If we make a serious reflection about the consequences that the communist experiment has brought to Cuba, we do not find it hard to understand that the Fidel Castro’s revolution was the worst that could occur in our country. Nevertheless, there is no way to justify the coup of Fulgencio Batista in 1952 months before the constitutional elections. It was an act of political impudence: violence was used not to defend a civilian law but to seize and impose a humiliating military dictatorship motivated just by petty ambitions. By then, despite the difficulties of a young nation, our country had achieved an extraordinary development. It was peace and progress in the Cuban family and the democratic institutions were moving towards a vigorous consolidation. The Constitution of 1940 is a clear example of this as a carrier of fundamental human and democratic values, full guarantees for the exercise of freedoms and respect for human rights.
Today, when making a historical account 57 years later, it would be honored to put in practice critical thinking and to try to not elude responsibilities. The process of decadence began with the nefarious assault to powerby Fulgencio Batistaon March 10, 1952, The dictator probably hadn’t estimated the physical and spiritual destruction that his action would bring to Cuba, paradoxically the same Cuba he helped to construct during its legitimate presidential period. In reality, from a general point of view it was a series of errors which led Castro to ascend to power.
Caught between romanticism and the desire to find solutions to the tragedy of March 10, Cubans offered support to Fidel Castro when he proclaimed a national revolution and his wishes to call to to free elections within a period of 18 months. We knew very little or nothing about the nature of this sinister person, nor even about his well-camouflaged personality. He had come from nowhere and made also fame from nothing. Maybe for his audacity of the attack to the Moncada Barracks -a brave action without any possibility of success from the military point of view-, maybe because of the absence of a charismatic leader between the opponents of Fulgencio Batista, maybe because we sincerely believed that the shorter road to the reinstatement of democracy was through a revolution.
In this effort many gave their lives in an act of nobility and valor. The vast majority was very young. They signified the right to liberty and a hopeful future of the country. This is why it is important we remember and show them respect and admiration they deserve. Likewise we have to show compassion and respect of many other young, mostly humble in their economic condition, no less self-sacrificing and valiant, also victims of political violence and gave their lives with good intention.
When making an attempt to fathom if in Cuba a revolution was necessary or not to expel Fulgencio Batista from power, I arrive at the conclusion that in that moment there were not many other opinions. It was the exercise of violence that led to violence. It was possible to think that the attack of the Moncada Barracks ended the chances of a peaceful settlement, because he returned the humiliation to a military dictator attacking one of his most important and symbolic fortress. Assassination, for one part and the other, was utilized like punishment or revenge crime. What happened next is known: irrationality, touching and sadness. We do not know if the General Batista, after stealing lots of treasures of the nation, would had been able to leave the throne allowing the country to return to a constitutional system. For the insensitivity of their actions, no one could doubt that their personal interests were far above the interests of the oppressed people.
There is also no doubt left that the absolute power was the ambition and the main goal of the leader of the Sierra Maestra and his brother Raúl, today in power. More than half a century of tyranny, crimes of prison are a convincing evidence.
In the end, what occurred in our country was not only a coup and a tyrannical revolution. It was an unfortunate fight for the power and the illicit enrichment of two ambitious men and signified death and pain in the history of Cuba. Two men unscrupulous, who dragged a prosperous nation into the abyss and stripped it of wealth, happiness and peace.
We hope one day the wounds will heal and we will live in a Homeland like Martí dreamed of: “with all and for the good of all”
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