Communism In Cuba: Positive Or Negative For Its Citizens?

Communism is a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people. The idea of communism started in the 19th century by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engals. When communism first started it was an idea of a society based on common ownership of property. That idea eventually turned political and communism turned into a government. There have been communist groups in Cuba since the early 1920’s and it eventually grew into the only political party in the country. Over the years there have been many debates on what is the goal of communism in Cuba. The majority of people believe that communism is an evil political group that doesn’t give the citizens any rights. People that believe in communism think it’s a good government because all the citizens of the country are treaty fairly. In this paper I will debate the views of why some people believe that communism is a good government and also the views of why some people believe that communism is a bad government.

History of Communism in Cuba

When you think of Cuba and communism you think of Fidel Castro, but communism in Cuba didn’t start with Fidel Castro. There have been traces of communist groups in Cuba since the early 1920’s. Anibal Escalante, Blas Roca, Fabio Grobart and Julio Mella all co founded the “internationalized” Communist Party of Cuba. The group supported Fulgencio Batista who was a Cuban military officer and a former president. They later renamed “internationalized” Communist Party of Cuba to the People’s Socialist Party. They changed the name for electoral reasons. The People’s Socialist Party was originally critical of Fidel Castro. Batista was a Cuban president who later became a dictator. When Batista tried to run for president a second time he was not expected to win. Since he had no chance of winning he staged a coup in 1952. A coup is a sudden overthrow of government, it is often done illegal and it mostly replaces just high level figures. Batista held power with the backing of a nationalist section of the army as a “provisional president”. Fulgenico Batista also held a second coup in 1952, when he was sure he would loose the election. In this election Fidel Castro also ran for president. At the time Fidel Castro was a lawyer and also a revolutionary leader.

The Cuban Revolution begun on July 26, 1953. That is when a group of one hundred guerillas attacked the Moncada Barracks. The group of guerillas failed and most of them died in battle. One of the survivors in the battle was Fidel Castro. Castro was captured and was sent to trial. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Castro only served 2 years of the 15 he was sentenced, because of opposition from many civil rights leaders and the Jesuits. When Castro was released he went to Mexico where he and other Cubans trained for another attack to overthrow Batista. There he trained with famous revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Castro invaded Cuba in 1956 and took over power in 1959. Most Cubans supported the revolution because they wanted to restore the Cuban Constitution that Batista abolished. The revolutionary regime also supported Castro because of all the promises he was making. When Castro came to power he never kept any of the promises that he made to the revolutionary regime. Fidel Castro has been in power since 1959. He is still the current president but due to illness he has given all of his duties to his younger brother Raul Castro.

Is Communism in Cuba an Evil Regime?

Communism has always been the world’s most feared and least loved government. Countries and people have fought for years against communism. It is the basic belief in the world that citizens should have rights in their own country and be free to elect its own leading official. Communism is when there is one leading ruler making all the decision for the citizens without any opposition. Cuba has been under communism most of the 20th century and already the beginning of the 21st century. The Cuban people have been under the harsh dictatorship of both Felgenico Batista and Fidel Castro. They both had very strict policies and gave the Cuban people limited or no freedom at all. Batista and Castro were similar but yet different. One major difference that they had was that Batista was friendly with the United States and he had respect for American interest. On the other hand Fidel Castro hasn’t been as friendly with the United States, so the U.S has a trade embargo that restricts and American company to do business with Cuba and also U.S citizens are prohibited from traveling to Cuba unless for special circumstances.

Felgenico Batista

While Felgenico Batista was running Cuba many American companies grew rich off of Cuban resources while the Cuban people remained poor. An American mobster named Meyer Lansky came to Cuba to open a hotel. The mobster gave Batista 10% of the profits of the hotel and casino, so Batista became wealthy off of that. Batista became very wealthy off of American business and also organized crime. Meyer Lansky also turned Havana into a drug port. Batista did very little to help the Cuban citizens. While running Cuba Batista did not offer the people neither health care nor education. So many Cubans lived in poverty. When they became ill they wouldn’t be able to go to a doctor because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. When Batista took over the country in his second coup, he temporary suspended Cuba’s constitution of 1940. He also took away the right to strike. With all of the money Batista and other government officials made illegally they never put none of the money for education, health care or city maintenance. To please his American friends he held an election, but it wasn’t a normal election it was a mock election where he was the only legal candidate. The Cuban people didn’t like or trust him. The people were all aware of the corruption in the Cuban government. There wasn’t much opposition because Batista’s military police would beat anyone who opposed him. In 1955 a group of students from the University of Havana protested Batista’s government and planned a march. They were stopped and were beaten by police. The leader of the protest was