There is nothing “secret” in this collection of short essays on contemporary Cuba, and, indeed, much of the material is both familiar and rather wilted, as this is essentially a translation (with sporadic updating) of Montaner’s Informe secreto sobre la revolución cubana (Madrid, 1976). Nonetheless, Montaner, whose object is an “ethical judgment” on Fidel Castro’s revolution, does have a sharp and sometimes witty tongue, and on occasion is able to examine old questions in an intriguing way.

The essays consider, among other things, Castro and Fulgencio Batista, religion and Blacks, scarcity and the consumer society, exiles and political prisoners, fear and dissimulation, and the CIA. Some essays are supported by documentary evidence. Thus, an essay on homosexuality is followed by a report on sexuality by Cuba’s First National Congress on Culture of 1971. Otherwise, Montaner’s sources are not specifically identified, although he does provide a short bibliography, and notes that he has interviewed “hundreds” of fellow Cuban exiles in Spain.

Montaner, who calls himself a social democrat and a liberal, regards Castro’s revolution as a “negative” phenomenon. He rather admires Castro’s fierce desire to modernize Cuba’s economy, but thinks Fidel has failed. The Revolution’s economic assumption, i.e., that Cuba was a rich island held back by corrupt politicians and Yankee exploiters, was simpleminded folklore and wrong.

Montaner applauds the Revolution’s efforts to end sexual discrmination, but wonders how a regime that reeks of machismo can really accommodate itself to women. So far, he says, it has not. He agrees that the redistribution of income has been good for the poor, but concludes that, on balance, it has hurt more Cubans than it has helped.

Castro, according to Montaner, does not like intellectuals, although he does like to use them. Montaner is baffled, given Castro’s rough-housing of Cuba’s intellectuals, by Julio Cortázar’s and Gabriel García Márquez’s continued support of Castro’s Revolution. How can they denounce Augusto Pinochet’s prisons while ignoring Castro’s? Montaner claims that Chilean intellectuals who took refuge in Havana after the fall of Salvador Allende are quietly leaving. “You cannot breathe in Cuba” (p. 186). The island has become a nation of dissimulators, of citizens waving red flags and quoting Marx to save their skins.

The essays end on a curious note. Montaner, who deplores both United States and Soviet Union bullying of Cuba, nonetheless thinks it inevitable that the island will spin back into the American orbit. He urges the United States to stimulate this development by publicly offering Cuba massive economic support—as well as political independence. How massive United States economic support is to be reconciled with Cuban independence is one of the modest questions that Montaner, the high strategist, leaves to others to answer.