Argentina and Cuba, a painful legacy

By: Pedro Corzo - 27/11/2023

Guest columnist.
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Javier Milei's victory can lead Argentina to a better destiny if he manages to break the populist legacy of Juan Domingo Perón, as international journalist Leandro Gasco and analyst Celso Sarduy describe, the clientelistic policy initiated by the general and politician, reiterated by his successors.

Perón was a populist leader who had the ability to communicate with the popular classes and make them believe, not just once, but on three occasions, that only he was capable of solving the nation's problems.

For those familiar with the situation of the great country of the southern cone, the populist legacy of Perón and his followers has negatively burdened an important sector of the population with a harmful dependence on the state. In his opinion, the clientelistic policy of Peronism only generates parasites of the state, a condition that can be repeated in other countries like Cuba when totalitarianism disappears.

Peronism or Justicialism transcended its founder. His followers inherited a movement with a strong popular base and with a record of promises and opportunities so extensive that it has allowed a large sector of more than five generations of Argentines to call themselves Peronists, when in reality some of the currents that make up the movement are so contrary. It is assumed that party coexistence is very difficult.

This statement is easy to verify when we appreciate that President Carlos Saúl Menem called himself a Peronist, as did Néstor Kirchner and his widow, former President Cristina Fernández, continues to claim the same.

Peronist were also terrorist groups and insurgent factions given to extreme violence, such as the Montoneros and the FAP, Peronist Armed Forces, close allies of Castroism.

Likewise, social movements are identified that resort to destabilization when the interests of their ruling class are affected to some extent by the provisions of the government, whether of the Peronist current or not.

It is possible that many of the main promoters of Peronism are unaware of what the military and politician's proposals consist or consisted of, and only use the leader as an icon in which to shelter their ambitions for power and, not a few, illicit enrichment.

Everyone is aware that the collective memory of the Argentine nation values ​​the legacy of Justicialism in a positive way, which does not correspond to the historical truth, when the achievements of the governments of Perón and his emulators are carefully studied.

I share the idea that what happens in Argentina can happen in Cuba, whether it is called Castroism or Fidelism. On the island, the patterns of Justicialism can be reissued, with the addition that it could be an international project, if the imperialist vision that Fidel and Raúl Castro projected while possible is taken into account.

The Castro legacy could be capable of bringing together people with different interests, ideas and values, but identified in a discourse and political work supported by the promise of creating a just society, although in practice, as has happened up to the present, they are violated. all citizen rights, without seeking the justice and public equity offered.

Castro Fidelism has as much chance of surviving as Peronist Justicialism. Totalitarian power confers many more capacities for social penetration and political manipulation than any other form of government.

For decades the false welfare state has controlled education and information, which has allowed it to indoctrinate society, while, among many citizens, a spirit of dependency has been created that makes it feasible that when the Castro leadership disappears, a sector of The population, as has happened in Argentina, tends to mythologize the supposed social justice that the Revolution implied, overlooking the multiple violations of citizen rights and the economic failure of the project.

Castro Fidelism may be the model to which those nostalgic for the time when common sense was challenged in Cuba and the nation was sunk, intervening in countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

This legacy can bring together a significant number of theorists who, proclaiming to rectify the errors and abuses of the Revolution, propose a reformist utopia to which resentful social workers, envious people by trade, and subjects who seek their redemption and illicit enrichment in politics will join.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».