Debunking an Imaginary Country That Never Was
Alberto N. Jones
December 11, 2008

As I read , Cuba Facts #43 “Socio Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro Cuba“, published by the Cuba Transition Project, Coral Gables, Miami, December 2008, my first instinct was to delete and dump this monumental fairy tale, which is nothing more than a concerted effort to distort, lie and blatantly attempt to rewrite the horrendous and most tragic period of Cuba’s history, aided by an endless source of funding from the United States Government and bogus foundations.

Having lived through such sad experience, it require courage and self discipline, not to explode in anger against these cynical manipulations of charts, table and stats, pretending to substantiate the crude lies leaching from their hired pens and minds.

Rather than asking any of our readers to accept their views or my complete rejection of everything included in their pseudo research, I encourage those interested in facts, history and the truth, to refer to Bohemia, Carteles, Prensa Libre, Avance, El Mundo, Diario de la Marina and others of “Their” publications at the time, by simply browsing through those horror pages, that captures better than I could, what Cuba really was.

Secluded in their Biltmore, Miramar, Kholy, vista Alegre, Uvero or FOCSA environs, these rotten rich, politically powerful and socially segregated individuals, construed in their minds a country that was limited to themselves, never thinking or pretending the millions of abused, illiterate, hungry, sick or poor, were not part of Cuba.

In order to debunk the falsehood incorporated in their report, I could focus on those infamous sugar plantation Bateyes, where hunger sickness and deaths were rampant and pervasive. Naranjo Dulce, Marti, Bartlet, Banes, El Cobre, Realengo 18, Rio Grande, Cruces, Las Martinas are just a few of the many well documented human inferno under the watchful eyes of Cuban sugar barons, US transnational and a succession of corrupt, imposed lackey governments, but that would be tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Guantanamo in the early 50’s which seems to be the golden era in back of their minds, was a city of approximately 100,000 inhabitants. This world renowned city since someone decided to lock-up indefinitely and reportedly torture so-called enemy combatant across the fence of this 45 square miles of illegally occupied Cuban territory by the United States government since 1898, seems to be of no consequence to these researchers, since it was not included in the body of this or previous articles.

For its 100,000 inhabitants, Guantanamo had 5 primary schools with an average 80 student per school, one, two session Intermedia or 6th grade school with approximately 150 students per session, one, 7th & 8th grade Escuela Primaria Superior and one High School or Instituto de Segunda Ensenanza, with approximately 250 students. There was No Library, No Technical, Teachers or Evening Schools. No Zoological gardens or children playground, but yes, the largest and best known Red Light District in Cuba.

Our 7th grade classroom was actually a 4th grade classroom during the morning session, making it impossible for most of us to fit on these tiny seats. Compounding this issue was that there were 28 seats for 60 students, leading to strife and fights for seats and forcing those without a seat to stand from 1:00 PM to 5:15 PM with their backs towards the blackboard, their notebook against the wall and by rotating their necks, students were able to take notes from the blackboard. Torticolis or Twist Neck became endemic among us.

It was a known fact in those years, that 60% or more of the primary school students went to school on an empty stomach. To correct this, in 1936 the School Breakfast Program was created, which consisted of a cup of hot chocolate with a couple of crackers, butter and a slice of cheese on20Fridays.

In 1952 all schoolchildren soon learned the meaning of coup d’etat, as their breakfast disappeared shortly after Gen Batista forceful take over of the government. I understand and empathize with the writers of these “Democratic Cuba“ soap opera, because they knew nothing about these realities, because they were protected in La Salle, Colegio Teresiano, Escolapios, Belen and others high class, selective educational centers, oblivious of their surroundings.

The Casa de Socorro or Emergency of Guantanamo city was the health care first responder for the entire community, for which it had a one room first aid department which most of the time had no disinfectant, bandage, sutures or other basic medical resources, two dental chairs, one X-Ray department and a make believe clinical lab.

This center was complemented by a dilapidated, 80-bed General Pedro A. Perez public hospital, where patients had to bring their bedding, food and purchase their medicine with a prescription that would be handed out by the visiting physician. All employees of the hospital asked for and expected some sort of kick back, since salaries were low and uncertain.

Getting accepted into this hospital required knowing some political hack, rich member of the community or any other well connected individual, w ho was capable of providing the patient family with a letter of commendation. Most beds were for two, totally unrelated patients, with many more sleeping on “colchonetas” or dog-type bedding in walkways, hallways or doorways.

Until 1968, everyone who died in Guantanamo, went to their grave based upon assumptions or guess work, since there was no pathologist to determine the cause of death. Neither was there any physicians specialized in Cardiology, Neurology, Urology or Ear, Nose & throat.

Patients requiring any of these specialties, were forced to travel to Santiago de Cuba 90 Kms away, follow a similar people-to-people procedure to access the hospital setting and once they did, find somewhere to eat, live and survive.

And yet, as appalling as the healthcare stats in Cuba were, these researchers did not find it necessary to be included in this thorough analysis, nor did they mention the murderous campaign that the US unleashed in 1962, encouraging 50% of all healthcare professionals to migrate, creating the country’s worst healthcare crisis ever.

Forty six years later, this macabre and murderous, anti-human project continues through the Cuban Adjustment Act, enticing thousands of Cuban physicians who are performing their humanitaria n service in over 60 third world countries across the globe free of charge, to abandon their patients who may have seen a physician for the first time in their lives, betray their Hippocratic oath and migrate to the glitter and glow of Miami.

For those crunching the numbers of these biased reports, others charged with portraying Cuba as dreamland or poised to forgive and propose ex-Batista crooks, torturers and murderer into sainthood, they and their loved ones was never concerned with their health issues, which was readily supported by the Miramar Clinic, Marfan, Sagrado Corazon, Colonia Espanola, Los Angeles, Centro Gallego etc., equipped with state of the art instruments and physicians with the best professional training and expertise.

As disgraceful as the previous description may be, the plight of tens of thousands of landless peasants was far worst. Allowed to work on unprepared, uncultivated lands of transnational or Cuban land barons in semi-slave condition, they were kept perennially in debt, for having to acquire all of their goods and services at the landowners inflated stores prices and forced to sell their produce back to their landowner at meager prices, exorbitant land lease and cooked-up bookkeeping.

Whenever these unfair arrangements were no longer beneficial to the owners, their lands had been cleared and tilled, it was not unusual for them to call in the Rural Guard, label the peasants as illegal occupants, force them off their lots, burn down the huts where they lived and placed on the side of the road.

Why have these knowledgeable individuals not included in their “objective” analysis other vital statistics such as employment/unemployment index, social services, day care service, longevity, infant and maternal morbidity/mortality, hunger and prevalence of preventable diseases?

These fallacies have served them well for the past fifty years, but it is over now. Why are they unwilling to apply these vital statistics to the developing world or areas in Mississippi, New Orleans, Rocky Mountains, Overtown, Cabrina Greens, to our 45 million uninsured and so many underserved communities, instead of evaluating banalities such of cars, TV sets or refrigerators in Cuba in 1960?

In closing, they may still have a wonderful and honest opportunity to preach what they demand from Cuba and demonstrate to the world, that they are seriously concerned about the wellbeing of mankind, by simply leaving their air-cooled mansions in Miami, travel south to any country of their choosing and implement their humanitarian health, education and social development programs with all the resources available to them and begin eradicating h unger, sickness and diseases that plague and destroy tens of thousands of innocent lives.

Please join this worldwide trend to help those less fortunate; earn for yourselves the recognition, respect and love, that you have tireless tried to deny to those who have done this in silence for decades.

 

    
    From: Cuba Transition Project <ctp.iccas@MIAMI.EDU>
To: CTP@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Sent: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:02 pm
Subject: Cuba Facts: Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro Cuba

 
 
 
 

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CUBA FACTS

Issue 43- December 2008
 
 
 
 

Cuba Facts is an ongoing series of succinct fact sheets on various topics, including, but not limited to, political structure, health, economy, education, nutrition, labor, business, foreign investment, and demographics, published and updated on a regular basis by the Cuba Transition Project staff.
 
 Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro Cuba*

Introduction
  • In the 1950's Cuba was, socially and economically, a relatively advanced country, certainly by Latin American standards and, in some areas, by world standards.
  • Cuba's infant mortality rate was the best in Latin America -- and the 13th lowest in the world.
  • Cuba also had an excellent educational system and impressive literacy rates in the 1950's.
  • Pre-Castro Cuba ranked third in Latin America in per capita food consumption.
  • Cuba ranked first in Latin America and fifth in the world in television sets per capita.
  • Pre-Castro Cuba had 58 daily newspapers of differing political hues and ranked eighth in the world in number of radio stations.

Health
  • Cuba's infant mortality rate of 32 per 1,000 live births in 1957 was the lowest in Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world, according to UN data. Cuba ranked ahead of France, Belgium, West Germany, Japan, Austria, Italy, and Spain.
  • In 1955, life expectancy in Cuba was among the highest at 63 years of age; compared to 52 in other Latin American countries, 43 in Asia, and 37 in Africa.
  • In terms of physicians and dentists per capita, Cuba in 1957 ranked third in Latin America, behind only Uruguay and Argentina -- both of which were more advanced than the United States in this measure. Cuba's 128 physicians and dentists per 100,000 people in 1957 was the same as the Netherlands, and ahead of the United Kingdom (122 per 100,000 people) and Finland.
 
Education

Cuba has been among the most literate countries in Latin America since well before the Castro revolution, when it ranked fourth.
Table 1. Latin American Literacy Rates
Country
Latest Data Available
for 1950-53
 (Percent)
2000
 (Percent)
% Increase
Argentina
87
97
11.5%
Cuba
76
96
26.3%
Chile
81
96
18.5%
Costa Rica
79
96
21.5%
Paraguay
68
93
36.8%
Colombia
62
92
48.4%
Panama
72
92
27.8%
Ecuador
56
92
64.3%
Brazil
49
85
73.5%
Dominican Republic
43
84
95.3%
El Salvador
42
79
88.1%
Guatemala
30
69
130%
Haiti
11
49
345.5%
 
Source: UN Statistical Yearbook 1957, pp. 600-602; UN Statistical Yearbook 2000, pp. 76-82.
a. Data for 1950-53 are age 10 and over. Data for 1995 are age 15 and over, reflecting a change in common usage over this period.
b. Data for Argentina 1950-53 is current as 1947 data, the latest available, and reflects ages 14 and over.
c. Data for 2000 are age 15 and over.

Consumption
  • The 1960 UN Statistical yearbook ranked pre-Revolutionary Cuba third out of 11 Latin American countries in per capita daily caloric consumption. This was in spite of the fact that the latest available food consumption data for Cuba at the time was from 1948-49, almost a decade before the other Latin American countries' data being used in the comparison.
A closer look at the latest available data on some basic food groups reveals that Cubans now have less access to cereals, tubers, and meats than they had in the late 1940's. According to 1995 UN FAO data, Cuba's per capita supply of cereals has fallen from 106 kg per year in the late 1940's to 100 kg half a century later. Per capita supply of tubers and roots shows an even steeper decline, from 91 kg per year to 56 kg. Meat supplies have fallen from 33 kg per year to 23 kg per year, measured on a per capita basis.
Table 2. Latin America: Per Capita Food Consumption
Country
Latest Data Available
for 1954-57
 (Calories per day)
1995-97
 (Calories per day)
% Increase
Mexico
2,420
3,108
28.4%
Argentina
3,100
3,113
0.4%
Brazil
2,540
2,933
15.5%
Uruguay
2,960
2,796
-5.5%
Chile
2,330
2,774
19.1%
Colombia
2,050
2,591
26.4%
Ecuador
2,130
2,660
24.9%
Paraguay
2,690
2,570
-4.5%
Venezuela
1,960
2,388
21.8%
Honduras
2,260
2,366
4.7%
Cuba
2,730
2,417
-11.5%
 
Source: UN FAO Yearbook 1960, pp. 312-316; UN FAO Yearbook 2000, pp. 102-103.
a. Latest 1954-57 available data for Cuba is actually for 1948-49.
 
Although some would blame Cuba's food problems on the U.S. embargo, the facts suggest that the food shortages are a function of an inefficient collectivized agricultural system -- and a scarcity of foreign exchange resulting from Castro's unwillingness to liberalize Cuba's economy, diversify its export base, and its need to pay off debts owed to its Japanese, European, and Latin American trading partners acquired during the years of abundant Soviet aid. This foreign exchange shortage has severely limited Cuba's ability to purchase readily available food supplies from the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Europe. The U.S. embargo does not prohibit Cuba from buying food in the U.S.
  • The statistics on the consumption of nonfood items tell a similar story. The number of automobiles in Cuba per capita has actually fallen since the 1950's, the only country in the hemisphere for which this is the case. (Unfortunately, due to Castro’s unwillingness to publish unfavorable data, the latest available data for Cuba are from 1988.) UN data show that the number of automobiles per capita in Cuba declined slightly between 1958 and 1988, whereas virtually every other country in the region -- with the possible exception of Nicaragua -- experienced very significant increases in this indicator. Within Latin America, Cuba ranked second only to Venezuela in 1958, but by 1988, had dropped to ninth.
Table 3. Latin America: Passenger Cars per Capita (a)
Country
1958
 (Cars per 1,000 inhabitants)
1988
 (Cars per 1,000 inhabitants)
Annual Average
 Growth (Percent)
Argentina
19
129
6.6
Uruguay
22
114
5.3
Venezuela
27
94
4.3
Brazil
7
73
8.1
Mexico
11
70
6.4
Panama
16
56
4.3
Chile
7
52
6.9
Costa Rica
13
47
4.4
Cuba
24
23
-0.1
Dominican Republic
3
23
7.3
Colombia
6
21
4.3
Paraguay
3
20
6.5
Peru
7
18
3.1
Ecuador
2
15
7
Bolivia
3
12
4.7
Guatemala
6
11
2
El Salvador
7
10
1.2
Nicaragua
7
8
0.5
Honduras
3
6
2.3
 
(a)-For most countries, excludes police and military cars. (b)-Excludes all government cars. (c)- Includes police cars. (d)-Includes cars no longer in use. (e)-1957 (f)-1956 (g)-1987.
 
  • Telephones are another case in point. While every other country in the region has seen its teledensity increase at least two fold -- and most have seen even greater improvements. Cuba has remained frozen at 1958 levels. In 1995, Cuba had only 3 telephone lines per 100 people, placing it 16th out of 20 Latin American countries surveyed and far behind countries that were less advanced than Cuba in this measure in 1958, such as Argentina (today 16 lines per 100 inhabitants), Costa Rica (16), Panama (11), Chile (13), and Venezuela (11). More recently, as a result of a joint venture with an Italian firm, there has been considerable investment, but current data is still unavailable from standard sources.
  • Cuba also has not kept pace with the rest of Latin America in terms of radios per capita. During the late 1950's, Cuba ranked second only to Uruguay in Latin America, with 169 radios per 1,000 people. (Worldwide, this put Cuba just ahead of Japan.) At that time, Argentina and Cuba were very similar in terms of this measure. Since then, the number of radios per capita for Argentina has grown three times as fast as for Cuba. Cuba also has been surpassed by Bolivia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, and Brazil in this indicator.
  • In terms of television sets per capita, 1950's Cuba was far ahead of the rest of Latin America and was among the world's leaders. Cuba had 45 television sets per 1,000 inhabitants in 1957, by far the most in Latin America and fifth in the world, behind only Monaco, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In fact, its closest competitor in Latin America was Venezuela, which had only 16 television sets per 1,000 people. By 1997, Cuba had increased from 170 televisions to 239 per thousand, behind Mexico (272 per capita) and tying Uruguay for second place. Of these two countries, Uruguay in 1957 had fewer than one television per 1,000 people.
Production
Post 1959 Cuba falls short in areas of industrial production once prioritized by Soviet client states, such as electricity production. Although Cuba has never been a regional leader in public electricity production per capita, its relative ranking among 20 Latin American countries has fallen from eighth to 11th during the Castro era. In fact, in terms of the rate of growth of electricity production, in 1995 Cuba ranked 9th of 20 countries in the region.
Rice Production
  • Cuba ranked fourth in the region in production of rice in 1958. Two of the countries ranking ahead of Cuba in rice production in 1958, Venezuela and Bolivia, have since seen their rice production grow by more than 28 fold through 2000. Cuba's Caribbean neighbor, the Dominican Republic, has increased its rice production by five fold since 1958. Perhaps even more telling are Cuba's yields per hectare in rice production. Whereas the Dominican Republic has increased rice yields from 2100 kg per hectare in 1958 to 5400 kg per hectare in 1996, Cuba's yields stagnated at 2500 kg per hectare, a negligible increase from the 2400 kg per hectare registered in 1958, according to UN FAO data.

Table 4. Latin America: Rice Production
Country
1958
(1,000 Metric Tons)
2000
 (1,000 Metric Tons)
% Increase
Brazil
3,829
11,168
191.7%
Colombia
378
113
-70.1%
Ecuador
176
1,520
763.6%
Peru
285
1,665
484.1%
Argentina
217
858
295.4%
Uruguay
58
1,175
1925.9%
Venezuela
22
737
3250%
Dominican Republic
99
527
432.3%
Mexico
240
450
87.5%
Bolivia
11
310
2718.2%
Panama
86
319
271%
Cuba
261
369
41.3%
Nicaragua
33
285
764.5%
Costa Rica
34
264
677.1%
Chile
102
113
10.8%
Paraguay
20
93
365%
El Salvador
27
48
76.3%
Honduras
41
7
-82.2%
Guatemala
33
39
17.3%
 
Source: UN FAO Yearbook 1961, p. 50; UN FAO Yearbook 1999 Latin America, Central America, and the Carribean 2000.
a. 2000 Figures for Venezuela, Cuba, Paraguay and Guatemala are unofficial estimates.
 
Sugar Production
  • In the 1950s, Cuba milled an average of 43.9 million metric tons of sugarcane at a rate of 507,000 metric tons per day to produce 5.63 million metric tons of sugar per year. Today, Cuba's sugar production ranges from 1 to 1.5 million metric tons per year.

 Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments
  • Cuba's exports have not kept pace with other countries of the region. Of the 20 countries in the region for which comparable IMF data are available, Cuba ranks last in terms of export growth -- below even Haiti. Mexico and Cuba had virtually identical export levels in 1958 -- while Mexico's population was five times Cuba's. Since then, Cuba's exports have merely doubled while Mexico's have increased by almost 226 fold, according to IMF statistics for 2000. Cuba's exports in 1958 far exceeded those of Chile and Colombia, countries that have since left Cuba behind. The lack of diversification of Cuba's exports over the past 35 years also is remarkable, when compared with other countries in the region.
  • Cuba's enviable productive base during the 1950's was strengthened by sizable inflows of foreign direct investment. As of 1958, the value of U.S. foreign direct investment in Cuba was $861 million, according to United States government figures published in 1959. Adjusting for inflation, that foreign investment number amounts to more than US 3.6 billion in today's dollars.
  • Cuba also had a very favorable overall balance of payments situation during the 1950's, contrasted with the tenuous situation today. In 1958, Cuba had gold and foreign exchange reserves -- a key measure of a healthy balance of payments--totaling $387 million in 1958 dollars, according to IMF statistics. (That level of reserves would be worth more than 3.6 billion USD in today's dollars.) Cuba's reserves were third in Latin America, behind only Venezuela and Brazil, which was impressive for a small economy with a population of fewer than 7 million people. Unfortunately, Cuba no longer publishes information on its foreign exchange and gold reserves.
Table 5. Latin America: Total Exports
Country
1958
 (Million USD)
2000
 (Million USD)
Haiti
48
324
Panama
23
772
Nicaragua
71
941
Bolivia
65
1,098
Paraguay
34
1,099
Chile
389
1216
Dominican Republic
136
1,544
Cuba
732
1,544
Uruguay
139
2,295
El Salvador
116
2,973
Honduras
70
4,123
Guatemala
103
4,206
Ecuador
95
5,546
Peru
291
6,920
Costa Rica
92
7,729
Colombia
461
13,115
Argentina
994
26,663
Venezuela
2,319
34,038
Brazil
1,243
56,138
Mexico
736
166,455
 
Source: IMF Direction of Trade Statistics.
 
Mass Media
During the 1950's, the Cuban people were probably among the most informed in the world, living in an uncharacteristically large media market for such a small country. Cubans had a choice of 58 daily newspapers during the late 1950's, according to the UN statistical yearbook. Despite its small size, this placed Cuba behind only Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico in the region. By 1992, government controls had reduced the number of dailies to only 17.
There has also been a reduction in the number of radio and television broadcasting stations, although the UN no longer reports these statistics. However, it should be noted that in 1957, Cuba had more television stations (23) than any other country in Latin America, easily outdistancing larger countries such as Mexico (12 television stations) and Venezuela (10). It also led Latin America and ranked eighth in the world in number of radio stations (160), ahead of such countries as Austria (83 radio stations), United Kingdom (62), and France (50), according to the UN statistical yearbook.
_________________________________________________
*Unless otherwise indicated, all information is from the UN Statistical Yearbook; the Statistical Abstract for Latin America; and the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
 
 
The CTP can be contacted at P.O. Box 248174, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-3010, Tel: 305-284-CUBA (2822), Fax: 305-284-4875, and by email at ctp.iccas@miami.edu. The CTP Website is accessible at http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu.