Category: Pedro Corzo

We came to realize that Fidel Castro’s cynicism and evil knew no limits. Nevertheless, a large sector of the population glorified him in part due to our tendency to value heroism over good intentions.

When facing danger, he sought protection from the church, which years later he tried to destroy. At his trial, he took full advantage of the the judicial process. Speaking in his own defense, he portrayed himself as an imprisoned but not defeated hero, which suddenly put him on a par with the nation’s most prominent political leaders. His imprisonment and the deaths he caused were his elevator to fame.

Obviously, he was convinced that it was easier to take up arms than to participate in a contested election in which the loser would walk away ignominiously while the winner would have to periodically bend to popular will.

The new political conditions in the country provided the breeding ground for Castro to reach dimensions that even his closest associates could never have imagined. His boundless ambition, tenacity, keen sense of timing, characteristic audacity, absolute lack of loyalty to the commitments he made and political talents grew and matured to such an extent that he demanded the leadership position that he himself had created thanks to his cruel and ruthless nature.

Castro, who had been grown up among gangsters, acted like a “gang leader”

Castro, who had been grown up among gangsters, acted like a “gang leader,” someone who fought, took risks and was always ready to save his his own skin. His audacity was complemented by a keen sense of knowing when to switch sides, which never failed him when it came time to betray groups such as the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (MSR) or the Revolutionary Insurrectional Union (UIR).

The attack on the Moncada Barracks was a resounding failure due to poor planning and operational disorganization by the man who would later dub himself commander-in-chief and whose henchmen have, over the years, portrayed him as an exceptional military strategist. What the survivors of the assault did manage to accomplish was to establish a regime that has led Cuba to moral and material destruction.

Terror and its consequences — fear and social paralysis — quickly spread. The country began to decline, both economically and socially. Friendships and families were torn apart. Poverty, prison, exile and death were consequences that affected all of society.

Seventy-one years after the siege of the Moncada Barracks and sixty-five years after the triumph of the revolution, Castro’s legacy has little to show for itself.

The island is ruled by a “nomenklatura” that has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of absolute power. It has degraded the nation to such an extent that even Raúl Castro, one of the chief architects of the dictatorship, once said, “It pains us to look upon the steady decline of moral and civic values such as honesty, decency, shame, decorum, integrity and sensitivity to the problems of others that have marked the the more than twenty-year span of the Special Period.”

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Machado’s love for Venezuela is unquestionable. She has given up her leadership in order not to deny the triumph of democracy if this is possible. An example that the opponents of Castro-Chavism in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba and even the rest of the Venezuelan opposition should follow.

The entire Venezuelan people, like the Nicaraguan, Bolivian and Cuban people, have been victims of an international organization of criminals who share tactics and strategies to achieve and maintain power with any subterfuge at their disposal, always preferring repression and violence.

It is easy to see how these regimes share information and techniques of social control through the similarities in their repressive practices and legislation. It is also assumed that Cuban officials, who over the years have assisted the Venezuelan repressors, are currently participating in the restrictions that have been imposed on the opposition campaign, particularly in the controls to which they subject María Corina Machado.

Machado has been able to interpret, like no other opposition leader, the spirit of rebellion of all the people who feel free in their country and who take to the streets to demand their rights, overcoming the natural fears generated by a struggle in which the enemy knows no scruples.

With this negative scenario, I wonder if the opposition, Machado herself, has thought about what to do if the despots act on their undemocratic conditions and deny their defeat.

However, I confess that I am not an optimist and believe that the enemies of democracy, the Castro-Chavistas , never recognize the rights of others and are always ready for any trick to remain in power and can decide, under any pretext, to suspend the elections or disqualify the opposition candidate as they did with Machado.

Furthermore, the Maduro government and its criminal associates are aware of the broad popular support that María Corina Machado has earned with great perseverance, courage and dignity, and that respecting the will of the electorate can remove them from power with all the consequences that such an event would entail, which could result in denying the victory of their opponents.

Given this negative scenario, I wonder if the opposition, including Machado, has thought about what to do if the despots act on their undemocratic conditions and deny their defeat. Is there any strategy on the part of the opposition to claim victory if it is rationally irrefutable? If Maduro perpetuates himself in power once again, I do not believe that the people will believe in elections again.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The supreme leader used to give every guerrilla commander being trained in Cuba a Rolex watch, which was purchased with funds donated by his sponsors

Stories abound of just how wasteful the elder of the two brothers could be. For example, the supreme leader used to give every guerrilla commander being trained in Cuba — the idea being they would overthrow the very democracies that were courting him — a Rolex watch, which was purchased with funds donated by the dictatorship’s sponsors.

Another individual who helped pay the bills — both political and economic — is Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva. The corrupt president of Brazil has proven to be a faithful servant of the totalitarian regime.

Another ally was Argentina’s military junta. Both regimes supported each other when they came under criticism from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Juan Domingo Perón sold Cuba three-million dollars’ worth of transportation infrastructure, a bill the country has still not repaid. Similarly the Club of Paris has forgiven or restructured much of Cuba’s debt even though the regime has a history of not paying back the loans it receives.

The presidents of Mexico have also been discreet but faithful allies. Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the most strident but, with few exceptions, they have supported the Cuban regime in spite of all the summary executions, political prisoners and boat people.

In the opinion of many, including a family member who remains in Cuba, the totalitarian system is nearing its end. This person — I am not mentioning his name because it would not be prudent —is worried about what the demise of the dictatorship might look like and whether or not it will lead to a bloodbath, as happened in the now distant 1959. Like others writing from Cuba, he is convinced that the nightmare is coming to an end.

There are plenty of officials [in the U.S.] who are happy to tolerate the sins of others, particularly if the sinners come from the political left.

I do not consider myself to be one of the optimists but the reality is that Castro-ism is looking more exhausted than it ever has before. Its narrative no longer makes any sense and its current dictator has shown himself to be the most incompetent Cuban ruler of the last sixty-five years. And that is in a system characterized by predators who have distinguished themselves by their prodigious ineptitude.

Having witnessed so many crises, I fear someone will throw the Castro regime yet another lifeline, though in this case it can only come from Washington, Fidel Castro’s chosen enemy since the summer of 1958, when he dictated a letter to his secretary, Celia Sánchez, in which he said, as of that moment, he would launch his real war against the United States.

Russia, China and Iran are certainly strong allies of totalitarian regimes, and they will loan them a handkerchief in their moments of sorrow, but lifelines do not come cheap and none of the three are in a position to waste their resources by throwing money into the bottomless pit that Cuba has become under the Castros.

The United States could very well become the new savior. There are plenty of officials there who are happy to tolerate the sins of others, particularly if the sinners come from the political left.

These individuals are profiled in “The Fourth Floor,” a book by Earl E. T. Smith, the U.S. ambassador to Cuba during the revolution. They are mid-level officials who, in spite of not having senior government positions, often largely determine the policies of the U.S. State Department and other agencies, at least according to this humble writer, as José Estrada is used to saying.

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We had broad economic freedoms and notable social mobility. Foreign investments were important and labor legislation was significantly positive, although it was not fully complied with.

The Constitution of 1940, a charter drawn up in a public assembly by all the country’s political forces, including the communists, established the division of public powers and their independence, along with social and economic prerogatives much more advanced than most other legislations of the hemisphere.

Minimum wages were set by joint commissions of employers and workers. It was prohibited to deduct workers’ wages or salaries; workers’ stipend had to be paid in money, not goods; social insurance was compulsry, including disability and old age; right to retirement was based on seniority and a pension was due until death; and Cuba was the first country in the world to grant this right to agricultural workers.

Eight-hour work days, six-hour for those between 14 and 18 years of age. Paid rest of one month for 11 months of work; protection for workers’ maternity, with forced rest and payment of wages to pregnant women six weeks before childbirth and six weeks after.

Freedom of unionization and membership; right to strike, collective labor contracting, mandatory for employers and workers. Labor immobility, obligation of the State to build cheap housing for workers and social assistance by the Ministry of Health.

Villa points out, with information gleaned from, among other sources, United Nations yearbooks, that the average salary of the Cuban agricultural worker was the seventh in the world and the second in America, and the industrial salary was the second on the continent.

We cannot affirm that these provisions in the national Constitution were fully complied with throughout the country, but they were in broad sectors of productive life.

Education was a constant concern of the Governments of the Republic. The Constitution established that it was mandatory until the sixth grade and free until the eighth. Vocational schools were free. Tuition at State universities was 50 pesos, with free registration included.

On the Island, private, religious or secular education could be provided, governed by the standards of Public Education. There were 10,600 primary educational centers in the country, of which 8,900 were public; There were 14 Normal Schools for teachers and the same number of Commerce Schools and 21 Secondary Education Institutes, not counting the private ones, in addition, schools of Journalism, Fine Arts, Agriculture and Technology.

In 1958, we had 12 universities, three of which were public, and all enjoyed full autonomy.

Unfortunately, only 77.9 percent of Cubans knew how to read and write. However, Cuba occupied the third position in literacy in Latin America, after Argentina and Uruguay.

Health was superior to other countries on our continent. Infant mortality was the lowest in all of Latin America, 37.6 per thousand, and general mortality was one of the lowest in the world, 5.8 per thousand inhabitants.

The economy showed signs of constant strength and growth, as evidenced by the national financial system, which was made up of specialized banks including, among others, the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank, Foreign Trade, Economic and Social Development, the National Financial Institution and the Fund of Insured Mortgages.

I do not want to exhaust you with figures, but only these facts and the current devastation can testify to the Republic that we Cubans lost.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

No republican newspaper survived Castroism, neither in name nor in informative quality

The information media – press, radio and television – were placed at the service of tyranny, becoming a reflection of the pharaonic dreams of the Castro brothers and transmitters of aberrant government slogans.

Journalism became – sometimes with the complicit participation of many communicators, due to self-censorship or their dedication to the regime – an objective to be destroyed in order to impose the totalitarian system in gestation with greater impunity.

Because of these painful realities, I consider it important to highlight the work carried out by Cuban independent journalists, who for decades – and with limited means – have risked their lives and precarious freedoms to report on the institutional violation of citizens’ rights. They have been willing to confront the criminal actions of Castro’s absolutism, as the newspaper 14ymedio has done over the last 10 years.

Cuban independent journalists and the few media outlets that have served in this task during these long six decades have carved out a niche of honor, both for the courage shown to endure repression and for the quality and fairness of their reporting.

For decades, only doctrinal journalism existed on the Island, absent of any criticism or questioning of government action; closed to any information or analysis that the authority could consider an attack on its interests.

For decades, on the Island there was only doctrinal journalism, absent of any criticism or questioning of government of government action

The Cuban journalist was ‘mediatized’. He became a spokesperson for official slogans. He became a singer of achievements – real or supposed – of the ruling class. His judgment was subject to political correctness. The information, the story of an event, became a chronicle of what was convenient for the authority and for the journalist who strove not to be repressed and to keep his job before a single owner: the party-state.

This situation, which was evolving into a positive change, took a radical turn when 14ymedio came to light with extreme modesty. Many of us did not realize this milestone that occurred within Cuba at a time when the country began a process of readjustment as a consequence of the exhaustion of totalitarianism.

These last 10 years have been a time of great loss for the dictatorship. It is true that they still hold power, but they are in complete moral and material bankruptcy.

Transitioning from the charismatic totalitarianism of Fidel Castro to the military absolutism of Raúl and, finally, to the bureaucratic totalitarianism represented and led by the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel have left a contrastable evidence: the regime finds itself at a crossroads that can be deadly to its survival.

This decade within the darkness reveals lights of change. The population has shown its disenchantment in the most important popular protests since January 1, 1959; the prisons incarcerate more than 1,000 pro-democracy activists; and the regime intends to reinvent itself by establishing economic practices contrary to its essence. These events have been fittingly covered by 14ymedio and other independent journalists.

From a distance, but with admiration and respect, on this anniversary of 14ymedio, I dedicate this phrase by Jose Martí that accurately reflects my feelings: “Only those who know about journalism and the cost of selflessness can truly estimate the energy, the tenacity, the sacrifices, the prudence, the strength of character revealed by the appearance of an honest and free newspaper.”

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Don Miguel is not holding onto power because he has courage or talent, which is presumably why the old guard — the Moncada Barracks generation — get nervous anytime the situation “turns red,” a popular expression in Cuba for circumstances that are getting complicated.

There is one precedent we should keep in mind. On September 4, 1933, soldiers, students and teachers joined forces to prompt the fall of the regime that had replaced the dictatorship of President Gerardo Machado. We can only hope that the military, with popular support, will put an end to all the humiliation and subjugation.

On September 4, 1933, soldiers, students and teachers joined forces to prompt the fall of the regime that had replaced the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado

That protest, in my opinion, is more relevant that one that took place on 11 July 2021. On that glorious day, it was mostly young people who stormed the streets to demand freedom. The impetus of youth, suppressed for so long, cannot come too soon. I determined, however, that the average protester was actually older, a symptom that must deeply alarm those in the upper echelons of power.  It is a serious sign of desperation when it is the parents who assume the responsibility of taking risks.

We could all see and hear the protestors yelling at four government henchmen, who had climbed onto a rooftop as they tried to flee, that none of them had been chosen by the people. In another protest, I heard a group of fellow countrymen singing a stanza from the national anthem that goes, “Run towards combat, Bayamese, do not fear a glorious death.” On this occasion, I did not get the sense of a people surrendering to totalitarianism as I had at other times. Quite the opposite. I appreciated their desire to end the oppression sooner rather than later.

Certainly, some were protesting out of exhaustion with the scarcity and misery that they have suffered for decades, but many more did so — just like on 11 July 2021 — to claim their rights, demanding political change in a country for everyone.

It seems that the residents of the largest country in the Antilles are preparing to storm their Bastille, otherwise known as the Palace of the Revolution

Setting aside the historical anomalies for a moment, it seems the residents of the largest country in of the Antilles are preparing to storm their Bastille, otherwise known as the Palace of the Revolution. I am not saying this simply out of enthusiasm but because at least some of them perceive it that way. We could see this when official newscaster Humberto Lopez repeated on his TV program — the one the regime gave him because of his obvious nastiness — the same threats Fidel Castro or his spokesmen have been making since that dark New Year’s Day of 1959.

Lopez continues to stoke Cubans’ fears of the United States. Although there are many survivors on the island, the hardships are so great that only those slavishly loyal to totalitarianism, such as Lopez himself, can get by. What they really want is to forget the revolution and go live in this or some other coutry.

No one believes the argument that restoring democracy in Cuba will mean more poverty and misery for the population. Those who are protesting already find themselves living below the poverty line. How much more fearful can you make people who have nothing?

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

At first it was a genuine, populist-inspired military dictatorship, though one distinguished by inefficiency and waste, massive propaganda, the deification of Fidel Castro and consecration of his closest disciples. It was also one that demonized political parties and subjugated civil society, including all labor, social and professional organizations.

The largest property owners lost all their assets in the first three years of revolutionary government while, in a parallel move, foreign-owned businesses were expropriated without compensation. Many small businesses were also confiscated and consolidated into larger companies, a move that, in no small measure, helped plunge the country into an economic abyss.

The Castros controlled the economy without neglecting politics. They never allowed independent political parties or anything like a free press. By 1965, Cuba was under the  control of a single-party regime. To make it official, they created the Communist Party of Cuba and set up the newspaper Granma as its official organ.

Once socialism was established and the generous Soviet subsidies were secured — sending thousands of Cubans to Angola as cannon fodder for Castro and the Kremlin further guaranteed it — the country was ready for the most ruthless kind of totalitarianism.

The Castros controlled the economy without neglecting politics. They never allowed independent political parties or anything like a free press

On March 13, 1968, the regime nationalized approximately 58,000 small businesses, arguing that this move would be the best way to industrialize the country. Cobblers, hairdressers, barbers, seamstresses and all those providing goods or services — those that the regime now promotes as MSMEs and self-employed workers — became state employees. The bureaucracy was enthroned and leadership of the new conglomerates was assumed by party men. Real, non-fictional men in black. All were incompetence personified.

I remember that even the bars and nightclubs were closed because, according to the official party line, they were hotbeds of prostitution, homosexuality and crime, labeled as social scourges by the leaders of the Communist Party Central Committee. In spite of its association with the Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest and the musical group Los Van Van, the next decade saw the national economy sink into a deep depression as dependence on the Soviet Union and militarization of Cuban society increased.

The enthusiasm of Castro’s followers led the country into the wastelands of corruption and inefficiency. The national economy is now completely in ruins, so much so that, according to some, the regime is now thinking about getting rid of some totalitarian measures and becoming once again the bloody dictatorship it was before March 13, 1968, when prison bars and bloodstained bread were the norm for those actively opposed to its tyranny.

Once socialism was established and the generous Soviet subsidies were secured, the country was ready for the most ruthless kind of totalitarianism, which could already be seen in the way politics were managed.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.