Translated "Avante!" article by Luís Carapinha, Member of the International Department
Upon the USA having cut diplomatic relations with Cuba, more than half a century ago, the Cuban flag was displayed again / the flag flew again at the embassy, in Washington. The very same day, July 20th, Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban Foreign Affairs minister was received by John Kerry, at the State Department. The re-initiation of the diplomatic relations, refused by the most reactionary sectors in the USA, is a new mark in the relations between the two countries. Above all, it represents a tactic inflexion of the USA strategy against Cuba. Obama himself recognized , in his statement in December 17th last, the defeat of the USA policy for decades, in order to anatomize, isolate and throw down the Cuban revolution. It was not the recognition of its immoral and terrorist nature but, to be pragmatic, its failure, concerning its subversive fundamental objectives.
To this achieve this stage / To this have happened, its owed to the revolution extraordinary leadership and resistance capacity, its socialist direction, inseparable from the deep popular and patriotic character of the new power, in triumph, on January 1st 1959. Factors that overlooked all difficulties and adversities and the own deficiencies and mistakes revealed, concerning the deep changes process, undertaken in Cuba.
One ought to underline that the USA administration “drawback” corresponds a victory for Cuba. A victory that illuminates the immense moral superiority of the revolution and the Cuban people dignity. Which is at the same time, a political victory of the Freedom Island, difficult to be conceivable beyond the framework of the progressive and revolutionary changes within Latin America during 20 years – to which the example and solidarity contribution of the Cuban revolution were fundamental – not forgetting the high international prestige conquered by Cuba.
However, one ought to consider, as Raúl Castro recently stated, that “ an imperialist and oligarchic offensive is in progress against the revolutionary and progressive Latin America processes, which will be confronted with determination by our peoples” ( in Cubadebate, 2015.07.15).
The imposed blockade by the North-American imperialism against Cuba, in 1962, carries on in vigour, despite the adoption of relief measures of limited reach. As it has been repeatedly underlined by Havana, the diplomatic reinitiating is not equivalent to relations normalization, only possible with the blockade total raising , the devolution of the illegally occupied territory by the Guantanamo base, the whole respect for Cuba’s sovereignty and the people of Cuba compensations damages /repairs, for the accumulated damages in result of the USA criminal policy.
Imperialism will certainly not open hand of central objectives which target to destroy the Cuban revolution, weaken and reverse the Latin America emancipating processes, which are part of a wider /larger process of rearrangement of the world forces, stopping the alteration current of the unfavourable force correlation towards its hegemony. On deciding to bend, the subversive manoeuvre of frontal collision with Cuba, the White House perceives an opportunity window in order to obtain a change “from the inside”, considering the current framework, resulting from the complex actualization of the economic model in progress, coincident with the gradual handing over of the revolution leadership.
The imperial power tends to underestimate the patriotic conscience and the capacity of cohesion of the people of Cuba and its political vanguard. Cuba has changed radically. The times of dictator Batista’s puppet government will never return. Conscious of the adversary nature, a revolutionary power has the added duty of using any fracture / gap to defend peace, pacific coexistence and seek to profit the negotiated solutions, with mutual advantages. And following this perspective, Cuba proceeds the economic and social modernization process, crucial to advance in the building of a “prosperous and sustainable socialism” and the defence of its independence, to which generations of Cuban revolutionaries have given their lives.
