Castro’s Revolution has failed. The problem for the Cuban people is that neither he nor the United States policy makers have figured it out yet. On a recent trip to Cuba, I found many contradictions and challenges in delivering badly needed medical supplies to two doctors who are trying to follow their professional code under extraordinarily trying conditions. With lots of hospitals and clinics, Cuba has an extensive delivery system for health care, but few available medicines. The medicines available at separate pharmacies are so expensive by Cuban standards that it would take the equivalent of four months salary to purchase even the most popular medications. Yet, on the streets of Havana every medication known to American doctors is available. For example, generic Viagra sells for $6 for two pills—roughly one month’s salary. In the end the Cubans choose the streets, not only for their medicines, but also for many other goods and services.
I went to Cuba through a non-traditional path because the United States government makes going there virtually impossible. Even with such travel conditions I never found it difficult to find Americans in Havana or other towns enjoying the Cuban experience. In Pinar del Rio, I had lunch with a couple from San Francisco who had flown to Cuba via a circuitous route—unlike Canadians and Europeans who can fly there directly. The restaurant where we ate was not in the Guide Michelin nor on any official Cuban government sanctioned list. Instead, we had to climb a very steep ladder to the roof of a private home where our al fresco dining experience awaited us. The only difference between this restaurant and any local one in Washington was its location. The food was excellent, and the service was warm and friendly. The cost for an entire meal for six people was only $30. As we sat around the table, joined by a Norwegian and two local Cubans, we discussed politics—local and international—in an environment free from the ever present eyes of the Cuban government.
Just as the embargo and most of the United States laws and regulations supporting it have failed to prevent American tourists, they have also failed to prevent trade with America. When visiting a local government run tienda in Havana for Auga Purificada (pureza garantizada) I was struck by the fact that it was air conditioned by a very large York™ system plainly labeled Made in the USA. The Cuban economy is centrally planned, but decisions about what is manufactured and distributed seem to be more political than driven by local need.
The port of Havana is surrounded by containers from the United States. Wherever you go you can find American products, such as Coke, Pepsi, and Pringles potato chips, freely available even though they are expensive by local standards. Of course the most striking anomaly is the fact that the entire Cuban economy is based on the US dollar. In state run stores, restaurants, gas stations, national parks, and museums the dollar is the currency of choice. Very little is purchased with the Cuban peso and change, except when small, is usually given in dollars.
There is that most hated word in Castro’s vocabulary—PROFIT. Fortunately for the Cubans it is what drives them every day. To live in Havana or anywhere else in Cuba, an individual needs approximately $ 5-10 per day. With an average monthly salary of $7 that is tough by any standard. Yet people find ways of doing it. The taxi I took from central Havana to one of the neighborhoods has an electronic meter. When it was clear to the driver (after some negotiation) that I was an American visitor, a towel was placed over the meter, which had been disabled, and my fare of $5 went into the driver’s pocket.
I did not stay in a government hotel (even the international hotel chains must partner with the government) but in a casa particular. This is a local euphemism for a private home in which rooms are rented out. This practice is strictly illegal in Cuba so you may get some sense of the risk a local resident takes in doing this. There are no property rights in Cuba, so the local Cubans live in housing owned by the government and with the government’s consent, which can be easily revoked. Of the $40 per night I spent for an air-conditioned private apartment a portion went to the neighbors and to the local committee member who looked the other way as I passed in the street (as an American of English-German heritage I stood out like a sore thumb with my Clemson University t-shirts).
As I write this early one morning I am enjoying a Cohiba cigar purchased for pennies from a local individual who works in the cigar factory. He smuggles out several boxes of cigars per day to feed his family. Conditions are difficult for local Cubans under the best of circumstances. However, even with rolling blackouts, electricity is so cheap that, when available, window air-conditioners are run day and night. Drinking water is plentiful and free from the tap. You can actually drink the water without fear of mal de agua, but few drink the tap water and just use it in cooking, bathing and other non-consumption activities.
You will find mostly pork and chicken and almost no beef at the markets. But there are plentiful spices, nuts and fruits such as mangoes and papaya which were a staple of my morning routine along with the ubiquitous Cuban coffee.
With the heat and humidity of the day come afternoon showers. Unlike in a typical Washington summer, fortunately there is a constant breeze that moderates the heat. So while you will perspire you aren’t as uncomfortable as with the stifling heat, humidity and stagnant air of a Washington August. There is little air pollution; primarily because there are so few vehicles on the streets of Havana as compared to United States cities with a comparable population of approximately 4 million.
The continuing United States policy towards Cuba reinforces that hegemony and only hurts the Cuban people and the many United States businesses that are being out marketed by the rest of the world. On the table in front of me is a Pentium™ computer manufactured by Phillips in Hungary with Intel Inside™. New school busses with Thomas and Blue Bird bodies are everywhere. Peugeot and Fiat have a virtual monopoly on the sale of new cars, while Volvo is doing a brisk business in busses. Of course there are the famous 1950’s US manufactured autos, but most of them have been rebuilt with diesel engines from Germany and elsewhere.
The embargo works for Castro because he can blame it for the shortages of food, medicines and other goods and services. He uses the United States as the foreign devil whipping boy. Of course, the Canadians, Europeans and others manufacture the same goods the US does, but the average Cuban doesn't know this. They are purposely kept ignorant so that Castro can continue his domination of the society.
My concern for the Cubans I have met is that, after Castro’s death, the entire country will experience the same upheaval as in Russia after the fall of communism. The burgeoning market economy here will collapse as a combination of the old aristocracy and the, then, former Communist Party members divide up the economy for their own gain. Currently there are clearly Cubans who have a higher economic standard that their fellow countrymen. The number of expensive new cars like BMW and Audi surprised me. I suspect that most of the people owning these cars have some official position that they use to their great benefit. These people will be in a perfect position to lead Cuba economically when communism fails and they will clearly benefit the most. The doctors I took medicine to will not benefit. They will continue to labor for $20 per month and the occasional generosity of American relatives who are able to wire $300 per quarter to a Cuban.
The pristine beaches will be developed for tourists from the United States and other countries and will be off limits for locals who now pile into the backs of trucks or crowd nine to a small car every weekend for a day at the beach. The environmentally sensitive areas of Cuba will be overrun by developers attempting to create clones of Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The remarkable Art Deco houses in Havana will be torn down for McMansions of the future economic aristocracy. A dictator similar to Bautista will be sanctioned by United States administrations and we will be doomed to repeat history again as the average Cuban finds his already miserable economic life further threatened. There is no question that the embargo hurts Cubans—it’s just not the right Cubans who suffer.