Thread by @DeputySecState

Today would have been Fidel Castro’s 99th birthday. Anyone on the face of the earth under the age of 67, including me, has never known a SINGLE DAY when Cuba 🇨🇺 was not under the dictatorial rule of his Communist party. Nonetheless, myths persist that Cuba’s Communist leaders are the good guys and the Cuban people are happy with this uarrangement. Anyone who believes these myths by now is willfully delusional. If Cuba were a socialist paradise, the regime wouldn’t be terrified of its own people, and would be willing to hold elections with candidates independent of the Communist Party.  Let’s examine some of the myths:

Myth 1: The Communist dictatorship has lifted the standard of living of average Cubans, especially in the areas of education and health. But after 60+ years of one-party Communist rule, the quality of life in Cuba is abysmal and getting worse. Don’t just take my word for it: by the regime’s own statistics, at least TEN PERCENT of the Cuban population has fled the island in the past three years alone. Basic services like electricity are collapsing, and mortality rates for children under 5 have increased by more than 50% since 2018. The Cuban regime and its apologists love to talk about Cuban doctors deployed in other countries. But these doctors aren’t engaged in charity; rather, they’re the Cuban regime’s LARGEST source of hard cash (ahead of tourism or cigars) and the regime itself pockets the payments. Once the world’s largest sugar exporter, the island is now a net sugar importer, and the recent harvest was the worst since the 19th century. Access to food and basic medical supplies (aspirin, bandages) for average Cubans is sketchy at best. The average salary for a state worker is about $16/month, and pensioners earn about $5/month.  Again, nobody’s flocking to Cuba (not even Russian tourists!); rather, the Cuban people are racing for the exits.

Myth 2: The leaders of the Cuban dictatorship are progressive liberators. Seldom have myth and reality deviated so radically: Fidel Castro and his gang were/are ruthless thugs who stopped at nothing to consolidate absolute and perpetual POWER. They have harbored fugitives from US justice for decades. Che Guevara, whose image is plastered on so many dorm room posters and T shirts, openly bragged at the UN that FIRING SQUADS were an instrument of government policy to eradicate “worms” (political opponents). In 2021, the Cuban regime arrested and jailed more than a thousand people for peacefully calling for freedom, accusing them of “sedition” and other such political crimes  Most still languish in prison. x.com/FelixLlerenaCU…

Myth 3: The leaders of the Cuban dictatorship are interested in their people’s welfare, not their own. Like any other dictatorship, the elites benefit while the rest suffer. The Castro family and other regime elites (especially the military and intelligence leadership) lives in luxury, with access to food, housing, cars, and tourist destinations, and has stashed away BILLIONS of dollars in foreign bank accounts while the people scrounge for food and electricity. Fidel’s grandson Sandro, an internet influencer, has pulled back the curtain on his family’s lavish lifestyle of leisure and designer clothes and accessories. Again, don’t just take my word for it: check out Sandro’s Instagram: @sandro_castrox.
miamiherald.com/news/nation-wo…

Myth 4: Insofar as any of the preceding myths are true, it’s all the fault of the US blockade and not the Cuban regime. But no such “blockade” exists: Cuba is free to trade with other countries and in fact receives economic lifelines from abroad, like oil from Venezuela and Mexico and tourists from Canada, Europe, and other places. US law explicitly allows food and medicine exports to Cuba, and the humanitarian situation there would be far worse but for these exports. The only time the US actually blockaded Cuba was for a few weeks during the Cuban missile crisis of October/November 1962, before I was born, when the Soviet Union was installing missiles there aimed at the US. After more than SIXTY YEARS, it’s pathetic for the regime to blame Cuba’s economic collapse on the US rather than its own grotesque economic mismanagement and political repression.

I have no doubt that ideological zealots will continue to propagate, and perhaps even believe, these myths no matter what the facts. They are free to believe in unicorns too. But any fair-minded person approaching these issues should recognize that Cuba has been hijacked by a gang of thugs who rely on hollow revolutionary rhetoric to justify their own reactionary and repressive hold on power. The Cuban people deserve a bright future, and the regime can’t even provide a decent present. I aspire to set foot in a free and prosperous Cuba, and am confident that I will.