Original subtitles

NARRATOR: In July 2021, protests broke out in Cuba

over the mismanagement of the response to Covid-19.

But what began as a demand for improvements

in the treatment of the pandemic,

became the clamour of a people demanding the end

of the country's authoritarian regime.

- (chanting)

- Diaz-Canel has been facing perhaps the most acute crisis

that the revolutionary government has ever encountered.

- (angry shouting)

NARRATOR: Currently, the governments of at least three countries

in Latin America have close ties with the Caribbean Island

and are largely responsible for the economic survival

of the Castro regime.

How much did Cuba have to do with the arrival

of these governments to power?

How has the Cuban revolution been able to sustain itself

for six decades, in spite of America's open hostility?

And could regimes like the Cuban dictatorship

be repeated in other Latin American countries, even today?

- It is crucial for the United States to develop a policy

at expanding democracy or restoring democracy in those countries.

- (dramatic music)

- (gunfire)

- (shouting)

- (engines drone)

- (gunfire)

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: On January the 1st, 1959,

after more than two years of armed struggle,

the Marxist revolution led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara,

triumphed in Cuba.

Their victory ended the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista,

a repressive regime that had turned Cuba into a major tourist centre

and a safe haven for organised crime.

After pro-American Batista left the island,

the United States watched in horror

as a communist regime sympathetic to the Soviet Union

was installed less than a hundred miles off its coastline.

- The leaders of the Soviet Union and communist China

have made abundantly clear

their determination to exploit the situation in Cuba

as a means of intervening in intra-American affairs.

NARRATOR: As US assets were being expropriated in Cuba,

President Eisenhower retaliated with a series of harsh economic sanctions

on the island.

Cuba knew that to stay afloat it also needed allies in the region.

And so, from the outset, the Castro regime

attempted to export its revolutionary ideas into Panama,

the Dominican Republic

and Venezuela.

- Within about four or five weeks

Fidel went on his first foreign trip, he went to Caracas.

He met with the President-elect, Romulo Betancourt.

They met...privately...

and Betancourt later wrote about it,

about his meeting with Fidel.

He said: "Betancourt, I want to wage a war against the gringos...

and I need your support."

For Fidel Venezuela is the crown,

is the main goal.

It's a rich country, oil country.

BRIAN LATELL: Betancourt refused

and rejected everything that Fidel wanted.

Fidel was so angry... at Betancourt's rejection...

..that he determined that Venezuela

would become the primary target

of Cuban Revolutionary internationalism.

NARRATOR: Betancourt's centre-left government

was fighting communist guerrillas in the country,

and these groups began to receive Cuban funding and support,

as Fidel did everything within his power

to destabilise the Venezuelan leader.

- He even invaded Venezuela

by the Macuruchuto beach,

with an invasion

under the command of the General Arnaldo Ochoa,

that later was executed by Fidel Castro.

- Fidel was so anxious that guerrilla movement

succeed in overthrowing Betancourt...

..that he actually provided for about 15,

maybe 18 revolutionary officers of the Cuban armed forces.

They became advisors, revolutionary and guerrilla advisors,

to the Venezuelans.

NARRATOR: As Cuba began to support Leftist subversion

all over the region,

the already strained relationship between Cuba and the United States

broke down completely in 1961,

with the election of President John F Kennedy.

Eventually, Castro demanded a reduction

of US diplomatic personnel on the island.

- There is a limit to what the United States

in self-respect can endure.

That limit has now been reached.

NARRATOR: In response, in April 1961,

the US government launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion.

- (explosions boom)

- In April of 1961,

just three or four months after he was inaugurated President,

Kennedy supported the brigade of Cuban exile -

young Cuban-Americans who formed the brigade -

trained by the CIA,

orchestrated by the CIA, funded by the CIA,

delivered to Cuba, on the south coast of Cuba

to begin an insurgency against Castro.

NARRATOR: The plan - devised by the CIA under JFK's predecessor,

Dwight Eisenhower,

was to establish a provisional government

and defend it through guerrilla warfare.

Cuban-exile Felix Rodriguez,

who was working for the CIA's Special Activities Division,

was able to gather critical intelligence before the invasion.

- We landed in Cuba clandestinely before the invasion.

Our mission was to work with the resistance, support them.

We brought weapons, ammunition for them,

and we started working with them, and then it was a failure.

Most of our people in the infiltration team,

a lot of them were captured.

Five of them were killed, four of them by firing squad,

one of them defending a safe house.

I was lucky enough to be able to make it to the Venezuelan embassy,

where I left on September 13th for Venezuela,

as a political exile, back to the United States then.

NARRATOR: But the invasion also had another objective:

to assassinate Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro.

- It failed as well, because by 1961

the Cuban intelligence service had developed considerable skills

and counter-intelligence.

And they had detected the assassination plot against Castro,

and they foiled it.

NARRATOR: And it was not just sophisticated

counter-intelligence services

that the Cubans had developed,

assisted by their Soviet patrons.

In 1962, a US U2 spy plane made a discovery

which would add a terrifying new dimension

to the escalating tensions of the Cold War.

Soviet missile bases were found on Cuban soil,

the closest to the United States that any had ever been.

- This sudden, clandestine decision

to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil

is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change

in the status quo,

which cannot be accepted by this country.

NARRATOR: From October the 16th to the 28th, 1962,

the world lived through 13 agonising days,

as the planet teetered on the brink of nuclear war.

Khrushchev took the first step in resolving the crisis.

He offered to withdraw the missiles on Cuba

if the US bases in Turkey were dismantled.

He also demanded that the US government

renounce any plan to invade Cuba.

Kennedy accepted the deal,

but his attempts to change the government in Cuba

persisted until his tragic and untimely death

on November 22nd, 1963.

- (gunshot)

REPORTER: The assassin's aim is deadly.

The area is a swarm with police, Rangers and Secret Service men.

The murderer slips the net, but a few blocks away

a man is captured after he is reported to have killed a policeman.

That man is a 24-year-old pro-Castro Texan

who once sought Soviet citizenship.

NARRATOR: Despite the arrest of disaffected Communist-sympathiser

Lee Harvey Oswald,

conspiracy theories about who was really behind JFK's assassination

persist to this day.

However, unbeknownst to many, that same day in Paris,

a genuine conspiracy was being concocted.

If successful, this, like the events in Dallas,

would have changed history forever.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: On November the 22nd, 1963,

as Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas,

a secret meeting was taking place in France

between the CIA and another would-be assassin.

Cuban revolutionary leader, Rolando Cubela,

was close to Castro and presented himself

as the perfect candidate to assassinate the Cuban leader.

- Cubela was trained in secret writing

and secret ways of communicating with the CIA.

And he told the CIA that he wanted to help eliminate Fidel Castro.

NARRATOR: The purpose of the meeting in Paris

was to deliver Cubela the unusual weapon

with which to assassinate Castro.

- It was a pen that was developed by the CIA technical services people.

The pen was a syringe and then all Cubela had to do

the next time he saw Fidel, was stab Fidel with a syringe,

and the poison would kill him.

The CIA case officer

was seated in the safe house in Paris

with Rolando Cubela,

and the phone rang.

And his chief back in Washington at CIA headquarters said...

"President Kennedy... has just been shot...

in Dallas.

Call off the operation."

- (panicked shouting)

- One of history's...

modern history's extraordinary...coincidences.

If, in fact, it was a coincidence.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: Vice President Lyndon Johnson

succeeded Kennedy in the White House

and, respecting the agreements

that had ended the Cuban Missile Crisis,

US aggression towards the Cuban revolution was moderated.

However, feeling side-lined by the superpowers

following the missile crisis, Fidel Castro became adamant

that he needed allies in the region once again.

- Cuba felt threatened by the United States.

But now, felt it could not rely on the Soviet Union

to come to its support.

In fact, Castro believed that the Soviet Union

at one point was trying to oust him

and put in place someone else who was more loyal to the Soviet Union.

And so, the sense on Cuba's part was,

the only way that we're going to have security

is by having other countries in the Third World who support us.

And at that point, after the Cuban Missile Crisis,

they began to try to export revolution.

And so this policy of export revolution

grew out of a sense of self-defence.

NARRATOR: The activities of Cuba's secret intelligence service,

known as G2,

which had been created in 1961,

became crucial to Castro's plan.

- There is significant evidence of Cuban presence,

through intelligence - G2, and others,

throughout the hemisphere,

whether it's support for political parties,

whether it's support for some labour organisations,

whether it's support for guerrilla movements

or whether it involved funding.

NARRATOR: During the 1960s, Ernesto Che Guevara

had emerged as the so-called

"Revolutionary Statesman of World Stature"

and was widely perceived as Castro's second-hand man.

In 1965, Guevara told Castro of his intention

to fight for the revolutionary cause abroad.

Thus, in 1966 he led a small army into the Bolivian jungle

to foment revolution among the militia groups there.

As Guevara led his men deeper into the Bolivian jungle,

the CIA followed closely on his trail.

It did not take them long to find him and take him prisoner.

- We got into the room, Che Guevara was tied down.

We talked for a while in there.

I asked him, for example, why they selected Bolivia.

One of his criteria was that Bolivia, in their mind,

was a very poor country.

Therefore, the United States would not be

that much interested in Bolivia because their economy was very poor.

Second, they knew that the Bolivian armed forces

were very badly trained, which was true,

and then also the most important thing for him

was that Bolivia had boundaries with five different countries.

If he was able to take Bolivia, it will be very easy for him

to export the revolution to Brazil, to Paraguay, to Argentina,

to Chile and Peru.

NARRATOR: On October the 9th, 1967,

the charismatic guerrilla leader was captured and executed

by the Bolivian Army.

Despite becoming a martyr to leftists around the world,

Guevara's death was a bitter blow to Castro's hopes

of exporting his revolution.

Surprisingly, his death was also a blow to some in Washington.

- The CIA wanted him alive,

they knew that he had a fallout with Fidel because he was pro-Chinese.

So they wanted him alive.

Nevertheless, that was not the opinion of the Bolivian government.

So I went to his room. I stood in front of him and said:

"Commander, I'm sorry, I tried my best."

He understood perfectly what I was saying.

He turned white like a piece of paper.

And he said "It's better this way,

I should have never been captured alive."

It was exactly one o'clock in the afternoon when I left.

At 1:15 I heard a burst of fire

and that was the time when Che was killed.

NARRATOR: By the mid-1970s, after several failed attempts

and more than a decade of revolutionary rule,

Cuba had failed to expand communism to any other country in the region.

There was one place, however,

where Castro's attempts seemed to be slowly working.

The fires of revolution were about to ignite...in Nicaragua.

There, the Sandinista National Liberation Front

had been fighting for more than a decade against Anastasio Somoza,

the Nicaraguan dictator who had collaborated with the United States

in the Bay of Pigs invasion.

- We now have very strong evidence that Sandinista leadership

were trained in Cuba under Soviet auspices.

We also know that there was probably Cuban military presence

in the Sandinista Revolution.

NARRATOR: When the Sandinistas came to power in Nicaragua in 1979,

Cuba had gained its first real ally in the region.

Castro's relationship with the Sandinista leaders

strengthened significantly

and, in particular, with their revolutionary leader, Daniel Ortega.

Ortega was a great admirer of Castro

and called him the "Commander of Commanders".

The alliance between Cubans and Nicaraguans

meant a stronger foundation from which to spread their ideology

to other parts of the continent.

And before long, they had turned their sights to El Salvador,

where an armed struggle was already underway.

- (gunfire) NARRATOR: They lent their support

to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front

which aimed to overthrow the military dictatorship

that had ruled the country since 1931.

- (gunfire)

- The role of Cuba was as a proxy for the Soviet Union

in the context of the Cold War.

And perhaps the great success of the Cuban proxy role

came with the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua,

and then subsequently, the ten-year war in El Salvador

when the Soviets through Cuba supported the FMLN.

NARRATOR: All the while, during the early 1980s,

the Reagan administration watched with mounting concern

as the ripples of Communism began to spread through the region.

In an attempt to slow this tide, Reagan initiated

one of the most controversial covert operations of his presidency.

With the support of his administration,

counter-revolutionary groups known as the Contras,

began to emerge in Nicaragua.

- These Contras would wage a war of terror in Nicaragua

to try to undermine support for the revolution.

Now, the problem came in 1984, when the US Congress

cut off aid to the Contras

because the US had illegally mined Nicaraguan ports.

The Reagan administration needed to find a way

to keep getting funds to the Contras.

And President Reagan told his officials

that they had to keep the body and soul of the conscious together.

And this is the beginning of the Iran-Contra affair.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: To continue the mission, the United States

secretly and illegally sold arms to Iran,

the proceeds from which

were funnelled into the coffers of the Contras.

In addition, the Contras benefited from logistical support and funds

from drug trafficking organisations that helped transport the weapons.

When the Iran-Contra scandal, as it later became known,

came to light, it was a major blow to Reagan's credibility.

The Sandinista's image, on the other hand,

was publicly boosted to no end.

In 1985, Daniel Ortega assumed the undisputed leadership of Nicaragua.

But by the end of the decade, with a war in the region

that had been going on for more than ten years

and the country in the depths of severe economic crisis,

Violeta Chamorro, of the National Opposition Union,

was democratically elected

and the Sandinistas were forced out of power.

If the departure of Daniel Ortega represented a setback

for Cuban interests,

the following year something far more serious

would threaten the country.

Cuba's great patron and ally, the Soviet Union, was dying.

What would the future of the Cuban revolution look like

when no longer able to rely on its all-powerful Communist allies

for protection and support?

By the early 1990s the progress of the Cuban revolution

was beginning to stall.

The Berlin Wall had fallen

and the days of the Soviet Union were numbered.

Without its support, armed struggle in Cuba

was no longer a viable way to export the revolution.

An alternative was desperately needed.

In 1990, Fidel Castro

and Lula da Silva, the President of the Brazilian Workers' Party,

called the left-wing parties of Latin America

and the Caribbean together

to discuss their future in the region.

As a result, the Sao Paulo Forum was born,

an organisation created to infiltrate and confront

creeping neo-liberalism in the region.

- The mode of reaching power was re-configured.

In other words, penetrate democratic institutions, compete in elections

and once you're in power, well, then, just start to dismantle

the Constitution, the institutions, and basically stay forever.

NARRATOR: In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed

and, with it, the Cold War was declared at an end.

- For over 40 years, the United States led the West

in the struggle against communism and the threat it posed

to our most precious values.

That confrontation is now over. The Soviet Union itself is no more.

NARRATOR: As a consequence, Cuba fell into a crisis

known as the "Special Period".

This was a time of severe rationing, as the lack of Soviet support

and the US blockade left the island with terrible shortages.

Nearby, an important figure soon emerged in the region.

Hugo Chavez, a Venezuelan military man and committed Marxist

who had led a failed coup d'etat in 1992 that landed him in jail.

- The 1992 coup actually made Hugo Chavez

a national hero for many people in Venezuela.

NARRATOR: For some it was an attempted power grab.

For others he was revolting against rampant corruption

and economic despair.

Whatever his true motivations,

in 1994 Chavez was released by a presidential pardon

and immediately embarked on a political campaign.

- After Chavez gets out of jail,

gets the pardon by President Caldera...

And...the first country where he flies

as a free man...is Cuba.

- For Hugo Chavez,

Fidel Castro was a hero. He was an example.

He was someone who had shown that a tiny country can stand up

against the most powerful nation in the world, the United States.

NARRATOR: To great acclaim, Chavez won the 1998 elections

and, as President, implemented constitutional reforms

and programmes of social interest

which were hugely popular at the time.

His popularity started to wane, however,

at the beginning of his second term in 2001.

Chavez increased state interference in public life

and enacted a series of laws that increased his power as President.

The measures unleashed a wave of protests,

which were led by the Chamber of Commerce

and the Venezuelan Workers Confederation.

Both organisations, the employers and the unions,

demanded Chavez's resignation

and, after weeks of protests,

called for a national strike on the 10th of December, 2001.

The situation escalated

and on April the 11th, 2002,

it reached breaking point.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: A large popular demonstration against the government

marched towards the presidential palace

demanding Chavez's resignation.

A defiant Chavez went on TV, taking over all media airwaves

and blocking any information,

while on the streets, pro-Chavez forces and military

fired into the unarmed crowd,

staining the streets of the capital with blood.

- By the end of that day Hugo Chavez had resigned.

So, President Chavez resigned to his presidency...

to his Minister Of Defence, General-in-Chief Lucas Rincon.

NARRATOR: In the early hours of 12th April,

after several deaths on the streets of Caracas,

the military high command

announced Hugo Chavez's resignation as President.

He was then taken into military custody.

The same day, Pedro Carmona Estanga

proclaimed himself the new President of Venezuela.

In the same act, among other things, he dissolves the parliament,

the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Electoral Council.

- And suddenly, it was a coup d'etat.

- George W Bush in Washington immediately supported this coup,

immediately recognised the new government.

The head of the Business Federation in Venezuela

declared himself President, completely illegally.

And there's some evidence that the US may have played a role

in...organising the coup

or certainly supporting the coup.

Certainly, the CIA knew that it was going to happen.

NARRATOR: Pedro Carmona, the new President,

had visited Washington several times in the lead-up to the coup

and met with US government officials.

- The US had poured in funding to these opposition groups.

Some witnesses say there were US military officers

meeting with Carmona in the defence headquarters

the night before the coup, although they deny that,

but certainly the day after the coup,

the US ambassador in Venezuela

went to welcome Pedro Carmona as President.

NARRATOR: But Carmona was only to last a few hours in power.

- General Raul Isaias Baduel,

who was the most important of the generals:

he was not the Minister of Defence,

he was not the Commander-in-Chief of the Army,

but he was the general with more gun power under his command.

He hadn't pronounced himself

neither the 11th, neither the 12th,

but he did in the afternoon of the 13th

once he saw there was a coup d'etat,

not the real movement that was forced by the people in the streets.

- A military unit went to rescue Chavez

and he was reinstated as President.

But that was a key turning point for Chavez.

NARRATOR: Chavez became even more radical,

purging the public sector and the armed forces of his opponents

and strengthening his ties with Cuba.

- Fidel Castro became his godfather.

Chavez frequently called upon Fidel for strategic and tactical advice

and Cuba began to provide massive support.

Venezuela provided Cuba with economic support

from its oil revenues

and Fidel was providing Chavez with some very critical support,

intelligence support, military advice,

and also other Cuban specialists

to help Chavez consolidate a socialist and Marxist regime.

NARRATOR: But Chavez would not be

the only beneficiary of Cuba's political patronage,

in exchange for economic assistance.

In 2003, anti-American leftist leaders Nestor Kirchner in Argentina

and Lula da Silva in Brazil came to power.

In 2005, more left-wing presidents were elected:

Tabare Vazquez triumphed in Uruguay

and in 2006, Michelle Bachelet in Chile

and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Also in 2006, Evo Morales,

who described his movement as a nightmare for the United States,

became the first indigenous President of Bolivia.

Evo found a friend in Chavez

and, just as the Venezuelan dictator had done,

he made changes to the constitution

that would allow him to be re-elected during the 13 years.

- He received a lot of advice from the Cubans

on how to handle the opposition and how to watch the opposition.

NARRATOR: To show their gratitude for Cuban political support,

many of these new leftist governments helped Cuba extensively,

but none gave as much economic support as Hugo Chavez.

The commercial exchange between Cuba and Venezuela by 2006

exceeded 3.2 billion US dollars,

more than eight times its level in 1998 when Chavez had come to power.

The new leftist alliance established with the Sao Paulo Forum

was finally working, and it seemed that Cuba

was successfully exporting its revolution

in exchange for large amounts of financial and economic aid.

- The type of system that Chavez developed

was not the Castro revolutionary system,

where Castro actually took over in a matter of...

in a very short time period.

But this time, it was a very slow process,

where the democratic institutions were kept alive,

but little by little, they were deteriorating

under the force of the Chavez revolution.

That model was reproduced in countries such as Ecuador

and Bolivia, and, of course,

also Nicaragua.

- (fireworks popping)

NARRATOR: In 2007, Fidel Castro's close friend

and political ally, Daniel Ortega,

returned to power in Nicaragua after winning the elections

with great popular support. - (cheering)

NARRATOR: Like Chavez and Morales,

Ortega took advantage of his high approval ratings

to reform the constitution to attempt to suppress

any democratic opposition.

But how responsible was Cuba and its intelligence services

for this shift in the region's governments?

- There's no secret to Cuban activities

in countries like Bolivia,

in countries to a certain extent like Ecuador, under Correa.

There is both intelligence presence, G2,

and then there's obviously the whole intellectual current,

that has largely been very important.

And media presence,

the establishment of TeleSUR, for example.

So strategically, Cuba has managed to position a different worldview.

One that contrasts with a vision

that the US had tried for decades to promote in the region.

- (explosion booms)

NARRATOR: While most of the continent

began to shift politically towards the left,

the United States was preoccupied with foreign policy matters

in the Gulf and Middle East.

- Bush was very busy with the war on terror initially,

then with the war in Afghanistan,

and eventually, with the war in Iraq.

He didn't have much time to observe

what was going on in Latin America and to follow it.

NARRATOR: With most of the region under leftist governments,

Fidel was finally ready to renounce power.

In 2008, he handed control of the island

to his brother, Raul Castro.

- (all chant)

- He was less interested...

in pursuing revolution abroad.

He was less interested in Cuba supporting subversion

in other countries.

Raul Castro was really determined

to try to restore some kind of stability to the Cuban economy.

NARRATOR: Critical to Raul Castro's plan

was the continued support of the Venezuelan government.

Economic and military agreements were signed,

while Cuban intelligence services advised the Venezuelan armed forces.

With the extent of their influence in Venezuela,

the Castro brothers had finally gained revenge

against Romulo Betancourt,

who had rejected their overtures so many years before.

On March the 5th, 2013,

Hugo Chavez died from cancer,

leaving his political protege and fellow Marxist, Nicolas Maduro,

as his successor.

- Nicolas Maduro is a man without charisma, without vision.

And in addition, Maduro spent part of his youth in Cuba,

and he was indoctrinated in the Cuban school.

As a result, he resorted to Cubans and Cuban advisors

in order to make sure that the regime survived.

That means he used the Cubans much more

than Chavez ever used the Cubans.

NARRATOR: By the mid-2010s,

Cuban influence in Venezuela was at an all-time high.

But even as it reached its peak,

the winds of political change began to once again

sweep through Latin America,

and this time, they were not so favourable to leftist interests.

- (dramatic music)

NARRATOR: In January 2017,

Republican billionaire Donald Trump

became President of the United States.

His administration increased sanctions against Cuba

and those who aligned themselves with Communist regimes

and appealed directly to the oppressed peoples

in those countries.

- We will always stand with the people of Cuba,

Nicaragua, Venezuela

and their righteous struggle for freedom.

- (shouting, explosions)

- (alarm wails)

- (gunshots)

NARRATOR: In Venezuela, under Nicolas Maduro,

the persecution of opposition groups increased,

allegations of torture were widespread

and the number of political prisoners grew by the day.

While in Argentina, Brazil and Chile,

the left were defeated at the polls,

governments of Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia,

Nicaragua, Venezuela and El Salvador

continued to be aligned with Cuba.

To the surprise of many, another hemispheric giant

was about to join the list.

In 2018,

socialist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

won the elections in Mexico

and became the country's first leftist President.

Vocally critical of the United States' policies,

Obrador aligned himself with Cuba,

calling for the lifting of the US blockade of the island.

Venezuela and Nicaragua meanwhile

continued to maintain the strongest relationship with Cuba's government.

In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega's government

imprisoned significant opposition leaders,

such as Cristiana Chamorro,

who was emerging as a strong candidate to face Ortega

in the 2021 elections.

The Nicaraguan government has even enacted laws

to criminalise the activities of the opposition.

- (shouting)

NARRATOR: Ortega's government has also been accused

of major corruption and embezzlement scandals.

At the same time, many have accused Cuba of continuing to interfere

both in internal affairs, and those of neighbouring countries.

- Communist Cuba operates...

has wholesale intelligence operations

in friendly regime countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua.

- (sirens wail)

NARRATOR: These countries have all been accused

of corruption and nepotism.

Fraudulent trials,

torture, persecution, political prisoners,

attacks on the press

and the repression of political dissent are widespread.

During more than 60 years in power,

the Cuban regime has been accused of these same crimes

on several occasions,

but when in 2018 Raul Castro

left power in the hands of Miguel Diaz-Canel,

some thought that change on the island would finally be possible.

- (speaks Spanish)

- (shouting)

NARRATOR: But the hope was short lived.

The repression, persecution

and imprisonment of opponents Diaz-Canel authorised

in the face of the 2021 elections,

made it clear how he was going to rule.

- The government reacted initially

by calling the demonstrators... traitors

and people who were taking money from the United States.

Well, there were a few, there's no question.

The United States spends $20 million a year

on so-called "democracy programs"

that attempt to create the kind of Arab Spring

that led to the overthrow of governments in the Middle East.

The United States actively is trying to do that in the case of Cuba,

but that's not what caused the demonstrations.

What caused the demonstrations was Cuba going through

a horrendous perfect storm of calamities,

and they have to change in order to prevent those from happening again.

NARRATOR: Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua

continue to be burdened by international sanctions

aimed at destabilising their leftist governments.

Along with Bolivia, co-operation between the countries

is their only option if they are to maintain any kind of stability.

The United States has maintained the blockade against Cuba for decades

in an attempt to undermine its government

but the resilience of Castro's Communist regime is evident,

as it continues to rule the island with an iron fist

even after Fidel's death in 2016.

- The US has had a Cuba policy, right?

Which is fairly clear-cut.

A policy of 62 years of sanctions, essentially,

and of containment and national security.

NARRATOR: But those sanctions have been unsuccessful

in bringing democracy to the island.

Do the Americans intend to repeat this strategy

with Venezuela and Nicaragua?

Or, as was seen during the Cold War,

will they take more radical measures?

- The US has been actively encouraging

the Venezuelan opposition

and even meeting with them.

Whether it's the Trump or the Biden administration,

they've been frustrated by the lack,

the inability of the opposition to come together as a single force.

In other countries, it has been, you know, less overt.

The US has played a large role in Venezuela,

little to no role in helping the Bolivian opposition

and in a very ineffective, probably zero role in Nicaragua.

NARRATOR: Although with the election of President Joe Biden in 2020,

it seemed the United States would have closer ties with Cuba,

he has yet to show any signs of a more lenient,

progressive policy towards Cuba.

Meanwhile, the Cuban influence in countries

like Venezuela and Nicaragua remains strong.

The continued work of advisors and intelligence operatives

in these two countries proves that here at least,

the Cuban regime has managed to successfully export its revolution.

- Today, Cuba's role in sustaining

and promoting Marxist Leninist subversion

is as true as when it began in 1959.

NARRATOR: For those who live in the countries

that have suffered the uncompromising consequences

of Cuban interference... - (gunshots)

- ..life is a daily struggle.

Foreign support for opposition groups

and international sanctions

have so far done little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens

who can now only look forward to an uncertain future

from a desperately precarious present.

- (sombre music)

Subtitles by Sky Access Services