Fidel Castro, hero of the disinherited
Salim Lamrani
Senior lecturer
University of La Réunion (DIRE)
Introduction
A controversial figure in the West where he is strongly criticized, Fidel Castro is however revered by the peoples of Latin America and the Third World. They consider him a symbol of resistance to oppression and a defender of the aspirations of the countries of the south that struggle for independence, sovereignty and self-determination. A legendary rebel during his own lifetime, he has entered the pantheon of the great liberators of the Americas. The prestige of the former guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra has overflown the continental borders of Cuba to become the archetype of twentieth century anti-imperialism and a vector of a universal message of empowerment.
What is it that explains this discrepancy between the negative Western media image of Fidel and the enthusiasm he generates in Latin America and the Third World? Is it not to be expected that his commitment to the poor and his fight for the preservation of Cuban and Latin American identity might be perceived by the peoples of the south as a universal struggle? Did his commitment to Latin American integration through the creation of ALBA in 2004 not reflect the efforts of Simón Bolívar and José Martí to unite a continent in solidarity in order to build the "Patria Grande"?
Three aspects characterize the figure of Fidel Castro. First of all, he is the architect of national sovereignty, the person who restored dignity to the people of the island by realizing the dream of the Apostle and National Hero José Martí for an independent Cuba. Secondly, he is a social reformer who has taken up the cause of the humble and the humiliated. Finally, he is an internationalist who extends a generous hand to needy people everywhere and places solidarity and integration at the center of Cuba’s foreign policy.
The architect of national sovereignty
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 led to the most important social transformation in the history of Latin America. By overturning the existing order and the established structures, Fidel Castro challenged the power of the Batista oligarchy and the power of money. By dedicating national resources to the people, he placed human beings at the center of the new social project.
The principal conquest of the Cuban Revolution remains independence and sovereignty, something desired by the Cuban people since the nineteenth century and for which Martí had sacrificed his life in 1895. By ending more than six decades of US domination of the island, Fidel Castro has given back to Cubans the dignity they had lost during Washington’s intervention in the Cuban war of independence in 1898 and the military occupation that had transformed the island into nothing more than a mere protectorate. President John F. Kennedy was not wrong when he said: "Fidel Castro is part of Bolivar’s legacy. We should offer a warm welcome to the fiery young rebel in his triumph".[1]
In order to grasp the symbolic importance of Fidel Castro in Cuba's history, it is necessary to go back to the early nineteenth century, when the island began to stir the lust for possession of its "powerful and ambitious neighbor".[2] Cuba is, indeed, one of the oldest foreign policy obsessions of the United States. In 1805, Thomas Jefferson spoke of the importance of the island, noting that its "possession [was] necessary for the defense of Louisiana and Florida because it [was] the key to the Gulf of Mexico. For the United States, conquest would be easy".[3] In 1823, John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State and future president of the United States, alluded to the subject of Cuban annexation, developing the famous "ripe fruit" theory: "Cuba, separated by force from its unnatural connection with Spain, and unable to stand by itself, will necessarily need to gravitate around the North American Union, and only around it".[4] Thus, during the nineteenth century, the United States tried to buy Cuba from Spain six times.
During the first war of independence, from 1868 to 1878, Cuban insurgents, plagued by deep internal divisions, were defeated by the Spanish army. The United States supported Spain by selling them the most modern weapons and resolutely opposed independence by hunting down Cuban exiles who sought to contribute to the armed struggle for independence.[5] On October 29, 1872, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish sent Daniel Edgar Sickles, then US ambassador in Madrid, his "best wishes for Spain in its suppression of the revolt." Washington opposed the independence of Cuba and wished to take possession of the island.[6]
During the second war of independence between 1895 and 1898, Cuban revolutionaries, united around their leader José Martí, had once again to face the hostility of the United States, which assisted Spain by selling them weapons and arresting on their soil Cuban patriots trying to supply the insurgents.
In 1898, despite its material superiority, Spain was on the brink, defeated on the battlefield by Cuban independence fighters. In a letter to the US president William McKinley dated March 9, 1898, Ambassador Stewart Woodford, based in Madrid, signaled him that the "defeat" of Spain was a "certainty". "They [the Spaniards] know that Cuba is lost." He went on to say that "if the United States wants Cuba, they will have to take it through conquest."[7]
In April 1898, following the mysterious explosion of the battleship Maine in the Bay of Havana, President McKinley sought congressional approval for military intervention in Cuba in order to prevent the island from gaining its independence. Several American parliamentarians denounced this move as a war of conquest. John W. Daniel, Democratic senator from Virginia, accused the government of trying to intervene to prevent the Spaniards defeat, "At the most favorable time for revolutionary success and the most disadvantageous time for Spain, [...] the Congress of the United States is making the US military available to the President in order to impose by force a truce between the two parties, one of which has already laid down their arms."[8] Thus, within three months, in December of 1898, the United States took control of the country and imposed a peace treaty with Spain that excluded the Cubans, thereby shattering their dream of independence.
From 1898 to 1902, Washington occupied Cuba and forced the Constituent Assembly, on pain of prolonged military occupation, to incorporate the Platt Amendment in the new constitution. The text of Senator Orville H. Platt prohibited Cuba from signing any agreement with a third country or incurring debt from another nation. It also gave the United States the right to intervene at any time in the internal affairs of Cuba and forced the island to rent Washington the naval base at Guantanamo for an indefinite period of time.[9] In a 1901 letter, General Leonard Wood, then military governor of Cuba, congratulated President McKinley: "Under the Platt Amendment, there is of course little or no independence left in Cuba and the only thing that matters now is to seek annexation.”[10]
From 1902 to 1958, Cuba, by now totally dependent upon its powerful neighbor, had the status of neocolonial republic. A US bookstore was hardly mistaken when it began selling a 1902 map of the island under the title: "Our new colony: Cuba"[11](11) The commercial Reciprocity Treaty imposed on Cuba in 1902 constituted a de facto economic annexation.[12]
The United States intervened militarily in Cuba in 1906 and installed Charles E. Mangoon as governor through 1909, thereby reminding Cubans who the real masters of the island were.[13] In 1912, Washington again intervened in the internal affairs of Cuba by sending in its armed forces following the revolt of the Independent Party of Color, separatists out of power. The US chargé d’affaires, Hugh S. Gibson, explained the reasons for the uprising: "Cubans who have taken up arms for the Spanish cause [...] now hold public office."[14] The United States had indeed taken care - Gibson reminded us - to install in key positions "those who had taken up arms against the cause of Cuban independence."[15]
The Platt Amendment, which legalized US interventionism, placed the Cuban government in a situation of "humiliating inferiority through a neglect of its national rights, causing it discredit within and without of the country."[16] Such were the words of Cuban President José Miguel Gómez. This legislative appendage never ceased to remind the Cuban people that the fate of their homeland was subordinated to the interests of a neocolonial power. Thus, in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson sent several warships to Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey when, under the leadership of José Miguel Gómez, insurgents took up arms against President Manuel García Menocal, who attempted to cling to power by perpetrating a massive fraud.[17]
Fearing a repeat of the 1917 revolt during the Cuban presidential elections of 1920, Washington imposed on President Menocal the presence of General Enoch H. Crowder, who was to be responsible for developing new electoral laws and for organizing the elections.[18] Menocal communicated his reservations to the US president: Supervision of Cuban elections by Washington would "wound Cuban pride [and would be] a humiliation" for the entire nation.[19] Woodrow Wilson dismissed the remark out of hand and appointed proconsul Crowder as chairman of the election committee.
When in December 1920, President Wilson dispatched Crowder to Cuba to deal with a grave "political and financial" crisis, due in part to the collapse of sugar prices, and to save American investments from the possible bankruptcy of the Cuban economy, he did not deign to inform President Menocal.[20] Faced with protests from the latter, Washington's response was scathing and reminded Havana, in terms far removed from the canons of diplomacy, who was the real master of the island: "The President of the United States does not consider it necessary to obtain the prior approval of the President of Cuba to send a special representative."[21]
In 1933, when the insurgency launched by students against the military dictatorship of Gerardo Machado took a revolutionary turn under the leadership of Antonio Guiteras, Washington once again intervened by imposing a sergeant, a military stenographer by the name of Fulgencio Batista. The "pentarchique" government led by Ramón Grau, who had undertaken a considerable number of social reforms, was not to the liking of the United States. Indeed, under the aegis of Guiteras, it had created courts designed to punish crimes committed under the Machado government; called for elections to be held on April 22, 1934; convened a constituent assembly for May 20, 1934; granted autonomy to the universities; lowered the price of basic necessities; extended the right to vote to women; limited the workday to eight hours; created a Ministry of Labor; reduced gas and electricity rates; ended the monopoly of US companies; imposed a temporary moratorium on debt and, above all, nationalized the Cuban electrical company, a subsidiary of the American Bond and Foreign Power Company.[22]
Ambassador Sumner Welles pointed the way forward: "No government can survive for long here without recognizing the United States and a lack of recognition will plunge Cuba into an even more chaotic and anarchic situation."[23] Roosevelt did not recognize the new government and dispatched several warships to the island. The consequences were immediate: The revolutionary government had lasted just 127 days when it was overthrown by Batista who, preferring to govern from behind the scenes,installed the provisional puppet president Carlos Mendieta.
Welles expressed his satisfaction. His action had borne fruit and he explained why in a letter to the State Department: "I am convinced that the Cubans will never be able to govern themselves until they are forced to realize that they must take responsibility for themselves." Clearly, Washington, by imposing its new strong man, signaled that it would happily take responsibility for this task.[24]
Batista, subservient to the United States, held real power from 1933 to 1958, except for the period 1944 through1952. His March 1952 coup against President Carlos Prio Socarrás was warmly welcomed by Washington, "Batista is basically friendly to the United States and his government will definitely not be worse than that of Prío and probably even better."[25] The sergeant, who had become a general, pledged to protect the economic interests of the United States, much to the detriment of the Cuban people. Ambassador Beaulac offered congratulations: "The remarks of General Batista on private capital have been excellent."[26]
Fidel Castro, in the name of the Cuban people, immediately opposed the military dictatorship and launched an insurgency in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The leader of the 26th of July Movement, taking up the torch of José Martí, became popular among Cuban youth, who saw him as the redeemer of a colonized and humiliated Cuba, and the symbol of resistance to US hegemony. During his speech in Santiago de Cuba on January 1, 1959, after Batista had flown the country, Fidel Castro was quick to warn Washington that Cuba was now free and sovereign, "This time, the revolution will not fail. [...]. This time it will not happen as it did in 1895, when the Americans intervened and became masters of the country. [...] Neither thieves nor traitors nor interventionists. This time, it really is a revolution."[27]
John F. Kennedy was one of the few US leaders who understand the historical significance of Fidel Castro. In a speech in 1960 he spoke of this and recognized the support Washington had given Batista: "Instead of extending a generous hand of friendship to the desperate people of Cuba, almost all of our assistance took the form of military aid, assistance which simply strengthened the Batista dictatorship and that completely failed to improve the well-being of the Cuban people."[28] In this regard he said:
"We used the influence of our Government to advance the interests and increase the profits of the private American companies, which dominated the island's economy. At the beginning of 1959 U.S. companies owned about 40 percent of the Cuban sugar lands - almost all the cattle ranches - 90 percent of the mines and mineral concessions - 80 percent of the utilities - and practically all the oil industry - and supplied two-thirds of Cuba's imports. [ ...]. But our action too often gave the impression that this country was more interested in taking money from the Cuban people than in helping them build a strong and diversified economy of their own. It was impossible not to arouse the animosity of the Cuban people."[29](
The advent of a radical revolution in Cuba was inevitable because the United States, through their strategy of domination, refused Cubans any possibility of true emancipation, political independence and economic and social progress. Ambassador Philip Bonsal spoke of this reality: "In the pre-Castro Cuba, the overwhelming US presence was, in geopolitical terms, a permanent reminder of the imperfect nature of Cuban sovereignty [...]. It was rejected, and considered to be an intolerable transgression against the independence and dignity of the Cuban people."[30] The constant intrusion of its northern neighbor in the internal affairs of the island had deeply wounded Cubans’ national pride. The ultimate goal of the revolution was to recover the sovereignty of the nation and to end its dependence on the United States. Such was the mission of Fidel Castro.
Fidel Castro took power and put an end to the US trusteeship that had, for some sixty years, hung over Cuba like a leaden weight. The neocolonial republic had disintegrated with the flight of Batista. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 allowed the Cuban people finally to realize their dream of a free and sovereign homeland. It made Fidel Castro a national and continental hero who opposed Washington’s hegemonic designs on Latin America. With the arrival of Fidel Castro to power, the era of the complex Platt Amendment - under which it had been necessary to find US solutions to Cuban problems - was definitely over.
The social reformer
The leader of the Cuban Revolution is also seen as the spokesperson of the voiceless, of those seeking social justice and a fair distribution of wealth. Cuba is renowned for its social justice system and for the outstanding results it has achieved in education, health, science, culture and sport. By giving priority to the poorest, Fidel Castro created the most egalitarian society on the Latin American continent and in the Third World.
The figures speak for themselves. In terms of education, the illiteracy rate for Latin America is 10%, but only 0.2% for Cuba. The enrollment rate in primary education (up to 11 years) is 92% for Latin America and 100% on the Caribbean archipelago. The secondary education enrollment rate (up to 14 years) is 52% for Latin America and 99.7% for Cuba. Nearly 76% of Latin American children reach college level, but the figure is 100% for Cuban students.[31] The Economic and Social Council of the European Union recognizes that "these figures are exceptional among developing countries."[32]
The UNESCO Department of Education notes that Cuba has the lowest rate of illiteracy and the highest school enrollment rate in Latin America. According to this organization, a Cuban student is two times more knowledgeable than other Latin American children. UNESCO adds that "Cuba, although it is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has the best results in regard to basic education"because "education has been a top priority in Cuba."[33]