Nearly 70 years. That’s how long the Castro dictatorship has lasted. It seized power in 1959 and has never held free elections. Despite the massive protests of July 11, 2021 and the growing pot-banging protests over the lack of basic services and freedom, the totalitarian state refuses to relinquish control.

None of this would have been possible without the perverse solidarity of an international Left that, for the most part, has swallowed and regurgitated Castroist propaganda portraying a socialist David against an imperialist Goliath. Artists have sung, politicians have delivered speeches, and activists have shouted through megaphones, all while ignoring the plight of the tens of thousands of political prisoners Havana has accumulated over the decades. This continues today with the 1,300 people imprisoned for reasons of conscience within Castro’s hellish prison system.

The current government of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), led by Pedro Sánchez, has earned a special place in this gallery of accomplices. This is revealed in the report “The Price of Sustaining Castroism” by the Juan de Mariana Foundation, based in Madrid.

The text includes self-evident truths — such as the fact that “the revolution destroyed one of Latin America’s most advanced economies” upon coming to power in 1959 — but also makes forceful assertions, such as that the Spanish government (La Moncloa) has become one of the “main pillars of support for Castroism” and that the European Union — despite a lack of transparency regarding the funds allocated to the Havana regime and the deterioration of human rights — “has increased its financial support.”

“Thus, the Cuba of the Castros and Díaz-Canel never built the model of sovereignty and autonomy it promised its citizens; instead, it threw itself into the arms of the Soviet Union first, then Chávez’s Venezuela, and currently, Putin’s Russia or Xi Jinping’s China,” the text noted. “The result has been a network of alliances that has exported chaos, violence, and disorder, leading to a less stable and weakened international order due to the geopolitical disruptions Havana has fostered through its foreign policy actions.”

In December 2025, the administration of President Donald Trump unveiled the Donroe Doctrine as part of a new U.S. National Security Strategy. Hemispheric control — as Washington seeks to curb the influence of rival foreign powers, such as China’s commercial and strategic incursions — is key to that vision.

That’s partly why Cuba poses such a major problem: for decades, it has served as a base for operations, training, or diplomatic support for U.S. adversaries — such as Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing — as well as for domestic leftist individuals and groups in the United States, according to a State Department report.

In this context, supporting the Cuban tyranny is a way to sabotage hemispheric security and, by extension, the Donroe Doctrine. The current socialist government in Madrid opposes the Trump administration and undermines its security policy. No doubt about it.

The Juan de Mariana Institute continues its analysis by noting that Spain — taking the lead within the European Union on Cuba-related matters — approved the Common Position on Cuba in 1996, an initiative championed by then-Prime Minister José María Aznar. That document, adopted by the Council of the European Union, made relations between Europe and Cuba conditional upon measures aimed at democratic transition, pluralism, and respect for human rights — a stance that legally and politically stalled the normalization of relations between Cuba and Europe for 20 years.

In contrast to that firm approach, in December 2016 — weeks after the death of dictator Fidel Castro — the Common Position was replaced by the amicable Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement. This agreement demanded no changes from the dictatorship and is viewed by the Institute as a “capitulation” of European diplomacy to Cuba.

The Agreement remains in effect, the Institute noted, yet the regime fails to honor “the commitments undertaken, and Europe has continued to look the other way while the number of political prisoners multiplied, soldiers sent by Havana fought in Ukraine alongside Putin’s troops, and [Miguel] Díaz-Canel forged alliances” with Hamas and Hezbollah.

One can readily contrast the European Union’s actions with those of the Trump administration, which has imposed sanctions and pressure on Castro-regime entities and officials linked to the repressive apparatus, designated the regime a State Sponsor of Terrorism, and declared that “regime change on the island is an explicit goal of its foreign policy” as a matter of national security interest.

Another fundamental factor in the survival of Castroism has been the growing flow of money in the form of “aid from state funds of Spanish autonomous communities” which, once handed over to the Castro regime, vanishes into the island’s opaque bureaucracy.

While such “aid” approached 50 million euros between 2014 and 2020, a total of 125 million was authorized for the 2021?"2027 period.

The State Department ought to turn its attention to this irrational agreement. Are U.S. allies in Europe contributing to the financial sustenance of a regime that is a declared enemy of Washington? The pressure exerted on the capitals of the “Axis of Evil” should also be applied to those “friends” who are undermining the architecture of a regional security policy — something the Americas have lacked for years.