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| [Havana, June 15, 2026: Funeral of 32 Cuban soldiers killed in US attack on Venezuela.] |
[Educational to Socialist Alliance Melbourne branch, March 3, 2026.]
Washington’s fundamental hostility
The January 1, 1959 triumph of the Revolution and its victory over the US-led counterrevolution at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) in April 1961 electrified progressive and popular forces in Latin America. The revolution and the bold, dynamic new leadership around Fidel and Che had a huge impact.
Relations with Washington quickly deteriorated as it became clear that the Cuban leadership was dead serious about carrying out its radical promises (especially the agrarian reform) and supporting revolutionary forces across Latin America.
An April 6, 1960 memorandum by Lestor Mallory, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, laid out Washington’s thinking. The memo was headed “The Decline and Fall of Castro”.
Salient considerations respecting the life of the present Government of Cuba are:
1. The majority of Cubans support Castro (the lowest estimate I have seen is 50 percent).
2. There is no effective political opposition.
3. Fidel Castro and other members of the Cuban Government espouse or condone communist influence.
4. Communist influence is pervading the Government and the body politic at an amazingly fast rate.
5. Militant opposition to Castro from without Cuba would only serve his and the communist cause.
6. The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.
66 years later, nothing has really changed.
Move & countermove
Wikipedia outlines how things quickly escalated:
In May 1960 the Cuban government began regularly and openly purchasing armaments from the Soviet Union, citing the US arms embargo. In July 1960 the U.S. reduced the import quota of sugar from Cuba to 700,000 tons under the Sugar Act of 1948; the Soviet Union responded by agreeing to purchase the sugar instead.
In June 1960, Eisenhower's government refused to export oil to the island, leaving Cuba reliant on Soviet crude oil. Cuba and the Soviet Union signed a trade agreement according to which the Soviet Union would provide 900,000 tons of oil to Cuba. The US viewed the agreement as a provocation, and successfully urged Esso, Texaco, and Shell to refuse to process Soviet crude in their Havana and Santiago de Cuba refineries. On June 29 and July 1, 1960, Cuba confiscated the refineries. The US responded by canceling its quota of sugar purchases from Cuba …
In response to sanctions, on August 30, 1960, the Cuban government nationalized three American-owned oil refineries as well as … the Cuban Telephone Company, and 36 sugar mills. The refineries became part of the state-run company … This prompted the Eisenhower administration to launch the first trade embargo — a prohibition against selling all products to Cuba outside of humanitarian aid.
In October 1960, the Cuban administration responded by nationalizing all American businesses and most American privately owned properties on the island. Castro promised to separate Americans in Cuba from all of their possessions "down to the nails in their shoes" …
The second wave of nationalisations prompted the Eisenhower administration, in one of its last actions, to sever all diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961.
Bay of Pigs & the missile crisis
In April 1961 the US organised an invasion of Cuba by a small army of CIA-trained counterrevolutionaries. The landing site chosen was Playa Giron (the Bay of Pigs) on Cuba’s southern coast. The invasion was defeated within 72 hours. Some 1200 contras were captured (later ransomed for medical supplies).
In the midst of the struggle, for the first time Fidel proclaimed the revolution to be a socialist one.
In April 1962 the US amassed a huge naval armada for manoeuvres involving 40,000 marines culminating in a mock invasion of an island off Puerto Rico. The revolutionary government feared an invasion was imminent. Che Guevara was sent to Moscow to request nuclear missiles to defend Cuba. Moscow agreed and the missiles started to arrive in the middle of the year.
In October the US discovered them. The US imposed a naval blockade of the island. After some tense moments, eventually the missiles were withdrawn. The US publicly promised not to invade Cuba again and a secret agreement was made to withdraw US nuclear missiles in Turkey.
The blockade
The precise scope of the blockade has varied over the years but it has never been lifted. The blockade has done immense damage to Cuba over the decades. Wikipedia reports:
The United Nations estimated in 2023 the total economic damage to the Cuban economy to be in the "trillions of dollars" since inception. A 2015 report in Al Jazeera estimated that the embargo had cost the Cuban economy $1.1 trillion in the 55 years since its inception, once inflation is taken into account. The Cuban government assessed the cost in 2018 to be around $933 billion since inception.
Apart from the US and Israel the embargo has had almost no international support. Wikipedia summarises:
Every year since 1992, except for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. General Assembly has passed a non-binding resolution that condemns the ongoing impact of the embargo and declares it in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law. Israel is the only country that routinely joins the U.S. in voting against the resolution.
Other countries that voted against the resolution in the past include Romania in 1992, Albania and Paraguay in 1993, Uzbekistan from 1995 to 1997, Marshall Islands from 2000 to 2007, Palau from 2004 to 2009 then once in 2012, and Brazil in 2019. 187 countries voted in favor of the resolution in 2024, with only the United States and Israel voting against it and Moldova abstaining.
In 2025, five countries joined the United States and Israel in voting against the resolution: Argentina, Paraguay, Hungary, North Macedonia, and Ukraine. Additionally, twelve countries abstained from the vote: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Moldova, and Romania.
Cuba’s relations with US over the years
There is a very interesting article on the blockade in Orinoco Tribune by Cuban academic Jose Ramon Cabanas. He points out that, despite everything, there have been many practical agreements for US-Cuba cooperation over the years (search and rescue, against drug trafficking, etc.). They have worked well.
He says that increased tourism led to public perceptions of Cuba in the US becoming more positive and that this led the Miami right wing to lobby Trump for harsher sanctions (which duly came).
He ends with a sharp point. He asks “What is sovereignty for Cuba?”.
I would say it is the axis of a multilateral existence, of continuing to live as human beings, that we respect the sovereign independence and freedom of each country. If we are asked today, I would say that Cuba does not share many visions and many political systems that exist in the world. I will not go into examples, but let us say systems where politics depends on who buys which candidate; obviously, that is not how it should work.
And there are other countries with political systems with which we do not agree. However, we have respect for those authorities, we have respect for those countries, and what it is about for us to continue living as humanity is to negotiate our differences and try to solve them by peaceful means. This is reflected in our Constitution, which was voted on by the population in a referendum that approved it.
That country that wants to give Cuba lessons in democracy has never voted for a Constitution. In the US, the constitutional text that begins by saying “We the People” was negotiated by 57 individuals and signed by 39. There have been a host of constitutional amendments, but the US as a country has never voted for a Constitution.
Trump moves in for the kill
Even before Trump’s latest escalation, Cuba was beset with serious problems. There was not only the embargo, but rising social inequality due to unequal access to dollar remittances from the Cuban diaspora (mainly in Florida).
In recent years large numbers of Cubans have emigrated due to financial pressures. As a result, the population has plateaued and even declined a little. It currently stands at 10.9 million.
This year Trump has dramatically intensified the pressure on Cuba. On January 29 he issued one of his utterly preposterous executive orders that declared Cuba to be “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the US. Trump said that he would impose punitive tariffs on states that deliver fuel to Cuba. (Since the Supreme Court has struck down Trump’s tariffs, this last threat remains moot.)
Under the US diktat, Venezuela has cancelled its oil supplies to Cuba as has Mexico. The US continues to intercept oil supplies heading to Cuba, i.e., to blockade the island.
The aim is the same as for Lester Mallory in April 1960: To increase social discontent, achieve regime change and bring back the good old days of US corporate-mafia domination.
Things are indeed grim. Hospitals, schools and factories are shutting down. Health care is in crisis as ambulances are immobilised, medicines are running out, and dialysis machines can’t function. There is real hunger. Planes can’t land there because they can’t refuel, garbage is piling up in the streets as lack of fuel cripples the garbage truck fleet.
Cuban response & solidarity
Cuba produces a small amount of oil (30-45,000 barrels per day).
It is installing solar panels and setting up solar farms; China and Vietnam are helping here. This has been happening for some years but now the urgency is absolutely acute. A related problem is storage batteries so power generated during the day can be used at night: Solar panels may be cheap but storage is not.
Solidarity aid from both countries and social groups is coming in. The Nuestra América Convoy has called for people from around the world to converge in Havana on March 21.
Defend the Cuban Revolution
Despite the small size of the country, the Cuban Revolution is one of the greatest events of the modern era. Cuba’s subsequent development shows the world what is possible when capitalism and the profit motive is removed. Yes, Cuba has a great many problems due to the blockade and the isolation of the revolution but its defence must be a priority for all socialist and progressive forces.