All language subtitles for Secret.Wars.Uncovered.S02E08.1080p.WEB.h264-BAWD_Subtitles01_Unnamed

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