When discussing "revolutionaries" or the "revolutionary" perspective on Cuban-American relations, one must keep in mind that revolutionaries are not all pro-Castro or even communist. Yet, revolutionaries agree on the fact that the United States has historically had an exploitative and imperialistic influence on Cuba, and continues to fill this historical role.
Revolutionaries point out that the United States and businesses from Western countries were responsible for a decades-long chain of military interventions, right-wing puppet dictatorships, massive exploitation of resources and labor, political meddling and other imperialistic practices in Cuba. The 1959 revolution was an attempt by Cuba's people to bring dignity to a long-suffering island nation and establish an egalitarian society. Corporate facilities formerly existing solely to drain wealth from the country into the coffers of foreign businesses were nationalized and placed in the hands of the Cuban people. Since that time the United States has done everything it can to make sure Cuba's socialist experiment fails, often violating international law and norms in the process. Invasion attempts, terrorism, diplomatic ostracism, assassination plots, and a brutal economic blockade have neither destroyed the Castro government nor caused the Cuban population to do it themselves. Many people in Cuba still remember how life was under the Batista police state.
Partly out of unfounded accusations, and partly in response to Cuba's efforts in aiding peasant and worker revolutions in Latin America and Africa, the U.S. has placed Cuba on its list of terrorism-supporting countries--a hypocritical move considering the U.S. not only funded and trained the Bay of Pigs invasion force and plotted to assassinate Castro, but also directly or indirectly has had a role in vicious acts of terrorism against Cuba including plane hijackings, bombings (including a bomb on a plane that killed dozens) and destruction of property. The U.S. routinely refuses to prosecute or hinder terrorist groups that attack Cuba from bases on the U.S. coast. Interestingly, "human rights" in Cuba is suddenly a topic of interest to the U.S. The revolutionary government indeed has a reputation for dealing harshly with internal enemies; with the U.S. government and military casting a constant and threatening shadow over the island, Cuba is forced to go to extraordinary measures to protect its security. Without a strong and disciplined force of law protecting the revolution, Cuba would have, years ago, returned to its historical role of a place where foreigners come and take what they want and puppet dictators protect them. The United States has no right to even show its face at a discussion on human rights, much less shed crocodile tears over counterrevolutionaries being dealt with harshly in a country that long suffered much worse from U.S. policy. From all of this, it is clear that naked hypocrisy and gross violations of Cuba's sovereign rights mark U.S. policy.
The Cuban revolutionaries have declared that the long night of imperialism and exploitation on their patch of the world is over, and that their reality of a system based on justice will one day liberate the masses all over the world. America declares that such an audacious challenge to its hegemonic ambitions must not succeed.
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NOTE: This page expressedly demonstrates a revolutionary perspective of the issue at hand. This perspective does not necessarily represent that of the authors, course, or Earlham College.