El Barbudo

Tim Hughes taught history at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas during my three-year stint there. A man who savored his subject as much as his profession, Mr. Hughes was an unabashed supporter of the red, white and blue. For example, he made sure his students knew that the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gave the USA control over the Panama Canal in perpetuity (his eyes just sparkled when he said those last two words; we turned it over to the Panamanians in 1977), that we had made the difference in World Wars I and II (indeed we had) and that Fidel Castro (“the Bearded One” or El Barbudo in Spanish) was a most loathsome individual.

I recently finished reading Fidel / A Critical Portrait by Tad Szulc. A 704-pager published in 1986 by William Morrow, it certainly kept my attention. I would give it 4 stars rather than 5 because it was not quite as “critical” as the title seems to indicate and it is 40 years old and so way out of date. This was before the Soviet Union—Cuba’s long-time sugar daddy—had fallen and the country was forced into something like actual independence. Also, Castro was still alive (he died in 2016) and had not yet turned things over to his brother Raúl. With additional research, I was able to gain a better understanding of this oblong island 90 miles off the coast of Florida and the man who seized control of it in 1959.

As much as it pains me to say so, there was a lot to admire about Castro. For good reason, he wanted to depose Fulgencio Batista (Cuba’s president/dictator between 1940 and 1944 and again between 1952 and 1959). Corrupt to the core, Batista got financial, military and logistical support from the Americans and blithely allowed the Mafia to have its way; there were an estimated 270 brothels in Havana alone, employing 50,000 sex workers. Moreover, a dozen Mob-run luxury hotel-casinos and prominent night clubs catered to foreigners.

Castro, an intelligent and garrulous man who had graduated from law school, was a natural leader. His failed attempt to overthrow Batista in 1953 led to a prison term and then exile in Mexico. He stockpiled weapons, gathered recruits and laid the groundwork for another attempt at revolution. Never willing to be anything but the caudillo—the number one man—he was surrounded by hardy freedom fighters like Raúl, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Celia Sánchez (women played a significant role in the Cuban revolution), Juan Almeida Bosque, Huber Matos and an American mercenary named William Morgan. Benefiting from widespread support among the country’s peasants, they prevailed and marched triumphantly into Havana on January 8, 1959; Batista had gone on to his own exile, first in the Dominican Republic, then in Portugal and Spain.

It was not unusual for Castro, who dearly loved the sound of his own voice, to give speeches lasting eight hours. He promised big changes for Cuba but at first gave no indication that it would be a one-party Marxist–Leninist state, one in which democratic elections were unnecessary. That became clear soon enough, however. It’s impossible to say how things might have gone if the USA had not chosen to do all in its considerable power to weaken and overthrow Castro, especially after he started cozying up to the Soviet Union (which led, of course, to the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962). Cold War realities prevented Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and succeeding presidents from allowing Cuba to flourish or flounder on its own merits.

Against all odds, the government erected by Castro is still in power. How much longer, though? Cuba is a failed state, almost as much as North Korea. (Castro visited Kim Il-sung in March 1986, signing a bilateral treaty of friendship and cooperation. While in Pyongyang, he attended one of the mass rallies for which it is famous. Castro later called Kim “one of the most eminent, outstanding, heroic leaders of socialism.”) Food, medicine, fuel and clean water are in short supply, and a decrepit electrical grid means frequent nationwide blackouts. A staggering 89% of Cubans live in extreme poverty; there are anecdotal stories of doctors giving up their profession to run hot dog stands since the money is better. Independent polls and surveys indicate that more than three-fourths of the people want only to get out and move north—to the USA.

A master of illusions, Castro liked to say that he lived the same as his compatriots, getting by on $40 a month. When he died, however, the long-whispered truth emerged: He had amassed staggering wealth (Forbes magazine estimated it at $900 million), mostly from his control of state-backed interests such as a convention center, a pharmaceuticals company and a retail chain. He had a fleet of black Mercedes-Benzes, an 85-foot yacht and a private island where he kept a lavish residence called Punto Cero that required four gardeners and two chefs. He also had an immense estate in Havana complete with a rooftop bowling alley, basketball court and fully equipped medical center. Were he still alive and teaching, Mr. Hughes would have relished making use of this information in his history classes at BA.

I suppose that Castro merits praise for driving out Batista and the mob and creating a more egalitarian society. But he wasted vast amounts of money and human lives in a vain attempt to export Communist ideology to Africa and elsewhere in “Latin” America. Sure, Cuba has many schools and hospitals, but they could not have been built without the largesse of his sponsors in Moscow. He and his men executed thousands of fellow Cubans by firing squad and sentenced thousands more to jail and hard labor. His 67-year-old totalitarian government, which forbids any form of free enterprise and has a vigorous secret police, is completely bankrupt. A majestic island of natural wonders, Cuba is crumbling and littered with Castro’s victims.

Batista during a visit to Washington, DC in 1938 when he was the power behind the throne in Cuba…

Castro and fellow guerillas in 1956. Che Guevara is second from left, and Raúl Castro is center, bottom….

Castro speaking at the United Nations, 1979…

Kim Il-sung and Castro in Pyongyang, 1986…

Castro’s funeral procession in 2016; note the billboard with Che Guevara’s face and a message: “Your example lives in the work of the revolution…”