Have you ever heard this phrase?
Sounds good right?
Quite a proclamation, a call to an epic objective, an appeal to the people’s pride, towards
resistance.
The truth, dear folks of VISUALPOLITIK, is that, over the years, this slogan has become
one of the chants, the essential slogans of every protest, especially in Latin America;
And especially in protests and demonstrations of Marxist, Leninist, Maoist... and socialist
movements of all kinds.
Because, throughout the twentieth century, these types of chants, proclamations and slogans
supported a huge number of groups and protest movements throughout Latin America.
To such an extent... that in many cases, these epic and brave slogans hid a far more terrible
phenomenon.
A phenomenon that became one of the most remarkable characteristics of the entire region: the
guerrillas.
Now, what does the guerrilla phenomenon consist of?
Why did it emerge?
How could guerrillas have such an impact, so much power?
What’s their situation like today?
We’ll answer all these questions in this video, but first, a bit of history.
(THE SPARK THAT IGNITED THE FLAME)
It’s the 1960s.
The guerrilla phenomenon is about to begin.
The Cuban revolution just happened.
And folks, we can’t talk about guerrillas in Latin America... without taking Cuba’s
role into account.
Yes, you heard that right.
The Cuban revolution was a great source of inspiration for all kinds of anti-imperialist,
revolutionary and communist movements...
Not only that, but, over the years Cuba also became the number 1 promoter of guerrilla
groups in the entire region.
Yes, we could say that Cuba was quite a powerful state in that sense.
But the fact is that the myth of the Cuban revolution was the main reason that thousands
of young idealists, in many cases with good intentions, helped turn Latin America into
a hornet's nest.
How could they resist the exploits of the “great commander” Fidel Castro... that
leader that, supposedly, managed to get the revolution running with just 82 people.
If he could, why couldn’t others?
Get the rifles!
Many of these young people must’ve thought and felt this quite fevently.
Of course... the actual story was a bit different.
See, the truth is that the Revolution managed to triumph to a great extent, precisely because
of the excessive violence and repression the Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, committed
back then.
Excesses that got a good part of the army, including several officers, to align with
Castro’s group.
By the way, did you know that, unlike what’s commonly said, this heroic revolution didn’t
actually have a very clear ideological objective?
Yes, you heard that right.
At first, in 1959, Fidel Castro never tired of repeating, again and again, to the Cuban
people, among others, that he wasn’t a communist.
Fidel himself said this.
“I know you’re worried about whether or not we’re communists.
I want to make this clear, we aren’t communists, I’m not a communist, and neither is our
movement.”
Fidel Castro.)
We really need to talk about the Cuban revolution one day, don’t you think?
Folks, many, many of the members of the revolution were communists; yes, it’s true.
However it wasn’t until 2 years after the revolutionary triumph, in 1961, that Fidel
declared himself a Marxist-Leninist and proclaimed the socialist revolution.
And here, folks, we can ask ourselves 2 questions.
What changed in these two years?
And why is this important?
Listen up.
(OPERATIONS CENTER)
Let's be clear.
Washington politicians never believed Fidel Castro's statements denying communism.
In fact, they saw this new regime in Havana as a danger during the cold war.
That’s how the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion attempt emerged.
At the same time, this was quite clear to the Soviet Union leaders: Cuba meant an incredible
opportunity, mainly for 3 reasons:
First, by allying with Cuba, they’d gain a very advantageous geographical position
with respect to the United States.
They would have friendly territory and a military base a few kilometers from the American mainland.
Second, a socialist Cuba would mean a new satellite state, thus reinforcing their position
in international politics.
And third, Cuba could become the operation center to spread communism in the US’s so-called
backyard, that is, in Latin America.
That way, folks, the Soviet Union's chances of winning the Cold War would grow stronger.
And, you know what?
As we usually say here at VISUALPOLITIK, so it was said and done.
The regime, then led by Nikita Khrushchev, concentrated on consolidating its relations
with the new Castroite Cuba.
And it was quite a strong focus.
From that very moment, Cuba became a center for training, financing, and supplying equipment
and weapons for their revolutionary movements throughout the continent.
That’s how Havana became the biggest guerrilla uprising promoter in Latin America.
“The duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution” The Second Declaration of
Havana, February 4th, 1962.)
The idea, developed by “El Che”, was that a small group of activists could initiate
typical guerrilla war actions and blow up existing institutions to spread the flames
of the socialist revolution.
And... not just that, they also promoted a new strategy known as cultural Marxism...
Which, by the way, is still seen in many places.
Now, what exactly does this strategy consist of?
Basically, using education and culture to help communist and revolutionary ideologies
infiltrate society.
To this end, the Cuban regime supported the creation of songs, poems, university writings
and literary works of all kinds, all with a common characteristic:
All of them were steeped in revolutionary ideology and, among other things, extolled
the guerrilla figure.
(“Take education and culture, and the rest will add on” Antonio Gramsci.)
Now, do you want to know more about how Havana supported some of the most famous guerrillas?
Listen up.
(TIES)
The first operation happened in Nicaragua.
Thanks to Moscow and Havana’s technical, military and economic support, the revolutionary
leader, Carlos Fonseca Amador promoted the creation and organization of the “Sandinista
National Liberation Front” in 1961.
Ever heard of it?
It’s Daniel Ortega’s movement, the current tyrant president of Nicaragua, of which we’ve
already spoken in several videos here at VISUALPOLITIK.
But, let's go back to it.
In 1969 Carlos Fonseca moved to Havana, where he spent the next 6 years.
From there, he organized the Sandinista front.
In 1975 he returned to Nicaragua to solve some leadership problems and unify the guerrilla
group.
And although a year later this revolutionary leader was assassinated, in 1979, the Sandinista
Front finally seized power.
The guerrilla, trained, financed and supported by Havana, had triumphed.
The model worked, so why stop?
In 1980, a year after the Sandinista Front’s triumph, the FMLN “The Farabundo Marti Front
for National Liberation” was founded in El Salvador with Fidel Castro himself as an
intermediary.
And what’s more, this group was founded in Havana itself.
What do you think?
Well, with the support of the Cuban regime, along with that of the new Nicaraguan government
and Moscow, of course, the FMLN started its armed fight.
Their training centers were located in Cuba and Nicaragua and, of course, it was those
same countries which provided them with weapons, supplies, equipment and anything else they
needed.
Now, hold on for a moment.
As you can imagine, the United States didn’t just stand there.
They weren’t willing to give Havana another victory, so they decided to support the Salvadoran
government.
The result?
12 years of fighting that caused more than 75,000 deaths, thousands of missing people,
and an economic collapse.
I think that now we can begin to understand the magnitude of the violence that has destroyed
so much of this region.
The fact is that on this occasion, folks, the guerrillas didn’t achieve a revolution
and after the peace agreements of 1990, they formed a political party.
Today this party governs El Salvador and, of course, hasn’t hesitated to support Daniel
Ortega’s Nicaraguan regime.
But... don’t think for a second that this situation happened solely in Central America,
not at all.
The southern countries also had their share.
South America also underwent a wave of revolutionary movements.
In fact throughout Latin America, more than one hundred-- one hundred--guerrilla groups
caused enormous damage.
Almost all were encouraged and supported by Cuba in one way or another.
That’s certainly the case for the 3 most famous guerrilla groups: The FARC and the
April 19 Movement in Colombia, and the Shining Path in Peru.
“The Shining Path activists have been trained in Cuba, Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic
Republic.
Manuel Ulloa, former Prime Minister of Peru in statements to the El País newspaper in
1983.)
Are you surprised now that the peace agreements between the FARC and Juan Manuel Santos’
Colombian government will be negotiated in Havana?
I mean, why not?
Of course, these huge groups, true armies, also had another fundamental support point:
drug money.
Yes, these groups ended up becoming drug traffickers, a business from which they obtained the enormous
resources they needed to continue the fight.
But, don’t forget, Cuba also went into this business.
We told you all about it here on VISUALPOLITIK in a recent video about Narco-Politics in
this region of the world.
Yes, the Cuban government even associated with Pablo Escobar Gavíria himself.
And that’s not all… the last example of Cuban infiltration, which we all know, was
in Venezuela, and we’ve already seen how things are going there.
Folks, Cuba's influence on Latin American politics in the last 60 years has been terrible.
Havana has played a major role in backing guerrilla groups and regimes that have done
no good for Latin America.
Yes, I know, nowadays some people still view these groups with a certain romanticism...
that’s a mistake.
Beyond the feats and myths, the real story, unfortunately, was terrible.
Fortunately, the guerrillas are now at their lowest point in decades.
That at least is good news.
By the way, many of the guerrilla groups weren’t just Havana’s fault.
In many cases, they were the fault of a terribly extractive oligarchy that controlled their
country with an interest in nothing but maintaining their own privileges.
This has also been one of the great evils of the region.
Just to avoid any confusion, we’ve said this a thousand times.
Folks, with this video, we can now better understand how so many guerrilla groups suddenly
emerged in Latin America; and why relations between Washington and Havana have traditionally
been so bad.
The story goes far beyond the missile crisis.
So I really hope you enjoyed this video, please hit like if you did, and don’t forget to
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Don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine.
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And as always, thanks for watching!