Castro feels that international organizations, like the United Nations, are ineffective because they give sole power to the powerful states, such as the United States. In a speech addressing the United Nations in 1995 he conveys his opinion, “The anachronistic privilege of the veto and the abuse of the Security Council by the powerful nations enshrine a new form of colonialism within the United Nations… How long do we have to wait before the democratization of the United Nations, the independence and sovereign equality of states, nonintervention in their internal affairs and genuine international cooperation are made a reality?”(Crossroads125). There is a lot of strain between the UN and Cuba on the issue of human rights. Castro feels that the UN should not interfere with the autonomy of his country, often sighting statistics of how living conditions have improved dramatically, and denying any allegations of human right breaches. While the UN, under pressure from the United States, holds an economic strain of an embargo over Cuba, justified by Castro’s violation of human rights.
Castro advocates for human rights that aid his economic, political, and social policies, not on the basis that every human being deserves basic rights. In the early 1960s he formed the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), appointing his brothers wife as leader, with the goal of promoting equality among sexes and changing women’s traditional roles. Castro had different motives for endorsing these rights. In his valiant military effort to defend Cuba against the United States he had moved the majority of the work force into the trenches. The troop mobilization was creating serious consequences for the country’s economy; work on many government construction programs had been held up by the absence of workers on military duty. Castro saw the Cuban women as an untapped labor resource, and made equal opportunity in the workforce their prime platform. The women of Cuba embraced the movement, and filled the men’s shoes. With hindsight, it is apparent that no laws were passed to ensure women’s rights, and the mentally regarding women’s roles did not change. In fact women now were required to work, and take care of the family, without any extra support from the government or their men.
The educational reforms have had considerable success in promoting social mobility and weaken class lines by granting lower class children educational opportunity. Private schools, which were educationally superior to public schools and which were attended by upper-class children, were abolished. All education was made free, and Castro had provided a large number of scholarships. The leaps in education, and success in defeating illiteracy is perhaps, Castro’s greatest triumph regarding human rights. There is one exception made on the grounds of ‘free and accessible education to all;’ people who oppose the government, counterrevolutionaries, are not permitted education. They are in fact thrown in jail, forced to work on communal farms, and brainwashed into conformity (Lockwood). In the end, what it comes down to is, if you’re with Castro you have rights.
Castro’s main criticism is the abuse of human rights in Cuba. During his tenure, he has imprisoned and persecuted homosexuals, political dissidents, intellectuals, artists, and even former friends. The 1989 execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez, a celebrated war hero in the Sierra and Angola, was one of many former comrades targeted by Castro. Ochoa and three high-ranking officers were accused of drug smuggling, but it is believed that Castro feared that they would betray him. After a group of dissidents, the Democratic Solidarity Party, signed a letter in 1992 calling for economic and political reform, many of the signers lost their jobs. "Here no one can go against the government," a Cuban told U.S. World & News Report in 1994.
Section II: Psychology:
Castro is a leader in search of power, power justified by an ideology, and an ideology supported by a movement. Castro has set steadfast goals for his country, but has changed his ideological backings many times justify his action in obtaining them.
Fidel Castro has an extreme desire for knowledge and displayed it from a young age. Castro grew up in a moderately wealthy family who owned a sugar plantation. As a boy, Castro worked in the sugar cane fields on his father’s estate. His scantily educated parents had no intention of sending him to school, but he was determined to obtain an education. At the age of six his godfather persuaded his parents to let Fidel stay with him, and attend a Jesuit boarding institution. He moved on to attend high school, where he excelled, “I was leaving the dining hall when my inspector said to me ‘Do you know what grade you achieved in physics?’ Castro replied “No.” He said “One hundred! You are the top pupil.” (P.76Castro, Early Years) Castro then enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Havana, where he became president of the militant University Students Federation. His professor’s appraised Castro, “We have no doubt that he will make a brilliant name for himself. Fidel has what it takes and will make something of himself.”
Despite his extreme intellect and academic success Castro is unselfconfident in his intelligence in comparison with other world leaders. This insecurity roots back to his childhood. At school he felt financially inadequate to his pupils, and was astutely aware of his positioning in the social division. His overachievement in school is an extreme compensation, which stems from the fear of inadequacy. This intellectual insecurity effects decisions in Castro’s political life. Castro mistrusts those who are more highly educated, polished, and worldly then him. This is reflected in his cabinet appointees, all of which have been intellectual inferiors. To keep himself ahead of the game Castro reads widely and makes himself an expert on everything from military strategy to animal husbandry (Quirk 352). He lectures soldiers on military matters, schoolteachers on education, physicians on medicine, agronomists on plant cultivation, the list continues on and on.
Castro’s debut as a professional politician was made in the Cuban People’s Party (Ortodoxos), which avidly supported the constitution of 1940. Castro gained popular support by reinforcing the primary concepts of democratic-reform movements; that is, nationalism, agrarian reform, industrialization, and social welfare, freedom of the press and speech, and massive public education. Castro ran for the House of Representatives on the Ortodoxo ticket in 1952, but before the elections, General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the government of President Carlos Prío Socarrás of that year. Castro, a sworn enemy of Batista, began to organize a mass movement for political and social change, and hence the Cuban revolution was started. His followers were sugar cane workers, mountain farmers, intellectuals, students, and labor organizers. By 1953, an estimated 1,200 men and women called themselves "Fidelistas," pledging absolute loyalty to their leader. The guerillas made several unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the government, but in late 1958 the tide turned in Castro’s favor. On December 31, 1958, Batista fled Cuba and Castro began the 600-mile trip to Havana, leading a parade of tanks, armored cars, buses and army trucks, taking over every army barracks. A helicopter brought Castro into Havana, where crowds shouted "Viva Fidel!" threw confetti, and waved revolutionary banners (Castro My Early Years).
There is another side to the Castro coin: he is a political opportunist who has a firm will and extraordinary ambition to win and keep power. Despite his insistence that he sought to restore the constitutional government to Cuba, he resisted every attempt to broaden the base of leadership and power, while denying at the same time any self-political ambitions. When opposition groups sought to gain strength through unification, Castro refused to join the coalition government until his own troops comprised the armed forces of Cuba and he had the dominant position in the new government. Six weeks after Castro’s take over the Fundamental Law was decreed effectively disenabling the elective system of the Constitution, shut down newspapers, and imprisoned people who opposed him (counterrevolutionaries). He vested all power of the government to the Council of Ministers, which he appointed, and had the power to remove. Castro appeased the people by claims of a direct democracy in which the policies of his regime would come from a constant meeting with the people. In practice the meetings have become massive rallies in which Castro announces government policies. By the end of his first two years in power, Castro had abandoned the basic concepts of democratic action which had characterized the Cuban reform movement in its earlier stages and which had been pledged by Castro during his rise to power.
Castro was able to keep and expand on his power, despite his shift in ideology, through his charisma. Castro found that he could rely primarily on his great personal popularity and his talent with the spoken word to maintain his dominance over the government. Castro could empathize with the poor and middle class people; he too had grown up in an underprivileged rural area, and knew and spoke of the hardships they were going through. This earned him the respect of the population, to the degree where he never had to question support when enacting a new policy. His policies focused on short-term goals with immediate effects, because Castro knew instant gratification is what the people needed and wanted. Castro had an omniscient view of the political game, and could move his pieces tactfully to be content in the present and thrive in the future.
Although Castro did not use democratic processes, the changes he made showed his eagerness to better Cuba and provide for the less fortunate. Before the Cuban Revolution 600,000 people were unemployed, half of the population had no electricity, and thirty seven percent of the population was illiterate (30 Goodsell). Castro had not abandoned the goals of the democratic movement, just the way of achieving them. Major steps had been taken in land reform and social welfare. An agrarian law adopted in May 1959 established a National Institute of Agrarian Reform, of which Castro became chairman. First, limitations were placed on the amount of land any individual or corporation could own and limited foreign ownership. The reform did not divide the majority of the land among landless farmers because, “that kind of agrarian reform, would have mortgaged the agricultural future of our country… and land would not be used in the most practical way” (96 Lockwood). Castro thought organizing cooperatives; large enterprises of cooperative farming would be most efficient. Through these communal farms machinery, irrigation, fertilization, and technology could be utilized on a large scale. Castro avoided the complexity of democratic self-sufficient policies, by channeling all changes through the government. By adhering to communism ideology, government controls everything and distributes everything equally, Castro empowered himself, hence breaking down the situation in to a simple model where he is the sole dictator of what happens. Castro craves certainty and predictability in his government and his people; and the only way for him to achieve that is have complete power.
Section III: Political Style:
Meanwhile, relations between Cuba and the United States were deteriorating, largely as a result of the Castro government's expropriation of American-owned properties for what was considered inadequate compensation. As a result of Castro's communist agenda, relations between the United States and Cuba soon deteriorated. On January 29,1960 Castro appropriated three U.S. oil refineries, and then began to import crude oil from the Soviet Union. Within months, he nationalized all U.S. properties in Cuba, including sugar mills, oil refineries, and utilities. An agreement between Cuba and the Soviet Union, providing for the purchase of Russian oil by Cuba and of Cuban sugar by the U.S.S.R., was signed between the two nations in February 1960 (Gale research). A few months later the United States sharply reduced the quota for sugar imports from Cuba. On his visit to New York City in September 1960 for the fifteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly Castro had a friendly meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, and in his address to the General Assembly he attacked United States policies toward Cuba. After the Castro government had seized virtually all United States-owned properties and had reached additional agreements with Communist nations, the United States government on January 3, 1961 broke diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Castro realized the rising tension with the United States, and announced his plan of island wide network of vigilantes during a September speech. The plan came without prior warning, in this instance, as in other, he had not discussed the matter with any member of his cabinet. In the middle of one of his long speeches, he was seized by the defense idea, and announced it to the public, as if it has been in the planning for months. His spontaneous reaction led directly to the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which actually proved to be one of the most potent weapons for dealing with rebel activity in Cuba. The committees performed many useful functions. They organized health and education campaigns, served as liaisons for public problems, brought to the attention of the authorities local problems that required government action. Their principal function was to serve as agents of surveillance for the revolutionary regime. They dealt specifically with spies, enemies of the government, and counterrevolutionaries.
During the presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon, Castro was particularly vocal and unrestrained with his comments. He had initiated a campaign of abusiveness aimed at the Eisenhower administration and the candidates. His epithets were repeated and enlarged upon by the Cuban press and in government radio and television. He threw sophomoric names at each politician, and said Cuba’s only fitting reply to American threats would be “an eloquent, sonorous, and loud fart.” (Quirk 348) This comment shows that Fidel does have a lighter side, that heirs on immaturity. But, more importantly, this line of action shows how unrestrained Castro is. He is free to make military decisions on a whim, without consultations, he is free to call nicknames, without warning or reprimanding that it may heighten the tension between America and Cuba. Castro is somewhat of a lose cannon, acting under only his own jurisdiction.
The first mobilization of 1961 was one of the most important steps in the escalation; it was a chance for Castro to show off their accumulation of armaments they had received from Europe. The crowd was apathetic during the first hour of his speech, but cheered wildly each time he enumerated the enemies of his revolution. Castro, enthralled by the crowd’s response, impulsively turned on the United States. He accused a group of CIA men of directing a campaign of terrorism on the island. He announced that his government would order all American embassy and consular officials to leave the country within forty-eight hours. This action was not premeditated, but Castro claimed, an implicit action from the desire of the people, that he had established while speaking. Castro accused over eighty Americans as spies and proceeded to yell, “Kick them out!” (Quirk 354) Castro also announced new and more stringent laws against enemies of the state, in acting the death penalty. This yet another example of Castro’s quick decisive decisions making process. This action demonstrates that Castro does make his decision independently, but sincerely wants them to embody the will of the people. The will of Castro and the will of the Cuban people become some entangled in one another, because of their avid support for their leader. It is nearly impossible to draw the line in whether Castro shapes public opinion or public opinion shapes Castro’s actions. Does this in separation make a good leader?
Castro does not practice accountable, democratic processes, but he respects leaders who do. In Kennedy’s speech regarding Cuba and the cold war he talked earnestly about the ‘quest for peace,’ and the need to unite rather than to divide. He stood ready to resume negotiations with the Soviet Union. Castro was impressed by Kennedy’s words, and that night he told a crowd of militiamen to leave the trenches, and return to their homes and work places. Castro accepted the president’s words, and stated that the Cubans would too begin a new. The willingness of Castro to accept, respect, and trust the newly elected presidents words is quite impressive. He had the ability to look past the hostility with Eisenhower administration, the tension with the cold war, and opposing ideologies, and was able to build a foundation of trust. This made the Bay of Pigs, even thought Fidel anticipated it, more of a stab in the back by the Americans.
On April 17, 1961 a force of some 1,300 Cuban exiles under the unofficial auspices of the United States Central Intelligence Agency launched an invasion attempt at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on Cuba's southern coast. After the invaders were defeated and most of them taken prisoner, Castro declared triumphantly that the revolution had "destroyed ... the army organized during many months by the imperialist Government of the United States." Castro's victory over what he has called the "foreign mercenary invasion forces" enhanced his stature in his own country and at the same time drew him closer to the Communist world.
Conclusion:
Fidel Castro is a Marxist-Leninist whose style conforms neither to the Soviet or the Chinese model of Communism, the Cuban premier personifies the revolution that overthrow the dictator in 1959 and brought about the establishment of the first Communist bloc nation in the Western hemisphere. A lawyer who started out with liberal and democratic political convictions, Castro won the loyalty of his countermen during the long struggle that led to his rise to power. His strength as a leader has maintained the support of his country through his own personal ideological changes. His finesse as a politician has dramatically improved the standard of living and education in Cuba. Under Castro Cuba has weathered grave international crises, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis, and still holds strong. The charismatic speaker, the leader, the revolutionary, still holds the fire he did as youth. This is demonstrated through his continual efforts to expand Communism through Latin America, even without Soviet help. Castro has for the past fifty years, and continues to demonstrate his leadership abilities, by remaining in power through majority support of the people.
