Revolution's poster boy says Cubans are paying for regime’s many mistakes

The Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodriguez – widely known as the voice of the Cuban revolution – acknowledged that Castro’s revolution made many mistakes for which Cubans now had to pay.

In an interview with TelAm, the controversial singer-songwriter recognized that revolutionary leadership failed to industrialize upon taking control of the island and instead remained dependent on the Soviet Union – even losing “industries that were solid before the triumph of the Revolution, such as the sugar industry.”

"Of course we made mistakes, the Revolution made mistakes and we are paying for them," the musician noted.

Rodriguez also claimed that there were major failures in many revolutionary programs.

"That is why we are working now, reversing historical errors, that thing of intervening everything, that it was the State that controlled everything. The revolutionary offensive of '68 has done us a lot of damage,” he added.

Rodriguez pointed out that currently in Cuba "there is a lot of ideological, intellectual and superstructural discussion" and that many Cubans no longer want the U.S. embargo to serve as an excuse for the regime’s many failures.

"We can't spend our lives believing that everything we can't do is because there is a very powerful neighbor that blocks us and prevents us from doing things. If in 60 years we have not been able to develop a creative way to overcome the blockade, we are in bad shape.”

The famed Cuban artist ended the interview by stating that although Cuba is full of people "who think more in the old way, the old solutions, the old recipes, even when it has been seen and proven that they do not work," there is also "young blood" that is hungry for democracy and reform.