Cuba In Transition

By Alexander Nixon

When I read a new blog, article, report, or testimonial by an American academic, scholar or anyone else about Cuba “in-transition” (from communism to capitalism, supposedly), I worry that too many of these writers are forgetting that our country’s violation of Cuban sovereignty was the primary cause of the Cuban Revolution.

As historians point out, the United States seized control of Cuba in 1898 after entering the Spanish American War. Prior to US intervention, Cubans had waged a decades-long war for independence against the Spanish Empire. At the point of victory by Cuban rebels, the efforts toward success and independence were thwarted by its powerful neighbor to the north.

If you don’t know the story behind the sinking of the Maine and the rallying battle cry, “Remember the Maine,” let’s revisit the circumstances. Publisher Randolph Hearst tricked the U.S. into going to war against Spain in 1898 by blaming the explosion of the U.S. battleship Maine which was anchored in Havana’s harbor on the Spanish. Eerily foreshadowing the Bush Administration’s machinations for invading Iraq under the pretense of finding WMDs, Hearst famously stated ‘you provide the photos and I’ll provide the war.’ His newspaper rallied Americans to war against the Spanish and transformed the United States from a fledgling nation to a global empire.

In 1901 Congress passed the Platt Amendment which granted the U.S. military the right to intervene in Cuba and establish a naval base in Guantánamo.  In effect, these amendments made Cuba a U.S. protectorate, a bitter pill for the tiny but proud island nation to swallow.  Sixty-one years later Fidel Castro framed the Cuban Revolution as a struggle against a US-sanctioned dictator and an independence movement from the United States.

In terms of an understandable wariness of U.S. intervention, the U.S. Embargo of Cuba still allows Castro to portray the current Cuban Government as the defender of Cuban sovereignty.

On March 24th author Keith Bolender will be signing copies of his book Voices from the Other Side, An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba at The Center for Cuban Studies in New York City. Bolender’s book chronicles how the CIA trained and financed Cuban exile terrorist groups who wanted to assassinate Castro and terrify the Cuban people. 

Scores of innocent Cubans died during numerous covert operations, including twenty-four Cuban citizens who were onboard a Cuban passenger airliner carrying the entire youth fencing team back to Cuba from Jamaica in the 70s. In total, seventy-three passengers died as collateral damage in this relatively unknown act of terrorism.
 

In retrospect, Cuba is stuck between the Scylla of the U.S. Embargo and the Charybidis of terrorism by CIA-trained exile groups, making Cuban very wary of the behemoth to the north. Many Americans are not aware of the historic context of the Spanish American War, the tragedy of the Maine, the imposition of dictatorship in Cuba, the reasons for Castro’s rebellion, or the continued intrusions into Cuban sovereignty.

Cubans want to live in peace and to participate in the world economy as a sovereign nation. The recent economic reforms by Raul Castro that favor privatization demonstrate that Cuba is, in fact, in-transition. We should hope for and expect that careers, money, and prize-winning scholarships will flourish during Cuba’s transition process from a state-controlled economy to a free market economy.

After a century of abusive intrusion we should hope that most of the people making the reputations, money, and scholarships are Cubans, not Americans.
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Alexander Nixon is the Organizational Development Coordinator of the Center for Cuban Studies/The Cuban Art Space in New York City. Keith Bolender's book Voices is available for purchase at the Center for $17.