Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
We are reminded that in the 1950s, after Granma went ashore and the Castro Bros. took over the Pearl of the Antilles, aka Cuba, months and months went by as the United States government tried to figure out what the Castros were, exactly.
Small-d democrats? Populists? Were they Reds? Fidel wouldn't say out loud. It may be because he didn't know. There's a school of thought that says in the early days, Fidel and Raul didn't really have political guiding stars except for gaining power and hanging onto it. Fidel! even toured the United States and gave speeches. And U.S. government officials hung on every word, trying to figure out something in his ramblings.
The story goes that, after Fidel Castro got home again, an American diplomat named James Britt Donovan joked in front of Castro that he might run for president of Cuba himself. Who knows? He could win! To which Fidel Castro replied: "You know, doctor, I think you may be right. So there will be no elections."
The Castros had found their guiding star. Communism worked better for keeping power without the people having much say about it.
For those of us who might have hoped that the death of Fidel! and the retirement of Raul would have brought an end to the prison-isle feel of Cuba, the news this past weekend brought reality crashing down again.
The regularly scheduled march of the Ladies in White was interrupted Sunday by authorities who took four of the women away. The Ladies in White is a group of women made up mostly of relatives of jailed dissidents in Cuba.
That "march" could be described as a promenade. It happens almost every Sunday. They say the Ladies in White is the only outfit that has a scheduled protest in Cuba, and mostly gets away with it. That is, until some apparatchik in power decides he needs to make a point.
Berta Soler is the leader of the Ladies. Dressed in white (obviously) on Sunday last, she was getting ready to attend mass before the weekly protest. Plainclothes police from the state got to her first. And three other members of the Ladies.
They had committed a crime. Or were thinking about it again.
Oh, it wouldn't be a crime in the Estados Unidos, what with our First Amendment. But in Communist Cuba (est. 1958), political opposition is illegal. The government describes anybody who protests in the streets as "mercenaries" of the United States government. And treats them as such.
This past summer, even at the height of covid, thousands of Cubans flooded the streets in cities all over the island to protest . . . well, to protest much of what the Cuban government gives them. Like repression. Economic misery. The usual suspects.
So the government cracked down. And cracked heads. The Washington Post reports that this month the regime has started its show trials.
More than 700 people are still in jail after the summer clashes. Including minors. They face decades in prison for peaceably assembling to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
"All criticism is opposition," Fidel Castro once said. "All opposition is counter-revolutionary."
And must be crushed.
Even as the Castros are moved to their rightful place in history--the dustbin--the government they created and unleashed has trouble letting the people be heard. For example, the government has trouble watching ladies stroll down the streets.
Again, we are reminded of what Fidel Castro once said after he was on the wrong end of a judicial proceeding. As a young man, he was once convicted as an opponent of the Batista regime. And he told the court, "History will absolve me!"
Well, it will certainly judge him. And remember the number of disasters, injustices and graves he and his brother left in their wake.
Their injustices are already being added up. And some folks down there, dressed in white, are keeping tally.