Cuba, the Triumph of Perseverance

Fifty-three years ago, in the full heat of the Cold War, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba and declared a political, economic and military war against the Cuban revolution. In the following months and years, Washington would put forth hundreds of secret operations aimed at sabotaging the revolutionary process, as well as assassinating Fidel Castro. Each and every one of the U.S. plans failed without exception: from the landing at Giron Beach — Bay of Pigs — in 1961 to the relentless economic blockade, which punished with prison time anyone who would send a dollar to Cuba. Ten American presidents passed through the White House, while in Cuba, as admitted in the statement issued by Obama’s office, Fidel and later Raul continued governing along with the Cuban Communist Party.

The maintenance of the blockade and hostilities against Cuba constituted the most obsolete and absurd policies of the many that the U.S. had amassed. The continental isolation imposed upon the island by American pressure since 1961 had disappeared to such an extent that of all the countries of the American continent, only the United States refused to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. The continental pressure against this failed policy has not stopped increasing during the last decade. In 2009, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States voted for the re-admission of the island. In June of 2014, almost all of the Latin American governments warned that they would not attend the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Panama, if Cuba were excluded. In half a century, the United States went from being the isolator to the isolated, appearing powerless, as its prior omnipotent influence over what it liked to call the “Western hemisphere” was reduced to a small amount.

Nothing about this takes away merit from President Obama’s decision, which for the most part has been described as brave. None of his predecessors in the job dared to move a finger to modify the anti-Cuban policies, although they knew they were a failure. The fear of the now not-so-powerful Cuban lobby and of the certainly powerful ultraconservative block, which consists of both Republicans and Democrats, paralyzed everyone. It was easier to let oneself be carried by the inertia, although the USSR had disappeared, and the Cold War was a historic reference. Making a show of political realism, Obama decided to come to terms with the U.S. policy failure and take a turn that is certainly historic in its relations with Cuba, and also with Latin America.

Because since the revolutionary triumph of 1959, Cuba was the mirror through which the people of Latin America saw themselves, one way or another. The governments could break relations, but Cuba remained a hope for liberty, equality and fraternity that the bearded, stubborn men had opened in the hearts of the oppressed people of the region. Cuba was an example, refuge, training camp, focus of ideas, light of resistance, above all when the dictatorships were drowning Latin America in blood.

The normalization process between Cuba and the U.S. begins, according to the words of Raul Castro, without Cuba renouncing a single one of its ideals. Such a statement testifies to the stubbornness and strength with which Cuba and the Cubans knew how to resist even during the toughest periods of its recent history. The so-called “special period” euphemism, coined in reference to the misery and economic collapse that followed the suicide of the Soviet Union, was the baptism by fire for the islanders. I traveled to the island various times during those years, and I can be a witness to the immense spirit of sacrifice of the population. In other places, the social explosion would have been immediate. In Cuba, patriotism and revolutionary conscience were the pillars that sustained the broken country.

Obama’s message contains a phrase that stands out, “We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state.” One can suppose that Obama looked at the disasters caused by military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. He saw, perhaps, that the military dictatorships promoted by the United States were total failures. Hopefully this means the U.S. will renounce all types of interventionism.

There remains a long road to traverse. The economic blockade is a thick cobweb that must be undone in Congress, where the extreme right will fight law by law. But the main step has been taken, and considering the weight that the president of the United States has, it is hoped that the blockade will be dissolved little by little. Many years ago, in an article about Cuba, I recalled that it wasn’t necessary to be a superpower to resist the siege of an empire. For this, dignity and courage suffice since, as Karl Deutsch noted, a small nation with a government of unusual strength and a motivated populace could maintain its independence if only for the high costs that its conquest might entail. Cuba has achieved it. And Fidel has lived to see it. A joy for Latin America.