Leading figures of the Cuban Revolution of 1959
Donald Trump has threatened an indictment against former Cuban president Raul Castro. He is one of the leaders of the 1959 revolution that toppled a US-backed dictatorship and humiliated US imperialism.
The move ratchets up the threat of military intervention as the US starves people on the Caribbean island with an oil blockade.
The indictment echoes the build up to the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in January.
By installing a pliant regime in Venezuela, Trump was able to tighten the blockade on Cuba and sever its oil supplies.
Protests
The Cuban energy minister Vicente de la O Levy last week said the country has “absolutely no fuel oil” and “absolutely no diesel”. It has pushed the island’s electricity grid deeper into crisis, leaving parts of the capital Havana without power for more than 20 hours a day.
Protests spread in the capital last week in the most widespread unrest the city has seen since blackouts began this year.
The indictment is linked to the Cuban regime shooting down two planes in 1996 from the group Brothers to the Rescue.
Brothers to the Rescue posed as a “humanitarian organisation” helping Cuban refugees to flee austerity, food shortages and power cuts in the 1990s.
But the CIA-backed campaign was nothing of the sort.
The shooting down of the planes was a legitimate act of self-defence against US imperialism—no ifs, no buts.
In 1959 a nationalist revolution, led by Fidel Castro, overthrew US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. The super‑rich, casino owners, gangsters and bosses fled to Miami, Florida, where they plotted their revenge.
Facing US sanctions, invasion threats and isolation, Castro tied Cuba to the Soviet Union and adopted its state capitalist model.
When the Soviet bloc collapsed in 1991, it had devastating consequences for Cubans in what’s known as the “special period”.
There was social unrest, such as protests and riots in August 1994, showing the class divisions in Cuban society.
The US, and right wing groups of Cuban expats such as Brothers to the Rescue, sensed a chance to impose a regime friendly to imperialism.
They have no qualms about terrorist plots on tourist resorts. Brothers to the Rescue leader José Basulto bragged about firing a 20mm cannon from a speedboat on a hotel in the capital Havana.
“The US authorities themselves trained me in the use of the cannon at CIA bases,” he said.
Standing for the defeat of US imperialism does not mean defending Cuba as a model of socialism.
Today, there is little support for the Cuban regime, which can no longer guarantee people the basics of life.
This is due to the tightening of the blockade imposed after 1959—but the actions of the state capitalist bureaucracy are to blame too.
The current president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has imposed austerity while the state capitalist bureaucrats live in mansions. He has privatised large parts of the economy, leading to large increases in prices, as the regime imposes neoliberalism.
Socialist Worker supported the wave of protests in 2021 against austerity—and stands with workers against the bureaucracy.
Today’s protests and riots are a sign of desperation as the noose tightens around the island.
But if the Cuban regime implodes amid unrest due to the oil shortage, there would be nothing progressive about its fall.
A section of bureaucrats and private capitalists linked to the regime could try to do a deal with the US and multinationals.
It would mark a victory for US imperialism—and Trump’s plan to reassert dominance over Latin America.
The US and the Batista‑loving bandits in Miami are no alternative to people starving on the island.
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