With unforeseen effectiveness and clear goals the people of Cuba decided they had had enough of the predatory regime they have known for over six decades. This protests movement is the most recent staged in Latin America whose countries have gone through burps of violence throughout 2019 and 2021 with 2020 being spared of such developments by the lock downs associated with fighting Covid 19.
And while the Cuban people’s revolt is the most telling given the successful suffocation of freedom staged by the Castro regime it heralds the end of an epoch in Latin America which started in the 16th century and has defined the political character of the region and its economic path.
With the exception of Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile and Barbados the region has been held at ransom by the corporativist political structures cum mercantilist economic practices established by Spain and Portugal when Pope Alexander Vi decided to assign to them the territorial possession of the Americas.
These institutions were designed to crush individual initiative in favor of state rule while extracting rent from the newfoundland to build the European power of Spain and Portugal. Independence from Spain did not bring down the straight jacket . To be sure, by that time powerful elites had consolidated. They derived their successful economic status from corporativism. They were not ready to give up on privilege in favor of freedom. Thus the whole region was engulfed for the better part of the 19th century in internecine wars fought under the pretext that a republican order was being created. Those factions that had better engaged in trade and had surpluses safely stacked in Europe imposed themselves and freedom was successfully kept at bay . And……economic growth and social mobility were safely kidnapped. Eventually, as agriculture gave way to manufacturing workers began to demand better pay and social security. Again the intractable Latin American elites held tight to the status quo. And slowly through the centuries the narrative that the state knows better than the individual took hold in the region.
WWII gave rise to a new world order where freedom faced off with totalitarianism . Statism however reigned in Latin America. The most prosperous countries Argentina and Cuba fell prey to political unrest arising from lack of social mobility and freedom. In Argentina military rule set in. In Cuba a regime born from the fight against dictatorship but with clear totalitarian designs. These were smartly covered up as nationalism until the time was ripe to exploit the geopolitical situation and turned communist. Under the Soviet Union patronage Cuba was taken over by Castro and his followers to build a society lacking everything a human being needs to be free. But the narrative he created resounded in the people of Latin America who felt excluded from development. Narratives are the ammunition of postmodern wars that out of perception create realities. Additionally the narrative positioned Cuba as the David fight the US Goliath. Most of Latin American nations and Europe became supporters. Latin American nations because their elites had no possibility of succeeding in competing in international trade, the Europeans because except for the UK they never truly accepted that the US was their liberator. And as time went by Castro clench to power and exported trouble to the Western Hemisphere. Only Venezuela denounced Cuban abuses in the 1960s. In 1991 his protector collapsed and by 1998 Castro had reinvented totalitarianism with financing from Venezuela. Multilateral organizations were created to spread trouble in thriving democracies. When Venezuela collapsed under the failed development formula conceived by Castro Cuba is left without means to finance trouble and with the same institutions that saw the light in the 16th century which are now unable to fight back for two reasons. First, we are in the digital economy and Cubans are now connected to the rest of the world through their own means. Second, young Cubans who have settled in the US after escaping Cuba have become small and medium sized entrepreneurs who have learned to exploit the business properties of the internet. And during the years of the Obama opening were busy bringing to Cuba modems, recycled smart phones; chargers and phone cards. The people of Cuba have created a network of exchanges with the outer world that has thought them among other things that the US is no vampire killer but a free society where their relatives are prospering, They have thus decided that a middle class status is achievable when the regime is jolted. And they are now busy doing just that. In the process they will be the first Latin Americans to destroy the main elements of the Castroist narrative. That the state can provide for all; that freedom is not necessary and that the US is an enemy. Lets now pray that the US plays its cards. And by so doing clearing the way to build democratic institutions putting to rest the legacy of Medieval Spain and Portugal.
And while the Cuban people’s revolt is the most telling given the successful suffocation of freedom staged by the Castro regime it heralds the end of an epoch in Latin America which started in the 16th century and has defined the political character of the region and its economic path.
With the exception of Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile and Barbados the region has been held at ransom by the corporativist political structures cum mercantilist economic practices established by Spain and Portugal when Pope Alexander Vi decided to assign to them the territorial possession of the Americas.
These institutions were designed to crush individual initiative in favor of state rule while extracting rent from the newfoundland to build the European power of Spain and Portugal. Independence from Spain did not bring down the straight jacket . To be sure, by that time powerful elites had consolidated. They derived their successful economic status from corporativism. They were not ready to give up on privilege in favor of freedom. Thus the whole region was engulfed for the better part of the 19th century in internecine wars fought under the pretext that a republican order was being created. Those factions that had better engaged in trade and had surpluses safely stacked in Europe imposed themselves and freedom was successfully kept at bay . And……economic growth and social mobility were safely kidnapped. Eventually, as agriculture gave way to manufacturing workers began to demand better pay and social security. Again the intractable Latin American elites held tight to the status quo. And slowly through the centuries the narrative that the state knows better than the individual took hold in the region.
WWII gave rise to a new world order where freedom faced off with totalitarianism . Statism however reigned in Latin America. The most prosperous countries Argentina and Cuba fell prey to political unrest arising from lack of social mobility and freedom. In Argentina military rule set in. In Cuba a regime born from the fight against dictatorship but with clear totalitarian designs. These were smartly covered up as nationalism until the time was ripe to exploit the geopolitical situation and turned communist. Under the Soviet Union patronage Cuba was taken over by Castro and his followers to build a society lacking everything a human being needs to be free. But the narrative he created resounded in the people of Latin America who felt excluded from development. Narratives are the ammunition of postmodern wars that out of perception create realities. Additionally the narrative positioned Cuba as the David fight the US Goliath. Most of Latin American nations and Europe became supporters. Latin American nations because their elites had no possibility of succeeding in competing in international trade, the Europeans because except for the UK they never truly accepted that the US was their liberator. And as time went by Castro clench to power and exported trouble to the Western Hemisphere. Only Venezuela denounced Cuban abuses in the 1960s. In 1991 his protector collapsed and by 1998 Castro had reinvented totalitarianism with financing from Venezuela. Multilateral organizations were created to spread trouble in thriving democracies. When Venezuela collapsed under the failed development formula conceived by Castro Cuba is left without means to finance trouble and with the same institutions that saw the light in the 16th century which are now unable to fight back for two reasons. First, we are in the digital economy and Cubans are now connected to the rest of the world through their own means. Second, young Cubans who have settled in the US after escaping Cuba have become small and medium sized entrepreneurs who have learned to exploit the business properties of the internet. And during the years of the Obama opening were busy bringing to Cuba modems, recycled smart phones; chargers and phone cards. The people of Cuba have created a network of exchanges with the outer world that has thought them among other things that the US is no vampire killer but a free society where their relatives are prospering, They have thus decided that a middle class status is achievable when the regime is jolted. And they are now busy doing just that. In the process they will be the first Latin Americans to destroy the main elements of the Castroist narrative. That the state can provide for all; that freedom is not necessary and that the US is an enemy. Lets now pray that the US plays its cards. And by so doing clearing the way to build democratic institutions putting to rest the legacy of Medieval Spain and Portugal.
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