Franco and Cuba

Abstract

The article analyses the special relations between the Cuban revolutionary regime and the franquist dictatorship since the Cuban Revolution until Franco's death in 1974. The ideological antagonism wasn 't an obstacle for the Hispanic-Cuban relations to go through a phase of intense cooperation. The reasons lays in the close personal understanding between Fidel Castro and Francisco Franco, related to the Galician origins of both dictators, and in the franquist policy's goals towards Latin-America, focused on gaining a certain degree of intemational prominence. This situation gave a great autonomy to the franquist diplomacy in Latin-America and explains Franco not giving up to the pressure from the United States to block Cuba politically and economically.