An Attack on Cuba or Venezuela is an Attack on All of Latin America

by Bill Bonnar, SSP International Officer

A CONTAINER SHIP carrying food and medical equipment to Cuba arrives from Mexico. It is the first of several such humanitarian aid efforts by the Mexican government and others to support the Cuban people in this time of crisis and in open defiance of the United States.

The current US oil embargo, aligned with already draconian economic sanctions, is designed to cripple the Cuban economy and inflict tremendous hardship on the Cuban people. The humanitarian efforts by Mexico are a sign that the Cuban people are not alone.

For most socialists the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was a defining moment in history; an inspiration. Yet before the Russian Revolution, the Mexican Revolution occupied a similar place. A revolution carried out against a Spanish aristocracy ruling over the kind of feudal system long abolished in Europe. A revolution, capitalist in nature, yet containing broader revolutionary currents. It culminated in the constitution of 1917: one of the most revolutionary documents in history and to this day remains the founding document of modern Mexico.

All revolutions end in a post-revolutionary settlement; a kind of compromise between the old order and the new. For Mexico this took the form of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000. By 2000 the PRI was empty and exhausted. It had long before shed any resemblance of a radical, let alone revolutionary, institution; rather it had become the embodiment of a corrupt, capitalist state institution. A body beholden to drug cartels, domestic capitalism and American imperialism.

By the turn of the century a broad-based left movement had arisen to challenge the existing order, drawing inspiration from the 1910-20 revolution yet shaping it to the world of the 21st century.

A new political party, Morena, was formed after the 2012 national elections, winning more than 50% of the vote in the 2018 national elections, with Andrés Obrador becoming president. It won again in the 2024 election with current president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as his successor. Morena is a broad left coalition promoting what it describes as the ‘Fourth Transformation’; a programme of national renewal. Its focus has been on anti-corruption, including taking on the drug cartels, the promotion of social justice and economic progress, often through state-led initiatives and sovereign control over energy resources.

Since coming to power it has inaugurated large-scale social programmes including a doubling of the national minimum wage and pioneered major infrastructure projects. Internationally it has developed close relations with Cuba and is a key partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Alongside Venezuela, Mexico has been a key ally of Cuba in recent years, drawing on a shared revolutionary tradition. They are also united in their opposition to the latest version of the Monroe Doctrine.

A recognition that an attack on Cuba or Venezuela is an attack on all of Latin America

Despite the crippling oil embargo and threats of regime change, the Cuban government is standing firm. While always open to negotiations with Washington, it is clear that Cuban sovereignty is not up for negotiation. Cuba will never return to the pre-1959 situation when it was a de facto colony of the United States.

The survival of that sovereignty is inseparable from the survival of the Cuban government and revolution. Therefore the government will not simply stand down. It will have to be overthrown. This cannot be achieved without US ground forces taking the country. This in turn would mean considerable US casualties, the imposition of a puppet government and a major refugee crisis.

Like in Venezuela, some kind of negotiated settlement is likely. What that settlement looks like remains to be seen.