Workers World, Vol. 22, No. 16
April 15 – Every revolution, no matter how deep and profound, in the course of its upward development of transforming the old social system and establishing the new one, inevitably experiences shocks, temporary setbacks, and occasional disappointments as a result of unanticipated developments.
In this respect, Cuba has been exceptional in that it has been freer from some of the shocks, convulsions, and occasional setbacks than probably any other of the socialist countries. Cuba cannot, however, altogether escape the harmful consequences of an extremely hostile international environment, geographically speaking, as exemplified by the preponderant influence of its northern neighbor. Nor can it be expected to have eliminated the abundance of leftover problems from the old regime, which are also the legacy of the long tenure of imperialist domination of the island republic.
Whatever the immediate exigencies concerning the events at the Peruvian Embassy, they will, contrary to the hopes and wishful think of the international bourgeoisie, serve as a catalyst for corrective measure which can only facilitate the further progressive social development of Cuba.
It should be noted at the very outset, however, that the Cuban government has been in the very forefront of the socialist countries in having vigorously affirmed on many occasions the right of those who cannot adapt themselves to working collectively for a just social system in Cuba to leave the country.
The Cuban government gave exit visas to hundreds of thousands in the early days of the Cuban Revolution. Only last week, the Cuban government again affirmed this. The remarkable aspect of Cuba’s emigration policy is that so few have chosen to leave when one considers that there are ten million in the country.
Yet the ruling class here seeks to close the eyes of the masses to this very important aspect of Cuba’s socialist policy.
The real issue, however, of which the Peruvian Embassy incident is only a manifestation, concerns the far-reaching significance and 20-year-old criminal policy of the U.S. government in maintaining and continually strengthening its economic blockade against the Cuban people.
Of the tons and tons of paper that have been wasted in stories concerning the Peruvian Embassy incident, scarcely anything is said to let the American people know about the existence, let alone the effect, of the economic blockade against Cuba.
In spite of the blockade, however, Cuba has made the remarkable achievement of having obtained the lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America – and absolutely incontestable fact. It has been able to do this because from the very beginning of the revolution it has instituted and steadily strengthened its free medical care system.
And so far as unemployment goes, one merely has to compare the more than 30 percent unemployment in Puerto Rico – a U.S. colony – with the full employment in the Socialist Republic of Cuba.
Nevertheless, the blockade, which is the brainchild of the proponents of economic warfare in the U.S. government, of which economic sanctions against Iran is merely another manifestation, does have long-term deleterious effects on the operation of the Cuban economy. To this, of course, must be added matters such as natural disasters, which last year destroyed the tobacco crop and badly damaged the sugar crop.
In order to fully appreciate the long-term effects of the attempt to strangle Cuba through the economic blockade, it is useful to compare Cuba to another country which is small and borders on the Soviet Union. Finland has a population somewhere between five and six million at most.
It has an 800-mile border with the Soviet Union, a giant socialist country. Unlike Cuba, it is a full-fledged capitalist country in the orbit of Western imperialism.
The preponderant military, economic and political weight of the Soviet Union is such that it could easily “blockade,” so to speak, and over a period of time completely destabilize the capitalist economy of Finland. Unlike the imperialist countries, however, the Soviet Union, along with the other socialist countries, has maintained regular commercial and trade relations with the Finnish government.
There has been no effort on the part of the socialist countries in any way to utilize their enormous economic and military potential either to sabotage or in other ways to deliberately block economic intercourse with either the capitalist or socialist countries. Finland is no worse nor any better than any other capitalist country. But it is free from the economic strangulation that the U.S. imposes upon Cuba.
Were the U.S. and its imperialist allies and puppets in Latin America disposed to accord the same freedom which the socialist countries, particularly the USSR, accord to Finland, it is scarcely possible that such an incident as occurred on the Peruvian Embassy grounds would be likely.
Nevertheless, it is true that Cuba still faces many problems, problems of socialist construction which can only be solved on the basis of trial and error. The events on the Peruvian Embassy grounds will offer a new opportunity to the Cuban leadership to make a careful assessment on how to proceed further in the light of this development.
Unquestionably there are many in the working-class and liberation movements throughout the world who were shocked by this unfortunate development. The question that may be raised in this connection is whether the Peruvian Embassy event is symptomatic of a more serious counter-revolutionary threat. The answer to this is an unqualified no.
With all the gloating that the bourgeois press has indulged in since the beginning of the incident, not even they venture to console themselves with this thought. Long after the dust has settled on the Peruvian Embassy grounds, it will become clear that it is no more than a minor historical departure from the broad highway that leads to the total transformation of Cuba from a colonialist-dominated bourgeois society to a socialist society.
Last updated: 11 May 2026