The recent overheating of geopolitical tensions in the Central American and Caribbean area has brought international attention to Cuba's role in regional political balance and beyond. The political openness pursued during his second term by President Obama had led most people to believe that a new phase of relations between "the power in stars and stripes" and "the rebel island" had now begun. However, History has wanted differently and the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, has soon sent all the normalization plans to the attic with the Castro regime. This has convinced the political leadership of the Caribbean island to opt instead for a strengthening of relations with the old allies of the Cold War period (even remembering that these relationships had never been interrupted!). Here, therefore, that Havana has inaugurated a new season of economic relations with the People's Republic of China and has guaranteed its diplomatic support to Syria and Iran, both in the view of the West for all the Ten Years of the XXI century (Civil War Syrian). But the most interesting developments were undoubtedly those that saw Cuba as protagonist in recovering a dynamic relationship with Russia and North Korea. It is in fact an interest of both Moscow and Pyongyang that Havana continues to act as an "outpost" for the respective strategic projections in Latin America. Not only; the years of the Cold War, of Fidel Castro's leadership and of both military and civil intervention in the countries of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and even Asia, have left an international prestige to the Cuban leaders, especially among the Third World countries. World anything but contemptible.
Needless to say, the Cuban ability to organize in the United Nations real "international fronts", going to fish especially among the ranks of "Non-Aligned Countries" is tempting to all those powers such as Russia and Korea North (but not only!) That periodically are forced to "cross the horns" with the American superpower. Moreover, the prospect of a degeneration of the political-social crises that have long been devastating Nicaragua and Venezuela, countries that have a very close relationship with Cuba, has considerably increased the possibility that, in the near future, the "Revolutionary Armed Forces" (official name of the Cuban Armed Forces) can intervene militarily on the spot in support of the governments of those two countries. As a result, both Moscow and Pyongyang have decided to invest heavily to speed up the process of modernizing the armed forces of their exotic ally. Russia in particular, was the largest financer and supplier of weapons for the Castro state throughout the Cold War, so much so that even today the core of Cuba's arsenals consists of weapons systems purchased at that time. For this reason, Moscow has decided to grant, in November of 2018 and in February 2019, two loans respectively amounting to 50 and 43 million dollars, in order to allow Cuba to buy spare parts for vehicles supplied to its armed forces. and to begin a process of modernization of the same. However, these "aids" hide something far more ambitious. As stated recently by Russia's own Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoigu, the final intention of Moscow is not merely to "support Cuba" but to "transform it into an entity capable of marching alone and able to cooperate with Russia also from a technical-industrial point of view for the production of new types of armaments (especially light) and to guarantee the development of a stable industrial base for Cuba.
Despite the nominal end of the Cold War, the great still continue to woo "the pearl of the Caribbean" today.
Image: MoD Fed. Russian
