Cuba has been considered in the United States for at least 60 years as a country that needs to be controlled and aligned with its interests, rather than free to determine its own course and future. The continuous efforts to undermine the Cuban Revolution by military invasion, economic blockade and other ways bear witness to this fact. Any attempt to implement regime change in Cuba, as was attempted in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and through other actions more recently, will always be illegitimate, destabilising and potentially highly destabilising and therefore doomed to failure, as it has for generations and has always been considered illegitimate, unjustifiable and counter-productive.

The blockade and other attempts to undermine the Cuban Revolution must be condemned without ambiguity by all in accordance with international law, and considering their serious humanitarian implications. Further destabilisation in the region may also arise, as well as authoritarian reactions from Cuba and other countries that are affected by these actions, and this too must be a matter of great concern. The history of attempts by the US to force change in Cuba by coercion have shown time and again that they have failed in their goal of bringing about democratisation, but have rather strengthened the apparatus of the political and individuals who have been at the helm of the Revolution, and in many cases in other countries in the Americas, where authoritarian rulers have profited from the intervention of foreign powers to maintain their power.

The reasons for Washington’s latest decision to try to achieve regime change in Cuba are not new, nor are they in any way ideological or driven by concerns for the welfare of the Cuban people. Rather, they are the same reasons that have been at the heart of US policy towards Cuba for decades. The US claims to have an interest in democracy in Cuba. Still, the Castro regime’s increasing relations with Russia and China, as well as its general refusal to go along with........

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