Cuba Celebrates Castro’s 100th Birthday

The Communist Party of Cuba recently celebrated the 100th birthday of Fidel Castro, who was born August 13, 1926, and died in 2016. Festivities included ballet performances, poetry, and academic papers. Communists from around the world came to garbage-strewn Havana to join in the festivities and discussions on “Castro Thought.” 

The Cuban people have nothing to celebrate. The electric grid barely functions, with blackouts occurring regularly. Garbage piles up in the streets because of fuel shortages; food, water, and medicine are in short supply. The economy is in shambles, with foreign capital and tourists fleeing.

Cuba’s economy was supported by handouts from the Soviet Union, China, Mexico, and Venezuela. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba survived on over 8 billion dollars in loans from China and cheap oil from Mexico and Venezuela. Now that most of the outside financial support is gone, Cuba’s economic woes have been exacerbated.

Below-market oil pricing from Mexico has been reduced due to pressure from President Trump on Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum. The US removal of Maduro as Venezuelan leader, followed by US influence on the Venezuelan government, has eliminated subsidized oil to Cuba. China has reduced loans and aid to Cuba while Russian support is greatly diminished.

The Marxist left blames the US for Cuba’s economic poverty rather than blaming communism for stifling prosperity and people’s spirits. The US embargo on Cuba does not include food or medicine. The world is free to trade with Cuba, but because it has no money to pay for goods, few countries or companies want to sell on credit. Jailing and killing dissidents, no personal freedoms, and having no property rights don’t help a nation’s well-being.

Over one million Cubans fled the island between 2022 and 2023, representing 10 percent of the population. Other than a few criminals fleeing US justice, no one flees to Cuba. One measure of a country’s happiness is the net change in immigration. Cuba fails this measurement, whereas the US wins with millions trying to enter.

National Security Implications to the US

Cuba is a national security threat to the United States. Not because of a powerful military, but rather because:

• Cuba allows Communist China to build spy facilities to collect electronic intelligence on over 18 US military installations in Florida, including space activities at Cape Canaveral. 
• The Cuban intelligence service is formidable. Referred to as the General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI), it has successfully recruited and maintained spies against the US:
  • • • Manuel Rocha, former US ambassador to Bolivia, admitted to spying for Cuba for 40 years. 
      • Philip Agee, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, published a book listing hundreds of CIA officers. He spied for 15 years.
      • Ana Montes, a senior analyst on the Cuba desk for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was a spy for 17 years. She was recently released from a US prison after serving 20 years and has returned to her native Puerto Rico.
      • Kendall and Gwendolyn Meyers worked at the US State Department as spies for Cuba for 30 years. It was only after retirement that they were arrested and jailed.

•  Influence operations include recruiting Karen Bass, current mayor of Los Angeles.  In 1973, Bass traveled to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, a radical-left activist group that organizes trips for communist sympathizers to demonstrate support for the Cuban government and opposition to US government policies. With Castro’s passing, Bass said it was a “great loss to the people of Cuba.”

Summary    

The Communist Party has lost the support of the Cuban people after over 60 years of socialist rule that has led to economic poverty, spiritual poverty, and poverty of freedom. 

Cuba’s alliances with America’s adversaries make the regime a national security threat to the US.

Change is coming to Cuba. The Trump administration, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has made it clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has said that Cuba is on an “irreversible path towards a different future” and that “Trump will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms – none of which are afforded to its people.” New sanctions have been placed on Cuban leaders and entities.

Despite the dystopia that is socialist Cuba, true believers of communism/socialism want to fundamentally change America into another Cuba. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) advocate the same agenda of free food, free medicine, free transportation, and free housing, which leads to a society where everyone, except the elite, is equally deprived and impoverished. Eventually, socialism fails when it runs out of other people’s money.

Action 

1. Increase gray zone (non-kinetic) actions against the Cuban regime.
2. Utilize the Cuban diaspora in creating resistance.
3. Continue efforts to build up the US military and industrial base.
4. Promote Radio Marti and social media against the Cuban regime.

Light one candle rather than curse the darkness.

Peace Through Strength!