When we hear the words “Cuba” and “intervention” in the same quote, our mind would probably remit us immediately to the 1960s, when a brave young man, Fidel Castro, was giving the very famous speech in the General Assembly of the United Nations condemning US interventionism and the international imperialist interference against the oppressed countries of the world.
This rhetoric has been consistently repeated by the authorities of the Cuban government throughout the 60 years of communist revolution. The efficient strategies of “communicative warfare” and the propaganda apparatus inherited from the Soviet Union have managed to position Cuba -or more specifically- the self-proclaimed “revolutionary government” of Cuba as the bastion of anti-imperialism in the region and the voice of every person around the globe who wishes to be free from -according to them- the imperialist oppression of the capitalist powers.
The Cuban embassies and the media paid by its government have replicated the same speeches and arguments throughout the world during the last six decades, making Cuba a symbol of international peace, national sovereignty, the right to self-determination of peoples and non-interference.
However, the “Revolution” has a dark shadow that the propaganda apparatus has not been able to camouflage. After the US, the Republic of Cuba – led by the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic – is the country that has more intervened and sabotaged the internal affairs of its Latin American neighbors throughout history.
While on one hand Fidel Castro and the revolutionary leaders traveled worldwide to hold massive political rallies calling passionately for the end of imperialism, they secretly worked to implement their own “communist interventions” to expand their revolution throughout the world. Under the pretext of implementing “internationalist missions” that responded to an awakening of the peoples to implant Marxism everywhere. The opponents of the Revolution have accused Cuba of leading a “Cuban imperialism” to impose their ideas in Latin America and the world.
The history of “Cuban Imperialism”
During the Cold War, the first action of the recently arrived Fidel Castro’s government was to annihilate any form of internal political opposition with the advice and support of the USSR. After all, the Soviets had a very special geopolitical interest to turn Cuba into the first trench of communism in the American continent, especially for its very strategic geographical position, which is practically located in the backdoors of the United States.
Once consolidated in power, Castro felt powerful enough to rely on direct military intervention to spread the global communist revolution of the USSR. According to the regime, the Raison d’Etat of Communist Cuba was to survive the continuous attacks of the oppressive forces of capitalism, who will desperately try to counter its role as the “liberator of America and the countries of the Third World”.
In only a few years, Fidel Castro turned the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba into the second largest military force of the continent, after the United States. In its bright years, the Cuban Military Forces occupied a position in the Top 10 of the largest armies in the world. Thanks to Soviet economical, logistical and political support.
The Cuban government began its military adventures in the Latin American region itself. The firsts actions were to invade Panama and the Dominican Republic on April and June 1959 to overthrow by force the governments who served as “puppets of imperialism” and to implement communist-allied regimes. Both invasions failed and aroused alarm in the region without any major consequence.
One month after the failed invasion, the Cuban government began a secret recruitment campaign in the Haitian communities in New York, Mexico, Caracas, Barbados and the Bahamas to organize a new invasion, this time targeting the entire island of “La Española” shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Haitian dictator François Duvalier (aka “Papa Doc”) continually denounced the threat of a Cuban invasion, but neither Washington, nor the Dominican Republic, nor the French security services took that threat as real.
As recounts Gérard Pierre-Charles in his book “The Contemporary Caribbean”, on August 30, 1959, the Cuban regime intervened the radio networks of Haiti and the Dominacan Republic to publicly transmit messages in Spanish and French calling the people to rise against the capitalist regime. Hours later, a contingent of 18 Cubans, 10 Haitians and 2 Venezuelans disembarked at Les Irois to overthrow Duvalier.
The invaders were counting on the support of the Haitian army, which was supposed to rebel against the government after hearing the intervened radio stations. It never happened. The invaders were immediately annihilated and Castro’s enemies in the region took advantage of the unexpected incident to denounce the hypocrisy of the Cuban revolutionary government, which was publicly denouncing intervention in the affairs of others at the UN while invading at the same time its own neighbors in the region.
After this failure, Fidel Castro decided to conquer Venezuela and ensure the supply of oil to the island. In 1967, Cuba invaded Venezuela through hundreds of guerrillas and infiltrated agents. The plan was to enter in the “Playa de Machurucuto” causing a popular and military uprising in the city of Caracas to take power. Once again, the Cuban mission failed in a matter of hours. The Venezuelan government was furious and immediately moved all of its powerful diplomatic influences to denounce the Cuban regime in the Organization of American States (OAS). Shortly after the aggression against Venezuela, the countries of the region unanimously voted for the definitive expulsion of Cuba due to its interventionist policy in favor of the Soviet Union.
In addition to direct military expeditions, Cuba also indirectly promoted the expansion of the revolution by giving logistical support to guerrilla movements, sending and training local spies and through intervening radio stations, television emissions and press networks to continually incite coups d’état and popular uprisings. Some enemies of Fidel Castro even accused the Cuban regime of arming and financing the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Sandinista Guerrillas of Nicaragua to spread communism throughout the region.
Once the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc collapsed, Cuba opted for the “electoral conquest” of the region through the Sao Paolo Forum, where they actively support leaders loyal to the Cuban Revolution to democratically conquer power. The first example was Hugo Chávez who later declared himself Fidel Castro’s best friend. In this way, Cuba failed to conquer Venezuela by force in 1967, but 32 years later would hand it over to him without a single shot.
Cuban interventions were not applied only in Latin America.The Cuban Armed Forces have conducted operations in Tanzania, the Congo, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Angola, Ethiopia and South Africa, in disregard of the principles of sovereignty, non-interference and free self-determination of peoples.