Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
The Cuban revolution first betrayed itself. It went from being a popular and socialist revolution to becoming a civil-military dictatorship. Its evolution went through several stages. But essentially, the development from revolution to dictatorship was almost linear.
Revolutionary heroism gradually turned into humiliated silence or complicity on the part of some and desperate flight on the part of others. It is as if the Cuban herd had fallen silent and scattered around the world, carrying with it a burden of anger, sadness, and resignation. The fist raised in defiance of the world of capital and exploitation was transformed into cold steel against the faces of those who dared to question the methods, interpretations, and orders issued from the top down by the revolutionary command.
The global left, but especially the Latin American left, turned in favor of the Cuban model, with few critical exceptions. The Cuban revolution seemed to demonstrate the effectiveness of socialism in a peripheral country. Free education was of high quality, and together with the health system, they were an example for the continent and beyond.
As competition between the two models intensified, the Soviet model lost its capacity to develop its productive forces and ultimately collapsed internally. The economic issue destroyed the Soviet Union. It could no longer compete with the West. Today’s Russians and Chinese are well aware of this, as they seek to revive their empires with capitalist economic methods, seasoned with the authoritarian single-party political systems of old socialism.
In this context, one can understand the failure of the Cuban revolution. The US embargo has been a factor contributing to the economic failure of the revolution, but it in no way explains the economic collapse that Cuba is experiencing today. Many countries have experienced embargoes, blockades, and sanctions in their histories and have successfully overcome them. Today, Russia and Iran are two current examples of this. The US attitude mainly serves the Cuban regime as a propaganda tool to justify the internal situation, but it does not explain it.
Cuba was never prosperous under the revolution. It was an illusion fueled by the $11 million a day that the Soviet Union invested in a small Caribbean island. Free health care and education for all, along with a growing middle class, were by no means the product of Cuba’s own economic capacity. The real Cuban economy produced sugar, rum, cigars, and tourism for foreigners just as it does today.
The collapse of the Soviet Union ended the fantasy of Cuba’s successful economic revolution. Today, life in Cuba is one of misery. As Leonardo Padura points out in his latest book on Havana, the city’s population has lost all its happiness in the face of the emptiness, difficulty, and misery of everyday life in Cuba. People are violent, irascible, and unhappy. The cry of “Food and freedom” is accurate. That is what the people want.
A plutocracy reigns in Cuba, living well outside the island and pretending to be revolutionary within it. It retains power for power’s sake. It is incapable of change and has no ideology, only a thirst to sustain itself for fear of what might happen if it loses its power.
That is what the 4T, AMLO, and Sheinbaum support: an enriched Cuban plutocracy that governs Cuba for itself and represses the people of its country. People fight over garbage on street corners, while the children of the revolution travel the world.
The billions of dollars that Mexico gives to the Cuban government are to keep that plutocracy in power. No one thinks about making a revolution. They think about surviving another day. Hence, the ethic that permeates the entire population is encapsulated in the phrase: “It’s not stealing; it’s solving,” as they take state property from their workplaces.
Meanwhile, AMLO thinks of Cuba as a refuge if things in Mexico become “uncomfortable.” He sees Cuba as his strategic rear guard, and Mexico is paying for it, plundering the finances of Pemex and other ministries to pay for that personal “pension” for the former president.
In light of all this, the Latin American left has an obligation to review its uncritical support for that firecracker called the Cuban revolution. Mexico leads the countries that betray the Cuban people by keeping its repressive government in power.
@rpascoep
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