Word: fidel
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Cubans have never expressed their discontent more openly or across such a broad spectrum. Many now speak frankly of their frustration with the entire communist system -- and even with Fidel. Well aware that a local official of the omnipresent Committees for the Defense of the Revolution is listening, a bitter young professional says, "I hate Fidel. I think everyone hates Fidel." An elderly woman confirms that the sentiment is not limited to the young: "People who were with him a year ago are against...
...majority of Cubans, both for and against Castro, fear he cannot lead them out of the current economic crisis. Some of the party faithful, who have always claimed Fidel enjoyed universal support, now acknowledge he may command the allegiance of only half the populace. Reformers are exasperated -- and worried -- by Castro's slow pace of change since he legalized the dollar a year ago. "The problem is not just food shortages," says a historian still loyal to socialism and Fidel. "The government has to redesign the whole system. If we don't reform and the U.S. blockade remains, the only...
...there is no hope for a better life now," says the doctor, because he does not believe Castro will ever initiate full-scale reform. "There is a lot of support for the government in an emotional way," he reflects. "You hear a lot of old ladies talking about Fidel as if he were Jesus Christ. But young people are like...
...topple Castro. Like the 1980 Mariel boatlift, which carried 125,000 Cubans to Florida, this summer's exodus -- 23,000 so far -- is siphoning off the worst malcontents, relieving some of the pressure on Castro. "People in the U.S. think things here could change rapidly, but I'm sure Fidel will be in power a long time," he says. Cubans are concentrating not on protesting but on building rafts. If necessary, say government sources, Castro is willing to shed 1 million of the island's 11 million people...
...Fidel and the older generation, who are proud of the superior education and health system handed down to their children, to leave is to break faith with the revolution. "Tell my son I'm fine," says Teodomira Rodriguez, standing in the doorway of her small pensioner's apartment in the Vedado section of Havana. The 62-year-old widow said goodbye to her two sons last month: Rafael, 34, died at sea; Pedro, 32, survived but was hospitalized in Miami with dehydration and blisters after six days afloat. "They left because of the economic problems," she says...