Virginian-Pilot editorial: A new day for Cuba
FROM THE TIME he emerged from the jungle, a band of guerillas in tow, to his death Saturday at the age of 90, Fidel Castro remained an enigma.
The singular leader of the Cuban revolution, the fatigue-wearing, cigar-smoking Castro promised a new dawn for that island nation — a future of shared prosperity and self-determination freed from Western influence.
Instead, the people of Cuba endured decades of misery, of oppression under a brutal and murderous regime that used the power of the state to crush dissent and free enterprise.
Do not be fooled by the tributes emerging from foreign heads of state and sympathetic leftists, those swayed by the bravado and defiance of an uncompromising revolutionary. They point to literacy rates or health care options as evidence of Castro's humanity or success as a leader.
He was a tyrant, a man whose fingerprints were on the triggers of the firing squads who executed scores of officials from the government of Fulgencio Batista deposed by the 1958-59 uprising. It was Castro who ordered the imprisonment of opponents, of journalists, of homosexuals and anyone else who fell into disfavor.
And it was Castro who helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear war by allowing the Soviet Union to place ballistic missiles 90 miles off the Florida coast, well within range of East Coast cities. The crisis stands among the tensest moments of the Cold War.
It was that conflict, between the forces of East and West, that empowered Castro and gave him international influence. He was seen by many in Latin America as a bulwark against the imposing and intrusive influence of U.S. foreign policy, and he reveled in that spotlight.
A thorn in the sides of 11 presidents, Castro turned aside every attempt to remove him, from the overt and disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to numerous assassination attempts. These failures only served to raise his profile globally and strengthen his hold on power.
Ultimately it was illness, not poison or a bullet, which felled him. He abdicated much of his power in 2006 to his brother, Raul Castro, and formally relinquished his position in 2008.
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The transition opened the door to a new relationship with the United States. Whereas Fidel Castro saw only capitulation by extending a hand to Washington, Raul Castro saw it as an opportunity — one made necessary by the loss of Cuba's vital patrons and by the island's increasing deprivation and dissolution, and by its growing isolation internationally.
The country depended on the support of the Soviets throughout most of Castro's time in power, and the fall of communism in 1991 ushered in further hardship for the Cuban people — food shortages, rationing, riots and unrest.
Oil revenues from Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez helped, but his death in 2013 left Raul Castro with few options to keep the economy afloat, aside from opening the door to President Barack Obama's overtures for diplomatic ties and an easing of the crippling economic embargo.
Obama's gamble is that U.S. dollars will usher in political reforms as well, a proposition that has utterly failed in China or most of the Middle East. It has likewise yet to be seen in Cuba, though the president's soft-stepping statement on the death of Fidel Castro seemed directed toward people who still idolize the revolutionary, if not the revolution's ideals.
Following Castro's death, the focus should be on them, the Cuban people, and what the future holds. Cuba — once the most advanced nation to the south of the United States — is today a country with boundless opportunity and potential, now freed from the rule of an oppressor.
Cubans, like all people, deserve the freedom and liberty of true self-determination, where they can chart their own course without fear of suffering, imprisonment or execution.
To celebrate Castro is to cheer the murder of thousands and the misery of millions more. Instead, let us mark his death with the fervent hope that a new day will bring peace and prosperity.