Cuba Between the End of the Revolution’s Gains and U.S. Oppression

Cuba’s revolution once gave education a central place in national policy. After overthrowing Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the government launched a major literacy campaign in 1961 that received praise from UNESCO.

With extensive Soviet backing, the Cuban regime also built education and healthcare systems that, in the commentary’s view, made much of Latin America envious. Those achievements formed part of the revolution’s claims to legitimacy.

The collapse of the Soviet Union changed that picture. The commentary says Cuba’s revolutionary gains weakened year after year, leaving them, 67 years after the revolution, as little more than a vague memory.

It links the island’s decline to the departure of young Cubans, who are leaving in large numbers because they see no future. The accompanying reference to the “tragic destruction” of Cuba’s education system reinforces the article’s bleak assessment of present conditions.

The piece also directs criticism at the Trump administration, arguing that it is brutalizing Cuba rather than opening the country to the outside world. Its central contrast is between a period when Soviet support enabled major public achievements and a present marked by deteriorating institutions and youth emigration.