Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America: An Oral History
2018; Duke University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1215/00182168-4379899
ISSN1527-1900
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American Literature Studies
ResumoAdmirers and critics have rightly marveled at Cuba's outsize impact on the world stage. From their influence on global anti-imperialist politics to their successful military presence in Angola, the revolution's leaders proved far more than proxies for Soviet interests or hapless foreign policy adventurers—Che Guevara's ill-fated exploits in Bolivia and the Congo notwithstanding. Dirk Kruijt takes us behind the scenes of such engagements, chronicling five decades of Cuba's involvement in the part of the world where the revolution hoped to leave its biggest mark: Latin America.Kruijt draws on a novel source base: 60-plus interviews with veterans of Cuba's covert and overt contacts in the region. Especially impressive are his conversations with former members of the Departamento América, the much-mythologized branch of Cuba's foreign intelligence services that lent material support to generations of Latin American radicals. Granted, these individuals are high-level operatives and are virtually all male. Kruijt did not have access to archival documents that might substantiate their accounts. Thus, rather than anchoring an exhaustive diplomatic history or fully illuminating the symbolism of Cuba for the Latin American Left, the interview material colors broad chronological exposition with insider anecdotes. Kruijt's study is not analogous to the kind that Piero Gleijeses has provided for Cuba's involvements in Africa (such as 2002's Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976) but a complement.Kruijt accurately traces a significant evolution in Cuba's approach to Latin America over time. The revolutionary government's history of support for guerrilla groups in the 1960s is well known. Less understood is the degree to which Cuba, chastened by its failure to spark winning insurgencies akin to its own, began to develop pragmatic ties with existing governments in the region in the late 1960s and beyond. Thanks to historian Tanya Harmer (Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War [2011]), we know much about Cuba's ties to Salvador Allende's Chile. But Kruijt also highlights links to progressive military regimes, such as that of Juan Velasco Alvarado in Peru and the Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega governments in Panama. Panama, it turns out, was a key logistics point for Cubans funneling material to the Latin American Left, and the country also provided an economic lifeline to get around the US embargo. On the latter count, revelations in the recent Panama Papers suggest that the isthmus does so still.Noteworthy, too, is Kruijt's exploration of Cuba's significant ties to nations of the Anglophone Caribbean (for example, Michael Manley's Jamaica and Maurice Bishop's Grenada). Cuba played an even more influential behind-the-scenes role in first unifying Central American insurgent groups—starting with the Sandinistas—and then, particularly in Guatemala and El Salvador, urging them to make peace. Such efforts brought Cuba long-term dividends, Kruijt convincingly contends, not by permanently, or even successfully, exporting Cuba's model abroad (though the Venezuelan case later on may represent a partial exception) but in securing for the Cuban government legitimacy as a regional broker. This remained true even as many pro-Cuba Latin American radicals of the past moved toward the social democratic center. Witness the region's unanimous, successful pressure on Washington in the Obama years to normalize its own ties to the island.Unfortunately, the effect of covering so much ground in just over 200 pages is an abridged narrative. Unlike Harmer's work—which provides a blow-by-blow account of a particular relationship at a particular time—Kruijt gives us glimpses of Cuba's links to various governments and groups but often leaves the reader wanting more. Kruijt also appears a victim of time. That is, his upbeat appraisal of the legacies of Cuban diplomacy seems very much of the pink tide moment but does not speak to the current conjuncture of a resurgent Latin American Right.Kruijt does offer juicy, even landmark revelations along the way. Who knew that Cuban intelligence recruits read a classic text by US Brigadier General Washington Platt? Or that long before Brazil's military regime ended, a Cuban liaison officer frequently visited the country, forging a “silent rapprochement” (p. 140)? Most dramatically, one informant claims that Fidel Castro—already seeing shifting tides in Eastern Europe—told then–Venezuelan presidential candidate Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1988 that he would “renounce socialism,” so long as Pérez agreed to take up the mantle of an ecumenical Latin American Left (p. 193). Yet this, like other claims, will remain difficult to substantiate short of access to the hard evidence—in this case, the allegedly recorded conversation on tape.Overall, Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America provides an enticing glimpse into Cuba's activities in the region. The book's exposition suffers from occasional chronological errors and misidentified names. But it accurately conveys the breadth and sophistication of Cuba's outreach efforts over time. Still, the book also reminds us just how much about Cuba's engagements in the region we do not know. For while it is encouraging that ex-officials are now willing to talk, archival sources, too, need to one day be seen.
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