America’s anti-Cuba Hypocrisy
The jingoistic ruling class of the United States delights in few things more than the hypocritical vilification and berating of their smallest and weakest adversaries. Since the revolution that overthrew the oppressive US-backed military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Cuba has been a favorite target. The United States’ leadership was so incensed by the overthrow of the murderous Batista government, and with him their ability to subjugate and extract wealth from the small island nation, that they worked for decades trying to undo the revolution. They’ve imposed harsh sanctions, enforced embargos, threatened military strikes, funded failed paramilitary coups, attempted invasions and assassinations. Cuba and its communist party, since its beginnings under Fidel Castro, has survived. It would be a stretch to say that they’ve thrived, and US politicians and pundits have long derided their failures, amping up the rhetoric in light of recent protests in Cuba.
The US capitalists love to cheer and crow whenever a nation not subservient to their doctrine falls on hard times. When a state run by a socialist or communist government, or one claiming to be, regardless of whether key points of those governing philosophies are present, is hit with economic ruin or social turmoil, the corporate imperialists deride them as “failed states.” The governments are blamed, citing mismanagement, incompetence, and corruption, and of course their “inferior” or “failed” economic system, for the misfortune. Whether there’s truth to such claims can’t be ascertained because none of the hardships or tragedies that befall these nations happen in a vacuum. They are not free of malicious influence by the United States and its partners. We have no way of knowing whether the countries would be successful if left to their own devices.
You can’t hold a person’s head underwater and then blame them for not being a better swimmer, or for being unable to breathe underwater, when they drown, you self-righteous psychopath.
Venezuela was hobbled in a matter of years by US sanctions, embargo, and theft. One could blame Maduro for the loss of Venezuela’s wealth and stability built up under Chavez, but it’s disingenuous to place the onus solely on him when the US was doing everything short of open warfare to cripple the country, depose and imprison Maduro, and install a corporate-friendly neoliberal puppet president in his place. Cuba, meanwhile, has been suffering the US’s criminal assaults for more than half a century, and is still standing. In that sense, the survival of Cuba and its government is a success story.
The US has attributed the recent protests in Cuba to financial hardship, poor Covid-19 response, and a desire among the people for more democratic freedom. Whatever the failings of the Cuban government, it’s disingenuous to blame them for the country’s financial difficulties when they’ve spent over half a century in a US economic stranglehold. It’s pretty rich to criticize their response to the pandemic when their infection rates of severe disease are a fraction proportionate to ours. In fact, given that Cuba is far less well resourced and that the US has prevented the importation of needed medical supplies, they’ve done pretty well. In many ways the Cuban medical system is, relatively speaking, superior to our own, and definitely more accessible. As for democracy, that is a trickier subject. A one party state can’t be democratic. Even if I agree with the policies and actions of a ruling power, as a rule I am opposed to antidemocratic governance. That said, it’s not as though the majority of the government in the United States is at all representative of the majority of its people.
The posturing of moral superiority by the US elite is almost as bad as their criticisms of the problems they’ve caused.
Cuba censors and reportedly imprisons journalists. So do we. We prosecute journalists and whistleblowers. We force people to flee the country for fear of losing their lives. We extradite foreign nationals whose actions are not rightfully under the jurisdiction of our laws. We imprison more people than any other nation. We even stole a portion of Cuba to store some of our prisoners there so that we don’t have to abide by US and international laws.
Cuba has been warned by US representatives not to use police force against protestors. Any time people in this country protest inequality or the murder of people by police, they are met with brutality by murderous police.
Cuba’s people are poor and hungry. So are millions of Americans. There are more people living and dying in poverty in the United States than there are people in the total population of Cuba.
Whatever blame is deserved by Cuba’s leadership, it’s marginal compared to that of the US.
The concern that US dickbeaters have been expressing for the Cuban people in recent days is bullshit. They don’t give a fuck about the Cuban people. If they did they wouldn’t be enforcing sanctions that restrict everything from food and medicine to consumer products and the fucking internet. Their intent is, and has always been, the destruction of the Cuban government and state, the people be damned.