By Hedelberto López Blanch on October 27, 2026 from Havana
graphic: Adano
In these turbulent and threatening times, as the world is beset by a decaying yet highly dangerous and aggressive empire, three countries stand out as examples of nations that have confronted this demon and succeeded in halting or defeating it. These are Brazil, Iran, and Cuba.
This week, defying all forecasts and polls that predicted a victory for far-right candidate Flavio Bolsonaro in the second round of Brazil’s general election, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva managed to decisively defeat Bolsonaro and secure victory.
In both the first and second rounds, the far-right candidate had the support of the mainstream media, the multibillion-dollar companies that dominate social media—such as Meta, Integran, and Google— as well as the support of the convicted U.S. President Donald Trump, the Israeli genocidal leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and the new right-wing leaders in Latin America—in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and other U.S. vassal states in the region.
Lula achieved this resounding success by realizing that, following his defeat in the first round, he had to launch a grassroots campaign, speak to the masses, explain to them the social and economic gains achieved during his term in office, and at the same time lay out what it would mean for tens of millions of Brazilians if the neo-fascist far right were to win the presidency.
Those were days of great effort and dedication, but in the end, the work with the masses and on social media paid off, and he achieved victory with a margin of more than 4 million votes over his opponent.
The second example is that of Iran, which faced the world’s largest and most aggressive military power and the military might of the Israeli regime—forces that indiscriminately bombed its infrastructure, factories, educational centers, and civilian population—yet were unable to defeat it.
Iran held its ground, and none of Trump and Netanyahu’s war aims were achieved. The Iranian system remains stable. Tehran still has missiles, drones, and its nuclear program intact; before the war, Iran did not control the Strait of Hormuz, and now it does.
For the Persian nation, the cost of the war is incalculable, as the violent and indiscriminate bombings caused billions of dollars in losses, the destruction of numerous infrastructure projects, educational and health facilities, and oil installations, and more than 3,000 deaths, including hundreds of children. The Shi’a Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several high-ranking military commanders were assassinated.
The costs to the United States are estimated at $340,000 million, in addition to damage to its military bases in the region, the loss of aircraft, and a devastating impact on key energy infrastructure in the Gulf. The narcissistic, convicted, and pedophile U.S. president was thoroughly humiliated.
The third example—which has served as a guide for decades in the resistance of many countries against colonial, neoliberal, and imperial policies—is that of Cuba, which has stood up to the world’s greatest military and economic power and has not yielded.
Its model of sovereignty and independence has crossed borders and continents as it has fearlessly confronted, for more than six decades, the U.S. empire—which has launched terrorist attacks, assaults, an armed invasion, and an economic, commercial, and financial blockade that intensified with the arrival in the White House of a far-right, neo-fascist regime.
The logic behind Trump and his mythomaniac Secretary of State, Marco Rubio—in now blocking the entry of any type of fuel to the island—is to increase pressure until an internal collapse is triggered, convinced that economic suffocation, fear, and psychological warfare will ultimately turn the population against the government.
But their various tactics aimed at destabilizing the Revolution have not and will not succeed, and Cuba continues to stand as a beacon of freedom that illuminates the world.
Let us recall the teachings of the Revolution’s historic leader, Fidel Castro Ruz, who—at the closing of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in May 1980 and in the face of threats from then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan—emphasized: “We have no fear of their threats because, of course, there is something we do not like, and we do not like being threatened; we do not like being intimidated… furthermore, our people have long since lost the very concept of fear.”
As Abel Prieto Jiménez, president of the Casa de las Américas, stated during a recent interview: we know that “we are fighting against a very powerful enemy, but not an all-powerful one.”
With examples such as those of Brazil, Iran, and Cuba, the peoples of the world have a path to follow in defending their sovereignty, independence, and freedoms.
Hedelberto López Blanch writes for the daily newspaper Juventud Rebelde and the weekly Opciones. He is the author of *Cuban Emigration to the United States*, *Secret Stories of Cuban Doctors in Africa*, *Miami, Dirty Money*, and *Rubio, an Uncontrollable Mythomaniac*, among others.
Source: Cuba en Resumen