Castro Turns to Youth to Save Revolution
Dec. 12, 2005 — -- At midnight on Oct. 14, hundreds of former high school dropouts trained as social workers in recent years were summoned to Havana's convention center. They received a crash course in pumping gas and filling out forms with such data as customer license plates, amount, and type of fuel purchased, in cash or credit. Cuban President Fidel Castro walked in at 3 a.m. to tell the young people they were undertaking a crucial mission for the country. At 4 a.m., they boarded buses, and by 5 a.m. had taken control of every gas station in the capital.
It was the opening shot in what promised to be an important chapter in the Caribbean island's turbulent 47 years of revolution.
Castro now says that more than half the gas pumped in the country is being stolen -- valued at $100,000 per day -- and that the entire fuel distribution system is under the control of his "troop" of social workers, just the first skirmish, he warns, in a do-or-die battle against corruption and illegalities in the state-dominated economy.
"Only we can lose the revolution," Castro recently told university students, stating he would mobilize tens of thousands of them to "confront with masses" corruption and certain "bad habits," like pilfering and purchasing stolen goods.
"We have been signing pledges to go into battle wherever Fidel orders and for whatever time is necessary," said Havana University student Maria Perez.
"A revolution within the revolution," the state-run media recently called the campaign.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, not only did Communist Cuba's economy fall apart, but so did its relatively egalitarian social structure. The bankrupt government established a dual peso/dollar economy and special dollar stores where goods and services unavailable in pesos were sold at a 240 percent markup.
Family remittances, tourists and capitalist investment were all of a sudden welcomed by the traditionally hermetic island and some small private initiative was allowed. Castro's government avoided collapse and restructured its international relations and trade without taking the reforms further.
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