Fidel Castro would have turned 100 on Thursday, and his legacy is still felt on the island as he remains revered by some in the face of a crippling US energy blockade and blamed by others who see him as the architect of the system that led to Cuba’s current crisis. This week, Cuba commemorated Castro with events including the International Book Fair, art exhibitions, concerts, and gatherings of delegates from leftist organizations. Posters bearing his image hang in hospitals, while billboards displaying his slogans—including his widely known “Homeland or Death”—line the streets, the AP reports. His presence is so familiar that many Cubans still refer to him simply as Fidel.
“I believe (Castro) leaves Cuba a legacy of dignity, morality, tireless work and concern for the poor,” writer and essayist Miguel Barnet, who is a member of the National Assembly, said. “And a philosophy that was translated into concrete policies in areas such as culture, education and public health.” Castro’s centennial comes as Cuba faces an intensifying squeeze that began when the Trump administration imposed a fuel blockade in January and followed up with a series of sanctions aimed at pressuring the communist government to make political and economic changes. The measures have deepened a five-year economic crisis fueled by earlier U.S. sanctions and a failed domestic financial overhaul. For Cubans, the effects have been far-reaching: prolonged power outages, shortages of fuel and medicine, declining industrial and tourism activity, flight cancellations, transportation restrictions and reduced work and school hours.
In 1953, Castro and more than 100 others attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro was captured and later released, then went into exile in Mexico. He returned to Cuba and launched a guerrilla campaign that culminated in Batista’s ouster in 1959 and Castro’s rise to power. Castro radically transformed Cuba through agrarian reform, a literacy campaign, and the nationalization of private businesses, policies that put his government on a collision course with the US. Castro handed over the presidency to his brother in 2008. He remained influential until his death in 2016. “Fidel left us everything, everything good that came from Cuba’s revolutionary process,” said Argelia Mustelier, a 61-year-old retiree who lives in Old Havana. “In these difficult times we’re living through, he would have found a way to bring some happiness to his country and his people.”