The Fall of Fidel Castro 
Death of the tyrant does not mean the end of tyranny

By John Suarez

Fidel collapsed today before thousands at an outdoor rally. This is a reminder to all sides of the political struggle that no one is immortal. Fidel Castro is an old man who is closer to death than he was forty years ago. His rambling speech broadcast over Telemundo recently, and passing out at a public forum serves as evidence to back up the previous sentence. This brings us to one of the lies spread by the regime that has been imbibed by almost everyone on the planet, and especially Cuban exiles. The myth is that nothing will change in Cuba until Fidel Castro dies, then the system will end with him. If I believed that to be true I would’ve never gotten involved in the struggle for a free Cuba, and sat around waiting for biology to take its course. However, it is not true. If we look back through the history of tyrants: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Papa Doc, the Somozas, Kim il Sung, Ho Chi Minh, and a list tragically too long to list here, then you’ll find that when tyrants die these evil tyrannies have replacements that are equally as evil.

Let me provide two notorious examples. The first tyrant of the Soviet Union was Lenin. During Lenin’s tenure outsiders could even claim that the regime had moderated with its New Economic Policy that allowed foreign investment and limited amounts of capitalism to keep the regime from collapsing completely. Did this early engagement of trade with the Soviet Union in the 1920s have a big pay off? Was there a turn to democracy or greater economic liberalization? Lenin died a transition or should I say succession took place. The answer to the previous questions is given with the name Josef Stalin and the murder of 50 million Russians at the hand of their own government.

Communism didn’t fall in the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe because of the death of a tyrant, or because of economic engagement. Communism didn’t fall it was pushed. It was knocked down abroad by the effective foreign policy of Ronald Reagan and the challenges he posed to them in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, Grenada, and elsewhere. It was knocked down internally by a broad based opposition that took to the streets and was able to obtain massive support from the population challenging the basis of power of the dictatorship. When Russian nationals faced off with Russian tanks, and through their moral courage and numerical superiority were able to have the army turn on the Communist hardliners the regime was being metaphorically given a body blow from which it could not recover.

If freedom loving Cubans sit around waiting for Castro to die thinking that is all that is necessary for change, then the death of Fidel Castro will only change the face of the tyrant who will continue to have his boot on the back of the Cuban people. Fidel Castro and his regime should’ve gone down in 1995 when thousands of Cubans stood up and demanded freedom and justice in Havana and throughout Cuba for the victims of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat massacre, but when it happened the people who for so long had talked of joining the Cuban people at the right moment weren’t there when they were needed and wanted.

These moments come rarely if at all. We wasted one on August 5, 1994. The death of Fidel Castro may be one of those moments, but unless we are prepared to act and to bring this evil dictatorship down at a moment of temporary weakness. Otherwise the future will be dictator Raul Castro followed by dictator Fidel Castro Jr. and another two or three generations of Cubans being second class citizens in their own country censored, beaten, tortured, and murdered by their own countrymen for having a difference of opinion.

Whether Fidel Castro is alive or dead is of little consequence to me. What is important is whether the evil system operating today in Cuba is done away with. Whether Fidel Castro in a democratic Cuba of the future is dead, standing trial before a court of law for his crimes, or growing senile in an old age home is of little concern to me. What concerns me is that the current abomination against human rights, called the Cuban Constitution, be done away with, that a general amnesty be granted to all political prisoners, and that a system based on a healthy respect for fundamental human rights and the rule of law among them freedom of speech and association be established. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." – Winston Churchill The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, uttered these words in 1942 in the middle of WWII when things were not going well for the Nazis, and they seem appropriate on this occasion. Liberty is not given by the oppressor it is exercised by free men and women who value freedom as much as they value their lives. During Elian the Cuban exile community took to the streets and stood up for their freedom and the life of a child. The Cuban exiles lost and the child is another one of Castro’s serf who tragically has been put on display like a trophy. That battle for the future of Cuba was lost, but the struggle wages on. It seems that except for a small band of activists our community sits back and waits for a crisis to act, and then returns to complacency either triumphant or bitter depending on whether the battle has been won or lost. It is not enough to come to the defense of freedom with epic and intermittent efforts when it is threatened at moments of crisis. Every moment is critical for the preservation of freedom. I didn’t say that Jose Marti did. The day Fidel Castro falls and doesn’t get up will not determine the future of the Cuban nation. The strategy and the strength of the democratic opposition, and its ability to seize the moment or another moment like the one experienced on August 5, 1995 and challenge the power of the dictatorship is what will determine the future of the Cuban nation. Freedom or continued slavery the choice is up to all of us. What are we willing to do for our freedom?

Top ^