It is impossible to analyze Cuba’s political moves without also mentioning the United States’ reaction. Since the 1959 revolution, the United States has had a tendency to define its international policy directly at odds with Cuba’s. This held true for the second CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit, or II Cumbre, as it is called here in Habana. BPR’s Francis Torres has more to say about the politics of the summit, though its very presence in Habana is notable itself.
For all its lack of news coverage stateside, CELAC was a significant regional display of support for Cuba. For two days, not including the nervous preparatory days, the city was put on hold. Posters, the only new looking signs placed in every business around Habana, read “Unidad en la Diversidad” (“Unity in Diversity”); the television stations reported live, around-the-clock coverage of the summit – this meant three hours of Raúl Castro receiving foreign dignitaries – and as famed Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez said, “the city is tense, trembling, on alert: the CELAC Summit has started.”
In the days before, an already significant police presence was beefed up, and the usually naked Mount of Flags, or the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza, that stands in defiance before the United States Interest Section proudly flew the Cuban flag. The Meliá Cohiba and Hotel Nacional were swarming with police and reporters, and youth chose not to go out to bars and clubs, instead staying inside. People walking alone were stopped and questioned. The city was quiet.
The cosmetic changes that fixed up more visual parts of the city in preparation for the Summit have elicited criticism from Cuban dissidents and the United States. Just as tourism is attacked for investing in infrastructure that falsely represents the everyday Cuban’s reality, locals have disparagingly noted the fixing of pocketed streets and the painting of certain buildings along delegates’ travel routes. Furthermore, leading up to its start, 40 dissidents were detained and their planned demonstration on human rights in Cuba ‘thwarted.’ Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, offered a backhand chastisement through Twitter saying, “Our message to world leaders visiting: meet with everyday Cubans and independent civil society to learn what’s really happening and support democratic change.” More specifically, the United States’ main criticism of the Summit is Cuba serving as host; the United States maintains that choosing Raúl Castro as the Summit’s president violates CELAC’s founding document and the region’s commitment to democracy.
CELAC is a successor of the Río Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development (CALC): an alliance Cuba would like to use as an alternative for the Organization of American States (OAS), which it was kicked out of in 1961 due to U.S. pressure and over which it still holds a grudge. As such, Cuba used this Summit to make pointed remarks against the United States, often supported by other anti-neoliberal nations such as Venezuela and Bolivia, criticizing the United States for spying, NATO’s expansion and the presence of American companies in South America.
Support spread into seemingly informal meetings between Fidel Castro and Latin American presidents. While the Summit was directed and hosted by Raúl Castro’s government, Fidel still holds significant sway. The local papers and television stations covered visits to Fidel (casually wearing a navy or white colored track-suit) by Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela; Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafel Correa of Ecuador; Dilma Rouseff of Brazil; and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The news threw around ‘amicable,’ ‘brotherly’ and ‘understanding’ to describe these visits, standing in contrast to a U.S. spokesperson who said, “we found especially disheartening the fact that CELAC decided to accept without question the repressive actions of the host country.”
The list of excited world leaders goes on. None more enthusiastic than the Cubans: woven throughout all of the attention and Cuban coverage was an intense feeling of pride. This came to a climax on the first night of the Summit, coincidentally the birthday of José Martí — a famous and much renowned revolutionary figure in Cuba and Latin America — celebrated by students at La Universidad de Habana who march at midnight in his honor in la Marcha de las Antorchas (March of the Torches). This year, Raúl showed up behind the marching band, with Maduro, Ortega and Morales in tow, to shouts of “Viva el Presidente!”
Ban Ki-Moon was much celebrated for his nimble praise of Cuban health care and education, while acknowledging the challenges faced by the region. He was much quoted in the national newspaper Granma and chatted about on the street for his presence and his comments about the island’s beauty. The UN is sometimes conflated to mean the United States, leading to confusion about what diplomat was praising Cuba’s socialist success. Raúl was similarly eager to press for stronger diplomatic relations with Russia, China and the UN. While Cuba may not be the socialist paradise the Castros want it to be, CELAC was an arena to show the country’s strongest assets and point toward changing reform.Since the beginning of his presidency in 2008, Raúl has done much to open up the economy for private business and travel. Despite American opposition, much of the rest of the world is looking to increase political and economic relations with Cuba, key among them China and Brazil. Foreign investment took on a symbolic nature in the planned revamp of Special Development of the Zone of Mariel, the port that in 1980 Castro abruptly announced any Cuban wishing to leave the island could leave from, leading to the departure of 125,000 Marileños. The port will be majorly financed by Brazil as part of $900 million upgrade that is the largest for Cuba in recent decades. Development is essential for cargo ship travel from the Panama Canal, but also reasserts control over a location known worldwide for the diplomatic crisis it caused.
After decades of hardline socialism that took a serious dip in the 1990s with the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba under Raúl Castro has seemingly been a country in transition. The criticism by the United States has the feeling of stock trade quotes spokespeople trot out when Cuba shows its face on the national stage. However, in light of the Cuban economic and political realities, it will remain to be seen whether CELAC pronunciations carry weight beyond airing anti-imperialistic laundry. Cuba needs to follow through to avoid CELAC becoming, as Yoani Sánchez called it, “the fake moment.”