July 26 is a special day in the history of the Cuban revolution. On this day in 1953, Fidel Castro led an attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The attack was crushed and Castro was tried and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. After being released in 1955, Castro went to Mexico where he organised the Rebel Army. In 1956, together with Che Guevara and 81 others, Castro sailed back to Cuba on the yacht Granma, and from the Sierra Maestra mountains, led the revolutionary war to victory. On the anniversary of this historic occasion, Green Left Weekly correspondent MARA OCHOA, recently returned from Cuba, reports on how the revolution is surviving the United States' economic embargo.
The US blockade against Cuba is like a big wall — to try to strangle the revolution. But the Cuban people are finding ways of going over it, under it and around it.
There are real shortages because of the blockade, many basic foods and medical items are hard to come by. Milk is very scarce and has been rationed in order that seven-year-olds and under do not miss out. Certain medicines, and materials needed to produce medicines, are scarce. A lack of petroleum has seriously affected public transport and transportation in general.
The Cuban government has to carefully monitor the resources it has. But, if anything, the embargo has increased its resolve to resist US pressure. Cubans are becoming more innovative in their daily lives: they find truck parts to repair their 1950s cars; they use live stock instead of tractors to plow the fields; they car-pool to work, ride their bikes and use sugar cane waste to generate electricity.
Despite the shortages, Cubans still enjoy free education from primary school through to university; they still have a free health care system, said to be superior to the US'; housing is affordable and all the basic necessities, such as electricity, are still very inexpensive.
Since the revolution, the government has made major advances. In the area of medical research, the Cubans have recently developed a vaccine against Meningitis B, a virus prevalent in many Third World countries. Until now, no vaccine had existed. The Brazilian government recently purchased it in large quantities and the Cubans are looking for a way of getting around the blockade and marketing the vaccine to other Third World countries.
Foreign investment is being encouraged primarily in the form of joint ventures with foreign companies. Tourism has been systematically developed in the last five years. According to Business Week, revenue from the tourism industry is expected to total $900 million this year, overtaking Cuba's top hard-currency earner, sugar exports, estimated to reach $830 million.
Ironically some of the biggest joint ventures are being initiated by Mexico and Canada, the US' North American Free Trade Agreement partners. Canadian metals company, Sherritt, has announced a contract with Cuba's Compania General de Niquel SA, to mine, refine and market nickel and cobalt internationally. Cuba's cobalt reserves are the world's largest, constituting about 35% of the total reserves.
The biggest prospective deal involves the Mexican government itself. Mexpetrol, a part government-owned company, has signed a letter of intent with Cuban venture company, Cupet, to reopen Cuba's Cienfuegos refinery to process and re-export Mexican crude. Mexpetrol's $100 million share of the deal will be financed, partly by debt swaps owed by Cuba to Mexico, and partly by a loan from Mexico's export credit bank, Bancomext.
Meanwhile, Britain's Cable & Wireless, is discussing proposals to upgrade Cuba's phone system. Michael Manley, the former Jamaican Prime Minister, is heading up Cable & Wireless' negotiating team.
The Mexican and Canadian governments are exerting pressure on the Clinton administration to end the blockade. Christina Stewart, Canadian Assistant Secretary of State for African and Latin American Affairs, visited Havana in June, and announced that Canada had lifted its 16-year ban on government, humanitarian and development aid to the island. She was the highest ranking Canadian official to visit Cuba in 18 years.
Stewart's visit followed a one-week visit by the Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. "The US blockade has resolved nothing and should be lifted," Salinas said.
Both governments have stated that they want Cuba back in the Organisation of American States and support its participation in the Association of Caribbean States.
US government policies on Cuba are also being challenged in US federal courts. On June 21, a group of civic organisations brought charges against the US government, demanding that restrictions on travel to Cuba be lifted.
Medea Benjamin, director of the Freedom to Travel Campaign, said that they are seeking to have the travel restrictions declared unconstitutional. The issue was last addressed in the courts in 1984, when the US Supreme Court upheld the travel ban arguing that Cuba was a threat to national security because of its alliance with the former Soviet Union, its promotion of guerilla movements in Central America and the presence of Cuban troops in Africa.
The Freedom to Travel Campaign is also seeking to win the release of some US$43,000 in the bank accounts of travellers to Cuba, frozen by the Treasury department on June 14 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the group visiting the island.
International and Cuban organisations will meet in Havana from November 21 to 25 for the World Conference of Solidarity with Cuba. Cuba is calling on all international movements and organisations opposed to the blockade to show their solidarity and participate in the conference.