Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela
The Cuban revolution of 1959, led by Fidel Castro, was therefore a stunning blow to the U.S. Not merely was socialism established in a state in the Western hemisphere, but the revolution proved popular and capable of fighting off all attempts by the U.S. over six decades to overthrow it–most spectacularly in the defeat of the U.S. backed attempted invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
The Cuban leadership also proved itself highly skilful in a wide field of international relations. On the one hand Cuba acquired enormous prestige in Africa among progressive forces through its intervention to ensure the military defeat of international military aggression by the racist South African army in the late 1980s–Nelson Mandela referred to Fidel Castro as “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people.†But at the same time Cuba was able to maintain friendly relations with right wing governed countries such as Spain, Britain and Mexico. This skill in wide ranging diplomacy was seen again recently in the 184-2 vote in the United Nations against the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba.
But, of course, Cuba had particularly close relations with its own continent of Latin America. It is no exaggeration to say that virtually without exception every progressive leader in Latin America, whether simply seeking national independence or socialism, was an admirer of Fidel Castro. Within Latin America for progressive forces Fidel Castro had an prestige comparable to Mao Zedong in China. This extended beyond merely political figures to cultural and sporting icons–Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, widely considered the greatest Latin American literary figure of the 20th century, was a friend of Castro while the famous Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona had a tattoo of Fidel Castro on his leg!
Fidel Castro and Diego Maradona
But, in addition to the immense authority gained by Fidel Castro through leadership of the Cuban revolution in 1959, he also took a step which none of the other leaders of progressive parties in Latin America did. After the 1959 revolution he created a real Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. It was the solidity of this organisation, and the leadership that it could give in numerous areas of society and politics, that explained the success of Cuba in resisting decades of U.S. aggression and in developing the political line which brought Cuba such widespread international recognition.
Xi Jinping on Fidel Castro
These achievements of the Cuban revolution and Fidel Castro were fully understood by China and its leadership. Xi Jinping took the exceptional step of visiting the Cuban embassy in Beijing to formally express condolences on Fidel Castro’s death. It is simply necessary to note the full statement made by Xi Jinping on the death of Fidel Castro:
Distressed to learn of the passing away of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, I, in the name of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and people and in my own name, express my deepest condolences to you and through you to the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and people, and my sincerest sympathy to Fidel Castro’s family.
Fidel Castro, founder of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuba’s socialist cause, is a great leader of the Cuban people. He has devoted all his life to the Cuban people’s great cause of struggle for national liberation, safeguarding state sovereignty and building socialism.
He has made immortal historic contributions to the Cuban people and to world socialist development. Comrade Fidel Castro is a great figure of our times and will be remembered by history and people.
I met with Comrade Fidel Castro many times and held in-depth conversations with him. His real knowledge and deep insight inspired me as his voice and expression live in my memory. Both I and the Chinese people miss him deeply.
Comrade Fidel Castro, who dedicated his life to the friendship between China and Cuba, paid close attention to and spoke highly of China’s development.
As a result of his care and support, Cuba became the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic ties with China in 1960. Since then, the two countries have witnessed the profound development of bilateral ties, fruitful results of cooperation in a wide range of areas and deepening friendship between the two peoples, thanks to Comrade Fidel Castro’s solicitude and painstaking efforts.
The death of Comrade Fidel Castro is a great loss to the Cuban and Latin American people. The Cuban and Latin American people lost an excellent son, and the Chinese people lost a close comrade and sincere friend. His glorious image and great achievements will go down in history.
I believe that under the strong leadership of Comrade Raul Castro, the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and its people will carry on the unfinished lifework of Comrade Fidel Castro, turn sorrow into strength and keep making new achievements in the cause of socialist construction.
The friendship between two parties, the two countries and the two peoples will definitely be consolidated and further developed.
Xi Jinping and Fidel Castro
The great Comrade Fidel Castro will be remembered forever.
Fidel Castro on China
Fidel Castro in turn expressed his great admiration for China. This is what he said:
If you want to talk about socialism, let us not forget what socialism achieved in China. At one time it was the land of hunger, poverty, disasters. Today there is none of that… China is a socialist country… And they insist that they have introduced all the necessary reforms in order to motivate national development and to continue seeking the objectives of socialism.
The Chinese process counted… with the contributions of great and brilliant political thinkers, who continued to develop and enrich the doctrines of socialism.
China has objectively become the most promising hope and the best example for all Third World countries.
Fidel Castro salutes the statue of Mao Zedong
Regarding Xi Jinping Fidel Castro stated:
Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.
Attack on Cuba
From these facts it can be easily seen why the U.S. is concentrating its attacks on Cuba and why the outcome of these attacks affects not only just Cuba itself. Cuba has the strongest Communist Party in Latin America. Its leadership has state power. It is the centre of the network of forces fighting for national liberation and socialism in Latin America. If the U.S. can succeed through its hybrid war in carrying out a colour revolution in Cuba it will break up the central element of progressive forces in Latin America. That in turn will have far wider geopolitical consequences.
If Latin America can be returned to full control of the U.S. the movement of developing countries, the Global South, will be weakened and broken up. This will be used by the U.S. to weaken the position of China–as, after China’s own development, the Global South is the strongest force opposing the U.S. cold war against China. In addition to other aspects this will be seen every directly at the UN–Cuba, for example, took the lead on an international statement at the UN of countries supporting China on Xinjiang.
Tweet by the Chinese embassy in Havana condemning unilateral U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
At the UN China regularly gains more votes than the U.S. when the latter launches attacks on China–this was shown recently in votes on both Hong Kong and Xinjiang. If the U.S. were to against reduce Latin America to its “backyard†this would be a major step towards its goal of regaining control of the UN.
The consequences of Cuba being central to the network of countries in Latin America supporting national independence and good relations with China can be seen not only in the overwhelming majority vote in the UN against the U.S. embargo on Cuba but also in the statements by Latin American leaders against U.S. actions against Cuba and calling for trade restrictions to be lifted. These countries strongly overlap with those countries in Latin America which have good relations with China–some of which were referred to at the beginning of this article.
Therefore allies of the U.S., such as the present right-wing government of Peru, Brazil, and Chile, immediately issued statements supporting protests in Cuba that were intended as an attempt to lead up to a colour revolution in Cuba–Brazil was also one of only three countries at the UN to abstain on the resolution against the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Supporters of an independent path of development in Latin America, such as former president Evo Morales and President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on the contrary rightly pointed out that it was the U.S. embargo which was preventing Cuba from getting the necessary medical and other supplies–and this was being carried out against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of countries.
Evo Morales, for example stated, on the situation in Cuba:
Our solidarity is with the brother Cuban people. The real fight for freedom in Cuba is to end the criminal blockade of more than 60 years. Its ‘sin’ was to create a vaccine with more than 92% effectiveness that affected capitalist interests. Cuba will defeat interventionism.
In Brazil, the largest Latin American country, there was an open clash about the situation of Cuba between Bolsonaro, who supported the pro-colour revolution forces, and the Workers Party (PT). This exactly paralleled their international orientations–with the pro-U.S. policies of Bolsonaro and stress on independence and good relations with China by the PT.
Thus Dilma Rousseff, the former president of Brazil, who had been a strong supporter of BRICS, and recently spoke a New Cold War conference in Brazil opposing a U.S. cold war with China, declared:
60 years of economic and financial blockade of Cuba by the United States are subjecting the Cuban people to enormous sacrifices, which have become even more accentuated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The American blockade, which has already been condemned 29 times by the UN, imposes very serious deprivation on a small country that has been an example of solidarity, sending doctors around the world to help fight the health crisis. While Cuba offers humanity health professionals, it receives, in exchange, from the USA, in the midst of a pandemic, a cowardly embargo, which is repudiated by almost all countries in the world. I express my support to the Cuban people and to [Cuban] President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The Workers Party of Brazil issued a formal declaration:
The Workers’ Party (PT) expresses its unconditional support and solidarity to the people and government of the sister Republic of Cuba, which for six decades have been victims of a blockade by the United States of America (USA), damaging trade and diplomatic relations the country with the rest of the world.
On June 23, the PT expressed its opinion on the vote by the member countries of the United Nations (UN) regarding the blockade, which was condemned by an overwhelming majority with 184 votes, with only two votes in defense of the blockade (USA and Israel) and three abstentions (Brazil, Colombia and Ukraine). This UN position is the same since the issue was first voted on.
The Cuban people are the main victims of this long and criminal blockade, being excluded from regular conditions for a dignified life, which could be achieved in a situation of normality.
Combined with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the country had difficult access to food, sanitary material and financial resources at a time of extreme need. In addition, the pandemic led to the worsening of the domestic economic situation, as a result of a drastic drop in earnings from tourism, one of the main sources of income in the country.
Against all these adversities, Cuba managed to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, using its own technology, being in an advanced stage of internal vaccination and have even been able to export doses to other countries.
Based on the above, the PT condemns those who–like the U.S. government–​​speak of ‘humanitarian aid’ while maintaining the blockade and approving financial resources for opposition groups.
The PT reaffirms its unrestricted condemnation of the blockade and demands its immediate lifting for humanitarian reasons, respect for international law and the inalienable right of peoples for their sovereignty and self-determination.
Tweet by the Chinese embassy in Havana condemning unilateral U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
China has, of course, taken the same position on Cuba’s national independence as progressive forces in Latin America. China’s Embassy in Cuba repeated a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s declaration: “â€China firmly opposes interference of external forces in internal affairs of Cuba, firmly supports Cuban side versus the COVID-19 pandemic, in improving quality of life of the population & maintaining stability.†China’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian declared:
China urges the United States to immediately and completely lift the economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. This is the universal call of the international community.
The very large scale of the stakes in this struggle around Cuba, both for Latin America and internationally, are therefore clear. In words the U.S. claims it stands for an international “rules-based order†but in fact the issue of the blockade of Cuba shows clearly the U.S. is attempting to unilaterally impose its international policies against the overwhelming majority of the world’s countries. If the U.S. is successful in its attack on Cuba, by use of a hybrid war, it will intensify such attacks in many other places.
The consequences if the U.S. is successful in its hybrid war
It is therefore clear that the consequences of the present U.S. attack on Cuba go far beyond that country. It the present U.S. economic and medical attack on Cuba were successful in producing a “colour revolutionâ€:
It would remove the strongest and most prestigious force fighting for national independence in Latin America.
It would greatly aid the U.S. in breaking up the network of countries seeking to pursue a path of national independence in Latin America.
By weakening the Global South, it would strengthen the U.S. geopolitical position against China.
It would convince the U.S. that its unilateral actions can overrule the international community even when the U.S. is in a tiny minority–thereby encouraging increasingly aggressive U.S. actions.
International experience confirms that when the U.S. feels strong it is more aggressive and when it suffers setbacks it is more “peace lovingâ€. Thus, for example, when the U.S. felt weak because it was losing the war in Vietnam it launched détente, including with China, and restrained for a period from aggressive international military operations. And when the U.S. felt weaker because it had suffered the international financial crisis it stressed international economic cooperation including with China. However, when the U.S. felt it had recovered from its defeat in Vietnam, and was faced with the weak policies of Gorbachev, it launched a new military build-up and internationally aggressive policies, while when it felt stronger because it had recovered from the international financial crisis it launched trade aggression and the new cold war against China. Success by the U.S. against Cuba, by strengthening the U.S. would, therefore, be followed by new aggressive behaviour by the U.S..
Therefore, the outcome of the U.S. hybrid war against Cuba would have profound negative implications in Latin America and internationally.
In conclusion
The present situation means the world faces a major geopolitical choice–which involves either a major win-win or a major lose-lose for numerous countries. The U.S. faces a situation in Latin America of the rise of countries and movements which are pushing for nationally independent paths of development. To pursue this these countries break from U.S. cold war policies against China and pursue win-win relations with China. For historical reasons in Latin America Cuba is at the centre of these developments. Therefore, the U.S. is attempting to concentrate its strength against this small country–knowing that if it can defeat it, the U.S. will impose a huge defeat on the movement for national independence and socialism in Latin America. The U.S., while proclaiming its support for “human rights†and a “rules based international orderâ€, is in reality trying to impose the maximum suffering on Cuba in a unilateral way in total defiance of the overwhelming majority of international opinion.
The U.S. in making this attack is gambling on the rest of the world giving in to its unilateral blackmail. Because while the downside consequences of a defeat of Cuba would be extremely large and negative for the cause of national independence, and for China, precisely because Cuba is a small country the assistance it requires to achieve decisive help in defeating this U.S. aggression is very small in international terms. Some of Cuba’s needs, indeed, are ridiculously small–for example Cuba can produce its own COVID-19 vaccines and simply needs syringes to administer them. Even voluntary help can be useful. For example, the U.S. peace organisation Codepink has exploited opposition, even within the U.S., to attempts to prevent sending syringes to Cuba to gain the legal right to send them. It noted its aim was to:
raise $100,000 to send syringes to Cuba!… We are very excited that our friends at Global Health Partners have just received a Commerce Department license to send syringes to Cuba. Together with the Saving Lives Campaign, The People’s Forum and others, we are trying to quickly raise $100,000 to send about 3 million syringes. When we raise more than that, we will help Cuba with other health-related needs!
Cuba only needs around 30 million syringes to vaccinate its entire population–that is a million dollars. This is a tiny sum for the countries, either together or even individually, which oppose the blockade of Cuba. The resources needed to deal with other difficulties in Cuba, such as ventilators, fuel supplies, food supplies, or even the size of its international debt, are tiny compared to the resources of countries that are against the blockade. The U.S. aims to demonstrate that although it knows an overwhelming majority of countries in the world could meet the needs of such a small country as Cuba it intends to try to intimidate them into not doing so. If it does so successfully then it will be even more aggressive towards other countries.
For 62 years Cuba has given its support to the world in numerous ways. Prior to COVID-19 and the tightening of U.S. sanctions it had been rebuilding its economy–aided by international tourism and international medical services it could supply. But now it needs support from the world. But this is a win-win. Because it is a small country with a huge international impact the resources Cuba needs to most successfully aid it through the present problems created by the U.S. blockade are tiny compared to the enormous benefits Cuba delivers to those countries opposing U.S. aggression and cold war politics. Defeat of Cuba, that is success of the U.S. in its hybrid war, would be a huge step forward for the U.S. in its fight against national independence in Latin America and throughout the world, and in the fight against the new cold war against China.
It is for this reason that the situation in Cuba is today the key to the situation in Latin America and is of crucial importance throughout the world.
Monthly Review does not necessarily adhere to all of the views conveyed in articles republished at MR Online. Our goal is to share a variety of left perspectives that we think our readers will find interesting or useful. —Eds.
Source link : https://mronline.org/2021/08/12/cuba-china-latin-america-and-the-world/
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Publish date : 2021-08-12 03:00:00
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