Fidel Castro centenary finds Cuba in deep crisis

Cuba is marking 100 years since Fidel Castro's birth with official celebrations, but the anniversary comes during one of the country's worst crises in living memory, with acute shortages of food and water and chronic power cuts.

Cuba's Communist Party has spent the week holding exhibitions, concerts and conferences for the late revolutionary leader ahead of the August 13 centenary.

For some Cubans, the hardship has sharpened nostalgia for Castro's leadership. Leonel Suarez, a 54-year-old collector of revolutionary memorabilia, said Castro would have had “a strategy at a time like this.”

Rogelio Valdivia, a 54-year-old repairman in Old Havana who described himself as a “Fidelista,” said he lamented the loss of Castro's leadership. “Fidel is no longer here, and nobody has the ability Fidel had,” he said.

Others who grew up under Castro's revolution expressed disappointment with the direction of the country. Angela Gutierrez, 86, said she was frustrated by high prices and frequent power cuts. “They're ruining things,” she said.

Manuel Cuesta, a 63-year-old historian and opposition activist, said he once saw Castro as a “redeemer” but now believes worsening living conditions have led many Cubans to see him as the “original architect of this national disaster.”

Hassan Perez, a historian, former student leader and close collaborator of Castro, said the centenary was arriving under “the most complex conditions that could have been imagined.” He said the social contract forged by the revolution “has eroded” in recent years.

Mildred Barreto, a 66-year-old cleaner who still calls Castro “comandante,” said life in Cuba is now a struggle. “We suffer a lot now,” she said. “With our comandante, it wasn't like this.”