Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jared K. Carter, an assistant professor of law at Vermont Law School and a legal expert on Cuba and U.S. policy in Cuba. He has worked, lived, and taught law in Cuba for more than a decade.Â
Recently, pundits, politicians, and pontificators have asserted that Bernie Sanders’ nuanced analysis of the Cuban literacy brigades was inappropriate. However, while these individuals are certainly free to express their views on Cuba, I fear that many of them lack any actual firsthand knowledge of the facts. Having taught and lived in Cuba for significant stretches of my career, the truth is that in the United States we’re used to only one version of Fidel Castro and Cuba. The media here has portrayed him mostly as a despot whose only goal was to maintain power in Cuba. And while I don’t begrudge anyone their views, the truth is that Fidel Castro and Cuba also had a positive impact on millions of the world’s most impoverished people. That is just a fact.
As a constitutional lawyer and teacher, I know that freedom of speech, the press, and political association are fundamental rights that should never be abridged. However, under Fidel Castro, Cuba became virtually the only country in the world to guarantee the equally fundamental rights to education, health care, housing, and basic nutrition to all Cubans.
At the same time, Cuba sent thousands of doctors and teachers to countries all over the developing world in what Cuba called “doctor diplomacy.” At the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, there are currently hundreds of students from all over the third world studying medicine for free. This includes more than a dozen American students who’ve committed to returning to disadvantaged parts of America to practice medicine among the poor in exchange for their free education.
If a developing country like Cuba can do this – it certainly seems possible to me that as the wealthiest country on earth we might be able to feed, house, and educate our own population without driving students into debt and single mothers into the street.
While we’re taught to revere leaders such as Nelson Mandela in his battle against apartheid, many Americans might be surprised to know that Mandela and Fidel were close friends. And Mandela was quoted as saying that the unflappable support of Fidel Castro and the Cuban people was a major factor in the victory over apartheid. Mandela believed that the liberation of South Africa and Angola from the scourge of apartheid and colonialism was a direct result of Cuba’s commitment to send doctors, teachers, and soldiers to Africa. As Sanders correctly pointed out, the truth is the truth. In fact, on his first state visit to post-apartheid South Africa, the national congress gave Fidel a standing ovation as he entered the legislative chamber.
Castro was a controversial figure. But, the factual record also demonstrates that from Haiti to Angola, from El Salvador to Chile, Fidel’s Cuba played an outsized role that benefited impoverished millions living out their lives throughout the global south.