American aggression against Cuba didn’t begin with the 1959 Revolution. In fact, it goes back as far as the founding fathers.
The Spanish Empire took over Cuba within a generation of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Under Spanish rule, the island’s natural harbors and fertile land were exploited to the fullest. The slave trade came to Cuba in 1523, fueling the creation of sugar and coffee plantations on the island.
For centuries, this monstrous exploitation was horror without end for most of the island’s inhabitants. But in 1868, a 30-year struggle for independence exploded. This righteous cause faced many difficulties, not only due to Spanish military intervention, but also because of another imperialist vulture circling just 90 miles away.
Cuba had been in the American ruling class’s crosshairs from the very beginning. In 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison saying that he “looked upon Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States,” and the US “ought, at the first possible opportunity to take Cuba.” 78 years later, his desire would be realized.
The Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which claimed the Western Hemisphere as America’s sphere of influence, was formulated with places like Cuba in mind. That year, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote that Cuba “has become an object of transcendent importance to the political and commercial interests of our Union … The annexation of Cuba to our federal republic will be indispensable to the continuance and integrity of the Union itself.”
After trying to purchase the island from Spain in 1848 and 1854, the American ruling class watched the Cuban independence struggle unfold, eager for an opportunity to intervene.
The Spanish-American War, if we learn about it at all in school, is presented as a three-month conflict between the US and Spain, mainly significant for Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders’ “daring charge” up San Juan Hill. But this isn’t the whole story. In 1898, the US intervened in Cuba’s War of Independence, snatching victory from the masses and imposing US imperialism as the island’s new master.
The Treaty of Paris transferred Spain’s Caribbean and Pacific colonies—Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico—to the US. Instead of a sovereign, independent nation, Cuba became an American protectorate.
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In 1901, Congress added the Platt Amendment to Cuba’s Constitution, granting the US wide-ranging control over Cuba’s economy and foreign policy. The amendment also forced Cuba to lease land to the US for military bases and coaling stations. One of these bases, Guantanamo Bay, remains to this day as an American naval base and offshore prison. One section of the Platt Amendment reads:
The United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris.
This was nothing less than a mafia-style threat to depose any Cuban government that threatened US imperialism’s interests.
The American ruling class’s disdain for the Cuban people was evident. Senator Orville Platt would later write: “Cubans are incapable of stable self-government. In many respects, they are like children.”
Over the next 30 years, American companies came to control about half of Cuba’s cultivated land, utilities, mines, and other natural resources. By 1929, US direct investment in Cuba totaled nearly one billion dollars—more than a quarter of all US investment in Latin America.
By 1959, American capitalists controlled 90% of Cuban mines, 80% of its public utilities, 50% of its railways, 40% of its sugar production, and 25% of its bank deposits. US-backed dictators like Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista ruled over the country as the Epstein Island of the mid-20th century—a debauched playground for the rich replete with drugs, brothels, and casinos.
The reason we are told so many lies about the Cuban Revolution is because both parties of the American ruling class want to return to the days of total US domination over Cuba. Despite the endless stream of slanders, sanctions, and other threats, there are far more Cubans who defend the revolution than who support a return to US control.
From the belly of the beast, the RCA stands unequivocally in defense of the Cuban Revolution. The working class has no country. Across borders and oceans, the RCI stands united for the overthrow of imperialism and world capitalism.