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Castro's Cuba
This is not the future that most Cubans expected when Castro and his band of guerrillas deposed the corrupt, crony regime of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar in 1959. Castro had promised to restore the constitution and hold elections, but neither happened. Instead, Cuba became an autocracy of secret prisons, whimsical laws and few freedoms. It also became dependent on subsidies from friendly nations -- to the tune of $6 billion a year from the Soviet Union (until the Berlin Wall collapsed) and 100,000 barrels of oil a day now coming from the leftist regime in Venezuela.Nevertheless, there were successes under Castro. Cuba's literacy rate approaches 97 percent, and health care is free and universal. At the height of the Cold War, Cuban soldiers fought ably on Communist front lines from Latin America to Africa to Asia. Such accomplishments still persuade some to believe in Castro's Cuba. "I have free health care, my children go to a good school," says a mechanic as he retreads a tire outside a bus terminal. "Where else in Latin America -- where in America or the rest of the world -- would I have this?"
But even Castro's proudest achievements are steadily crumbling. Cubans say that sick wards inside the once-famed hospitals are nothing more than rooms lined with dirty mattresses. The country's birthrate is in the bottom quartile of the world, only slightly better than Aruba, the region's worst. And the suicide rate is among the highest of any country. The overall impression is that Cuban society is anemic, aging and unhappy.
A poll conducted in 2005 by the group Spanish Solidarity with Cuba found that 80 percent of Cubans believe changes are necessary. When asked their preference for democracy or dictatorship, only 20 percent chose the latter. A similar poll last September by Gallup, though limited to Havana and Santiago, found that just 26 percent of the residents said they were "satisfied with the freedom they have to choose what to do with their lives."
Sit down with Cubans and many will cite very specific grievances, such as anger with the food-rationing system. Over dinner in the home of one Cuban family, the mother pulls out a pocket-size stamp book and thumbs through it, pointing out the missing stamps for food. "I'm supposed to get tomatoes and other things, but they don't exist," she says. To her, the food rationing is "a joke."
Her 17-year-old daughter is applying for university but worries she won't be selected for one of the coveted spots. Although an excellent student, she didn't always participate in the orchestrated street marches for Castro. While some students truly believe in the Cuban experiment, the daughter says, many more just play the game, waiting for the moment when they can leave.
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