Abstract
The complex processes unfolding in Venezuela since the later years of the twentieth century have been the subject of much discussion. From a wide variety of perspectives, the reality of the Latin American country can be perceived and has been presented under different lights, sometimes astonishingly different from each other. The role played by Venezuela in the imagination of millions in the region and the world is similar to that played by Cuba, albeit the latter has been in that place for over sixty years. Both countries, their leaderships and their policies have been connected in many senses for over two decades. Their governments supported each other at international fora, and they both were the targets of hostilities and sanctions from the same sources, mainly the United States (US). This paper aims to contribute to the interpretation of the role played by the US and its policies in the recent historical evolution of Venezuela and Cuba, as well as its influence on the bilateral relations between the two countries. It is not intended as an alternative explanation, nor as a comprehensive explanation: it explores a dimension that adds to the wider analysis of such realities.
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Notes
- 1.
This a common trait in social sciences in general.
- 2.
Geopolitics is typically a concept in international relations. However, when defined broadly, it could be applied to domestic affairs as well. Although it will not be used in that sense in this text, this is a path worth exploring.
- 3.
The common acceptance of the term “capitalism” and its generalized usage by individuals of all political colors is a relatively recent development. In the 1940s, Maurice Dobb decided to dedicate a full chapter of his Studies on the Development of Capitalism to justify the term itself (Dobb, 1946). As recently as 2017, Harvard University Press published a book on inequality, and ten of its chapters, written by different authors from different fields, addressed issues as primordial as the definition of capital and the political economy of capitalism and capital (Boushey et al., 2017). Thus, at a conceptual level, capitalism and its main components are still subject of debate. An interesting discussion on the subject appears in Ingham (2008). In this text, I understand capitalism as a historically determined mode of production (Banaji, 2010), with a set of specific features that act as organizational principles for the cultural complexuses (Dominguez Lopez, 2014) in which it dominates, inclusive of market structures—the market, political structures—the Nation-Sate—and symbolic structures.
- 4.
For the concept, theoretical models and methodologies of World-systems analysis, see Chase-Dunn (1998).
- 5.
National security as understood by American elites and governments is not limited to the security of its territory and population. It includes the extension of their interests, as far as they may reach. This is observable in the National Security Strategies published by each administration of the last 4 decades (President of the United States, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2017). This is in line with a geopolitical interpretation of national security for a major power.
- 6.
A secret memorandum from US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Lester Mallory to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs stated that the only foreseeable means to reduce and potentially eliminate the Cuban people’s support for the government emerged from the revolution was through “disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship” (Mallory, 1960).
- 7.
The most famous of these were the landing of an invading force of Cuban émigrés, organized, armed and trained by the CIA in Bay of Pigs in 1961—an application of the method used in Guatemala in 1954–, and hundreds of assassinations attempts on Fidel Castro.
- 8.
Cuba’s expulsion from the Organization of American States was the clearest outcome of this line of policy.
- 9.
This occurred in a context in which the future of the Panama Canal was in debate, as the end of the concession would end in 1999, after the Torrijos-Carter treaty.
- 10.
For example, all military activities in Africa ended in 1991, after the successful conclusion of the war in Angola—key factor in the collapse of the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
- 11.
National Security Advisor of President Jimmy Carter and a central figure in United States’ foreign policy intelligentsia. Of Polish origin, he was decidedly anti-Soviet.
- 12.
However, they are very different in many aspects: Cuba has had an economy controlled by State-owned companies for a long time, unlike Venezuela, where privately owned companies are far more numerous; Cuba has a single-party system with a communist party at its core, while Venezuela has a multi-party system, with an ideologically diverse socialist party in government, in alliance with other smaller forces. Yet, they are often presented under the same light.
- 13.
The conditions for these operations are such that in a number of technically allowed areas, like medicines, there has been zero or near zero purchases.
- 14.
In recent years, with the official recognition of Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela, instead of Maduro, by the United States, the United Kingdom, Colombia and some other countries, Venezuela-owned companies abroad and Venezuela’s gold reserves have been seized, and officially transferred to “Guaidó’s government”. Effectively, Venezuela lost those resources, severely limiting its ability to import necessary goods, also in the midst of the pandemic.
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López, E.D. (2023). Venezuela, Cuba and United States: Power and Geopolitics in the Great Caribbean. In: Latouche, M.A., Muno, W., Gericke, A. (eds) Venezuela – Dimensions of the Crisis. Contributions to Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21889-7_10
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