Mthobeli Jiwulane

Many in South Africa, which is known for its close historic ties with Cuba especially during the late Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro’s times, were mystified by Brazil’s decision to abstain instead of an outright condemnation of the United States at the United Nations for its decades old economic blockage of Cuba.

All the developing nations and the majority of the BRICS bloc member states except Brazil condemned the US during the recent United Nations General Assembly gathering. Successive US administrations, save for when Barack Obama abstained from the vote to ask US to lift the sanctions in October 2016, insisted on economic embargo against Cuba, which crippled the country’s economy. The Marxist island was punished by Washington for declaring to be ally of the former Soviet Union, two years after the Cuban revolution led by Castro and his comrade-in-arms, Che Guevara. Castro, who came to power in January 1959 via a military revolution, said since his country was Marxist and socialist, it would align itself with the Soviet Union.

This prompted an angry reaction from then President Dwight Eisenhower and subsequently his successor President JF Kennedy imposed the almost permanent embargo against Havana after US Congress passed a law authorising it on 4 September 1961.

Following a majority vote on the US anti-Cuban embargo at the United Nations General Assembly on 3 November 2022 South Africa’s governing ANC party branch in Gauteng, the richest region in Africa welcomed the move by UNGA member states.  Of the 193 members at the UNGA, 185 countries supported the condemnation but United States and Israel opposed it, and Brazil and Ukraine abstained.

“This marked the 30th year that member states of UNGA had made this vote. While UNGA resolutions are not legally binding and are unenforceable, they reflect world opinion and contribute in sharpening the contradictions of an evolving global political landscape in which the USA is being held accountable by both the developed and developing world,” ANC said in a statement.

But Brazil defended its position saying traditionally the country was against the violation of sovereignty. “That is why it voted against Russia. It’s also against unilateral sanctions, but the invasion of another country is too grave a violation of international law for Brazil to abstain,” a statement issued by Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

“As for Cuba, we also have a traditional stance against the embargo, but we have to remember our present government is a right-wing one that believes seconding the USA is the right way to go about a number of international questions  – not that other right-wing governments in the past have done the same, but the present one thinks it is the “true” right, alt-right. An abstention is still against our tradition, but in 2019, when the government had just been elected, Brazil voted against the resolution that condemned the embargo. So an abstention, from the traditional viewpoint, is already a first step towards normalcy,” the Ministry said.

South Africa abstained from the UN vote to condemn Russia over its 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine  and on the UNGA resolution condemning Russia’s referendums in four Ukrainian provinces it annexed.

In South Africa and some African countries, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is understood to have been a last resort by President Vladimir Putin, and that although the invasion was undeserved, Ukraine was on the wrong by allowing NATO to move eastwards closer to Russia. Kiev’s move was seen as a violation of standing agreements and the country was also criticised for the killings and human right violations in the Russian-speaking Donbas region.

South Africa’s icon, Mandela and Castro were personal friends and both inspired the revolutions in their respective countries. On his release from jail by the minority white apartheid regime in South Africa, Mandela paid a visit to Cuba where he was warmly welcomed by Castro and in turn Castro attended Mandela’s inauguration as the first black President of a democratic South Africa in May 1994.

The two  nations continued to have cordial relations including the deployment of Cuban doctors to the South African health facilities and the dispatching of its young students to study medicine in Cuba. The program remained a Mandela and Castro friendship legacy.