On Jan. 1, Cuba's tyranny under Fidel Castro celebrated its 45th anniversary. On New Year's Day 1959, Fidel Castro and his henchmen marched into Havana as Fulgencio Batista – the dictator devoid of ideology, dignity and morals – fled the islands by plane with his cronies and millions of dollars extorted and stolen from the Cuban people. Since that day, the Cuban Revolution has had a large number of detractors and defenders in the United States and the rest of the world.

The defenders of the regime are usually modern liberals or socialists who like to point out the virtues of Cuba's social welfare program. A textbook example of this was an article written by former staffer of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee Pat Holt.

In his commentary published in the Christian Science Monitor (Dec. 31, 2003), Mr. Holt passionately (and blindly) states: "These were startlingly successful and are a major cause of Castro's enduring popularity. They emphasized public health, education and housing, and were carried out despite difficulties resulting from the U.S. embargo. Public health dramatically improved. Literacy rates soared. Slums disappeared as new apartments sprang up. Huge estates were seized and divided in a land-reform program."

These delusional observations aren't just made by rabid liberals. Last year, Secretary of State Colin Powell had his own nice things to say when it came to health care and education in Cuba under Castro. Those that have been lucky enough to escape the island or damned to live on it don't agree with those lauding comments.

Mr. Holt claims that the revolution is a success when it comes to health care, education and housing. If compared to countries like Haiti or Somalia, then perhaps Cuba can be considered successful. But if you compare today's Cuba with Cuba before 1959, then by all worldly and sane comparisons the revolution historically has been an economically unsurpassable failure.

Cuba before Castro and his communist experiment was a bustling economy. The streets of Havana, Santiago and other large cities on the island were filled with the latest model U.S. manufactured automobiles; TVs were abundant, even some in color; and there was a large and widening middle class. Cuba's economy ranked a close second to Argentina's in Latin America in 1959. Today, it ranks barely above that of Haiti.

Cuba's so-called successes in health care are dubious at best. There is one area where Cuba's health-care system outstrips most others on the planet: Cuba has the highest number of doctors driving taxi cabs and waiting on tables. Education, far from being free (since most people in Cuba work for the state for next to nothing), has one clear objective beyond educating children: indoctrination, along with bending of history and reality in an attempt to turn each student into a blind follower of Castro and his regime.

Another myth shared by Holt and other defenders of the revolution is that the U.S. embargo is responsible for Cuba's economic failure. The truth is the embargo is not very effective, and the regime trades freely with almost every other country on the globe. In reality, the only reason Cuba's economy did not collapse earlier was because of Soviet subsidies that equaled between 3 and 8 billion dollars annually depending on whom you ask. Cuba's biggest and most obvious reason for economic failure is its system that does not allow for private property or privately held business interest (certain exceptions are made for foreign investors), which sucks all the incentive out of individuals to be productive.

Mr. Holt in his article proclaims that slums disappeared in Cuba after the revolution. He has either never visited Cuba or needs a new ophthalmologist pronto. Anyone who has visited Cuba or viewed video taken by visitors to the island quickly notices that Cuba has become one huge contiguous slum. What did disappear from the Cuban landscape was a vibrant middle class along with many private productive enterprises that gainfully employed millions of Cubans.

Today, misery is abundant. Just putting enough food on the table for survival's sake is a daunting task for the vast majority of Cubans on the island. Cars are scarce and bicycles have become the single largest source of individual transportation.

Castro's popularity is not as high as some would like to believe. Make no mistake, Mr. Castro maintains his power using a very well crafted state apparatus that has murdered tens of thousands, while keeping the rest of the population uninformed (unless authorized by the government; it is illegal to own a fax machine or computer) and in a state of constant terror.

Just a few months ago, a crackdown on dissidents resulted in the arrest and prompt conviction of hundreds (sentenced to 20 plus years in prison), while three would-be immigrants to the U.S. were put to death by firing squad less than ten days after "hijacking" a boat. (The incident ended with no injuries or loss of life.) The backbone of Castro's terror machine is the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, which is made up of fervent supporters of the revolution given favorable treatment in exchange for keeping an eye on their neighbors.

Critics of the regime rightly point out its many shortcomings, but suffer many shortcomings of their own in the policies they recommend and implement to hasten the demise of Castro's reign. The embargo has had questionable results at best, but more importantly, it violates the rights to free trade of many individuals and companies in the United States. The U.S. travel ban to Cuba emulates Castro's own restriction of movement of his own citizens. In essence, those that support the embargo and travel ban are willing to fight Castro's tyranny with a tyranny of their own.

Castro is well into his seventh decade of existence, and since he is human he will more than likely die relatively soon. The regime's defenders should come clean and admit its human-rights violations and economic shortcomings. Its detractors should cease violating individual rights while hypocritically claiming to be in favor of them. Ultimately, the burden is on the Cuban people. If they do not stand up for their own rights while at the same time recognizing and respecting those of others, they will suffer for many more years after Castro has left the planet.

Emiliano Antunez, DDS, is former president of the Libertarian Party of Cuba in Exile, a former board member of the Miami Dade Housing and Finance Authority and is currently vice chairman of the Overtown Community Action Agency and president of Lifesaver Investments Corp.