A ‘flat’ earth is what is needed

With the debacle of the European socialist camp and the disappearance of the USSR, it seemed that capitalist globalization would impose the definitive rules of international order. The end of the old hegemonic system based on spheres of influence, of which the cold war had been its last expression, was heralded, and the United States emerged as the undisputed patron of a unipolar world. However, a look at the current reality indicates a revitalization of other centers of power and Cuba is once again positioned at the epicenter of the conflict between the competing forces.

Since the origins of the conquest of America, the Island has had a geopolitical importance that far transcends the size of its territory or the potential of its natural resources. At the dawn of the 20th century, they managed to establish the first neocolony in the world in the country.

The triumph of the Cuban Revolution moved Cuba from its place on the international scale and this represented an advance hitherto unthinkable for the socialist bloc, which saw its influence strengthen not only in the Western world, by placing itself at the very gates of the United States, but in the so-called Third World, thanks to the Cuban impact in these countries. Once again geopolitics came to overestimate the importance of Cuba in the world.

Soviet collaboration was based on this budget, although it was also not unrelated to the undertaking of some businesses that benefited both parties. The irruption of capitalist Russia discarded everything that had made the Soviet Union a world power, including its privileged relationship with Cuba — which was left to its own devices — as a gesture of affection towards its new imperialist “allies”.

Paradoxically, as American arrogance prevented them from taking advantage of the opportunity, not without reeling due to US pressure, Europe came to fill the void left by the Soviets in the Cuban market and today it is the country’s main commercial and financial partner. In this way, Cuba took advantage of a bit of globalization, conditioned by the US blockade.

Then came the catastrophe of the system. China became the great beneficiary of globalization and put the US dominance in many sectors of the economy into crisis, even within its own territory. Donald Trump set off the alarms and built his political base from those harmed by the system, but his liberal enemies have also ended up repudiating him and we are back at war for spheres of influence, as reflected in the case of Ukraine.

A great fear of Americans is what they call Europe’s “dependency” on Russian energy and food resources. An economic alliance between Europe and Russia would put an end to US supremacy on that continent and probably in the world, which is why it pulled the strings of its control over the European power groups to promote a war where the big loser, apart from Ukraine, is Europe itself, and the great beneficiary, at least in the short term, are the Americans themselves.

The Aztecs called “flowery” wars those that were organized in a controlled way to solve religious, economic, or demographic problems. Without risking a single soldier, the war in the Ukraine triggered sales of US arms where the true buyer is the US taxpayer; it placed its gas on the European market, which now pays three times its value; it attracted important production plants from the Old Continent to its territory and has imposed the dictates of NATO on the European Union. However, it has not been enough to subdue China, which continues to be the world’s fastest growing economy, nor to suffocate Russia, which has known how to find outlets for its relations with the rest of the world.

Perhaps this explains Russia’s renewed interest in Cuba. What has materialized are visits to the Island by some of the top Russian leaders, and with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, with wide media attention, visiting with his peer Vladimir Putin. The signing of more than 30 agreements is the result of these efforts that enhance Russia’s role in the economic development of Cuba and give relations a strategic sense, as its leaders have said.

Unlike China, settled on Latin American soil to the point of constituting its main source of exports –double that of the United States– and one of the largest investors in that area, Russia’s economic relations with Latin America are limited and, although the Russian vaccine against Covid expanded its impact to several countries, the bulk of these links are concentrated in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Until now, and in the case of Cuba, Russian economic interests had not been particularly prominent, so the boost received in recent months is significant. The reason cannot be the attractiveness of the Cuban economy, which is going through one of its worst moments, but the geopolitical importance of Cuba in a scenario that is increasingly regulated by the articulation of spheres of influence.

According to President Díaz-Canel, Cuba can be a bridge between the Eurasian bloc, made up of Russia and most of the former Soviet republics, and Latin America. A Cuban economic takeoff can contribute to this effort and, apparently, Russian investment in the country is directed in this area.

For some we are seeing the rebirth of the cold war in a non-ideologized version, but we Cubans are what we are and Russia is not the Soviet Union. We will have to take advantage of the situation to escape the US siege, whose policy does not leave many alternatives, but the future of Cuba lies in our own efforts and the ability to relate to the whole world and not with a part of it, as José Martí said. Honestly, multipolarism does not solve the problems of humanity either, a flat world is what is needed, and without poles. From this perspective, globalization would be good.