Daily News Editorial

The incomparable revolutionary

28 November 2016

With the possible exception of South African icon Nelson Mandela, no other leader in living memory has made such a lasting impression on his country and the world than Fidel Castro Ruz, the Cuban revolutionary who died in Havana on Friday night. “El Comandante” Fidel was a towering figure who dominated news headlines for much of the 20th Century and polarized public opinion throughout the world. To many in Cuba, Latin America and elsewhere, he was a saviour who liberated the Cuban people from the tyranny of the Fulgencio Batista region. To others, especially Cuban exiles and many leaders in the US, he was a dictator who kept his people in the iron grip of communism. But they all agree on one thing – Fidel Castro was simply incomparable.

Fidel, who once said that “destiny produces the man of the hour”, ascended to power in a popular revolt led by him that ousted the Batista regime in 1959. He never looked back for the next 49 years – 10 Presidents would rule the US by the time he ceded power to his younger brother Raul in 2008. During the same period, he would also survive hundreds of assassination attempts engineered by the US intelligence community and Cuban exiles.

Fidel’s life was very eventful to say the least - he defeated the invasion at the Bay of Pigs; sparked off the Cuban Missile Crisis which was eventually resolved at the last minute; inspired several Marxist insurgencies in Latin America and Africa; dispatched Cubans to fight South African troops in Angola which helped weaken the apartheid regime; survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and kept Cuba’s communist system intact for another quarter century. He held sway over Cuba and remained extremely popular at home despite the crippling sanctions imposed by the US that retarded economic growth. Incidentally, no other country, not even the staunchest allies of the US, supported these sanctions. He however lived long enough to see the restoration of full diplomatic ties between the two nations that are only around 150 Km apart and a State Visit by a sitting US President. Most of the sanctions still remain, though commercial passenger flights between the US and Cuba began recently. US President-elect Donald Trump has been a harsh critic of Fidel and it is not very clear what is in store for US-Cuba relations in the future.

It is easy to think of his enmity with the US as the centrepoint of his administration, but his enduring legacy was actually his intense focus on health and education. To this day, Cuba is one of the few developing countries that has excellent health and education indices across the board that can match, if not surpass, the relevant statistics of the Western world. Even when Cuba received the double blow of the withdrawal of Soviet support upon its breakup in the 1990 and crippling US sanctions, he somehow managed to foster these two sectors amidst great difficulties. Perhaps the only other developing country that can match this “free education and healthcare for life” promise is Sri Lanka itself.

Fidel, who remained true to his statement that he would be a Marxist-Leninist until his last breath, defended the Cuban Revolution of 1959 at every turn. “Within the Revolution, everything; outside the Revolution, nothing”, he once said. He described communism as “a great step forward in the fight against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.” Even as Communist states such as China, Russia and Vietnam more or less embraced a market economy, Fidel firmly believed in the ideals of communism. His political vision inspired many other Latin American leaders including Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador to follow a similar path.

Brother Raul has chosen a more middle of the road option, opening up more avenues for private enterprises and engaging in other economic and social reforms. While Fidel’s vision will always be the bedrock of his brother’s plans for Cuba, there is the distinct possibility of more reforms being introduced in every sector. His final hurdle will be working towards a lifting of US sanctions, but this also depends to a great extent on the policy direction of Washington’s new administration from January 2017.

Cuba will forever be associated with the Castros – both Fidel and Raul – but just two years from now, someone who is not from the days of Revolution will be at the helm. Miguel Diaz-Canel, the man named as Raul’s successor was born one year after the two brothers emerged from the Sierra Maestra Mountains near Santiago de Cuba to lead a rebellion that changed the face of Cuba. But whoever comes to the seat of power in Havana, it will be impossible to ignore the legacy of the man who almost single handedly steered Cuba amidst turbulent waters of the Florida Straits for nearly 50 years. In the words of his younger brother Raul, it will be a case of “hasta la victoria siempre” (Ever onward to victory)”.