Protests against the dictatorship in Havana

La Marx International

There are two policies, and only two, within the global left regarding Cuba and Venezuela: On the one hand, the policy of the Progressive International and 99% of the global left, which supports the Castro-Chavista capitalist dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela. The dictatorships of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are forging agreements with global imperialism, and therefore, supporting these dictatorships implies endorsing the agreements they are making with Donald Trump. This policy is exemplified by the flotilla of support for Cuba organized by capitalist governments and sectors of imperialism linked to the UN. We reject this shameful flotilla of support for capitalist dictatorships and their agreements with imperialism, and we denounce it as a policy of class collaboration that serves the interests of imperialism.

Millions believe that Cuba and Venezuela are socialist countries, but that belief is no longer supported by any factual basis. Cuba is a capitalist country, and if there are still honest activists or leaders who believe that Cuba is a socialist country, it is the product of a deception perpetrated by the oligarchs who run the current regime that governs Cuba and calls itself "socialist," coupled with the propaganda of the lying capitalist governments of the world that also claim that Cuba is a "socialist" country. Thirdly, the leaders of 99% of the global left who perpetuate the exact same lie, along with the capitalist governments that say Cuba is "socialist" to discredit socialism by highlighting the horrific situation in which the Cuban people live, contribute to this deception.

The only alternative policy to the pro-imperialist policies of the Progressive International is that of the Marxist International. Our policy is to support the people of Cuba and Venezuela in their struggle against the dictatorships of the millionaire oligarchs of the PCC and the PSUV, and to call for the violent overthrow of these dictatorships, hated and repudiated by 90% of the population. Cuba and Venezuela are examples of cruel and brutal capitalist inequality because while their people are sinking into a sea of ​​poverty and misery, the Chavista and Castroist oligarchs are getting richer every day. That is why these people have been fighting against these dictatorships for years, which has left a trail of thousands of political prisoners in both countries. Down with the dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela! No to the agreements between these dictatorships and Donald Trump! For a workers' and people's government that frees political prisoners, restores freedoms, and expropriates the "communist " oligarchies—who are anything but communist—to put that wealth in the hands of the people.

The "Our America" ​​Flotilla is against the people of Cuba and Venezuela

We denounce the "Our America" ​​flotilla in support of Cuba, launched by the Progressive International (PI), and all those who board, support, or promote this flotilla as accomplices of the dictatorships and their crimes. This flotilla is not at the service of the people but of the Castro and Chavista oligarchs. The Progressive International (PI) lies about what is happening in both countries: They say that Cuba is collapsing and without electricity due to the US blockade and Donald Trump's ban on oil sales to Cuba, which is false. It is true that Trump's measure in decreeing the ban on oil sales to Cuba constitutes an act of aggression, but a collapse of the magnitude that Cuba is suffering is not the result of a Trump measure. One billion dollars is enough to solve Cuba's energy problem, and the Castro oligarchy has siphoned out of the country the equivalent of 18 times that sum that the people need to have electricity.

The PCC nomenklatura has siphoned off $18 billion in Panamanian tax havens, while the capital flight by Chavista oligarchs is estimated at over $500 billion—a reality that hits Cuba and Venezuela as hard as imperialist blockades. The damage suffered by both countries' economies is a result of both dictatorships imposing a capitalist model to squeeze every last drop of wealth from their nations and line their own pockets. This is undeniably demonstrated by the fact that while the people of both countries suffer appalling conditions of hunger and poverty, the PCC and PSUV rulers are millionaire oligarchs who have become obscenely wealthy through all sorts of deals with North American and European imperialism.

The oligarchs of the PCC and the PSUV have carried out the privatization of the economy and capital flight, in collusion with capitalists worldwide. Cuba has received millions in investments from European imperialism for decades, and the country's main production sectors are privatized and controlled by the holding company GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial Sociedad Anónima), which is controlled by the country's armed forces, as you can read by clicking here. In Venezuela, the PSUV oligarchy is wealthy thanks to deals with Chevron and US imperialism. The Progressive International and 99% of the global left conceal the existence of GAESA, the business dealings of the PSUV oligarchy, and the agreements between imperialism and the PCC and the PSUV.

Why are IP and 99% of the global left silent about GAESA? Why are they silent about the agreements the PCCC and PSUV have made with imperialism? Why do they refuse to call for a fight against dictatorships? Why do they lie, trying to make global activists believe that these PCCC and PSUV governments are independent of imperialism, or that they are confronting imperialism? The policy of IP and 99% of the global left on Cuba and Venezuela is a defensive one, an expression of the global crisis of the left, the product of a tsunami unfolding globally and now reaching Latin America, with global and strategic consequences that directly impact the future of the left.

The Political Revolution: The Berlin Wall Falls in Latin America

The collapse of the dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela signifies the end of Castro-Chavismo and Stalinism, the fall of the "Berlin Wall" in Latin America. It marks the end of the political currents that have dominated the Latin American left for decades, and is the expression of a global crisis affecting all the old leaderships that historically guided mass movements worldwide: social democracy, classical Stalinism and its Maoist, Castroist, and Guevarist variants, bourgeois nationalist movements, former guerrillas, etc.—all leaderships that were once attractive to millions of activists around the world, but are now sinking into a profound crisis resulting from the rejection and repudiation they face for their defense of capitalism.

This process of "political revolution" has reached Latin America and is liquidating the old leaderships like Castroism and Chavismo. In turn, the fall of Chavismo and Castroism triggers a chain reaction of all reformist, social-democratic, Stalinist, and petty-bourgeois groups, who fear disappearing. This forces IP, in desperation, to launch its campaign in support of the dictatorships of Cuba and Venezuela, seeking to halt the crisis of Castro-Chavismo. IP seeks to stop a process that is very progressive for the mass movement and the struggle for revolution, but which, for social democrats and Stalinists, is quite the opposite because it means the end of their privileges as officials, members of parliament, or ministers who collaborate with capitalism and pursue a policy of support for "progressive" capitalism.

Indeed, halting this process of political revolution is the central objective of the founding of the Progressive International (PI) in May 2020, an international organization led by Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis, leader of Syriza in Greece. The PI is an organization guided by the U.S. State Department, serving to promote the tendency for left-wing organizations to adopt the policy of calling for a " progressive common front , " "unity," and a "united front" with progressive bourgeois coalitions in various instances of class struggle. If you want to read more about the PI, click here.

Major Wall Street corporations like George Soros's allocate capital to the financing of political campaigns and "progressive" organizations , while a strong NGO-ization process has developed in left-wing organizations worldwide, a process that seeks to strengthen the social-democratic and reformist tendencies of the global left, leading them to prioritize electoral intervention in bourgeois democracy, a multi-million dollar financing business based on the diversion of funds from the bourgeois state.

The entire process results in the development of policies linked to the laws inherent in the development of the bourgeois democratic regime, such as "critical voting" in elections, support for "progressive" laws of bourgeois parties, the formation of parliamentary political blocs with progressive bourgeois forces, entry into these coalitions, and the placement of officials, ministers, and advisors in their governments. However, the arrival of "political revolution" in Latin America deals a formidable blow to the political, social, and labor leaderships linked to Chavismo and Stalinism, jeopardizing the project and future of the reformists, which is now mortgaged.

The oligarchies of Cuba and Venezuela are negotiating with Trump

The U.S. State Department announced $6 million in humanitarian assistance for Cuba, distributed through Caritas, a network of Catholic charitable organizations, and the Catholic Church, as announced by Jeremy Lewin, the senior State Department official in charge of foreign assistance. The energy crisis is at the heart of the crisis in Cuba, with prolonged blackouts affecting homes, hospitals , businesses, and public transportation. These blackouts are having a domino effect on the population because without electricity, food refrigeration is reduced, water pumping is interrupted, productive activities are halted, and essential services are limited.

The fuel shortage is also impacting transportation, which in turn is hindering the distribution of goods and exacerbating shortages, leading to a virtual paralysis of the economy and sparking daily uprisings and protests in cities and regions across the country. Faced with the people's struggle, the Castro oligarchy's dictatorship has intensified its repression, holding 1,197 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience by the end of 2025— a figure that demonstrates the persistence and intensification of the PCC dictatorship's repression.

The specter of Nepal is beginning to loom over Cuba and Venezuela. Preventing a violent popular uprising against these oligarchic dictatorships at all costs has become the priority of imperialism, which is working to extinguish all revolutionary sparks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been secretly holding talks with Raúl Castro's grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, nicknamed "Raulito" or "The Crab."As US President Donald Trump announced aboard Air Force One, "We're talking to Cuba right now, and Marco Rubio is talking to Cuba right now, and they should definitely come to an agreement, because they're experiencing a humanitarian crisis , " as you can read by clicking here.

The beginning of negotiations between Castroism and imperialism seeks to avoid the violent fall of the dictatorship at the hands of the people, as happened in Nepal where the mass uprising crushed the Communist Party dictatorship. Similarly, negotiations took place in Venezuela, and the agreement reached between the Chavista oligarchs and their government, headed by Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, with imperialism involved the arrest and extradition of Maduro in exchange for a transition process toward a more stable bourgeois democratic regime. This would allow sectors of the Chavista oligarchy to reinvent themselves as bourgeois parties. The plan included imperialism shifting from a policy of support for María Corina Machado to a transition based on Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and an agreement with Diosdado Cabello.

If you want to read more about Chavismo's agreements with imperialism, click here . Imperialism is pushing for a transition in Cuba and Venezuela while being careful not to destroy the Armed Forces, which are the pillar of the bourgeois state. That's why the agreements with Diosdado Cabello, who controls sectors of the Venezuelan army, and with Raúl Castro, who, represented by his grandson "Raulito the Crab," seeks to preserve the structure of the Cuban Armed Forces and, thus, the Cuban bourgeois state, are so important. These are preventative measures aimed at avoiding a revolution in the Caribbean that would erupt right in front of the US and coincide with the revolutionary upsurge of the American masses who have given Trump a resounding defeat with massive mobilizations that forced him to withdraw ICE troops from Minnesota.

Two corrupt oligarchies, which carry out all kinds of crimes and illicit maneuvers

Castro-Chavismo is not a socialist, Marxist, or revolutionary movement that opposes capitalism. On the contrary, it is an agreement between two deeply corrupt, millionaire oligarchies, a gang of criminals who have perpetrated all kinds of crimes against the people to perpetuate their hold on power. The Cuban oligarchy, led by spokespeople like Alejandro Castro Espín, son of Raúl Castro, and "Crab" Rodríguez Castro, grandson of Raúl Castro, has forged a long-standing business relationship with the Panamanian businessman Ramón Carretero Napolitano. This same businessman enabled the Venezuelan oligarchy to conduct lucrative business in the oil sector and secure all kinds of contracts through Carretero's company, the Caribbean Logistics Corporation, which obtained multimillion-dollar contracts from the Venezuelan government.

Ramón Carretero Napolitano laundered money for the Cuban and Venezuelan oligarchy through accounts in the tax haven of Panama, which solidified Rodríguez Castro's position as a frequent passenger on Carretero's private planes bound for Panama, where GAESA's largest umbrella company, CIMEX, is registered. Dozens of Rodríguez Castro's flights to Panama were recorded, and at least once, in May 2024, he traveled with Brigadier General Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera of the Cuban army, the current president of GAESA and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Carretero, in turn, consolidated his position as a major contractor for the Nicolás Maduro regime through companies like Landscape Vision Corp (Lanvicorp) and Corporación Logística del Caribe. These companies amassed nearly $800 million in public contracts for civil works projects, awarded between 2013 and 2015 by the Pro-Patria 2000 Foundation, then headed by Carlos Erick Malpica Flores and Walter Jacob Gavidia Flores, nephew and son, respectively, of Cilia Flores, the Venezuelan first lady, or " first combatant" in the official jargon of the Chavista oligarchy. This is how the Chavista oligarchy became millionaires, carrying out capital flight to Panama in partnership with oligarchs from the Communist Party of Cuba.

In this scheme, the Panamanian businessman transferred millions of dollars to Juan Carlos López Tovar, the partner of Iriamni Malpica Flores, Cilia Flores's niece. Meanwhile, the private plane trips of the Castro-Chavista oligarchs on Carretero Napolitano's aircraft followed the Caracas-Havana-Panama triangle, which allowed the Cuban dictatorship's nomenklatura and the Chavista oligarchs to establish lucrative business relationships. These relationships were so close that an employee of Carretero Napolitano, Edwin Abel Pitty Madrid, was appointed Panama's ambassador to Cuba, at the suggestion of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino. And while the Castro-Chavista oligarchies were becoming millionaires by siphoning off massive amounts of capital to Panamanian accounts, the workers, young people, and peasants of Venezuela and Cuba were sinking into poverty, misery, and abject despair, with meager wages that didn't even reach 10 or 20 dollars.

These same millionaire, corrupt, and criminal Castro-Chavista oligarchs imposed their will with an iron fist, arresting opponents, repressing dissenting voices, and imprisoning those who opposed their plans, thus filling the prisons of Cuba and Venezuela with thousands of political prisoners. And it is this corrupt and criminal oligarchy that the Progressive International Flotilla and 99% of the world's left-wing groups come out to support, lying about what is really happening, calling for "solidarity with Cuba ," which is in reality solidarity with the criminal Castro-Chavista oligarchs—a shameful policy of support for these sinister dictatorships that have been enriching themselves for years with the complicity of bankers and capitalist investment funds from around the world.

Social Democrats, Stalinists and ex-Trotskyists united in the Progressive International (PI)

Woe to those naive Cubans and Venezuelans who believed the lies of Donald Trump and his circle of representatives like Milei of Argentina or Viktor Orbán of Hungary—true, disgraceful clowns. They promised the Cubans and Venezuelans that they would oust the Castro-Chavistas from power and bring them to justice and punish them. And now, the people of Cuba and Venezuela are beginning to see how Trump and Marco Rubio are making deals with the Castro-Chavistas, how they are turning their backs on honest activists and making deals with Delcy and Diosdado, how, far from judging and punishing the Castro regime, they are meeting and making deals with "El Cangrejo" (the Crab). Oh, our dear Cuban and Venezuelan brothers and sisters who believed they were confronting the "communists" or "Marxists" !

We're not talking about the Miami vultures who know perfectly well what's going on; we're talking about the honest activists, workers, and people of Cuba and Venezuela who believed that US imperialism would come to their rescue. And now they see the reality: It was never about a "fight against communists." The Castro-Chavistas were never communists or socialists; they always defended capitalism, and now they're joining forces with Trump more than ever because they share the common interest of the unrestricted defense of capitalism and their businesses.

Dear honest Cuban and Venezuelan activists: You never lived under a communist or socialist dictatorship; you always lived under a capitalist dictatorship. That is why we repudiate the leaders and groups of the global left who, along with the Progressive International, are carrying out the scandal of supporting these criminal capitalist oligarchies. They have already announced that this flotilla, "Our America," will set sail with food, medicine, and urgent basic supplies, as explained by its organizers: Thiago Ávila, leader of the Progressive International and the PSOL of Brazil, and Clémence Guetté, Vice President of the French National Assembly. or the former leader of the British Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn and the English congresswoman, Zarah Sultana, who head the " Your Party" party in England supported by all the groups of English Trotskyism such as the English SWP, the "communists" of Alan Woods, who always collaborated publicly with the Chavista oligarchy, and other minor groups such as the RCIT, or Mandelism.

Also among the promoters of this shameful pro-imperialist expedition are the US DSA with the participation of Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, supported by Jacobin Magazine, the mouthpiece of the Progressive International, Stalinist groups, such as officials in the governments of Petro in Colombia, Boric in Chile, or Lula in Brazil, as well as the bourgeois nationalists leading Morena in Mexico, or Grabois from Peronism in Argentina, as well as all kinds of groups that carry out a treacherous policy such as Izquierda Diario in Argentina.

There are two, and only two, policies for the global left. On one side are those who, with the Flotilla to Cuba, the Progressive International, and its satellite groups, will continue to earn their place in the annals of history's traitors as mere lackeys of imperialism and corrupt capitalist oligarchies like the Castro-Chavista dictatorships. The crew of the Flotilla for Cuba are united not only by their defense of the oligarchs of Cuba or Venezuela, but also by their fear of the political revolution that has begun to sweep them away and threatens to sink them definitively.

On the other hand, we at Marx International reject the "flotillas" sent to support capitalist oligarch dictators and are moving forward to unite in the revolutionary project of Marxism, to kick the Castro-Chavistas out of Latin America and take their place. These are two policies of the global left for Cuba and Venezuela. We invite you to join the Marxist policy, sweeping away these traitors so we can advance in imposing socialism in the Americas and the world.