Cuban Internationalism and Contemporary Humanitarianism: History, Comparison and Perspectives

The Cold War period was marked by a constant competition between two superpowers, Soviet Union and United States, to elevate their global influence. This rivalry manifested at different levels: ideological, military, development, etc. The turn of the 1990s marked significant changes at the international level introduced by the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the establishment of a new world order under the aegis of the United States. Russia and the majority of Eastern European countries adopted capitalist economy and multiparty system, but some other, as Cuba, remained socialist. However, the Caribbean island experienced difficult times as the disintegration of the Eastern market and the tightening of the American embargo have led Cuba to lose two-thirds of its gross national product (GNP). To overcome the crises, the Cuban government introduced a phase of reorganization known as the 'Special Period in time of peace' (El periodo especial en tiempo de paz) that has necessitated important sacrifices from the population. Nevertheless, the social pillars established after the 1959 Revolution, the health cares and the education system were preserved. Also, in the end of the decade, Cuba initiates a new era of its internationalist policy that aims to share those social achievements with other countries. Indeed, the Henry Reeve Brigade was created to provide medical cooperation in post-disaster context. Few social scientists have studied this internationalist practice, but the general tendencies that emerged in the humanitarianism field since the end of the Cold War are well documented. The objective of this article is to analyse the Cuban humanitarian practices, values and framework in comparison with the tendency that appears in the 1990s. Since, for obvious reasons, it was not possible to directly integrate an emergency brigade in a disaster situation, the characterisation of the Cuban action is based on testimonies of internationalist volunteers and a review of scientific literature. In order to characterise the Cuban practice, I carried out 20 interviews in Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Canada) and Escuintla (Guatemala) between July 2011 and August 2013 with Cuban doctors that took part in missions dating back to 1998. The physicians I interviewed have served in the Henry Reeve Brigade but some of them also participated in other medical missions. The selection of participants was opportunistic which means that I constituted my network with the people I met and that accepted to share their experiences. This research strategy, like any other, has advantages and disadvantages, but it has allowed me to outline the general tendency of Cuban humanitarianism to be deepening with further research.The Historical Construction of Cuban internationalismDuring my interviews with Cuban doctors, most of them explained the actual internationalist policy of their country by the fact that Cuba 'was born' because of the internationalist engagement of soldiers from different countries. In fact, to win their independence from Spain (1492-1899), Cuban people have fought over 30 years and received support from many foreigners including Dominicans (Modesto Diaz, Luis Marcano, Maximo Gomez), Americans (Henry Reeve), Canadians (William Ryan) and Poles (Carlos Roloff). The termination of the Spanish colonisation of the island was followed by an episode of United States military occupation (1899-1902) known as the beginning of the 'neocolonisation' of Cuba. Until the 1959 Revolution, the United States maintained a political influence and economic interests in Havana with the complaisance of the Cuban presidents. Indeed, most of the resources and the economic sector - plantation, banks, railways - were controlled by North American firms and the Platt Amendment permitted the United States intervention in the domestic affairs.As Fagen (1969) states, the available socioeconomic statistics on the Cuban situation in the first half of the twentieth century place the island in an advantageous position in comparison with other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. …