Saving Cuba from America

Kayode Komolafe

The people of the great nation of Cuba currently live in anguish. No thanks to the chokehold that Ameri-can imperialism has on the tiny Caribbean Island.

Most people in Cuba lack electricity supply as the national grid has collapsed following the energy squeeze on the country. This is in the aftermath of American intervention in Venezuela.  For some years, Cuba had relied on Venezuela for fuel supply in exchange for educational and medical services. Severe shortages of food, water and medicine have made living unpleasant for millions of Cuba. This is the dis-tressing state of things in the socialist political economy.

Tension is naturally mounting among the people of a nation that has been celebrated globally for its re-silience and national pride.

President Donald Trump has threatened a “friendly takeover” of the island. Trump is believed to have asked Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down as condition to lift the yoke of imperialism. 

 Indeed, Trump has put the matter like this: “The Cuban government is talking with us and they’re in a big deal of trouble… They have no money, they have no oil, they have no food. And it’s right now a na-tion in deep trouble and they want our help…”

Only two days ago, Trump said of Cuba: “I can do whatever I want…”

The cynicism and inhumanity in Trump’s policy on Cuba could not be more patent.

Talk about arrogance of power!

However, to be fair to Trump things didn’t start with this American president.

The economic blockade that defines the American- Cuban relations is 66 years old. The Cuban economy has suffered from the blockade by America for that long.  President Dwight Eisenhower began pres-sures on Cuba with trade restrictions in 1960. All the 10 American presidents after Eisenhower till date have essentially sustained the economic strangle to break the spirit of the Cuban revolution. Yet the revolution led by Comrade Fidel Castro for 57 years before he died 10 years ago has survived all the machinations of America.  Remarkably, one of the American presidents under whose leadership the blockade has been sustained is President Barrack Obama, who was born a year after the imposition of the American embargo began! Incidentally, Obama moved to ease the American -Cuban relations. All the steps taken by the Obama administration to improve diplomatic relations between the two countries were reversed in the first term of Trump. President Joe Biden hardly did any better.   So, for decades America has maintained trade embargo, restricted financial transactions and travel bans on Cuba. There is even an extraterritorial dimension to the sanction- companies from other countries doing busi-ness with Cuba are liable to penalties by the U.S.

In the book of America, Cuba’s crime is that the tiny nation opted for a socialist path to development with the January 1, 1959, revolution.

Yet, this developmental option by Cuba has recorded irrefutable positive outcomes.

The literacy rate in poor Cuba is higher than those of many developed countries including the United States, the richest country in the world. Even an unyielding critic of the Cuban experiment, The Econo-mist of London, once described the health sector of Cuba as “first-world.” Life expectancy figures in Cu-ba match those of America. Thousands of Cuban doctors have saved lives in different parts of the world especially rural Africa. Remarkably, Cuba has long banished polio, diphtheria, meningitis, tetanus and measles. Britain is currently battling with meningitis. Infant mortality rate at six in 100, 000 births in Cuba is one of the lowest globally. Besides, Cuba established the Latin America School of Medicine where poor students from Latin America, Africa and Asia have been trained free as doctors.

It is noteworthy that the latest imperialist assault on the Cuban revolution is coming 10 years after the departure of Fidel Castro.

Ironically, in a tribute entitled “History Will Absolve Castro” published on November 30, 2016, this col-umn observed inter alia: “Doubtless, the Cuban revolution is a human experiment with its inherent con-tradictions. The Cuban revolutionaries are by no means utopians. Armed with the scientific tool of his-torical materialism, the leadership of the Cuban revolution is more aware of the contradictions than the cynics. The people live with the shortages of consumer goods, the deprivations and the grave human issues.

“They are confronting the socio-economic and political costs of the revolution. The momentum for great-er economic opportunity and widening of the popular democratic space will continue after Castro. But the resolution of these contradictions will certainly not be dictated by Trump’s America, for that matter. The gains of the Cuban people’s experiment with the creation of a just, humane and popular- democrat-ic society will surely outlive Castro.”

Tragically, 10 years after, the foregoing extrapolation about the dynamics of the Cuban revolution is be-ing tested by Trump in his bullying antics.

To be sure, Cuba deserves the unwavering solidarity of progressive humanity in this difficult hour of its national evolution.  After all, the signature foreign policy of Cuba in almost 70 years has been solidarity with peoples of other nations. Cuba has supported the struggles for genuine freedom, social justice and a humane social order. 

The history of Cuba justifies this clarion call for solidarity. A few examples of the Cuban acts of solidarity could be summoned here to demonstrate this position. For instance, one of the greatest issues of de-mocracy in the second half of the 20th century was colonialism with its untold inhumanity inflicted es-pecially on Africa. Cuban troops shed their blood fighting for freedom and the dignity of human person in Southern Africa. The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale fought between 1987 and 1988 was one of the fierc-est ever fought on the African soil. At issue was freedom – the independence of Namibia and sovereign-ty of post-colonial Angola. At the end of the battle, South Africa withdrew its troops from the Angolan territory and the process for Namibian independence was hastened. Cuba supported the struggle of the South African people against apartheid.  This was at a time when America opposed economic sanctions against the white minority regime. America preferred “constructive engagement” to economic sanctions! 

But from across the Atlantic, almost 5,000 miles away, Cuban soldiers came to Africa to defend genuine freedom. About 36, 000 soldiers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) fought in the war out of which 4, 300 died. This is the undisputed Cuban record in the pursuit of genuine freedom and real human rights. It should be contrasted with the American dubious democracy projects which have large-ly served as pretexts to break other nations and thereafter abandon them in a state of anarchy. 

Take yet another sample of Cuban foreign policy imbued with solidarity. Cuban doctors showed the humanity implanted in them by the revolution when other countries found themselves in crisis situa-tions. Cuban health workers have been put on their mettle during hurricanes and earthquake in Haiti. Twelve years ago, Cuban doctors were on ground to combat Ebola in Liberia, Sierra-Leone and Guinea. Later, in an October 14, 2014, editorial entitled “Cuba’s Impressive Role on Ebola,” an American news-paper, the New York Times, had this to say about Cuba’s achievement in the health sector: “The global panic over Ebola has not brought forth an adequate response from the nations with the most to offer. While the United States and several other wealthy countries have been happy to pledge funds, only Cu-ba and a few non-governmental organizations are offering what is most needed: medical professionals in the field.” The newspaper called on the United States to swiftly restore diplomatic relations with Cu-ba.

At the height of the COVID pandemic, Cuba sent over 2, 500 health personnel to at least 28 countries   including those of Europe in an act of solidarity. This happened while western capitalist countries were busy fighting for turf in the economics of vaccine production to the detriment of poor countries. Some British citizens stranded on a ship were denied disembarkation in some countries.  It was only Cuba that accepted them despite the epidemiological risk prevalent during the pandemic.  All this happened be-cause the socialist Cuba looked at our common humanity in the COVID crisis while there was fixation on profits in some capitalist quarters. The huge success of Cuba’s response to COVID-19 has been widely acknowledged.

The resolve by American imperialism to collapse the Cuban revolution is indeed an assault on the rules-based global order. Cuba may appear helpless in the circumstance. But a wider view of things should show that what Trump is doing to Cuba is a metaphor for how America sees the whole world. It is a world in which international law seems to have vanished from the arena. America is somewhat saying farewell to the post-1945 rules-based order. Meanwhile, experts in diplomacy have been reminding the public that America led the West in writing these rules which have been accepted by other nations. For the right-wing pundits who may try rationalising America’s actions, Trump’s interventions in Venezuela, Greenland, Iran and now Cuba could only find justification in the law of the jungle. In Trump’s universe, America is the socio-economic and political predator while other countries are mere diplomatic preys of varying strengths.

Such actions certainly constitute a dent on civilisation and a threat to human progress.