Buena Vista Solidarity and the Axis of Aid: Cuban and Venezuelan Public Diplomacy

Abstract

Eager to capitalize on the sensationalist appeal of a new anti-U.S. "axis," the international press often perpetuates a perception that Cuba and Venezuela are, in spirit and in deed, inseparable. Such depictions diminish the significant differences in the ways and the success with which each country promotes its image abroad. Although Cuba and Venezuela employ many of the same public diplomacy tactics to advance their related anti-U.S. worldviews, the Cuban regime has proven much more successful at playing the role of the victim and using this position as a way to increase its international legitimacy. Likewise, Cuba is far more sophisticated at employing cultural products to support diverse political, diplomatic, and economic ends-many of which arguably serve a market-oriented purpose rather than a strictly anti-imperialist or antiglobalization agenda.

Cuban Medical Internationalism through a Feminist Perspective

“…Many scholars have previously contributed lengthy and detailed works on Cuban medical internationalism (Feinsilver 2008;Kirk and Erisman 2009;Brouwer 2011). These scholars focused on the Marxist ideological foundations to Cuban medical internationalism stemming from Che Guevarra, as well as the resulting legitimacy and soft power it brings to Cuban foreign policy (Feinsilver 1989;Bustamante and Sweig 2008). The first Cuban international medical mission occurred in 1960, when an earthquake devastated Chile (Feinsilver 2010: 87), and this has since evolved into a long-standing tradition of assistance ranging from disaster relief to longer-term missions around the world.…”

Development Assistance and Communication: The Case of the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund

“…Yet it is not aid in and of itself that acts as a public diplomacy asset but, rather, the particular way in which it is deployed, marketed and received as part of a greater humanitarian social project." 9 Thus, Cuba uses foreign aid, and medical assistance in particular, as part of its political communications outreach to engage beyond those people receiving treatment and create greater leverage with a host of domestic and international audiences. Taiwan, like Cuba, Japan, and other countries with prominent development assistance and foreign aid agencies, selectively uses its provision as a political tool.…”

Anti‐American Resistance in Latin America: An Issue of Sovereignty, Militarization, and Neoliberalism

“…But this must be seen in a broader scope. The solidification of a leftist block in Latin America – Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and, of course, Cuba – has not only brought a shift in the political discourse towards socialist and social‐democratic governance, but also a challenge to the neoliberal project of the Washington Consensus from the 1990s (Bustamante and Sweig 2008, 229). It is in this intersection that most recent resistance movements emerged; peoples of Latin America resisting the expansion of free‐market oriented politics in a shrinking world.…”

“…A caveat is in order, however; although the anti‐neoliberalism movement is not necessarily represented by anti‐US sentiment, the latter indeed has played a significant role – at least rhetorically – in the context of anti‐imperialist stances and the allocation of blaming the Washington Consensus in the expansion of these policies (Green and Griffith 2002). The context of anti‐US rhetoric has come mostly from President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Fidel Castro in Cuba, who have lead a strategic (and measured) offensive against both neoliberalism and the United States influence in the region (Bustamante and Sweig 2008; Ellner 2008; Valencia Ramirez 2008). Chavez’s opposition towards the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) along with his proposal of an alternative set of initiatives for development in the region – Agenda Bolivariana Alternativa (Alternative Bolivarian Agenda) has gained supporters in the region who disagree with the consensus in Washington (Ellner 2006; Parker 2005).…”