{"id":7716,"date":"2026-05-20T09:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/7716\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:08:16","slug":"poland-offering-us-firsthand-experience-to-help-transition-cuba-from-communism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/7716\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland offering US ‘firsthand experience’ to help transition Cuba from communism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warsaw, Poland \u2014 The United States wants nothing more than to transition Cuba<\/a> away from its decades of failed communist economics<\/a>, and Poland is reminding the White House that they know a thing or two about the process.<\/p>\n

Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, speaking with reporters at the ministry building in Warsaw on Tuesday, said his country is perfectly equipped to help transform centralized states into free markets \u2014 a task they accomplished themselves just a generation ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cPoland can leverage its firsthand experience from the 1989 transition and the Solidarity movement to advise Cuba through a peaceful, democratic transition and market reform,\u201d Sikorski told the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n

\"Rados\u0142awPolish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski speaks to reporters at the Ministry of Foreign of Affairs in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo courtesy of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs)<\/p>\n

Sikorski, who is also a deputy prime minister under head of government Donald Tusk, said Poland\u2019s own transition was \u201csuccessful but uncomfortable for Polish society,\u201d offering a variety of lessons that could be implemented in helping other countries make the same transformation.<\/p>\n

Poland was ruled by a Soviet-backed puppet government between the end of World War II and 1989. Unlike many other former Soviet states, Poland abandoned communism with a rapid and tactical transition that shocked the national economy but ultimately paved the way for its ongoing rise in wealth and influence. <\/p>\n

Communist politicians mostly faded away with the unpopular policies in the post-Soviet era, instead of being sacked or even killed like in other former bloc states. Almost all of them escaped any sort of punishment for their compliance with the Soviets.<\/p>\n

The \u201cnegotiated transition\u201d was \u201cbloodless,\u201d but \u201cnot entirely satisfactory, psychologically,\u201d Sikorski recalled. <\/p>\n

As Poland grows in clout in the European Union and NATO due to their generous defense spending and strategic position on the Western border of war-torn Ukraine, its government has been telegraphing its desire to use its expertise to aid the U.S. efforts to transform Cuba.<\/p>\n

The Polish foreign ministry helped select Cuban political dissident Berta Soler Fernandez to receive the nation\u2019s Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa Solidarity Prize last year. Fernandez is the leader of the nation\u2019s Ladies in White, a pro-democracy group founded by the wives and female relatives of jailed activists on the island.<\/p>\n

\"RubioSecretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski, center, applaud as Irma Santos de Mas, right, accepts the Lech Walesa Solidarity Prize Award for recipient Berta Soler Fernandez of Cuba, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky)<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> appeared at the award ceremony in Coral Gables, Florida, where fellow Lady in White Irma Santos de Mas accepted it on her behalf. <\/p>\n

Sikorski boasted that Rubio\u2019s attendance at the ceremony shows a \u201cjoint US-Poland focus on Cuba\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. secretary of state, a son of Cuban immigrants, has hardly been shy about his contempt for the communist government\u2019s stranglehold over the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir economic model doesn\u2019t work, and the people in charge can\u2019t fix it, and the reason they can\u2019t fix is not just because they\u2019re communists,\u201d he told reporters at a press meeting in the White House earlier this month. \u201cThat\u2019s bad enough, but they\u2019re incompetent communists. The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent communist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation has grown most tense since then.<\/p>\n

A report emerged over the weekend claiming that the communist regime in Cuba has received over 300 attack drones from Iran and Russia in recent years, raising concerns in Washington about its capacity to attack the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n

President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned on Monday<\/a> that if the U.S. carries out military action against the island, it could result in a \u201cbloodbath with incalculable consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polish Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawe\u0142 Zalewski affirmed to reporters at a dinner in Warsaw on Monday night that the government is keen on \u201cpresenting the Polish experience of transformation from the communist system to democracy and the market economy\u201d in the event that change is possible in Cuba.<\/p>\n

\"ZalewskiDeputy Minister of National Defense Pawe\u0142 Zalewski speaks to reporters in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo: Timothy Nerozzi)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur foreign affairs minister is very much interested in development in Cuba and is very much supporting the democratization of the state,\u201d he said, adding that Sikorski has already \u201cdiscussed it with Rubio.\u201d<\/p>\n

CUBAN PRESIDENT WARNS OF \u2018BLOODBATH\u2019 IF US ATTACKS AS TENSION RISES<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked whether he expects acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> to govern like her deposed predecessor, President Nicolas Maduro, Zalewski speculated to reporters that \u201cthe best way for her to keep power is to not change the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike [former leader of the Soviet Union] Mikhail Gorbachev, right?\u201d he explained. \u201cWhen you are starting to change the system in a positive direction, the processes you start usually make you leave office. But if the processes are well-designed, the country benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela, as a \u201csource of problems and unrest in South America,\u201d was a nation of particular concern for Poland prior to the U.S. operation to extract Maduro.<\/p>\n

The capture of Maduro<\/a> and subsequent termination of sweetheart oil deals \u2014 coupled with the worldwide spikes in energy prices caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 has all but crippled the Cuban economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warsaw, Poland \u2014 The United States wants nothing more than to transition Cuba away from its decades of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6546,299,451,74,6547,6542,9],"class_list":["post-7716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-communism","tag-cuba","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-florida","tag-marco-rubio","tag-poland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}