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The world changes, ideas evolve, leaders adjust to those transformations. The Cold War resolves in favor of the West. The Soviet Union collapses and new leaders take Russia through different paths. The Beijing regime endures, but their hierarchy open new doors to China's development. However, the reactionary par excellence, the top exponent of total political, economic and social immobility in the world, Fidel Castro, continues to have his two booted feet firmly planted in the cloud of failed communism.
So great is the communist dictator's absence from reality around him that, when Russia announced it will be closing the electronic surveillance center it maintains in Cuba to spy on U.S. communications, his regime stated that "the agreement on the Electronic Radar Station at Lourdes is not cancelled, as Cuba has not given its approval and it will be necessary for the Russian to continue negotiating with the Cuban government, taking into account that there are important issues to resolve in relation with the matter."
Given the problems they face, there must not be too many reasons for rejoicing in the Kremlin, but the notion that the Castro mosquito may challenge the Russian bear its right to close that base, and that Russian president Vladimir Putin cannot do it until he get permission from Castro, must have made for a good laugh there.
The matter is quite simple. Maintaining that listening post at Lourdes not only is costing Russia $200 million a year-and Russian dose not have that many $200 millions — but, what's more important, is a constant source of irritation that stands in the way of having the best possible relation with Washington, as was the Cam Ranh naval base in Vietnam, whose closing was also announced by Moscow.
Being far more of a realist than Castro, Putin knows it needs the help and backing of the United States to drag his people from the economic and social grave communism dug for them.
Moscow explained to Castro why it has decided to close Lourdes. It's laid out in Cuba's own communiqué: "The Russian urgency, according to what they said, was the desire of President Putin to arrive to his meeting with President Bush at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference bringing with him these two news. Anybody could understand how pleasant they are for his interlocutor: the one on Cam Ranh, even though unimportant in fact, very symbolic; the one in Cuba, a special present".
We couldn't have put it better. But in his megalomania, Castro cannot accept this.
"The agreement on the Lourdes Electronic Radar Station is not cancelled, as Cuba has not given its approval . . . Unfortunately, perhaps President Putin, due to the time difference, did not have the opportunity of receiving in a timely manner our well-founded arguments and suggestions on the matter before he stated what he said publicly."
The Soviet espionage base in Cuba was built in 1964, two years after the 1962 missile crisis. The closing of that base, near Havana and 90 miles off the Florida coast, will save Russia not only the $200 million it pays Cuba annually for leasing the area but also an undetermined figure in personnel salaries and other expense connected with its operations.
This is why Castro is furious. His regime does not enjoy that many $200 million packages so easily gained, nor does it have that many 1,500-strong groups of avid consumers, the base personnel and their families, which help the battered Cuban economy with their purchases.
That it should happen at this time makes the dictator's fury even bigger, because right now tourism, Cuba's biggest source of income, is suffering the impact of wholesale cancellations from people who are afraid to fly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, while its other major source of hard currency, the monies remitted by Cubans living in the United States to their relatives and friends in the island, has been cut in half due to the U.S. economic slowdown.
Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, said that espionage installation in Cuba "helped to decide defense issues during the Cold War period. Now, the military-politic situation has changed and there has been a qualitative leap in military equipment," adding that with the money saved "we can buy and launch 20 reconnaissance satellites, and purchase around 100 radars."
The Cuban communiqué ends up saying the Cuban government "will refrain for the moment from making any judgments or criticisms regarding what was announced" by Russia. "It will simply limit itself to offering absolutely factual information to our people, and to hoping that this disagreement can be resolved in a reasonable, fair and honorable manner. There is something that should be clearly understood by everyone, and on which no one should entertain false illusions: in Cuba there is not and there never will be either panic or fear. This is the perfect atmosphere for serenity, cool-headed wisdom, integrity, dignity, and unlimited courage."
In other words, Cuban people, be ready to tighten your belts even more.
Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com