Word: castro
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...probe, you hear the same mantra: the achievements of the revolution. What they call the revolution is not communism, not socialist ideology, not even veneration for Fidel. "The achievements of the revolution" is code for cradle-to-grave health care, free and universal education, and generous social-security payments. Castro brought these benefits to millions who had almost nothing before the revolution, and after 34 years they are fiercely proud of the guarantees -- so rare in Latin America -- and are determined not to lose them. "There is no way you can take away the achievements of the revolution," says...
...drive through the lush countryside, we are stunned that this island cannot feed itself. But the perversions of Soviet-style agriculture have left their legacy. To trade for Russian oil, Castro converted much of Cuba's arable land to sugar. A government bureaucrat sighs as he tells the potato story. During the cold weather in Russia, Cuba would grow potatoes and ship them all to Moscow. Then six months later, when the Russian harvest came in, Moscow would send a year's worth of potatoes back to Cuba, where they would have to be stored in huge refrigerated warehouses...
Many people doubt the latest changes in agricultural policy will make much difference. Noel Prado, 37, farms 98 acres in Vegas, southeast of Havana, on which he must produce his government allotment of sugarcane. He seems content with Castro's policies. "Food is not a problem here," he says, patting his big stomach. He can sell some of his surplus peanuts, sweet potatoes, coffee, sheep and pigs. City friends travel 25 miles from the capital to barter for his vegetables and meat, but since he has no fertilizer, no pesticides and no electricity to pump water for irrigation, his production...
...government has been very effective at crushing opposition. The most ardent anti-Castro groups are in exile. Those remaining have been reduced to small, timid groups, and human-rights organizations report that the number of arrests of even moderate dissidents has risen sharply. Very few people, says Felix de la Uz, "are willing to do something to make the system fall...
Friends of De la Uz call him a Dr. Zhivago. He fought underground with Castro's 26th of July movement and in his early 20s went to the Communist Party school in Moscow for grooming. But by 1968 he had lost his zeal and wrote a stinging critique of the party for being undemocratic. He was banished to a railway shop, where he labored in silence until...