Charlottes thoughts on Cuba.

Cuba is living proof of politics gone wrong. Economic embargoes since the revolution and the inauguration of Castro, cold war diplomacy, collapse of Cuba’s exports, such as they were, and the drying up of Soviet support in the late eighties have left Cuba reeling. Arguably, it is the economic crisis that has been proved to be the nemeses for this once hopeful but now tragic country.

The ‘modern’ history of Cuba’s economy commenced once the Spanish left and the Americans came. At that time, circa 1893, the Americans injected cash into social projects including expansion of the education and medical systems now so highly regarded. For reasons of bureaucracy, possibly tact but not for want of trying the American did not annex Cuba to themselves entirely but the political ties were strong, the Americans declaring Cuba a republic but keeping a long line of puppet presidents in place.
There can be little doubt that Cuba was economically married to the U.S by the time Castro and his revolutionaries came into power. It’s main export, sugar, and the land required for production and growth was mainly owned by foreign (US) interests. The foundations for the heavy American dominance in the sugar trade stemmed back to the late 1800’s following the Spanish-American War when other sugar producing countries resulted in competition and edged Cuba out of the European market meaning that Cuba increasing looked to its U.S neighbour for trade support. The capitalist empire took advantage of Cuba’s ‘want factor’ by infiltrating and restructuring the entire sugar industry. Small mills were absorbed into ‘centrales’ (large sugar mills), and less efficient plantations became suppliers of cane to the centrales. More and more machinery was being imported from the US.

Private investors from the United States entered all sectors of the Cuban economy, iron-ore exploration, cattle raising, fruit and tobacco plantations, and public utility companies. Some estimates place the total investments by United States enterprises in 1895 at about US$50 million.

The US preserved their territorial mark on Cuba in 1903 by slicing the Eastern tip at Guantanamo Bay and thereafter imposing their will into the economy during the early part of the twentieth century by snapping up more and more land. By circa 1920, the land of hope and glory owned approximately two third of Cuba’s agricultural lands! To regulate their influences tariffs were created which crippled the remaining “Cuban” industry leaving the country on its knees. Cuba crumbled. The Americans supported by Batista et al meant that the high life ruled while little remained for the populous.

Suddenly America’s position was threatened by a new nationalistic idealism championed by Fidel Castro and the revolution. In the climate of the cold war Castro’s leftist tendencies was deemed a worrying threat to American national security although Castro did not declare himself a communist at the date of the revolution. There can be little doubt that Castro made radical efforts to throw off the American influence on the economy by ‘expropriating’ a.k.a nationalising approximately $1 billion of US ‘owned’ land back to Cubans under one of the first reforms of the revolutionary government, the Agrigarian Reform Laws. This was a hugely defiant approach but one which served to place restrictions on the people of Cuba. The ‘ownership’ of the land handed back to nationals was limited to 400 hectares per application and the majority of the land remained state owned. In short, the economy became centralised.

It is at this point I stop and wonder who is more responsible for the economic crisis in Cuba, Castro and his ideology serving to alienate the worlds greatest capitalist power, or the US for their, dare I say, disproportionate economic embargo which has left Cuba in economic crisis. Are the American’s ultimately to blame for pursuing the greed of land purchasing and money making investments in Cuba and so ultimately for pushing Castro into the arms of the Soviet Union. Did the U.S deliberately leave Cuba with little option but to become the object of a hard lined, red baiting, foreign policy? I suspect so.

The economic sanctions imposed by the U.S upon Cuba since the revolution are famous. On 17 March 1960 President Eisenhower approves a covert action plan against Cuba that includes the use of a "powerful propaganda campaign" designed to overthrow Castro. The plan includes: (a) the termination of sugar purchases (b) the end of oil deliveries (c) continuation of the arms embargo in effect since mid-1958 (d) the organization of a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles to invade the island. In 1961 the U.S terminated diplomatic relations with Cuba. The U.S launched a part military part idealistic anti-Castro campaign supported by Americans and exiled Cuban’s in an attempt to overthrow him.

Faced with political and economic isolation Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in December 1961. There has been much speculation regarding Castro’s motives for this declaration. The former Soviet Union was more than happy to make a pact with Castro on the doorstep of their Cold War enemy. The Soviet sent much-needed food, technical support and, of course, nuclear weapons. The infamous Bay of Pigs stand off has been cited as the closest the world has come to nuclear war. I recall my parents recounting the international fear the incident promoted – truly terrifying.

It appears that the US was primarily concerned with the lost land. In the mid-1970s Cuba started to emerge from diplomatic isolation. The United States, however, warned Cuba that relations could not be normalized until U.S. claims for nationalised property had been settled and Cuba reduced or terminated its military activities in Africa – a product of the Cuban-Soviet alliance. This did little to improve the economic situation in Cuba, which remained desperately fragile despite attempts during the 1970’s to harness the economy through considered reform and increasing private enterprise. The latter project became successful with numerous people abandoning their state jobs. This alarmed Castro who was seemingly driven by his desire to ‘maintain the revolution’ at all costs. It seems to me that he feared loosing the reigns of power above all else. In response Castro centralised the economy once more which in 1986 which turn meant complete reliance on Soviet support.

The economy was keeping its head above the water but the bubble well and truly bust when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and the funds immediately dried up. Cuba was desolate once again now having lost over 80% of its trade in a centralised economy!

A ‘war time’ situation arose, rationing of food and fuel. I even read one story of street vendors melting condoms onto pizza instead of cheese! Of course, the US did all they could to help by tightening up the embargo, it appeared to them that the moment of Cuba’s surrender was imminent. The, by now, large and powerful Cuban population in Miami, being weighted by exiled intelligentsia determined to over throw the revolution, were anxious to return home rich being well placed to snap up the centralised lands and industry. From the Cuban side of the water, more and more people were attempting to make the perilous journey across the 90 miles stretch of ocean and the Promised Land beyond. The stories both heroic and tragic are well documented.

It must have been a dark and desperate time for Cubans. I cannot imagine that nothing other than complete disillusionment prevailed alongside the crumbling remains of a once vibrant Havana. The buildings along the Malecon, decayed by neglect left a forceful image in my mind. I asked myself, if the buildings are like this, the people crammed together in unsanitary conditions, then to what extent does the outward neglect reflect the inward political neglect that the regime under Castro imposes. Well, that is where we, the western world and those foreigners ‘permitted’ to enter Cuba came in. Castro’s iron curtain was lifted by making the US dollar legal tender and pulling back in the long departed tourists once so instrumental in past economic growth. Done out of desperation, the tourist industry has rocked the revolutionary foundations that this country has attempted to preserve by allowing a capitalist strain into the economy.

First and foremost, Castro wished to express nationalism. This was the basis of revolutionary ideology and formed the foundations for idealistic notions of the revolution transforming motivations that determined behaviour; people were to be taught to act in the interests of the collective. This ideology became endemic in Cuba post revolution culture but effectively legitimised indoctrination. I could not see much of a nationalist legacy. I cannot help but think that this inflexible approach has lead not only to economic disaster but to the harnessing of a national fear – fear of freedom of speech, fear of hunger, fear of enterprise and so on. Having seen the legacy the revolution has left on the Cuban people I can only conclude that Castro’s decision to nationalise the land back from the U.S was not fundamentally flawed but was undertaken in such as way as to create nothing other than alienation from the U.S leading to the retribution of economic embargo. I cannot concede that this was right given the obvious departure from empowerment and support at grass roots level upwards in favour of centralisation and ultimately the creation of a despot.

16.0.04

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