The seeds of Latin America's rebirth were sown in Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

The seeds of Latin America's rebirth were sown in Cuba
There was one region that saw the bankruptcy of neoliberalism - and now the rest of the world is having to catch up

Seumas Milne
The Guardian, Thursday 29 January 2009

On 9 October 1967, Che Guevara faced a shaking sergeant Mario Teran, ordered to murder him by the Bolivian president and CIA, and declared: "Shoot, coward, you're only going to kill a man." The climax of Stephen Soderbergh's two-part epic, Che, in real life this final act of heroic defiance marked the defeat of multiple attempts to spread the Cuban revolution to the rest of Latin America.

But 40 years later, the long-retired executioner, now a reviled old man, had his sight restored by Cuban doctors, an operation paid for by revolutionary Venezuela in the radicalised Bolivia of Evo Morales. Teran was treated as part of a programme which has seen 1.4 million free eye operations carried out by Cuban doctors in 33 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. It is an emblem both of the humanity of Fidel Castro and Guevara's legacy, but also of the transformation of Latin America which has made such extraordinary co-operation possible.

The 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution this month has already been the occasion for a regurgitation of western media tropes about pickled totalitarian misery, while next week's 10th anniversary of Hugo Chávez's presidency in Venezuela will undoubtedly trigger a parallel outburst of hostility, ridicule and unfounded accusations of dictatorship. The fact that Chávez, still commanding close to 60% popular support, is again trying to convince the Venezuelan people to overturn the US-style two-term limit on his job will only intensify such charges, even though the change would merely bring the country into line with the rules in France and Britain.

But it is a response which also utterly fails to grasp the significance of the wave of progressive change that has swept away the old elites and brought a string of radical socialist and social-democratic governments to power across the continent, from Ecuador to Brazil, Paraguay to Argentina: challenging US domination and neoliberal orthodoxy, breaking down social and racial inequality, building regional integration and taking back strategic resources from corporate control.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/29/che-guevara-venzuela-cuban-revolution

[Peace Patriot]

1. A great article! And must reading, if you have even a partially open mind.

I think we should turn Guantanamo Bay and the prisoners we've tortured over to the Cuban medical system. They're right there, on the island, with a surplus of doctors and medical professionals (due to free medical educations), and with one of the best medical systems in the world. They could transform Guantanamo Bay into a convalescent hospital, make it into a garden spot, and provide residence and healing to those whom we have so egregiously harmed--and thus heal relations between Cuba and the US as well, by our recognizing one of their highest achievements.

I would not go so far as to attribute the leftist sweep of South America to Cuba, however--as this article does. I think that is the accomplishment of the people in the countries that have elected leftist governments. They have worked long and hard on their democratic institutions, and grass roots organizing, to be able to accomplish this peacefully. Cuba certainly has provided inspiration on social justice issues. But the achievement of them belongs to the Venezuelan people, and the Bolivians, and the Ecuadorans, and the Argentinians, and the many others. They have overcome brutal fascist regimes, and have established sturdy democracies, able to withstand the Bushwhacks, without firing a shot. That is remarkable. And it should never be forgotten.

The Cuban people have been remarkable in their own way, and it is certainly time to normalize relations with Cuba. (And I think that my proposal about Guantanamo Bay would be a good way to do it.) But I cringe when our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies frame everything around Hugo Chavez, for instance, and simply ignore the magnificent courage and persistence of the people who elected him. So, too, it is a distortion to say that Cuba has somehow created this miracle of democracy throughout South America.