Everything but free

There was a recent news item that singer Gloria Estefan brought tears to the eyes of older Cuban-Americans when she sang “Waiting for Cuba to be Free.” Conventional bipartisan wisdom has it that the Cuban people need to be saved from the brutal regime of Fidel Castro and to have democracy restored. History, however, tells a different story.

Cuba has never known democracy. Cuba fought in a 10-year war against Spanish rule. When Spain was defeated in the Spanish-American War, the United States took over Spain’s role and Cuba became politically and economically dependent on America. In 1901, Congress passed the Platt Amendment, which was incorporated into the Cuban constitution and which gave the United States the right to intervene militarily whenever it saw fit. This amendment resulted in a series of interventions as we propped up a number of ruthless dictators.

The last US-sponsored dictator to rule was Fulgencio Batista, who positioned himself as a strong ally of the United States. He became increasingly brutal and his secret police murdered thousands of civilians. Increasingly, the Cuban people rebelled as the population became more nationalistic and more hostile toward the United States, blaming their troubles on capitalist imperialism.

American corporations moved in shortly after Spain’s defeat and took over Cuban mines and railroads and monopolized the sugar industry. American tobacco companies were not far behind, buying hundreds of thousands of acres of land for the pittance of 20 cents per acre, while landless peasants faced starvation. Most Cuban exports were American-owned. United Fruit provided housing and schools and other benefits to its American workers while Cuban workers lived in squalor and abject poverty. Labor strikes were brutally suppressed.

In 1959, Castro and his guerillas came down from the hills and overthrew Batista. Those opposed to the revolution were mostly upper middle-class and wealthy Cubans who closely identified with US interests. Many of them fled to Miami and became a powerful voting bloc, which was able to strongly sway our foreign policy agenda. They are not motivated by freedom and democracy — since most of them were supporters of Batista — but motivated by their desire to get their properties and their special privileges back.

Since the Cuban revolution, Washington has done everything it could to overthrow Fidel Castro. During the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, we sent 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles ashore to encourage a popular insurrection, but the Cuban people were not anxious to be liberated by us. So far, Castro has survived 10 American presidents.

Severe economic sanctions created hardships but did not do the trick either. Several attempts to assassinate Castro failed. It all helped to rally nationalist sentiment behind Castro and the revolution.

Before Castro, there were two Cubas: There was the playground for the rich with the Mafia-run casinos, prostitution rings and brothels, and then there were the Cuban masses who struggled to survive.

The revolution promised a new and more just society and Castro kept his word.

Today the Cuban revolution provides free health care for all its people, young or old. They have the lowest infant mortality rate in that region and life expectancy has increased by 15 years to 75 years. There is a surplus of doctors, who are sent all over the world free of charge to nations who request them. Education is free and includes not only high school but universities. The literacy rate is about 95 percent. Housing is free or no more than 10 percent of income. Racism seems to be a problem of the past, and the crime rate is low. Hunger too is a thing of the past and retirement benefits are guaranteed and generous. Public transportation is cheap and so is the access to cultural events. Finally, women enjoy equality with men.

The United States has not given up seeking allies for action against Cuba, but support for Castro remains strong in much of Latin America. Instead of isolating Cuba, it is the United States that stands alone in our anti-Cuba position. Cuba maintains diplomatic and trade relations with the rest of the world, including our two NAFTA trading partners, Mexico and Canada.

As far as the Cuban revolutionaries are concerned, they did fight for freedom as they saw it, freedom from foreign intervention, freedom from Batista — one of America’s favorite dictators, whom we supported and armed for years to keep in power.

As Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes pointed out, in the Third World freedom is equated with land, bread, education and health, the basic necessities of life. No other country ever defined freedom for the United States. Freedom, he claims, develops in every country within its own unique historical context.

Today Cuba is better fed, healthier and better educated than any Third World country. It is true that Castro is a dictator; there are no free elections and there is no free press. But Castro and his associates can claim quite a few accomplishments that might have never occurred without the revolution.