Aleida Guevara and an everlasting hypocrisy

Jul 25, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I have always felt that many, if not all, of the journalists to have interviewed Fidel Castro and his higher subordinates since he became a dictator in the mid-eighties lacked a deep familiarity with political theory and philosophy, thus they have not succeeded in embarrassing Castro on his long journey of tropical fascism.
The profound philosophical questions are not asked because these journalists were not familiar with the areas of theory where if pressed, Castro would have been found wanting. Aleida Guevara, one of Che Guevara’s four children, is in London where she is the guest of the Cuba Solidarity Committee. This is an English group that does work on the ending of the American embargo.
She was interviewed by the Guardian and quite surprisingly, the journalist did not ask her how she felt about her freedom to travel, a right denied to more than ninety percent of the Cuban people. During the chat with the Guardian, Ms. Guevara moved into an area where she was most vulnerable but the reporter simply couldn’t get it right.
Ms. Guevara said, “The US propaganda machine has dedicated itself to telling everybody that the revolution depends on just one person. But there is an inner conviction among the Cuban people.
So when the time comes and Fidel isn’t with us physically anymore, they will find a way forward.”
The relevant questions should have come from the Guardian. One is the propaganda of the Cuban media (only state media is allowed in Cuba) and government which Ms. Guevara is happy to propagate. In her view the revolution isn’t centered on Castro.
Then why was this man the Head of State and government a few months short half of a century? This is human indecency in its most vulgar form.
Imagine a man having power in a country for half of a century. And for half of a century he has been killing and jailing his dissidents on the explanation to his people that the Americans are coming and these dissidents would be the platform for the launch.
Half of a century has past, Castro has lived so long that he is now dying and the Yankees haven’t come.
The people Castro left behind, like his brother, like Alveida Guevara and others, will prolong the great deception by continuing the chant that the “Yankees are coming.”
In the interview, Ms. Guevara didn’t see any newness about Barack Obama. The journalist didn’t ask her what was new about Castro’s brother who is now in charge.
When you read about these kinds of revulsions in Cuba, it makes you mad when you see the hypocrisy on display about Cuban democracy, the latest manifestation of which comes from Norman Girvan.
He was in Cuba a few months ago to receive an honorary doctorate from Havana University and gave an address about freedom in Cuba (see my February 20, 09 column analysing his speech). His delivery was disgustingly abominable. He spoke about how Cuba survived the withdrawal of aid from the collapsed Soviet Union without “brutal repression that we have seen in many other countries.”
Cuba is a brutally repressive country whose sordid record is one of the worst in the world. In 2003, about 90 protestors, among them 27 journalists, were picked on after a street demonstration and are still in jail. They imprison protestors in Cuba for possession of American magazines.
Today in Cuba, if a citizen is found with a publication that glorifies the Americans, their capitalist system and denounces Cuba, you will be charged for possession of subversive literature.
Do you know who President Bush and PM Tony Blair borrowed from when they proposed and got their legislators to pass a series of frightening anti-terrorist measures – Fidel Castro? Those identical laws, like possession of terrorist literature, have been on the statute books in Cuba for three decades now.
Any dictator that needs to look at laws on curbing freedom and punishing people for subversive activities only have to look at the Cuba system. I wonder what was going through the head of Andaiye and Dr. Alissa Trotz when they joined Norman Girvan and wrote an article in the Stabroek News series, “In the Diaspora” advising readers that the recent coup in Honduras is the Caribbean’s business.
Fascism in Cuba that has lasted for over three decades is more of interest to the people of the Caribbean. The people of the Caribbean want Cuba to have free and fair elections. If the military is wrong to overthrow an elected government in Honduras, why is it right to have one-party dictatorship in Cuba?

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Aleida Guevara and an everlasting hypocrisy

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