Photos: Brendan Mcdermid | Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – We are a publication that mainly focuses on Cuba and Nicaragua, with an occasional spotlight on other Latin American countries. However, today I want to make known my opinion on the upcoming US election.
When a billboard went up in Miami equating Fidel Castro and Donald Trump, the pro-Trump immigrants, especially Cubans, were outraged at the comparison. How could their favored candidate for US president be compared to their most hated public figure? They hate Fidel Castro and his legacy for what he did to the Cuban nation, which is totally understandable. Those who still revere Fidel Castro likewise consider him incomparable to capitalist magnate Donald Trump.
Yet I find the comparison disturbingly apt, and that’s why I’ve been personally volunteering for the Democratic Party ticket. As Election Day nears (Nov. 5th) and many have already voted, here are the unsettling comparisons I see:
Eliminating checks and balances: Venezuela the most recent example
Trump hopes to continue his previous 4-year effort to co-opt the country’s institutions, eliminating any checks and balances on his executive power. That’s exactly what the dictators of Nicaragua and Venezuela have accomplished, following Cuba’s example.
This summer both Trump and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro stated publicly that if they lose their respective elections there would be a bloodbath.
In the July 28, 2024 election in Venezuela, opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez received around two thirds of the votes. His party managed to publish official copies of over 25,000 voting tally sheets within 48 hours of the polls closing. All of these showed Gonzalez’s landslide victory, with 67% to Maduro’s 30%.
It didn’t matter.
When it became obvious that Maduro had lost bigtime, the Electoral Council – which was under his complete control – promptly said he won, offering no proof. A few weeks later, the Supreme Court – also dominated by partisan Magistrates Maduro had invested – confirmed that declaration. The detailed precinct-by-precinct results were never published and audited, as required by law.
When tens of thousands of Venezuelans peacefully protested the stolen election, dozens were shot dead and over 2,000 were arrested and immediately accused of terrorism for not obeying Maduro’s Supreme Court and Electoral Council’s fraudulent declaration.
Winning candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was forced to go into exile in Spain to avoid arrest and prison. The main opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, remains in hiding.
Having coopted the country’s institutions, as well as controlling the armed forces and security services, Maduro was free to step up the repression – so now, anybody who opposes his fantasy victory must pay the price.
Parallels with Trump’s 2020 Loss
In 2020, Donald Trump lost a close race for the all-important state-by-state electoral college votes that his own Republican Party officials certified in the highly contested states. Biden won the nationwide popular vote by seven million votes, but that doesn’t matter under the archaic US election rules.
When Trump’s effort to fraudulently change the results didn’t work, he called for an assault on Congress on January 6, 2021, to keep the election process from ending officially with his defeat. He harangued his own vice president for refusing to go along with the scheme, and many of his supporters who broke into the Congressional building called for the hanging of VP Pence to please their leader. Who knows what would have happened if they had found him.
Fortunately for the United States, the top military officials refused to heed Trump’s call to rebellion. By the time Trump told his “good people” to call it off and go on home, 174 police were injured, many seriously, not to mention the vandalism and theft in the building and some congressional offices.
As of May 6, 2024, of the 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the event, 820 have pleaded guilty and 884 defendants have been sentenced – 541 with a jail sentence.
Trump promises to pardon them as soon as he takes office. His supporters have bought the line that the violent break-in broadcast live on television was just a tourist excursion to the Capitol.
Furthermore, both Trump and his VP candidate Vance STILL refuse to admit Trump lost the 2020 vote. Trump has doubled down on denying the possibility that he could lose fairly in 2024. Interviews with many of his supporters show they are on board with that pre-election incitement to violence in case of losing.
A similar intent to control key institutions
Trump’s desire for total or near-total control of state institutions is exactly what Fidel Castro accomplished after Cuba’s 1959 revolution. He went a lot further in the following decades, and his legacy of Communist Party control over the nation and its people lives on today.
Likewise, under Maduro, state security and the top army and police officials guarantee subservience of the general population. Death, jail or exile has become the price for opposing his iron-fisted rule.
Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua – like most dictatorships on the left and right – have suspended press freedom, the freedom of association, the right to dissent, and the rule of law.
Donald Trump’s admiration of dictators and their iron-fisted rule has been well documented, along with his proposal to gut departments and agencies he disagrees with. It’s clear that once back in power, he’ll do everything possible to destroy independent institutions, an effort he began during his first presidency.
Trump has been promising of late to sic the military on any internal dissent which he calls the radical left enemy within. He calls Harris and the Democrats in general “Communists,” a fall back to the 1950s McCarthy era red scare in the US. That despite the fact that the Democratic Party would be considered a center or center-right party in Europe or Latin America.
His strongest support comes from far-right conservatives who aspire to set the clock back 100 or 200 years in terms of women’s rights, and many other citizen rights. Trump can be expected to appoint judges that support the far-right’s “Project 2025,” which he falsely claims he’s never seen and doesn’t support.
Fidel started with massive support, which facilitated his total power grab. He then totally personalized his rule and managed to squash all dissent. Donald Trump would like to do the same. Trump has already villainized the internal opposition and is threatening to persecute them, exactly as in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, to name a few.
Why I support Kamala Harris
The main reason I strongly support Harris/Walz is the huge difference on domestic policies and rights. The pair are promoting hope, opportunities, humanitarian values, empathy, protection of independent democratic institutions and a fairer taxation policy, as opposed to hate, racism, sexism, xenophobia, co-opted institutions and the old trickle-down from the richest.
Many billionaires, led by Elon Musk, support Trump as a “smart” investment. His tax policies will benefit them many times over. Meanwhile, Harris will face a call in her party to stick to her guns for increasing taxes on the wealthiest to help fund the social programs and services so many US citizens need to create a fairer, more inclusive country.
Mega-wealthy corporations and their CEOs will still be filthy rich under Harris’s plan but will be paying what I consider a little fairer share in taxation. It will be a hell of a lot better than what Trump has in store for the country.
Foreign Policy
I have always opposed much of US foreign policy under both Democratic Party and Republican governments. The United States’ steadfast defense of its corporations economic interests, to the detriment of those living elsewhere, has been seen over and over again around the globe, with dozens of armed and clandestine interventions.
I strongly oppose the Biden administration’s blind support of the Israeli military’s genocidal response to the Hamas attack on Israel. A year of brutal massacre of Palestinian civilians can never be framed as acceptable war-time collateral damage.
Kamala Harris has been a loyal VP through all this, backing Biden’s two-faced policy of tut-tutting the massive civilian deaths, destruction and starvation, while in the same breath providing the weapons to keep the massacre going.
However, and it’s a big however, I believe that Harris is of another generation. I hope she will be more open to listen to the many voices within and outside her party demanding an end to fueling the massacre, which now also involves Lebanon.
I harbor no such hopes for Trump, who has said Israel should just get it over with – reminding me of the Nazi solution for Jews, communists, gays, etc.
So, for those wanting a change in US foreign policy I believe the freedom to demand change will be possible and protected under Harris. Clearly, it will not be under Trump.
We’ll see what happens next Tuesday and the ensuing days and weeks as the outstanding votes are counted.
Read more from Circles Robinson here on Havana Times.
