Rating: 
Summary: Accurate, Honest, Interesting.
Review: "Castro's Final Hour" - The Secret Story Behind the Coming Downfall of Communist Cuba is written by the Miami Herald foreign correspondent Andres Oppenheimer. This is an excellent book, a good overview over Cuba and the political situation there. This book touches on many interesting topics, Cuba's history, politics, drug trafficking, and money laundering to mention a few. This book taught me a whole lot of things. (I read first Che's biography, and followed up with this one. It certainly helped me a lot to have Che's biography as a base when reading this book). The fact that the book is nearly ten years old is not so important. The situation hasn't changed much, unfortunately. ... Oppenheimer shows extensive knowledge about Cuba's history and culture. The research undertaken to write this book is no less than impressive. Especially when considering the fact that Castro is rather paranoid when it comes to criticism. How Oppenheimer got the Cubans to talk I don't know... But the fact that he is a fluent Spanish speaker definitely helped him while researching for this book. I truly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the political situation in Cuba. An interesting read!
Rating: 
Summary: a well-researched, detailed look at the truth of Cuba
Review: "Castro's Final Hour" is a well-researched, detailed look at the self-created problems of communist Cuba and the Machivelean inner workings of its government.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting on certain accounts, but ....
Review: ...compared with "Bordering on Chaos", this book makes me question Oppenheimer a bit. And, there has yet to be Castro's "final hour" eight years after this book has been published. But I did enjoy the in depth reading of certain events he covers, and I think it must be pretty difficult to write such an intensive work on such a controversial subject. I look forward to more good readings on Cuba.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting on certain accounts, but ....
Review: Castro's Final Hour was a wonderful, illuminating expose of the results of totalitarian mismanagement. Any American who values democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly should be appalled by Castro's regime. The book also reveals the irony of a regime that demonized the United States and kicked them out of their country now blaming their poverty on the fact that America doesn't want to come back. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Isn't Always Pleasant
Review: Castro's Final Hour was a wonderful, illuminating expose of the results of totalitarian mismanagement. Any American who values democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly should be appalled by Castro's regime. The book also reveals the irony of a regime that demonized the United States and kicked them out of their country now blaming their poverty on the fact that America doesn't want to come back. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: More than the Embargo
Review: How can anyone belittle this well thoughtout and researched book? One can continue placing "all" the blame on the Embargo but there were two major blunders that had a more devastating impact on Cuba: The immediate removal (1956) of the professional class ( businessmen and merchants) by confiscating their assets and properties and transferring them into the hands of inexperienced, incapable and largely inept bureaucrats. 2. The economically naive and foolish reliance on a Soviet "subsidized" trade agreement ( 5 years plans that went on for years)and the total failure to forsee and prepare for it's inevitable collapse. When the Soviets, because of their own economic problems, began to demand payment in hard currencies (dollar) instead of the long practised "barter system" the game was over.
Rating:
Summary: History's Longest Hour
Review: I read this book when it first appeared and was impressed by the wealth of first-hand information Mr. Oppenheimer had been able to amass. I remember quite vividly thinking at the time that Castro had managed to hang on to his personal fiefdom for over thrity years (at that point), and that given his ruthless nature, his absolute control over every aspect of Cuban society, and the long experience of the islanders in acquiesing to domination and deprivation, it was risky to predict his demise (at least on economic grounds). The system Castro constructed is a marvel of state control. There is really nothing else in the world quite like it, although the North Korean regime gets similar results using more consistently brutal and heavy-handed methods. In retrospect, it seems odd that while Mr. Oppenheimer was able to explain a great deal about how the system works, he came to the conclusion that it would soon fail anyway. So to sum up the book: Good research, lots of data and anecdotes, very well written, faulty conclusion. It seems that the world, and the luckless Cuban people, are stuck with the old caudillo until he dies.
Rating:
Summary: a sobering look at life in contemporary Cuba
Review: I read this book with great reluctance and skepticism. It was recommended to me a cousin who had recently emigrated to Mexico from Cuba, where I read it in Spanish on the eve of my own trip to the island to visit family (this trip took place Nov 97). While many of the hardships of the Special Period in Time of Peace -- Castrospeak for the crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet block -- have eased, this book is an honest, unflinching portrait. It accurately describes Cuba as a nation struggling to keep what is best in the revolution while moving past what is worst, primarily through the words of its own people and key events not widely reported in the US. It makes it clear that the US embargo not only worsens the lives of ordinary Cubans, but provides Fidel with a catch-all excuse for not dealing with internal economic problem. After reading this book it is easy to see the US embargo as the most bass-ackwards US foreign policy move of the last 20 years -- virtually guaranteeing that Fidel remain in power with his ultimately empty anti-imperialist rhetoric. The details of how Fidel is turning the nation into Europe's and Canada's bargain brothel are heartbreaking. This book is a must for supporters of the Cuban revolution because it forces us to confront the realities Cubans face in their daily lives, without the rose-colored glasses of socialist idealism.
Rating:
Summary: The reality of a country that is nowhere bound
Review: Its sad that this island lives day by day without any future agenda in mind. There is no such thing in Cuba as communism, they broke the mold a long time ago.It should be called "Castrism".You ask any cuban citizen where will they be 5 years from know and they look puzzle.The citizens on this island have given up on life and hope, its like a bad dream that they hope will end one day.What happened in 59 shall never happen again.
Rating: 
Summary: Some people would love to have Batista still in power
Review: Just four words: "FANATICAL HATRED OF FIDEL". Yes, there are A LOT of things to criticize about the communist government in the island. However, when one looks at the landscape left by center-right governments in the rest of Central America... the corruption, the iliteracy, the "open markets without any local development" policies that destroyed industries from Dominican Republic to Haiti, Cuba by comparison can be criticized only on "lack of freedom of speech", on all other accounts, they win by knock-out on all the important counts specially health care and education. That such a small island was able to survive decades of economic sanctions and blockade, it's something to admire. People like Andres Oppenheimer would love to have Batista still in power, applying his "open wide markets" doctrine, that left the rest of central america empoverished.
| 
