Even though this is only a version of the interview—the original transcript has been lost—it has been included in this anthology because it clearly presents Che Guevava’s analysis of the economic situation in Latin America and questions the role of the International Monetary Fund.
In a report recorded in Havana and broadcast here tonight by Radio Rivadavia, Ernesto Che Guevara, commander of the Cuban Revolutionary Army, stated that, “few government leaders have been able to go to the United States and return with a clear conscience, as our Prime Minister Fidel Castro has done.”1
Commander Guevara made this statement about Fidel Castro in reference to the difference in conduct “one observes in movements before and after coming to power. Once one is in power,” Guevara added, “the great difficulty is in upholding standards of behavior, in the face of the inevitable attacks by foreign monopoly capitalism and economic pressures.
“If these standards could be maintained in Latin America, enough political cohesion would be achieved to effectively defend its position in the international field, like the stance that has been adopted by the Afro-Asian countries in adhering to the so-called Bandung Pact. Despite huge differences in their social systems, they have gone from practically socialist systems to international sultanates, sustaining a cohesion that is enviable for our countries of the Americas.”
Referring to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Commander Guevara stated, “If it is [to be considered to be] an element of liberation for Latin America, I believe that it should have demonstrated that. Until now, I have not been aware of any such demonstration. The IMF performs an entirely different function: precisely that of ensuring that capital based outside of Latin America controls all of Latin America.”
Guevara said that the IMF “knows that in a case of aggression against us, we shall respond in the measure in which they know we do things. The interests of the IMF represent the big international interests that today seem to be established and concentrated in Wall Street.
“The complex problem of the deficit in the balance of trade,” he said, “can be resolved by diversifying production and diversifying foreign trade relations. My trip to the countries of Africa and Asia is in accordance with the decision of the Cuban government to seek new markets all over the world. We aim to trade with countries everywhere—there are no ideological barriers in trade.”
Guevara also said, “The only thing that can concern Cuba in foreign countries is what products they have to exchange for Cuban products and under what conditions they wish to do so.”
He announced that during his foreign tour, and afterwards, he had signed or was about to sign trade agreements with a number of countries and that there were possibilities for Cuba to trade with Yugoslavia, India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Denmark and Pakistan.
He indicated that the countries he visited are in political-social circumstances similar to those of Cuba and that “they are fighting for their freedom, because their markets and foreign trade are controlled by colonial interests.
“They need,” he added, “fundamental agrarian reform, and then they need to struggle to industrialize. Cuba is aligned with them in taking the same road toward a total recovery of the country.”
He reiterated that Cuba is considering developing trade relations with the countries of Europe, both East and West, “since we believe that trade is one thing and ideological problems are quite another.”
He noted that Cuba is interested in focusing on trade with other countries of the Americas, and that preference would be given to any negotiations undertaken with a Latin American country over those with countries of other continents. After saying that economic definition leads directly to political definition, Commander Guevara stated that, “the Cuban sectors opposing the present revolutionary government are capitalist parasites directly affected by the government’s work, among them the big landowners.”
He mentioned a large US-controlled estate of 150,000 hectares—Atlántico del Golfo—noting that such interests are related to a certain type of US landowning capital that “in some cases have financed the coup attempts we have seen of late. We are in no doubt,” he added, “that there will be more of them in future.”
Referring to popular support for the revolutionary government of Cuba, Guevara said it “comes from all sectors with something to gain in economic and moral terms: the peasants and workers, basically, and middle-class sectors, including all kinds of professionals and honest traders.”
“People,” he added, “are nothing but the representation of an ideology, a way of thinking, and this way of thinking must be sustained by a broad mass base. There are movements in Latin America that are able to create a nexus of solidarity and support for any position that means rejecting the economic and political subjugation of Latin America.
“General Cárdenas in Mexico, Larrazábal in Venezuela, Palacios in Argentina, De Aranha in Brazil, and others,” he added, “meet these conditions to a greater or lesser degree.”
Commander Guevara indicated that “the structure of any Latin American movement that might have the same basic features, which would be so easy to attain among peoples with a similar economic structure and a similar political orientation with regard to what the masses desire, would be a very salutary measure in the development of Latin America’s future struggle for her complete liberation.”
He said, “The magnificent speech given by General Cárdenas in Havana on July 26 this year has contributed to consolidating relations between Cuba and the state of Mexico.”
Finally, the commander said, “The fact that there is not a single stalk of wheat in all of Cuba is one basis for discussions that could lead to a trade agreement being reached between Argentina and Cuba.”
He clarified that he has not renounced his Argentine citizenship despite the fact that the Cuban government has bestowed upon him Cuban citizenship “from birth” and added that it is difficult for him to travel to the land where he was born, “because the intensity of the work carried out by members of the revolutionary government makes it practically impossible to leave the country unless it is for some particular goal, like, for example, our trip to the East.”
1. Fidel Castro toured the United States in April 1959.