Castro's new suit

Contemporary Review, May, 1995 by Habeeb Salloum

Unlike a good number of Caribbean and Latin American countries Cuba is safe, drug-free and hardly any rubbish is to be seen anywhere. About 97 per cent of all the towns and villages have electricity and safe drinking water. Even though the people are less equal than they were in the past, they still enjoy more social benefits than their Caribbean and Latin brethren.

Yet, the achievements of the revolution were not on the minds of the thousands of people who left the country last summer in dangerous rickety boats for the US. To them Cuba was a prison. America with its untold wealth was their Valhalla. No doubt, those who were not turned back by the US navy and reached the shores of their dreams will reinforce the older exiles, making sure Castro will stay America's number one enemy. Perhaps Clinton, or some future president, will one day do away with the embargo and open normal relations with Cuba. However, this appears to be impossible at present as evident by the exclusion of Cuba from the meeting of all the western hemisphere's countries in December 1994. With the recent election of a right-wing Congress in the USA, the cold war in the Caribbean is destined to go on. Castro has characterised Cuban American relations as a struggle between David and Goliath. Perhaps, in this modern biblical struggle, David might again triumph. It could be that the Americans have not heard the last of Castro. He has confounded the prophets of his demise before and now he has expanded his wardrobe!