Fidel Castro's Economic, Social, And Political Policies And Actions

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Fidel Castro's Economic, Social, and Political Policies and Actions
Introduction
Fidel Castro formed a communist regime in 1959 which compromised the economic, social and political policies as well as actions. Under the Fidel’s leadership, he pursued more radical socialist policies and further created a one-party government that exercised dictatorial powers to control the social, political, economic and cultural life of the Cubans. Fidel’s regime aimed at destroying every vestige of the old social order experienced in the country. Under the Fidel’s rule, human rights were not respected, the number of political prisoners increased and writing some articles and reading some books was forbidden. Cuba experienced political and economic changes during Fidel’s regime and his leadership was non-transferable. Under communism rule, the citizens are subjected to authoritarian rule which demand respect irrespective of its activities. Fidel established more radical policies through which all private businesses and industries were nationalized and several land reforms were established. Therefore, this led to explopriation of the American agricultural estates and businesses in Cuba. Cuba faced shortages of basic goods and services. The health care and educational systems remained at the lowest level and this aggravated the problems caused by Fidel’s communism regime. However, Fidel later expanded social services and accessibility of services such as health and education as they were made free to all and the Cubans were guaranteed of employment although the economy never expanded. Economic decisions were centralized and Fidel became an inept economic manager. Fidel’s regime faced trade embargo from U.S leading to sufferings among the Cubans and further legitimization to the rest of the world as it aimed to defeat Fidel’s regime. However, Fidel’s regime tried to open up to foreign direct investments, revival of tourism, easing of international trade and legalization of possession of foreign currency (Barberia, 11).
Social policies
Fidel Castro’s social policies during his reign were; the new man’s theory, socialistic policies, morality and educational and health services and guaranteed government employment of all Cubans. After Fidel Castrol gained power, the Cuban cultural identity was transformed and the new notion of “Cubanness” emerged as the Cubans were referred to as “New Man”. The new identity was simultaneously contributed by the writers during the initial days of the regime as they praised the regime while ignoring the problematic aspects. The politics based on the communism culture led to the formation of “New Man” culture which supported the spirit of revolution. The change received absolute backing, although there existed prophetic insights about the possible struggles that may arise from the fresh identity. Therefore, the “New Man” philosophy supported radical culture, but ignored the controversies surrounding the Cuban revolution. The New Man’s Theory was created by Fidel and Guevara and was meant to regulate work and job opportunities across Cuba. The Cubans were not supposed to work for personal gain but should work to benefit the society at large (Waller, 198).
According to Castro, freedom began with education and he ensured that education, sport facilities and medical care services were free for all Cubans. After Fidel acquired power in 1959, the Cubans experienced improvements in human rights accessibility such as health care and housing as well as unprecedented drive to improve literacy rates in Cuba. However, there remained most polarizing political figures than the leader as his social policies were progressive but deeply flawed. The main aim of Fidel’s revolution against the former President Batista was basically to enhance the freedom of the Cubans through restoring the 1940 constitution and not instill communism. The summarily executions of the political prisoners are morally incomprehensible as it is against human rights and this was the major characteristic of the Fidel’s regime (Amnesty International, 1).
The members of the previous regime before Castro faced trials and hundreds were summarily executed and the international community criticized the unfair trials. The regime argued that revolutionary justice was not based on legal precepts, but on moral execution as they claimed the members of the previous regimes were murderers and not innocent people or political prisoners. There was an improved access to services such as health education were universally accessible to all Cubans across the social classes and this was a positive achievement. However, apart from these social policy achievements, the regime’s half a century rule was characterized by an authoritarian clampdown of liberty of expression. The activists who tried to facilitate freedom of expression in Cuba faced arbitrary arrests and persecution for criticizing Fidel Castro’s regime. The regime ensured that no one criticized government policies and practices. Most of the people who criticized the government were imprisoned for putting into exercise their freedom and liberties such as speech and association. The regime applied repressive tactics to suppress freedom of expression and some people were incarcerated in long-term prison for political reasons. Therefore, the government took control of all aspects of the Cuban’s life and people were arrested and harassed for publishing sentiments protecting human rights and questioning arbitrary arrests (Waller, 222).
The Cubans had limited access to internet services as they were controlled by Fidel’s government through controlling access to information and freedom of expression. During his regime, only 25 percent of the Cubans had internet access with only 5 percent of households having internet access. The regime retained death penalty for all serious crimes and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishments (Amnesty International, 1).
The previous regime led by Fulgencio Batista undermined democracy of the Cubans under the new social reforms and allowed corruption in the government and allowed Cuba mobsters. The number of brothels, casinos, drug trade and racecourses increased during the regime and sex trade flourished and any one with cash was given approval to set up a casino. However, ordinary citizens continued to get impoverished and the social services were inadequate. However, soon after Castro’s regime led the revolutionary government, the Mafias were thrown out of the Country and the casinos and brothels were closed and later declared the country a one-party socialist state. All private radio, television stations and newspapers were closed down and taken over by the government. The American tourists were banned from visiting Cuba and the country started receiving military gears and training from the Soviet Union. The homosexuals were targeted by Castrol’s regime as they were perceived to be subversive and socially disruptive (Amnesty International, 1).
Therefore, Castrol’s regime had strong views on morality as he promised to fight corruption and had strong views on homosexuality. Through introduction of various social policies, the literacy level of the Cubans increased, the healthcare services became accessible to all social services as they became universally accessible to all Cubans across the social groups. Cuba had many political prisoners during the Fidel’s regime and there were no pluralistic elections and the Cubans were artificially impoverished through repression and devastated by Stalinist totalitarianism.
Economic policies
The Fidel’s regime was charac...