CUBA: Castro Draws Huge Crowds Despite Unpopular Measures

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 14 2004 (IPS) - The government of Fidel Castro put to the test its capacity to draw Cubans onto the streets Friday to protest Washington’s latest tightening of the four-decade embargo.

And Havana residents answered the call en masse, just four days after the Cuban government announced unpopular economic adjustment measures, triggering fears of an across-the-board rise in prices.

Castro and his brother Raúl, the head of Cuba’s armed forces, headed the march of around one million people (according to official figures) which passed in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

This ”is only a small part of the brave and heroic (Cuban) people who would like to be here with us physically if they could,” the president said in a speech titled ‘Proclamation from an adversary of the government of the United States’.

The call was issued late Wednesday for people from the two provinces that encompass Havana (La Habana and Ciudad Habana, which are home to 2.8 million of Cuba’s 11.2 million people) to come out Friday to protest Washington’s new sanctions, presented as a plan to ”hasten the transition to democracy” in Cuba.

Among the thousands of Cuban flags waved by the demonstrators could be seen the flags of Chile, Venezuela and other countries of origin of students who have been granted scholarships by the Cuban government to attend the Latin American School of Medicine here.

Castro, who led the march, walked slowly for a stretch alongside elderly fellow commanders of the guerrilla struggle and 1959 revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Baptista, like Ramiro Valdés and Guillermo García Frías.

Castro ended his speech, in which he gave a severe tongue-lashing to U.S. President George W. Bush, saying that ”Since you have decided that the die is cast and our fate is sealed, I have the pleasure to say farewell like the Roman gladiators who were heading to combat in the Coliseum: ‘Hail, Cesar, we who are about to die salute you’.”

He also lamented that if the United States were to invade Cuba, he would not ”even be able to see (Bush) face to face, because in that case you (President Bush) would be thousands of kilometres away while I would be on the front line, prepared to die fighting in defence of my country.”

For more than six hours, demonstrators marched along the malecón – the seaside avenue that runs along the northside of the capital – raising the tone of their chants and waving their placards when passing the U.S. Interests Section.

The Labour Ministry declared a break to allow workers in Havana and outlying neighbourhoods to take part in the demonstration, the biggest and lengthiest held in years, according to observers.

One of the signs showed a photo of Bush with a Hitler moustache, reading ‘Down with Fascism!’

Washington’s latest sanctions for Cuba, announced by Bush on May 6, were also criticised by dissidents in this socialist Caribbean island nation.

The Cuban government termed the recommendations presented to Bush by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba as ”provocations that violate the norms and principles of international law”.

”The recommendations to President (Bush) are practically an incitement to armed conflict,” said prominent dissident Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, the head of Cambio Cubano (Cuban Change), an organisation of moderate Cuban exiles founded in the United States.

Gutiérrez Menoyo, who returned from exile in the United States last August and is still awaiting authorisation from the Cuban government to legally reside in Cuba, agreed that the U.S. measures were a ”provocation”.

In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Spanish-born dissident, a former commander in Castro’s guerrilla army, also warned of the risk that ”anxiety could be generated across Cuba, which could result in public disturbances and even an uprising of unpredictable characteristics.”

The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, set up by the Bush administration, called for the allocation of 59 million dollars to implement the new measures, which include the naming of a ‘Transition Coordinator’ in the State Department ”to facilitate expanded implementation of pro-democracy, civil-society building, and public diplomacy projects” in Cuba.

Gutiérrez Menoyo said the designation of a ‘Transition Coordinator’ was an ”insult to the Cuban people” because it ”evokes the worst memories of the colonialist era, when the proconsul supervised the destinies of the colonised countries.”

Other initiatives will limit family visits to Cuba to just one trip every three years, under a specific licence only valid for visiting immediate family members; slash the amount that visitors from the United States can spend on food and lodging in Cuba; and limit ”recipients of remittances and gift parcels to immediate family members.”

On Tuesday, the Cuban government announced 15 provisions to take immediate effect, in response to the U.S. measures, which are seen as aimed at reducing the flow of foreign exchange into Cuba.

Castro’s measures include the closure – until further notice – of most of the government stores that only accept dollars, and the suspension of sales of goods other than foodstuffs and cleaning and personal hygiene products.

According to the government, availability of essential goods and services will be guaranteed in first place.

But a large part of the population reacted uneasily to the possibility of generalised increases in the already steep prices of goods that are only available in the dollar-only stores.

Experts say that around 60 percent of Cubans have access to dollars, the possession of which was legalised in 1993, whether through remittances sent home from family members abroad, or because they are involved in the tourism industry in one way or another.