Cuba is far away, Cuba is near
Source: wikimedia.org
Whose Tracks Lead to Haiti?
Cuba seems to have held out. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans, including not only communists and Komsomol members, have held mass demonstrations throughout the Island of Liberty from mid-July until recently in support of socialist Cuba and its leadership.
Moreover, these demonstrations began before the call of the Cuban leadership on July 13 to fellow citizens to support their homeland and stand up to US imperialism. There is something to compare with: in 1990-1991, Soviet citizens, including communists and Komsomol members, although the CPSU together with the Komsomol then numbered more than 65 million members, turned out to be much less concerned about the fate of their country ...
But the White House is not appeasing: Press Secretary Jen Psaki, known throughout the world as an advanced intellectual, said on July 20 that the American administration
"Is actively taking measures that both support the people of Cuba and hold the Cuban regime accountable."
In addition, the United States will contribute to
"To make the Internet more accessible to Cubans."
In turn, the official representative of the US State Department Ned Price recently clarified that
"We are also reviewing our plans to increase the staffing of our embassy in Havana to increase opportunities for engagement with civil society."
The main reasons for the new wave of the US struggle for "democracy" in Cuba are quite objectively reflected on July 18 in a statement from the Foreign Ministry of nearby Barbados. And, as noted, this position is “collective position"All 16 countries and territories of the" Caribbean Community "
The Caribbean Community is a block of non-liberal-speaking countries of the region, South America and a number of the Caribbean protectorates of Great Britain (Montserrat, Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands).
The Caribbean community's course of rapprochement with Cuba was also actively supported by Haitian President Jovenel Moise (pictured), who was recently killed in a terrorist attack. Moreover, back in December 2018, during the official visit of J. Moise to Cuba, the Cuban-Haitian working group "On the Development of Caribbean Integration" was created.
On the verge of integration
The Caribbean Community, modeled after the EU, regularly demands
“Within the framework of the UN, the OAS (Organization of American States. - Approx. VO) and in other forums, to end the US blockade against Cuba, which will eliminate its inhuman consequences. The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington for more than 60 years has painful consequences for the Cuban population. "
And it was from here, according to the official representatives of the Community, that the socio-political tension in Cuba arose in July of this year. Because the
"Street protests in several Cuban cities have been triggered by the economic conditions in which the Caribbean island is located due to the American blockade, and which are exacerbated by the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."
In a broader context, the governments of most countries in this bloc have been advocating Cuba's accession to the Caribbean Community since the mid-2010s. First of all, these are the governments of Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago - the most industrially developed countries of the Community.
A free trade zone has existed between Cuba and the Community since the early 2000s. And back in October 2013, George Rose, Ambassador of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (a member country of the CC) to Cuba, said that
“Community relations with Cuba, including trade, have reached an integrational maturity. I hope that Cuba and also the neighboring Dominican Republic will soon be able to become members of our Community. "
In a word, the current Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is absolutely right, who accused the United States on July 18 of the fact that, along with the long-standing economic blockade of Cuba, Washington
"He intensified all kinds of actions within the framework of a psychological and, in general, a hybrid war, to provoke unrest in our country."
Including, according to the head of Cuba, cyberattacks on the media and the introduction of false information about mass terror against the population, about the collapse of Cuban health care, the exhaustion of the country's state food reserves.
"All this is not new, judging by the well-known actions of imperialism before and now in many countries."
- concluded the Cuban president.
It is no less characteristic that in March-May 2021, the medical departments of Jamaica and Suriname, members of the Caribbean bloc, announced plans to purchase exactly Cuban vaccines against coronavirus - Soberana 01, Soberana 02 and Abdala. Since autumn 2020, these vaccines have been supplied, for example, to Iran.
According to Deutsche Welle, June 29,
“Interest in the Cuban vaccine has already been expressed, in particular, by Bolivia, Haiti (shortly before the murder of J. Moise ... - Approx. VO), Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico. It was planned to admit Cuba to the Caribbean Community no later than this fall. "
Therefore, the riots in Cuba, inspired from the outside, as well as the assassination of the popular and charismatic Jovenel Moise, were certainly undertaken to disrupt both the Cuban-Haitian partnership and Cuba's entry into the Caribbean community. It is clear that both would transform the Caribbean Community into an anti-American coalition in the “soft underbelly” of the United States.
At the same time, in order to stabilize the situation in Cuba, its authorities took a number of important measures in July, continuing reforms on the Chinese model. For example, in most industries, the limits above which it was impossible to set wages have been canceled; new allowances for pensions and social benefits have been introduced.
On Liberty Island, taxes on small businesses have been reduced and the scope of its activities has been expanded; tightened sanctions for harboring / theft of medicines and other consumer goods - own production and imported.
Sticks in wheels
An external factor is also important for stabilizing the situation: statesmen from more than 30 countries have declared their solidarity with socialist Cuba and their readiness to provide it with urgent humanitarian and economic assistance. Including Spain, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Suriname, North Korea, Syria, many of Cuba's English-speaking Caribbean neighbors.
Humanitarian organizations from more than 40 countries are also ready to help Cuba. At the same time, the foreign ministries of the Russian Federation, Belarus, China, India and a number of other states spoke out against interference in the internal affairs of Cuba.
Meanwhile, the Cuban media report that agents for economic sabotage and provoking riots are still being sent from the notorious US military base in the Guantanamo area in southeastern Cuba. Recall that the American military settled there at the beginning of the 60th century, and the illegal occupation of this area has been going on for more than XNUMX years.
The Americans do not intend to leave there at all. So, the agency France-Presse in mid-October 2018 reported, citing sources in the Pentagon, that
"The US base at Guantanamo Bay, which is considered their territory in the US, will remain for at least another 25 years."
This information has not yet been refuted by either Washington or Havana.
Yet Cuban socialism was and remains phenomenally survivable. Being only 80 kilometers from the USA. As for the factors of such a unique survival rate, it is quite possible to agree with the opinion of Kazimierz Miyal, head of the opposition "pro-Stalinist" Communist Party of Poland (Eastern European Communists - They Didn't Become Weird Allies):
“... In Cuba, there are many more opponents of the United States than opponents of socialism. The top and middle echelons of the Cuban Communist Party, in contrast to Soviet practice, do not segregate into a closed nomenclature with various privileges. The ideological work of the Cuban communists is not aimed at "deifying" their leadership, but is interconnected with the study and propaganda of the struggle of all Latin America against imperialism and colonialism. It was to this kind of work that the communists were called by Stalin at the XIX Congress of the CPSU in 1952: “... The communist parties will have to raise the banner of national independence and national sovereignty, and carry it forward if they want to be patriots of their country, to become the leading force of the nation. There is no one else to raise it. "
According to the absolutely correct, as time has shown, K. Miyal's assessment,
"Cuban socialism, personifying the defense of national independence, is viable even after the collapse of the revisionist USSR and revisionist Eastern Europe."
- Alexey Chichkin
- geo.web.ru, kod.ru, 24tv.ua
Information