Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

 FIDEL™S RESIGNATION
 
Frei Betto*

Fidel Castro, 81, has resigned from his responsibilities as President of the Cuban Council of State and Commander in Chief of the Revolution. Due to ill health, he prefers to stay out of government activity and to participate in political debate “ which has always enchanted him “ through his friends in the media. He remains, however, a member of the Political Bureau of the Cuban Communist Party.

On Sunday 24th February Raul Castro, 77 will be elected by the new members of the National Assembly to take over the job as Cuba™s head of state.

This is the second time Fidel has resigned from power.  The first time was in July 1959 seven months after the victory of the Revolution. As the elected prime minister he clashed with President Manual Urrutia, who considered radical the revolutionary laws such as agrarian reform promulgated by the council of ministers. In order to avoid a coup, the Cuban leader opted to resign. The people gathered in the streets in his support. Pressured by the demonstrations, Urrutia had no alternative but to resign. The presidency was then occupied by Osvaldo Dorticós and Fidel returned to being prime minister.

I was in Cuba in January this year participating in the International Meeting on World Equilibrium in light of the 155th anniversary of the birth of Jose Marti, a paradigmatic figure in the country. I returned there in mid February for another international event, the University Congress 2008, where several rectors of Brazilian universities participated.

I met Raul Castro and other Cuban ministers on both these occasions. I also met with the directors of FEU (University Students Federation), students from the University of Computer Science, primary and high school teachers and grassroots educators.

It would be an illusion to think that Fidel™s resignation means the beginning of the end of socialism in Cuba. Nothing points towards significant sectors of Cuban society aspiring to a return to capitalism. Not even the bishops of the Catholic Church. With the exception of a few who, in the name of human rights, would not mind if the future of Cuba were similar to what Honduras, Guatemala or Nicaragua are today. In fact, none of the people who left the country continued in defense of human rights once they became immersed in the enchanted world of consumerism.

Cuba is not opposed to change. Raul Castro himself unleashed an internal process of criticism of the Revolution through mass organizations and the professional sectors. There are more than a million suggestions being analysed by the government. The Cubans know that the difficulties are great, for they live in a geographically quadruple island, the only socialist nation in the West having lost its partnership with the Soviet Union and being blockaded for more than 40 years by the US government.

In spite of all this, the country merited praise from Pope John Paul II when he visited in 1998. In the 2007 United Nations Human Development Index,  Brazil celebrated the fact that it was in 70th place. The first 70 countries are considered to be the best in quality of life. Cuba, where nobody pays for the universal right to health and education of quality, was in 51st place.

The country has a 99.8% literacy rate, it has 70,594 doctors for a population of 11.2 million (one doctor for 160 inhabitants), an infant mortality rate of 5.3 per 1000 live births (in the USA it is seven and in Brazil 27), 800,000 students in 67 universities, with 606,000 students entering each year.

Cuba today maintains doctors and teachers working in more than 100 countries including Brazil and promotes, in the whole of Latin America, Operacion Milagros (Operation Miracles), to cure eye diseases free of charge and a literacy campaign Yo Si Puedo (Yes I Can) with results which convinced President Lula to adopt this method in Brazil.

Yes, there will be changes in Cuba when the USA blockade ends, when the five Cubans being held unjustly in Florida for struggling against terrorism are freed and if the naval base at Guantanamo now used as a clandestine prison “ world symbol of disrespect for human and civil rights “ for supposed terrorists were to be given back.

However, we cannot expect Cuba to remove two billboards from the gates into Havana which cause shame to us Latin Americans who live in islands of opulence surrounded by poverty on all sides: ”Every year, 80,000 children die from avoidable diseases. Not one of them is Cuban and ”Tonight 200 million children will sleep on the world™s streets. Not one of them is Cuban.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of ”Calendário do Poder (Calendar of Power) (Rocco), he is a Brazilian Dominican with an international reputation as a liberation theologian.
Within Brazil he is equally famous as a writer, with over 52 books to his name.  In 1985 he won Brazil™s most important literary prize, the Jabuti, and was elected Intellectual of the Year by the members of the Brazilian Writers™ Union.

Frei Betto has always been active in Brazilian social movements, and has been an adviser to the Church™s ministry to workers in Sáo Paulo™s industrial belt, to the Church base communities, and to the Landless Rural Workers™ Movement (MST).

In 2003-2004, he was Special Adviser to President Lula and Coordinator of Social Mobilisation for the Brazilian Government™s Zero Hunger programme.

Hintergrund von 2007:

Fidel Castro doch nicht fast tot

Brasiliens Befreiungstheologe Frei Betto nennt „unbequeme“ Pro-Kuba-Argumente
Wieder dumm gelaufen für die internationale CIA-Journaille – nach der Freude über den angeblich bevorstehenden Tod Fidel Castros auf einmal Fernsehbilder, die den Revolutionsführer in besserer Verfassung zeigen als vor Monaten. Ordentliche Argumente, Fakten zur Lage auf der Karibikinsel, zur Rolle der USA hat indessen die katholische Kirche parat, der Vatikan ebenso wie der brasilianische Befreiungstheologe, Bestsellerautor und Dominikanerbruder Frei Betto aus Sao Paulo.

Er erinnert daran, daß Kuba — und Castro – zehn Präsidenten der USA, über zwanzig CIA-Direktoren und selbst den Domino-Effekt des Falls der Berliner Mauer „überlebten“. Kuba habe bessere Sozialindikatoren als die reichsten Länder Lateinamerikas, sei die am meisten alphabetisierte Nation dieser Region. Die Kindersterblichkeit sei so niedrig wie in Schweden. Wegen solcher Fortschritte habe sogar Papst Johannes Paul der Zweite bei seinem Besuch von 1998 Kuba gelobt. Laut Frei Betto verließen viele Kubaner die Insel aus Faszination für den „american way of life.“ Auffällig sei indessen, daß gerade die Gefängnisse der USA voll von geflüchteten Kubanern seien.
Für jemanden, der in Brasilien zu den Reichen gehöre, wäre ein Leben in Kuba die Hölle. Ähnlich sähe es für brasilianische Mittelschichtler aus. Wer in Brasilien indessen arbeitslos oder Lohnempfänger sei, „würde den Himmel kennenlernen: In Kuba gibt es keine Arbeitslosigkeit, keine Slums, keine städtische Gewalt. Allen sind die drei Grundrechte Ernährung, Gesundheit und Bildung sicher. Welches andere Land auf dem Kontinent garantiert diese Menschenrechte der gesamten Bevölkerung?“
Der Dominikanerbruder erinnert an das frühere Argument, Kuba könne sich nur dank der Sowjetunion halten. „Die ist verschwunden – doch die Revolution ging deshalb nicht unter.“
Rio de Janeiro hat etwa ebensoviele Einwohner wie Kuba – derzeit machen am Zuckerhut immer mehr an der Irak-Agression beteiligte US-Soldaten von Washington bezahlten Fronturlaub – und vorhersehbar als Sextouristen Negativschlagzeilen. Havanna, beinahe ganz Kuba, war früher ein abstoßender Ami-Puff, nicht nur für Soldaten, etwa die aus Guantanamo. Ärgerlich für diese Klientel heute – würde es wieder so wie früher, brauchte man nicht etwa nach Rio zu fliegen.
Frei Betto stellt die Frage: Wenn Kuba so fürchterlich ist, warum zieht es mehr Touristen an als das ganze riesige Brasilien?
Mit oder ohne Castro werde Kuba sich verändern müssen. „Ich hoffe indessen, daß Kubas Zukunft nicht die Gegenwart des Rests von Lateinamerika sein wird: Formal-Demokratien, eingekreist von Misere, Drogen, Gewalt und Arbeitslosigkeit.“ In Brasilien werden jährlich über 55000 Menschen ermordet, werden in Rio im Parallelstaat der Slums vom organisierten Verbrechen Mißliebige lebendig verbrannt. Wieviele waren es doch gleich in Kuba?
Frei Betto hofft zudem, daß auch künftig jene große Aufschrift am Flughafen „Jose Marti“ von Havanna stimmen wird:“Diese Nacht schlafen Millionen von Kindern dieser Welt auf der Straße. Keines davon ist ein kubanisches.“ Ob an der Copacabana, der Avenida Brasil oder der Avenida Presidente Vargas, nach einem Hitlerverehrer und Judenhasser benannt – Kinder, ganze verelendete Großfamilien, die in Dreck und Müll, umkreist von Ratten und großen Schaben, auf der Straße schlafen, sieht man in Rio de Janeiro nachts reichlich. Die Stadt hat rund tausend Slums. Demokratische Verhältnisse sozusagen.