Castro Retires: Monterey Professors Discuss Cuba’s Future 

Johanna Estrella, Staff Reporter

johanna_estrella@csumb.edu

April 13, 2008

Although predicted by his deteriorating health and age, the resignation to the presidency on Monday. Feb. 18, by Fidel Castro, president of Cuba sent the media straight to Miami to capture the reactions of many anti-Castro Cubans. 

Sandy Acosta Cox, director of media relations and development of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) is first generation Cuban American, who has never visited the island, but has numerous family members in Cuba. She explained that, they (CANF), do not believe there will be any changes for the future of the island, since the presidency has gone from one Castro to another Castro, and Castro to them means dictator. 

Acosta Cox hopes Cuba realizes that there have been no changes with Raul, Fidel's younger brother and successor. It’s only artificial changes, said Acosta Cox. She went saying, Cuba continues to be restricted, and the government still determines everything. “The Cuba that was revolutionized is not the Cuba, Cubans deserve. Cuba has fallen prisoner of its regime."

While many people celebrated, others sighed in disbelief and mourned over his departure of the presidency. Cuba is a multi-sided story.

Dr. John Berteaux, assistant professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy Pre Law & Peace Studies at CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB) described his 10-15 day visit to Havana in 2002. The biggest impact he experienced while visiting Cuba was the normalcy of life on the island. He had the image of the Cuban people being afraid to talk, without freedom and stressed out. 

As he carried out his purpose of presenting a paper titled “What are the limits of liberal ideas in relation to overcoming global inequity” to the University of Havana, he felt that his vision of Cuba was distorted. 

Berteaux also visited the Latin America University of Medicine where he found about 5,000 students of medicine from other countries, including third world, 250 of which were minorities from the United States.  Cuba agrees to pay for pre-med school for American students pursuing a medical career, as long as the students return to U.S. after completion and work in under served communities. Dr. Berteaux interviewed some students while there, and found that Castro's demand from them was a highly probable one. Since pre-med students had their schooling paid for, there was no need for them to go into highly paid clinics in order to pay back the large loans, unlike pre-med students in the U.S.

Dr. Jan K. Black, Professor of Graduate School of International Policy Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) has visited the island several times since the 1950's and can recall the various forms of state that she witnessed in Cuba. 

Dr. Black said in her book "Foreign policy towards Cuba", that although the decline in the economy due to Embargo launched in the 1960's, and the 40 percent "shrinkage" of the economy within about two years due to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993, Cuba has been successful in maintaining well, businesses with foreign investors.  Tourism has played a large roll in Cuba's economy, and despite the Bush Administrations attempts to tighten American travelers, the island received visits from an estimated 154,000 American in 2002.

Global interest have been around for several years, as the Cuban economy showed powerful signs of stability. Dr. Blacks said that for over a dozen years, the United Nations General Assembly has been voting almost unanimously to condemn the U.S. embargo. The vote in 2003 of 179 to 3 was typical, according to Dr. Black. She continues to confirm that there are as many as 40 countries that "have already moved to investment breach left over by the embargo”. She also stated that two hundred major U.S. companies want to end the embargo. 

Like Dr. Berteaux, Dr. Black agreed that there is much distortion of the Cuban view in the U.S. Dr. Black said much of it came from the Cuban American National Foundation "who have made a living for almost half a century by cultivating hostility toward the revolutionary regime." The attacks on Sept. 11 did not help either. "After all, Cuba was still designated as a 'terrorist state,' perhaps because for so many decades it had been the target of U.S. terrorism (including some 400 imaginative attempts to assassinate Castro)." wrote Dr. Black.

When tourists visit the university, they do not show the whole picture and discourage questioning according to Acosta Cox. Different groups in Cuba, including Federacion Latino American de Mujeres Rurales (FLAMUR) and the Varela Project have collected over 20,000 signatures between them, asking for a free elections and the recognition of the Cuban peso. Acosta Cox recalled when people mentioned to her how Cubans were happy in their experience on the island. She said Cubans are generally happy people and visitors confuse it with them being content with their state of government. Acosta Cox expressed the fact that Raul’s recent legislature, allowing Cubans to purchase DVD’s, refrigerator, hotel stays and cell phones, is not an accomplishment because Cubans should have already been able to purchase these objects.

In response to Dr. Black, Acosta Cox said that it is not about being ungrateful to the revolutionaries; it is that one should not have to give up their freedom for anything. No one said they want to go back to the Cuba of before the 1960's, yet democracy has yet to happen in Cuba. Everyone is employed by the state, and the government mandates everything. It is true students have a free education but it is at a great expense; at the expense of freedom of thought and freedom of expression, said Acosta Cox.

Perhaps nothing sums up the different opinions of the Castro regime better than a quote from Dr. Berteaux, "There is a difference between hearing the facts and knowing the details."