A new humanity?
By: Luis Beltrán Guerra - 06/11/2024
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On March 19, 2021, we wrote about a world permeated with chapters of the most varied nature, including those concerning Fidel Castro, the one from the so-called Cuban Revolution, described as “mentally disturbed.” According to some, “alive and awake to understand things and act accordingly,” which is why he took advantage of the flight of the dictator Fulgencio Batista encouraged by popular arrogance. And “the tall bearded man” took power absolutely. And until his death.
A few days ago, and 3 years and 7 months later, we had the fruitful opportunity to attend the Forum “Consequences of the Occupation of Venezuela by Cuba” promoted by the Interamerican Institute for Democracy, founded on the initiative of the prominent Bolivian politician Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, of whose board I am proud to be a member. The presentations, moreover, were important, by the Venezuelans Henrique Salas-Romer, presidential candidate against Hugo Chávez, the latter described as “the most obedient disciple of F. Castro” and the Christian Democrat deputy Paciano Padrón. In attendance were Jorge Castañeda, from Mexico and Princeton University, Ricardo Israel, from Chile, where he was a presidential candidate and the prominent Cuban journalist Ileana Labastida, director with care of the Diario de las Américas. The moderator Beatrice Rangel, a mixture of thoughtfulness, nobility, courage and wisdom. Minister in the second government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who was overthrown by a "Continued" Coup de État, since the military uprising strengthened, through the popular vote, as the events demonstrated, the presidency of Hugo Chávez, who assumed the rank of "Commander" like Fidel, becoming a civil leader.
On this occasion, the person writing these notes was not a “speaker” at the IID, which allowed us to listen more carefully to the careful presentations. The conviction of the speakers led us to ask ourselves if we had been humble on that occasion in our analysis of Fidel Castro. A serious contrast with the presentations at the IID, through which it was denounced that “the dictator of the Caribbean” proposed to arbitrate “a disciplined strategy” directed, practically, at the creation of “a new humanity,” turning Cuba into a kind of platform so that the governments of Russia, China, Korea, Iran and a few others could minimize the exclusive influence of the United States in “the Americas,” which possess abundant wealth, particularly raw materials that both the United States and the new invaders demand. Today we wonder if Castro even considered a “third world war.” Some deny it, but others affirm it. And there are those who think that the next US government, Republican or Democrat, would be forced to analyze the situation more seriously than it has done so far. The Venezuelans have been the most demanding, since Caracas is included in the triangulation that the very particular commander of Cuba worked for. And the political crisis that it faces after the recent presidential elections will strengthen its demands on the "Giant of the North."
The Forum led us, without a doubt, to recall the remarks of our 2021 essay, including: 1. The opinion of Carlos Alberto Montaner, for whom Cuba in the “pre-Castro era”, the country ranked 22nd in terms of health, ahead of Holland, France, the United Kingdom and Finland. In the economy, a respectable development alongside the Argentines, Uruguayans, Chileans and Venezuelans. All this and much more was ended by “the insurgents”, 2. The inventiveness of the “Commander” was also “sui generis”, for having no link whatsoever with an electoral process. It was a “guerrilla war,” similar, at least in its beginnings, to that of Colombia, and which, in order to survive, ended up, in the South American country, manipulating drug trafficking, 3. The “white paste” did not apparently contaminate “the bearded ones” in the Sierra Maestra, but it did submerge the “revolutionary government” in it, since sustaining a political regime demands a lot of money, 4. For some, the island is immersed in the categorization of a “Criminal State,” hand in hand with countries from near and distant latitudes, 5. We also note that Loris Zanata, professor at the University of Bologna, relates that Pope Francis, during his visit to the Commander, gave him “the sermons and reflections of Armando Llorente,” a Spanish Jesuit tutor at the school where the guerrilla was trained, so that he could reconcile himself with his religious past. The reaction attributed to Fidel “We must repress man to save him” and 6. The Commander, for the historian, believed he had received “the creative breath of the “new man”, who by applying “revolutionary discipline” would achieve a classless society. And for this, the redemption of the people chosen by “the messiah, leader and savior”. Someone would interpret, we could affirm, that given the recognized ability of the “bearded man”, even to get through the eye of a needle, Francisco, did not enlighten, nor convince the Commander. On the contrary, he did not convince the representative of God. In those best years, the “superb commander”, it must be recognized, injected into a crowd “the revolutionary euphoria” a flag today questionable by the principles that in the opinion of Salvador Gines, professor of sociology at the University of Barcelona, inform “the moral constitution” in contemporary societies.
Fidel lived amidst the ambivalence of those who considered him a criminal and of others who, out of admiration for him, wanted to lead him down the path of democracy. But his stubborn conviction ended up prevailing. And perhaps, even his death. The reason must have been, one might ask, that the social inequality that he supposedly fought, gained him followers. In the Preamble of the 1919 Constitution itself there are definitions to characterize the regime and who Fidel Castro was and his legacy, among others, “for those who fought against the exploitation imposed by capitalists and landowners,” “for those who spread socialist ideas and founded the first revolutionary, Marxist and Leninist movements,” “for those who led us to the popular revolutionary victory of 1959.” There should be no one who doubts that this “Preamble” was written by “the bearded leader” and addressed, perhaps, even personally, to the constituent assembly. But, in addition, with the mention “It goes without amendment”, referring as we know to “guarantee of authentic normality”. And, of course, to the power of the “bearded one”. Today and for some time now, as the Chilean writer Jorge Edwards argues, Cuba is submerged in despair amidst the indifference of the rest of the nations. And those who supported the revolution look elsewhere, as if to say “We are not guilty”. “This is how we behave” is already provoking shouting at the top of one’s lungs. An attempt at revolution became a methodology, in the opinion of those involved in the IID, in order to revive political structures that would lead to the creation of a block of countries led by governments attracted by outdated ideas. And today it is what feeds the political regimes that in one way or another hold power and exercise it by distancing themselves from the patterns of the democratic world. It is a radical change for democracy, typified as that political regime that has its source in the freely exercised popular will. Conditioning that is not even close to the regime in Havana and those under whose methodology they exist today. The Castro route seems to lack much for a “new humanity.” It does not seem to be a feat like that of Nazi Germany, which put an end to democracy in Germany, succumbing to the shameful criminality that history reveals to us. For a few, however, Fidel and Hitler are comparable.
In the opinion of this writer, a great truth cannot be hidden and that is what fuels the struggle of the people for less inequality. The world is showing a reality today and it is passed on by governments selected in limited circles, whose assistants are linked by ties, in some cases, ideological, but in others, personal and selfish. Among them, those of China and Russia and from which the Cuba that Castro left us seems to have been inspired. At least in relation to the election of governors, it has similarities. In competition with the countries that have embraced democracies, which must become efficient in order to hold on to the flag that the debt to humanity itself has begun to be paid. It is inevitable, because it is inherent to the rationality of man.
Will we live the new humanity?
God willing, yes.
Comments welcome.
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