Prague dispatched delegates to the Eighth Congress of the PSP in August 1960. Speaking at the gathering, the Cuban communist leader, Blas Roca Calderio, effectively offered his stamp of approval to Castro before the Czechoslovakian guests, recognizing him as a “new phenomenon in Latin America’s history.” In their comments, the Czechoslovaks demonstrated their satisfaction with the deepening influence of the Cuban communists within the country’s socio-political transformations, which held the serious potential to increase the significance of the Cuban revolution in the eyes of the Soviet Union and the other Socialist states.

After talking with the member of the PSP's Central Committee, Severo Aguirre, Prague’s Communist Party leaders saw a glimmer of hope for the further radicalization of the revolution:  the fact that the “bourgeois” leaders of the revolutionary army, the Castro brothers, and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, relied on the people’s army, on which the communists had significant influence.

This presents evidence of Czechoslovak-Cuban relations forming in 1959, which includes the somewhat sensitive issue of Prague’s attempting to grasp the relationship and balance of power within Havana’s rulers between Fidel Castro’s “July 26th” movement and the traditional, pro-Moscow communist party, the People’s Socialist Party (PSP).