ADIOS AMIGO
The passing away of Fidel Castro, the charismatic Cuban leader signals the end of an era. As a young revolutionary, he and his idealistic band of guerrilla fighters overthrew the US-backed dictator, General Fulgencio Batista who had turned the Caribbean island-nation of Cuba into one big corrupt, decadent state. The revolutionaries then established a Marxist state in 1959. Backed by the former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, Cuba confronted the mighty United States next door eyeball-to-eyeball to see who would blink first. Too close to the end of World War II, neither of the Super Powers wanted by then, a possible nuclear fallout.
That moment in history; that stand-off by the young Cuban leader and his later crusades together with his even more charismatic comrade-in-arms, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara to spread their brand of revolution is modern history. In Latin America their moral power continues to live. In Africa they backed Nelson Mandela’s anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) to the hilt; he sent his troops to defend Angola and also embraced Yasser Arafat and his anti-Zionist PLO. Asia was not immune to this mesmerising influence and leftwing, mostly bearded young University students and workers, cynically called ‘cardboard Castros’ paraded the streets shouting the slogan; ( Hands off Cuba or face the consequences).
The so-called ‘Imperialist pigs’ as the socialist camp called the West at the time got ‘Che’ killed in Bolivia, but several attempts to have Fidel assassinated came to naught. No different to his predecessor though in persecuting opponents, Castro went on to rule with an iron fist purging ‘counter revolutionaries’ by the hordes, eliminating some, throwing others in jail while thousands fled as refugees to nearby Miami, USA in ramshackle wooden boats. Those who survived, and their families hated Castro’s guts, cursed him each day, and finally, celebrated his death last week at street parties in Miami’s district known as ‘Little Havana’. They even oppose efforts at rapprochement between the US and Cuba, a process initiated by the Obama Administration.
Castro turned Cuba into a model Marxist state, but it was a model of failure no different to its mentor, the former Soviet Union which collapsed in 1991. A ruthless decades-long economic embargo imposed by the Unite States as retribution, slowly but surely took its toll on Cuba. With sole mentor and provider, the Soviet Union in ruins and then no more, Cuba too fell on hard times.
The country’s education programme and even more so, its health system were the only example of a successful socialist welfare state in a nation that was otherwise gasping for economic survival. Castro’s successor, Raul his brother, saw the writing on the wall. He was forced to be more pragmatic and opened a window to better relations with their the US.
With the passing away of the legendary Castro, doors not windows will open but only if the President-elect of the US agrees to bury the hatchet. This will then be the last chapter of yesteryear’s Cold War.
Reviled by the West, and revered by those in the so-called Third World, Castro headed the Non Aligned Movement taking over from Sri Lanka in 1979. The late President J.R. Jayewardene while handing over the mantle in Havana told Castro that Sri Lanka’s tea mixed well with Cuba’s sugar. At each turn when Sri Lanka was in need of help, were it to fight malaria and dengue, doctors during the tsunami of 2004 or more recently at the UNHRC, Cuba under Fidel Castro always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Sri Lanka and her people.
Many Sri Lankans who paraded those streets in support of Castro have long abandoned the Revolution themselves, and wisely so. What remains is a romanticised memory of a proud revolutionary David who stood up to Goliath, who spread the revolutionary zeal around the world, but eventually was not able to deliver all the goods to his own people.