Cuba under the Long Shadow of Castro Brothers
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 12 Jan 2015
Stephan E. Nikolov, PhD – TRANSCEND Media Service
Holes in the façade of the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, with whose assault by a group of weird young, led by young lawyer Fidel Castro from Havana, that marked the beginning of the Cuban revolution, can serve as a metaphor for the nature of this act and all subsequent epic. Batista regime was not able to repair the damage of the shootout. In preparation for the celebration of the first anniversary of the attack already in free Cuba someone quickly glossed over them and throw one paint, then someone came up – this is history! And photos from old newspapers helped to restore them again – one of the first forgeries and myths that prop up each victorious revolution.
Like most revolutions, this assault too combines youthful audacity and enthusiasm with elements of tragicomedy and operetta. Most rebels were graduates and intellectuals with almost no military experience. Gathered in a mansion on the outskirts of the second largest city in Cuba, they bought arms and military uniforms being able to keep in secret preparations for the plot, incl. gunfire training. July 26 was not accidentally chosen – that day and night marks the climax of the traditional carnival. Relying on weak discipline and surprise in the euphoria to reach the goal unnoticed, when the majority of the garrison should be on leave or having fun with spirits and women. Everything was considered to the last detail, with a small oversight: part of the attackers failed to obtain military boots. Who would care to watch your feet! Group approached the gateway, the driver of the first car cried to the officer on duty “General arrived!”, expecting the startled officer to salute and quickly lift the barrier. But he decided to look, noticed civilian shoes, gave distress signal, and fire-fight erupted. Part of the assailants were killed, those wounded unceremoniously murdered. Few managed to escape were chased with fierce acrimony. The order of Batista was clear-cut: no one should remain alive. Killed were almost all followers of Castro, but the brain of the failed attack had incredible luck. Fidel and several of his surviving comrades were spotted deeply dormant in a meadow. Soldiers began ruthlessly slaughtering them. And here their commander recognized the still beardless Fidel. Young officer sympathized to Fidel, who gained recognition his activities in the Orthodox party[i], and he was also disappointed by the corrupt dictatorship of former sergeant Fulgencio Batista. So miraculously main culprit for the bloodshed was saved. And he faced a civil court, where passionately he defended himself with his famous speech “History will justify me”. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he only served a year and a half to fall under a general amnesty and to be expelled. In Mexico, together with his brother Raul (who was already the leader of the Cuban Communist youth), Camilo Cienfuegos, the Argentine doctor Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and about a hundred enthusiasts, made military camp. Under the guidance of veterans from the Spanish Civil War they went through drill for guerrilla war. At the end of 1956 on the overloaded yacht “Granma” most of the group returned to Cuba, but the sea storm sent them out exhausted on the shore away from the planned place for landing. Met by intense fire by land and by air, from 82 persons there survived several, including – you guess it! – the incredibly fortunate Fidel and together with some half dozen future Comandantes of the revolution. Only three years later, on the very New Year, guerrilleros will be in Havana, after Batista escaped.
Like most adolescents, contemporaries of the revolution “barbudos” (bearded), me as well I was fascinated by their aura. In an already gray Bulgarian “socialist” reality, events in Cuba – which about we learned in the most romantic way – were completely different from the things here in Bulgaria. Without even heard the word “NGO”, issuing handwritten newsletters on Cuba with newspaper clippings, together with group of classmates we organized finally amateur Pupils’ Society for Bulgarian-Cuban Friendship. 10-year-olds teenagers in one chilly winter day we paid a visit to the Cuban embassy, then on the Oborishte street in Sofia. Intentionally or not, personally met us the first ambassador of socialist Cuba H.E. Salvador Garcia Aguero – slender, glamorous black man who once led the parliamentary faction of the old Cuban Communist Party terminated by Castro. Later I realized that sending of him to Sofia was a sort of exile – he died in Bulgaria.
We organized photo exhibitions (one put forth exhibits provided to us by the commercial department of the Cuban embassy – cigars, rum, canned fish, someone stole them, I used all my verbal talent to write a detailed explanation how it happened, most probably diplomats have laughed reading it, and responded with a a formal letter in which greeted us for… “revolutionary vigilance”), meetings with Cuban pioneers that have vacationed in Bulgaria, celebrations, sporting competitions… Somewhere in 1967 on a visit to Bulgaria arrived Raul Castro, then Minister of Defense – we encountered him in the courtyard of the Cuban embassy, and handed him a small souvenir and of course with young pioneers red tie. Around that time, the wrapped in mystery death of Che Guevara – whose resigning of all government posts in Cuba to go to make a revolution “elsewhere” reminded us of the humble doom of our Bulgarian appealing characters from the Bulgarian revolutionary wars, Botev and Levski – we initiatea national-wide Club “Che Guevara” with branches in several cities in the country. The youth communist daily wrote about us, and I had an appointment with the then then first secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian “Komsomol” and future prime minister Georgi Atanasov. He suggested to include me in a youth delegation to visit Cuba – something that never happened to me due to unknown for me reasons (delegation left without me).
I wrote this introduction to make clear what is Cuba in my life. Over the years, I read a lot of literature on Cuba – both less and more thick analyses, documentaries, even poetry and prose, as well as articles and various more writings. Initially mainly Bulgarian and Soviet, then by a variety of other foreign authors, I have met and I talked with dozens of Bulgarians and foreigners who lived and worked in Cuba. Indeed, the initial romance faded, Cuba remained for me one of the many countries in the world that play the role of reference for my exceptional professional and amateur scrutiny. Therefore my wife absolutely surprised me, when for 60 my 60th birthday she made me an exceptional gift – a trip for two of us to Cuba.
It is important to emphasize that I have never saw trip to whatever country only as visiting tourist attractions. I had the freedom to design then itinerary limited sole by the relatively short time at our disposal, deliberately strolling around afar famous Varadero resort and government owned hotels.
And since it is a country where the Communist nomenclature and security services are in complete control, I would like to say one more thing: every word written here is the result of my personal experience, responsible for it is only me and. In no way I had with of local people that I met – mostly landlords and professional guides – even remotely political conversation. That is because I know that in a country like Cuba there is futile to enter in such conversations – it may only bring trouble to the local people (by the way, just for this reason so far I was declining to describe what my impressions from Cuba).
While I write these lines, the news came about the historical lifting of the blockade and embargo and recovery of trade and diplomatic relations with the United States, which added more nuances to this text.
Reforms, contradictory and inconsistent, initiated by Raul Castro since taking power from his elder brother Fidel “reforms”, though obviously being a departure from rigid dogmas and heavily depending on foreign support economy, not even alluding any abolition of repression and total control. Adherence to the society, completely subservient to the state security and the huge army of informers sent in 2009a clear sign of the rulers intentions by arresting the USAID employee Alan Gross for allegedly supplying satellite phones and computers (then still banned from public and private access) to members of the Cuban Jewish community. Sentenced to 15 years in prison due to ill health Gross spent most of the time in a military hospital periodically declining to eat and meet official visitors. His recent release was an important part of the backroom deal to normalize the Cuban-American relations, including exchange of detained in the United States Cuban spies.
As soon as the initial hopes for change in the status quo were dashed, democratic opposition in Cuba intensified activities.
Hunger strike of Guillermo Fariñas, the appealing Ladies in White, and the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo after his own lengthy hunger strike sparked strong internal and external pressure on the regime of Raul Castro. This led the government to seek the intervention of the Catholic Church and even semi pagan Santeria, the belief of African slaves, in order to reduce tensions between the regime and pro-democracy forces.
In each story for Cuba in recent years attention is devoted to the Ladies in White (Spanish Damas de Blanco). This is a non-violent opposition movement in Cuba, consisting of spouses and other relatives of jailed dissidents. During the so called. Black Spring of 2003, the Cuban government arrested 75 human rights activists, independent journalists and intellectuals on charges of “actions against the independence and territorial integrity of the state”, belonging to “illegitimate organizations”, receiving money from the US and “kidnappings”, “terrorism” as well as “collaboration with foreign media” They received sentences ranging from 6 to 28 years in prison. According to the Committee to Protection of Journalists, with Black Spring Cuban authorities violated basic norms of international law, including. Art. 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
Under the leadership of Laura Pollan, whose husband Hector Maseda is serving a 20-year sentence, Ladies in White began to gather on Sundays in the Church of St. Rita in Havana to pray for the salvation of their beloved ones. After each service they start habitual silent procession from the church to a nearby park. They chose white clothes as a symbol of peace and as a reminder of Argentinean mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who use a similar strategy to seek the truth about their missing children during the military junta rule. Each of them carries a small photo of his detained relative and a figure corresponding to the number of years of his sentence.
The movement received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the European Parliament in 2005.
The Cuban government pronounced the Damas de Blanco to be a US-backed and terrorism related “subversive organization”. On 2005 Palm Sunday, the pro-government Federation of Cuban Women sent 150 women who attacked the silently protesting group. Since then such raids, accompanied with insulting shouts and support police to tuck in them into police buses are frequent. Following the intervention of Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, in 2010 they were allowed to protest outside the church, but not shouting or raising posters.
On 30 November 2010 the group member Yvonne Malyesa Galano was arrested along with her husband Ignacio Martinez Monteho. They held a banner reading “No to hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba” in Havana Fraternity Park. Two policemen grab the poster, handcuffed and dragged them into a police car. When Isabel Alvares Aidee Moskeda objected to their arrest, she was detained too. The two women were transferred to the Havana women’s prison Manto Negro and their relatives were informed that the three were investigated for “public disorder”. After 52 days in jail, just hours after being declared “prisoners of conscience” by the Amnesty International and an extensive international campaign in their defense, they were released with a warning that they should face “harsh sentences” if they continue their anti-government conduct.
Ladies in White also participate in a vigil for prisoner dissident Uilmar Villar Mendoza, who later died while on hunger strike.
Around seventy Ladies in White, including Bertha Soler, current leader of the group were arrested over the weekend on 16-17 March 2012. Two days later they were released without being charged and were told that will be no more allowed to protest. On 9 December the same year, police in Cuba arrested 80 Ladies in White, using violence against some of them. Total of 100-150 dissidents were placed under house arrest. Despite inflicting terror and periodic attacks, abuse and arrests, Ladies in White continue ahead with their non-violent rallies, but unlike their sisters in Chile and Argentina, the world’s attention to them is appallingly humble. Another case of arrests was only recently, in early December 2014, when Sonia Harry Ramon Alejandro Munoz and Eugenio Hernandez were arrested, threatened with a lawsuit, but then released, with another warning. A minor unsanctioned rally at the giant Place of Revolution in the New Year’s (and the next anniversary of the revolution), days after the Obama-Castro deal, was rapidly crushed, lucidly indicating that there won’t be any relaxing of the grip.
Despite the efforts, rather advertised transformations of the economy did not happen. Foreign investors who are great hopes for the future of Cuba, never appeared. Deepening economic dependence on Venezuela (reminiscent of earlier depending on the USSR) and the death of Hugo Chavez, “the brother of the Bolivarian country” drowned all the rosy scenarios nomenclature transition unchanged. Indirect evidence that steps are taken to change would be the disappearance of aggressive belligerent rhetoric of “lingua franca” of the Cuban revolution, “socialism or death”, “to be like Che!”, “Long live the heroic territorial militia”, “impregnable bastions “and so on.. These clichés are necrosis kastrizma; their disappearance would mean that the tops are finally realized that the body of Cuban communism is dead. So far this is not happening, as I was convinced personally, so the agony continues.
Majority of the opposition, in turn, continues to adhere to the line of promoting peaceful change that would lead to genuine democracy with full respect for individual freedoms, and seek to give moral and political assessment of all undertakings of the government which makes desperate attempts to stay in power.
In theory, in a communist country such as Cuba, all are equal.
People are provided free of charge with the basics of life, including housing, education and health. Once these primary living costs are covered by public funds (it is hardly necessary to explain in detail that they are accumulated by solid deductions from the income of enterprises and all employed), then for all other needs wages is not necessarily to be high. So the average Cuban official, from engineer, doctor (in ordinary, non hard currency paid medical facility) and teachers to drivers receive about ten to twenty dollars monthly. Prices of locally manufactured products are generally low, and food – with coupons, while choice of goods is more than scarce and consists of poor quality products and services. According to the official version, for tourists established in the country is a two currency system: one for average mortals, the other one supposedly only for foreign tourists. But as a matter of fact, it covers the privileged class too, including both working in the sector of tourist services and the higher nomenclature. Thus, in a society that allegedly is moving though slowly towards a classless one, but, in fact social disparities become more compelling. “Convertible” pesos, called “CUCs” equate to approximately US dollar, while the “normal” pesos are 25 times less. For some things, such as entrance to museums, foreigners pay 25 times more than the Cuban citizens. For another things the price is the same (e.g, intercity bus, taxi, restaurant), making them inaccessible to all but the most wealthy Cubans.
Cubans who work with tourists – waiters, bartenders, guides, hotel staff, musicians and doctors in foreigners servicing hospitals, and some other categories, receive income in convertible pesos, in addition to their normal salary. Another group of favored – are Cubans with relatives living abroad, mostly in the US and Spain that send hundreds of dollars to their families in Cuba. Authorities’ attitude toward them abruptly changed in recent years – instead of being prosecuted, humiliated and harassed, they are now labelled with the euphemism “supporting the Socialist Government” (which recalls to me the one-time “understands and supports the activities of the people’s power”, used in communist Bulgaria – i.e., the distinction between “bad” and “good” capitalists). Just because they dispose with the despised by the Communists resource, money (real money, not the paper ones, “provided with all the resources of the Central Bank”), they buy the favor of the authorities on the official and unofficial tariffs as well as a relatively decent standard of living. The contrast between the haves and have-nots is often quite drastic.
Cuba’s economy is traditionally monocultural, through the history it depended largely on the production and export of sugar, reaching about 80% of the value of Cuban exports.
Throughout its history, Cuba was dependent on one or other of the “superpower” in the economic sphere, as well as subsidizing primarily on the production of sugar.
After gaining the independence from Spain in 1898, until 1959. Cuba was dependent on the United States. Subsequently, until the recent global changes during the last decade of the 20th century this role was assumed by the former Soviet Union, and in the last decade – by Venezuela.
The era of socialism failed to change this status, despite efforts to development areas with tropical fruits, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, as well as the cultivation of tomatoes with the help of Bulgarian specialists and the development of manufacturing industry, particularly based on the enormous deposits of nickel. In agriculture diversification not only lacks, but used there is primarily physical labor and obsolete, economically inefficient equipment. About 85% of an average of seven million metric tons of sugar per year were exported to Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China at subsidized prices. The good news today is that the campaigns for the harvesting of sugar cane – “zafra”, in which “voluntarily” tens of thousands of pupils, students, soldiers and clerks were included at the beginning of the summer, remained in past as well as never reached scores of 10 million tons harvested raw sugar. In 1989, the last time production exceeded 8 million t, and from 2009 onwards, it ss only about one million.
Cuban Constitution stipulates that the State “defines, organizes, manages and regulates the entire economic activity”. This means that all industrial and agricultural production is carried out by and in state-owned enterprises, specifically designed to perform certain functions, including the foreign trade, on which there exists a complete monopoly. Paradoxically, in the country that produces coffee, we failed to have a cup of coffee in the center of Santiago before our departure for Santa Clara because they were state-owned cafes around, which are not interested in serving one more customer.
In March 1968, Fidel Castro launched a “revolutionary offensive” and nationalized the remaining 58,000 small enterprises, with negligible compensation, leaving only some small farmers to own private property. But in the middle of the 1970s, in a partial reversal, the Government decided to allow some small businesses, known as cuentapropistas (self-employed, working for their own account), whose number quickly rose to over 46,000 by 1981. Followed another period of “rectification” (correcting, adjusting), which resulted in a new retrenchment and tightening the restrictions, reducing the number of self-employed persons up to 25,000 by the end of the decade. In response to the serious economic meltdown after M. Gorbachev canceled the many years subsidies to Cuba (by some estimates, amounting to about 1 billion dollars a year, mainly in the form of military supplies, construction of industrial objects, and basic necessities)[ii], since 1990 the Government again made the turn and small businesses quickly grew to 138,000 companies in 1995. Then the old history repeated itself again: after the economy apparently stabilized, Fidel pronounced again against that recurrence of corrupting “petty bourgeois” behavior, imposed were prohibitive taxes, and types of tolerated activities were curtailed[iii].
Nearly threefold price increase of nickel in the world market between 2004 and 2008, explains the high rates of growth recorded in this period, but also gave the occasion of former President Fidel Castro to renounce a number of steps for liberalization and decentralization of the economy, introduced during the period of 1993-2003. Individuals were arrested for a bag of cement or even batter cake (for such a batter needed was more than the permitted through rationing amount of eggs, milk and flour, and therefore, the possession of the batter for the cake was a crime, which led to detaining and sentences).
From the active national workforce of 5.1 million, already more than 1 million people (or 20%) belong entirely to the private sector, including a total of 430,000 of legally registered companies on the self-employed, operating across the island. In the field of agriculture, a total of 575,000 farmers own or rent (lease) private parcels that process individually or as cooperatives – jointly with others. …
Under the conditions of chronic deficit, many of them thrive as a result of the rapid rise of market-oriented agricultural markets. In addition, some 600,000 to one million (or even more) workers may be referred to the private sector. These include informal, grey sector, as well as illegal workers after the official working hours in enterprises and possibly even a larger segment of the population, referred to as the GESPI (civil servants who receive a substantial private income is at least equal to the meager State salaries), engaged in various activities. We saw them delivering bread, soft drinks, fruits, etc. in the homes, accommodating tourists – such as us. In total, at the beginning of 2013, the private sector in Cuba was estimated at nearly 2 million enterprising Cubans (40% of total employment), and probably even more[iv].
Non-state sector in the near future will likely continue to expand to include numerous fallen in a factual bankruptcy, chronically inefficient small- and medium-sized units into cooperatives for producing and selling goods and services. During the first three quarters of 2013, the Council of Ministers of Cuba approved 271 cooperatives (created by the former State enterprises, commercial sites, as well as in construction, hospitality and transport)[v]. There is no official data on the number of workers or owners in these cooperatives, but according to assessment on the basis of a study of ten of these cooperatives, it amounts to a total of approximately 3,000 people, while expected is a sharp increase in the number of such cooperatives in the coming years[vi]. Optimistic expectations are cooperatives to overcome the negative outcomes of state-owned enterprises, to implement initiatives of municipalities for the provision of services – e.g., care for children, collection and recycling of waste. There are the increasingly overt trend TPC (trabajadores cuentapropistas – petty urban enterprises) to officially merge in a larger enterprise[vii], and according to official statements of senior functionaries, to 2015, such enterprises will cover over 35% of employees, and by 2017 will produce 40-45% of GDP[viii].
There is no data in the official Cuban statistics for the private property of citizens, in particular about the ownership of homes and cars[ix]. By 2010, only 19% of Cubans possessed either stationary or then only introduced in the country mobile phones, compared, for example, with 97% in Costa Rica[x]. And here the most disturbing illustration of this economic condition is the purchasing power of Cubans compared with that of other countries. A study of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American studies at the University of Miami shows, for example, that for a purchase of less than 500 g milk powder, the average Cuban worker should work 57.5 hours, while for the same purchase the average worker in Costa Rica – only 1.7 hours. Comparable differences are contained in other analyzed positions from the basket of the study[xi].
More and more Cubans, in particular in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, display a quest for consumer behavior – something that apparently departure from the design of ideologues of the reforms. As an young man ironically noted, quoted in one of the recent books about the changes in Cuba, “we’re not Communists, we’re consumists”[xii]. On the author’s question of his goals in life, another young Cuban blithely replied: “Of course, we all want the same thing: a car that can start immediately, smartphone, PC with an access to internet, and a decent home”. Even if they can’t afford that, surprisingly many Cubans recognize global brands ranging from Nike shoes to ice cream Nestlé[xiii]. Contrary to the former pursuit of freedom, currently the common motivation for emigrating is associated mainly with the desire to experience a typical middle class way of life associated with consumerism.
In his inauguration speech in 2008, Raul Castro said that the Cuban Government is ready “to adopt large-scale and well thought out” series of measures to raise the Cuban standard of living and to bind the individual well-being with the personal initiative and job performance. R. Castro, also, pointed out the excessive “bans and rules” – calling some of them as “bizarre”, the removal of which the Cuban Government will begin “in the next few weeks”. Implied were a series of limited reforms, such as highly trumpeted abolition of restrictions on the entry of Cubans in hotels and restaurants, previously only possible for foreign tourists and authorized personnel. Due to the miserable income of the average Cuban, however, these reforms are more symbolic than real. Of greater potential impact is the provision allowing greater opportunities for the personal use of the available plots, mainly on the basis of a sharecropping system with state a landlord.
In April 2010 President R. Castro announced that the country has more than one million “redundant” workers. In September 2010, the Cuban Government announced that more than 500,000 civil servants, or 10% of the workforce, will be laid off in the first quarter of 2011. In order to allow them to find alternative sources of employment and income, the Government announced that it would ease provisions for employment in the private sector, and will expand the cooperative sector. In October 2010 published were new rules governing the sector of self-employed, including new activities (increase the number of authorized activities to 178), opening the door for the self-employed to recruit manpower. In addition, introduced was new tax scheme, that included sales taxes, taxes on profits, wages, as well as social security. By the end of 2010, the Cuban Government announced that it has provided 75,000 new permits for activities of self-employed persons, which represents more than a 50% increase from the number allowed in 2009. Cubans can now obtain permits for self-employed activities such as buying and selling of used books; assistant in public bath; pruning of palm trees; wrapping the buttons with fabric; shoe shine; cleaning of automobile spark plugs; repair of the mattress and mattresses; filling of disposable lighters with gas; repair of umbrellas; fortune telling with the Tarot cards; peeling of fruits; fruit sale in kiosks…
In April 2011, the Communist Party convened a congress for the first time in 14 years, and approved the introduced by President Raul Castro reforms. They included lifting of the ban on the sale and purchase of private property and possible mechanisms for the financing of small enterprises and cooperatives. About the end of 2011, the Cuban Government announced that it would allow inheritance, sale and purchase of homes for the first time since the beginning of the revolution.
An important place in the Cuban Government’s plans for development occupies tourism, termed officially as “the heart of the economy”. Havana devotes significant funds to build new tourist facilities and restoration of historical structures for the purposes of the tourist sector. And these efforts are giving results – in just ten years, the number of tourists and revenue from them has almost doubled.
… We landed at the Jose Marti International airport in the afternoon. This April day relocated us from chilling London to the stuffy Havana. We went through climatic and geographical zones, but also through the entire ages.
The “Virgin” plane was a sort of time machine, which drove us backward to something already lived.
First impressions on landing were for the unusual lack of airplanes at the relatively huge airport. Border formalities are simplified and soon we found ourselves in a small greeting room, where among the crowd we easily recognized our hostess M.N. (the initials are random) in her dual quality of an official at the Cuban State Committee for Tourism who essentially was providing private tourist services. At the surprisingly small for an international airport parking lot her modest KIA stood out though as the only relatively recent “Western” car among a dozen Russian oldies moskvich, lada and US classicls from the 50s of the former century.
Our hostess led us in a private room in which we were going to spend our first Cuban night. According to our initial plans, which I long time was arranging and fixing, we had immediately fly to Santiago on the East Coast, but the flight was cancelled without and explanation and this required a change in the program.
…We chose these residences – Casas particular (yet another shy euphemism – literally. “a peculiar or special home”, small family guest houses of private owners. The other introduction in the recent newspeak of the changes is palador – word, which with small private restaurants are called, which is not part from the traditional local Spanish, but has come from a popular Brazilian soap opera) notwithstanding some inconveniences. So we would be as far away as possible from the ready-made all-inclusive hotels and dull tourist routes, where you can easily lose track of the country and its people.
Thus, our experience in Cuba showed us the best and nastiest of the country. On one side, the lush green landscapes and emerald seas were holidays for our eyes, juicy, fresh fruit – real music for our gustatory sensations. But, on the other, the interactions with the Cubans were very limited, not only because of the language barrier.
Accommodation in Havana and other places were priced at around 30-35 dollars. For breakfast we paid an extra 4-5 dollars, and for a nice dinner – about 20. All addresses have been specified in advance, and despite my concerns, scheme worked flawlessly. I wanted to avoid unpleasant surprises from the collision with objectionable haggling with suspicious landlords and drivers, all offering generous service. Most unexpectedly, we faced some troubles at the most touristic place of our route, Trinidad, and on our return to Havana. Landlords there have obviously found better offers and we had to change the prearranged accommodation. Travel sites are filled with complains for numerous petty scams and disappointments. Therefore practically everywhere we met quite cordial hospitality and fair treatment – both on the part of the landlords, who were lodging us, with tour guides and drivers. The disadvantage was that our communication was limited only to the strictly defined social layer. But any other option was not recommended.
A pleasant surprise was that in no place offered caused any of the usual stomach disorders, usual for travel. And it was a real miracle implied apparently futile state supply network in Cuba, where scarce food products, mainly potatoes, offered together with pieces of meat covered with flies far from any refrigerators. In one such newsstand I saw a purple pig’s head at the 35°C heat. That means that provision is obviously a case of resourcefulness and connections of the landlords. From early morning to late evening the streets in front of the tourist accommodation were raucous by the summons of sellers who offered retail food products – baguettes, fruit, meat, fish, etc. Is virtually not necessary to mention, that such trade properly means black market and it is impossible to be carried out without the knowledge and quiet approval of the local activists of the so-called. “Committees for defense of the revolution” – the eyes and ears of the official authorities. In one of the quarters, even for us, aliens, it was not difficult to see the bustling commercial activity in a tiny building with no windows to the house across the street. There one after another were entering individuals empty bags and after a short stay they were leaving with filled bags. ..
“Now in Havana practically no one works for the state; and those who still do that also have a private business on the side. – writes the journalist and longtime observer of processes in Cuba Marc Frank. The extra income may come from exercising their official profession… (or) from an unrelated second job, be it fixing old cars, engaging in gray or illegal activities such as selling goods stolen from state-owned enterprises, or others, such as the case of a medical doctor who gained neighborhood fame for his fancy pastry creations. Many construction workers moonlight repairing and remodeling homes and apartments, in some cases cannibalizing materials from their day-job state employers (…) Doctors relied on patients’ gifts, and sold them to survive. – continues M. Frank. Nurses began caring for the better off at home, and dentists engaged in private practice in clinics after hours or in their homes, using stolen tools and supplies[xiv].
The emblematic for Cuba retro vehicles, which so much impress foreign tourists, are also an outcome of this enormous inventiveness. I have a feeling that forced by the sorry plight and deprivation Cuban is able to make move an old sewing machine. Parts and shells are collected from car cemeteries and waste sites and in backyards and garages the impossible has happened – in most cases even the paint is laid perfectly and professionally. Sometimes on the dashboard, steering wheel, levers and pedals you may see incredibly peaceful coexistence of countless brands and models. So it is with hidden from the eyes – the enormous buicks, cadillacs and studebackers often have fitted engines, carburetors and everything from Soviet, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean cars, which in itself is a truly technological challenge. And something very characteristic of Cuban aesthetics – on the lids of the cars and trucks mounted are tin figurines of a woman with wings, something like the goddess Nike, which borders on kitsch. However, the most ambitious ones aspire to recreate the classic models in full conformity with the original, removed from production for many decades. Even in the United States or Western Europe, it would be an almost impossible mission, but not in Cuba – naturally, with lots of money (but the investment is undoubtedly profitable!), love and perseverance.
To finish the transport theme I need to tell that public transport, in particular intercity bus, has been inexistent in Cuba at least since ten years. Along the roads, where you can travel for a long time without seeing another car, next to the abandoned bus stops people are wandering around in vain hope someone to stop and pick them up. Is it necessary to mention that none of them are going on the road for fun? And government and military vehicles, which almost exhaust the rolling road stock, haughtily pass. Workers who dwell further away from state-owned enterprises, in another suburb or in the villages around face with the need to travel many miles on feet. For their “convenience” other “supportive authorities” owners provide transport in tailored trucks and even horse driven carts. A railway crosses over the island and connects Havana with the second-large city, Santiago de Cuba. It was built in the second half of the 19th century by the Spanish colonizers. Due to the complete depreciation of the rolling stock, a decade ago, Cuba purchased inexpensively several used compositions from France, but they move with almost no accordance with any schedule. There are several domestic air routes, but the price of the tickets match at least a dozen monthly salaries, therefore fly only foreign tourists and officials on business trips.
By the way, there are also two bus companies, that sell tickets to the famous “CUCs” and they allegedly serve only foreigners. We used their services twice – from Santiago to Baracoa and one longer night’s journey from Santiago to Santa Clara. In the first case bus was a Chinese make, a relatively clean and decent, in the second – a fairly unappealing Brazilian bus which pads for head on the seats has never or far ago seen soap and water, and only the uniformed drivers with stripes, similar to that of the pilots, it reminded that this is almost an elite transport. Most passengers were Cubans, some with their wives and children – who obviously could afford to purchase tickets and to dodge the requirement to ride only foreigners.
I mentioned above Havana international airport. It is actually a relatively new. For domestic flights it is being used a separately one, aside from the larger one, whose building resembles both outside and inside a local bus station.
To this day, the Cuban and sympathizing it leftist propaganda in the world takes a lot of effort to praising tremendous achievements in the fields of health care and education. The latest data about the quality of medical services, however, show nearly critical condition: lack of the most needed drugs; equipment is poor, almost useless, educating doctors about serious health problems and emergencies – inadequate. The increasing deprivation and a deepening of the stratification of political elites and denying the rest of the population of such services can hardly be justified with only the external embargo. Malnutrition and the use of low quality products, absence of sanitation, and more create outbreaks of serious diseases, nearly uprooted earlier, such as beriberi, plague, tuberculosis and leptospirosis. These conditions are particularly hard on the elderly, mortality among them skyrocketing, and life expectancy, once approaching United States indicators, sharply dropped[xv]. Cynical of this background is to invest significant funds in hard currency clinics, where cured are paying customers from abroad – at the expense of the general health…
In the field of education, things are a little different. Many speak about the universal education and eradication of illiteracy, but even before the revolution Cuba’s performance in these areas are comparable with the average for Latin America[xvi]. Most foreigners probably with deep emotion are watching the thousands of children – neat and with the same outfit, white shirts or blouses, brown shorts for boys and skirts for the girls, with the compulsory red ties – that every morning fill the streets. As part of the social plan of the trip we took children’s second hand clothes in a school literally in the jungle. I am quite often traveled, I have visited most remote corners in Bulgaria, where now there are many abandoned, crumbling school buildings. But so sad picture I have not seen anywhere. We went through the grassed meadow, which was not even been levelled and where only roughly made football gates recalled that this is a playground. One-floor panels’ building that has never seen paint on the façade, and the only remedy against the tropical heat were small openings without glass, which hardly allow any penetration of sunlight into the classrooms. In a separate construction there was the Director’s Office; Director was little young man with much upset eyes. I have no idea if he was warned about our visit, but he welcomed us extremely restrained and silently. He does not reacted even to my childhood photo with Raul Castro, he did not invited us to enter into a class, although hardly the visits of foreign guests there are all too common event. Through the crevices in the wall we saw large curious children’s eyes. As regards the content of the learning process, from the outset, Castro was aware of the importance of the propaganda and educational programs were saturated with praise of the regime, its leaders and its goals. In fact, the whole culture and the arts are harnessed in the service of the regime: the novels, movies, tv, even science are subjected completely to the state’s requirements[xvii].
Appreciations from this exceptional trip exceeded my most pessimistic expectations. But they wouldn’t be complete without the last day in Havana, which coincided with the celebration of international labor day – May 1. It turned out that the holidays in Cuba are not what we remember from our youth. Because of the heat, rallies take place very early in the morning. In the night from heroes of labor all over the country have been brought to Havana, and when at 10 a.m. we went outside, everything was over. Moreover, there was no sign of any sort of festive atmosphere. We met up with friends, who took us over to the famous Hotel Nacional and affluent neighborhoods in the western part of the city, Miramar and Siboney. We saw the marina Hemingway, where annual tournaments to catch a marlin are taking place. And finally we ended up in a small restaurant, which was not like the other “paladors” that we saw elsewhere: parking in front was for at least two dozen cars, a man-made channel for yachts, adjoining the estate of one of the commanders of the revolution, Ramiro Valdes. Visitors there and residents living in nearby neighborhoods were among the most privileged people in Cuba. A completely different reality, having nothing to do with squalor and distressing routine as in the forgotten corner in the jungle near Baracoa, also from iteration in the old part of Havana…
They all are eagerly waiting for the changes produced by the prolonged in time Cuban transition. And these abrupt changes came suddenly with the spectacular statements of the Presidents Obama and Raul Castro in early December of 2014 for lifting of ineffective blockade and normalization. Raul tried to calm his comrades of trip of the nomenclature assuring them there will be no retreat from the Communist ideals that were forced upon half as century ago. The session of the Cuban National Assembly where R. Castro gave a speech, turned into a political rally as on the square with chants “Viva Fidel!” and other common slogans. Without going into an analysis of those undeniably historical changes which for this text has no claims, I shall finish with the conclusion that they benefit only a limited layer already privileged. They got what they dreamed about – status of the capitalist middle and upper class, keeping they party membership cards. As for the remaining millions of Cubans who have already at least two generations suffered woe an absurd revolution, remain once again deceived. Together with dissidents, who were tortured, murdered, humiliated during all these years. We are still to see details behind the lofty statements, that are coming just in time both for the unalterable Cuban leadership, and for the incapacitated President Obama. I believe that transition in Cuba will not be that similar to that familiar here in my country, Bulgaria, and in the Eastern Europe after 1989. The real changes is still ahead, and it seems to be very painful. Let us hope that it will not be bloody…
NOTES:
[i] Orthodox party was founded in 1947 by Eduardo Chivas, who ran against incumbent President Ramon Grau San Martin. Young Havana lawyer F. Castro, one of his most active supporters, became well-known with his anti-American views. In the 1951 campaign for presidential elections sitting next to Fidel during a broadcast, Chivas fatally shot himsrelf. Castro himself ran for parliament, but the elections were canceled after the military coup led by Gen. F. Batista, who already organized a coup in 1933 and ruled the country as “legally” elected president in 1940-44.
[ii] Shelving of the Soviet subsidies led to a nearly 40% decline in income per capita in 1989-1994. That forced Cuba to reorganize its economy, de-criminalizing the US dollar use, legalizing farmers’ markets, liberalizing self employment and encouraging new economic activities, incl. exports, etc. S. Arch Ritter, Cuba’s Achievements under the Presidency of Fidel Castro: The Top Ten. Posted on October 14, 2010, http://thecubaneconomy.com/articles/2010/10/cuba%E2%80%99s-achievements-under-the-presidency-of-fidel-castro-the-top-ten/
[iii] See, for more details, Jorge Pérez-López, Cuba’s Second Economy: From Behind the Scenes to Center Stage (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1995); Phillip Peters and Joseph Scarpaci, Five Years of Small-Scale Capitalism in Cuba (Alexandria, VA: Lexington Institute, 1998); Archibald Ritter, “Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise, and Public Policy in Cuba: Promotion, Containment, or Asphyxiation?,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 40, No 2, summer 1998, pp. 63-94; Archibald Ritter, Economic Illegalities and the Underground Economy in Cuba (Ottawa, Ontario: FOCAL, 2006).
[iv] Richard E. Feinberg Soft Landing in Cuba? Emerging Entrepreneurs and Middle Classes. Latin America Initiative at Brookings. November 2013, pp. 8-9; Oficina Nacional Estadística (ONE), Anuario Estadístico de Cuba, “Workforce and Salaries,” Table 7.2; Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Cuban Cooperatives: Current Situation and Prospects, Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Washington, D.C., Spring, 2013; Mayra Espina Prieto and Viviana Togores González, Structural Change and Routes of Social Mobility in Today’s Cuba: Patterns, Profiles, and Subjectivities, in Jorge Dominguez et al, Cuban Economic and Social Development: Policy Reforms and Challenges in the 21st Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012).
[v] “Continúa avanzando actualización del modelo económico cubano”, (Continuing update of the Cuban economic model), Granma (the Communist Party of Cuba daily), Sept. 24 2013.
[vi] Cristina Mendiondo, subdirector of economy and planning, Villa Clara province, Retos y Perspectivas del Desarrollo Territorial Local en Villa Clara (Challenges and perspectives of local territorial development in Villa Clara), presentation, Jibacoa, Mayabeque, September 16, 2013, quot. in Richard E. Feinberg, op.cit., p. 11.
[vii] See Camila Piñeiro Harnecker (ed.), Cooperatives and Socialism: The View from Cuba. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, esp. the foreword , pp. 1-45.
[viii] Quot. in Philip Peters, A Viewer’s Guide to Cuba’s Economic Reform (Arlington: Lexington Institute, 2012), p. 8.
[ix] According to recent changes in legislation, the citizens shall be allowed to have an urban apartment house/villa in the countryside, but in addition to that few can afford even one house, there are a number of restrictions – de jure property is available only for use and may be taken away by the state, it is forbidden to sell real estate, though even for a visitor it is very easy to spot the impromptu “residential exchanges” in the Havana down where handwritten classifieds offer housing.
[x] Quot. in Philip Peters, A Viewer’s Guide to Cuba’s Economic Reform (Arlington: Lexington Institute, 2012), p. 8.
[xi] José Azel The Illusion of Cuban Reform: Castro Strikes Out – World Affars, July/August 2013.
[xii] Quoted in: Nick Caistor, Fidel Castro. London: Reaktion Books, 2013, p. 140.
[xiii] Emilio Morales and Joseph Scarpaci, Marketing without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba Routledge, 2012.
[xiv] Marc Frank Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana (Contemporary Cuba series). University Press of Florida, 2013.
[xv] Quoted according to Berta Esperanza Hernandez Truyol, Out in Left Field: Cuba’s Post-Cold War Strikeout – Fordham International Law Journal, vol. 18: 1/1994, p. 28.
[xvi] For example, as for the indicators of life expectancy at birth in 1960, Cuba was the fourth in Latin America (63,8 years.), and in 1990 for short time was on the first place (75,3 years), the infant mortality rate up to 5 years of age – 3rd and 2nd, respectively, and so on., see UNDP, Human Development Report, 1990: 133; 1992: 135-36.
[xvii] Irving Louis Horowrrz, The Conscience of Worms and the Cowardice of Lions. The Cuban-American Experience, 1959-1992. Miami: The North-South Center/University of Miami, 1993, pp. 68-70.
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Stephan E. Nikolov, PhD is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment based in Bulgaria.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 12 Jan 2015.
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