Latin American Revolutionary Societies

Latin American Revolutionary Societies

Fidel Castro’s Speeches

In his speeches, History will absolve me; I Shall Be A Marxist-Leninist Till The End of my Life and words to the intellectual, Castro was very indicative of what his true motivations were for the revolution he caused and his rise into power. He emphasizes the changes he believed would make Cuba a better place for its citizens, such as socialism and the rights and freedoms of the people. From his speeches, Castro appears to have the best intentions for Cuba; however, it was in the implementation of these changes that various things went wrong, and he became worse than the thing he had fought so hard to eradicate from Cuba. A comparison between his speeches and his policies show that most of his plans contradicted his promises.

Common Threads between Castro’s Policies and Speeches

1. a) History Will Absolve Me

In his first speech, “History Will Absolve Me,” Castro points the finger at Batista’s administration. He discusses the failure of Batista’s regime to improve the conditions of the people, how the government encouraged self-interest. While Cuba appeared to be excelling economically, the fruits were only enjoyed by the close relations of Batista. In contrast, the rest of the people were suffering from hunger, among other deficiencies of basic needs (Castro, 1953, p3). These conditions explained Castro’s motivations to infiltrate the country with communism to ensure that economic and social classes were eradicated and everyone had a chance to make income, and enjoy the various basic needs. He manages to implement this by providing free education and health services, and as well, there was guaranteed employment across the board for anyone who could work. Therefore, he replaced the income inequality with equity and increased economic development in the country. In this case, eradicating capitalism and encouraging communism was a common theme in all of his speeches, and it was the basis of most of his actions and policies.

Consequently, both his policies and his speeches, especially “History Will Absolve Me,” had a recurring theme of freedom of the people, albeit the contradicting views. According to Castro (1953, p1), before Batista’s regime, the people of Cuba enjoyed the freedom of public opinion. Their interests could be freely expressed and discussed, and when the government officials did not act as the public wanted, the people had the right to vote them out and bring in new officials. The people believed in their liberty, and it was considered the most valuable tool for their livelihood. For this reason, they could not have predicted that a person would come and take this liberty from them and act against their constitution. Batista became the enemy of the people leading them to subjugation, and Castro believed it was mission and vision to get rid of Batista and bring back the old Life. Notably, Human Rights Watch (2016, p1) reports that when Castro came into power, he launched the worst form of repression in Cuba, which caused Batista’s ruling to pale in comparison. Castro managed to repress all the rights of the people ranging from political to economic and any protests were rewarded by harsh punishments. While in his speech, he complains about how Batista’s regime denied people their political liberty; Castro’s regime did one better and denied the people all liberties.

1. b) Words to Intellectuals

Comparatively, in his speech of 1961 “Words to Intellectuals,” Castro endeavored to respond to the issue of freedom of expression for writers and artists amongst other creatives. He believed that people had nothing to worry about when it came to freedom because his revolution was intended to protect all freedoms. He argued that the idea that the revolution would prevent creative freedom was baseless because its main goal was to ensure all forms of freedom in Cuba. Besides, he believed that his revolution was one of open-mindedness whereby its proponents did not presume to understand everything and for this reason they were open to learn. They were open to hear out the creatives and act accordingly to ensure that they had their needs met and nor repression whatsoever would impact their work. Castro promised that his revolution targeted a regime that would be the opposite of Batista regime therefore everyone including the political writers can expect a freedom to express their ideas openly and freely without the fear of being punished for holding ideas contradicting those of the revolution (Castro, 1961, p1). Afterward, when Castro’s regime was fully established, his policies contradicted the promises he made in this speech. In fact, it were as if his policies were actively set to defy this speech. For example, in the 60s Castro’s administration incarcerated over 60,000 prisoners, which was an extremity considering in all of Batista’s regime, there had only been about 1,600 political prisoners (Corrales, 2016, p1). More so, Castro’s strong objection for dissidents led him to place intense surveillance systems that were fabricated as associations that addressed the problems of the local communities. He spent a large portion of the countries resources to recruit people who would spy of their closed one and report the revolution opposition (Corrales, 2016, p3). Therefore, the theme of political freedom was recurrent in Castro’s speeches and policies; however, the content in the two versions did not align.

1. c) I Shall Be a Marxist-Leninist till the end of my Life

Among his speeches, this was probably the most truthful and a lot of his successes as a leader can be reflected from his fight for socialism. According to Castro (1976, p1), progress was best built on socialism, he believed that not only should all people be in equal standing economically but also politically, socially and culturally. When he said in his speech that all people deserved to experience the economic success of the country he meant it. For instance, he established a system of free education and health services despite it being an obstacle to the economic growth of the country. Similarly, it was his concepts on socialism that allowed for him to build a nation that did not support prejudice. Research shows that during Castro’s regime, he ensured that his policies of socialism widely applied even to the minorities of the community. For example, the policies made it easy for women to divorce, abort or use family planning. Also, there were equal employment opportunities for women, which led to a doubling of the number of women in the labor force. Similarly, Castro had a strong objection for racism and believed that even black people had a right to the countries resources. In fact, he removed any laws that encouraged prejudice based on race (Castro and Cuba, N/d, p207-209). As such, Castro lived up his speech on Marxism by ensuring that he applied all socialist concepts to his policies. His socialists’ policies were a resounding success in some ways, especially as it improved the living standards of all people allowing the citizens of Cuba quality of Life.

Comparisons and Contrasts among the three speeches and the implications

The significant differences between the addresses are because of the timing. For instance, the first speech, “History Will Absolve Me,” was delivered during the struggle between Batista and Castro; therefore, in the address, Batista is the antagonist. In contrast, in the other two addresses, Castro was selling his revolution to the rest of the country. For example, in the first speech, Castro is very personal in his content; he expressed himself as humble and innocent. He explained the injustices he was experiencing for trying to unseat a terrible regime. He further compares his treatment by the court compared to that of Batista who also broke various laws in the constitution yet he was never punished for it (Castro, 1953, p3-4).

On the other hand, in the other two speeches, Castro does not speak of himself; instead, he begins talking of the revolution to refer to himself and the proponents of the revolution, and he changes his concern to the collective people. Similarly, it is in the last two speeches that he focuses on what the revolution is all about, the principles guiding it, and the various policies they need to put in place for its success (Castro, 1961, p1), (Castro, 1976, p1). Therefore, one of the main differences between the first speech and the other two is that in the first speech, Castro was fighting an individual; by discrediting Batista, he was attempting to prove that Castro was the better man. Whereas in the other two speeches, Castro was fighting the pre-existing policies such as capitalism, he was trying to sell his policies as the better, more effective policies.

Notably, the other difference between the first speech and the other two is the pragmatism of the arguments. Case in point, Castro (1953, p1-p4) was quick to judge the regime of Batista and its ineffectiveness. He alluded to being in the right, and there is a certainty in his tone, which showed that he believed that given a chance, he would be able to do a better job than Batista. It is almost as if Castro thought that his ideologies compared to those of Batista were foolproof, that while capitalism was destructive and imperfect, socialism/communism would be a perfect solution to all the problems. In this speech, he was overly eager to criticize how Batista’s regime denied people their freedoms. Contrastingly, in the other two addresses, he becomes more realistic about the successes of his ideologies. For example, in “Words to Intellectuals,” Castro admits to the possible imperfection of the revolution. For instance, his rebellion was pursued in a short time, which did not allow for all objectives to be discussed. He admits that their revolution may have been too focused on some issues thus sidelining other matters such as the culture and the freedom of expression for writers and artists (Castro, 1961, p3). This admission confirms that Castro believed that even their “good ideologies” had experienced some failures. Comparatively, in the “I Shall Be a Marxist-Leninist till the end of my life,” Castro (1976, p2) explains that while socialism promotes progressive thinking, it also had its flaws. He even goes into an in-depth reference of how socialism had failed China in some ways.

For this reason, he suggests that while he encourages socialism, it is fruitful to look at its successes and failures, to be able to weed out what will not work for them. This difference shows a change in attitudes whereby, before removing Batista, Castro believed that he had the perfect solution for all that ailed Cuba. However, being in leadership for a while showed him that every ideology came with its weaknesses, and he was more willing to admit imperfections.