00:00Good evening, my fellow citizens.
00:11This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba.
00:21Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.
00:35The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.
00:44With this opening speech, former President John F. Kennedy initiated the blockade of Cuba after the arrival of Soviet missiles was confirmed, with the permission of revolutionary Fidel Castro.
00:59From that moment on, Castro drew a very clear line between capitalism and communism, turning his country into a Cold War battleground, much like the Berlin Wall, Korea, and Vietnam.
01:13The Cuban Revolution at that time achieved unprecedented international attention, because the start of the Soviet missile crisis opened the door to a possible nuclear war.
01:27It wasn't just an ideological confrontation, it was the possibility of a Soviet attack on the United States from a strategic location like Cuba.
01:37Fidel Castro allied himself with the Soviet Union, and with that, misfortune began for Cuba, and decades later, for other Latin American republics.
01:54Kennedy and his cabinet knew it at that moment.
01:58If Fidel Castro strengthened political and economic ties with the Soviet Union, the danger of nuclear war was imminent.
02:05The Cuban revolutionaries showed their true colors to the world.
02:09They were a real danger, not only to the Western Hemisphere, but to the entire world.
02:15A nuclear war would mean the end of the world, a confrontation between two powerful countries with access to a devastating arsenal capable of destroying the planet in minutes.
02:27Although Fidel Castro claimed that his revolution was not communist, while he was hiding in the Sierra Maestra mountains,
02:35between October 16 and 28, 1962, it became clear to the world that this was not true.
02:42Cuba was communist, and its leaders adopted not only the ideology, but also the geopolitical strategy,
02:49making the island a key player in Soviet international politics.
02:53Despite his advisors suggesting an airstrike, former President Kennedy opted for a naval blockade to prevent more missiles from reaching Cuba,
03:02a move that proved to be very astute in avoiding a full-scale declaration of war that would have unleashed nuclear hell that year.
03:12But behind the missile crisis, as that 13-day period came to be known, lay the true face of the communist left, whose danger to the region was imminent.
03:21Leaders like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro became international figures,
03:27and their revolution became a political model that was gradually replicated across the continent,
03:32inspiring many guerrilla movements that adopted the ideology and even the style of dress of the Cubans in the Sierra Maestra.
03:40That iconic image of Guevara was replicated by young Latin American revolutionaries,
03:45and currently appears on the walls of many public universities in the region,
03:50particularly in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and at one time in Peru, Chile, and Uruguay.
03:59The 13 days when the world teetered on the brink of collapse thanks to the Cuban revolutionaries
04:04sowed the seeds of an evil that still haunts us today,
04:08fueling hatred, misery, and ignorance in several Latin American countries,
04:14including Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, and the remnants of present-day Cuba.
04:22Let's discuss how that historical moment marked the origin of a Latin American left
04:27whose dangerous legacy is resurfacing in the current geopolitical landscape.
04:32The Cuban revolution became an icon of the Latin American left,
04:39and its historical significance has remained unchanged since the 1960s.
04:45Leftist movements in Latin America ultimately mirrored what happened in Cuba between 1957 and 1968.
04:54Castro's speeches, the image of Che Guevara, and Cuban revolutionary symbols
05:00became the touchstones of these movements.
05:03As Cuba strengthened its political role on the international stage thanks to the support of the Soviet Union,
05:10the revolutionary movements that emerged in Latin America adopted these symbols
05:14and launched their own struggles in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia,
05:23and, to a lesser extent, in Guatemala, Honduras, and Argentina.
05:28Che Guevara himself began organizing guerrilla groups throughout the region
05:33and even traveled to Africa to inspire revolutions there.
05:38Latin American guerrilla groups immediately identified with the Cubans
05:42because of cultural and linguistic ties,
05:45since the countries of the region shared a common colonial past
05:49and their social, political, and economic structures were not different from each other,
05:54so the Cuban revolutionary discourse arrived faster.
06:13Parallel to the Cuban Missile Crisis,
06:16In a South American country, a sinister figure was rising
06:20who would eventually alter the course of leftist movements.
06:25That figure was Pablo Escobar,
06:28a dangerous criminal from the city of Medellin,
06:31who in 1976 would organize the infamous Medellin Cartel,
06:37a highly efficient mafia organization
06:40that brought the Colombian state to its knees
06:43and financed numerous terrorist operations,
06:47supporting both guerrillas and far-right groups in Colombia.
06:51On the international stage,
06:53he maintained relationships with the Cuban government
06:56and revolutionary groups in Nicaragua and El Salvador
07:00to control cocaine trafficking routes to the United States.
07:04The city of Miami became a strategic point of entry for tons of cocaine
07:10and gradually transformed into a battleground for mobsters
07:15eager to control the millions of dollars generated by the business.
07:20The presence of the Medellin cartel,
07:23and particularly the figure of Pablo Escobar,
07:26was a disgrace for Colombia and the entire region.
07:31Drug money permeated all of Colombian society,
07:34and successive governments between 1977 and 2025
07:39have been complicit in the violence unleashed by this trade.
07:44Both guerrilla groups and far-right groups
07:47have profited from illegal drug money.
07:50Guerrilla groups such as the FARC, the ELN, the M19, the EPL,
07:57and others began to control vast territories
08:00with the sole purpose of producing cocaine, heroin, and marijuana
08:05for export to the United States and Europe.
08:09Initially, they allied themselves with criminal organizations like Pablo Escobar's,
08:14but over time, they decided to become the criminal structures themselves,
08:19controlling production, trafficking routes, and the flow of money.
08:23The revolutionary rhetoric became a political platform and an international image,
08:29but it is nothing more than that.
08:32The reality is very different.
08:34With illicit funds, they finance the purchase of weapons,
08:38the recruitment of children, bribery of the state,
08:41and the destruction of rainforests to cultivate more coca, poppies, and marijuana.
08:47Despite the immense profits from drug trafficking, poverty is even greater,
08:53insecurity is rampant, and the social gap is widening.
08:57While those who benefit from the wealth generated by cocaine and other illegal drugs
09:03can afford mansions and luxury apartments in major cities
09:07and drive high-end cars, millions of people earn minimum wage,
09:12suffer unemployment, and go hungry.
09:14It is precisely in this context that the discourse of the left
09:19has been fueled decade after decade in Latin American countries,
09:24and in Colombia, the experiment was used between 1960 and 2019,
09:30resulting in a former guerrilla fighter winning the presidential elections.
09:36It is an ironic discourse that motivates the people,
09:39speaking of struggle, equality, peace, and wealth redistribution.
09:45But the truth is that a figure like Fidel Castro lived in a mansion,
09:50had secret accounts in Switzerland and other tax havens.
09:54Colombian guerrilla leaders similarly amassed great fortunes,
09:58and today we see the squandering of resources
10:01to which Venezuela and Nicaragua were subjected
10:04at the hands of Hugo Chavez, Nicolás Maduro, and the Ortega-Murillo couple.
10:10They flaunt expensive Rolex watches, wear imported suits,
10:16and their children don't even live in those countries
10:19because they are enjoying enormous wealth in Europe and the United States.
10:24All of this is ironic, while the people remain in poverty,
10:30endure basic needs, and lose hope.
10:35The reality is that Cuba between 1959 and 2025 is poorer than ever.
10:42Thousands of Cubans have fled the island.
10:45Their escape stories are epic and reflect the failure
10:48of a communist promise that never materialized.
10:51Equality doesn't exist on the island.
10:54Only poverty for all.
10:56And if you don't support the regime, people starve or disappear.
11:00The revolution lasted as long as it was useful to the Soviet Union.
11:05After 1991, Cuba was trapped in time with a discourse stuck in the 1960s.
11:12However, in 1999, a new leader emerged who embraced that discourse,
11:17resurrecting the past from the ashes,
11:19and leftist movements began to gain strength once again.
11:23That leader was Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator
11:27who, 25 years ago, revived the specter of Cuba in South America.
11:32Thanks to drug trafficking and oil,
11:34the leftist doctrine was once again financed.
11:38Books about the Russian Revolution were reprinted.
11:41Mao Zedong's Little Red Book,
11:42the writings of Che Guevara and other left-wing ideologues,
11:46dominated the shelves in Venezuela,
11:47and gradually in other Latin American countries.
12:02The geopolitical map of Latin America began to change around the year 2000,
12:08with Hugo Chavez's rise to power.
12:10Subsequently, Lula da Silva won the elections in Brazil,
12:14Rafael Correa in Ecuador,
12:16Daniel Ortega consolidated his power in Nicaragua,
12:20Fidel Castro continued to govern Cuba,
12:22and leftist parties gained popularity in the southern cone.
12:25This electoral phenomenon would change the region's political dynamics.
12:30Even in Colombia, a country heavily affected by guerrilla violence,
12:34a former guerrilla fighter named Gustavo Petro won the elections.
12:38Petro had been a member of one of these groups, the M-19,
12:42which carried out terrorist acts throughout the 1980s.
12:45By the first half of 2025, the map looked like this.
12:49Countries with leftist governments appeared in red,
12:52and those with right-wing governments appeared in blue.
12:55In the case of those countries in red,
12:57Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil stand out,
13:02whose economies and geopolitical position are important.
13:05It is noteworthy that violence has increased,
13:07and there is a growing presence of illegal groups
13:10that are fighting over territories for the production of cocaine,
13:13heroin, and other narcotics,
13:15as well as routes for trafficking weapons, people, and drugs.
13:18In the case of those countries,
13:48even in the case of the world,
13:50even in the case of the project,
13:51people have a follow-up done in the case of the mill,
13:52which is now for putting housing,
13:53in the case of the mill,
13:53or the driver of the mill,
13:55even if it's noteworthy or the mill.
13:56In the case of the mill,
13:57this is noteworthy,
13:58or the mill,
13:59it is very valuable to the mill.
14:01If you find a beautiful mill,
14:01you can only cause a wonderful information,
14:04which is really valuable to them.
14:05We will be able to do that with women during the past,
14:07and pour people that are part of their families.
14:11The end of the mill,
14:12you are not having to take a big deal!
14:14The end of the mill,
14:16you are not having to take these questions,
14:16but it's not having them,
14:17Left-wing governments in Latin America have failed.
14:24This is an evident fact that calls for a rethinking of the future of Latin American peoples.
14:47In 2025, several Latin American countries had the opportunity to experience left-wing governments, and the results are evident.
15:10All of those governments have failed.
15:13The idealization of the Cuban Revolution and the nostalgic discourse of the 1960s must be overcome and not used to incite hatred and terrorism.
15:23The Cuban project failed, as did all its replicas throughout the region.
15:28The Latin American people must reflect deeply on the experiences in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Mexico.
15:40Because why remain anchored to a model that could not solve the social and economic problems of the countries that implemented it?
15:47While this reflection is underway, it is important to understand that in Colombia, a right-wing government managed to achieve a peace agreement,
15:56during which political violence and military deaths in combat decreased significantly.
16:01Similarly, foreign investment, productivity, employment, and transparency in public institutions increased.
16:09Between 2010 and 2018, the country experienced economic growth and some major problems were resolved.
16:18However, from 2018 to the present, Colombia has once again succumbed to darkness due to two disastrous administrations that have plunged the country into a serious crisis in every aspect.
16:30First, a failed attempt at a far-right government, and then a left-wing government that also failed to pull the country through.
16:39On the other hand, the incredible model of governance implemented by President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador emerges as a ray of hope, transforming this small country into a benchmark of good governance for Latin America.
16:53It is precisely there that the people of Latin America must understand that the left is a danger that has plagued these lands since 1960,
17:02and they cannot continue to repeat the mistake of the Cubans who handed power to a violent group that believes it is right and lives in a contradiction between ideology and reality.
17:13See you in the next episode of The Rudolf Kessler Show.
17:17See you in the next episode of The Rudolf Kessler Show.
Comments