Foreign relations of Cuba
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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. 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.
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Cuban intervention under Castro
Aided by a massive buildup of Soviet advisors, military personnel, and advanced weaponry during the Cold War, Cuba effectively became a Soviet satellite in the Caribbean during Castro's rule. 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 and domestic secessionists and left-wing rebels. 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 Peru and Colombia are still undergoing civil war and severe economic strife. Castro continues to provide assistance to 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.
Rather than being a revolutionary influence on the region, 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.
Currently, Cuba has diplomatically friendly relationships with Presidents Hugo Chavez 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 populist-based socio-economic programs. Chavez, in turn provides Cuba with lower priced petroleum.
Cuban-American relations
Because of Cuba's Marxist-Leninist government and also the power of the Cuban-American lobby, especially in Florida, 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 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. 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.
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 government, which has also started considering the possibility of armed invasion of Cuba again.
Cuban-Canadian relations
Mostly because of the restrictions the United States has placed on Cuba, Canada had a strong trade relations with the country, Cuba is also one of Canadians' most popular travel destinations. Relations between Cuba and Canada have always been close. Following the Cuban revolution Canada-based banks were the only ones not nationalized. Canada reacts angrily to American attempts to pressure it to stop trading with Cuba, the Helms-Burton Act being particularly aggravating. In response to the perceived extra-territoriality of the aforementioned Act, a Private Member's Bill was introduced in the Canadian parliament called the Godfrey-Milliken Bill in retaliation.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was a personal friend of Castro. In fact Castro was among Trudeau's pallbearers at his funeral (some commentators speculated this was partially to aggravate the United States one last time).
See also
External links
- Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.cubaminrex.cu/)
- http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/cuba/cuba003.htm