NOW AS WELL AS THEN: Farewell, Fidel!

There was great celebration among Cuban Americans in Miami at the death of Fidel, and great homage to this reaction by the US press. Only President Obama, among Americans, made a diplomatic statement on Fidel Castro’s passing. There was something very hypocritical about this outpouring. No one calls out the brutality of the Saudi regime. No one complains about Communism in China or in Vietnam, and it would seem that with Raul Castro’s opening up to small business in Cuba that he is prepared to follow the Chinese model of development. Across the US borders, there was a very different reaction to Fidel’s death. Justin Trudeau virtually praised Fidel. The Mexican President was equally warm.

 

In Africa the reaction, particularly in South Africa, was at the loss of an important ally. US commentators were quick to downplay the health care and education advances in Cuba that Prime Minister Trudeau mentioned. The fact is that in spite of the suffering that the ordinary Cuban endured, largely because of the US embargo against that small country, Cuba was able to produce the number and quality of engineers that would serve the US well at the moment. Not only have the Cubans elevated health care to a level that is the envy of most developed countries, they provide a global health care that is infinitely better than what is available in the US, and at a cost more than ten times cheaper than health care in the USA. Cuba has in fact produced more engineers and doctors per capita than any other country in the world.

 

Cuba, under Fidel Castro, exported doctors to much of the Caribbean as well as to a large swathe of Africa. It also provided scholarships for foreign students from the Caribbean and Africa, even when it could hardly afford to feed its own students. Some foreign students baulked at the conditions and returned to the comfort of their countries rather than endure present hardships for future success. Nonetheless, Cuba was always willing to do even more. Fidel made such an incredible offer to CARICOM even when, after listening to a rendition of the Hallelujah chorus by a Trinidad and Tobago steel band (which he enjoyed although he indicated that he had little to shout Hallelujah about). Cuba also provided hundreds of doctors to assist in rescue efforts when there were horrendous mudslides in Central America. Cuba even once offered the US medical assistance, which of course was declined. What is also interesting was that when there was a health crisis in Haiti after the earthquake, although the US press made great noise about US assistance to Haiti during this period, it would seem that an undue portion of US aid was military. But Cuban doctors and nurses were there first and plenty. The case was much the same in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia during the Ebola crisis in those countries; the Cubans were the first in with health-care workers and in great numbers. Again the international press hardly mentioned the Cuban contribution.

 

Cuba was also instrumental under Fidel Castro in the liberation of Southern Africa. The important battle was the third battle of Cuito Carnavale in Southern Angola. The civil war in Angola was in fact a proxy war between the West, as represented by Thatcher and Reagan, who supported Savimbi, the brutal leader of a rebel group, backed by apartheid South Africa, and the Soviet Union physically represented by Cuba. What had happened up to this battle was that South African jets would strafe the combined forces of Angola, South African freedom fighters, Namibians and Cubans; the white South African forces would then come onto the field of battle and mop up. On this occasion, the Angolan Government had managed to have two pilots trained and also smuggled into the country two Russian MIG 25s. These two attacked and wiped out half of the South African older Mirage fleet, leaving the white South African forces exposed. Those not killed were surrounded and the Angolans sent the message of ultimatum to South Africa. In brief, the result was that Namibia gained its Independence from South Africa, Botswana was no longer terrorised and the white power of Apartheid crumbled.

 

The US pretended that the battle had been fought to a draw. They demanded that the Cubans be sent back from Angola. The Angolans asked how many and added that there were Cubans there who had become grandfathers and could not be repatriated. A final agreement was for a relatively small number of Cubans. But the damage to the neo-fascist walls had been done. It was not simply a Cuban affair, but they had participated in the process. Reagan deemed that Nelson Mandela, hailed by the world as a great human being, was a terrorist perhaps because he proclaimed Fidel Castro a friend who had come in time of need. This position on Mandela was eventually reversed, but Fidel remained the bogeyman of the USA.

 

Fidel was one of several children born to an upper class Spaniard who settled in southern Cuba, where Fidel grew up. His revolutionary ideas began when he was a student reading law. A dictator named Fulgensia Batista ruled Cuba at the time. Havana was the playground of wealthy Americans and the Mafia. One in three young Cuban women was a prostitute. Richer Cubans got to participate in the decadence and indeed profited from Batista’s rule. Briefly, when Fidel had managed to overthrow Batista, the rich fled to Miami and their properties were confiscated. Fidel was not at that point a Communist; he wanted reconciliation with the US. This was a faint hope in view of what had happened in Nicaragua and Guatemala! So Fidel turned to the waiting arms of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union later imploded, he was left out in the cold. The USA had imposed a blockade and very hard times followed. These included an attempt, it is reported, by the Mafia and an element of the CIA to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and three equally unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Fidel.