On November 25, 2016, Fidel Castro, the infamous communist revolutionary leader of Cuba, died. His funeral was expected to be a grand state affair—but in a moment of poetic symbolism, the military jeep carrying his ashes broke down midway through the procession. Soldiers were forced to push the vehicle, a scene that starkly mirrored the reality of modern Cuba: a broken nation propped up by its people, struggling under the weight of a decaying system.
The Cuban Revolution was once a rallying cry for change. Supporters, both inside and outside Cuba, believed it would bring an end to the corruption and brutality of Fulgencio Batista’s regime. But Fidel Castro betrayed that promise. Instead of a democratic rebirth, he delivered a Marxist police state—one that crushed civil liberties, stifled economic growth, and plunged the country into generational poverty.
Under Castro, Cuba devolved into a one-party system where a small group of elites thrived while ordinary citizens were left to suffer. Buildings in Havana stand as haunting relics of the past, many in such disrepair they look as if they’ve survived bombings. Scarcity defines daily life. Freedom of speech is non-existent. Political dissent is met with imprisonment or exile.
Yet somehow, the myth of Cuba’s revolution persists—especially among leftist intellectuals, activists, and media figures in the West. For decades, outlets like The New York Times wrote glowing pieces about Castro’s Cuba. Prominent American intellectuals, including poet Allen Ginsberg, praised the revolution. Even as the regime grew more authoritarian and Cubans fled in droves, college professors and self-proclaimed revolutionaries continued to romanticize what had clearly become a dictatorship.
These apologists ignore the harsh realities on the ground: government surveillance, ration lines, collapsing infrastructure, and systematic human rights abuses. If we were to apply the liberal doctrine of zero-tolerance for civil rights violations, Castro’s regime would be a clear and repeated offender. Yet, Cuba’s romanticized image endures.
This illusion must be dismantled.
The truth is that Cuba is not a socialist success story—it is a cautionary tale. What began as a revolution against tyranny ended by replacing one form of oppression with another. The promise of freedom was buried under the rubble of ideology. And today, the broken-down jeep carrying Castro’s remains is more than a moment in history—it is a metaphor for the collapse of a dream that was never real.
