The Communist dictatorship in Cuba is on its last legs. For decades, it had a parasitical relationship with the Soviet Union, which kept it alive economically, militarily, and politically. The Soviet Union was able to last for as long as it did because it was truly gargantuan, spanning two continents and filled with natural resources which the government utilized to stave off the inevitable end of all Marxist regimes. But when it, in turn, collapsed, Cuba’s economy took an even deeper dive than before, euphemistically referred to as the “Special Period.”
Thanks to decades of Communist rule, Cuba is as decrepit as Haiti. Yes, that bad. Buildings and homes are literally disintegrating each year due to the harsh Caribbean sun and sea air, the inhabitants unable to repair the damage, and there are piles of garbage on the streets (it is hard to imagine that Havana and many other Cuban cities were once pristine). Food is scarce. In cities, there are certain spots that are livable, even beautiful. They are either for Cuba’s nomenklatura or where tourists — particularly Canadian, French, and Spanish Communists — stay and visit. Ordinary Cubans rarely eat fish — and Cuba is an island in the Caribbean! And sugar, for which the country was famous and resulted in the Dance of the Millions during WWI? Nope.
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Incidentally, something that has not been acknowledged is that the Communist regime would have been overthrown long ago, except that escaping to Florida was a pressure valve that sent the potentially most dangerous foes overseas (even so, there have been occasional outbursts, the most well-known being “El Maleconazo”). This is similar to what happened after the Russians crushed the Hungarian revolt; after some hesitation, the Soviet and Hungarian Communists opened the border to let the Hungarian fighters emigrate to Austria; this safety valve was recorded in a much-neglected work by James Michener, The Bridge at Andau.
Incidentally, notice that the demonstrations in Cuba are not anti-American (after all, the Cubans are not liberals). And they are not protesting the boycott.
And speaking of liberals, be prepared to see hordes of liberal white saviors with their prefabricated signs taking to the streets while claiming to speak for the Cuban people against Trump, just like they have been telling Iranian and Venezuelan exiles that they know better than the Venezuelans and Iranians themselves. I cannot tell you how many times liberals who cannot even speak Spanish and know nothing about pre-Castro history, nor Cuban culture, have lectured me about how wonderful life is in Cuba under the Communist dictatorship. For decades, liberals in America and other countries demonized Cuban-Americans, and attacked in one way or another Cuban-Americans who spoke out against the regime, from Paquito D’Rivera to Andy Garcia to Camila Cabello.
There exists one difference, though. Since the beginning, the Cuban dictatorship sent to the United States hundreds of agents as “refugees” to infiltrate Cuban-American organizations, and liberal ones as well (I suspect there were some in the Biden Administration), and for just plain espionage. It appears that some are already beginning to make noise over the present situation. For example, in an American Communist website, there is a photo of just such a group. Notice several things: one, almost all wearing red shirts, two, they have their raised clenched fist (the clenched fist as a Communist salute emerged in the 1930s as a response to the Nazi salute), third, their prefabricated signs have the picture of Che Guevara, and fourth, they refer to the embargo as the American blockade. “Blockade,” not an embargo, is the word that the regime has used on its people and foreign sympathizers to explain the shortages of everything, to give the impression that nothing can get through. I suspect that if the regime does fall, these agents will not return to Cuba.
And if the Cuban regime is overthrown, what then? Chaos. There is no organized resistance in the country that could take over. Possibly there may be a military coup d’etat. Possibly Cuban-Americans will step in. Either way, do not expect the new government to pay off the defaulted national debts and diplomatic agreements of the previous government.
As for the long run, a new constitution is ready that takes into account all the historical mistakes in governments, as well as the special Cuban circumstances.
But chaos or no chaos, anything will be an improvement over Communism.
Armando Simón is a retired historian and psychologist, author of When Evolution Stops and A Prison Mosaic
First published in American Thinker
2 Responses
Nice piece. I had never heard of the Ladies in White.
Ask yourself why.