Some
130 years after "the Great Liberators" of the Western World,
Toussaint L'Ouverture and Simón Bolívar, came another significant personage, a
modern-day liberator, one that history still has an open and unfinished chapter
on.
Dr.
Fidel Castro burst upon the world stage in the 1950s, with the Cold War and all
its attendant fears and dramas as a lurid backdrop to his entrance. He was not
the first liberator of the island of Cuba. We have already written of José
Martí, who broke the chains of Spain's stranglehold on that island in the
1890s. Fidel Castro's revolution sought for another kind of freedom for the
Cuban people and other peoples in the world at large. It will be weighed and
written in his final chapter as to whether this work was indeed achieved and
whether he really freed the Cubans or just imposed yet another yoke on them.
Let
us first look at Cuba, the largest island of the Greater Antilles. It is in
truth a giant among the islands of the Caribbean, 44,146 square miles, an area
that is larger than England minus the principality of Wales. Cuba is larger
than all the other islands of the Caribbean put together by several thousand
square miles. And not only its size is significant, but also the comparative
smallness of its population, which stood in the 1960s at just 6 million, or 150
people per square mile. Barbados, in contrast, has a population density of
1,300 people per square mile.
The
Spaniards settled Cuba early, in spite of the brave resistance of the Arawak
Chief Hatuey, who fled from Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic)
with a small party of followers to escape from Spanish colonial tyranny. His
forces were defeated in Cuba and he was captured and burnt alive.
It
is said that before he died, Hatuey was exhorted by a priest, who tried to
persuade him to allow himself to be baptised so that as a Christian he might go
to heaven. Hatuey inquired whether there were any Christians in heaven. On
being told that the good ones went there, he begged to decline baptism, as he
did not want to meet any Spaniards in the next life.
Cuba
came under Spanish rule in the early 16th century. It was, however, much
neglected despite its fine harbour
at Havana. As it was developed over time, it became famous for the quality of
both its sugarcane fields as much as for its tobacco cultivation. By the late
1700s, Cuba turned to sugar, joining Barbados, then Jamaica, then the French
half of Hispaniola, to be followed by Puerto Rico in its production. It soon
dwarfed those, and the increase in sugar production in the early 19th century
meant an increase in the number of slaves and an alteration in the nature of
the population.
In
the 1830s, between 10,000 and 12,000 Africans were brought to Cuba each year,
and slavery did not come a an end there until 1886, fifty-two years after the
British West Indies had abolished slavery.
Enormous
fortunes were made. The wealth and splendour of the old Spanish and creole
grandee families were proverbial. The Spanish creoles disliked the officials
from Spain, but they disliked even more the idea of Cuba becoming a
predominantly African island like Haiti and Jamaica. In 1843, there were slave
uprisings, which were put down harshly. The Cuban whites, although ashamed of
slavery, were even more afraid of emancipation. They knew that once the
Africans left the plantations, they would not willingly return, as happened in
the other Caribbean islands after the abolition of slavery. It was a case of
political and economical avarice.
Cuba's
first great struggle for freedom from Spanish colonial rule came in 1868 under
the lawyer Carlos Cespedes. This was a war that lasted ten years. Other freedom
fighters, such as Maximo Gomez from Santo Domingo, came to Cuba to lend a hand
in much the same manner as Ché Guevara, who came from Argentina some 75 years
later.
The
ten year war devastated the eastern part of the island and destroyed the coffee
industry. It wiped out the European market for Cuban sugar. Balancing this,
however, was a rapid expansion of the U.S.A. sugar market. For the most part,
this was in the hands of the "new imperials", the big combines like
the American Sugar Refining Company, which for twenty years, from 1890 to 1910,
controlled 80% of the refined sugar consumed in the United States.
José
Martí was born in 1853 and to use the well known turn of phrase, "lived
his life like a candle in the wind". Like the men of the previous century,
he burnt with the fire of liberty, and he died young. 1894 was the crucial
year. In the heat of battle, the rebel commander Gomez had asked José Martí to
keep to the rear so as to live to lead the new republic. Martí, however, was
among the first to die at the front...
The
shackles of Spain fell, but other, more home-grown dictators, replaced the
chains of bondage of the Cubans. Some were worse than others. For example, in
their reaction to the dictator Machado, the Cubans demonstrated with remarkable
unanimity the limits of their tolerance. They would not endure brutal
repression and senseless cruelty.
The
rising of 1933 against Machado really had no previous parallel in Cuban
history. It was followed by a return to elected government and, for a time, by
an improvement in the competence, the honesty and the scope of the
administration.
There were men and women in Cuba who belonged to the communist movement that was sweeping the world. Cuba probably had in the 1930s the only serious organised communist movement in the West Indies. Apparently imported by Spanish immigrants in the 1920s, not very numerous, Cuba did, however, produce an elected left-wing government under Dr. Gran San Martín in 1944 that had some communist support. At the other end of the political landscape from Gran San Martín stood a remarkable individual in the person of Sergeant - later President - Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar. Batista was born in 1901 in Oriente. He was a labourer's son, and rose from sergeant-major to colonel in the army campaign against President Machado in 1931-33, during which time he was seen as the chief architect of revolutionary success. With his skill in organising the non-commissioned officer element in the army for political ends, Batista had the knack of picking and supporting honest and respectable presidents for years before he sought office himself. Batista became president in 1940, a position which he held until 1944. With genial and therefore tolerable periods of personal rule between 1934 and 1944, Batista's political strategy was both opportunistic and flexible. He accepted the communists and created a working arrangement with them when it suited him. In this period, he kept his promise to the Cuban people. He went into voluntary exile in 1944 and returned in 1952 to overthrow President Prio and to be subsequently re-elected in 1954. His military coup inaugurated another era of personal dictatorship in Cuba and was a good-bye for free elections. Batista sought to keep himself in power so as to secure his own personal fortune, often by brutal means. Memories of the dictator Machado returned to the people's minds. It was at this stage that Fidel Castro, following in the footsteps of generations of Latin militarists, started to collect an irregular army in the Sierra Maestra. From these majestic mountains, deep in Cuba's heartland, he proclaimed an armed revolution. Batista, with a professional army, was able for many months to resist the threat, but his civil support behind the lines crumbled rapidly. At the end of 1958, he was driven from office and fled to the Dominican Republic, where he died in 1973. Castro and a group of revolutionary enthusiasts, totally inexperienced in the task of government, took control of Cuba's future. Their proclaimed objectives included the restoration of the constitution of 1940, the electoral code and land reform. After their victory, all these were forgotten.
There were men and women in Cuba who belonged to the communist movement that was sweeping the world. Cuba probably had in the 1930s the only serious organised communist movement in the West Indies. Apparently imported by Spanish immigrants in the 1920s, not very numerous, Cuba did, however, produce an elected left-wing government under Dr. Gran San Martín in 1944 that had some communist support. At the other end of the political landscape from Gran San Martín stood a remarkable individual in the person of Sergeant - later President - Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar. Batista was born in 1901 in Oriente. He was a labourer's son, and rose from sergeant-major to colonel in the army campaign against President Machado in 1931-33, during which time he was seen as the chief architect of revolutionary success. With his skill in organising the non-commissioned officer element in the army for political ends, Batista had the knack of picking and supporting honest and respectable presidents for years before he sought office himself. Batista became president in 1940, a position which he held until 1944. With genial and therefore tolerable periods of personal rule between 1934 and 1944, Batista's political strategy was both opportunistic and flexible. He accepted the communists and created a working arrangement with them when it suited him. In this period, he kept his promise to the Cuban people. He went into voluntary exile in 1944 and returned in 1952 to overthrow President Prio and to be subsequently re-elected in 1954. His military coup inaugurated another era of personal dictatorship in Cuba and was a good-bye for free elections. Batista sought to keep himself in power so as to secure his own personal fortune, often by brutal means. Memories of the dictator Machado returned to the people's minds. It was at this stage that Fidel Castro, following in the footsteps of generations of Latin militarists, started to collect an irregular army in the Sierra Maestra. From these majestic mountains, deep in Cuba's heartland, he proclaimed an armed revolution. Batista, with a professional army, was able for many months to resist the threat, but his civil support behind the lines crumbled rapidly. At the end of 1958, he was driven from office and fled to the Dominican Republic, where he died in 1973. Castro and a group of revolutionary enthusiasts, totally inexperienced in the task of government, took control of Cuba's future. Their proclaimed objectives included the restoration of the constitution of 1940, the electoral code and land reform. After their victory, all these were forgotten.
Similar
to Stalin, Castro opted to govern by propaganda and police execution of large
numbers of his political opponents and to imprison many who had supported him
against Batista but subsequently differed from his policies. The communists in
his entourage—semi-professional revolutionaries in a crowd of amateurs—rapidly
extended their influence, insisting upon a strict revolutionary orthodoxy in
all public spheres.
The
treatment of universities is usually a reliable measure of the tolerance and
self-confidence of a government. The University of Havana had been closed under
the regimes of both Machado and Batista. Under Dr. Castro, it was bullied into
conformity in its teaching and writing.
It
is important to remember that Fidel Castro has pursued the economic objects of
the revolution. He confiscated large land holding and distributed these to
peasants and co-operatives in an unprecedented scale in the Caribbean or Latin
America. His impressive housing developments for the poor, his success in education
and the development of medical services with its significant advancements are
widely remarked upon. These radical departures won for the government the
enthusiastic support of a peasantry long accustomed to poverty and
hopelessness, the root of national discontent.
Since
the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, and under an aging Fidel Castro, Cuba's
communist system and economy stand alone in the Western World. History will
prove what will follow and whether the island has come to the end of its
revolutionary cycle.
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