Castro Turns 78 Rolling Back Capitalism in Cuba Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:16 AM ET
By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro turns 78 on Friday striving to roll back creeping capitalism in the socialist society he built from a guerrilla revolution in 1959.
The world's longest-serving Communist leader has belied forecasts of his demise since the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived the Caribbean island of billions of dollars in subsidies and plunged its 11 million people into economic hardship.
"Fidel, like his country, has continued to defy the odds," said Canadian historian and Cuba expert John Kirk, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
"Still remarkably lucid at 78, despite slowing down noticeably, he clearly remains determined to stay around and protect the revolutionary legacy of Cuba," Kirk said.
Ten summers ago, angered by shortages and long power cuts, Cubans took to the streets, smashed shop windows and looted central Havana stores in an unprecedented outburst of unrest.
Castro, dressed in his trademark green uniform, showed up in a military jeep to quell the riots with his charismatic presence. Cubans, who had been shouting against the government minutes before, began chanting "Viva Fidel."
Castro released simmering social pressures by letting tens of thousands of Cubans take to sea in flimsy rafts bound for the United States.
Also in response to the economic crisis, from 1993 he reluctantly allowed limited private enterprise and legalized the U.S. dollar to ease economic hardship, while opening up Cuba to tourism and foreign investment.
A decade later, Cuba's one-party Communist government is retrenching and reasserting state control over the economy. It has cut back permits for private traders and small businesses and has begun strengthening its hold over state corporations, especially in tourism, the island's main source of hard currency. There, military officers have moved into key posts.
Foreign investment has slowed to a trickle, and discouraged investors complain they don't feel welcome anymore as officials move to reverse market-oriented reforms.
HORRIFIED BY CHINA
Western observers said Castro was shocked by the rapid move to capitalism and growing social differences he witnessed in China last year.
"There is no coincidence that a lot of this has happened since he visited China. Many people say he was horrified with what he saw," said a European ambassador.
"He is the sort of man who does not want to see his legacy diluted in his lifetime," the diplomat said, adding that Castro was probably unaware of the extent of social decay in Cuba.
Cuba's free education, health care and social safety net are seen as a model by many poor developing countries. Its literacy and infant mortality rates are on a par with rich nations.
Castro's critics say that comes at the expense of freedom. Most Cubans are forced to scrape a living together, cope with bad housing and poor public services. Furthermore, they cannot leave Cuba at will and dissent is stamped out, the critics say.
Facing growing discontent over economic difficulties, Castro last year ordered the arrest of 75 dissidents who were sentenced to jail terms of up to 28 years for conspiring with Washington.
Repression of a budding opposition movement and the execution by firing-squad of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to leave Cuba brought international outrage that led to a diplomatic freeze with the European Union that deepened Havana's isolation.
Increased efforts by the Bush administration to oust the Cuban leader and prepare for a transition to democracy have only served to "goad" him to dig his heels in, said Kirk.
With the economy in better shape than a decade ago, Cuba's conservatives no longer feel the need to make concessions by opening up the economy, and retrenchment will continue, he said.
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