História: Debates e Tendências ISSN: 1517-2856 [email protected] Universidade de Passo Fundo Brasil

Domínguez, Francisco Myths about Cuba História: Debates e Tendências, vol. 10, núm. 1, enero-junio, 2010, pp. 9-34 Universidade de Passo Fundo Passo Fundo, Brasil

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How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Myths about Cuba

Francisco Domínguez *

Abstract His article aims at deconstructing Cuba is not perfect. Blocaded and sub- this fallacious though no less powerful jected to the unrelenting harassment mythology that has been constructed and aggression by the most powerful about Cuban reality, not an easy task military machine of the history of hu- that sometimes reminds us of Thomas manity for five decades cannot avoid Carlyle biographer of Oliver Cromwell, suffering from deficiencies, shortages, who said he “had to drag out the Lord distortions, inefficiencies and other di- Protector from under a mountain of fficulties. However, since literally 1959, dead dogs, a huge load of calumny.” the Cuban revolution has been subjec- All proportions guarded, it must have ted to a defamation campaign that has been much easier for Carlyle to remo- managed to embed a demonized de- ve the mountain of dead dogs from the piction of her reality in the brains of memory of Cromwell that to undo the millions of innocent consumers of mass infinite torrent of calumnies that falls media “information”. This “achieve- on Cuba, when the object of enquiry is ment” has been repeated for five deca- not even yet dead, nor has it fallen into des and the essential elements of such oblivion as it had occurred with the a depiction are that the Cuban regime 17 th century English revolutionary by is essentially an obsolete, fossilized, the time of Carlyle. crumbling, totalitarian communist dic- tatorship headed by a megalomaniac, Key words : Cuba. Revolution. Reality. bloodthirsty tyrant. Such depiction, or varieties of it, contribute to shape public opinion which helps justify US policy against the island and signi- ficantly obfuscates ordinary people’s understanding of the complexities of the Cuban revolution, including the al- * Doctor, Programme Leader for Latin American Stu- most totality of the enormous amount dies and Head of the Centre for Brazilian and Latin of positive features of the revolution. American Studies, Middlesex University, London, UK.

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 Introduction I think its is a momentous occasion be- cause rulers like Fidel Castro somewhat traditionally leave power in a coffin or On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro during a military coup, I mean here he announced that he was retiring as the has basically I think kept his legacy of head of state of Cuba, post he held for ne- revolutionary leadership by leaving un- arly half a century, news which has been der his own terms by helping to usher in a very smooth transition, almost se- welcome with a large number of articles amless transition to his brother and to in the world media openly welcoming his younger disciples of both Castros who political departure from the reins of power I think will emerge on Sunday [24 Feb, in the Caribbean island and expressing 2008] and in the days thereafter to lead the desire that this be followed by a “de- Cuba. So Castro has not only lived to see the institutionalization of his revolution mocratic transition”. The “transition” of and the passage of power peacefully to power from Fidel to his brother and a col- another generation. 2 legiate team, which began with his sudden Many an analyst and pundit explains illness back in July 2006, has taken place this away by – grudgingly – recognising in an orderly manner, carried out through Fidel’s exceptional qualities and seek an existing legal, political constitutional pro- understanding of Fidel himself in psycho- cedures, has provoked no crisis or anxiety logical portraits which will add little to of any kind whatsoever in Cuba itself, has our understanding of the reasons for the had no economic effect at all, and has left political longevity of the revolution. A the Bush administration in the position of more fruitful approach would be to try to powerless if hostile observer incapable of explain Fidel – notwithstanding his excep- having influence in the process that his tional qualities – by looking at the revo- departure may have unleashed. Interes- lution rather than the other way around. tingly, most of the corporate media has co- This is what we endeavour in this article. vered the event with an unusual modicum of balance. 1 It feels as though the media, as well as everybody else, are being com- A jaundiced view pelled to distance themselves and take a longer view in order to better comprehend Ever since the collapse of the So- why and how did Fidel Castro both ma- viet Union, there has been a systematic nage to last so long in power and arran- effort on the part of anti-Cuban publicists ge such a calm and untroubled transfer of to paint Cuba in the worst possible light the reins of government. In interview with which at its worst goes like this: the Cuban Democracy Now , Peter Korbluh of the Na- regime is essentially an obsolete, fossili- tional Security Archive summed up the zed, crumbling, totalitarian communist pundits’ bewilderment thus: dictatorship headed by a megalomaniac, bloodthirsty tyrant. Such depiction, or va- rieties of it, both contribute to shape pu-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 blic opinion which helps justify US policy Cuba to the Union. Polk also encouraged against the island and significantly obfus- and/or turned a blind eye on the activities cates ordinary people’s understanding of of Narciso López, leader of the Cuban oli- the complexities of the Cuban revolution, garchic political movement known as anne- including its many strong points. 3 xationism , which aimed at annexing Cuba Understanding the relationship be- to the US through military expeditions, tween the spread of the view that Cuba is organised from US territory. In 1853 US a decrepit dictatorship run by the tyran- President Franklin Pierce offered Spain nical rule of one man that does not have US$ 130 million for Cuba without success. the support of the Cuban people and US US territorial expansion came to a tempo- foreign policy towards Cuba is crucial. The rary halt between 1861 and 1865 due to majority consensus in the US on Cuba is the Civil War, but continued immediately maintained, legitimised and perpetuated after that when in 1867 the US purchased by such myths. In fact, most things about Alaska from Russia for US$ 7.2 million. In Cuba cannot be understood unless they 1887 President Grover Cleveland proposed are placed within the geopolitical context Brazil the establishment of a Zollverein , a the Caribbean island finds itself in. It has custom union between the two countries. been said with some fairness that the tra- And in 1889, the US organised the second gedy of Cuba is to be so far from God and Pan-American Conference, aimed at the so close to the United States. This can be adoption of a single US-dominated cur- demonstrated not only in connection with rency by all the countries in the continent. the overwhelming presence and influence The commercial and military expansion of of the United States on Cuba since 1959, the United States after the Civil War was but in the close relationship between indeed staggering. By 1890 the US had the the two nations going back well into the fourth largest navy in the world, was the early 19 th century. As early as the 1810s second industrial power in the world, its John Quincy Adams and President Tho- capitals were vigorously seeking invest- mas Jefferson advocated the annexation ment outlets and sources of raw materials. of Cuba because it was a natural frontier The Caribbean and Central America first, of the United States and indispensable for and then, the rest of the continent were the the security of the Gulf of Mexico. 4 Ever “natural” areas for the activities of US ca- since, United States leaders have never pital. By 1890 US capital controlled about quite abandoned the idea that Cuba is in- 90% of the commercialisation of Cuba’s tegral to their geopolitical system and their sugar and about 50% of the Cuban land geography. In the 1840s-1850s President devoted to the cultivation of sugar cane. 5 Polk, whilst busily annexing Texas and So when in 1895 José Martí led the second then half of Mexico (California, Nevada, war of national liberation, the United Sta- Arizona, Utah, New Mexico), was offering tes was anxious to ensure that the natio- US$ 100 million to Spain for the cession of nalists would not be victorious. Thus, the

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 US militarily intervened to “help liberate” confirmed by the events surrounding the Cuba from Spanish despotism and repres- October 1962 missile crisis. As the Cuban sion. The result was 4 years of US military revolution unfolded after Castro’s coming occupation (1898-1902) and the creation of to power, the US political establishment the conditions to turn Cuba into a protec- was gripped by a debate which was to lay torate, which it effectively became in 1903 down the foundations of the framework with the insertion of the Platt Amendment that would inform US policy towards clause in the Cuban constitution by which Cuba for the next half a century. Democra- the United States had the right to military tic presidential candidate, John Kennedy, intervention in the island, should Cubans castigated the ‘softness’ of the Eisenhower “jeopardize” the hard-won independen- administration towards the Fidelista thre- ce from Spain. The US possession of the at describing the revolution as a: “Commu- Guantanamo naval base stems directly nist menace which has been permitted to from the 1898-1902 period of US colonia- arise only 90 miles away from the shores list intervention. 6 Cuba remained a US of the United States.” Republican presi- protectorate until Castro’s revolution in dential hopeful, Richard Nixon, retorted: 1959. The last ambassador to Cuba, Earl “There isn’t any question but that the free T. Smith said in September 1960: people of Cuba – the people who want to be Until the advent of Castro, the United free – are going to be supported and that States was so overwhelmingly influential they will attain heir freedom.” 8 At the time in Cuba that… the American Ambassa- The Wall Street Journal reported “There dor was the second most influential man are at least fifty different Cuban bands in Cuba, sometimes even more important than the President [of Cuba]. 7 conspiring here” and “there is every in- dication that at least some [of them] are Since then, 10 Presidents of the Uni- being allowed to function without much, ted States have tried in different ways to if any interference”. In a later edition the overthrow the Cuban Revolution (without Journal reported: “[…] it’s no secret that success thus far). The need to legitimize this country is already furnishing wea- domestically and justify externally this pons and supplies to anti-Castro forces in policy of aggression against a sovereign central Cuba’s Escambray mountains and nation has led to one of the most ferocious training counter-revolutionaries in Flori- and longest propaganda campaigns ever da and Guatemala.” 9 undertaken against an underdeveloped The US political establishment con- country. The essential view in Washing- sensus on Cuba has not changed much sin- ton on Castro’s Cuba has remained un- ce its beginnings in 1960 but has got sig- changed ever since President Eisenhower nificantly worse under the current Bush ordered preparations for a US-sponsored administration. One of its authoritative military invasion back in 1959-1960. This spokespersons on Cuban matters said in stance was in Washington’s view amply October 2003:

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 That Castro runs a dictatorship which The Economist .12 We have become accusto- denies Cubans their basic rights was not med to see in this reporting what is very a surprise to us. But for many, it was a much a Cold War framework, which finds revelation, and one that has helped us all – Americans, and our allies around echoes in many a politician, in Europe, and the world – to recognize that we all agree within some of the key political structures that the Cuban regime has betrayed its of the European Union. This is well prepa- people politically and failed them eco- red propaganda which is fed daily and re- nomically. We recognize that the Cuban people will be best served by an end to lentlessly through the world media by a po- the dictatorship, followed by a full tran- werful, extremely well funded, overstaffed, sition to democracy characterized by and highly motivated propaganda appara- open markets and the respect for hu- tus of the US government with a coordi- man rights. Our commitment to helping nated structure with ramifications in the Cubans achieve genuine democracy is an important unifying concept, drawing us State Department, the US Congress, the together on an issue more often marked CIA, the FBI, the National Endowment for by disagreements. 10 Democracy and a range of para-state orga- The US propaganda machine not nisations such as the Cuban American Na- only is very powerful but is far broader tional Foundation, as well as a rather large than just what is directly available to number of bodies around the world such as the government, and its message is echo- the Madrid-based Hispanic National Foun- ed with additional strength – not only on dation and the International Foundation Cuba – by the corporate media. There is for Liberty, also based in Madrid. In Euro- no doubt that the media play a crucial pe it involves Reporteurs Sans Frontiers, role in buttressing the 50-year long con- based in Paris, plus a myriad of pro-US sensus on Cuba. 11 But it is even broader states, such the Czech Republic, a few Cen- than that. It has international dimen- tral American countries, and occasionally sions both because the US corporate me- countries such as Uzbekistan, Romania, or dia (CNN, FOX, etc.) are multinationals of the Marshal Islands. This is a powerful ar- the information but also because a great ray of forces, indeed. deal of the world corporate media agree An example of this in Great Britain with the key political message emanating took place on 31 May, 1992, when the Sun- from the US government. Most analysis day Times magazine published a special in the world media in the advanced coun- feature on the “imminent” collapse of the tries contain some, sometimes all, and, at Castro regime. The title was telling: Gone best, at least one of the above myths when to the devil . Inside a picture of Fidel’s reporting about Cuba. This is very much triumphal entrance to Havana in 1959 had the case with British newspapers such as the caption: “Cuba 1959: everything was The Guardian, The Independent , certainly going to be rosy. But far from becoming the The Times , and The Daily Telegraph . One flagship of communist utopias, Cuba has should add The Financial Times , and also sunk to a rotting outpost, where the former

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 compadres live for a bowl of rice and beans leaders and Fidel himself, have over the each day. And they blame Fidel Castro.” 13 years pointed out the mistakes, distortions Notwithstanding the fact that Cuba’s eco- and difficulties associated with their own nomy faces structural difficulties, not all management of Cuban affairs. of which can be attributed to the collapse of the Soviet bloc, it is also true that Cuba The mainstream, corporate has rather strongly recovered from near media portrayal of Cuba collapse and that, 16 years later, its sys- tem has not fundamentally changed and For the purposes of analysis we have yet the corporate media prejudiced view of divided the mainstream view of Cuba into Cuba – such as the one quoted – persists four categories: so resiliently it is necessary to examine 1) Totalitarian dictatorship. Fidel ru- the key components of this view. This is les through the Cuban Communist what this paper endeavours to do. party, which imposes its primacy Before delving into the matter it through the all powerful state se- is necessary to reject the simplistic por- curity apparatus, and a neighbou- trayal of Cuba by a few of its supporters rhood-based spying system over a abroad as a proletarian paradise where population who are denied of their all workers know, write and recite poetry; most basic human rights. where the people dream of Marti and Che a) The oppression of the Cuban everyday of their lives, where the rivers people by this dictatorship is carry chocolate and where all the proble- so great that only repression ms confronted by Cuba’s economy, society keeps them from rising up and politics is due to the island’s capita- against this tyranny; thus Fi- list encirclement and or the result of some del is kept in power by his fea- imperialist plot (or some version of this). red state security apparatus. This is clearly nonsense and, despite the b) Cuba is full of political priso- intentions of its enthusiastic supporters, ners who are imprisoned be- it tends to be unhelpful, mainly because it cause of their political views obscures the reality of Cuba by simplifying and the island is just a gigan- ad absurdum the country’s complexities. tic concentration camp; some Cuba is a poor Caribbean country, with a of these publicists even sug- strong legacy of colonialism in its econo- gest that Fidel is worse than mic and cultural structures (Cuba was, de Hitler. facto, a colony until 1 January 1959), poor 2) Fidelfobia. Everything begins and energetically, subjected, as other Third ends with Fidel; once he is gone, World societies to the ruthless and exploi- the whole of the revolution will go tative consequences of the international with him; varieties or sub-varie- division of labour. Furthermore, Cuba’s ties of this myth are:

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 a) Fidel decides everything: a) The emergence of the market the economy, politics, foreign and of private enterprise is affairs, agriculture, biotech- going to make capitalism bre- nology, cinema production, ak out vigorously in the island; sports, rubbish collection, en The Economist has even su- even street potholes. ggested that it would take 45 b) The death of Fidel will lead to minutes to restore capitalism the complete disorganisation in the island: the time a flight of the state apparatus which from Miami to Havana takes. will split along fractions of po- b) The market reform has turned wer lines, with the army, the Cuba into a massive bordello party leadership, the trade where thousands if not tens of unions, the enterprise mana- thousands of women have tur- gers, the privateers, entren- ned to prostitution and every- ching themselves as warring body is involved in petty eco- factions, situation which will nomic corruption. lead to a civil war, thus neces- c) In comparison with most Latin sitating the military interven- American countries Cuba has tion of the United States. failed to improve the econo- c) Leaders of these very same mic wellbeing of its population state institutions are just wai- and has remained something ting for Fidel to go so that they like two decades behind. (c.f., can begin the process of capi- Miguel Angel Centeno, Socie- talist transformation of society ty or Latin American Studies along the lines of the corrupt key note speech at Leiden, misappropriation of state as- Holland, April 2004); view also sets that took place in Eastern put forward in the Commission Europe. for Assistance to a Free Cuba 3) The Cuban economy, because it (May 2004), official document is socialist, is full of distortions, of the State Department orien- irregularities, inefficiencies, mal- ted to achieve a transition to a distribution, clogged-up state bu- market economy in Cuba. reaucracy and stifling norms and d) Fidel uses the embargo to regulations and has been kept rally the population behind going for so long just due to Soviet the regime using nationalist aid; private enterprise, however rhetoric; in the context of the small, is transforming it from the small rise of a private sector in bottom up. Cuba, the end of the embargo would show up the catastro-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 phic economic failure of the Demystifying the myths communist regime thus brin- ging about its demise. 1) Totalitarian dictatorship. Fidel rules e) The current embargo and hos- through the Cuban Communist party, tility of successive US admi- which imposes its primacy through the nistrations towards Cuba is all powerful state security apparatus, not so much the result of their and a neighbourhood-based spying sys- deeply-seated resentment and tem over a population who is denied of annoyance at having a commu- their human rights. nist neighbour just 90 miles This is the most favourite myths away, nor is it due to the small and it forms part of many an assumption Caribbean island challenging of both young career as well as seasoned the US hegemonic position in journalists in the media in many countries the region, but the inability when reporting on Cuba. This framework (if not the impossibility) they is aimed at creating in the reader/viewer have had to withstand the the impression that the Cuban popula- pressure of the Cuban-Ameri- tion live in total fear for their lives, jobs, cans and the strong lobbying housing and freedom and can be (and are) activities organised around arbitrarily arrested or imprisoned and/or the Cuban American National maltreated for the slightest deviation from Foundation. the political or social state/party dictated 4) Cuba’s well developed biotechno- behaviour. An all-powerful and omnipre- logy establishment and its chemi- sent state security apparatus ensures cal industries are used to develop total an abject compliance to communist biological and chemical weapons rule in the island. with the potential capacity for As with everything else Cuban the mass destruction with terrorist reality is far more complex. Cuba is not a purposes against the United Sta- liberal democracy where citizen’s partici- tes and the rest of the free world. pation counts only once every four or six John Bolton, former US Under- years. With regards to a politically acti- secretary of Arms Control, has ve citizenship, Cuba’s system compared made this accusation several ti- say, to the United States, might be deem mes. Other members of the Bush to fare better since in order for an indi- government, notably Roger Norie- vidual to become a representative of the ga, formerly in charge of Western people, does not require him or her to be Hemispheric Affairs, and Colin a millionaire. And in Cuba it matters less Powell, former State Secretary, whether you are black, white or anything have echoed it as many times. in between, whereas, in the United Sta- Cuba is a rogue state. tes, the record on race discrimination le-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 aves a great deal to be desired. Further- sobedience that would end the Castro regi- more, the level of electoral participation me, produced no political complications of in Cuba is immensely higher than in the any serious kind to the regime. It must be United States where ordinarily, Presi- borne in mind that these elections and the dents can be elected with as low as 26% of Pontiff’s visit took place in a context of the the electorate. And where, sometimes sig- loss of 85% of foreign trade, an immensely nificant levels of fraud are required, such strengthened economic embargo by Geor- as in the 2000 election of George W. Bush ge Bush Senior, a decline of about 35-40% when the disenfranchising of Blacks, La- of its GDP, and near to total economic iso- tinos and pensioners in the state of Flori- lation between 1991 and 1994. There is no da took place on scandalous levels. In the question that the Revolution enjoys enor- general elections of 1992-1993 in Cuba, mous popular support. only 0.27% of the population abstained, Characteristics of the Cuban political 3.03% of the ballots were blank, 3.97% and electoral system: were spoiled, and 93.26% were positively • Universal, automatic, and free vo- cast. In the 1997-1998 general elections ter registration for all citizens with the electoral trends remained almost un- the right to vote, from 16 years of changed: 1.65% abstention, 3.30% blank, age. 1.65% spoiled ballots, and 93.41% of votes • Direct nomination of candidates positively cast. 14 The regime has been ob- by the voters themselves in public taining the lowest percentages of support assemblies (in many countries the in Havana which, by being the capital political parties nominate the can- city, concentrates the worst problems re- didates). garding transport, housing, food distribu- • Non-existence of discriminatory, tion, electricity supply, health care, and so expensive, offensive, defamatory, forth. To the sceptics who would refuse to and manipulated electoral cam- believe this as a genuine expression of the paigns. Cuban people’s will, one can only point out • Absolutely clean and transparent the fate of the Soviet Union or Eastern Eu- elections. The ballot boxes are rope, where not even the most repressive guarded by children and young measures or skilfulness of those in power, pioneers [ like our boy scouts ] are were able to stem the surge of opposition sealed in the presence of the po- to the regime. Once the people withdrew pulation, and the votes are coun- their support from the regime, nothing can ted in public, open to national and really stop its downfall. As evidence of the foreign press, diplomats, tourists, huge amount of popular support the revo- and everyone who wishes. lution enjoys, the Pope’s visit to Cuba in • The requirement that election be 1995 which, to many an observer, was to by majority. A candidate is elected trigger, as in Poland, a process of mass di- only upon receiving more than 50%

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 of valid votes cast. If this result is are represented in the National not achieved in the first round, the Assembly, and the nuclear base of top two vote-getters will go to a se- the system, the electoral circums- cond round. cription, actively participates in • The voting is free, equal, and se- its composition. Every municipali- cret. All Cuban citizens have the ty will elect at least two deputies, right to vote and to be elected. As and beyond that a number in pro- there is no party list, votes are cast portion to the population. 50% of directly for the desired candidate. the deputies must be delegates of • All representative bodies of state the electoral circumscriptions, and power are elected and replaceable. those delegates must live in the • All elected officials must account territory of that circumscription. for their actions. [The electoral circumscription is • All elected officials can be recalled the lowest-level (i.e. local) elected at any time during their term. body ]. • Legislators are not professionals, • The national Assembly elects the and as such do not receive a salary. Council of State and its president, • A high rate of public participation who in turn is both Head of State in elections. In every election since and Head of Government. This me- 1976, more than 95% of those eli- ans that the Head of Government gible have voted. In the 1998 elec- must be elected twice: first by po- tion for Deputies, 98.35% voted. pular vote as a deputy, in free, di- 94.98% of the ballots cast were va- rect, and secret vote, and then by lid, 1.66% were annulled, and only the deputies, also in a free, direct, 3.36% were blank. [ Blank ballots and secret vote. are considered to be votes against • As the National Assembly is the the system, and invalid ballots are supreme organ of state power, and widely viewed in a similar manner, the legislative, executive, and judi- though as we saw in Florida they cial functions are subordinate to it, may also result from voter error ]. the Head of State and Government • Deputies to the National Assembly cannot dissolve it. (Parliament) are elected for a term • Legislative initiative is the privi- of 5 years. lege of multiple actors of the so- • The make-up of the Parliament is ciety, not just the deputies, the representative of the most diverse Supreme Court, and the Fiscalía, sectors of Cuban society. [Prosecutor’s Office ] but also of • One deputy is elected for every workers’, students’, women’s, and 20,000 inhabitants or fraction over social organizations as well as the 10,000. All municipal territories citizens themselves, requiring in

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 this case that at least 10,000 citi- the political and constitutional means to zens with the right to vote exercise have their interests promoted at the hi- the initiative. ghest political level. Furthermore, the le- • Laws are submitted to a majority vel of renewal of deputies at the 1997-98 vote of the deputies. What is spe- election shows a vigorous citizen’s partici- cific to the Cuban method is that a pation: 62.07% of the deputies were not re- law is not brought to a discussion elected showing that the Cuban political of the plenum until such time, by system does not suffer from fossilization. means of repeated consultations The total number of deputies is 609 and with the deputies, and taking into they originate form all quarters of life, so- account the proposals they have cially, ethnically, geographically, professio- made, as has been clearly demons- nally, and gender-wise. 35.96% (219) are trated that there is majority con- women, 99.1% (603) have had university sent for its discussion and appro- and secondary education; 32.84% (200) val. The application of this concept are black or mulatto; 144 deputies work acquires greater relevance when in production and services, 3 are religious it involves the participation of the leaders; 21 are researchers; 38 work in the population, together with the de- field of culture; 40 are members of the ar- puties, in the analysis and discus- med forces; 68 are leaders and officials of sion of strategic issues. In these the communist party and the UJC; 57 are occasions the Parliament moves to mass and students organisations cadre; 47 centers of labor, of students, and work in the judiciary; 150 are leaders of of campesinos , giving life to direct the local Popular Power Committees; and and participative democracy (from 67 of the latter, are presidents or vice-pre- the Cuban constitution). 15 sidents of Popular Councils. 16 There is another reason why people Furthermore, there is another, less support the revolution. Cuba’s popular de- formal, mechanism available to the Cu- mocracy operates in tandem with the so- ban people. When and if the authorities cio-economic rights of the population, that have implemented something they dislike is, the country’s political representation at or disagree with, they make it unwork- the parliamentary and political level is a able or discuss it with the relevant au- pretty accurate reflection of the social and thorities until the latter budge. A North economic structure of the population. This American scholar has researched into the means that individual deputies have an latter, showing how these informal means obligation but also an incentive in defen- always end up sending the right signal to ding the specific interests of the group of pretty receptive authorities. 17 There was people they represent if they are to be elec- a manifestation of the latter with the na- ted in the first place, let alone re-elected, tion-wide discussion about the austerity i.e., students, workers, professionals, have economic policy to be adopted in order to

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 face the near-catastrophic crisis brought industrial production, the private sector, about by the collapse of the Soviet Union. levels of employment, the impact and dis- “During the economic crisis in the 1990s, tribution of dollars among the population, more than 3.5 million Cubans partici- and so forth. One can mention the Centro pated in 80,000 assemblies in which one de Estudios de la Economía Mundial , the million speakers took the floor, raising 500 Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cuba- issues.” 18 And the original proposal was na , and the Centro de Investigaciones de modified in favour of working people. One la Economía Internacional , and the jour- would be hard put to find any government nals El Economista and Cuba Siglo XXI , in the world prepared to have that broad among many others that confirm these as- level of national consultation to discuss an sertions. Such a context is not conducive to economic austerity package that must be the establishment of a police state. adopted, let alone, a government ready to Paradoxically the geographical pro- amend the policy in the light of the discus- ximity of the United States and its highly sion in favour of working people. aggressive and hostile stance acts as de- Additionally, the high level of edu- terrence against generalized repression by cation of the population makes it unlikely the Castro regime against the population and unfeasible the erection and/or the per- of the island. Were such levels of repres- petuation, with any credibility, of a totali- sion to be unleashed it would politically tarian police state (in Cuba or anywhere alienate a sizeable section of the people, else for that matter), particularly because thus creating a potential mass base for US sciences, humanities, arts, and other sub- military intervention. It is because such jects, unlike in the Soviet bloc, were not levels of repression do not exist that the restricted by a state ideological dogma. United States has been unable to seriou- Cuba has 40 universities, dozens of techni- sly undermine the huge prestige and cre- cal and technological institutes, and hun- dibility the Cuban Revolution has among dreds of research centres of every variety. its own people. Seen the issue in this light All of them have a vibrant intellectual life, it becomes understandable why Fidel and with published journals, annual conferen- the Cuban regime have maintained the al- ces, scientific papers, articles, reviews, legiance of the population for so long. debates and such like, publicized widely Any mistake or miscalculation (one to the community in the respective aca- is bound to remind oneself of the tragedy demic or scientific disciplines. A number surrounding the Grenadian Revolution) is of them enjoy a well deserved reputation. likely to trigger the most ferocious and de- There is additionally a vigorous debate vastating US military aggression against going on all the time about the state of the the island. The integrity and safety of the economy, the assessment of existing poli- revolution has been the result of ensuring cies, the balance or otherwise of the ma- maximum political unity within the is- croeconomic factors, foreign investment, land, hence the single party. It is unima-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 ginable that any other political party in personality. Not through fault of himself Cuba will not be used by the United States he has been at the centre of controversy and its allies as the legitimating vehicle to and of the fault lines of the East-West, destabilize and ultimately overthrow the capitalism-communism world divide in revolution. The single party regime is, of one of its hottest epicentres on earth and course, unsatisfactory and controversial in history for most of the post-war era. and it is the one feature that gives creden- There have been several biographies of Fi- ce to the charges of totalitarian dictator- del, most of which tend to portray him as ship. However, in the light of its own 50 a cunning, Machiavellian, egocentric indi- years of experience with the United Sta- vidual whose main, if not only, objective is tes, the Cuban government, with plenty to have absolute political power and who of justification, has been ruling a country would have engineered the gradual elimi- under siege. Suffice to mention the proven nation from the Cuban political scene of US or US-sponsored 638 assassination at- alternative leaders such as Che Guevara tempts on Fidel’s life, the longest and most or Camilo Cienfuegos, who might have comprehensive economic blockade ever contested the position of the Líder Máximo imposed on any nation in time of peace, or whose charisma or prestige might have one military invasion, regular threats of overshadowed him. military attack, a long catalogue of terro- A couple of examples positing this rist attacks, including chemical and biolo- view will suffice. In the inside cover of gical warfare, economic sabotage, and an biography of the Cuban leader written aggressive media policy in the form of Ra- by Robert Quirk there is this gem: “[...] dio and TV Marti, all amply documented, as Cuban Maximum Leader he insisted to understand the consequences for poli- on meeting his visitors at odd hours long tical pluralism that the desperate search after midnight when they were edgy and for absolute unity of the people under such most vulnerable.” In the same book we circumstances has had. 19 also find “from an early age he had exhibi- ted a fascination with violence and with 2) Fidelfobia . Everything begins and ends weapons – the larger the better. Not yet with Fidel. Once he is gone, the whole ten, he took aim at his mother’s chickens of the revolution will go with him. with a shotgun”. 20 You can imagine the rest Fidelfobia has a grain of truth in that of this biography. Even serious works such the Cuban Revolution is so intimately as- as Lea Anderson’s biography of Che put a sociated with the Líder Máximo that it is sinister aura around the alleged disagree- unimaginable to think of it without him ments between Fidel and Che over several being at its centre. The fact that this has issues, notably over alignment with the been the case for 49 years makes the myth USSR, hinting that Fidel had managed all more credible. Furthermore, Fidel has to manoeuvre, persuade or cajole Che into a charismatic, overwhelming, fascinating accepting an internationalist mission in

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 the Congo in the 1964 as a way of “getting ned reverence or deep hatred. This stems rid of him”. Che’s tragic guerrilla adven- from the enthusiasm or deep hostility that ture in Bolivia was part of the same ob- the Cuban revolution elicits around the jective. 21 Jorge Castañeda’s La Vida en world. Fidel can’t help it and he compoun- Rojo (biography of Che) 22 asserts that Fi- ds the problem by remaining faithful to the del simply got rid of him. Another writer, original principles of the revolution. 25 Few who devoted important part of his life to mainstream politicians in the world can do Fidelfobia and wrote exaggerations make the claim to have remained faithful about Fidel for over 30 years, was Guill- to principles. The corporate media, wield- ermo Cabrera Infante, a Cuban national, ing its enormous world influence, repeats resident in London and a literary writer versions of Fidelfobia almost daily. An ar- of exceptional talent. Many of his articles ticle in Time magazine explained why by were compiled in a recent publication with 1993 he was still in power. “Through a the ingenious title Mea Cuba 23 where he combination of charisma, national pride suggests that death is the way of the Re- and repression, he still holds the island’s volution “a revolutionary always digs gra- fate in his hands.” 26 The Economist stated ves. In fact, he does nothing but dig graves “He is all that Cubans have, the personi- -most of the time other people’s graves, fication of the state on which they have as has been amply proved by Stalin, Mao, learned to depend.” 27 and Fidel Castro”. His dislike for the Re- Cuban reality, however, has shown volution that once he enthusiastically su- conclusively, Fidel’s hugely symbolic and pported is unequivocal: “In Cuba dreams overarching presence notwithstanding, are the only private property. On the other that the country is led by a well integrated hand nightmares are all nationalized.” His collective leadership which runs the state fixation is so great that at one point in the machinery form the very top to the very book he says that Cuba suffers from Cas- bottom. It is simply folly to argue that Fidel troenteritis . In fact, Cabrera Infante goes decides everything. There are not enough as far to assert that Fidel is worse than hours in the day, enough days in the week Hitler, which is not just preposterous but or sufficient months in the year for him delirious. It is only very recently that some to be physically on top of everything that balance has been brought in with the do- happens in every field. The cadre who are cumentary by Estela Bravo, 24 Fidel , the in charge of the ministries (now and before untold story (released as DVD in 2001) the collapse of the USSR) impress by their showed on British TV in 1999 to comme- competence, know their field quite well, morate the 40 th anniversary of the revolu- are efficient, rarely doctrinaire about the tion; or, the world-acclaimed documentary running of their individual ministries, are by Oliver Stone, Comandante . aware of international trends, and have a The fact of the matter is that Fidel’s significant input into the decision-making persona seems to provoke either unrestrai- process at the national level through the

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 National Assembly and the Council of ra ”, “Death of a bureaucrat” and “ Straw- Ministers. This is clearly the case in the berry and chocolate ”. With the exception of economic field where José Luis Rodríguez, “Now ”, the other three films take a critical Minister of Economics, and Carlos Antonio look at various aspects of the revolution. Lage, Vice President, and architect of the The same applies to literature where to current economic reform, are the key to the traditional good quality stuff written how the economy is run. The same applies by world-acclaimed Cuban writers such to the field of Foreign Affairs where Ro- as Alejo Carpentier, José Lezama Lima, berto Robaina previously and now Felipe Virgilio Piñera and Lydia Cabrera, there Roque, both ministers of foreign relations, is now a new generation of writers such in conjunction with Ricardo Alarcón, as Leonardo Padura and Juan Pedro Gu- President of the National Assembly, make tiérrez as well as young poets such as the also key inputs into the decision-making “Novísimos ”. process to decide policy in this pretty im- True, when Fidel goes, Cuba will ne- portant and delicate field. The same goes ver be quite the same again. But to imagi- for Education, Health, Sports, Culture ne, suggest or prophesy that once he is no and so forth. Cuba, under the conditions of more there will chaos, civil unrest and di- siege it is subjected to by the most power- sorganization which will require external ful nation in the history of humanity, could or internal (or both) military intervention simply not have survived and achieve the is just fantasy, just as much as the idea enormous development and successes in that the cadre immediately below him are so many areas, had one individual run the biding their time for the moment of Fidel’s state single-handedly as the myth sug- demise to proceed to restore capitalism in gests. earnest. Furthermore, Cuba is a highly edu- cated society whose manifestations can 3) The Cuban economy, because it is a so- be found in all fields such as arts, paint- cialist economy, is full of distortions, ing, music, literature, cinema, philosophy, irregularities, inefficiencies, maldistri- chemistry, biotechnology, medicine, social bution, clogged up state bureaucracy sciences, computing, and so forth. The and stifling norms and regulations and international cinema festival held every was kept going for so long just due to year in Havana causes national and in- Soviet aid. Private enterprise, however ternational interest, with long queues of small, is transforming it from the bot- Cubans who are keen to see and judge the tom up. latest Cuban and Latin American films. This myth has lost its appeal so- Cinema directors such as Santiago Alva- mewhat after the irrepressible rise of ca- rez, Sara Gómez and, the maestro, Tomás pitalism in the island its advocates have Gutiérez Alea, are responsible for cinema- been predicting for the last 13 years, failed tic jewels such as “ Now ”, “ De cierta mane- to materialise. However, it still informs the

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 media images of TV screens and newspa- Cuban socialism socialised too much of its pers around the world when dealing with economy back in the 1960s. These indeed Cuba. The basic idea is that Fidel socialist led to inefficiencies, red-tape, distribution economics have brought ruin to the coun- problems, bottlenecks, technological ba- try and the economy of the beleaguered ckwardness, and so forth. Nevertheless, island. Words usually are accompanied by no fair assessment of Cuban economic de- images of dilapidated buildings, 1950s US velopment will be possible without taking cars, people queuing up somewhere, shops into account the distortions that the US with empty shelves and the like. These blockade brings about, or the inordinate images continue to fill the pages of news- amount of resources that must be diver- papers articles and TV news programmes ted into defence in readiness to the ever- when it is well known that since 1994 Cuba present US military aggression. Cuba’s has been experiencing sustained economic economic inefficiencies and problems must growth, significant levels of foreign invest- be compared, however, to the much worse ment, re-invigoration of its agricultural distortions, inefficiencies and absurdities and industrial sectors, strong expansion of the economies of her capitalist neigh- of its services sector, and steady and solid bours in the rest of the continent. Looked reinsertion into the world economy with at in this light Cuba is a good example of, strong links with the Western Hemisphere at least, what not to do. (except, of course, the US), the European In terms of a national project of deve- Union, in particular and more recently, Ve- lopment, however, the Cuban experience nezuela and China. is rather successful. No other Latin Ame- Having said all of that, the economic rican country has been able to feed, hou- difficulties faced by Cuba after the disa- se, give medical attention, educate, and ppearance of the Soviet Union, especially guarantee a large number of social rights in the period 1991-94, cannot be underes- and benefits to their population as Cuba timated. Nor can it be argued that all of has. Cuba has more doctors and teachers the economic problems Cuba has had be- per head of the population than any other gan with the collapse of the Soviet bloc or country in the world. Cuba’s infant morta- be attributable exclusively to the US em- lity is one of the lowest in the world and it bargo, even though they do account for a is lower than in Washington DC. The mor- large part of them. Although it was not en- bidity structure of the country resembles tirely Cuba’s fault, the excessive speciali- that of an advanced nation such as the sation on sugar cane cultivation and sugar United States’ nor one which typifies those production, are responsible for some signi- of the Third Wold. ficant structural distortions the economic Most efficiency gains made in the has had over a long period. There has un- sugar industry during the Soviet period doubtedly been too much centralisation of (essentially through mechanization) went economic decision-making, and, arguably, to improve the socio-economic conditions

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 and raise the material and cultural levels cians are working in 71 countries in La- of the population. And, although largely tin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Cuban doctors provide medical attention because of the US blockade there are shor- to 60 million people around the world, tages of basic medicines, “The island na- offering services never before available tion is at the cutting edge of biotechnology in some of the most remote areas of these and amazes visiting scientists”, as stated countries. With Cuban help, 300 million in a heading of a Financial Times special people have been treated, two million surgeries performed and nine million supplement. 28 In terms of health provision children vaccinated. Thirty ophthalmo- Cuba compares well even with countries logical centers have been built in eight such as Great Britain. The statistics in the Latin American and Caribbean nations. table are eloquent in this regard. Operation Miracle, in cooperation with Venezuela, has returned the sight to thousands, and approximately 600,000 UK- Cuba medical statistic compared patients have benefited from surgery UK Cuba Population using the latest technology. Just recently 55 million 11.2 million this miracle has been extended to Africa. Health budget as % of GNP 8% 13% Cost per capita £750 £7 In “2006-2007, more than 8,800 new Nº of doctors 74,000 64,000 health professionals received their degre- Nº of GPs 30,000 30,000 es in Cuba, close to 1,800 from outside the GP/patient ratio 1:20,000 1:600 Medical schools 12 21 country, in Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing Medical students annual 4,500 6,000 and Health Technology. This year’s gradu- intake ating class was the third from the Latin Nurses in local practice 10,300 37,000 American School of Medicine (ELAM) and Infant mortality 6/100,000 7/100,000 Children reaching 5 years 99% 99.1% included eight students from the United Life expectancy M 74 / F 79 M 74 F 76 States.” 29 Source: Steve Wilkinson, “The threat is real – why we say As to the predictions that the res- Hands off Cuba”, Cuba Sí, Special Edition 2003, p. 5. toration of capitalism is just around the corner in Cuba, they thus far have proved Additionally, Cuba has thousands of to be thoroughly wrong. In fact, the sta- doctors and other technical workers as- tistics showed that the private sector, sisting Third World countries. Cuba which has indeed grown significantly, rep- maintains cooperative agreements wi- resents about 25% of GDP, leaving 75% thin many sectors with 155 countries; in which the state, directly or indirectly, more than 42,000 professionals and te- is dominant. Furthermore, the dynamics chnicians are offering their services in of mainstream neo-liberal economics do 102 nations. Currently 53,000 young not work in Cuba not only because it is people from 89 countries are being trai- ned in and outside of Cuba. The majority based on socialist foundations but because of the cooperative efforts being under- the chief promoters of neo-liberalism on taken are related to health needs. More a world scale, namely, the IMF and the than 30,000 doctors and health techni- World Bank have no influence in Cuba.

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 That is, world capital is in no position to phenomenon that has arisen out of the impose austerity packages on its popula- market economic reform is jineterismo . tion or privatisation programmes. A cur- Many think that jineterismo is identical to sory look at the rest of Latin America (let prostitution, but it is a broader problem. alone Africa or India) and it becomes im- With the rise of tourism a layer of people mediately apparent why the Cuban people have “specialised” on obtaining hard cur- rency from tourists through semi-legal or cannot be blamed for not adopting capital- simply illegal transactions, one of which ism. By 2003, 44% of the region’s popula- is prostitution. These include from the tion (about 224 million people) had become smiling young man offering Cohiba cigars 30 massively impoverished. Between 1970 as tourists stroll the streets of Havana at and 2004 capitalism brought about a near- exceptionally low prices, to women who ac- catastrophic decline in people’s standard cost them offering themselves as company of living in Latin America. It is not Cuban of the escort type. It is literally impossi- socialism that has failed but IMF-inspired, ble to establish with absolute accuracy Multinationals-led neo-liberalism that the number of prostitutes in Cuba, and has. Argentina, once the IMF-show case in since the regime’s crackdown in 1999 their the region facing economic meltdown and numbers have declined significantly. Fur- unprecedented impoverishment in 2001 thermore, the near-miraculous recovery of the economy has made prostitution less confirms this. attractive to young women. Most informa- It is true that the economic reforms tion of knowledgeable sources put the fi- Cuba has been obliged to take in order to gure at few thousand but they all point out ensure the survival of the socio-economic that any figure is bound to be an under- and political gains of the revolution have estimate. Nevertheless, it is significantly had a significant negative impact on the smaller than the numbers hostile repor- levels of equality that used to exist pre- ting suggests. This is a far cry from 31 the viously in the island. Now some market c laim that in the late 1980s, Cuba began mechanisms operate bringing with it un- to promote its tourism industry to incre- avoidable social differentials with some ase money coming into the country and Cubans earning extra income in hard cur- began promoting its women as sensual, rency (especially those who service the educated and eagerly willing to fraternize tourist industry such as the paladares , with foreigners, implying that the Castro’s family restaurants), or, particularly, in- government had hit a gold mine: selling dependent farmers supplying the cities its women. “ The flesh trade is Havana’s with foodstuffs. Additional to these groups hottest commodity .” 32 Even Bush took the there are musicians and artists and those matter up at a Tampa rally in Florida in who receive remittances from relatives in June 2004 to secure the Cuban-American Miami, who sometimes get pretty large vote by saying “The dictator welcomes sex sums of money in hard currency. The es- tourism”. 33 In typical fashion, Bush did sential division consists between Cuban not feel the need to provide any evidence earning hard currency and those earn- to back up the allegation. ing pesos. Perhaps the most intractable

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 The charge that Fidel likes the blo- ties against the Cuban state, and the CIA ckade to stay in place because it helps or State Department Cuba policies are rally the population behind the regime is many and close ones. From the Bay of Pigs not true either. In this view, with the blo- to the Brothers to the Rescue, it is always ckade gone, the demise of the regime will the US state apparatus that invariably be certain in a matter of few months. The lies behind what the Cuban-Americans do. facts do not bear out such view. Cuba has They have very little independence. It is tabled a resolution to the UN General As- unimaginable that the CANF would laun- sembly condemning the blockade and de- ch itself into the carrying out of terrorist manding its immediate and unconditional actions against Cuba without the appro- lifting, for 16 consecutive years (last vote val or endorsement of the CIA, the State in November 2007 produced an even grea- Department, the Pentagon, and, where ter number in favour than previously: 184- appropriate, the President himself. 35 The 4). Cuban authorities are busily seeking continuity of this type of US policies to- US commercial partners for when the blo- wards Cuba has been subject to informed ckade is actually lifted and trade betwe- criticism by Wayne Smith, once ambassa- en Cuba and the United States has grown dor to Cuba and in charge of the Office of under the very Bush administration like it US interests in Havana for many years did not since 1959. 34 The contention is just once the two countries broke off diploma- unalloyed propaganda. tic relations. 36 At any rate, the Elian Gon- Let’s now deal with the argument zalez case demonstrated conclusively that used both in Capitol Hill and the White Washington can, if willing, challenge and House that the Cuban-American lobby is defeat a committed CANF-inspired anti- so powerful and its techniques of lobbying Cuban political campaign. Gore’s pande- so effective that US foreign policy towards ring to them during the 2000 election only Cuba has been hijacked by organizations proves that nothing short of a break with such as the Cuban American National CANF can begin to create the conditions Foundation that even if the US President for ending the Republican stronghold on was willing to change policy towards the Florida. 37 Conversely the opposite is the island, it would be unable to do so. This case (the state protection being furnished is just false, every administration since to the convicted terrorist Posada Carriles John Kennedy has made use of the exiles by the US authorities must be understood to engineer or justify its own foreign policy as a signal encouragement to the illegal towards Cuba. Both Republicans and De- anti-Castro activities of CANF and its mocratic administrations alike know that allies). 38 the participation and endorsement of its Cuba policies by the exile community brin- 4) Cuba’s well developed biotechnology gs about a modicum of legitimacy in the establishment and its chemical indus- eyes of its own depoliticized population. tries are used to develop biological and The links of the CANF, its terrorist activi- chemical weapons with the potential

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 capacity for mass destruction with ter- ale in Angola in 1987. 39 It is a well known rorist purposes against the United Sta- fact that Cuba’s internationalist military tes and the rest of the free world. Cuba intervention then hastened the demise of is a rogue state. John Bolton, former apartheid in South Africa and made the US Undersecretary of Arms Control latter’s illegal occupation of Namibia come has made this accusation several times to an abrupt end. It is for this very reason already. Other members of the Bush that upon obtaining his freedom Nelson government, notably Roger Noriega, in Mandela visited Cuba in 1991 to thank charge of Western Hemispheric Affairs, Fidel and the revolution publicly for their and Colin Powell, have echoed it as support. At a mass rally in Cuba Mandela many times. said that the role of Cuban internationa- Cuba does not participate in terrorist list volunteers in defeating South Africa’s activities of any kind whatsoever. Never invasion of Angola was an “unparalleled has done. The obvious reason for not do- contribution to African independence, fre- ing so is sheer survival: the moment the edom, and justice”. 40 That was Mandela’s US can prove that Cuba has engaged in very first trip abroad after coming out of any terrorist activity it will unleash the prison. All internationalist activities of most almighty military attack imaginable Cuba have had legitimacy and have been against the island. However, this is not the undertaken selflessly as part and parcel of reason why the revolution has never em- the revolution’s deep belief that the strug- barked on such dangerous as well as sui- gle against imperialism is international in cidal path. It comes from a set of profound nature and must be undertaken wherever ethical values that are based on Marti’s it is possible in the planet. teachings. To be sure the revolution has Cuba, therefore, has challenged and participated in support (sometimes involv- continues to challenge US world suprem- ing substantial military support) of Third acy not only by remaining a society with World revolutionary movements in several a human-centred socio-economic develop- continents, but it has always done so with ment rather than a nation dominated by exemplary integrity and legitimacy. Che the profit motive which so much pervades Guevara not only said this many times but the modern world. Cuba’s internationalism actually practiced it to the point of sacri- has the objective of contributing to the well ficing his own life. Cuban international- being of the majority of humanity, whereas ist support for African revolutionaries did US military interventions are undertaken not start nor stop in Congo in 1964-65, but to defend the narrow interests of the nar- continued up to the decisive contribution rowest group of people imaginable on a in the Mozambican and Angolan anti-co- global scale and with a degree of violence lonialist revolutions of 1974-75 in these and terror unparalleled in history. The reg- countries to the historic defeat of the South ular, and by now electorally synchronised African Defence Forces at Cuito Cuanav- with the domestic US political calendar,

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 charges against Cuba of terrorism, the Additionally, the United States is manufacturing of chemical and biological the only country in the world to have used weapons of mass destruction to be used by nuclear weapons against defenseless civi- Fidel against the United States, are sim- lians leading to tens of thousands of de- ply false. John Bolton, US Undersecretary aths, to have used chemical weapons in of Arms, made the accusation already in inordinately large quantities against Viet- 2002, when he alleged that Havana had a nam and Kampuchea whose effects are “limited developmental offensive biological still wreaking havoc on innocent civilians. warfare research and development effort” With regards to Cuba, The United States and was exporting its technology to “rogue ” has secretly as well as publicly endorsed, nations’. Then again in March 2004 when financed, armed, trained and, continues to Bolton went even further and repeated this day, foster all kind of illegal terrorist that Cuba has long “provided safe haven and para-terrorist activities of sections of for terrorists, and has collaborated in bio- the exile Cuban-American community in technology – including extensive dual use Miami, particularly, the Cuban-American technologies with BW applications – with National Foundation, Brothers to the state sponsors of terror”. 41 Colin Powell Rescue, Omega 7 and such like. In fact as echoed such allegations (“We do believe late as June 2004, “known terrorists from Cuba has a biological offensive research the Florida-based Comandos F4 parami- capability”), despite the fact that former litary organization openly spoke of their president Jimmy Carter, who visited the preparations for an armed attack against island and was taken to the installations, Cuba” appeared on Miami TV Channel where allegedly such weapons were being 41. They were dressed in military fati- produced, had said there was no evidence gues and spoke of training sessions of the of Cuba exporting or producing technolo- group with AK47 semi-automatic weapons gy that could be used for “terrorist” pur- and to be ready to “carry out armed acts poses. 42 After the ‘weapons of mass des- against the Cuban government”. 43 There truction’ fiasco in Iraq, there can be only is a clear policy of tolerance which only one single purpose for high officials in the emboldens terrorist organizations such Bush administration to be banding about as Comandos F4, which is busily setting such accusations, they can with justifica- up a civil-military alliance of a continen- tion be interpreted as preparing US do- tal scale with like-minded elements from mestic and world public opinion to launch Venezuela such as the Junta Patriótica some kind of military attack against Cuba. de Venezuela to collaborate and “exchan- In fact the US has been trying to do exac- ge intelligence and counterintelligence ” in tly the latter for over 40 years and, in the order to fight against Hugo Chávez, Fidel process, has itself engaged in large scale, Castro and Lula da Silva. 44 Judy Orihuela, sustained, illegal and unrelenting terrorist spokesperson for the FBI in Miami, when activity against Cuba. asked about the matter, said that Coman-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 dos F4 are not a priority for them. In 2000 titled “Establishing the Core Institutions on occasion of a meeting during the 10 th of a Free Economy”, with the unavoidable Summit of the Americas, Posada Carri- implication that the violent overthrow of les was “arrested, and later convicted, in the Cuban Revolution is the pre-requisite Panama for plotting to assassinate Fidel of such a “transformation”. 46 This has been Castro by blowing up an auditorium full of supplemented by another Report produced students”. 45 When it comes to Cuba US po- under the direction of Condoleezza Rice 47 licies are double standards with a venge- – which has a secret section – and, asto- ance. If the US authorities had wanted to nishingly, by the appointment of, Caleb prevent these illegal activities that violate McGarry, as coordinator for the transition national as well as international law they in Cuba. could have done. Cuba provides one of the most effi- Conclusion cient collaborations to US authorities in the fight against drug trafficking, has offe- As we hope to have demonstrated, red every help it can to assist the US au- Cuba has been and is currently under con- thorities to combat terrorism, contributes tinued threat by the aggressive policies of significantly in adhering to immigration the United States, aggression which star- agreements with the US to avoid mass il- ted nearly 5 decades ago. The Cuban Re- legal Cuban immigration to the US, and volution took place right under the nose of Cuba is highly cooperative on questions of the United States and against it and its common security to the two nations. And trusted men in the island; the revolution yet, whenever it can Bush – and previous embarked on a quest of recovery of the administrations – flout any agreement national dignity and sovereignty which and break any commitments they may had been lost by the very neo-colonialist have made. They are prepared to trample actions of her all powerful neighbour back over any international law, apply illegal in 1898. The deeply-rooted national aspi- extraterritorial legislation against the ration of sovereignty that has expressed Caribbean island and simply ignore votes itself with irresistible strength since 1868 at the UN General Assembly against the had been frustrated and was accomplished blockade. Instead, the Bush Administra- only with the arrival of Fidel and his bar- tion has produced a 450-page report by a budos to power in 1959. The realization so-called Commission for Assistance to a of Marti’s aim to have a Cuba free from Free Cuba whose Chairman is Colin Po- imperialist encroachments in the 19 th cen- well and which is officially aimed at has- tury was given a very specific socio-econo- tening a “democratic transition in Cuba” mic content in the 20 th century: the social being to date the most thorough attempt to gains in health, education, housing, equa- cause the maximum economic harm to the lity and the rest, which lies at the base of island and which contains a chapter en- Cuba’s difficult, and sometimes proble-

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 matic successes. They are as much part of of deconstruction is a difficult and some- that dream of national sovereignty as the times it feels like Thomas Carlyle biogra- Cuban flag, the national anthem, and the pher of Oliver Cromwell, who said he “had Cuban basketball team. The destruction to drag out the Lord Protector from under of the Cuban Revolution by the US would a mountain of dead dogs, a huge load of entail the destruction of its national sove- calumny […]”. And in the case of Cuba, reignty, including the socio-economic gains the object of enquiry is not even yet dead, of the people. Despite the shortsightedness nor has it fallen into oblivion as the 17 th and crassness of US policies towards Cuba century English revolutionary had by the over these many years, US leaders know, time of Carlyle. or at least, sense or suspect that the Cuban revolution is a genuinely popular project Mitos sobre Cuba that, despite the enormous odds it has had to confront, enjoys mass support. The US Resumen hostile discourse against the revolution is not just a series of disparate propaganda Cuba no es perfecta. Bloqueada y so- metida al implacable asedio y agresión shots – although sometimes it is reduced por la maquinaria de guerra más pode- to that – but a coherent, well developed, rosa de la historia de la humanidad por paradigmatic view which though in many cinco décadas no puede evitar deficien- aspects crass and Manichean, it does not cias, escasez, distorsiones, ineficien- lack intellectual sophistication and sub- cias y otras dificultades. Sin embargo, tlety, but which crucially, it is very po- desde literalmente 1959, la revolución werful and attractive to the basic political cubana ha sido sometida a una cam- instincts of the US population. However, paña de difamación que ha logrado the more legitimacy the Cuban Revolution incrustar una visión satanizada de su enjoys the greater the propaganda efforts realidad en el cerebro de millones de to persuade US domestic public opinion inocentes consumidores de “informa- that must be undertaken. Furthermore, ción” de los medios de comunicación de the colossal propaganda undertaking to masa. Este “logro” se ha repetido por cinco décadas y los elementos centrales discredit the Cuban revolution has a glo- de esta representación son que el régi- bal reach and caters for the prejudices of men cubano es esencialmente una dic- every group of individuals in just about tadura comunista obsoleta, fosilizada, any society. Its effects, despite its obvious totalitaria y a punto de desmoronarse, falsifications and lies, are not to be unde- liderada por un tirano megalomaníaco restimated. It is to be hoped that more ob- y sanguinario. Esta representación, o jective analyses contribute to deconstruct sus variantes, han contribuido a crear the mountain of lies and ideological garba- una opinión pública que ayuda a justi- ge under which the United States intends ficar la política norteamericana contra to bury the Cuban Revolution. This labour la isla caribeña y, además, confunde

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 fundamentalmente la comprensión del world/americas/20cuba.html?pagewanted=2&_ ciudadano común y corriente respec- r=1&ref=americas), just to mention a few. 2 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/19/ \ del_ to de las complejidades de la realidad castro_resigns_as_cuban_president (On Sunday cubana, incluyendo la casi totalidad 24 February 2008, Cuba’s National Assembly de la enorme cantidad de aspectos po- appointed Raul Castro as Fidel’s successor. 3 There is a substantial body of academic litera- sitivos de la revolución. Este articulo ture whose research, \ ndings and arguments tiene por objeto la deconstrucción de help to counter the prevalent view on Cuba, esta falaz aunque poderosa mitología among which we have KAPCIA, Antoni. Cuba : que se ha construido sobre la realidad Island of Dreams. Oxford, England: Berg, 2000; COLE, Ken. Cuba from Revolution to Develop- cubana, tarea nada fácil que a veces ment . London: Pinter, 1998; FRANKLIN, Jane. nos recuerda a Thomas Carlyle, bió- Cuba and the United States : a chronological grafo de Oliverio Cromwell, que dijo history. Ocean Press, 1997; AUGUST, Arnold. Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 election . que “había tenido que desenterrar al Havana: Editorial Jose Marti, 1999; SUCHLI- Lord Protector de debajo de una mon- CKI, Jaime. Cuba : from Columbus to Castro taña de perros muertos, un inmenso and Beyond. Brassey’s, 2002; SANEY, Isaac. Cuba : a revolution in motion. Zed Books, 2004; peso de calumnias”. Guardando todas and more recently, GOTT, Richard. Cuba : a new las proporciones, debe haber sido mu- history. Yale, 2004. cho más fácil para Carlyle remover la 4 BANDEIRA, Luiz Alberto Moniz. De Martí a montaña de perros muertos sobre la Fidel . A Revolucão Cubana e a América Lati- na. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizacão Brasileira, 1998. memoria de Cromwell que deshacer p. 14. el infinito torrente de calumnias que 5 For details see THOMAS, Hugh. Cuba or the pesa sobre Cuba. Y en el caso de Cuba, Pursuit of Freedom . De Capro Press, 1998. Oth- er references that cover this period of Cuban cuando el objeto de investigación no history are GOTT, Richard. Cuba : a new history. está ni siquiera muerto, ni ha caído en Verso Books, 2004; PEREZ, Louis A. Cuba : be- el olvido como ocurriera con el revolu- tween reform and revolution. Oxford University Press, 2006. cionario inglés del siglo XVII en la épo- 6 For further details see RICARDO, Roger. Guan- ca de Carlyle. tanamo . The Bay of Discord, www.cubaconnect. co.uk; on the Platt Amendment see PEREZ, Palabras clave: Cuba. Revolucion. Jorge Louis. Cuba under the Platt Amendment, Realidad. 1902-1934 . University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. 7 SCHEER, Robert; ZEITLIN, Maurice. Cuba, Notas an American tragedy . Penguin Books Limited, 1964, p. 34. 8 SCHEER; ZEITLIN, Cuba …, p. 198; In the 1 See among many others The Guardian (http:// legendary TV debate against Kennedy in 1960, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/19/ with regards to US policy towards the Cuba cuba), El Pais (http://www.elpais.com/arti- revolution, Nixon barked: “What can we do? We culo/internacional/nueva/etapa/politica/elpe- can do what we did with Guatemala. There was puint/ 20080220elpepiint_2/Tes), Financial a communist dictator… the Guatemalan people Times (http://www.ft. com/cms/s/0/a78f84e4- themselves eventually rose up and they threw dec0-11dc-91d4-0000779 fd2ac.html), The him out…” (THOMAS, Hugh. Cuba or the Pur- Washington Post (http://www.washington- suit of Freedom , p. 1.300). post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/ 9 SCHEER; ZEITLIN, Cuba …, p. 205, 209. AR2008021902962_2.html?hpid=topnews& 10 Statement By Assistant Secretary Of State For sid=ST2008021900971), and The New York Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger F. Noriega Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, FRANKLIN, Jean B. Cuba and the United Sta- October 2, 2003. G. W. Bush’s policy on Cuba tes; A chronological history . Ocean Press, 1997. has been systematized in the 452-page Report 20 QUIRK, Robert E. Fidel Castro . New York: W.W. of the Commission for a Democratic Tran- Norton & Company, 1993. sition to Cuba, which was complemented by 21 ANDERSON, John Lea. Che Guevara a Condoleezza’s Rice own addition to the Report. Revolutiona ry Life . Bantam Press, 1997. 11 In this regard the illuminating analyses of 22 CASTAÑEDA, Jorge. La Vida en Rojo . Espasa, Noam Chomsky on the US media such as Me- 1997. dia Censorship and Our Right to Know and, 23 INFANTE, Guillermo Cabrera. Mea Cuba , Far- particularly, E. Herman and N. Chomsky, Ma- rar Straus Giroux, 1995. nufacturing consent: the political economy of the 24 Bravo also directed Miami-Havana (1994) a ba- mass media , Pantheon Book, 1988 are indeed lanced documentary on the “balseros”. insightful. 25 A Cuban intellectual friend told me that he pre- 12 Not even the BBC is immune to it, see the pretty ferred Raul because “he is less of a dreamer”. Manichean analysis done by, otherwise, shrewd, 26 Time , 6 Dec. 1993, p. 31. sophisticated analyst Matt Frei, on Castro’s 27 The Economist, Heroic Illusions, A Survey of announcement of resignation: http://news.bbc. Cuba , 6 Apr. 1996, p. 4. co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7254029.stm 28 Financial Times , Week end, 13-14 January, 13 The Sunday Times , 31 May 1992. 2001, “Cuba’s medical revolution”. 14 SALAZAR, Luis Suárez. El siglo XXI : Posibili- 29 MOLINA, Gabriel. White coat miracle. Gran- dades y desafíos para la Revolcuión Cubana. La ma 25 Oct. 2007 http://www.granma.cu/ingles/ Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 2000. 2007/octubre/juev25/43milagro-i.html p. 289. Similar conclusions and analysis can be 30 Economic Commission for Latin America, So- found in Canadian specialist AUGUST, Arnold. cial Panorama of Latin America 2002-2003 , Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 elections . p. 45. Editorial Jose Marti; Canada Distribution and 31 MAR, Garry. Ottawa Sun , Mar. 1998. Publishing Co., 1999; see also, SANEY, Isaac. 32 VANCE, Ashlee. Bush’s search for clean Cuban Cuba : a revolution in motion. Zed Books, 2006. hookers goes awry. The Register , 28 July 2004. The elections of 1997-98 have been chosen be- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/28/bush_ cause they took place under the very dif \ culties sees_clean_cuban_hookers/. Visited: 24 Feb. circumstances of the ravages of the Special pe- 2008. riod. 33 CBS News, Trade with Cuba steadily rising , 4 15 All data and infformation from The Cuban elec- November 2005. http://www.cbsnews.com/sto- toral system – dispelling the myths. http://www. ries/2005/11/04/politics/main1009953.shtml. Vi- ratb.org.uk/html/electoralsystem.html. Visited: sited: 24 Feb. 2008. 25 Feb. 2008. 34 For more details about these connections see 16 Asamblea Nacional de la República de Cuba, CALVO, Hernando; DECLERCQ, Katlijn. Dis- www.asanac.gov.cu/ sidents or mercenaries? The Cuban exile move- 17 See ECKSTEIN, Susan. Back from the future. ment, Ocean Press, 2000. Cuba under Castro . Princeton University Press, 35 SMITH, Wayne. The closest of enemies : a per- 1995; Fidel himself has con \ rmed how sensi- sonal and diplomatic account of the Castro tive Cuban authorities are of opinion trends years. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. and moods of the population: “[…] nosotros 36 See The Guardian Special Report, The Elian tenemos métodos que nos permiten conocer, así Gonzalez Case, http://www.guardian.co.uk/ como con microscopio los estados de opinión.” elian. (RAMONET, Ignacio. Fidel Castro . Biografía a 37 Luis Posada Carriles is responsible, by his own dos voces. Debate, 2006, p. 539). admission, of having masterminded the blowing 18 JORQUERA, Roberto et al. Cuba as an alterna- up of the Cubana Airlines plane in 1976 on the tive . An introduction to Cuba’s socialist revolu- coast of Barbados in which 73 Cuban natio- tion. Resistance Books, 23 Abercrombie St, Chi- nal lost their lives (including Cuba’s national ppendale 2008, Australia. fencing team). For details of the case see The 19 Documentary by Dollan Cannell, 638 Ways to National Security Archive, Luis Posada Carri- Kill Castro, 2006; a chronological account of the les: The Declassi \ ed Record, http://www.gwu. US hostile acts against Cuba can be found in edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index. htm.

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História: Debates e Tendências – v. 10, n. 1, jan./jun. 2010, p. 9-34 38 See the excellent and informative articles by BRITTAN, Victoria. Cuba and Southern Africa. New Left Review 172, Nov./Dec. 1988; Cuba in Africa. New Left Review 17, Sep./Oct. 2002. 39 See CASTRO, Fidel; MANDELA, Nelson. How far have we slaves come? Path \ nder, 1991. 40 Miami Herald, 31 March, 2004. 41 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ameri- cas/1986074.stm 42 Cuba Sí , Summer 2004, p. 9. 43 http://www.tierradegracia.com/F4.html 44 Medea Benjamin, Our terrorist in Miami, http:// www.huf \ ngtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/our- terrorist-in-miami_b_86155.html visited Febru- ary 24 2008. 45 POWELL, Colin L. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. Report to the President , May 2004. http://www.state.gov/documents/organi- zation/32334.pdf. Visited: Feb. 25, 2008. 46 RICE, Condoleezza. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. Report to the President, July 2006. http://www.cafc.gov/cafc/rpt/2006/68097. htm. Visited: Feb. 25, 2008. 47 DEUTSCHER, Isaac. The Prophet Unarmed . London: Oxford University Press, 1959. p. v. Century English Revolutionary had by the time of Carlyle.

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