Thursday might seem like just another spring day in the Americas, with folks in Canada still wearing heavy jackets to work, and other folks in Mexico already harvesting crops. It's a big continent. It's a big hemisphere. But on a pretty island just off the coast of Florida, Thursday marks not only a new day, but a New Day. This step should be noted. For time marches on, and waits for no man or government.
For six decades, the Brothers Castro have ruled their prison of an island, and tried to rule other countries as well. Call it a 60-year war against liberty and freedom. You're not supposed to say bad things about the dead, only good. Fidel Castro is dead. Good. Now comes news that Raul Castro is to step aside tomorrow morning, turning the reins over to a new generation.
Of course Raul Castro, the hit man for his brother all those years, wouldn't leave the stage without hand-picking a successor. So he did. Apparently the current first vice president, a party apparatchik from way back, is to become the next president. Or as one diplomat type from the current government put it: "There will be a sense of renewal, and there will be a sense of continuity." So it was the best of times/it was the worst of times? Where have we heard that before?
The Cuban people certainly know about the worst of times. My, how they've been played over the years. Who knew that Fidel Castro was a communist when he came to power? He didn't. In the beginning, before and after the yacht Granma hit the beach in 1956, the guerrilla prince had little ideological, religious or political leanings other than getting and maintaining total power.
The Eisenhower administration would wonder aloud which way Cuba would go after Batista fled, so little did Fidel and his cohorts preach ideology. The Castro Bros. & Co. wanted power, power, and more power. Complete power. That was all. Just total domination of an island and its people. And the Spanish-speaking countries directly to its west and southwest. And Africa. If their enemies would just stop defending themselves, the Castros would stop killing them. Eventually.
Some of those who studied them early on say the Castro brothers could have just as easily become steady democrats--if a democracy could've guaranteed them power for life. And made them stars on state-run television. And lionized in all the state-run press reports. And cheered by the masses, who knew what was good for them.
But a democracy could not guarantee that. So there would be no democracy in Cuba. The story goes that James Britt Donovan had so much success negotiating for the survivors of the Bay of Pigs, and the American diplomat became so popular in Cuba, that he joked with Fidel about running for office in Havana:
"I think," Mr. Donovan said, "that when the next election is held I'm coming back to run against you. I think I can win."
To which Fidel replied, with something that passed for a grin: "You know, doctor, I think you may be right. So there will be no elections."
Only after Fidel Castro decided that communism was the path of least resistance to complete power would he end his speeches, "Socialism or death!"
And if anything went wrong on the Brothers Castro watch, they could just blame El Norte. If the Castros & Co. produced only shortages, failed African coups and body bags across Latin America, just blame El Norte again. Certainly never place the blame where it belonged, comrade, or you might find yourself a head shorter:
"All criticism is opposition," Fidel once told a compatriot. "All opposition is counter-revolutionary." And must be crushed.
And crushed it was.
The number of executions during the Castros' rule ran into the thousands. But who's counting? Certainly not the Cuban government, or any of its citizens/inmates who better know what's good for them. If not, a rigged trial might be waiting, then a re-education camp. If you were lucky.
But even as the Castros are moved to their rightful place in history--the dustbin--Raul still seems to be having trouble letting go of power. General Washington, this guy ain't. Raul Castro will apparently stay around as head of the Communist Party in Cuba until 2021, to keep an eye on things. As for the new "leaders," well, nothing concentrates the mind like having a hit man watching your every move.
And moves will have to be made, eventually. After the last Castro finally gets out of the way, the Cuban government will have to modernize its economy somehow. And do so without Venezuela, which is having all the economic success that government-led economies usually do. That is to say, not much.
Tourism and agriculture will lead Cuba's way, as always. The new leader is said to favor giving greater latitude to those industries. Call it becoming market-driven, but not out loud. One day, perhaps when Raul Castro is trying to intimidate Charon in the next life as he did so many in this one, Cuba's new leaders, and the new generation, can make real reforms. And leave its communist past at last. May that glorious day come soonest.
Early in his career, before he took control of the island and our country's front pages, a young Fidel Castro, on trial for opposing the regime he would eventually overthrow, told his judges that they couldn't harm him. Go ahead, do your worst, he told them, because: "History will absolve me."
Well, history will certainly judge him, his brother and the Castro government(s), too. And tally the number of disasters, injustices and graves they all left in their wake. And we suspicion the history books won't be kind.
Now then. On to a new day! And good luck to the Cubans, who deserve better than the Castros.
Editorial on 04/18/2018