Sjoerd wrote:

Can you imagine how well the economy and
the lives of Cubans would be, especially given the natural advantages of
geography and skills, had they had been able to lose Castro y amigos,

About as good as Haiti or the Dominican Republic perhaps?



Castro's revolution *really* benefited the poor and rural folk, who were
living in horrendous and even slave - like conditions (thanks in large part
to US companies like United Fruit, etc.) Much of the Cuban middle and upper
classes (who had a prosperous US - style lifestyle) fled because they lost
everything when Castro came to power...they had nothing to lose by going to
Miami or wherever.

The poor and rural folk are still pretty poor materially speaking but unlike
other Third World poor they have access to free education, health care, etc.
That's why Castro is still fairly popular among that strata of people...he
gave the downtrodden some real dignity.

In a best case scenario Cuba without a revolution *might* have turned out
something like today's Costa Rica (admittedly though that is a real
stretch, given the propensity of the US to meddle in Cuba). In 1959 Cuba
ranked (comparativly speaking and in urban areas) high in many indicators as
compared to most other Latin American/Caribbean nations....

Given the drug presence in the Caribbean and the always present Cuban
corruption, I think today in an alternative timeline capitalist Cuba a lot
of the Cuban economy would be "narco - driven"...the US mafia were well -
entrenched pre - 1959 and they ran the drugs, prostitution, money
laundering, gambling etc. rackets (this was largely in response to US govt.
crackdowns on the Mob in Las Vegas and elsewhere).

I might have to post a "what if" about this subject on soc.history.what-if
;-)

--
Best
Greg