> George Thomas
I'm not sure if you are referring positively to the Black Book here or not, but if so, may I toss my two coins in? Apart from the cooked numbers that appear in that august tome (a few of which I referred to in an earlier post), I don't think you can compare, in the terms of this thread so far, Cuba or the late Sandinista experiment to the rest of capitalist Latin America and the Caribbean. In simple terms of living conditions, Cuba has long provided a better standard of living for more of its citizens than any of the US client states in Central America, and certainly better than the larger countries like Peru or Brazil. The most recent infant mortality rate in Cuba (for 2000) remains at 7.2 per 1000 births -- as good as the US, and better than the poorest parts of this country. Take a look at the figures for capitalist El Salvador and Guatemala, and the numbers are in the 30s and 40s per 1000 births. Nicaragua, returned to "freedom" over a decade ago, is at 40 per 1000 births -- a massive drop from the early years of Sandinista rule, when Nicaraguans began to receive free medicine and better access to information about nutrition. Of course, US contra terrorism ended this, and by the 1990 elections, when the Sandinistas were voted out (so much for their "failed totalitarian" plans -- Stalin would have been impressed), the infant mortality rate dropped to an astounding 60 per 1000 births -- worse than Haiti (another shining beacon to capitalism). As one "conservative" on another list crowed to me when reading these numbers, "Look! A twenty percent rise!" from 60 to 40. Huzzah. Three cheers.
Now, there are many criticisms one can make against Castro (and I've made them), but if the discussion is about quality of life in capitalist and communist states, "quality" here meaning health and nutrition, Cuba and Nicaragua of the early 80s put the other countries of the region to shame. And if we wish to talk about political freedom, I could make a case that Sandinista Nicaragua was far more democratic than any of the US client states (despite what the Holy Black Book says), and indeed more democratic than the US was during WWI, when the Wilson administration cracked down on dissent in a manner that had the Sandinistas done it, you and others would label it beyond "totalitarian."
DP