What a tragedy for a country that under Batista had been one of the most prosperous in Latin America. True, it was in need of a better safety net for the very poor and unfortunate — which could have been accomplished with ordinary democratic reforms — but not of a radical Communist revolution. That revolution produced the usual results that we see in other parts of the globe.
Most people have the impression that Cuba was a primitive country pre-1959, so it had little to lose. Not true. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America of the United Nations, “Economic activity in Cuba during 1957 reached the highest levels of the post-war period.” [That’s with a guerrilla war taking place.] The gross product in real terms increased by “something more than 8 per cent”. Cuba was second in Latin America in consumption of electric energy. It couldn’t have just been the elite using that electricity. In Cuba there was a solid basis for prosperity and for expanding middle and upper classes. Castro’s regime destroyed that, and during the Cuban missile crisis brought the world very close to nuclear war.
Though at one time I admired Castro, and listened to so many of his speeches that I could give good imitations of him in Spanish — he had a very distinctive speaking style — I now have no regrets that he’s dead (beyond the ordinary ones I feel at the reminder of human mortality).
#20 GJones2: Welcome to the Bright Side of reality.