides in science and medical research, and strives to educate all of its citizens. In fact, the sense of impending climate danger is more widely held in Cuba than in the United States, and climate change has been a fundamental concern for Cuba for many years. Fidel also used climate change as a way to advance his own agenda, as he had believed, “The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet.”

  A big concern for Americans now is the feeling that First Amendment rights are going to be threatened by a new kind of administration, and anyone who fears that can side with Castro in why he believed so strongly in freedom of the press. Castro said, “The first thing dictators do is finish free press, to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship.” It will be interesting to see how this will work itself out, and if the United States will be in the unique position of actually agreeing with Fidel Castro about something.

  Another social issue that was important to Castro which may or may not still get the right kind of attention is how mental illness is handled in the United States. Said Castro, “The percentage of mentally disturbed people in the United States is very high. From the time the American gets up in the morning, he feels as if someone is trying to influence his will in some way; he is a person with a thousand pressures. The Americans live under a great strain … and have great feelings of frustration.” For Castro, in explaining it this way, these illnesses are a direct result of the desire to have and consume as much as possible—the way of capitalism. Quickly put: Capitalism is crazy-making.

  No surprises there. What will be surprising, however, in going forward in a world without Fidel Castro if his policies and practices become actively annihilated, if they passively break away due to neglect and disinterest, or if they find a way to morph into something less severe and more socially digestible—if the “good” he tried to do could actually find a way to get done.

  For Fidel Castro, this would mean action, lots of continual action. Ideas are all well and good, but without people actually working to put those ideas into action, they are essentially useless. As Castro has said, “Whoever hesitates while waiting for ideas to triumph among the masses before initiating revolutionary action will never be a revolutionary. Humanity will, of course, change. Human society will, of course, continue to develop—in spite of men and the errors of men. But that is not a revolutionary attitude.”

  In Castro’s mind, he wasn’t ever a “bad” person. He was an agent of change. Being a revolutionary doesn’t make a person evil—it makes them effective.

  No matter what means he used to effect the change he needed to see, for him the destination far outweighed the journey, and the decisions and sacrifices—his own, or making others sacrifice—he made on the way to arrive where he needed to get, and to bring his country along with him, were all worth it in the end, because, in his mind, Cuba became a thriving utopia where science and social justice reigned supreme.

  Late in his life, Castro was apologetic for at least one of his social misunderstandings. He believed that gays could be converted, and subjected many Cubans to horrible experiences of conversion. When he realized he was wrong, he owned it. “If someone is responsible, it’s me,” he said of that socially scarring snafu.

  Whatever his legacy, it can’t be denied that his impact was far-reaching and affecting, and will resonate for years to come.

  EXCERPTS FROM CASTRO’S SPEECHES

  HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE ME

  Spoken in Santiago de Cuba on October 16th, 1953.

  Mark of Truth

  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 I will be silenced for many years; 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.

  From a shack in the mountains on Monday, July 27th, I listened to the dictator’s voice on the air while there were still 18 of our men in arms against the government. Those who have never experienced similar moments will never know that kind of bitterness and indignation. While the long-cherished hopes of
freeing our people lay in ruins about us we heard those crushed hopes gloated over by a tyrant more vicious, more arrogant than ever. The endless stream of lies and slanders, poured forth in his crude, odious, repulsive language, may only be compared to the endless stream of clean young blood which had flowed since the previous night—with his knowledge, consent, complicity and approval—being spilled by the most inhuman gang of assassins it is possible to imagine. To have believed him for a single moment would have sufficed to fill a man of conscience with remorse and shame for the rest of his life. At that time, I could not even hope to brand his miserable forehead with the mark of truth which condemns him for the rest of his days and for all time to come. Already a circle of more than a thousand men, armed with weapons more powerful than ours and with peremptory orders to bring in our bodies, was closing in around us. Now that the truth is coming out, now that speaking before you I am carrying out the mission I set for myself, I may die peacefully and content. So, I shall not mince my words about those savage murderers.

  A Worse Tyranny

  Many decent military men are now asking themselves what need that Armed Forces had to assume the tremendous historical responsibility of destroying our Constitution merely to put a group of immoral men in power, men of bad reputation, corrupt, politically degenerate beyond redemption, who could never again have occupied a political post had it not been at bayonet-point; and they weren’t even the ones with the bayonets in their hands …