Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 11, 1993 TAG: 9309030372
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KENNETH RYSTROM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Despite rumors of Fidel Castro's imminent demise, a group of American editorial writers who recently visited Cuba were told repeatedly that the people there are determined to wage and win what they see as the economic equivalent of war.
Neither Cuban officials nor the Cuban people that we met hesitated to point out the causes of what even the most casual observer can see is an economically destitute country.
Buildings are falling down. Bicycles have virtually replaced cars on the streets. Industries have closed. Construction projects sit half-finished. The refrigerator of a family that I visited one day contained only a dozen or so eggs, and their food cupboards were bare.
The Cubans wanted us to know that the principal source of their woes (Strike One!) is the U.S. trade and dollar embargo. For 30 years the United States has been trying to bring Castro down by attempting to paralyze the Cuban economy.
The embargo had only limited success until, two or three years ago, the then Soviet Union found it could no longer afford to assist Cuba through military aid and favorable trade agreements (especially trading oil for sugar). The virtual ending of aid (Strike Two!) has left Cuba desperately short of oil, of parts for Russian-made industrial machinery and of materials for partly completed construction projects.
The Cubans suffered a third strike (of a literal kind) last year when Hurricane Andrew struck the island. Especially heavily damaged was an area along Havana's inner harbor that includes a popular tourist section. Tourists (from countries other than the United States) are regarded as a major source of hard currency.
Andrew last year and heavy rains this year, we were told, also have seriously hurt Cuba's agricultural economy, especially sugar.
As if all these difficulties were not enough, a few weeks before we arrived health officials became aware that a mysterious eye epidemic was spreading across the country (Strike Four!). We attended a special briefing for representatives of foreign embassies at which Cuban and World Health Organization officials acknowledged that they were not certain what was causing the disease (virus? pollution? improper nutrition?). Massive dosages of multiple Vitamin-B had been found to be helpful in preventing and treating the ailment.
Starting in May, monthly dosages of the vitamin were to be distributed to every Cuban household - another heavy burden for a foundering economy.
Cuban officials were frank in talking about these four problems. Nearly all came up with the same list.
But a sub-minister to whom I related the story about the family with the empty cupboards sharply challenged my report that the wife and husband had told me that they were hungry. (``Mi hambre. Cuba hambre,'' they had said.)
Every country has a few dissidents, the sub-minister said, people who are not loyal to the fatherland. ``We have no famine,'' he insisted.
(Our trip guide later offered the explanation that the wife might just be a pure manager and have not properly spaced her food allotments to cover the intervals when rationed products become available.)
I detected no signs of disloyalty in this family, or disaffection with the Castro regime. Nor did I among three young journalists with whom several of us had a long, intimate, philosophical discussion one evening. They remained committed to the Revolution of 1959, they said.
The journalists said they wanted better relations with the United States, but only on Cuba's terms. They did not want the United States to dominate their country as they perceived that it had in the past.
Almost no one mentioned Fidel Castro. We rarely saw his name or face in public places. Most of the displays seemed well-weathered.
During the time we were there, I saw only two stories mentioning Castro in ``Granma,'' the official Cuban Communist Party daily newspaper. A long story about the eye ailment quoted him as calling on world health groups for help. The second reported that he had received a Russian vice president, who had come to Havana supposedly to patch up relations between the two countries.
(The editors at ``Granma'' said that Castro seemed to have stopped sending long articles to the newspaper, for which they were grateful.)
In seeming to downplay Castro, the Cubans may have been suggesting to us that it is not because of loyalty to Fidel that they are accepting the sacrifices of the ``Special Period.''
The young journalists seemed to be saying that, whatever might happen to Castro, or to the economy, they intend to remain loyal to their country and committed to its independence. And, whatever happens, they don't want the Cubans who have established themselves in Miami to return to take over the country.
\ Kenneth Rystrom, a professor of communication studies at Virginia Tech, recently traveled to Cuba as a member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers.
by CNB