By Brian Carnell

Tuesday, August 6, 2002

At a recent ceremony to mark the renovation of more than 100 schools in Cuba, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro lashed out at Russia blaming Cuba's economic problems partially on Russia's betrayal of its promises to continue subsidizing the island nation.

The Soviets were believed to be subsidizing Cuba by as much as $4 billion per year, and, prior to the disintegration of the Soviet empire, trade with the Soviet bloc constituted close to 90 percent of Cuban trade.

According to Castro,

I do not try to blame any one leader in particular. It was the fruit of its (Russia's) errors and the painful way in which it lost the ideological battle against the western capitalist and imperialist bourgeoisie, under the standard of the United States . . . Russia, allied with the United States, broke all the accords and betrayed Cuba.

But, of course, the blame lies as much with Castro and the Cuban Communists for rigidly crafting the Cuban economy to be little more than a subsidiary of the Soviet client state. Cuba, for example, geared much agricultural production to producing sugar for export to the USSR (for which the Soviets paid a highly subsidized price).

Similar specialization in oil, pesticides and other areas meant that when the Soviet Union disappeared, so did much of the Cuban economy -- from 1989-1993, Cuban GDP fell by an astounding 40 percent.

Of course, Castro also blamed the U.S. embargo, which is still odd coming from an avowed Marxist-Leninist. In fact, Castro still holds up Cuban socialism as an example of the success of non-market economies. Castro said that despite the Soviet betrayal,

[Cuba] a small country, a few miles from the victorious and hegemonic superpower, decided to fight under the best principles of the socialist ideal. . . . Because of that, when the capitalist world sank into what has become a profound economic and social crisis, our people resist and emerge as a stunning example for the rest of the peoples of the world.

Why, then, would Castro want to risk his socialist economic miracle by engaging in trade with imperialist capitalist nations that would inevitably corrupt his worker's paradise?

Source:

Castro accuses Russia of betrayal. Associated Press, June 30, 2002.

Discuss (8 Replies) | Printer Friendly