University of Virginia Library

On Castro Regime

I wish to make some remarks in
reference to the comments of M. C.
Gaarder concerning my letter of
Feb. 18.

From Mr. Gaarder's letter it
seems to me that he admits that the
Castro Regime is a murderous
tyranny. I certainly do not have
any thing to add to that admission,
but there are a couple of statements
in his letter about which I do have
something to say. One is that in my
letter I suggest that Cuba was better
off before Communism "which",
says Mr. Gaarder, "is simply not the
case". For one thing, I do not
suggest that Cuba was better off
before Communism. I state that
emphatically. On the other hand, I
don't see how any body can be
better off under a regime that,
according to Mr. Gaarder's own
admission, is a murderous tyranny.
Even if we refer only to the
economic situation, without
considering anything else, my
statement is still true.

I do not know how Mr. Gaarder
reaches the conclusion that the
Cuban people are better off today,
because he doesn't say. I know that
they are not better off because I
was there, before and after the
establishment of Communism. I
said that Cuba was one of the most
prosperous countries of Latin
American and I can back it up.
According to a comprehensive scale
of the socio-economic progress of
Latin America countries in the
fifties, prepared by Roger
Vekemans, and J.L.Segunda. Cuba
ranked fourth after Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile. According to a
similar although more limited scale
prepared by the Economic
Commission for Latin America of
the United Nations, Cuba ranked
third after Argentina and Chile.
Today practically everything is
rationed in Cuba. I don't think that
this is the place to go into details,
but it should be enough to say that,
since 1969, even sugar is rationed.
In his speech of July 26, 1970.
Fidel admitted what everybody
already knew - everybody who has
some idea of what is happening in
Cuba: that the sugar crop was a
failure, that the whole economy is a
big mess, nd that there is no hope
for improvement in the near future.

The other statement that I want
to comment concerns the relations
between Cuba and the United
States. It is true, as Mr. Gaarder
says that it was the Eisenhower
Administration who broke
diplomatic relations with the Castro
Regime and not the other way
around, and I certainly have never
said otherwise, but it is also true
that it was the Castro Regime who
initiated and consistently pursued a
course of action intent on changing
the country into a totalitarian state
dependent on the Soviet Union. On
several occasions I have heard or
read that Fidel was practically
forced towards Communism and
into the hands of the Soviet Union
by the antagonism of the United
States.

I am not sure if this is what Mr.
Gaarder implies in his letter, but I
want to take advantage of this
opportunity to dispel any doubts in
this respect. Fidel Castro denied
that he was a Communist before
and after seizing power, he stated
that accusing him of being a
Communist was a
"counter-revolutionary slander",
and when in 1959 Major Hubert
Matos, who had distinguished
himself in the fight against Batista,
resigned as military commander of
Camaguey Province, charging that
there was Communist infiltration in
the government. Castro had him
arrested, the prosecution asked for
the death penalty, and Matos was
finally sentenced to twenty years in
jail, where he still is. However,
when Castro felt that his position
was secure, on December 22, 1961,
after almost three years in power,
he admitted that he had been a
Marxist-Leninist all the time, that
he had intentionally concealed his
political ideology, and that he had
lied for "revolutionary
opportunism."

I realize how extremely difficult
it is for any one living in an open
free society, even to imagine what a
totalitarian Communist tyranny is.
Perhaps it can only be fully realized
through a personal experience,
Unfortunately, I know.