Castro wanted to make all Cubans equal, and he succeeded in that, but not in the way he originally intended, said Bob Chabali, Dayton’s former assistant police chief, who fled Cuba as a child.
“He was extremely successful in making everybody equal — Unfortunately, he made everyone equally poor,” Chabali said.
Castro was opposed by 11 U.S. presidencies and at least 2 million Cuban exiles in the United States, as well as unknown others within Cuba, said Juan Santamarina, an associate professor and chair of the history department at the University of Dayton.
Castro was the central, divisive figure in a decades-long struggle over Cuba’s identity and what the meaning of the Cuban experience ought to be and what Cuba’s future will hold, Santamarina said in an email.
His death raises questions about whether the country will move toward more open, democratic institutions of government and how economic models and social and cultural norms may change, Santamarina said.
“What that post-Castro future will look like will be determined by many forces and many actors both inside Cuba and beyond its borders,” he said.
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