Cuban history is connected to the U.S., the USSR, and Spain. Spain conquered this beautiful island nation after the arrival of Christopher Columbus on its shores in 1492. Aboriginal groups in Cuba did not hold a huge influence on its society and culture; instead, the colonial Spanish culture started to take root in Cuban society and change its intrinsic character.
The people who inhabited this beautiful island didn’t have the slightest idea what was coming next – years of enslavement and poverty.
So how did it all happen? How did evil people get control of the island’s population? What is the biggest scam? Let me enlighten you a bit as best as I can…
Cuban's Scam & People's Poverty
The worst scam in Cuba is the lack of real control in the hands of the people. Whatever any regime says or the way they present themselves, the truth is that the people always stay marginalized.
The leaders came to power after making tall claims. They resorted to any means to justify their violent actions against their opposition. They succeeded in persuading the public with flimsy arguments. Dissenters are treated harshly.
The communist regime does not let people express themselves. It snatches the power of dissent from the people. A communist regime tries to make all people behave in the same manner, regardless of their choices.
The lack of monetary incentives prevents people from coming up with bright ideas and keeps everybody in extreme poverty.
How It All Started
For the first few centuries, this island nation was neglected; it was not so strategically important.
Cuba was a very neglected part of Spanish imperialism initially. But things started to change. The Spanish established the sugar and tobacco industry in Cuba, and it drained the country’s resources from Cuba to Spain, and Spain’s treasury boomed.
Batista’s Regime
In an important chapter of Cuba’s history, military involvement in Cuban politics was legitimized when Batista rose to power. Corruption was pretty high, but economic advancement was also very noticeable, which will be discussed later. But as time passed, strict labor laws put the economy into stagnation; the country’s relationship with the U.S. became bitter; the tax burden was high; unemployment was also very high; the country’s GDP growth was only 1% in the 1960s. Batista suspended the constitution of 1940, curtailing political liberties, including the right to strike.
He became close with large landowners and helped them economically (the seed of communism started to take shape) and the gap between rich and poor widened drastically. Violence, torture, and public executions became normal. Large U.S. companies got lucrative deals. The popularity of Batista’s regime slipped, and Fidel Castro gained more publicity and popularity, and Communism started knocking at the door of Cuban society.
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was not only a turning point in Cuba’s history, but it changed world history and influenced world politics, probably in the deepest way possible. Fidel Castro, the main character of the revolution, became a very prominent character in world history. Batista’s defeat left a profound impact on Cuban society, leading to doubts about whether Cuba could govern itself. It also resulted in a sudden and disproportionate rise of a brutal right-wing group, and as a result, institutions were destroyed, and the civil war eradicated Cuban prosperity; even its sovereignty was also in deep trouble.
During World War II, prosperity was high, and human rights were respected, but again Cuba threw itself into prolonged uncertainty. Fidel Castro emerged as an undisputed leader at this juncture. While he was a student, he participated in revolution throughout Latin America; now it was his time to repeat this in his motherland.
In 1952, he was a candidate for the Cuban People’s Party, but Batista’s removal preempted the election, and he started looking for an alternate way to overthrow the dictatorship. His first desperate attempt to challenge Batista failed, and he and his brother, Raul, were imprisoned. After release, Castro went to Mexico and organized the invading force of Cuban exiles.
Return to Cuba
With a band of eighty-one men, Castro returned and started a guerrilla campaign. He now had with him Che Guevara, an able military leader. With Castro’s arrival, Cuba was in a state of unending Civil War. As a consequence, civil liberties were suspended, and communist ideas became very popular in Cuba. This power struggle was portrayed as a class struggle against oppression, though Castro was not convinced of Marxism leading his country at first.
The year 1958 became a very bloody time in the history of Cuba. Words used by the revolutionaries also deteriorated; Havana and other tourist spots were referred to as brothels for Americans. Sugar mills were burned, bombings in Havana destroyed tourism, the mining industry was hampered. Batista moved the military against them, and a fierce battle ensued. Castro became ruthless; his policy became irrational, inhumane. He issued unnecessary appeals for general strikes and also issued death threats against all candidates for political office.
Twenty-eight American sailors were kidnapped, and several others were seized, but U.S. anger forced Castro to release them. Batista got support from the U.S. in the election; internal support was not negligible either. But after that election, support melted away. On December 27th, 1958, Che Guevara led rebel force on a march towards the capital of the Las Villas Province. Batista’s position became untenable, and he relinquished his presidency.
Castro’s adventure became successful. On April 16th, 1961, he converted Cuba to a single-party Communist state.
Castro’s Regime
He brought Communism to Latin America; his campaign influenced the whole Communist world and he, along with his friend Che Guevara, became icons of class struggle and revolution. Like any other communist leader, Castro also governed with zero tolerance towards those the opposition and those with a difference of opinion. Indiscriminate arrests, torture, and executions uprooted the opposition and made him the undisputed king of Cuba.
- The Communist Regime, Economy, and Cuba
Communism did not bring peace to Cuba, and Havana did not stop being a brothel either. Generation after generation were put through a bloody civil war, and foreign policy was connected to the leader’s ideology rather than the nation’s interests.
As communist governments are not open to public scrutiny, the corruption level was bound to increase. Fidel Castro’s wealth was disproportionately high. What was once a republic became a ‘one-party ruled state’ and then a ‘one-person ruled state’ and now ‘one-family ruled state’. That family is the Castro family, though maybe in 2021, Cuba will have its first non-Castro President.
To know the effects of communism on Cuba, we have to first know the pre-Castro era of Cuba:
- Cuba had an economy that rose in the 1960s.
- Wages were pretty high, and workers would get one-month of paid holiday.
- Maternal leave was available.
- Pre-revolutionary Cuba enjoyed Latin America’s highest per capita consumption of meat, fruits, and vegetables, and there was a high ownership of cars, telephones, and radios.
- Cuba had more doctors per capita than the UK.
- The infant mortality rate was the 13thlowest in the world.
- Pre-revolutionary Cuba had a higher literacy rate than Spain.
Cuban Economy After the Revolution
As a communist country, it has a state-controlled economy. The state is everywhere and hence prospects regarding modern economic parameters are not so good. Entrepreneurship doesn’t boom there, and new generations of businessmen are not so happy with this state control over the economy.
- The standard of living now is comparable to Sri Lanka.
- Engineers and professors are now driving cars for employment.
- Its per capita is two times lower than Chile’s.
- Civil liberties do not exist.
- The killing of writers, dissenters, and homosexuals is ‘normal’.
- Havana is now a ghost town with a crumbling infrastructure.
- In 2015, thirty thousand Cubans fled to America.
- Land-revenue systems and agriculture are facing stagnation.
The revolution ended two generations of people; it destroyed great artistry, writing, and stamped out a flourishing arts community in the country. A revolution that inspired the whole world needs to be reexamined for the betterment of humanity.
One of the bloodiest civil wars in history, which promised its people peace, liberty, prosperity, and above all equality through communism, changed Latin America and the world, but , Cubans are still waiting for greater improvements in their lives, and the fulfillment of promises made to their parents, their grandparents. But yes, there are always silver linings. Communist rule in Cuba has also made some good achievements that need to be mentioned –
- Ranked 5thin the hemisphere in per capita income, 3rd in life expectancy, 2nd in per capita ownership of automobiles.
- The literacy rate is 76th, the fourth-highest in Latin America.
- Income distribution is better than other Latin American societies.
Conclusion
Most of the time, a greedy leader usurps political power in the name of communism. The leader then amends every possible law that can be used to dethrone them. All other parties are banned and are not allowed to operate. Those who do not obey the command are thrown in jail.
Ultimately, the people suffer. They stay poor, and they stay oppressed. That’s the reason that the country has the worst social and economic parameters even now.
