The Monroe Doctrine: alive and kicking

By Luis Sexto / e-mail: sexto@enet.cu

August 4, 2006, 01:33:24 GMT

Juventud Rebelde

I’ve just read what follows in the newspaper La Jornada, from Mexico:

“…It looks as though the United States is entitled to take part in Cuba’s internal transition process. Senator [Mel] Martínez and Secretary of Trade [Carlos] Gutiérrez each warned of the ‘interference’ of foreign forces in Cuban affairs. In reply to the question of what the U.S. government should do, Martínez said: “First of all, prevent any outside force from interfering”. And he explained: “I’m thinking of Venezuela in particular”. Gutiérrez in turn remarked: “We promise to discourage third parties from standing in the way of the Cuban people’s will”.

After a moment of reflection, you understand that, since the 19^th century, successive U.S. governments have had a similar position when it comes to certain foreign policy matters. Sometimes a new administration distances itself from the previous one on the grounds that there was a change of individuals. But after all is said and done, those men are no different than their predecessors. Their interests are the same. For instance, in 1961 they put on the Kennedy’s presidency the tab for the invasion of Cuba by a mercenary force and all collateral operations of the counterrevolutionary underground actions.

Since then, with more or less spirit and aggressiveness, all U.S. administrations kept the same embargo and economic blockade laws, the same hostility, the same threats… That war, now cold, now hot, which the U.S. wages on Cuba, has intensified now. And most importantly, it becomes plain, just like in 1823, the validity of the Monroe Doctrine: America (meaning the Latin one) for the Americans (from the North). And to be even more to the point: Cuba for the Americans… from the North. With its foreign policy body, the United States warned the European powers –almost 200 years ago– that they had no business whatsoever in the Caribbean and its immediate vicinity.

Obviously, the Monroe Doctrine has been given fresh impetus. They believe the ‘'ripe fruit' is about to fall from the tree, and hence they forewarn: "Make sure you don’t intervene in Cuba!', and add: 'Only the United States'… According to secretary Gutiérrez, a Cuban-American, they “pose no threat to the Cuban people’s security or to their homes”, and says “Bush recognizes that Cuba belongs to its people, and its future is in the hands of the Cubans”.

Can anybody believe him, considering that he counts upon none of us for his ‘transition’ plans? That’s what they said in 1898 in the Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress: by law, Cuba is and must be free and independent. With such a seemingly fair and generous statement they joined the Cuban war for independence from Spain, which was almost over, so they had to climb up no tree to get ripe fruit. They stayed after that to control Cuba politically and economically by means of a constitutional appendix imposed by Washington under a name that honest people finds reminiscent of neocolonial times: the Platt Amendment.

Certain émigrés in Miami who are not the Cuban people, know nothing about or have forgotten their homeland’s history. However, most Cubans on the Island, barring the few Martí warned against –present and future annexationists– do remember it and keep it alive. And no matter how many things the Revolution is yet to do, give, or acknowledge, no matter how much hardships we have to endure here –also due to the U.S. economic war– our national independence, guarantee of the nation’s survival, is a well-accomplished good which cannot therefore be waived. In a letter to [his friend] Mercado that became his political testament, José Martí wrote, and I quote almost by heart, “All I have done up to now, and shall do hereafter, is to prevent the United States from falling upon Cuba”. What honest Cuban doesn’t know or can’t recite these words? From the vortex of our history, Martí warns: be on the alert!

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