Propaganda: Cuba’s final trump card – How Trump miscalculated within the battle of ideologies | EUROtoday

The helpers include photo voltaic panels, bicycles and Palestine flags. However, the reception for the rusty boat “Maguro” and the virtually three dozen worldwide activists on board in Havana was manageable on the waterfront. “Solidarity cannot be stopped, the free peoples of the world have much more strength than any empire,” says the considerably lost-looking Brazilian local weather activist Thiago Avila to the journalists current.

The growing old tuna trawler, which started its journey to Cuba from Mexico, is a part of a “Our America” solidarity marketing campaign. Even although there have been no giant crowds on the reception, the mission fulfilled its objective: the worldwide media reported on the marketing campaign worldwide.

The ideological enemy from Washington is countering with the plane service USS Nimitz and the destroyer USS Gridley, which is able to anchor off Panama within the subsequent few days as a part of a tour of the Americas. US troopers lately practiced there within the occasion of an emergency navy operation underneath Caribbean situations. How they rule in Cuba, amongst different locations.

In current months, US President Donald Trump has elevated the strain on Cuba by blocking Venezuelan oil deliveries to the island nation following the US navy intervention in Venezuela and the seize of head of state Nicolás Maduro. Trump has additionally threatened to impose tariffs on any nation that provides oil to Cuba and lately even threatened to take over the island.

The Trump administration is demanding the management in Havana launch political prisoners and take steps towards political and financial liberalization in return for lifting sanctions. But regardless of the huge financial disaster ensuing from the sanctions and rising protests, there’s at present no signal of the regime giving in.

Cuba depends on ideology

Because the run-down island depends on its strongest and maybe solely trump card: propaganda. Economically and militarily, Cuba is a hopelessly inferior dwarf in comparison with the USA. Ideologically, nevertheless, Havana is a huge with shut ties to each democratic governments and brutal dictatorial regimes all over the world.

The model essence of the Cuban revolution may be boiled down to 2 key traits: anti-Americanism and resistance to strain from Washington, irrespective of the fee – and a David versus Goliath narrative that’s enormously common exterior Cuba. This is precisely what the badly hit Caribbean state is counting on once more this time.

At the identical time, the constellation is the best hazard for the communist dictatorship. If the impression have been to come up that the regime in Havana was giving in to Washington’s calls for and even cooperating with the USA, the resistance fable that had lasted virtually seven a long time could be destroyed. The revolution could be disadvantaged of its ideological foundation.

“There is no bureaucrat in power in Cuba, but a tyrant whose life’s mission is to maintain this power. Raúl Castro and his family,” says Javier Larrondo from the Cuban exile civil rights group Prisoners Defenders in an interview with WELT.

Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old brother and successor of the long-time revolutionary chief Fidel Castro, who died in 2016, is at present pulling the strings once more. His grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro is holding talks with Washington. This is a humiliation for the formal ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, the primary head of state born after the 1959 revolution.

Díaz-Canel confirmed dialogue with the Trump administration two weeks in the past, however with out mentioning any subjects or particulars. The indisputable fact that the talks are being led by the Castros offers them the chance to safe their very own energy on the expense of Díaz-Canel.

Protests towards the dictatorship

In any case, Cuba’s rulers are nervous. They are reacting harshly to the renewed protests among the many inhabitants: The non-governmental group Prisoners Defenders, primarily based in Madrid, which campaigns for political prisoners in Cuba, counted 1,214 opponents of the regime imprisoned on the finish of February – a brand new report. Social protests like these in 2021 must be averted in any respect prices.

Unlike the worldwide activists on board the Maguro, a big majority of Cubans now specific their deep dissatisfaction with the communist dictatorship. Thousands of boat folks drowning within the open sea, rising numbers of political prisoners, the ban on the formation of any opposition celebration and draconian jail sentences for public protests have stifled any revolutionary romanticism in a big a part of the Cuban inhabitants.

Nevertheless, there’s at present little to counsel that Cuba will give in regardless of the big strain from Washington. This does not shock civil rights activist Larrondo. In Cuba, a tiny minority of round one p.c of the inhabitants controls the political, financial and navy constructions. The majority of individuals are closely indoctrinated and extremist.

When the Wall fell, the then GDR rulers gave in to a vital second of ethical obligation. “The Castros will not give us a millisecond of moral obligation. They are unlikely to relinquish power unless there is an act of violence, internal or external,” Larrondo stated.

So far, Cuba has all the time managed to current itself as a sufferer of the USA. The decades-long US commerce embargo, which dates again to the Cuban Missile Crisis within the Nineteen Sixties, is seen as an excuse by these in energy for each unfavourable financial growth.

The Castro regime may and nonetheless has the ability to finish the embargo by means of a democratic opening at any time. However, this carries the chance of a lack of energy. Castro himself admitted a couple of years in the past that not the whole lot could possibly be blamed on the embargo. President Díaz-Canel lately known as for “deep structural changes.”

The rumor persists to this present day that the then US President John F. Kennedy (1961-63) promised Fidel Castro within the battle over Russian nuclear missiles secretly stationed in Cuba that the US would typically chorus from navy intervention in Cuba. Instead, Washington relied on the embargo to overthrow the dictatorship. So far unsuccessful.

Help from Russia and China

The Cuban exile newspaper “Diario de Cuba” reviews that it’s not the present US oil boycott that’s accountable for the power disaster and the ability outages, however that the nation has misplaced round 25 p.c of its electrical energy technology capability within the ailing energy crops since 2016 as a consequence of sloppiness and poor planning.

Trump had declared that he “could do whatever he wanted with Cuba.” But since his declare has to this point remained an empty menace, Cuba is managing to take over the interpretation of the battle little by little – and to attain factors within the battle of ideologies.

Havana’s assist community additionally helps. Russia guarantees to ship gasoline for humanitarian causes regardless of the present oil blockade. There is a danger of a conflict between Russian tankers and the US Navy on the open sea. China condemns US sanctions.

In Latin America, the influential left-wing presidents Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) are siding with Havana. The regime’s self-preservation equipment has picked up pace once more.

Tobias Buyer is a Latin America correspondent. He has been reporting on developments within the area on behalf of WELT since 2009.