Part 2 - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

CUBA B.C. (before Castro) was indeed a paradise; not only for its natural beauty, the fantastic beaches and the fine colonial architecture. Our nation enjoyed economical and social advantages over the rest of Latin American countries. With a population of six million inhabitants, there were about 3,600 factories of all kinds and an innumerable amount of big and small businesses throughout the island, such as butcher shops, fish markets, bakeries (with the most delicious bread I've ever tasted) pharmacies, restaurants and cafeterias. Every city had many food, clothing, shoes, jewelry, electronics, furniture, hardware and appliance stores. You name them, we had them. All stocked with good quality products, in ample supply and at reasonable prices.

The streets and stores were teeming with well dressed people. There were not many millionaires, but not many poor people either. Cubans were pacific, happy, musical people. We created the zapateo, habanera, son, son montuno, danza, danzon, decima criolla, guajira de salon, bolero, rumba, conga, pregon, guaracha, guaguanco, pachanga, charanga, mambo, cha-cha, etc. Not a single new rhythm has been created after Castro!

Cuba had more than 160 sugar mills and over 200 sugar refineries. We had 40 national and international banks with 200 branches. In 1958, there were a total of five and a half million meat cattle, with almost one million milking cows. The industry supplied the home market with abundant meat and also exported cattle. (The bovine population today is one third of what it used to be, and meat is used for export or the tourist industry. When it is clandestinely obtained by a Cuban, it is referred to as "la prohibida", the forbidden one. If caught in fraganti, you are condemned to a four-year jail sentence.)

There were over 300 private companies of public transportation with approximately 5,000 buses. There were more than 60 freight companies with almost 50,000 trucks to transport goods all over the island. (The only good buses today are for tourists. The people have to travel standing up on the old freight trucks, horse-drawn carts, bicycles, by horse, or create their own method.)

Very little of the above mentioned products are available today in CUBA A.C. (after Castro) unless people have dollars to buy them at special shops. The stores that were once full of merchandise started to become empty as soon as they were nationalized. What was the reason to do this? Little by little they all disappeared. Now there are long lines to buy a single product. What happened to all these fine stores? Now when a product is available, a long line is formed right away. But why are all these Cuban products not available anymore? Anybody can see that it is not because of the U.S. embargo, as Castro illogically claims.

I cannot detail all the atrocities that Castro have inflicted on the Cuban people, because it would take me too long. Read my book "PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. A personal reflection on the island of Cuba" if you are interested in knowing the whole truth. E-mail me at alvarcorp@msn.com for details.

If you read my book, you will coincide with me that Cuba is not a communist country. The separation of classes, the incredible difference between the hospitals for high officials and foreigners with dollars, the fact that nationals are forbidden to enter fancy hotels and restaurants that are exclusively for tourists, are all the opposite of the communist doctrine teachings. Cuba is a totalitarian tyranny, led by a brutal, sanguinary, egotistical psychopath. And do not ask me about his brother. He is probably worse.
I'm going to touch just a little on the jail system. There have been political prisoners in Cuba during other dictatorships. During the terrible term of Gerardo Machado, from 1929 to 1933, there were about 5,000 men in jail. About 500 prisoners were kept during Batista's dictatorship. Up to date, more than one million Cubans have served sentences in Castro's infamous jails, ranging from one to thirty years. One of every 11 citizens is now of have been in prison!

But I think that the most appalling and miserable effect of the Cuban revolution is the separation of the families. The suffering and anguish that Castro's obstinate ego inflicted on the families defies explanation. This is the crime for which he will never be able to pay, not even if we hang him from his genitals.

I suffered on my own flesh the consequences of exile from my country. I had to wait nineteen long years to finally be allowed to go back and visit my family. I saw my mother, on that occasion, for only a couple of days and my father for just two hours. Others had it much worse. Innocent children that left their homeland never to see their parents again. Men that drowned in the Gulf of Mexico leaving the rest of their relatives behind. Whole families that have been shot down by Cuban patrol boats while trying to escape. Each case is a denouncing testimonial to my homeland's agony.

This is just a glimpse of Castro's Cuba. So immensely different of the one before that dreadful date of January 1, 1959. I pray that some day (please God, before I die) Cuba will return to the same old, democratic, happy country that I once knew.

VIEW PHOTOS OF CUBA BC & AC