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Hasta Siempre,
Dear Comandante Fidel!
By Peter Koenig
November 29,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
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The Revolutionary
of all Revolutionaries, El Comandante Fidel Castro, died
on 25 November 2016, at the age of 90 (1926-2016). But
the spirit of his Revolution will live on forever.
Fidel, the Leader
of the Cuban Revolution, is an icon not only for Cuban
history, but for the world. He has for almost 60 years
defied the power of the United States, of 11 US
Presidents. He has resisted a brutal, illegal and
criminal international blockade against his small
Caribbean island of 11 million people. As one of his
devotees exclaimed, before Fidel, Cuba was apebble in
the Caribbean; today, Cuba is known in the entire world.
Fidel survived
more than 600 assassination attempts by US secret
services, their mercenaries and proxies. In 2008 he
stepped down for health reasons, appointing his brother
Raúl, who was his co-revolutionary in 1959 and
throughout the last six decades, to continue leading the
Revolution forward with the socialist values that
brought Cubans universal health care, education and
other social indicators, unmatched anywhere in the
Americas and in most of the rest of the world.
Raúl’s brief
statement on Friday morning, 26 November, announcing
Fidel’s passing, touched the world far beyond Latin
America
https://www.bluewin.ch/de/news/ausland/2016/11/26/kubanischer-revolutionsfuehrer-fidel-castro-ist-tot.html.
The
Bloqueo
One of Fidel’s
and his team’s most important achievements – and example
to the world – is Cuba’s resistance to the US imposed
total ‘bloqueo’, as the Cubans call it. It has become a
work in progress of an ‘Economy of Resistance’ and may
become an example for many countries unwilling to bend
to the neoliberal dictate of the Occident. After the
1959 overthrow of the US backed dictator, Fulgencio
Batista, the US blockade was first imposed by President
Eisenhower in October 1960, covering all US exports
except for food and medicine. In its eternal spirit of
manipulating the truth, Washington likes to use the
softer term ‘embargo’, instead of what it was and is: a
blockade. In 1961 just before leaving office, Eisenhower
broke off all diplomatic relations with Cuba, in an
effort of total isolation of the island nation. In 1962
JFK expanded the blockade covering all trade. He also
banned all travel by US citizens to Cuba.
Despite
President Obama’s recent ‘ouverture’ of
reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, the
blockade remains practically unchanged. In his famous
speech at the White House Cabinet Room on December 17,
2014, announcing Washington’s new approach to Cuba,
Obama said, “After all, these 50 years have shown
that isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new
approach” – essentially meaning,
we will try another method to bring about
‘regime change’.
The blockade is
as of this day governed by six US statutes, most
prominently the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917,
and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
Referring to these laws, Obama said on 17 December
“The embargo that’s been imposed for decades is now
codified in legislation. As these changes unfold, I
look forward to engaging Congress in an honest and
serious debate about lifting the embargo.” And
later in his speech, “In that spirit, we should not
allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban
citizens that we seek to help.” What a hypocrisy!
With this US
special legislation, and totally illegal, Washington has
pressured the international community under threat of
sanctions, to adhere to the US blockade and refrain from
trading with Cuba.
Obama also
stated
“though this policy [of isolation] has been rooted
in the best of intentions, no other nation joins us
in imposing these sanctions, and it has had little
effect beyond providing the Cuban government with a
rationale for restrictions on its people”.
What a blatant lie! – Just
witness on how Cuba’s economy has been down-beaten
and curtailed as a direct and purposeful result of
the blockade. But the Comandante and his people
defied the worst: Cuba did not fall. Cuba stands
tall as of this day – and will not fall to the
pressures of the empire and its neo-fascist vassals
around the world.
Obama was also
inferring that Washington would not engage in illegal
interference in other countries sovereignty by asking
them to follow the same scheme of blockade
(full speech
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/17/statement-president-cuba-policy-changes).
This is in
direct contradiction to what is actually happening;
another universal lie. Just look at US sanctions around
the globe and how Washington forces friends and foes
alike to follow the same regime of sanctions. Internet
abounds with lists of countries subject to US sanctions,
and many of them are ‘sanctions for not following
sanctions’. For example, Reuters reports that “BNP
Paribas SA was sentenced to five years’ probation by a
U.S. judge on Friday [April 17, 2015] in connection with
a record $8.9 billion settlement [fine] resolving
claims that it violated sanctions against Sudan, Cuba
and Iran”
(http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bnp-paribas-settlement-sentencing-idUSKBN0NM41K20150501).
Already in
school Fidel learned about social injustice and was
determined to fight against it, by becoming a lawyer.
With the intention to overthrow the dictatorship of
Fulgencio Batista, he created a guerilla organization,
‘The Movement’, renamed in 1955, “The 26th of
July Movement” (‘Movimiento Revolucionario del 26 de
Julio’ – ‘MR-26-7’), with which he carried out the
liberation of Cuba that lasted from 1953 to 1959. In
July 1953, Fidel and his comrades attacked the “Moncada”
military barracks in Santiago de Cuba at eastern tip of
the island.
The assault
failed. Many of Fidel’s Comrades lost their lives. Fidel
was condemned to 15 years in prison. On 16 October 1953,
in a 4-hour speech of self-defense to the court he spoke
the by now legendary words, “History will absolve me”
(‘La historia me absolverá’). And absolve him it did. In
1955, Batista declared an amnesty and Fidel was freed.
He fled to Mexico, where he met with Argentine Marxist
Revolutionary, Ernesto (Ché) Guevara – El Ché. Together
and with his brother Raúl, and another 79
revolutionaries they embarked in November 1956 with the
yacht ‘Granma’ on a 7-day journey to Cuba. They
aimed for the mountainous Sierra Maestra, in Oriente
Province. Under attack from Batista’s troops, only 16
comrades survived. They were able to recruit for the
MR-26-7 a small guerilla army of 200 to 300 likeminded
rebels. It grew as the Revolution grew and gradually
took over the country. During two years, they battled
the Batista military. On 8 January 1959, Fidel and his
victorious guerilla Revolutionaries entered Havana.
‘Revolution
knows no rest’, as Fidel said on several occasions. On
17 April 1961, Comandante Castro’s Revolutionary Armed
Forces successfully defeated in a three-day battle the
CIA sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion by the infamous
Brigade 2506 – la invasión de la Playa Girón.
This perhaps best known attempt to overthrow the Castro
regime was followed by many more. Fidel defied 637
assassination attempts. He developed one of the world’s
best and most effective secret and protective services.
Fidel and Ché
Guevara remained close friends and brothers-in-arms. El
Ché held various government positions, including
Minister of Industry. As traveling diplomat, he went
before the United Nations in New York, attempting to
reach a peaceful settlement with the United States; it
failed. As a military strategist, he was instrumental in
training Cuba’s Revolutionary Army that beat the Bay of
Pigs invasion. He also played a major role in bringing
the Soviet ballistic nuclear missiles to Cuba, prompting
the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1965,
Ernesto Ché Guevara decided that he had accomplished his
revolutionary deed in Cuba. It was time to move on to
other battle grounds, where revolutions were needed to
overthrow despots, like in Congo-Kinshasa and in
Bolivia. He was unsuccessful in Congo and was captured
and executed by firing squad on 9 October 1967 in La
Higuera, Bolivia. His remains rest now in the Ché
Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba. Before leaving
Cuba, Ché wrote a dramatically emotional and
revolutioonary farewell letter to his friend and
comrade, Fidel, in which he expresses his admiration for
the Comandante and gratitude for the role he was able to
play side by side with Fidel (full letter
https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/04/01.htm).
Fidel led a
Revolution that freed Cuba from 500 years of abject
colonialism, first by Spain, then by the United States.
But the Revolution didn’t end with the many victorious
battles. Fidel and his comrades, and eventually the
entire country became a living Revolution. In fact,
Revolution became one of Cuba’s key export products.
Revolution as a new way of thinking, Revolution as
opposition to the all-destructive capitalism, Revolution
as in Solidarity with people in need. When Hugo Chavez
became President of Venezuela in 1999, Fidel and Hugo
became friends and established a close relationship
between the two socialist countries. In December 2004,
Chavez and Castro founded the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), an economically
sustainable alternative to the neoliberal,
all-privatizing ‘free trade’ imposed by Washington
throughout the 1990s on Latin America. It is an approach
to trade where partners benefit equally, trading
according to their necessities and maintaining their
sovereignty.
Cuba’s
solidarity with nations in distress is unparalleled
throughout the globe. Cuba’s medical doctors and workers
are found in over 40 countries in the world, fighting
epidemics, tropical diseases and helping with natural
disasters wherever the need occurs. Cuban doctors were
among the first ones in 2013 to fight the deadly Ebola
disease in West Africa. When the devastating earthquake
hit Haiti in 2010, Cuban doctors and emergency workers
were the first ones to come to rescue.
The Cuban
Revolution travels by spirit, in the form of new
mindsets. It had a huge influence on Latin American
nations ‘turning gradually away from the northern
imposed military dictators, freeing themselves from the
fangs of the Northern Bald Eagle, alias, the ruthless
all-devouring vulture. The Cuban Revolution was and is
alive, a true sign for achieving the impossible with a
revolutionary spirit.
Fidel was a Don
Quijote, always fighting for the oppressed, the
dispossessed, those aggressed by the domineering forces
of the west for their resources, for their strategically
placed territories – or for sheer hegemony. Fidel never
was a patsy to anyone. And this is maybe one of the most
valuable lessons and messages he sends to the growing
generation of young people who are unwilling to follow
the path of the hegemon: Stand up for yourself, for the
values you believe in, and in solidarity with the people
who need your help. Your soul and conscience will reward
you.
Fidel’s legacy
is larger than life, and larger than words can tell.
Fidel is revered throughout the world, by statesman from
the Americas, to Africa, to Asia. On 29 November,
Havana’s Revolution Square will be replete with millions
of mourners, including heads of states from all over the
globe who come to bid farewell to Fidel, but foremost to
celebrate his Revolution that will reverberate
throughout the world in a life-force that can never be
erased.
Viva Fidel!
Viva Cuba!
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
Peter
Koenig is an economist
and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank
staff and worked extensively around the world in the
fields of environment and water resources. He writes
regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV,
The 4th Media, TeleSUR, TruePublica, The Vineyard of The
Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author
of
Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War,
Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed
– fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World
Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author
of
The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the
Resistance. |
