‘This century is of Latin America and Asia’

Amit Sengupta Delhi

With this new year, from 2008 to 2009, Cuba will begin celebrating 50 years of the Cuban revolution which happened in 1959 and marked a landmark of idealism across several generations of people, especially the young. Cuban Ambassador to India Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos speaks to Hardnews about the legacy of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Maradona's relationship with Cuba and the continuing US trade 'blockade'

In this epoch of neo-liberal globalisation, with unilateral American militarism, what is the message from Cuba to the world?

The first message is resistance. We will try to struggle for social justice and equality, not only in Cuba but also in the rest of the world. This is a message of optimism that things will change for the better and we will continue the struggle.

Do you think it's going to be difficult for the developing countries in the current scenario with Soviet Russia having disintegrated and the US calling the shots in an unipolar world? Will it be difficult for Latin American countries like Venezuela and Bolivia and others?

Latin America is going through one of the most interesting periods in the history of the region in many decades. There is immense hope for a better future in that region. Most of the countries are striving to obtain a higher degree of social justice using different means relevant in the contemporary era. What they are doing need not be copied by other countries but we feel optimistic because neo-liberal globalisation is being defeated in Latin America. This may spread across the region. These countries are not depending only on America as in the past, but unitedly depending on themselves. They have just created the south bank to unite their strength and not depending on the IMF, World Bank or the US. They have created Telesur (Telesouth), a television channel for south countries against north countries. There are a lot of changes happening in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua. Even nationalist governments like Argentina and Brazil are standing up.  Despite the level of US aggression and its unipolar policies, I see hope for change in the present world.

Fidel Castro is a legend. He is not well. His writings are now being widely read. But there is his absence -from governance, politics, daily life, public realm. How is it impacting Cuba?

He is not absent. His ideas are always there. He is consulted in all major decisions the government takes. He is intellectually active, and his writings are a proof of that. In Cuba we have a very democratic system. Therefore, his not being in daily life is not having that kind of impact, because we have a system that works. His ideas and those of the group who led the revolution are clear and firm; they are the guiding points, so whether he is there or not, that will not make a major difference in the sense of what we should do. So the philosophy, ideology, ideas, willingness to make a better country will remain even when he is not there.

A better country in what sense: a socialist country which believes in equality and justice for everybody where private property is not celebrated and the poor are given their fundamental rights?

I would say we are in the process of perfecting socialism. We don't believe that everything has already been done in Cuba. We have to bring reforms that have not been done properly. There will be reforms for strong socialism. We will not go back to capitalism. Cuban society should be socialist, we should be able to provide social justice to everybody, all citizens must have the right to jobs, the right to have education free of charge, universal education, everyone has the right to go to the university without paying a single cent. Everybody has the right to have a healthy life, with a free health system. We think that we will continue doing that, we will provide better living conditions for our people.  We are striving to have a much more efficient agriculture and economy — we are working for that. And we believe there is a better future for the Cuban people. Despite the US blockade that has been affecting our life for 50 years. We had a very strong economic crisis in the 1990s because of blockade and disappearance of the Soviet Union. But now, although we are still in a special period, there are indications that we are coming out of that. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A different life is now possible for the Cuban people.

In the 1990s the Cuban economy had literally gone back to the 1960s, there was an oil crisis, people had to struggle hard to make a living. How is the US trade embargo impacting Cuba?

The trade embargo had cost the Cuban economy $89 billion in 50 years. We don't believe it's an embargo, it's a blockade. They are pursuing and hounding us. They are blocking all economic relations we have with other countries. They are hounding our bank accounts. They even put a fine of $100 million on a Swiss bank just because they had an account of the Cuban government. It is truly affecting our lives, because in every sector, particularly in this era of globalisation, they are interfering. And when we have relations with European companies and Asian countries they impose clauses and these companies are not allowed to do business with Cuba. We find it difficult to provide medicines to our children, or for cancer treatment. Cuban children can die, but we are not allowed to import medicines from the US.

But you can import from other countries?

There are some medicines which are only available in the US, which we are unable to obtain. We have highly advanced pharmaceutical and biotechnology, but we still lack certain things.

But the Cuban health system is very strong, especially ophthalmology.

It's because of the strengthening of ophthalmology that we have been carrying out several major operations. As a result of this more than one million people in Latin America have recovered eyesight and that too free of cost. People call it miracle operations. We have more than 37,000 doctors and health technicians providing services abroad, in Latin America, Asia and Africa, free of charge, helping developing countries to cope with lack of health facilities. So, despite the blockade by the US, we share the few things that we have. We are not just giving away things that we don't need, but we are sharing whatever resources we have. This is the most important way of doing things, not just charity provided by big powers which they might deduct from taxes. The blockade affects everything in Cuba: health, education, technology, transport. We want to import certain technology from Europe and when every formality is done we are informed that they cannot export because this company belongs to the US. So we have to throw away the entire technology and buy new equipments. We had a Royal Caribbean Crew tourist deal with a Spanish cruising line, to bring tourists to Cuba. It was blocked. People lost jobs and the crew was stopped from coming to Cuba. These things happen all the time.

For instance, car companies have to explain to the US government that the cars they are exporting to the US do not have Cuban steel/nickel. The companies are asked to give a certification. The idea is to strangle Cuba, by economic restrains. In the 1960s there was a top bureaucrat in the US who used to say that the Cuban government has a lot of support from the people, hence the only way to topple it was by creating strong economic difficulties so that the people subvert the government. This has been the policy since the 1960s.

Hugo Chavez says that this century belongs to Latin America and Asia and will mark the decline of American imperialism. Do you agree?

I believe so. Asia is already an economic century, that is why US is so eager and scared; because they can see that they are loosing ground. India and China are coming up as dynamic economic agents and they are not following the footsteps of America. The Americans are concerned. Asia has been much more economically independent from the US, than Latin America. Latin America is able to stand up and face American pressures. So it is true that Asia and Latin America are the future of this century. And there will be much more interaction between both the regions in the years to come. If you believe in history then there are different stages. The US is in its last stage. Their empire is on the brink of collapse. Remember, they invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was dealing with petro-Euros instead of dollors.

Is Marxism coming back in Latin America — revolution through the ballot — and can it come back in the world? In Asia the dynamic economy is not touching the larger population, millions of poor peple. What is the legacy of Che Guevara and the Cuban revolution in the context of what we are facing in India in the context of Nandigram or SEZs, whereby people are being killed to benefit capitalists and multinationals?

Che Guevara's legacy cannot be separated from Cuba. Cuba and Che are the same thing. In the concept of ideologies and ideas in the future, Che will continue to be the symbol of honesty and coherence who put his life at risk in order to attain his idea of social justice and independence. Methods may vary. We are in the 21st century, the situation is not the same as it was in 1960, but the message remains intact. Chavez mentioned recently in Havana, ‘We still need many Vietnams.’ Che also said, ‘we need many Vietnams to defeat US imperialism.’  This is also happening in Latin America — they are the new Vietnams in different forms these days.

How many times did the CIA try to assassinate Castro?

At least 600 times. Once they tried to put a pill in his chocolate milkshake in a bar. The pill froze in the refrigerator. While scuba diving, Castro collected shells. They planted a bomb inside a shell. There are hundreds of cases of these CIA plots, but our intelligence is very strong, we blocked them.

Please also consider the fact that five innocent Cubans are languishing in American jails in violation of all human rights and international protocol, with no legal help. They are heroes for us because they entered the exiled pro-American Cuban community in Miami and exposed their terrorist plots in Cuba. They should be released immediately.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Castro are great friends. Are they still in touch?

Marquez too is not well, can't travel and lives in Columbia. They are still in touch and Castro reads his first manuscripts. Marquez was an important link between Castro and Bill Clinton. He took Castro's message to Clinton that there was an American-Cuban terrorist in the US who was planning to blow up a plane.

And Diego Maradona?

Maradona is a great friend of Cuba. There are no drugs here, so we give him lot of love and care, and helped him rehabilitate. He fights for the cause of Cuba all over the world. Cubans love him.