Like millions of other exiled Cubans, Yoe Suarez is watching with surprise and with hope as the Trump administration works to finally end the Castro family’s iron grip on Cuba and its struggling population. That effort is being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is himself of Cuban descent.
Rubio has been in secret talks with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, age 41. He is a blood relative of Fidel Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother and successor.
Suarez, who fled Cuba after reporting on government corruption there, told the “Washington Watch” program the daily struggle to survive in Cuba is the “logical conclusion” of living under socialism.
“It's this concentration of power, in a state that is inefficient and that is really corrupt," he complained, “like the state in Cuba, run by the Castro family for almost 70 years now."
Fidel Castro, then age 32, took power in 1959 with his guerilla arm after overthrowing the Batista regime. He quickly established a Communist-run nation and deposed political opponents and uncertain allies.
Cuba’s farm workers, taxi drivers, police officers, and doctors currently survive on a state-controlled pay scale decided by the Council of Ministers. That pay scale ranges from approximately $20 to $60 a month in U.S. dollars, but that meager monthly pay has worsened over the years as food prices jumped and the value of the peso has declined.
Cuba’s sliding scale was introduced in 2008, when Raul Castro dropped the strict “salary equality” begun under his murderous brother Fidel Castro in the 1960s.
Despite those reforms, which happened when Fidel was ailing and out of power, Forbes once estimated Fidel Castro’s wealth at $1 billion since he personally controlled everything from tourism to pharmaceuticals in Cuba.
A former Fidel Castro bodyguard, Juan Sanchez, told the West the communist leader enjoyed a private island, an 85-foot yacht, and lived in 20 mansions.
Such luxury was summarized in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” by top pig Napolean who famously stated “some animals are more equal than others.”
In a related article last week about the Castro family, Suarez warned the Trump administration could be walking into a “trap” set by the Castro family. That trap, he wrote, is believing the Castro family is open to big free-market reforms when the family members really want to cling to the vast wealth they already control across the nation.
Suarez told "Washington Watch" many Cuban-Americans believe Rubio is well aware of the murderous, greedy and powerful Castro family. So there is hope the Trump administration will not accept a future in Cuba in which any Castro family members remain in power.
"We want real democracy. We want Cuba to be a beacon of freedom," Suarez said.
