Cuban–Latin American Relations in the Context of a Changing Hemis ...

The revolutionary Cuban process, which reached its popular victory in January 1959, was followed with great attention by the political leaders and the general population in the region. They were concerned about the radical changes that the Cuban government was carrying out at that time, as well as about the reactions of U.S. presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and his successor, John F. Kennedy. The worst outcome of the period was that the Cubans who went to the United States between 1959 and 1961 became an economic and political force with its own interests, which has been used politically against the Cuban revolution and has also been an obstacle in the moments in which the U.S. government has understood the necessity of talking with the Cuban authorities.

It can also be said that the Latin American and Caribbean countries have been used by the United States under certain circumstances from 1959 onward as permanent force of confrontation, hostility, and aggression against Cuba. As a result, Cuban relations with the countries in the region can be characterized in the following manner: the dynamics of Cuban–Latin American and Cuban-Caribbean relations have some long-term similarities, but the latter countries have often proceeded in a different manner. It is also important to understand that Cuba’s relations with the region have developed in many different ways, not only between governments but also through political parties, friendship organizations, social movements, and in certain moments, armed guerrilla organizations.

It is in the context of Cuba’s official government and party relations with the region that many of the key U.S. actors—the Departments of State and Defense, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the U.S. intelligence community, headed by the Central Intelligence Agency—have operated. Cuba’s links with the region are best seen as more of a triangular link than a bilateral one. It can be understood as triangular because Cuba’s attempts to establish normal diplomatic relations with countries in the region were hampered by U.S. pressure on those countries to not do business with Cuba. Within Cuba as well as in Latin American and Caribbean countries, some other actors have operated, such as the Cuban American Right. They come from south Florida, but they have spread their influence in different Latin American countries, keeping important