The Secret History of How Cuba Helped End Apartheid in South Africa

Get past the insulting words of Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen from Florida at the beginning of the video and you will find an excellent video here about how Cuba helped end Apartheid and how yes how the Republicans like Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen helped sustain Apartheid and who today has the gall to talk to preach democracy to others.

Some of us remember how the US taught democracy to the Seminole of Florida - their guerrilla warfare inspired others to fight US Imperialism Today - some of them not far from Florida. The Seminole knew that resistance was a necessity for exisitence - so does Cuba.


As the world focuses on Tuesday's historic handshake between President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, we look back at the pivotal role Cuba played in ending apartheid and why Castro was one of only five world leaders invited to speak at Nelson Mandela's memorial.

 In the words of Mandela, the Cuban "destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor ... [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa." Historian Piero Gleijeses argues that it was Cuba's victory in Angola in 1988 that forced Pretoria to set Namibia free and helped break the back of apartheid South Africa. 

We speak to Gleijeses about his new book, "Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991," and play archival footage of Mandela meeting Fidel Castro in Cuba.