Obama Vista Social Club
Family feuds can drag on for decades. We’ve all known siblings who had a big bust-up over something years ago, something nobody can even remember anymore, and still refuse to be in the same room as one another, let alone speak. Families can be unforgiving, whereas friendship can be a little more flexible at healing old wounds and burying the proverbial hatchet. Like America and Cuba. They’re friends again. But were America and Cuba ever really friends as such? Their pre-1959 relationship often seems more like that of pimp and whore, whereas ever since the Bay of Pigs/Missile Crisis era of the early 60s, the US has been akin to a vindictive neighbour who has persuaded the entire street to send Cuba to Coventry.
Cuba fell under American influence following the US triumph in the Spanish-American War of 1898, just one of the conflicts comprising the 222 years America has spent at war with someone out of the 239 years since the 1776 Declaration of Independence. The official US spoils of war in this particular case were buying the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain for $20 million; but with the distance between America and Cuba being a paltry 93 miles – meaning the likes of Florida is far closer to Cuba than it is to Washington – the Caribbean island was viewed as a more useful purchase, and had been by four US Presidents who tried to haggle with Spain to buy it. However, it wasn’t until America offered support for Cuban communist rebel forces seeking to overthrow Spanish rule in 1895-98 that the opportunity arose. Hmmm, the US providing military assistance for revolutionaries attempting to instigate regime change – now, where have I heard that before?
After throwing off the shackles of Spanish colonial rule, Cuba was bound by trade agreements with the US that made 1902 independence disputable; Cuba’s neighbour already had something of a monopoly on its import and export market, but the stipulations laid down by America in the 1903 Platt Amendment enabled the US to effectively control the Cuban economy as well as establishing a naval base at Guantanamo Bay and forcing Cuba to lease land to mine for coal. The nation that vociferously opposed European imperial expansion clearly had no qualms in assembling its own unofficial colonies-cum-satellite states, and for the next half-century, America made the most of its canny purchase and also served to transform Cuba into a prime holiday resort for the rich, leaving the running of its casinos to Mafiosi. Anyone who has seen ‘The Godfather Part II’ will have a fairly vivid impression of America’s relationship with Cuba during this period.
It’s impossible to reflect upon Cuba’s status as the wealthy American’s favourite vacation location without mention of Fulgencio Batista Zaldivar, controller of the Cuban Army, who led a military coup in 1933 that resulted in various puppet presidents with Batista pulling the strings until finally being elected as President of Cuba himself in 1940. One of the first acts of his administration was to issue the 1940 Constitution of Cuba, an act of progressive legislation that established public education and healthcare, land reform and a fixed minimum wage, a gesture that supported the common opinion that Batista was amongst the most democratic of Latin American leaders. Batista was regarded as an ally of the USA, declaring war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor, and indeed lived in the States after losing office in 1944.
Batista served to ruin his reputation when he returned home to run for the Presidency again in 1952. With his gambit appearing certain to backfire, he instigated another military coup, ousted the incumbent President and grabbed the reins of power. From this moment on, Batista introduced a brutal dictatorship that revoked many of the progressive policies outlined in the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and oversaw the considerable widening of the gap between rich and poor, as well as becoming the role model for every dark-skinned actor with a bad Spanish accent portraying the ‘El Presidente’ of a banana republic in at least one episode of all those ITC series produced in the 60s. When the people protested, Batista cracked down on the media and used his unchallenged power to imprison, torture and execute the opposition. Estimates vary wildly as to how many Cubans died under Batista’s dictatorship, with anything from 1,000-20,000 claimed. What is certain, however, is that Batista remained very much America’s friend, despite the cruel and corrupt nature of his regime, perhaps because he had crushed the communist threat on the island as well as awarding lucrative contracts to US companies to exploit and profit from Cuba’s natural resources and giving the Mafia a free hand to run Havana.
The guerrilla uprising led by ex-attorney Fidel Castro had been brewing ever since Batista had seized control in 1952, but it gradually found a receptive audience amongst the grass-roots of poor native Cubans as well as students and intellectuals due to the deteriorating way of life for those beyond Batista’s avaricious elite. As support for the communist rebels spread to the middle-classes and their numbers swelled into increasingly successful fighting forces, Batista’s reprisals were vicious even by his standards. But when the US sensed which way the wind was blowing and withdrew the military support it had provided for Batista during the first couple of years of the revolutionary campaign, the writing was on the wall. Batista fled Cuba on New Year’s Day 1959, flying to the Dominican Republic with a personal fortune of over $300 million.
When Castro’s forces reached the Cuban capital a week later, the Revolution was proclaimed a victory, even (initially) by the US. However, Castro’s revenge on those opposed to his rule mirrored Batista’s tactics, and the blind eye America had employed during the reign of their former friend didn’t apply when the new man in Havana preferred to cosy up to the Soviets. Following the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, a US-sponsored attempt at a coup led by anti-Castro Cuban exiles that a wary President Kennedy had inherited and scaled-down, the USSR were discovered to have placed several nuclear missiles on the island and the rest, as they say, is history. Khrushchev backed down, the world retreated from the precipice of Armageddon, and Cuba entered a period of isolation from the neighbour whose economic sanctions against it dictated a way of life for the vast majority of Cubans that wasn’t promised in the revolutionary manifesto.
Castro’s retirement as President in 2008 saw his brother Raul take over and the slow beginning of negotiations to end half-a-century of hostility with the US. The President of Cuba met the President of the USA last December and Obama announced the dawn of a new relationship. The usual exchange of prisoners was the first gesture, and though there were no clear indications the embargo would finally be lifted, there was an evident if tentative thaw between the two nations that would allow a relaxation of trade. This must be as big a relief to America as it is to Cuba. Much to Uncle Sam’s irritation, the allure of a cultural and economic boycott had long prompted western musicians to immerse themselves in Cuba’s hip music, its classic cars, and the enduring iconic properties of Che Guevara.
The Batista era will not be returning; too many Cubans retain memories of the dictatorship for them to allow America to manipulate the island’s fortunes in quite the same way ever again; and even those who weren’t around in 1952-59 have had these memories handed down to them. Fidel Castro quickly proved to be a pretty accomplished dictator himself, but his obstinate refusal to make peace with the USA as well as his reputation as the man who dethroned a sadistic tyrant has ensured his legend as one of the most remarkable world leaders of the twentieth century. Anyway, there are few ‘good guys’ at the top; the top is not designed with them in mind. I should imagine the number of death warrants bearing the signature of American Presidents, even if by proxy, since 1959 far outweigh those bearing the name of Fidel Castro. Perhaps America and Cuba are kindred spirits after all?
Petunia Winegum
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August 28, 2015 at 9:22 am -
Makes me wonder who “got at” Batista during his exile in the USA and turned a progressive into a tyrant?
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August 28, 2015 at 12:29 pm -
“Anyone who has seen ‘The Godfather Part II’…”
Embarrassingly, these were the images that popped into my head as I read the article; it’s troubling to realise one’s knowledge of history comes almost entirely from film & television. Nevermind though, and here’s another film for those too lazy to pick up a book:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lost-city-2006
It’s a while since I saw it, but remember being quite impressed.-
August 28, 2015 at 7:44 pm -
I think the best way to find out about history is from biographies, autobiographies and collections of letters. Bit by bit, the various characters start to fit together.
Castro is probably as rich as Batista was.
Whereas in Britain we have a minimum wage, in Cuba they have a maximum wage, which I think is $30 per month for professionals and $20 for workers.
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August 28, 2015 at 2:16 pm -
If anyone is curious, Marc Frank’s book about Cuba’s recent years (up to just before the recent improvement in relations with the US) is very good.
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August 28, 2015 at 2:53 pm -
“I should imagine the number of death warrants bearing the signature of American Presidents, even if by proxy, since 1959 far outweigh those bearing the name of Fidel Castro.” So should I. The population of the United States is about 30 times that of Cuba. The sniping at the States makes this little history lesson tediously predictable.
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August 28, 2015 at 4:32 pm -
You could imagine a parallel universe where Britain had fallen out with the Isle of Man 50+ years ago, tried to invade at the Bay of Peel but failed, although still maintained a tenuous foothold at Laxley Bay, which proved awfully convenient to use with prisoners whom Britain’s leaders thought deserved a birch-flogging on that big wheel, a flogging which could not now be legally delivered on the mainland.
During this time, the rebel Isle of Man was sustained by supplies from the Republic of Ireland, grasping the opportunity to stick one to its own old colonial oppressor, replacing supplies of modern lagers and other trendy brews with old Guinness barrels which were somehow kept flowing throughout all the years of blockade by creative coopers using parts from other containers to maintain them.
Its ‘sleeper agents’ on the mainland, cunningly disguised as motor-cycle enthusiasts, would gather on the island annually under the pretence of a week-long race meeting, to receive updated missions from their spy-masters (T & T) before returning to create bloodshed and mayhem on all the country lanes of Britain to keep the authorities busy sweeping up.Eventually someone decided that this was all historical nonsense but, recognising the need to save face all round, set about an extended period of managed normalisation, during which time first the postal services, then phones, then ferries, then flights would be progressively re-introduced, at which point those many Manx refugees who had swum or rowed over to the mainland under cover of frightful fog over the years could finally be reunited with their families half-way across the Irish Sea.
Later in the process, imports and exports would be permitted, enabling Poundland, Ann Summers and Doner-Kebabs-R-Us to show the under-developed islanders the delights they had been missing for a generation or two, while the Manxmen themselves would then be able to resume their traditional production of tourist trinkets bearing a bizarre symbol with an odd number of legs, a trait commonly recognised by those over-indulging in all that barrel-matured Guinness.
The motor-cyling agents were all instructed to have a good wash & shave at last, bathe in Swarfega for a day or two, go cold turkey on wearing leather, then forget everything they had done for the past 50 years, a process much aided by their stock of wacky-baccy – if questioned, they were only obliged under the Geneva Convention to give bike model, registration number and cubic capacity.
And they all lived happily ever after.-
August 28, 2015 at 4:52 pm -
I think you might be onto something there…
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August 28, 2015 at 6:06 pm -
Oddly enough, there are other parallels. Both the Isle of Man and Cuba have not updated their railways for many years (since about 1900 in the Isle of Man’s case). I’m not sure how good a reputation Manx cigars have, though.
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August 28, 2015 at 8:11 pm -
‘Rolled on the silky-soft inner thigh of a dusky daughter of Douglas’ – just doesn’t seem to have quite the same attraction in some ways.
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August 28, 2015 at 4:45 pm -
A treatise on Cuba that never explores the actions and life-styles of thug dictators Castro and Guevara-how quaint and predictable.
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August 28, 2015 at 4:51 pm -
How do you long do you want it to go on for? This is a summary of the US/Cuba relationship and not one in which Castro is hailed as a heroic figure anymore than the American Presidents who came and went during his tenure in office. I refer to him as a ‘Pretty nifty dictator’ and also point out his reprisals against his enemies were as vicious as those Batista used when he seized power.
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August 28, 2015 at 7:49 pm -
There have been many worse dictators than Castro. Dictatorships and absolute monarchies are still a Bad Thing.
The Cubans are lucky not to be ruled by Che Guevara.
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August 28, 2015 at 10:43 pm -
Petunia, you as the editor decide the length and tone of the articles.
I just point out that you have the room to describe Batista in unflattering (perhaps deserved) prose at great length, such as “sadistic tyrant”, “brutal” and “Batista cracked down on the media and used his unchallenged power to imprison, torture and execute the opposition” while ignoring the real sadist Che Guevara and remain completely silent on Castro’s human rights abuses, excessively luxurious lifestyle and equally egregious suppression of dissent and media commentary. Meanwhile the Cuban peasants starve and subsist in hovels with rationed electricity, and rely on foreign tourists for basic pharmaceuticals because they are unavailable in Castro’s socialist “paradise”.
Unbalanced does not begin to describe your article. Again, you are the editor and if you are comfortable with that, so be it.
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August 29, 2015 at 1:16 am -
Petunia, we obviously see Castro from two very different viewpoints. As we have witnessed in Zimbabwe and now Venezuela sensible people get on with their lives despite despotic rule, (the fact they are disarmed helps-but there I go again) therefore I do not view Castro or his governance as remarkable, similarly I do not regard recent US leadership as anywhere close to remarkable. The detente the two sides are agreed to is a disaster in my opinion.
Your willingness to allow dissension makes this blog stand out, it’s what makes this meeting place worthwhile and interesting. Keep up the good work.
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