The secret history of how Cuba helped end apartheid in South Africa
After a historic handshake between President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, relations between the United States and the island nation have been put in the spotlight. Castro was one of five world leaders invited to speak at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, highlighting Cuba’s importance to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
In this interview with Democracy Now! historian Piero Gleijeses of Johns Hopkins University puts the Obama-Castro handshake in context and discusses his new book, “Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for South Africa, 1976-1991.” Gleijeses believes that Cuba had "destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor ... [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa."