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.