Tarık DEMİR

It is observed that there is a struggle of power between the USA and China in the Latin American geography as in other parts of the World. With the end of the Cold War, the USSR was replaced by China in this struggle of power in the region of Latin American. It is observed that in particular with the new Chinese President Xi Jinping, China has implemented a more effective strategy of foreign policy and has increased the military, economic, cultural and accordingly political influence towards the region. This situation forced the USA to change its traditional the Policy of Backyard  towards Latin American states. One of the most important targeted countries in this policy of the USA was Cuba because of its strategic position. During the governance of Barack Obama the USA left the old enmity with Cuba and decided to implement a new policy of softening, following the motto of “America belongs to Americans”. As a matter of fact, President Obama paid an official visit to Cuba in 2014. In the same way, Cuba is passing through the economic hardships due to embargoes and is looking for a way out. As a matter of fact, it is observed that  Raul Castro seized control de facto and took the control over the system. As a result, in the light of all these developments, the recent policies and the struggle for hegemony between the USA and China on the Latin American countries in general but especially on Cuba were examined.

Keywords: Cuba, Latin America, China, USA, Hegemony.