Since long before James Monroe's execution of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 composed with the core principle that the US is free to engage with the assets of colonial Latin America for its own gains without interference from the European colonisers active within this region, the Latin American continent has become regarded as the subject of many anti-colonial and internationalist revolutionary movements, as well as, in stark contrast, the site of the most significant interest by the US in fulfilling their individual neo-colonial capitalist aims. These patterns in power have remained continual throughout the course of the rest of the 19th and 20th century, with rivalries between European colonial superpowers becoming prevalent, alongside multiple conflicts having been established between the Global North and the Global South during this period, and further accelerated under Trump's presidency over the last year and a half, by which many violations of international law and order through illegal occupation and exploitation of land within Latin America and the Caribbean had taken place. It is through observing the case that the US failed in their attempt at overthrowing Fidel Castro and declaring influence over Cuba in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion (along with the observations being made on power dynamic with the US and Latin America in the Cuban missile crisis having taken place the following year) that one can reflect on the importance of peace and international security, as well as the ongoing legacy of crucial mobilisation against imperial war by the people of Latin America, when examining historic and present day intra-American relations.
The revolutionary tradition and widespread class struggle in Cuba was rooted in change initiated through the successful overthrowing of Fulgencio Batista to facilitate a more people-centred revolution led by more humanitarian aims built on the reversal of the corrupt governance previously apparent by which mass unemployment, widespread social and economic disparity, poorer living standards and fear and violence under a corrupt and oppressive previous government. This appeared to have worked very well and provided the necessary reforms needed to give a greater sense of stability within Cuban society. Advancements in social welfare systems implemented during this period still remain to be evident and in practice in Cuba at this present day. However, in reflecting on the following year and the attempts by Khrushchev to assist Cubas military influence through the provision of Soviet nuclear missiles to act as further defence against the potential threat of invasion by the US proved to also have been important in recognition of this sentiment and its importance in understanding stability and international security for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as helping important reflection on the close ties between the western Soviet powers and the Global South. This assisted the lead up to the Cuban missile crisis, and its aims to sabotage any US military intervention proposed. While this didn’t necessarily achieve the desired result in several ways, it was important in highlighting the negative perception people have of post colonial Latin America, and the true slk
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The penchant of the US (and much of the western world in general) for increasing their individual influence as sovereign nation states so as to preserve their individual superpower status through the elimination of supposedly significant threats to their lasting colonial power is very much apparent when observing their many attempts to overthrow many revolutionary left attempts at socio-political change. This would thus exemplify the need for any attempts at revolution to be globalised and to take place on a international level which encompasses the needs and interests of all nations regardless of levels of development and sovereign influence as individual powers able to govern themselves and have a role in assisting other forms of governance on an international scale. Equally, when applied to these contexts, the long term success of proposed socialist revolution should be assessed largely in relation to its sustainably and ability to remain a permanent form by which ongoing social, economic and political reforms on a global scale can continue to take place, assisting intended revolutionary goals for a continual transition to an anti-capitalist utopian socialist society. This proposal as advocated for by Fidel Castro and revolutionary movements in Cuba would thus appear to act as the complete antithesis to the US' intended aims for society built on capitalism, exploitation and expropriation of land, resources and people. The parallels with many of the other Global South nations (particularly those within geographically important or vulnerable situations exacerbated further through Western superpower interests in controlling and annexing their resource rich regions) can be made increasingly apparent. However, the true strength of collective mobilisation on both a small individual level and nationally and the irrepressible nature of a global revolution of society had proven to surpass capitalist influence and was fundamental in the establishment of a sense of unity and solidarity within Latin America and the Caribbean in class struggle and the the fight for emancipation from their colonial past.
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