“Vietnam always remembers the solidarity and precious support Cuba gave to Vietnam in the past at our most difficult times. Vietnam will always be there to support and help the Cuban people in our capacity.” – Statement from the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Việt Nam, Lê Thị Thu Hằng.
The protests in Cuba have been front and center of the western news cycle this week. Understanding what is happening in Cuba is important and runs parallel to Vietnam’s historical struggle against US Imperialism.
Once again, Western media is sensationalizing the protests and omitting the reasons for Cuba’s suffering. Cuba has been under an economic embargo for 60 years, imposed by the United States as punishment for defying US hegemony and overthrowing its former dictator, Fulgenico Batista.
Through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (FAC), the United States has historically and continues to impose sanctions on countries who challenge its global hegemony, destabilizing them to protect western profit. Sanctions like the ones in Cuba prevent the people from obtaining vital resources such as food and medicine that the US has hoarded. Vietnam had been put under a similar embargo by the US following its reunification; this embargo was only lifted in 1994.
The native Cuban and Vietnamese people have long understood the impacts of economic sanctions on its most vulnerable. Sanctions do not “punish” a government, they just end up affecting the people — which results in many leaving in search of the basis needs that have been withheld from them.
What the United States is doing to Cuba is no different than what it did to Vietnam and what it is doing in Colombia, Haiti, Palestine, Iran, and all other countries in the Global South.
Furthermore, as Vietnamese people we should always advocate for and stand with the Cuban people. Cuba was a pioneer in the movement to support Vietnam’s struggle for independence as well as national construction, continuously denouncing the crimes of US imperialism against Vietnam and the world.
Cầu Kiều Collective fully supports Cuba’s revolutionary government in its struggle against US imperialism and denounces any attempt by foreign governments to destabilize it.