Foreign relations of Cuba

Cuba's once-ambitious foreign policy has been scaled back and redirected as a result of economic hardship and the end of the Cold War. However, with the support and funding by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, "advancing the cause of socialism" in Latin America has regained vigor. Now this trend appears to include Evo Morales, leader of coca growers, recently elected president of Bolivia.

Cuba aims to find new sources of trade, aid, and foreign investment, and to promote opposition to U.S. policy, especially the trade embargo and the 1996 Libertad Act. Cuba has relations with over 160 countries and has civilian assistance workers -- principally medical -- in more than 20 nations. This is commonly believed to be a significant source of income for the Castro government (e.g., exchanged for oil from Venezuela), and thus promoted officially even though occasionally some defect e.g., [1], [2].

Cuban intervention under Castro

Aided by a massive buildup of Soviet advisors, military personnel, and advanced weaponry during the Cold War, Cuba became a staunch ally of the USSR during Castro's rule, modeling its political structure after that of the CPSU. Due to this huge amount of support, Castro was able to become a major sponsor of Marxist "wars of national liberation" not only in Latin America, but worldwide. Castro's support extended to groups such as the URNG of Guatemala, the FMLN of El Salvador, the FSLN of Nicaragua, and ELN and FARC rebels in Colombia. In sub-Saharan Africa he sent Cuban troops along with the Soviet Union to aid the FRELIMO and MPLA dictatorships in Mozambique and Angola, respectively, while they were fighting U.S. and South African-backed insurgent groups RENAMO (supported by Rhodesia as well) and UNITA. He also aided the Communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia during its conflict with Somalia. He supported the Sandinista leadership of Nicaragua and the New Jewel Movement government of Grenada; following the aforementioned countries' successful revolutions in 1979, he is known to have boasted, "Now there are three of us." Guerrilla groups supported by Castro became quite active in the '70s and '80s, particularly in Central America, with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua perhaps becoming the most unstable countries as Havana assisted Marxist rebel coalitions dissatisfied with their respective governments.

In the '60s and '70s, Castro openly supported the black nationalist and Marxist-oriented Black Panther Party of the U.S. Many members found their way into Cuba for political asylum, where Castro welcomed them after they had been convicted of crimes in the U.S.

Castro has also lent support to Palestinian nationalist groups against Israel, a state he claims practices "Zionist Fascism." The prominent Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the lesser-known Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) both received training from Cuba's General Intelligence Directorate, as well as financial and diplomatic support from the Cuban government.

He has a good relationship with former South African president Nelson Mandela that comes out of Cuba's support for Mandela's African National Congress organization in the '70s and '80s.

In the post-Cold War environment, guerrilla warfare in Latin America has largely subsided, and the region has established democratic institutions, though countries such as Peru and Colombia were still undergoing internal wars against prolonged insurgencies, while several others also suffered from severe economic strife. Castro continued to provide assistance, of a more political than an outright military or economic nature, to some of the region's revolutionary groups, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of peace in most of the developing Western Hemisphere, Cuba is not the influential Latin American power it once was.

While it is commonly said that Castro is no longer a revolutionary influence on the region, in reality the situation is ambiguous at best [3]. Castro today works with a growing bloc of Latin American politicians opposed to the "Washington consensus," the American attitude that free trade, open markets, and privatization will lift poor third world countries out of economic stagnation. He has condemned neoliberalism as a destructive force in the developing world. Castro has continued in his support of destabilization efforts notably with this alliance with the militarily powerful President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and with his support of the President of the Bolivian Coca growers union of Evo Morales.

Currently, Cuba has diplomatically friendly relationships with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, with Chavez as perhaps his staunchest ally in the post-Soviet era. Castro has sent thousands of teachers and medical personnel to Venezuela to assist Chavez's socialist and populist-oriented economic programs. Chavez, in turn provides Cuba with lower priced petroleum. Cuban's debt for oil to Venezuela is believed to be on the order of one billion US dollars [4].

Cuban-American relations

Because of Cuba's Marxist-Leninist government, the power of the Cuban-American lobby, especially in Florida, and Castro's almost 50 years of rigid one man rule plus his constant support of destabilization relations around the world, the relations between Cuba and the United States have long been very poor. Under President John F. Kennedy, the CIA launched the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro. The CIA also embarked on a number of failed baroque assassination attempts. As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 the United States promised to not invade Cuba, but continued to employ strict economic sanctions.

Despite the end of the Cold War and the normalization of American relations with such countries as the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, the U.S. still has a strong policy against trade with Cuba and trade is limited to cash purchases of food and medicine. This includes travel restrictions and laws against American companies operating there. These measures were further strengthened by the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 which attempted to punish any foreign companies operating in Cuba, especially those using expropriated US assets.

The US continues to operate a naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. It is leased to the US and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease.

According to the CIA's Factbook, Cuba's territorial waters and air space serve as transshipment zone for cocaine bound for the US and Europe.

Cuba is listed by the U.S. as one of the "outposts of tyranny" since the Bush administration.

Cuban-Canadian relations

Perhaps mostly because of the restrictions the United States placed on Cuba, Canada has a strong trade relationship with the country; Cuba is also one of Canadians' most popular travel destinations. Relations between Cuba and Canada have been close since before Castro came to power. Following the Cuban revolution, Canada-based banks were the only ones not nationalized. Furthermore Castro has given Canadian companies relaxed access to assets expropriated from US companies [5] (most notably mining interests [6]). Canada is outwardly annoyed by American attempts to pressure it to stop trading with Cuba, the Helms-Burton Act being particularly aggravating. In 1996 a Private Member's Bill was introduced, but not made law, in the Canadian parliament; this law called the Godfrey-Milliken Bill was in response to the perceived extra-territoriality of the aforementioned Act.

Former Prime Minister, the late Pierre Trudeau, and especially his ex-wife Margaret Trudeau were personal friends of Castro. In fact Castro proceeded directly to the Notre Dame in Montreal to pay his last respects to his old friend. Castro was among Pierre Trudeau's pallbearers at his funeral.

External links

Representations of other countries in Cuba

Cuban intervention under Castro

Cuban-American relations

Cuban-Canadian relations

See also

External links