The July 31 announcement that Cuban president
Fidel Castro was undergoing surgery and had temporarily delegated his major
party and state responsibilities to his officially designated successor, Raul
Castro, was met with a chorus of speculation and obscene jubilation in the United States.
While a portion of the Cuban émigré community in Miami
celebrated and dreamed about once again getting its hands on the wealth created
by the Cuban people, the U.S.
government and its various espionage agencies dusted off plans for the
destabilization and overthrow of the Cuban government in the immediate
“post-Castro” period. By contrast, the reports from Cuba indicate that the situation
remains calm and the Cuban people and their state remain determined to defend
their revolution regardless of what develops.
Since the early nineteenth century, successive U.S. administrations have viewed Cuba as legitimate property of the United States
and as a playground for rich Americans. Following the American victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War at the end of
the nineteenth century the U.S.
treated Cuba
as a colony and routinely interfered militarily and politically in its internal
affairs. The 1959 Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro put an end to Cuba’s colonial status and represented the first
time in its history that Cuba
could legitimately be called independent. By 1961, when it had become clear
that the new Cuban government had no intention of relinquishing its hard-won
independence or of submitting to U.S.
dictate, the U.S. government
imposed a brutal economic blockade against Cuba which it has maintained and
intensified for the past 45 years. It also began a systematic campaign of state
terrorism against the Cuban state and Cuban people, including numerous
assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, bombings of Cuban hotels, airlines
and economic institutions, and biological warfare against Cuban civilians and
agricultural assets.
Despite the treachery of the U.S. imperialists and the attempts by Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev and his successors to convert Cuba into a Soviet neo-colony, the Cuban
revolution has survived and Cuba
has succeeded in following a sovereign and independent course. It has been an
implacable opponent of colonialism, imperialism and neo-liberalism and a true
friend to peoples everywhere who are fighting for independence and social
progress. Despite the economic hardships caused by the U.S. blockade and the treachery of the new
Russian rulers following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba has
managed to build a self-reliant economy capable of supporting world class
health and education systems which are free to all. It has also made
significant headway in eliminating social inequities and in ensuring that no
one is abandoned to fend for themselves, which is something that neither the
U.S. nor Canada can boast. Furthermore, while the loudest proponents of “human
rights” and “humanitarianism”, such as the U.S. and Canada, have written off
the poorest people of Africa and Latin America and have imposed neo-liberal
economic restructuring programs on their countries which drive them into even
deeper poverty, Cuba has sent tens of thousands of doctors to the most remote
and poverty-stricken regions at no cost to the governments of those countries.
As a matter of principle, Cuba has the
right to exist as a sovereign and independent nation as well as the right to
the political and economic system of its choice. Furthermore, beyond matters of
principle, Cuba’s
consistent stand against the rich and powerful and in defence
of the poor and weak has earned it an unrivaled placeamong
today’s nations in the hearts of world’s people. Fidel’s Cuba may be a small and isolated country within
the world capitalist order, but it has more friends and higher prestige than
George Bush’s America
can ever hope to enjoy. Progressive and justice-loving people everywhere hope
for Fidel’s quick and complete recovery and wish him many more years at the
head of the Cuban revolution.