Julián Letters Concerning the Blockade and Effects of Ending It

Dear friends, I would like to send to you here some information to answer a friend who asked what do I think about the blockade and what importance the battle to lift it has for us today.¨ To try to give you my point of view in this matter I have to go a little back to 1959. When Revolution began and the laws against American possessions in Cuba came to affect the interest of the USA, what is called the "embargo" by your people and "blockade" by our people was imposed. At that moment all our technology and around a 90% of the supplies were from the USA and were cut off completely. That make us spend a very bad time in the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. If at that moment the Revolution didn`t downturn  it was because in 1959 the majority of the population was poor people and those people had begun to receive the benefits of the social improvements. So what happened: the majority got a better situation and the rich and middle class that were a minority lost their privileges and adopted one of two positions 1) go to USA to wait for the Revolution fall down (the majority of them did this), or 2) understand what  the Revolution was doing and began to fight together with the poor people for the Revolution. You must understand that all this process is much more complex that what I have tried to explain to you in one paragraph.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, arrivals of tankers like this one to Havana harbor became few and far between.   Public transportation was seriously affected; Cuba responded by building huge "camel" buses and the extensive use of bicycles.

In the middle of the 1970s our relations with the Soviet Union and the Socialist European countries began to increase and we changed almost all our technology and the source of our supplies in fair bases of an undeveloped country with developed ones. From the middle of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s the blockade was not a major problem to us. Understand that when I say that the blockade was not a major problem to us, it is because we solved most of our problems in the Socialist countries that are far away from us. In those years all our population began to get more or less the same increasing living standard. So the poor majority continued increasing their living standard and the other groups that went down at the beginning started to go up also. In the 1990s when the Socialist countries went down,  what we have called a second blockade happened to us  because we lost almost all our supplier market and the market for our exports. In that moment almost all our technology was from those countries. So it reached the point that we had to change all that again. At that moment the USA strengthened the blockade first with the Torricelli law and afterward with the Helms-Burton one. At that moment of course the blockade was a big problem to us. From 1990 to 1995, our incomes were reduced by around  37%. The living standard of all the people went down. And every day everybody outside Cuba and even some people inside were waiting for the Revolution to collapse. Excuse me all the time I am taking with this. Maybe it is very abstract but I hope it gives you the point of view of somebody that lived here all that time. Off course you have to take into account that I am not against the Revolution.

Now I`m in a position to comment on your opinions. Because of all this situation we began to make concessions. Of course only economical concessions. These concessions created for us many political and, principally, social problems, because they began to create differences in our population. People that were working less than others got more money. Possibilities arose for some people to acquire goods that others cannot get. Tourist places where Cubans can not go freely. etc, etc. But the question was, do we lose everything keeping the Revolution very pure or do we make some economical concessions to save the principal goals of the Revolution? We decided on the second course, and since 1995, our incomes have been increasing slightly but increasing. Of course the situation is yet very bad and it will be a great help for us that the blockade be lifted. The other question is when this is going to happened. My opinion (and not only mine, you can find Wayne Smith former chief of the Interest Office of USA in Havana saying the same thing) is that the blockade will not be lifted until the big interests, let's say the big companies of USA will want to. It is not a question of the Democrats or the Republicans, it is a problem of interest as it was in China, Viet Nam, Iran and others. Julián

Cuba has concentrated tourism development in areas like beautiful Varadero Beach.

Dear friends, I want to address here some of the misinformation about the effects of the blockade and what will happen if it is lifted.  About the blockade against Cuba there are still different myths that I think will not be easy to take out of the minds of many around the world because of all the misinformation they have been receiving for so many years, so I make the following remarks:

One myth is that the blockade is because Cuba had been backing up an ideological war in Latin America. Let me make some remarks here. In these 7 months if something good is gotten out of it is that the CANFers revealed all the lies that they can tell to the public, so now I´m sure that many people who before believed what they said will now read other sources. We defend a different type of ideology and in Latin America where were installed many military dictatorships we backup many revolutionary movements. When theses military dictatorships were thrown out by democratic governments we stopped our backup. Another myth is that lifting the blockade will permit Castro to build a Swiss bank account. For that I say, be assured that the incomes that will be received from lifting the blockade will be distributed in the way you can see today in our budget, where education, health and social benefits are the principal recipients. Something that worries some of our good friends is what harm the American companies are going to do to us when the blockade is lifted. So I answer. About the introduction of American companies in the Cuban market, don´t worry. In first place they will have to face the competition of the European, Canadian and companies from other part of the world that are already established in our market, and afterward they will have to follow our  conditions to make business as we do with all the others. It's not going to be so easy. Another myth that there is about Cuba is what is going to happen when Castro is not here and if Raul is going to succeed him. I answer. In this case this is another myth that says that Castro is everything in Cuba. Be sure that he is a very great smart leader and because of that he has been all these years preparing his successors that is not going to be Raul. There are a lot of younger leaders that will follow him without any problem. About the different opinions that exist between the Cubans outside Cuba and the ones in Cuba and how this can operate inside Cuba I say:  Be sure that in Cuba you will find a population of 11 million different opinions. But there are questions that unite many people. I´m sure that in Cuba when you try to be against Fidel you will find more than 8 million against you. If you tell to them that they are going to lose all the advantages that they received because of the Revolution 10.5 million will be against you. Maybe if you talk against another official maybe you will get against you only 1 or 2 million. To know the truth you have to live in Cuba and exchange ideas with many people. I hope with this information you can see the perspective of someone who lives in Cuba on these questions. Julián

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Text (c) 2000 J. Gutierrez Photos (c) 2000 C. O'Hara