Tue Dec 23, 2008 2:48pm GMT
By Jeff Franks
HAVANA (Reuters) - Fifty years after Fidel Castro led a band of rebels
to victory over a U.S.-backed dictator, his revolution goes on, Cuba
firmly in its grip, in what some view as a triumph and others a tragedy.
That it has survived may be its greatest accomplishment, given five
decades of unstinting opposition and an economic embargo from the nearby
United States.
Fidel Castro, 32 when he took power on January 1, 1959, has become a
sick old man, many of his fellow Cold War leaders have died and
Communism has almost disappeared around the world.
Yet Cuba's revolution continues and despite the desperate hopes of
exiles on the other side of the Florida Straits, people on the Caribbean
island see no end to its rule.
In February, Cuba managed a smooth succession of power when Raul Castro,
77, officially replaced his older brother as president. Fidel Castro,
82, has not been seen in public since undergoing intestinal surgery in
July 2006, but is still thought to wield considerable power.
Fidel Castro and his rebels were greeted by ecstatic crowds when they
rolled into Havana after chasing dictator Fulgencio Batista from power.
But the early euphoria faded as Castro and the United States became
locked in a Cold War showdown and he allied with the Soviet Union,
imposing communism on Cuba.
The bitterness generated in those early years never went away as Castro
opponents fled to Miami, unsuccessfully plotted his demise and waited in
vain for the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against the island to
topple him.
As the 50th anniversary of the revolution approaches and the government
prepares modest celebrations for next week, Cubans are divided on
whether it has all been worth it.
"History will absolve me," Castro said in a famous 1953 courtroom speech
as Batista tried to end his rebellion by jailing him, but there is
little agreement on his legacy.
To supporters, Castro threw off the yoke of tyranny and brought economic
justice and benefits such as free education and health care for all.
Opponents say he simply imposed a new dictatorship that impoverished a
once-prosperous nation and robbed its people of opportunities.
Almost everyone chafes at monthly salaries that average $20 a month.
Government food rations meet part of their dietary needs, but many if
not most Cubans participate in a thriving black market to make ends meet.
"Fifty years in this struggle and there's no progress," said 46-year-old
security guard Gabriel Mata as he took a break under a tree in Havana's
Vedado district. "We see other countries advancing, but not our own.
There just aren't any options here."
CASTROS IN CONTROL
Others say Cuba is a better place, and will continue to improve.
"People don't remember what Cuba was before the revolution. Cuba was a
country sold out to the United States, where poor people had no
opportunities," said a 61-year-old public employee who gave his name
only as Robert. "The revolution brought equality of opportunity."
The support of many people like him and a strong security apparatus are
two reasons the revolution looks to be solidly in place. Only a small
number of dissidents speak out publicly, and 200 of them have been
jailed. The government views dissidents as mercenaries working for the
United States.
Most Cubans who are unhappy with the government shrug their shoulders as
if to say "why bother?" when asked why there is not more dissent. The
better option, some say, is to leave the country, as at least 1 million
Cubans have since 1959.
The inefficiencies of a centrally-planned economy, lack of incentive for
greater productivity and a general malaise surrounding the aging
revolution have held back the economy.
A taxi driver, discussing the pluses and minuses of modern Cuba as he
wound through Havana's uncrowded streets, summed it up in a positive
way, saying, "The great thing about this country is that if you don't
want to work, you don't have to."
The government places much of the blame for the country's woes on the
U.S. embargo, imposed in 1962 in hopes of strangling the economy and
bringing down Castro.
But critics say Castro's pursuit of social equality turned what was one
of Latin America's most prosperous nations into a basket case dependent
on benefactor countries like the Soviet Union before its 1991 collapse
and now Venezuela.
"They dealt with inequality by basically making all the people poor.
They've equalized poverty, if you will," said Frank Mora at the National
War College in Washington.
Fidel Castro makes no apologies for what Cuba has become, saying it was
required because the fight for socialism is ultimately against an
opponent more formidable than any one man or country.
"In the hard battle for those objectives, the worst enemy is the selfish
instinct of the human being. If capitalism means the constant
utilization of that instinct, socialism is the incessant battle against
such natural tendency," he said recently in one of the newspaper columns
he regularly writes.
Many Cubans were excited about the prospect for change when the more
pragmatic Raul Castro took power in February and instituted reforms that
allowed them for the first time to buy computers, cell phones and DVD
players and to go to hotels and stores previously open only to foreigners.
Since then, most reforms have come to a halt for reasons no one outside
the government really knows.
In a slight reversion to their pre-revolutionary past, some Cubans now
say their best hope for change may come from the United States, where
President-elect Barack Obama has promised to ease the embargo and
possibly pursue talks with Cuba.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel; Editing by Kieran Murray)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/globalNews/idUKTRE4BM3A520081223?sp=true
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