Jon Lee Anderson

And when you got to the famous old colonial plazas, it was a guy with no legs, a couple of old women offering

how shall I put this, sexual favors, sort of grandmotherly aged.

It was miserable.

Yeah, you know, the thing is, for an older generation of Cubans that sort of came of age with the revolution and for a while believed in it, they would put up with the penuries, with the scarcities, because Fidel was still alive, Fidel Castro was still alive, this amazingly charismatic leader telling them

that the reason why they were putting up with scarcities was because of the blockade, as they called the American embargo.

And there was an element of truth to that.

During the Cold War, there was this kind of us and them.

There was a sense of purpose.

But that's been diminishing for years now.

For the United States, Cuba doesn't mean anything anymore.

It's not a neurologic

It could well be, again, if the cartels decide to use it as a transshipment point, it is the logical one.

And in credit to him, even posthumously, it has to be said that, you know, Fidel Castro kept the cartels out, unlike all the other countries in the region.

For a time.

No, he did.

He did.

But now you feel the kind of ebbing of control.

Even six, seven years ago, Cuba, alongside Canada, jostled for number one and number two as the most secure countries in the entire Western Hemisphere.

You know, Cuba might have people who were on the make, but there wasn't a lot of violent crime and there was not a street drug problem.

Now there is.