To the People of Cuba: Is Washington Preparing a “Soft Coup”? The Co-optation of Cuban Intellectuals

[This article was first published by Global Research in November 2016. You can read it here.]

Author’s Note

In October 2010, I was invited to the home of Fidel Castro in the outskirts of Havana to discuss US foreign policy, the dangers of nuclear war, the global economic crisis and the unfolding New World Order.

These meetings which extended over several days resulted in a wide-ranging and fruitful conversation which was published by Global Research and Cuba Debate.

I should mention that Fidel Castro was an avid reader of Global Research. His writings were also featured on our website.

While Fidel fully understood the insidious role of NGO’s and philanthropic foundations in supporting Washington’s covert meddling operations inside Cuba, he expressed hope that there would be a turn-around with Obama, for whom he had high regard.

When we started our discussions on a Tuesday afternoon, Fidel had already read from cover the cover Bob Woodward’s book entitled Obama’s Wars, which had been released a few days earlier in Washington (expedited to Havana in the diplomatic pouch).

Five years later in October 2015, I returned to Cuba on the invitation of the Centro de Investigaciones de Politica Internacional (CIPI), a research centre and think tank affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There was a sense of optimism at the height of Obama’s second term. The theme of the conference was to analyze the process of geopolitical transition opened up by the resumption of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US.

During that visit, I met up with several friends and colleagues (academics, members of parliament) who were acutely aware of Washington’s undercover role of political co-optation. They expressed their concern (October 2015) that a so-called Golpe Blando, namely “Soft Coup” was in the making.

Unilateral sanctions were never abandoned. In 2019, Donald Trump instated Title III of the 1996 Helms Burton Act, which unleashed the most severe economic sanctions against Cuba since the blockade was first introduced in 1962.

Upon Biden’s accession to the White House, the blockade was nonetheless maintained despite the vote of the UN General Assembly (184 in favour 3 against) demanding an end to the 60-years U.S. economic blockade on Cuba.

The COVID-19 Crisis

But there is another important issue which has largely been overlooked. The COVID-19 narrative as well as its various policies (including the vaccine) have become an integral part of US foreign policy under the Biden administration.

The COVID crisis has obvious geopolitical implications. It constitutes a means to destabilize countries which do not conform to the diktats of global capitalism. Throughout Latin America, it is the source of economic and social chaos. It is also a means to destabilize progressive governments throughout the continent including Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico.

In this regard, the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown ordered by the upper echelons of the financial establishment has literally destroyed the Cuban economy, specifically the tourism industry which is the country’s main source of foreign exchange.

The lockdown as well the COVID-19 vaccine are presented to public opinion as a means to protecting people’s lives. That’s an outright lie.

The so-called COVID-19 lockdown on March 11, 2020 leading to the simultaneous “closure” of 190 national economies was a deliberate act of economic, social and political sabotage.

With regard to Cuba, the COVID-19 crisis has wreaked havoc. It is all encompassing. It extends beyond the US sanctions regime which the Cuban government has effectively handled for the last 59 years.

The COVID-19 lockdown has weakened the country’s institutions, it has created social divisions, it has impoverished Cuba’s population. It has also created conditions for a US-inspired “color revolution.”

Yet at the same time the legitimacy of the COVID-19 narrative, which emanates from Washington and Wall Street, was accepted and endorsed by the Cuban people and their government.

Unfortunately, despite the fraud and scientific falsehoods which are amply documented, the COVID-19 narrative has also been endorsed by “progressives” throughout Latin America.

This in turn has led to misleading statements by the Left on the causes of the protest movement in Cuba. The underlying focus is solely on the blockade as the cause of food shortages, poverty and unemployment. The devastating social and economic impacts of the COVID lockdown which is undermining the achievements of the Cuban Revolution are casually ignored.

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