TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Despair Lingers, Gains Fade In Cuba

ADVERTISEMENT

McClatchy-Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 1, 2009

MIAMI - Fifty years ago, a bearded guerrilla marched triumphantly into Havana and declared victory over a departing dictator. Then he became a despot himself.
Fidel Castro forever changed the landscape of Cuba and Miami. He jailed or executed his enemies, seized property, divided families and drove nearly 2 million Cubans into exile. His nation became a Cold War pawn.

At the same time, Castro launched a massive literacy campaign. The island churned out armies of new doctors. Castro's refusal to kowtow to the United States won him praise.

Today, on the anniversary of the revolution's triumph, many of the social welfare achievements that were the trophies of the communist regime have rusted. Years of failed economic policy, waves of exodus and Cuba's inability to recover from the collapse of its patron, the Soviet Union, have dulled Castro's touted crown jewels - the advances in health and education.

The revolution that transformed a tropical getaway into a communist state remains one of the hemisphere's most significant events of the past century.

"The Cuban government is going to celebrate its 50-year anniversary - 50 years of what?" said Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, who left the island when he was 6. "Fifty years of sacrifice and misery?"

Many would argue that Castro had a single resounding success: staying in power. He built a strong rebel army, never bothered with civic freedoms or presidential elections, and created a powerful state security apparatus.

His regime reigned over a population that is among the world's best-educated, but many still flee. Every year, about 20,000 are issued permits to resettle in the United States, and each year a nearly equal number risk their lives on dangerous sea voyages.

But if numbers alone could tell this story, Castro met his revolutionary goals.

Within two years of Castro emerging from the jungle in 1959 to seize control of the island, more than 700,000 Cubans learned how to read, and 25,000 new homes were built. Cuba's communist revolution eventually would produce so many doctors that last year there was one physician per 155 residents, more than double Florida's ratio. Before Castro, there was one doctor for every 1,058 people.

But today, almost a quarter of the nation's doctors are serving "missions" overseas so the government can collect much-needed hard currency from their work. So many underpaid educators have left classrooms that the school system is relying on teenage interns to teach.

Raul Castro formally took over the presidency in February when Fidel Castro, 82, retired because of a prolonged illness. The new leader has publicly acknowledged the need to reform the educational sector and bring qualified teachers back to the classroom.

He also has received visits from the presidents of Russia and China. Raul Castro, 77, leads a nation with a significant foreign-policy presence - a nation that has succeeded in thumbing its nose at Uncle Sam for five decades.

Together, the Castros have outlasted 10 U.S. presidents.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT