Barack Obama’s relaxation of sanctions against Cuba is a modest but significant step. It is welcome if belated recognition that half a century of US attempts to isolate and strangle Cuba, to cut it off from the free movement of people and goods, turned into a near-perfect mechanism for keeping Fidel Castro in power. The Comandante en Jefe, in his twilight years, should look back with satisfaction at the cack-handedness of his arch-enemy.

The blockade of Cuba was a failure. It helped radicalise the Cuban revolution, pushing it firmly into the Soviet camp. It enabled Mr Castro to justify more easily his monopoly of power through the Communist party, and to dictate the terms of political debate – not just in Cuba but, for a long time, throughout the Latin American left. Those who insist Castroism was not a distinct ideology, but a fusion of Caribbean caudillismo and Stalinism, are essentially right. But they are missing the point: it was turned into a hemispheric distortion, promoted by the image of a little island resisting the might of empire with dignity.