Recent US actions show that colonisers continue to exert their might over others through their control of global economic and political institutions and their wielding of military power.
In a military action code-named “Operation Absolute Resolve”, US forces took Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores from their compound in Caracas in January 2026.
The couple are now facing trial in a New York City court on charges of narco terrorism.
On Feb 28, the US and Israel started a war in Iran ostensibly to destroy the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
President Donald Trump has also indicated that he is interested in taking Cuba after he is done with Iran.
Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia (1945-1965), had the following to say at the Asian-African Conference in Bandung in April 1955. “We are often told ‘Colonialism is dead’. Let us not be deceived or even soothed by that. I say to you, colonialism is not yet dead. How can we say it is dead, so long as vast areas of Asia and Africa are unfree.”
Sukarno was to later refer to this state of the world as one of neo-colonialism. He would not have been surprised at Trump’s recent moves against Cuba, Iran and Venezuela for they would have merely confirmed that we live in a neo-colonial world.
If in the colonial period, the colonisers ruled over Asians, Africans and Latin Americans directly, under neo-colonialism they rule over us indirectly through their control of global economic and political institutions as well as their wielding of military power.
The Europeans and Americans first exerted imperialist domination during the colonial period. Imperialism, however, continued well after formal independence in the form of neo-colonialism.
In this respect, Cuba is of great importance, not merely as a victim of imperialism, but as a hostile opponent and renowned and inspiring symbol of resistance to imperialism.
Cuba has been staunchly anti-imperialist since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, a military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959).
US imperial domination in Cuba goes back to the late 19th century. Centuries before that, the Italian colonialist, Columbus, obtained sponsorship from the Spaniards to fund his first voyage to the Americas in 1492.
This brought him to the northeast coast of Cuba. Columbus, being somewhat ignorant of geography, thought that he had arrived in Asia.
He made a second voyage in 1494 and landed at a place that later came to be called Guantánamo Bay. It was Guantánamo Bay that the US seized in 1898, establishing a naval base there during the Spanish-American War.
Guantánamo Bay continues to be held by the US, seen by Cubans and anti-imperialists as an illegal occupation. It is also the site of the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a US military prison. Established in 2002 under the presidency of George W Bush, the camp holds hundreds of terrorism suspects and illegal enemy combatants and has come under fire for the abuse and torture of its detainees.
Apart from its control of this part of Cuba, there are other aspects of US imperialism with regard to the rest of the country.
These include the US occupation of Cuba from 1898 to 1902 and 1906 to 1909. The context of the first occupation was the Spanish–American War (April 21 – Aug 13, 1898).
Among the results of this was the US acquisition of the Philippines and the occupation of Cuba. During this period, the US coerced Cuba into leasing to it Guantánamo Bay, giving themselves a permanent military presence there.
Prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, it was US economic interests that defined Cuba’s economy. The revolution, led by the lawyer and revolutionary, charismatic leader, Fidel Castro (1926-2016) with the Argentine Marxist military theorist, Che Guevara (1928-1967), by his side, had as its objective the ousting of the dictatorial US-backed regime of Fulgencio Batista, and the corruption and economic oppression that US domination enabled.
After the Cuban Revolution, the US continued its intervention in its efforts to regain control over Cuba. This it has done through a comprehensive system of sanctions and coercive measures of more than 60 years against the country, which restricts trade, financial transactions, and travel.
Under Trump, a “maximum pressure” campaign is being implemented that blocks energy supplies to Cuba. This has resulted in, among other things, adverse effects on energy, healthcare and food supplies.
The blockade is designed to cripple Cuba’s economy. This neocolonial blockade amounts to collective punishment against the Cuban people and has been denounced by Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as an attempt at genocide.
The Cuban revolution of 1959 is a lasting symbol of resistance against US imperialism among the peoples of the Global South.
Iran and Cuba have close relations, due to them both having revolted against US imperialism, with the Iranian revolution having taken place exactly 20 years after that of the Cuban.
Cuba supports Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme. The former President of Cuba, the late Fidel Castro, praised Iran for “increasing its ability to fight big powers by the day”.
In June 2025, when the US bombed several nuclear sites in Iran, President Díaz-Canel supported Iran by strongly condemning the attack and noting it as a violation of the UN Charter.
More importantly, he stated that the US was “plung(ing) humanity into a crisis with irreversible consequences.”
There is much from Cuba that can inspire us here in the Malay World. Before Castro, there was José Marti (1853-1895), the Cuban philosopher, writer, and political theorist.
He is also Cuba’s national hero due to the role he played in the liberation of Cuba from Spanish rule (1895-1898).
Marti was the founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Cubano). In our own region, we have José Rizal (1861-1896), the Filipino writer, polymath and anti-colonial agitator whose novels and other numerous writings inspired the Philippines Revolution against the Spaniards (1896-1898). Rizal considered Filipinos to be part of the broader Malay peoples of the region.
The thoughts and practice of revolutionaries and thinkers like the two Josés, Rizal and Marti, and Castro remain relevant. In today’s context of bloody and destabilising imperialism, we must be inspired by such ideas. This means, among other things, having knowledge of and express solidarity with the longstanding Cuban struggle for genuine independence. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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