By RIA Novosti
Jan 17, 2007
MOSCOW -- Having spent two weeks in Havana, I saw for myself what seemed
quite obvious: after Fidel's departure Cuba is in for a serious change.
The Cubans themselves are well aware of this. The official slogan about
the monolithic unity of Cuban society is no more than a propaganda myth.
Some Cubans are looking forward to change and are already thinking of
how they will adapt to the future reality, while others are sticking to
their old positions and getting ready to resist change. Still others are
somewhere in between. They are trying to be flexible and combine the
accomplishments of the Castro era (which do exist whatever his enemies
may say) with efforts to develop a fully-fledged democracy and an
effective economy oriented to social values.
Only a few people I talked to voiced a different opinion. While
acknowledging Castro's prestige, they argued that the loss of a leader
of such caliber does not mean the end of an era. "We are closely
studying Vietnam's experience, where the party managed to fully preserve
its power after Ho Chi Minh's death," said one of them.
I'm not sure that such a parallel is justified. It sounds more like a
dream. The Cubans and the Vietnamese have little in common, and the
geopolitical positions of their countries are different. But I've
decided to quote this view since it exists among some members of the
Cuban political elite.
Before making political forecasts, let's determine our point of
departure. In other words, let's sum up what Fidel Castro has given to
Cubans, and where he has let them down.
In 1959, the Barbudos brought victory to one of Cuba's three traditional
movements, the radical trend, which considered Jose Marti its apostle. A
Cuban thinker and poet, Marti persistently fought against imperialism
and for Cuba's sovereignty. The two other movements were the moderate
centrists, who merely bargained with the United States for a little more
independence for Cuba, and the annexationists, who wanted Cuba to join
the land of "great American democracy." At that time, both of these
movements lost, but their remnants are still there.
It is possible that these trends will gain momentum after Fidel's death.
According to some sources, about 500 clandestine opposition groups are
operating in Cuba today. So far, they are small and scattered, and do
not exert serious influence on the domestic situation. Their members do
not dispute this fact themselves - I had a chance to talk with some of
them. But this is how the matter stands today. I wouldn't underestimate
the Cuban domestic opposition of tomorrow.
Cuba's sovereignty is one of Castro's major achievements. This was the
main goal that Jose Marti, Fidel's ideological teacher, set before Cuban
society. There is no doubt that Cuba has gained genuine independence
even in the face of permanent confrontation with the U.S. Moreover, Cuba
has managed to protect its sovereignty not only against American
hostility, but also against Soviet friendship. Cuba simply put on a
socialist mask in gratitude for Soviet help, but in reality,
Marxist-Leninist ideas have never had any deep influence on Castro or
his associates, and Cuba's policy has always been independent of Moscow.
Today, it is particularly clear that socialism was just a mask. Granma,
the official newspaper of the Cuban communist party, mentions this word
only on rare occasions, to say nothing of Marxist-Leninist classics. In
the two weeks I was there, I did not see a single portrait of Lenin or
Marx, although I didn't set myself the special task of finding one. But
there were many monuments to Jose Marti all around. Even the
pre-revolutionary monument to his mother, put up by Cuba's great Masonic
lodge in 1956, is in excellent shape.
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_21259530.shtml
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