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CASTRO A LIFE ON A KNIFE EDGE

THE MAN IN HAVANA

In the decade following the Second World War much of the world was in a state of flux, a bubbling cauldron the progress of which had recently been disturbed by six years of all out war. The return to “Normality” was a long process. The war had left regimes in power that were despotic and authoritarian even oppressive of the people they governed. Nowhere was this more apparent than in and around South America.
In the 1950/60 there were so many revolutions in the area that diplomats making telephone calls to the area would ask their aides before calling “Who is in charge there this week?” and when dealing with heads of state in the area the words “Banana Republic” were never far from the thoughts of High Commissioners, Chage`d’affairs and Diplomats. The political leaders of South America seemed to change with the wind. Hardly a week went by without an announcement that a “New Revolutionary government had been “Recognised”.

In 1959 there was no reason to think that a revolution on the island of Cuba in the Caribbean was any different. It was, as many such events had been before an armed take over involving fighting and violence and most of the international community fully expected further revolutions on Cuba to take place but to be on the “Safe side” most “Hedged their bets” and paid a “Cursory lip service” to a fledgling state that few “Established governments” expected to survive.

Two names from the Cuban Revolution passed into legend, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Che to many of the time “The Hero of the Revolution” was thought to be an instigator of the revolution, yet he was not Cuban but an Argentinean and he actually met Castro whilst the Cuban leader was in exile in Mexico.
Castro’s exile was brought about following a failed attack on the Mocada army barracks on July 26th 1953; most of those involved in the attack were either killed or captured. Castro was one of the captured, at his trial he delivered a speech which was to become famous, it was Dubbed “History will absolve me”. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment but only served two years before being pardoned by Fulgencio Baptista‘s administration. Spending a year in exile in Mexico founding “The 26th of July movement” he trained an army and enlisted the support of Che Guevara and several other’s. On his return to Cuba his intention was to invade the island in 1956 but the reality saw the revolutionaries hiding in the Sierra Maestra Mountains gaining a growing support amongst the peasants eventually forcing the Baptista government to abandon Cuba in 1959. Castro then took control.

Che Guevara stayed in Cuba until 1965 leaving to instigate a revolution in the Congo but by 1967 he was starting another revolution in Bolivia, South America where he was captured by the Bolivian army and executed without trial according to eyewitnesses. The opinion at the time held that it was not the Bolivian Army that killed Che but that it was a CIA finger on the trigger that stopped the spate of revolutionary zeal sweeping South America in the mid 1960’s. The “Injustice” of the incident put Che`s face upon the tee-shirt of every student with a cause for many years to come.

It came as a shock to many Cubans to find that Castro’s style of government was distinctly Marxist/Communist and many fled the island by boat to the nearest “Free country” which was the USA just 90 miles from Cuba. Castro’s rise to power came very soon after the spate of McCarthyism in the USA when communists were witch hunted from public life by an enquiry, which put the question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?” An affirmative answer ensured that Americans did not work particularly in the film/entertainment business because it was feared their views were “un-American” and could not be allowed to spread.
The seed culture of the time brought thinking to bear that any Marxist government had to be destroyed and the USA employed numerous Economic antagonisms to ensure that it was. Castro responded by Nationalising all American property on Cuba including the assets of American organised crime syndicates most of which belonged to the “Five Families” of New York. The US government under pressure from what was referred to as “Legitimate business” began to formulate plans to assassinate Fidel Castro by many bizarre means and if that proved impossible then public humiliation was an option. At one point the CIA actually considered the feasibility of administering a drug that would make Fidel Castro’s beard fall out so that he would not be able to appear in public. The situation became serious when the Cubans repelled the CIA who tried to invade Cuba in an operation known as “The Bay Of Pigs” the invasion failed but the attempts at ridicule and undermining Castro continued. The USA was not happy to find itself living just 90 miles from a Marxist state, which had become far too friendly with their archenemy, Soviet Russia. What was more disturbing for “Uncle Sam” was that far from the Cuban economy succumbing to the power of the almighty dollar it was thriving on exchanging goods for Russian Roubles selling as much sugar to Russia than it ever did to the USA. Military exchanges, training and assistance were also freely available to Cuba from the Soviet Union. By 1962 high altitude photographic recognisance planes called U2 spy planes were over flying every communist state in the world with their cameras rolling. The American intelligence agencies were watching anyone whom they deemed a threat.
At that time the Soviet Union was equal in destructive power of their nuclear arsenal to the USA but where they were weak was in the range of their missiles, they were a threat to anything in Europe but most the USA was beyond its reach. The USA however could hit anything within the Soviet border with their missiles and that was how the USA wanted it to stay.
The Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev saw a way to even the score and approached Fidel Castro with the idea of building Russian missile sites on Cuba just 90 miles from mainland USA, the idea was floated in April 1962 and Castro fearing a follow up invasion to “The Bay Of Pigs” fiasco agreed in order to protect Cuba from another USA invasion. Russian technicians and construction crews were secretly admitted to Cuba and began to construct missile launch sites on the island during the summer of 1962, by October the purpose of the new additions to the islands infrastructure was inescapable. The USA now had a Russian missile base in its own back yard capable of wiping Washington and all of the major cities of the USA off the map. The President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and the military missile launch sites within the US were set at DEFCON 2 a state of readiness just short of all out war, the silo’s were open and the birds were ready to fly on October 26th 1962. The world stood on the brink of nuclear annihilation. At that stage spy planes were over flying Cuba every two hours and one was even shot down.
The crisis continued for another week and but for the courage shown by both Kennedy and Khrushchev world history would have closed the book that week. Toward the end of that week Khrushchev sent Kennedy a letter offering to withdraw all Russian missiles from Cuba in return he sought a cast iron guarantee that the USA would never invade Cuba, he later asked the US to remove their missiles based in Turkey which amounted to the Cuban scenario in the Russian back yard but the request was ignored and a deal was done on the Cuban question alone.
The minnow of Cuba had manipulated the both of the planets super powers to obtain his “Security of tenure” whilst at the same time he was willing to sacrifice billions of lives, a portent of the nature of the beast.
The US economic interference in Cuban affairs continues to this day but the military conflicts are now at a lesser level. Cuba continued to relieve Russia of as much money as possible to support Castro’s hold on power but to be fair Castro has brought a great deal of education to the Cuban people and one of its university research teams has produced a viable measles vaccine that is now used world wide.
Long before the advent of global terrorism Castro was one who supported revolution wherever it was to be found and his place on the list of the “Axis of Evil” was assured by his military support for insurrection around the world, Cuban troops brought about a revolution in Ethiopia, they fought with rebels against the governments in both Angola and Mozambique. They have been found fighting in the Congo and Somalia and when Robert Mugabe was fighting the regime of Ian Smith in Rhodesia he was supported by Cuban troops based in Mozambique.

So why the sudden interest in a despotic dictator that has tyrannically held on to power on a small Caribbean island for forty-seven years? The reason is simple, this man in Havana that has cynically manipulated world peace for his own ends is ill and totally out of character has “Temporarily relinquished power” over Cuba to his brother Raul whilst he seeks medical attention. The problem is an “Intestinal bleed” requiring surgery, it is said to have been brought about by pressure of work following his recent visits to Argentina and a tour of East Cuba. The Cuban leader is 79 years old and has always jealously guarded his position, his style of Government is one where individuals follow the leader and rarely work together or cooperate but this week they have no one to follow for the first time in forty seven years and many expatriate Cubans see this as an opportunity for the return of consensual politics to Cuba displacing the dictatorial will of a one man party machine that so many have fled and are still willing to risk possible death to leave today.

Reports of Castro’s death are premature and the jubilation of the expatriate exiled community across the water in Florida will have to be put on hold but as he ascends from the ether of the aesthetic he must surely be wondering if this is the same Cuba he left in the hands of his brother Raul.

JP.

Posted: August 2, 2006 , Modified: August 2, 2006

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