The Balance of Power Across the Whole of America Is Being Reshuffled

In a historic step, Barack Obama and Raul Castro are ending the animosity between the United States and Cuba, thereby altering the role of the U.S. across the whole of America.

With the release of political prisoners, new embassy buildings in Havana and Washington, trade and information exchanges, the U.S. and Cuba want to become closer again. One of the longest political conflicts is about to end and is to be replaced by an era of exchange. Both sides will profit because the anachronistic U.S. embargo mainly served to help Cuba’s communist leaders conceal their own shortcomings in economic policy. In terms of the catastrophic shortness of supplies in Cuba, both sides were portrayed as the guilty party: first the Americans with their embargo, which they imposed after the Cuban revolution. It changed nothing in terms of the balance of power in Havana. The Castro regime has survived more than half a dozen U.S. presidents.

It’s not just Cuba that has been in a state of political isolation for more than five decades. Obama’s change of course is also a first step for America out of the corner in which the U.S. has found itself for the last 15 years, since Latin America took a turn to the left. In the same way that Cuba was able to build up and consolidate its influence in the region through friendly governments in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia, the U.S. lost its political support. Even the few remaining allies of the U.S. in Latin America — like Colombia or Paraguay — called on Washington to change its course with regard to Cuba.

This week, the stumbling government of Venezuela called for a march against U.S. imperialism because the U.S. intends to react to the reprisals against imprisoned Venezuelan members of the opposition with sanctions. If Obama’s course of reconciliation toward Havana prevails, then, the image of the U.S. as the enemy could soon lose some its potency.

Obama could succeed in regaining lost trust and that “deserves respect,” claimed Cuban head of state Raúl Castro in his television speech to the Cuban people on Wednesday. For the last 50 years, such words were unimaginable and will not fail to have an effect in the region.

Colombia’s conservative president Juan Manuel Santos reacted euphorically to the news: calling it “great news for the region and for the world.” Cuba is playing a decisive role in the peace negotiations, which have been taking place in Havana for the last two years, between the left-wing guerrilla organization FARC and the Colombian government.

As early as this April the erstwhile arch-enemy could provide photographic proof of this new diplomatic closeness: Castro and Obama could officially meet for the first time in the context of the America summit in Panama. So far, there have merely been secret negotiations and coincidental meetings on the edge of official gatherings. A lengthy telephone call on Tuesday between Obama and Castro — the very first — sealed the U-turn.

Latin American countries are demanding the participation of Cuba at this, the most important of inter-American summits. The U.S. and Canada have so far refused — until there are free elections on the Communist-run island. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa announced that he will not be attending any summits, as long as Cuban participation is refused. This spring could see the first real American summit, where all countries and political ideologies of the region are represented — giving substance to Obama’s phrase “todos somos americanos.”

For Cuba, this rapprochement with the U.S. has come at the right time. Until now, the country has been receiving subsidies from Venezuela, but the Venezuelan economy is in free fall. The country has been badly hit by declining oil prices. Seeing as Russia is no longer a potential sponsor, given the heavy economic crisis, an opening of relations with Washington is also a step toward luring new investors and partners to the island.