Life for Ordinary Cubans

 Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive and author of ‘Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.’ was interviewed recently by Jayme Poisson on CBC Podcasts News Front Burner who asked …

Havana Harbour

“And what about life for ordinary Cubans on the island?”

There's a lot of controversy about Fidel's legacy in Cuba. On the one hand, he universalized education, he made sure that all Cubans had health care. He expanded Cuba's doctors program not only to create many, many doctors for the Cubans themselves, but also a surplus of doctors to send around the world. They are still in countries now, although the Trump administration is pressuring those countries to expel Cuban doctors. And you know, so the Cuban Revolution had for a while great fame for its levels of education and the levels of health care but of course, there were no kind of democratic rights, there was no opposition. There were no political parties besides the Communist Party that Fidel led. He was in power for over 50 years. And then, of course, his brother took over from him, Raul Castro. So, you know the, Cuba is, I think, a great mixed legacy. In the end, when the revolution in some ways depended on having subsidies from first the Soviet Union and then from countries like China and then finally Venezuela. So in some ways the revolution was kind of made possible by these very unique arrangements that Castro was able to secure but once those arrangements were no longer possible, as is the case today, the Cubans are looking at the United States once again becoming the dominant patron and dominant power in Cuban society, Cuban economy and Cuban politics. And that's where we are today. (Kornbluh, 2026)

References

Kornbluh, P. (2026, March 25). America’s long standoff with Cuba - Transcript. CBC Radio Front Burner. Retrieved March 31, 2026, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/americas-long-standoff-with-cuba-transcript-9.7141962