In light of Castro’s impending death, there are quite a few communities, especially the Cuban-Americans, which are ecstatic of the recent turn of events. However, the death of Fidel Castro may unfortunately turn him into another popular icon -such as that of the late Ernesto “Che” Guevara- to be reproduced in silhouette on T-shirts for college students to buy. Though this may occur, it is absurd to believe that such a murderer would be revered for any of his cruel acts against the Cuban people.
The island of Cuba has been plagued by this dictator since 1959 and countless crimes against humanity have ensued since. Castro first obtained power by recruiting youths near the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range on Cuba’s southeast coast. By the late 1950s, the Batista regime was more corrupt then ever and things seemed out-of-hand with the way Havana was being run politically. Much of Cuba desired a political change to the mobs running the capital, but few expected that what Fidel had to offer would turn out to be too much to handle. The political climate of Cuba has been in turmoil for some time, one may say ever since its independence from Spain. The Cuban rebellion against the Spanish was a bloody war that many Cubans hoped would be the last time the island would see such death and destruction. This sadly was not the case and the Spanish-Cuban conflict would not be the last time a civil war would ensue on the island.
The Cuban presidency was often taken over by one militant after another; the island's political climate was never truly stable. Though Cuban politics prior to the Communist insurrection was not optimal, the economy of Cuba was doing quite well and a multitude of immigrants were flowing into the country yearly, spurring the nation’s economy. There were many prominent United States companies that were based in Cuba, such as Hershey's, and new Cuban companies were springing up, like Bacardi. It is apparent now more than ever that the cry for a political change in Cuba brought about more than the people had bargained for, and that by supporting -or simply not resisting- the Castro brothers, the Cuban people bit off more than they could chew.
Fidel first began his crusade against Batista by taking over cities on the east side of Cuba and slowly making his way over to the capital city of Havana. Castro often recruited young college students and farmers in surrounding areas by promising them that he would bring democracy back to the island of Cuba. Once the individuals would be recruited, deserting would not be allowed. On many occasions, deserters were hunted down by Fidel, Raul (his brother), or Che (chief attack-dog of Fidel) and shot at pointblank range. It seemed that once you were part of his army, there was no turning back. As Castro moved across Cuba, he never hesitated to spread his support of Communism and the supposed riches it would bring the Cuban people. Ernesto Guevara saw Cuba as an opportunity to correct his militant strategies in order to spread Stalinism throughout the western hemisphere. Ernesto Guevara had previous tried to spark Communist revolutions in other Latin-American countries but they failed miserably. The Cuban communist revolution of the 1950s was a successful attempt by Guevara and the Castro brothers to, amongst other things, create a satellite of Russia’s Communist empire in the western hemisphere and a nexus from which to spread the oppressive gospel that was Stalinism.
In one of the most infamous moments in Cuban history: when Castro entered the capital city of Havana in 1959, he was asked by a local reporter when the elections would take place. Castro replied that he would not be holding elections because the people had elected him to the office by their support for the revolution. This was the moment in which many Cubans realized that the man few had fought against u2014 and many supported u2014 was in fact going to subdue the country under a dictatorial regime. The years after Castro’s usurpation of the presidency of Cuba secured these fears and went down as one of the worst moments in the history of the island. Tens-of-thousands of political prisoners were executed as “counter-revolutionaries,” or individuals plotting against Cuban society.
My father happened to be one of the individuals taken prisoner after constant harassment by Cuba’s military police. He was sentenced to hard-labor in a concentration camp for 18 months and kept under inhumane conditions. Luckily, my father was not executed, like many of the other individuals who defied the newly formed government. My mother was also driven from her land by the forthcoming mob of Communists moving in from the southeastern side of the island during the early days of the revolution. Both of my parents lost their land and assets to the Cuban government. The excuse given for the seizures by the government was nothing but clich; that their property now belonged to Cuban “society.”
Individuals during Castro’s harsh regime were also placed in “Military Units to Help Production (M.U.H.P.)” facilities which were concentration camps that would work prisoners to the bone and treated individuals as though they were now the slaves of the communist government. Homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and political prisoners were placed in these labor camps without trial and many were driven to suicide. Their lifestyles and opinions were deemed “counter-revolutionary” and a negative influence on Cuban society. Any movement that opposed Castro’s government within Cuba was often automatically linked with the Cuban exiles in Miami and the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
After the communists captured Havana, Guevara began a wide-scale crackdown on Cuban dissent through the creation of one of modern history’s most infamous prisons, La Cabaa. Guevara was the chief administrator and executioner of the prison. The prison held several thousand political prisoners and Cubans who found fault in the newly established government. One by one the prisoners were taken from their holding blocks, paraded around the prison, abused in front of their family members and then finally executed at point blank range. The victims of La Cabaa often shouted “Viva Cuba Libre!” just before their execution, denouncing Guevara and the communist government. Once it was evident that the inmates were verbally defying his authority even in the face of death, Guevara ordered all prisoners to be gagged before execution. This was a way of keeping the victims in check and his power over the populous secure. Also on Guevara’s long list of atrocities at La Cabaa, it was reported that Guevara periodically found it amusing to slit open the throats of several political prisoners while they were sleeping. According to scholars such as Armando Lago, Castro's regime has brought about the deaths of nearly 105,000 Cubans, mostly in prisons such as La Cabaa. These deaths are attributed to both executions and death while in prison.
With Castro’s iron fist and Che Guevara’s obedient actions, Cuba was well into its darkest times yet. Many of Castro’s leading officials were defecting and many were convicted of crimes with no public trial and sentenced with the use of “secret evidence” that the state had acquired. One such case was that of General Arnaldo Ochoa who was arrested on charges of drug trafficking even though none of the evidence was brought to light. The average sentence for drug trafficking in Cuba was 20 years but Ochoa was sentenced to death. The unorthodox trial of Ochoa was said to be a ploy by Castro to foil a possible attempt by Ochoa to defect.
The Mariel boat-lift was another instance in which Castro tried to purify the island of what he believed to be de facto “counter-revolutionaries.” Castro stated in April of 1980 that any individuals that wanted to leave the island would be permitted to and that their families in Miami could sail over to Cuba in order to retrieve them. This created an impromptu exodus in which tens-of-thousands of individuals began to leave the island. To the surprise of many families, once they had arrived in Cuba to pick up their relatives, Cuban military officials began forcefully loading individuals they deemed “anti-social” such as political prisoners, convicted criminals, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the mentally-ill. Many of Cuba’s jails were evacuated and prisoners were subsequently sent to the United States on various barges. Over 125,000 individuals left the island of Cuba, many forcefully.
Though Castro slowly limited his human rights abuses over the years, one recent event sparked the rage of Cuban exiles in Miami and individuals around the world. This was the “13 de Marzo” incident in which a group of Cubans left the island in a World War II era tugboat and were then sunk by Cuban government authorities. In one of Castro’s most vile acts against humanity, the Cuban government allowed 41 adults and 23 children aboard the vessel to drown in the waters off the coast of Cuba. The United States Coast Guard managed to recover 31 survivors from the incident but was too late for most of the individuals originally aboard the vessel. One of my friends during elementary school was a survivor of the “13 de Marzo” and the stories he told were heartbreaking. Tragedies similar to the “13 de Marzo” occurred many times with different vessels but never in this magnitude.
Castro’s dictatorship also brought with it a tide of racism that few Americans know about but is nonetheless quite visible. Fidel Castro was the first all-white Cuban head of state; something most non-Cuban individuals don't know. Many believe that Castro has a nasty strain of racism in his oppressive rule and accounts are rampant of white Cubans getting away with crimes that mulattos would be executed for. In April of 2003, three young black Cubans were executed by firing squad because they attempted flee the island. This was the first time that any Cuban was executed for this victimless crime and likewise was one of the only moments that all those who attempted to flee were of African decent. Laws have also been passed in Cuba to deter individuals from moving to the Habana in order to find high-paying tourist jobs. Many claim that these laws were aimed predominantly at the poor black community in Cuba. A University of Miami study also concluded that black Cubans make up an overwhelming percentage of the poor in Cuba and have some of the worst jobs on the island, even though Cubans of African descent make up 62 percent of the island’s population. 85 percent of Cuba’s prison population is of African descent and none of the top 10 generals in Cuba are black, nor any of the 15 provincial heads of the Communist Party. Many think that Castro’s white lineage and upper-class background has greatly affected how his dictatorship is run and how an overwhelming amount of blacks are treated on the island.
Recently, there have been quite a number of epidemics on the island including a rampant spread of dengue fever. Cuban hospitals have been flooded with cases of individuals with dengue fever and as a result much of the equipment found in Cuban hospitals have either broken down due to lack of maintenance or have been stolen by individuals claiming that they are stricken with the illness. Much of the infrastructure in Cuba, including water systems, have undergone very little maintenance which has led to running water being shut down in certain parts of the island. There have recently surfaced digital images of Cuban children drinking from filthy puddles, families rummaging through near-empty garbage cans for food and clothing, individuals walking amongst fallen power lines months after a storm has passed, and Cubans riding in automobiles pulled by horses. What Cuban officials say is the condition of the island is obvious more than ever to be far from the truth. Cubans may not be periodically shoved into concentration camps anymore but the conditions that communism has brought the island is torturously equivalent to those of a third-world country.
The terror that was Castro’s reign will never be forgotten and his dictatorship is a testament to the danger present when the citizenry transfers its power to a single individual. The power structure in Cuba will soon be shaken – if it has not already – and high government officials will compete for some of the most influential positions on the island. The effect of Castro's death on the governmental structure of Cuba will be for some time unknown, but whatever the outcome, the Castros have come out winning at the people's expense. By sapping the wealth that has been accumulated in Cuba over the decades, Fidel, Raul, and the rest of the high officials have been able to live the life of kings. They have been able to feast everyday on tens-of-thousands of dollars in food and drink while the people are left to starve. These dictators and their followers are the parasites of nations, draining the citizenry of its precious resources and humanity. Fear, hatred, and envy are the weapons of the wretched and Fidel is no stranger to these tactics. Even after the death, destruction, ignorance, and tragedy that has been Cuba, there is still some hope that the future will bring drastic improvements for the island.
It is interesting to point out that the Cuban constitution is modeled in such a way that it mirrors the direction in which current United States government is currently moving. The Cuban constitution outlines the “fundamental rights, duties and guarantees” that any socialist country claims should be provided such as the right to work, social security, protection, safety and hygiene, free medical and hospital care, and free education, amongst others. Though these “positive rights” are “guaranteed,” the quality of these services is anything but satisfactory. Could it be that when government is expected to provide these “rights” it shames in comparison to the market? It should be noted that in a country with a semblance of free and open markets – such as the United States – capitalism provides these services at low cost and at unsurpassed quality. The United States government is constantly extending its reach into these fields, blocking the very market mechanisms that have made its economy great. The next President of the United States may well be an individual who openly agrees with many if not all of the “positive rights” found in the Cuban constitution, but who will never admit to the destruction that necessarily follows with the adoption of such “rights." If we, the citizenry, allow politicians with such communist beliefs to attain public office, we will be sunk into the tragedy and despair that is the Cuban nation in no-time. For example, once we give government the ability to control the healthcare market, individuals will no longer have the freewill to consume trans-fatty acids, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol because these habits bring about direct costs for socialized medicine. Therefore, politicians will state that these consumption habits are de facto illegal and not up for debate because they impinge negatively on socialized healthcare. All of a sudden someone else's nasty habits directly affect the wallets of all taxpayers when prior to socialized medicine only the health bill of the trans-fat, cigarette, or alcohol consumer was affected. As an intelligent individual once said, fascism will come to the United States in a white coat, wearing a stethoscope.
Cuba is evidence of the fact that when government promises these services, they are often not met and if they are met, it is normally at incredibly reduced quality. The United States is heading down a course that will allow the government to take over markets vital to the well being of the citizenry and it should be obvious that when the government claims to do a service better than the market, it is simply using unproven rhetoric. “Free this” and “free that” is simply nonexistent. What economics has taught us – and can teach government rhetoricians – is that everything has a cost yet only the market seeks to reduce its costs in order to increase output. Free healthcare, social security, education, etc. must be paid for with the hard-earned income of the people and because government inherently does not respond to market signals in the same way as businesses and entrepreneurs, it can not be efficient. Though the Cuban government has traditionally claimed to provide these services, it hasn't performed nearly as well as the market could on the island. In addition, aside from market efficiency, when the government controls markets such as education, it will teach students what it wants. In the case of Cuba –and one can say the United States as well – when government controls education, the brainwash that is infused into teaching curriculums is overwhelming and oftentimes children are taught information that is simply incorrect or virtually useless. Cuba has provided some of the cruelest conditions human beings have had to live under and this reality can only be tied with the government seizure of those markets that are most vital to human existence (healthcare, education, prescription drugs, et al.).
There may be socialists out there who claim that Cuba isn't “really” communism and that if they were in power it would all be different. As Ludwig von Mises taught us in his epic Socialism, the failure of communism is inherent in its inability to respond to market signals and its lack of a viable medium of exchange. Socialism does not fail because of Castro or Pol Pot or Stalin or any other cruel dictator but fails because it is socialism. In other words, socialism does not work because it can not accurately structure the productive mechanisms of an economy in such a way that it can satisfy the desires of individuals.
Castro has also recently stated that capitalism is depleting the world's nonrenewable resources and has been the cause of rampant pollution. Fidel urged the Cuban people to continue their fight against the deadly imperialist machine that is capitalism. What is so strange about this is that it has been capitalism that has extended the life of nonrenewable resources and has used resources efficiently, bringing the most value out of the smallest quantity of resources possible. It is capitalism that calculates in terms of money in order to minimize costs so as to not overuse precious resources. When resources are used efficiently and are not wasted via capitalism, the result is an increasing standard of living for all individuals. When socialism – that has been proven inherently not be able to economically calculate – attempts to use resources efficiently, it fails and produces nothing but waste. This is evident in the massive pollution existent during the Soviet Union throughout the 20th century and is visible today in Castro's Cuba. What is interesting is that this battle between the supposed “polluting capitalism” and “germless socialism” is being fought most vigorously in the political circles of the United States. It is the agenda of the progressive liberals to destroy the resource efficiency of capitalism and bring about the misery that is socialism. It is through the advocacy of progressives for a “greener” market that the very system that has made our standard of living so much higher than those in any other country, especially in comparison to Cuba, will be decimated. Few comprehend that the greatest polluters of all are governments and that businesses have monetary incentives not to pollute. While businesses get hit hard with hefty fines and lawsuits when they so much as touch someone else's property, the government has “sovereign immunity” and is able to place whatever it wants, wherever it wants. Castro is at an advantage when stating such ridiculous falsehoods for he does not need a soft bed, nor nutritious meals, nor working automobiles, he has already sapped all his wealth from the Cuban people. It is easy for the tyrant to denounce capitalism while it was socialism that gave him all his luxury and power.
Time has yet to give us even a hint as to what is to come after Fidel Castro’s death. Many believe that Raul Castro will be much more lenient then his brother, some believe more ruthless, and others believe that a revolution will once again erupt on the island. Any of these scenarios might occur but regardless, the position of the United States towards Cuba should be nothing more than a drive to once again resume trade with the island and end the misery that the Cuban embargo has brought. The United States government should end all trade restrictions with the island, withdraw any import tariffs with Cuba (and all nations for that matter), and openly support a humanitarian, capitalist, classical liberal Republic in Cuba. The United States should in no way send any military troops to Cuba; Iraq is empirical evidence that such ventures only end up in social and economic disaster for both nations. As long as our ties with Cuba are friendly and our trade open, the Cuban people will be able to prosper under the semblance of a freer market. Cuba could once again become the jewel of the Caribbean and open its arms to all. The horrible legacy that was Castro will be remembered for what it truly was, murderous and oppressive. I will always be a Cuban-American at heart and I will never forget what my family, parents, and friends had to go through in order to escape the terror that was Castro. Jose Marti, one of Cuba’s patriots during the Spanish-American War, once wrote that “only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom.” This is a truth that all peoples should hold to dearly, for it is only by the consent of the governed that the State may continue its actions, good or bad.
January 10, 2007
Alexander Villacampa [send him mail] is a sophomore in economics at the University of Florida and summer fellow at the Mises Institute.
