Manuel E. Yepe: Cuba was neither a paradise nor an exception (October 2011)

CUBA WAS NEITHER A PARADISE NOR AN EXCEPTION
By Manuel E. Yepe

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

In Miami, for more than half a century now, certain sectors of the Cuban immigration –- smaller each day when looking at the size of the whole community -– talk about their homeland as a “paradise lost”.

Propaganda against the Cuban Revolution presents the fifth decade of last century as a period of great prosperity in order to “demonstrate” the advantages of capitalism to the Island.

Among the so-called “Cuban exile leaders” (some of whom have become members of congress persons in Washington) there are a few extremists who even praise Batista’s contribution to the social and economic development in Cuba. However, most of Cuban-American economists in the US view the fifties as a period of prosperity in Cuba unfortunately tarnished by the atrocities of the bloody tyranny imposed by the 1952 coup d’état.

In their view, the ideal would have been the elimination of the execrable dictatorship, the reestablishment of the constitutional order and representative democracy but without the need for more changes in the political life, the economy or the society.

To substantiate such alleged prosperity, these economists utilize some Cuban economic indicators of those years which were higher than those in other Latin American countries, but exclude from the comparison other indicators that demonstrate the opposite.

This manipulated comparison of statistics, in a region characterized by the greatest social and economic inequalities in the planet, allows them to infer that the Island had a remarkable social and economic progress. In fact, it should serve to highlight the painful situation of the Latin American nations with development indicators even worse than the very bad ones in Cuba.

Some of the higher statistical indicators of Cuba at that time were not signs of development, but rather of the utmost dependency of a country considered to be of great importance for the US national security. Cuba at the time represented a privileged scenario for certain investments due to the guarantees it offered deriving from its high degree of subordination to the empire.

In the mid 50’s, Cuba became one of the main markets for narcotics and trafficking routes to the US with the resulting injection of considerable amounts of money in the laundering process.

Under US mafia leaders like Meyer Lansky and Santos Trafficante, who were closely connected to the dictator Batista, Havana experienced a process of transformation to a Las Vegas of Latin America. This brought about a considerable increase of tourism and night life: the rich, the military officer caste and the corrupt politicians associated with the dictatorship lived the life, but the majority of the population did not enjoy the same wellbeing.

The idyllic image of Cuba in the 50’s was made up of new hotels, casinos, cabarets, department stores and huge luxury apartment buildings that changed the face of the Cuban capital with the money laundered by the mob and the embezzlement of public funds that reached peaks even higher than those attained during the equally corrupt governments preceding Batista’s tyranny.

But the truth is that the background for the crimes of the tyranny, and the insurrectional arms struggle against it, was very different from the idyllic image that, 50 years after the fact, some people try to paint for the Cuba of the 50’s. In reality, hundreds of children sought sustenance through begging, cleaning car windshields and shining shoes or selling newspapers in the streets and city squares or in the country where poverty was extreme. Many of the elderly and handicapped lived on charity. Long lines of men waited for work. And there was the widespread anguish of thousands of women looking for employment as domestics or prostitutes in brothels or working the streets. There was a proliferation of bars and gambling dens for the poor where the humble population was cheated of every last penny in the hope of changing their grim everyday reality.

In the years before the victory over Batista’s tyranny, Cuba was neither a paradise nor an exception when compared to the rest countries of Latin American.

Today Cuba is indeed an exception due to its amazing results through the exercise of its full independence and the achievement of social justice. The are objectives which the blockade and permanent hostility from the empire have not been able to stop despite the fact that it has hindered and delayed the achievement of other manifest objectives of the revolutionary project, such as a greater economic development and a fuller democracy.

		CUBA WAS NEITHER A PARADISE NOR AN EXCEPTION By Manuel E. Yepe A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann In Miami, for more than half a century now, certain sectors of the Cuban immigration –- smaller each day when looking at the size of the whole community -– talk about their homeland as a “paradise lost”. Propaganda against the Cuban Revolution presents the fifth decade of last century as a period of great prosperity in order to “demonstrate” the advantages of capitalism to the Island. Among the so-called “Cuban exile leaders” (some of whom have become members of congress persons in Washington) there are a few extremists who even praise Batista’s contribution to the social and economic development in Cuba. However, most of Cuban-American economists in the US view the fifties as a period of prosperity in Cuba unfortunately tarnished by the atrocities of the bloody tyranny imposed by the 1952 coup d’état. In their view, the ideal would have been the elimination of the execrable dictatorship, the reestablishment of the constitutional order and representative democracy but without the need for more changes in the political life, the economy or the society. To substantiate such alleged prosperity, these economists utilize some Cuban economic indicators of those years which were higher than those in other Latin American countries, but exclude from the comparison other indicators that demonstrate the opposite. This manipulated comparison of statistics, in a region characterized by the greatest social and economic inequalities in the planet, allows them to infer that the Island had a remarkable social and economic progress. In fact, it should serve to highlight the painful situation of the Latin American nations with development indicators even worse than the very bad ones in Cuba. Some of the higher statistical indicators of Cuba at that time were not signs of development, but rather of the utmost dependency of a country considered to be of great importance for the US national security. Cuba at the time represented a privileged scenario for certain investments due to the guarantees it offered deriving from its high degree of subordination to the empire. In the mid 50’s, Cuba became one of the main markets for narcotics and trafficking routes to the US with the resulting injection of considerable amounts of money in the laundering process. Under US mafia leaders like Meyer Lansky and Santos Trafficante, who were closely connected to the dictator Batista, Havana experienced a process of transformation to a Las Vegas of Latin America. This brought about a considerable increase of tourism and night life: the rich, the military officer caste and the corrupt politicians associated with the dictatorship lived the life, but the majority of the population did not enjoy the same wellbeing. The idyllic image of Cuba in the 50’s was made up of new hotels, casinos, cabarets, department stores and huge luxury apartment buildings that changed the face of the Cuban capital with the money laundered by the mob and the embezzlement of public funds that reached peaks even higher than those attained during the equally corrupt governments preceding Batista’s tyranny. But the truth is that the background for the crimes of the tyranny, and the insurrectional arms struggle against it, was very different from the idyllic image that, 50 years after the fact, some people try to paint for the Cuba of the 50’s. In reality, hundreds of children sought sustenance through begging, cleaning car windshields and shining shoes or selling newspapers in the streets and city squares or in the country where poverty was extreme. Many of the elderly and handicapped lived on charity. Long lines of men waited for work. And there was the widespread anguish of thousands of women looking for employment as domestics or prostitutes in brothels or working the streets. There was a proliferation of bars and gambling dens for the poor where the humble population was cheated of every last penny in the hope of changing their grim everyday reality. In the years before the victory over Batista’s tyranny, Cuba was neither a paradise nor an exception when compared to the rest countries of Latin American. Today Cuba is indeed an exception due to its amazing results through the exercise of its full independence and the achievement of social justice. The are objectives which the blockade and permanent hostility from the empire have not been able to stop despite the fact that it has hindered and delayed the achievement of other manifest objectives of the revolutionary project, such as a greater economic development and a fuller democracy.
		CUBA NO ERA UN PARAISO NI UNA EXCEPCIÓN Por Manuel E. Yepe Hace más de medio siglo que, en Miami, ciertos sectores de la inmigración cubana -cada vez más reducidos respecto al conjunto de ésta- hablan de su país natal como de un “paraíso perdido”. La propaganda contra la revolución cubana presenta la quinta década del pasado siglo como un período de gran prosperidad para “demostrar” las ventajas del capitalismo para la Isla. Aunque entre los llamados “líderes del exilio cubano” (algunos de los cuales devenidos congresistas en Washington) haya unos pocos extremistas que llegan hasta el elogio de la contribución de Batista al desarrollo económico y social de Cuba, la mayor parte de los economistas de origen cubano radicados en Estados Unidos presentan a la década de 1950 como un período de prosperidad para Cuba, lamentablemente afectado por los desmanes de la sangrienta tiranía impuesta mediante el golpe de Estado de 1952. Para ellos, lo deseable habría sido suprimir esa execrable dictadura y restablecer el orden constitucional y la democracia representativa, sin que fueran necesarios más cambios en la vida política, la economía y la sociedad. Para argumentar esa supuesta prosperidad, estos economistas comparan algunos indicadores económicos de Cuba en aquellos tiempos que son superiores a los de otros países de América Latina y el Caribe y excluyen de la comparación a otros indicadores que demuestran lo contrario. Esa homologación estadística manipulada, en una región caracterizada por las mayores desigualdades económicas y sociales del planeta, les permite inferir que la Isla tenía un notable progreso económico y social, cuando ello debía servir como denuncia de la dolorosa situación por la que atravesaban las naciones de América Latina, con indicadores de desarrollo peores aún que los pésimos de Cuba. Algunos de los indicadores estadísticos superiores que exhibía Cuba entonces no eran sinónimos de desarrollo, sino de la mayor dependencia de un país considerado de gran importancia para la seguridad nacional de Estados Unidos que constituía, por ello, escenario privilegiado para determinadas inversiones por la garantía que derivaba de su alto grado de subordinación al imperio. A mediados de la década de 1950, Cuba se convirtió en uno de los principales mercados y rutas del tráfico de estupefacientes hacia Estados Unidos con la consiguiente inyección de considerables cantidades de dinero en proceso de lavado. Bajo la conducción de líderes de la mafia estadounidense como Meyer Lansky y Santos Traficantti, estrechamente relacionados con en el dictador Batista, La Habana vivió un proceso de conversión de la ciudad en Las Vegas de América Latina. Ello trajo un notable incremento del turismo y de la vida nocturna: los ricos, las cúpulas militares y los políticos corruptos integrados con la dictadura vivían bien, pero la inmensa mayoría de la población no disfrutaba ese bienestar. La imagen idílica de Cuba en los cincuenta la conformaban nuevos hoteles, casinos, cabarets, tiendas departamentales y grandes y lujosos edificios de apartamentos que cambiaron la fachada de la capital cubana a base del dinero lavado por la mafia y la malversación de los fondos públicos que creció a extremos mayores aún que en los de los igualmente corruptos gobiernos anteriores a la tiranía de Batista. Pero lo cierto es que el telón de fondo que tenían los crímenes de la tiranía y la lucha armada insurreccional contra ella, era bien distinta de esa imagen idílica que le han pretendido adjudicar, a la distancia de los años, a la Cuba de los 50: Oleadas de niños en busca de su sustento en la mendicidad, limpiando parabrisas de autos, lustrando zapatos o vendiendo periódicos, tanto en calles y plazas de ciudades como en los campos, donde la miseria era extrema; ancianos y discapacitados viviendo de la caridad pública; largas filas de hombres en busca de trabajo y extendida angustia de miles de mujeres gestionando empleo como sirvientas, o como prostitutas en burdeles o ambulantes. Proliferaban bares y garitos con juegos de apuestas para pobres que se encargaban de extraer de la población humilde hasta el último centavo, abusando de su desesperanza ante las realidades cotidianas. Cuba no era en la época inmediata anterior a la victoria sobre la tiranía batistiana, ni un paraíso ni una excepción respecto a los demás países de América Latina. Hoy sí es una excepción por sus asombrosos resultados en el ejercicio de la independencia plena y la práctica de justicia social, objetivos que el bloqueo y la hostilidad permanente del imperio no han podido impedir, aunque hayan entorpecido y retrasado el logro de otros propósitos irrenunciables del proyecto revolucionario como un mayor desarrollo económico y una democracia más plena. Octubre de 2011.