CUBA
Ladies
and gentlemen,
I would
like to tell you some words about Cuba. Not so much about its past
and culture, although it is only through the recent history how we will get to
know the country’s present situation. Cuba has gone through the period of
Spanish colonization, Cuban wars, a Spanish-American war until it reached
independence in 1902. In the next half a century, Cuban political life was
characterized by putch and various dictators, the
most famous being Fulgencio Batista. With some
interruptions, he held power for 26 years; in the 1940s, however, his corrupt and dictatorial
regime started to provoke violent opposition. Prominent among his radical
opponents was a young lawyer, Fidel Castro.
Castro took over Cuba’s government on January 1 1959,
and has held effective power in the country until temporarily handing it over
to his brother for medical reasons in July 2006. But we will talk about this
later. At first, Castro was a constitutional liberal and nationalist, and his
victory was welcomed in Cuba
as well as in the United
States. During 1959, Castro’s government
carried out highly popular measures such as land reform, the nationalization of
public utilities, and the suppression of corruption.
Castro went
to Washington to forge ties with the United States,
but was rejected by President Eisenhower, who decided to attend a golf
tournament instead. Some Castro’s measures like the executions of suspected
Batista collaborators, the seizure of businesses and so on, raised questions
about the nature of the new government. The nationalization of U.S.-owned
companies aroused hostility within the Eisenhower administration. Cuban exiles
soon formed a powerful political lobbying group in the United States. And
all this drove Castro away from the liberal elements of his revolutionary
movement and increased the power of Marxist figures in his government, notably Che Guevara. Consequently, Castro’s ties to the communists
became stronger. Many of those who had initially supported the revolution fled
the country to join the growing exile community in Miami. In 1960, the first aid agreements were
signed with the Soviet Union. U.S. saw this as
intolerable, and plans were approved to remove Castro from power. In late 1960,
a trade embargo was imposed, which
naturally drove Castro further towards the Soviet alliance. At the same time,
the administration authorized plans for an invasion of Cuba by the
exiles, together with the anti-Castro uprising planned by the CIA. The result
was the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961. The uprising failed, and
the invasion force was destroyed. This prompted Castro to declare Cuba a socialist
republic and himself a Marxist-Leninist in May of 1961.
A strategic result of the Cuban-Soviet alliance was the
decision to place Soviet missiles in Cuba, which caused the Cuban
missile crisis of 1962. During this crisis U.S. President Kennedy threatened
the Soviet Union with nuclear war unless the
missiles were withdrawn. Eventually the Soviets backed down. In the aftermath
of this, there was a resumption of contacts between the U.S. and
Castro. But during 1963, relations deteriorated again as Castro moved Cuba towards a real Communist system modeled on
the Soviet Union. The U.S. imposed a complete diplomatic and
commercial embargo on Cuba.
During
the 1970s, Castro moved onto the world stage as a leading spokesperson for Third World “anti-imperialist” governments. On a more
concrete level, he provided military assistance to pro-Soviet forces in Angola, Ethiopia,
Yemen
and other African and Middle Eastern trouble spots. Although the bills for
these expeditions were paid by the Soviets, they placed a considerable strain
on Cuba’s
economy and manpower resources.
Cuba’s economic dependence on the Soviet Union was deepened
by Castro’s determination to build a socialist society in Cuba. This
entailed the provision of free health care and education for the entire
population. Through the 70s and 80s, the Soviets were prepared to subsidize all
this in exchange for the strategic position under the noses of the United States
and the propaganda value of Castro’s prestige in the developing world.
By the
1970s, the ability of the U.S.
to keep Cuba
isolated was declining. Cuba
had been expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962, but in 1975
the OAS lifted all sanctions against Cuba
and both Mexico and Canada started developing closer relations with Cuba. On
the other hand, the growing Cuban exile community in the U.S. opposed the liberalization of U.S. policy towards Cuba. However, its efforts to
foment an anti-Castro movement inside Cuba had little success. In 1980, many
Cubans sought political asylum at the Peruvian embassy in Havana
and eventually achieved that Castro opened the port of Mariel
for anyone who desired to leave the country. In this emigration, known as the Mariel
boatlift, over 125,000 Cubans emigrated to the United States.
Ladies
and gentlemen,
As you
can imagine, the fall of the Soviet Union in 91 was a giant
economic blow for Cuba.
It led to other waves of asylum seekers to the U.S. in 1994 and in 2004-06.
Castro’s popularity was severely tested by the Soviet collapse, which led to a
cut off in aid, the loss of a guaranteed export market for Cuban sugar and the
loss of a source of cheap oil. It also caused a crisis in confidence for those
who believed that the Soviet Union was a
socialist model for other countries.
By the
late 1990s the situation in the country had stabilized. By then Cuba had more or less normal economic relations
with most Latin American countries and had improved relations with the EU and China. Cuba also found new allies in President Chávez of Venezuela
and President Morales of Bolivia,
major oil and gas exporters.
In July 2006, Fidel Castro delegated his duties as President
of the Council of State, President of the Council of Ministers, First Secretary
of the Cuban Communist Party and commander in chief of the armed forces to his
brother and First Vice President, Raúl Castro. This
transfer of duties has been described as temporary while Fidel recovers from an
intestine surgery. His absence fuelled suspicions that he has stomach cancer, but
Cuban officials have continued to deny these allegations and recently
Castro has actually appeared on TV in quite a good shape.
So,
ladies and gentlemen, things might turn one way or another in Cuba and there
is a lot of guessing as to their future development. But one is certain: if you
want to visit Cuba,
do it while Castro is alive, because only so will you be able to see a country,
unique in this globalized world. Thank you!