“The paradox is that the danger that Trump represents will create unity”

Emir Olivares Alonso

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, January 19, 2026, p. 7

The intellectual and journalist Cuban Omar González Jiménez (1950) conjectures: the geopolitical crisis caused by Donald Trump represents an opportunity for resistance movements and struggles to emerge against his onslaught, particularly from Latin America. “When there is more danger, there is more unity.”

Considered one of the most important cultural figures of the Cuban Revolution, the editor and university professor also remarks in an interview with The Day that the world today faces a “neo-fascism” that demands true unity on the left.

“Trump appears to the world as someone obsessive, as someone out of his mind. It is not an accident of capitalism, but at a given moment, capitalism reached that limit and Trump is what appears. At the time, Hitler seemed like another exaggeration, a hyperbole; Hitler was impossible, they did not take him seriously (at first) and he did everything he did. American public opinion did not take Trump seriously, and then they believed that with him came a change; and it does come, but for the worse (…) You have to resist it to overcome it,” he points out.

Faced with this challenge, he believes that progressivism must turn to historical references such as Mao, Ho Chi Minh, the Che and Fidel, and thinkers like Antonio Gramsci. “It is precisely in this darkest moment that monsters emerge,” he says, alluding to the Italian philosopher’s iconic phrase: “The old world is dying, the new world takes a while to appear. And in that chiaroscuro, monsters emerge.”

“Latin America, at risk”

During the talk – which took place a few days ago within the framework of his most recent visit to Mexico – González Jiménez emphasizes that, in reality, Washington has not left aside the Monroe Doctrine, but with the Republican it has been magnified and he himself has renamed it with the corollary “Donroe Doctrine.”

For this reason, he immediately warns that all of Latin America is at risk from the attacks of the Republicans, whose most disastrous expression, until now, has been the military intervention in Venezuela.

–How is life in Cuba given the recent actions of the United States in the region?

–It is a very difficult moment, very difficult. Because an undeniable reality has come together. Even if the United States rejects the blockade, it is expressed concretely in everyday life: if they prohibit you from importing oil, there is no (production of) electrical energy, and if there is no electricity, there is no water engine, and if there is no turbine, no water reaches the house. The blockade is not an abstraction, a philosophical speculation or an ideological excuse. The Trump administration has rejected it, but his government has more than 40 measures (against the island) that are draconian. It’s an obsessive thing.

“There is no need to idealize, because it would be absurd”

González Jiménez admits the “deficiencies” of the Cuban system itself; However, it highlights the resistance of society, which has faced the American onslaught for 65 years. “It is something exceptional. None of the emerging socialist countries has lasted so long. And despite this difficult daily life, the vast majority of the Cuban people continue to defend and support the project of the Revolution.”

– How can Cuba maintain its rebellious, revolutionary essence, its resistance in the face of these attacks?

–That is the great challenge. It is not new: during all these years we have been attacked, even directly, militarily. And there is a certain training in society to live in anxiety, to experience things that other countries do not face. Right now, in the face of Trump’s threats and latest threats: zero oil, zero money from Venezuela.

“When the so-called European socialism collapsed, that had a tremendous impact on Cuba, because the entire technological base was built on European industrial equipment. At that time there were more moral reserves, but fewer material reserves; the only option was state, and we resisted; today, if you have a little money, you can buy some things, the goods are there.”

–Is the situation better materially today than during the special period?

–It’s different. Today we read that reality differently, not like in 1993, when we hit rock bottom. There is a shortage, there is undeniable inflation, and that means that certain sectors, such as retirees or single mothers, cannot access (many products). There is no need to idealize, because it would also be absurd, but in Cuba there is social assistance that does not exist in many countries. And in conditions like the ones we are in, maintaining that is a heroic act (…) now the moral reservations are smaller. There is a greater deterioration of social consciousness.

“Cuba has not renounced that, we come from the ideal of Cheof the new man, for which conscience is the determining factor. Today consciousness is not always the determining factor. The paradigm was that of being, that of knowledge, in all societies; and today’s paradigm is having. Today a convict can be president of the United States because he has a lot of money and, in addition, he is a front man for large corporations.”

“He is worse than a mythomaniac”

–What is your assessment of what happened in Venezuela?

–Trump has a large debt with the oil workers who gave him so much money to come to power; Now Venezuela offers them on a plate. One sees it and it is a delirium. He says he “rules” Venezuela, I don’t know how, I don’t have any proof, no one has proof that he governs Venezuela. How is it possible that he speaks that way? He is worse than a mythomaniac, he is a horrible being. How is it possible that American society has reached such a degree of animalization that it could trust this individual? They elected him and with quite a few votes. Democracy is wrong too!

–In the current situation, how at risk is Latin America?

–We must resort to Fidel Castro when he said that we have to defend ourselves, with our own resources; You can’t count on someone to defend you. The United States has stopped being a global power and has to appeal to unilateralism, it is the only option for its project to survive: it must be against multilateralism and globalization.

“The United States has been withdrawing and has concentrated in Latin America, which is a zone of historical peace. Here there are countries like Brazil that have never entered a war or like Mexico that has never attacked anyone, on the contrary, they have stolen half of the territory. Here the aggressive and reactionary hegemon is the United States; it has been historically, not only with Trump.

“They have attacked Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. What is the other major American economy? Mexico. What state is Mexico in? In permanent harassment, threats. The President reacts with great aplomb, but the real threat exists: they can enter by land, bomb the cartels, they can carry out kidnappings, like that test, that barbarity against (Nicolás) Maduro, totally illegitimate; it has no precedents. Not even the pirates did it, and today they are turning it into a resource.”

“The Monroe Doctrine never went away”

–Do you think they have relaunched the Monroe Doctrine?

–He never disappeared, now they even call him “Donroe”, the corollary of Trump. They always affirm that “America for Americans.” If we could write it backwards… And here unity is essential. But the unity of the progressive forces of Latin America is not achieved on the basis of precariousness and fragmentation. There is little unity within the left, which does not agree even when it calls for unity. The crisis is going to accelerate unity. The world is full of paradoxes: when there is more crisis, when there is more danger and more threats, more unity occurs. I have hope in the towns.

–Are we living in a period of new obscurantism?

–I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, but yes, of course. We are in a situation of neo-fascism. And here Gramsci comes in: in the darkest moment monsters emerge. We are in the monster phase, but I do not lose hope that sooner rather than later, as was said in the time of (Salvador) Allende, new forms of the left will appear. The other thing would be to close the door and throw away the key.