Former Cuban President Fidel Castro died this past Friday at age 90, though he has hardly been in public since his health started to deteriorate in 2006.
Castro rose to power in 1959 in an underdog Marxist Revolution and defied the United States for the next half century.
A lot is being written about Castro in the wake of his death. Our own regular contributor John L. Smith has a piece on the CDC-Gaming Reportswebsite that states -- with tongue only slightly in cheek -- that the lights of the Las Vegas Strip ought to be dimmed in honor of Castro’s passing.
Las Vegas also has one of the foremost experts on Latin American political history. Tom Wright is a distinguished professor emeritus at UNLV and has written extensively on Latin America, including the book, "Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution."
Wright points out that the Cuban Revolution energized the poor in Central and South America as much as it appalled people in the U.S.
“The status quo was under threat in most of Latin America,” he said.
Wright said that many of the decisions made by the U.S. government at the time were attempts to stop the revolution in Cuba from spreading to other countries in Latin American.
Like the decision to launch the disastrous attempt at overthrowing Castro known as the Bay of Pigs, which ultimately sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States government pledged not to invade again and lived up to that pledge but they didn’t pledge not to try to assassinate Castro and there were numerous attempts,” he said.
Wright said long time Las Vegas resident Robert Mayheu worked with the CIA on foiled assassination attempts against Castro. One involved a poison wet suit. Another CIA tactic was to send up a series of flares declaring Jesus had returned, in hopes that the Cuban people would abandon Castro. It didn't work.
After all the history of tension between the two countries, the thawing of relations surprised some people.
Wright wonders if the new relations with Cuba - opened by President Obama and brokered by Pope Francis - will be continued with Donald Trump.
Whatever does happened in a Trump Administration, a rollback of the formal embargo must be done by Congress and Wright doesn't believe that is likely.
Wright says Cuba may adopt the Chinese model, where the economy is more open but political system will still be controlled by the Communist Party.
He says if relations do stay open between the two countries, there is likely to be some tension around human rights issues. The problem, says Wright, is how the two countries approach human rights. The U.S. points to the lack of free expression in Cuba. Cuba points out the lack of equality in the U.S. Neither, he says, fully comply with the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights.
Tom Wright, distinguished professor emeritus of history at UNLV.
