'History will absolve me'

Over-centralisation of political power in one person-party inevitably resulted in Cuba falling short of meeting the aspirations of the human spirit

Around end-March after the first lockdown was announced I stocked up on reading of various genres via Kindle. As the lockdown kept getting extended the recurring images of distressed Indian workers in urban areas brought my years in a less unequal Cuba to mind. I was based in Havana as a first secretary in the Indian Embassy from September 1983 to September 1986. Despite the periodic scarcities even for basics such as onions (the US trade blockade was fully in force in those years) I did not see any evidence of dehumanising poverty in Cuba in my three years in