Much was said this election over Socialism. It was categorized by Trump as a disease worse than Covid 19. Cuba was mentioned considerably and condemned even by Marco Rubio. 

Felix Alvarado

I will fault the Democratic Party for not knowing how to fight fire with fire. Prior to Socialism and Castro, Cuba was ruled by a ruthless dictator by the name of Fulgencio Batista. Batista had been the leader of Cuba on two difference occasions. Under Batista capitalism flourished. The profits did not get down to the Cuban people who were impoverished. The profits did find their way into Batista’s pocket. Money that he took with him when he was deposed. 

Castro led a rebellion that successfully ousted Fulgencio Batista from office in 1959. Fidel Castro was a Communist. His political ideology was known to many. During the civil war Castro had hinted that he wanted a democratic government. He surprised the world when he declared himself a Communist. The world especially the US was not happy. The US imposed an embargo on Cuba cutting off Cuba from the rest of the world economically. Cuba was saved by the intervention of the USSR that propped up the Castro regime. The embargo did what it was supposed to do, hurt the Cuban people. Like any dictatorship in Castro’s regime, you had to be careful what you said and who you said it to.

Early in the reign of Fidel Castro thousands of Cubans fled to the US, to South Florida which is a close distance from Cuba. With the departure of Batista these sycophants had to go to safer places. They brought money and an entrepreneurship spirit with them. Up until this time, South Florida’s claim to glory was college spring break when thousands of students crammed the beaches. Other than that, South Florida was just another poor southern state. The Cuban’s capitalized on their ability to develop South Florida economically. 

Cubans were able to come to South Florida in big numbers because the US immigration policy was that to have permanent residence all Cubans had to do was touch American soil. This is not hard to do on a good boat. Cuba is less than a hundred miles from the US. The Cuban invasion lasted a long time. 

Cubans did not leave because of Fidel Castro or Socialism. They fled because they had decades of experience in dictatorship government and they wanted to keep the money they had acquired in Batista’s capitalist economy. Castro was the match, and the US was the gas that set off the migration of Cubans to America. 

Despite the harsh embargo, under Castro, medical care and education and were available to all Cubans. The Cubans that fled the island did not flee for fear of Socialism, they fled for their own self-interests. Their sycophant days were over.