Cuba’s Counter-Revolution Takes on Many Forms

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — There has never been a revolution in the world that hasn’t had to take on the counter-revolution. The Cuban Revolution isn’t an exception.

From the early years of the Revolution, after it triumphed on January 1, 1959, the first counter-revolutionaries were Batista military men who couldn’t leave the country like their leaders and were encouraged to fight against the Revolution from within by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), promising them that everything would soon return to how it was and that they would get their privileges back.

Many Batista supporters, who had been affected by the Revolution’s laws, and some thrill seekers who believed the CIA’s promises joined these military men and became murderers who killed farmers, teachers and literacy teachers. This is quite well-known and we know how the people, united with the Rebel Army, ended this violent phase and form of counter-revolution.

Another way, which was just as violent, were bomb attacks at Cuba’s diplomatic offices abroad and at hotels in Cuba, one of which resulted in the death of an Italian tourist. And the most abhorrent of all, the sabotage of a Cuban passenger plane which resulted in the deaths of the 73 people on board. Cuban diplomats have also been killed in other countries.

We would need to add the over 600 attempts on the Revolution leader Fidel Castro’s life to this violent phase of the counter-revolution which began as soon as he started fighting in the Sierra Maestra and they only ended when he withdrew from his position because of illness.

The United States hasn’t given up on destroying the Cuban Revolution and have put all their hopes into the economic, commercial and financial blockade they have imposed for more than 55 years, with the explicit aim of creating a starving population in need which will move them to the brink of despair and to overthrow the government. However, the Cuban people didn’t fall into this trap and they have supported their Revolution even during the toughest times, when the Socialist Bloc fell apart, which Cuba had 80% of its trade with.

The former US president Barack Obama made it very clear that the blockade policy to change the Cuban system had failed and that they would have to resort to other means. Meanwhile, the blockade has encouraged and paid the internal counter-revolution which has come to be called dissidence.

It seems that the word “counter-revolution” is too strong for them, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that a Revolution made by the people and for the people continues to exist in Cuba and everything that opposes it is nothing but the counter-revolution, which has been organized and funded by the US government.

I don’t deny that there might be some gullible person out there who believes that the economic situation in Cuba will give a spectacular turn-about if we return to Capitalism or somewhere half-between socialism and capitalism, but the people who think like this and spread these ideas among people are doing nothing but playing Imperialism’s game because that’s what Imperialism exactly wants, to create a consciousness that the Cuban socialist system has failed and that there isn’t any other way out but to jump ship.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The Cuban socialist system is being refined, updated and is moving forward towards prosperous and sustainable progress. Of course, progress isn’t something that any underdeveloped country can fully attain, with the few financial resources it has if there isn’t any funding. But, Cuba moves forward by developing its basic foundations, such as training up a skilled work force and making developments in the fields of science and technology, where it has reached the level of developed nations, which has been internationally recognized and Cuba enjoys great prestige in this international context.

Today, the counter-revolution doesn’t have the same violent character it used to, but it is still trying to defame our process by any means possible, giving it labels such as “dictatorship”, “authoritarian regime”, “Stalinist regime”, etc. However, I don’t know of a more just and more democratic system than the Cuban one and the Cuban people know this because they are educated. And they are keeping their eyes open because they know that the Counter-Revolution takes on many forms, some of which are disguises.