HAVANA, Dec. 31, 2008
Castro's Revolution Turns 50
CBS News Producer Portia Siegelbaum: Despite Obstacles, Communist Cuba Endures
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Play CBS Video Video Castro's Cuba Turns 50 Defying the skeptics, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution is now celebrating its 50th year in power. CBS News' Portia Siegelbaum reports from Havana.
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In a file photo Cuban President Fidel Castro gestures as he protests against the U.S. embargo, Oct. 31, 2003. Jan. 1, 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Castro's rise to power in a revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)
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Interactive Fidel Castro And Cuba Find out more about the communist country and the fiery leader who led the Cuban Revolution.
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Fast Facts Cuba Learn about the people, economy and history.
“We went to the Moncada with the goal of achieving a new Cuba, of eradicating all the bad things that existed-the corruption, the swindling, the gangsters, the total control foreigners had over Cuba ,” Ramon Pez Ferro, who as an 18 year-old, fought alongside the Castro brothers in that armed action, tells CBS News Producer Portia Siegelbaum.
“We thought we had to overthrow Batista’s bloody dictatorship and transform things in Cuba. But we have gone far beyond what we were thinking at the time of the Moncada. And I believe it’s been for the best,” says Pez Ferro who today heads the International Relations Department of the Cuban Parliament.
“I think we have reason to be satisfied after 50 years,” he says, adding that the Revolution’s achievements give meaning to the deaths of 70 “excellent comrades” who were slaughtered by Batista soldiers.
“We could have done much more in this time, could have gone much further in terms of achievements, of economic and social development,” he notes, “but the Revolution has come up against a tremendous number of obstacles, not the least being the attitude taken by the United States, a very powerful and nearby country.”
The United States economic and trade embargo which is also nearing its 50 birthday has failed to depose the Castro government but scholars and analysts believe it has held back development and change on the island.
“To me the question is what would have happened if the U.S. would have accepted the revolution? What would Cuba be today? And, and could the U.S. at this point in fact be willing to normalize relations and what might be the consequences for both countries if that were to occur,” asks Nelson Valdes, a Professor at the University of New Mexico, Cuba scholar and also a Cuban American.
In 1961, Valdes, then 15, was put on a plane to the United States by his stepfather. He one of more than 14,000 children whose parents thought separation was better than raising their offspring under a Communist government which reportedly was going to take away their children and send them to Moscow to be indoctrinated, among other groundless rumors.
It was 16 years before he would return to the island and much had changed in the interval. While Valdes casts a more critical eye than Pez Ferro, he warns foreigners visiting Cuba not to jump to assumptions about what they see.
People are mistaken when they look at old, deteriorated buildings in the capital, buildings that had been gorgeous in the ‘50s and assume that their residents are also down and outs, says Valdes.
“If you go and look at the people than you encounter a human and social capital that was not there before. And I think this is the main problem that we often find when people come to Cuba. Because usually run-down buildings elsewhere also have run-down people-people who don’t have an education, don’t have the cultural level you might say and what is odd in the Cuban case is that you can have physicists and doctors living in buildings in which there is no running water,” he points out.
It would be hard to dispute the fact that the Cuban population today is a highly educated one thanks to the Revolution’s establishment of free education running from primary school through the university, whether you’re studying literature, civil engineering or medicine.
And while the Cuban Government has cracked down on dissident groups it sees linked to the United States and heavy-handedly discourages criticism of the socialist system and government, one thing I have learned in several decades of covering Cuba, is that the average Cuban complains all the time.
You can hear them at bus stops, in coffee shops, over the clink of dominos and certainly any doctor or physicist living in a building without running water is complaining.
“It is impossible to think that with so many Cubans going to class, reading books and learning and that they don’t think, they don’t think with their own heads. And they think that they have rights and those rights include the rights to education, to health, to have a house, to have a job and to be able to travel, to be able to use all those capacities they have developed,” says Rafael Hernandez, a sociologist and editor of the sometimes polemical magazine Temas, funded among others by a Norwegian NGO.
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- "this is because kennedy decided to follow your typical liberal text book strategy in dealing with dictators "
Posted by LordSunTzu at 01:48 PM : Jan 01, 2009
MY "typical liberal textbook strategy"?
You like talking out of your a-s-s?
I''m not a liberal. - Reply to this comment
- "I think 90% will not! Anything including Cuba''''''''s so called revolution can seem successful under the barrel of a gun!" Posted by spinproof
You obviously have not travelled much, otherwise you would know about the difficulties for anyone not rich to obtain permanent residence in another country.
Posted by brianbwb at 05:10 AM : Jan 01, 2009
I could be wrong, but I think the point spinproof was trying to make was that IF they were able to leave and live somewhere else they would. AND he/she would be exactly right in saying that 90% would not return.
I know of several people that have been to Cuba many times. They do not go to the resorts, they stay with the "people", in their homes. These people cannot do ANYTHING without being watched. The have to be very careful about what they say and do. If they send out packages or if someone sends them packages, or letters, they have usually been opened and gone through before they get them. That''s IF they get them.
A Cuban''s main goal is to get out of Cuba. A lot of Cubans befriend the tourists in hopes of being able to marry one of them, to get out. And who can blame them? - Reply to this comment
- Posted by erasmus606 at 01:46 PM : Jan 01, 2009
+ report abuse
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this is because kennedy decided to follow your typical liberal text book strategy in dealing with dictators - Reply to this comment
- It seems that it is a good thing for Cuba that the US has not been allowed to economically re-colonize the island. Perhaps it is better that the US not normalize relations.
Posted by brianbwb at 05:06 AM : Jan 01, 2009
+ report abuse
************
for a person WHO DOES NOT LIVE IN CUBA NOR EXPERIENCED ANY ATROCITY..that would be a good idea - Reply to this comment
- It seems that it is a good thing for Cuba that the US has not been allowed to economically re-colonize the island. Perhaps it is better that the US not normalize relations.
Posted by brianbwb at 05:06 AM : Jan 01, 2009
+ report abuse
************
for a person WHO DOES NOT LIVE IN CUBA NOR EXPERIENCED ANY ATROCITY..that would be a good idea - Reply to this comment
- "You can hear them at bus stops, in coffee shops, over the clink of dominos and certainly any doctor or physicist living in a building without running water is complaining."
Yeah, but they ain''t complaining too loudly and they are very careful on who hears them. There are people that have DISAPPEARED and are never seen again. - Reply to this comment
- Che spoke these words: "hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine."
The results of Che''s utopian agenda aren''t much to admire either. As author Paul Berman explained in 2004 in Slate, "The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster."
The miserable Argentine was killed in 1967 in the Bolivian Andes while trying to spread revolution in South America. But his vision of how to govern lives on in the Cuba of today. It is a slave plantation, where a handful of wealthy white men impose their "morality" on the masses, most of whom are black and who suffer unspeakable privation with zero civil liberties. - Reply to this comment
- I''''m a Christian and so my definition of poor may be different than most. I don''''t define rich or poor based on material assets or money...
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Tell that to George Bush, who claims to be a Christian, and yet brags how the US is superior based in part on material wealth.
Posted by mtee12 at 09:38 AM : Jan 01, 2009
I''m not a religious fanatic like some and Religions rarely turn anyone who want to identify with them away. Many suicide bombers are Muslims, many religious fanatics are Muslim and Christian but this does not mean that millions of other good Muslims and Christians should be tarnished and guilty by association, even Adolf Hitler claimed he was a Christian. Real Christians know Jesus Christ and his works, people also know a good Christian from a fake Christian! People can claim to be anything they want, its their deeds that matter and count! A persons deeds will easily identify that person as a Christian or not, just because someone claims to be a Christian doesn''t make it so. - Reply to this comment
- Many Cubans are dirt poor and impoverished, you don''t get to see those Cubans in the News Media...
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Many Latin Americans are dirt poor. What''s your point? Does the fact that many Latin Americans are dirt poor and the fact that most Latin Americans live in capitalist countries mean that capitalism is a failure? This is a topic that is never discussed in the US media. Wonder why?
Posted by mtee12 at 09:23 AM : Jan 01, 2009
I''m a Christian and so my definition of poor may be different than most. I don''t define rich or poor based on material assets or money, I define rich or poor based on a persons relationship with God, a person with the proper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ may be poor in material assets and money but rich beyond their wildest dreams! brianbwb is an atheist and can''t relate, I don''t know what your religious status is but if you are "Saved" and have your ticket punched for "Heaven" by the grace of God you have all the riches you will ever need. Didn''t mean to turn this into a religious discussion but its true! Rich and Poor are relative terms based on a persons spiritual enlightenment, development and orientation. - Reply to this comment
- If we lifted the embargo against Cuba, Castro would be run over like a Wal-Mart greeter on Black Friday.
- Reply to this comment
- The main idea in the FREE WORLD is FREEDOM! Born Free! Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Choice, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Movement and tolerance in those things in groups and others! Let Freedom Ring!!!
- Reply to this comment
- Compared to that other impoverished, capitalist Caribbean island of Haiti, Cuba is indeed a paradise.
Posted by mtee12 at 09:11 AM : Jan 01, 2009
Cuba is a paradise to some Cubans but many in Cuba don''t enjoy that version of paradise. Many Cubans are dirt poor and impoverished, you don''t get to see those Cubans in the News Media, they are hidden away, must keep up appearances of success. - Reply to this comment
- Perhaps it is better that the US not normalize relations.
Posted by brianbwb at 05:06 AM : Jan 01, 2009
Many sick Cubans might beg to differ! Cubans with HIV or AIDS are permanently segregated from the rest of the population and live out the rest of their lives in Cuban medical prison camps for fear they will infect the rest of the population! Imagine that brianbwb, getting HIV or AIDS in Cuba results in life in prison! Cuba is also a prison and now getting sick places you in a prison within a prison! No thanks, I''ll pass, you go live in Cuba, you won''t have much life but you''ll be smart as hell from all that free education! Normal relations with the U.S. might free those detained in Cuba medical "prison" centers. - Reply to this comment
- You are not as "spinproof" as your sig claims.
Posted by brianbwb at 05:10 AM : Jan 01, 2009
Let me see brianbwb, free education in Prison Cuba or freedom to come and go and choose as my heart desires, I would still choose Freedom! As a free person I could have it all, I could also be educated anywhere in the World including Prison Cuba! Your idea that because Cubans enjoy free education they should be happy hostages living under the barrel of a gun is even a stretch for you, this is like saying women captured and held hostage in the s e x trade should be happy because they are well fed, well dressed and live in nice environments, all they have to do is keep themselves clean and let men bang their brains out! Anything done under slave conditions in unacceptable brianbwb and Cubans are slaves to Casto''s Communism, no matter how well meaning Castro is! If a person can''t come and go as they please, they are held against their will, a prisoner to someones ideology, a hostage and a slave, if you don''t have free will you are a prisoner plain and simple, and nice prisoner benefits don''t make it O.K.! - Reply to this comment
- %u201CIt is impossible to think that with so many Cubans going to class, reading books and learning and that they don%u2019t think, they don%u2019t think with their own heads."
It is not only not impossible to think so, but is a common practise among ignorant Americans to think so.
"...And they think that they have rights and those rights include the rights to education, to health, to have a house, to have a job and to be able to travel, to be able to use all those capacities they have developed,%u201D
The nerve of these people to think they have a right to things Americans don''t even have. (sarcasm intended) - Reply to this comment
- "If the people there desire freedom, then they should take arms again....Aganist Castro." Posted by MrNrgmizer
But it should be their struggle, not ours.
"Ask any Cuban on American soil why..." Posted by MrNrgmizer
And what you will hear amounts to "they took our land and our slaves from us". They blew it because they mistreated the majority of the population, so the majority gave them the boot, had they been humane, there would have been no need for revolution.
"Ask any Mexican what they think of America having open arms for Cubans, but closed doors to Mexicans..." Posted by MrNrgmizer
And the answer will be the same as if you ask a "Black" American about expanding economic opportunities for foreign slave states, but closed investment doors for "Black" Americans.
"Down with Castro, invade Cuba and kick Venesuealan influence out..." Posted by MrNrgmizer
Go do it yourself, it seems to be your problem, but is not ours. - Reply to this comment
- "I think 90% will not! Anything including Cuba''''s so called revolution can seem successful under the barrel of a gun!" Posted by spinproof
You obviously have not travelled much, otherwise you would know about the difficulties for anyone not rich to obtain permanent residence in another country.
I remember the promises made to Iraqis who aided the US invasion, that they would be granted admittance to the US, a promise that was predictably reneged upon by the US.
You are not as "spinproof" as your sig claims. - Reply to this comment
- "It would be hard to dispute the fact that the Cuban population today is a highly educated one thanks to the Revolution%u2019s establishment of free education running from primary school through the university, whether you%u2019re studying literature, civil engineering or medicine."
While the exact opposite is true in the citadel of capitalism, the US, one can also include music, medicine, and recycling in the list of things the Cubans do better than the US.
It seems that it is a good thing for Cuba that the US has not been allowed to economically re-colonize the island. Perhaps it is better that the US not normalize relations. - Reply to this comment
- And after all this time we finally realize we were socialists, too!
I think we should just call a spade a spade, change our name to "The United Socialist States of America", finish bailing EVERYONE out by pressing the "print money now" button, and just chill.
We are what we are. Thanks GWB, Obama, Nancy and Harry. Now, let''s Rock and Roll! - Reply to this comment
- Until Cubans can come and go freely, travel freely around the World like other grown ups in other nations if they can afford to do so, Cuba is nothing but a Prison Camp and Castro is nothing but a hostage taker and holder! The true test and success of the Cuban Revolution is if Cubans are allowed to leave Cuba freely. If so, will Cubans return?, I think 90% will not! Anything including Cuba''s so called revolution can seem successful under the barrel of a gun!
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