Last month, there was an event in Havana to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Tricontinental Conference, a major international gathering held in the Cuban capital between January 3 and 13, 1966. This came just as the standoff between the United States and Venezuela escalated dramatically, with US troops seizing President Nicolás Maduro, killing all thirty-two of the Cuban soldiers protecting him, and imposing a quasi-blockade of Cuba’s oil supplies.
The alarming contemporary backdrop makes this an especially apposite moment to reflect on the purpose and legacy of the Tricontinental Conference. The 1966 event attracted 512 activists, mostly anti-colonial and anti-imperialist,…