Cuban revolution 50
Over the next week, we’re going to see a lot of media pieces marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. The dictator Batista fled the island on 1 January 1959 and Castro entered Havana on 8 January 1959.
A year ago, I spent many weeks reading the 700+ pages of “My Life”, a transcript of over 100 hours of interviews with Fidel Castro recorded with Ignacio Ramonet [my review here]. Then my wife and I spent a fascinating week visiting various locations in Cuba [my account here].
There’s an insightful joke about the Cuban revolution: “What are the three achievements of the Revolution? Health, education and sports. What are the three failures? Breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Certainly the present political and economic situation in the country is neither desirable nor sustainable and there’s a wonderful opportunity to break the deadlock with the arrival in the White House of President Barack Obama.
He has already promised to close the prison camp at Guantanamo on the island. He should immediately arrange for easier access to the Cuban Five [for an explanation, see here] and then order a full review of the case. He should immediately ease the American embargo on Cuba and progressively eliminate it. The whole of the United Nations opposes the embargo except the USA itself and Israel, the Marshall islands and Nauru.
For its part, the Communist leadership in Cuba should response quickly and positively to initiatives from Barack Obama, releasing political prisoners and easing travel restrictions. The reforms instigated by Raul Castro need to be broadened and accelerated, especially in the area of land and agricultural reform.
The people of Cuba are desperate for economic and political reforms and for improvements in their living standards, but they don’t want their country to become an outpost of the United States or a plaything for American capitalism.