Friday, January 3, 2014
Changes in Castro's Style of Government, 1970-90
After Che Guevara was killed in 1967, Castro lost one of his major allies from the Western Hemisphere. What were some of the ways that Castro tried to strengthen his own influence, as well as that of the Communist party in the 1970s and 1980s? To what extent did Cuba become more dependent on the Soviet Union by the 1980s? How do you think this will affect Cuba when the USSR dissolves in 1991?
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It seems as if Castro did a good job of recognizing the failures/weaknesses of his government and enacting policies to strengthen them. His reformed Constitution created a more streamlined government, but ultimately re-enforced the face he was in charge. His "rectification" allowed Castro and his followers to step out of this idealism of a perfect state and focus more on what really can be achieved. However as Cuba saw little economic growth, these policies were substituted with those of "austerity" in the 1980s. This was strained though as Cuba found itself stuck with only the Soviet Union as a trading partner. This foreshadows the ultimate downfall of Communist Cuba after the Soviet Union dissipates.
ReplyDeleteCastro did a good job of increasing political repression and adjusting organization of the Cuban government. He was still in control, and by using his rectification he was able to combine revolutionary idealism with hard practical realism to achieve a well-working economy. However, these new strategies did not result in economic growth, and with that came more dependency on the USSR for purchasing sugar, oil, and more. By the 1980s, Cuba was in debt to the USSR by $7 billion. So after the USSR's communist government collapses in 1991, Cuba is in deep economic trouble, in what is called "the Special Period."
ReplyDeletebecause of the dramatic shift Castro put into place the economy was struggling and becoming more and more dependent on the USSR. Castro had to shift from his idea of immediately forming an ideal country/government and start dealing with the issues that were arising from the changes he was making. such as people leaving Cuba; Castro had to start putting efforts towards keeping people in the country in order for the work force to stay constant. when the USSR dissolves this leads to more issues for Cuba's economy.
ReplyDeleteCastro had to try and keep people from leaving the Cuba. he needed support, and that stems from having people to back you up. People may have wanted to leave Cuba, and he had to enforce that they stayed.
ReplyDeletebeard
Though Castro had a fantasic beard, people still wanted to flea. In my opinion, people were so scared of his facial hair that they believed it was only a matter of time before it attacked the innocent citizens. He had to convince them to stay however there was no way in hell he would shave that piece of art work located on his chin.
ReplyDeleteBeard
As everyone has said above, Castro stepped away from his initial utopian idea of Cuba. After evaluations, Castro reformed the Cuban constitution. He sealed the walls of Cuba to keep the people from getting western ideas, and solidifying his control over the people, the media, the economy, etc. As this started to fail more and more, his need for Soviet aid increased heavily, and when the USSR fell, so did Cuba.
ReplyDeleteCastro was extremely realistic when it came to the issues in the Cuban government. He used authority to make Cuba more interdependent and having more control of the people. However, when shifting away from the US, Castro leaned to heavily on the USSR and as a result, Cuba suffered when the USSR fell. It seems as if the USSR was a rebound from the US, but it was not a safe go-to once Cuba needed too much aid.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the reading, Castro did recognized and admitted that the failed 1970 harvest program me and revealed the limitations of the previous approach, he decided on a policy of depersonalizing the revolution. A new cons tuition was adopted which did things such as, declare Cuba as a soloist state, borden the base to central authority. Under rectification commoners are encouraged to work hard based on the incentives, new technologies like computers are introduced to offices and industries , studies were conducted to make work practices more productive. Rectification has achieved significant improvements in the first two years but GDP returned to 4% annual growth after. Because the US embargo restricted the outlets for Cuban products to a limited number of countries, Cuba’s trade balances stays deicit which made Cuba’s need for the USSR continue to purchase bulk of its sugar at a fixted price. Because Cuba turns out to be particularly susceptible to adverse changes in world sugar prices, when USSR collapse,they will experience a severe income trauma.
ReplyDelete