For years after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, thousands of small private businessmen continued to eke out a living, operating pushcarts or running groceries, bars, butcher shops and laundries. Up to last month, more than 55,000 such businesses were still struggling along, accounting for 25% of the island's $250 million worth of goods sold annually. Last week, capping a month-long campaign, Castro's government announced that this last, lonely bastion of capitalism has been all but wiped out and the dispossessed businessmen put to work in fields and factories. Cried the official newspaper Granma: "The revolutionary offensive has dealt...
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