We left the resort grounds and made several trips into the countryside. We met a number of Cubans whose families had been working the land for generations. Western propoganda has done immeasurable damage to the way in which Cuba is viewed internationally. The people are wonderful! An overwhelming percentage (90%+) support Castro and the Revolution ... even those Cubans that fled to the USA support the Revolution, but not Castro.
... his one-party state jailed dissidents, ruined the economy and led hundreds of thousands to flee to America. Yet Castro's social welfare system won him the popular support. Universal education, almost guaranteed employment and quality health care were the Communist leader's great achievements. They were savoured all the more because they occurred without Western aid and in the teeth of an American economic embargo first imposed in 1961. Castro could boast that, according to World Bank figures, infant mortality in Cuba was seven per 1,000 live births, compared with 30 in the Caribbean as a whole, and primary school enrolment on his island was close to 100 per cent. Castro managed to preserve Cuba's welfare system despite the economic crisis caused by the loss of support from the former Soviet Union ...
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