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Cuban Revolution
please note:
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{{Short description|1954–59 rebellion against the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro}}{{ref improve|date=January 2024}}{{other uses}}{{use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}{{stack begin}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
| factoids |
|---|
- Overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s government
- Establishment of a government led by Fidel Castro
- Escambray rebellion
- (File:Coat of arms of Cuba.svg|20px) Cuban Constitutional Army
Background
Corruption in Cuba
File:Portrait of Tomás Estrada Palma.jpg|thumb|left|Estrada Palma in 1899]]The Republic of Cuba at the turn of the 20th century was largely characterized by a deeply ingrained tradition of corruption where political participation resulted in opportunities for elites to engage in wealth accumulation.BOOK, Corruption in Cuba: Castro and beyond, Sergio, Diaz-Briquets, 2006, University of Texas Press, Pérez-López, Jorge F., 978-0292714823, 1st, Austin, 64098477, Cuba’s first presidential period under Don Tomás Estrada Palma from 1902 to 1906 was considered to uphold the best standards of administrative integrity in the history of the Republic of Cuba.BOOK, Historia de Cuba: la lucha de un pueblo por cumplir su destino histórico y su vocación de libertad, Masó y Vázquez, Calixto, 1976, Ediciones Universal, 978-0897298759, 2nd, Miami, Florida, 2789690, However, a United States intervention in 1906 resulted in Charles Edward Magoon, an American diplomat, taking over the government until 1909. Although Magoon’s government did not condone corrupt practices, there is debate as to how much was done to stop what was widespread especially with the surge of American money coming into the small country. Hugh Thomas suggests that while Magoon disapproved of corrupt practices, corruption still persisted under his administration and he undermined the autonomy of the judiciary and their court decisions.{{sfn|Thomas|1998}}{{pn|date=January 2022}} On January 29, 1909, the sovereign government of Cuba was restored, and José Miguel Gómez became president. No explicit evidence of Magoon’s corruption ever surfaced, but his parting gesture of issuing lucrative Cuban contracts to U.S. firms was a continued point of contention. Cuba’s subsequent president, José Miguel Gómez, was the first to become involved in pervasive corruption and government corruption scandals. These scandals involved bribes that were allegedly paid to Cuban officials and legislators under a contract to search the Havana harbour, as well as the payment of fees to government associates and high-level officials. Gómez’s successor, Mario GarcÃa Menocal, wanted to put an end to the corruption scandals and claimed to be committed to administrative integrity as he ran on a slogan of “honesty, peace and work”. Despite his intentions, corruption actually intensified under his government from 1913 to 1921.{{sfn|Thomas|1998}}{{pn|date=January 2022}} Instances of fraud became more common while private actors and contractors frequently colluded with public officials and legislators. Charles Edward Chapman attributes the increase of corruption to the sugar boom that occurred in Cuba under the Menocal administration.BOOK, A history of the Cuban Republic: a study in Hispanic American politics, Chapman, Charles E., 2005, 1927, Kessinger, 978-1417903115, Whitefish, Montana, 67235524, Furthermore, the advent of World War One enabled the Cuban government to manipulate sugar prices, the sales of exports and import permits. While in office, GarcÃa Menocal hosted his college fraternity, in the 1920 Delta Kappa Epsilon National Convention, the first international fraternity conference outside the US, which took place in Cuba. He was responsible for creating the Cuban Peso; until his presidency Cuba used both the Spanish Real and US Dollar. President Menocal left the Cuban national treasury in overdraft and therefore in precarious financial situation. Menocal supposedly spent $800 million during his 8 years in office and left a floating debt of $40 million.Alfredo Zayas succeeded Menocal from 1921 to 1925 and engaged in what Calixto Masó refers to as the “maximum expression of administrative corruption”. Both petty and grand corruption spread to nearly all aspects of public life and the Cuban administration became largely characterized by nepotism as Zayas relied on friends and relatives to illegally gain greater access to wealth.{{sfn|Thomas|1998}}{{pn|date=January 2022}} Gerardo Machado succeeded Zayas from 1925 to 1933, and entered the presidency with widespread popularity and support from the major political parties. However, his support declined over time. Due to Zayas’ previous policies, Gerardo Machado aimed to diminish corruption and improve the public sector’s performance under his successive administration from 1925 to 1933. While he was successfully able to reduce the amounts of low level and petty corruption, grand corruption still largely persisted. Machado embarked on development projects that enabled the persistence of grand corruption through inflated costs and the creation of “large margins” that enabled public officials to appropriate money illegally.BOOK, Pleasure Island: tourism and temptation in Cuba, Schwartz, Rosalie, 1997, University of Nebraska Press, 978-0585300610, Lincoln, 45733547, Under his government, opportunities for corruption became concentrated into fewer hands with “centralized government purchasing procedures” and the collection of bribes among a smaller number of bureaucrats and administrators. Through the development of real estate infrastructures and the growth of Cuba’s tourism industry, Machado’s administration was able to use insider information to profit from private sector business deals. Many people objected to his running again for re-election in 1928, as his victory violated his promise to serve for only one term. As protests and rebellions became more strident, his administration curtailed free speech and used repressive police tactics against opponents. Machado unleashed a wave of violence against his critics, and there were numerous murders and assassinations committed by the police and army under Machado’s administration. The extent of his involvement in these is disputed, but in the end, Machado is described as a dictator. In May 1933, Machado was forced out as newly appointed US ambassador Sumner Welles arrived in Cuba and initiated negotiation with the opposition groups for a government to succeed Machado’s. A provisional government headed by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada (son of Cuban independence hero Carlos Manuel de Céspedes) and including members of the ABC was brokered; it took power in August 1933 amidst a general strike in Havana.Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada subsequently was offered the position of President by ambassador Sumner Welles. He took office on August 13, 1933, and Welles proposed that “general elections may be held approximately 3 months from now so that Cuba may once more have a constitutional government in the real sense of the word.” Céspedes agreed, and declared that a general election would be held on February 24, 1934, for a new presidential term to begin on May 20, 1934. However, on September 4–5, 1933, the Sergeants’ Revolt took place while Céspedes was in Matanzas and Santa Clara after a hurricane had ravaged those regions. The junta of officers led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista and students proclaimed that it had taken power in order to fulfill the aims of the revolution; it briefly described a program which included economic restructuring, punishment of wrongdoers, recognition of public debts, creation of courts, political reorganization, and any other actions necessary to construct a new Cuba based on justice and democracy.Aguilar (1972), pp. 163–164. Only five days after the coup, Batista and the Student Directory promoted Ramón Grau to the role of President. The ensuing One Hundred Days Government issued a number of reformist declarations but never gained diplomatic recognition from the US; it was overthrown in January 1934 under pressure from Batista and the US ambassador. Grau was replaced by Carlos Mendieta, and within five days the U.S. recognized Cuba’s new government. The corruption was not curtailed under Mendieta and he resigned in 1935 after unrest continued, and their followed a number of interim and weak presidents under the guidance of Batista and the US. Batista, supported by the Democratic Socialist Coalition which included Julio Antonio Mella’s Communist Party, defeated Grau in the first presidential election under the new Cuban constitution in the 1940 election, and served a four-year term as President of Cuba. Batista was endorsed by the original Communist Party of Cuba (later known as the Popular Socialist Party), which at the time had little significance and no probability of an electoral victory. This support was primarily due to Batista’s labor laws and his support for labor unions, with which the Communists had close ties. In fact, Communists attacked the anti-Batista opposition, saying Grau and others were “fascists” and “reactionaries”.File:Eduardo René Chibás Ribas.jpg|thumb|left|Senator and anti-corruption crusader Eduardo René Chibás Ribas ]]Senator Eduardo Chibás dedicated himself to exposing corruption in the Cuban government, and formed the Partido Ortodoxo in 1947 to further this aim. Argote-Freyre points out that Cuba’s population under the Republic had a high tolerance for corruption. Furthermore, Cubans knew and criticized who was corrupt, but admired them for their ability to act as “criminals with impunity”. Corrupt officials went beyond members of congress to also include military officials who granted favours to residents and accepted bribes. The establishment of an illegal gambling network within the military enabled army personnel such as Lieutenant Colonel Pedraza and Major Mariné to engage in extensive illegal gambling activities. Mauricio Augusto Font and Alfonso Quiroz, authors of The Cuban Republic and José MartÃ, say that corruption pervaded in public life under the administrations of Presidents Ramón Grau and Carlos PrÃo Socarrás.BOOK, The Cuban Republic and José MartÃ: reception and use of a national symbol, 2006, Lexington Books, Font, Mauricio Augusto, Quiroz, Alfonso W., 978-0739112250, Lanham, MD, 61179604, PrÃo was reported to have stolen over $90 million in public funds, which was equivalent to one fourth of the annual national budget.BOOK, Revolutionary Cuba: a history, MartÃnez-Fernández, Luis, 978-0813049953, Gainesville, 896824646, 2014, Prior to the Communist revolution, Cuba was ruled under the elected government of Fulgencio Batista from 1940 to 1944. Throughout this time period, Batista’s support base consisted mainly of corrupt politicians and military officials. Batista himself was able to heavily profit from the regime before coming into power through inflated government contracts and gambling proceeds. In 1942, the British Foreign Office reported that the U.S. State Department was “very worried” about corruption under President Fulgencio Batista, describing the problem as “endemic” and exceeding “anything which had gone on previously”. British diplomats believed that corruption was rooted within Cuba’s most powerful institutions, with the highest individuals in government and military being heavily involved in gambling and the drug trade.BOOK, The Cuban connection: drug trafficking, smuggling, and gambling in Cuba from the 1920s to the Revolution, Eduardo, Sáenz Rovner, 2008, University of North Carolina Press, 978-0807831755, Chapel Hill, 401386259, In terms of civil society, Eduardo Saenz Rovner writes that corruption within the police and government enabled the expansion of criminal organizations in Cuba. Batista refused U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s offer to send experts to help reform the Cuban Civil Service. Batista didn’t run in the 1944 election, and Partido Auténtico party member Ramón Grau was elected president,WEB,www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/ramon-grau-san-martin-cubas-prophet-of-disappointment-1944-1951/, Ramón Grau San MartÃn: Cuba’s Prophet of Disappointment, 1944–1951, 25 April 2023, 25 April 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230425195702/https://www.ascecuba.org/asce_proceedings/ramon-grau-san-martin-cubas-prophet-of-disappointment-1944-1951/, dead, and oversaw extensive corruption during his administration. He had Carlos PrÃo Socarrás serve turns as Minister of Public Works, Minister of Labor and Prime Minister. On the next election July 1, 1948, Prio was elected president of Cuba as a member of the Partido Auténtico which presided over corruption and irresponsible government of this period. WEB,www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/castro-fulgencio-batista-1901-1973/, Fulgencio Batista (1901–1973) | American Experience | PBS, PBS, WEB,www.autentico.org/oa09239.php, Datos Biograficos, Carlos Prio, Autentico.org, 2011-05-01, PrÃo was assisted by Chief of the Armed Forces General Genobebo Pérez Dámera and Colonel José Luis Chinea Cardenas, who had previously been in charge of the Province of Santa Clara.The eight years under Grau and PrÃo, were marked by violence among political factions and reports of theft and self-enrichment in the government ranks.WEB,www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/comandante-pre-castro-cuba/, Pre-Castro Cuba | American Experience | PBS, PBS, The PrÃo administration increasingly came to be perceived by the public as ineffectual in the face of violence and corruption, much as the Grau administration before it.With elections scheduled for the middle of 1952, rumors surfaced of a planned military coup by long-shot presidential contender Fulgencio Batista. PrÃo, seeing no constitutional basis to act, did not do so. The rumors proved to be true. On March 10, 1952, Batista and his collaborators seized military and police commands throughout the country and occupied major radio and TV stations. Batista assumed power when PrÃo, failing to mount a resistance, boarded a plane and went into exile.Batista, after his military coup against PrÃo Socarras, again took power and ruled until 1959. Under his rule, Batista led a corrupt dictatorship that involved close links with organized crime organizations and the reduction of civil freedoms of Cubans. This period resulted in Batista engaging in more “sophisticated practices of corruption” at both the administrative and civil society levels. Batista and his administration engaged in profiteering from the lottery as well as illegal gambling. Corruption further flourished in civil society through increasing amounts of police corruption, censorship of the press as well as media, and creating anti-communist campaigns that suppressed opposition with violence, torture and public executions.WEB,time.com/3641153/the-vengeful-visionary/, The Vengeful Visionary, 26 January 1959, The former culture of toleration and acceptance towards corruption also dissolved with the dictatorship of Batista. For instance, one citizen wrote that “however corrupt Grau and PrÃo were, we elected them and therefore allowed them to steal from us. Batista robs us without our permission.” Corruption under Batista further expanded into the economic sector with alliances that he forged with foreign investors and the prevalence of illegal casinos and criminal organizations in the country’s capital of Havana.Batista regime
In the decades following the United States’ invasion of Cuba in 1898, and formal independence from the U.S. on 20 May 1902, Cuba experienced a period of significant instability, enduring a number of revolts, coups and a period of U.S. military occupation. Fulgencio Batista, a former soldier who had served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, became president for the second time in 1952, after seizing power in a military coup and canceling the 1952 elections.WEB,www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-batista-fifth-revolution-1952, From the archive, 11 March 1962: Batista’s revolution, The Guardian, 11 March 2013, 29 June 2013,www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-batista-fifth-revolution-1952," title="web.archive.org/web/20141017144941www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-batista-fifth-revolution-1952,">web.archive.org/web/20141017144941www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-batista-fifth-revolution-1952, 17 October 2014, live, dmy-all, Although Batista had been relatively progressive during his first term,BOOK, Inside the Cuban Revolution, Julia E., Sweig, 978-0-674-01612-5, 2004, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts,archive.org/details/insidecubanrevol00juli, in the 1950s he proved far more dictatorial and indifferent to popular concerns.BOOK, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, 1973, The Dynamics of World Power: A Documentary History of the United States Foreign Policy 1985–1993, McGraw-Hill, 0-07-079729-3, 512,archive.org/details/dynamicsofworldp0000unse/page/512, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, While Cuba remained plagued by high unemployment and limited water infrastructure,WEB,www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25660, Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy at Democratic Dinner, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 6, 1960, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, 29 June 2013,www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25660," title="web.archive.org/web/20131014174405www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25660,">web.archive.org/web/20131014174405www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25660, 14 October 2013, live, dmy-all, {{Unreliable source?|date=February 2024|reason=The speech reads like propaganda. I would call it biased. The US isnt known to like socialism.}} Batista antagonized the population by forming lucrative links to organized crime and allowing American companies to dominate the Cuban economy, especially sugar-cane plantations and other local resources.WEB,historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm, Fulgencio Batista, HistoryOfCuba.com, 29 June 2013,historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514164321historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20130514164321historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm, 14 May 2013, live, dmy-all, BOOK, DÃaz-Briquets, Sergio, Pérez-López, Jorge F., Corruption in Cuba: Castro and beyond, University of Texas Press, 2006, 978-0-292-71482-3, 77,books.google.com/books?id=Fiquofr8LSoC&pg=PA77, 27 June 2015,web.archive.org/web/20151018001250/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fiquofr8LSoC&pg=PA77, 18 October 2015, live, dmy-all, Although the US armed and politically supported the Batista dictatorship, later US president John F. Kennedy recognized its corruption and the justifiability of removing it.Daniel, Jean (14 December 1963) “Unofficial Envoy: An Historic Report from Two Capitals”. New Republic. p. 16. US President John F. Kennedy said: “I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries.“During his first term as president, Batista was supported by the original Communist Party of Cuba (later known as the Popular Socialist Party), but during his second term he became strongly anti-communist.BOOK, James Stuart, Olson, 2000, Historical Dictionary of the 1950s, Greenwood Publishing Group, 0-313-30619-2, 67–68, James S. Olson, In the months following the March 1952 coup, Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer and activist, petitioned for the overthrow of Batista, whom he accused of corruption and tyranny. However, Castro’s constitutional arguments were rejected by the Cuban courts.WEB,latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08fidelcastro.htm, Biography of Fidel Castro, About.com, 29 June 2013,latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08fidelcastro.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130424233839latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08fidelcastro.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20130424233839latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08fidelcastro.htm, 24 April 2013, live, dmy-all, After deciding that the Cuban regime could not be replaced through legal means, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution. To this end, he and his brother Raúl founded a paramilitary organization known as “The Movement”, stockpiling weapons and recruiting around 1,200 followers from Havana’s disgruntled working class by the end of 1952.Early stages: 1953–1955
{{Further|Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution}}Attack on the Moncada Barracks
File:Fidel Castro under arrest after the Moncada attack.jpg|thumb|left|Fidel Castro under arrest after the July 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de CubaSantiago de CubaStriking their first blow against the Batista government, Fidel and Raúl Castro gathered 70 fighters and planned a multi-pronged attack on several military installations.WEB,www.cubatravelinfo.com/historical-sites/moncada-army-barracks.html, Historical sites: Moncada Army Barracks and, CubaTravelInfo, 10 July 2013,www.cubatravelinfo.com/historical-sites/moncada-army-barracks.html," title="archive.today/20130710203403www.cubatravelinfo.com/historical-sites/moncada-army-barracks.html,">archive.today/20130710203403www.cubatravelinfo.com/historical-sites/moncada-army-barracks.html, 10 July 2013, live, dmy-all, On 26 July 1953, the rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo, only to be decisively defeated by the far more numerous government soldiers.WEB, Faria, Miguel A. Jr., Miguel A. Faria, Jr., Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement,haciendapublishing.com/articles/fidel-castro-and-26th-july-movement, Newsmax Media, 14 August 2015, 27 July 2004,haciendapublishing.com/articles/fidel-castro-and-26th-july-movement," title="web.archive.org/web/20150822211554haciendapublishing.com/articles/fidel-castro-and-26th-july-movement,">web.archive.org/web/20150822211554haciendapublishing.com/articles/fidel-castro-and-26th-july-movement, 22 August 2015, live, dmy-all, It was hoped that the staged attack would spark a nationwide revolt against Batista’s government. After an hour of fighting most of the rebels and their leader fled to the mountains.BOOK, The World Transformed: 1945 to the present, Hunt, Michael H., Oxford University Press, 2004, 978-0199371020, New York, 257, The exact number of rebels killed in the battle is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro claimed that nine were killed in the fighting, and an additional 56 were executed after being captured by the Batista government.{{harvp|Castro|2007|p=133}} Due to the government’s large number of men, Hunt revised the number to be around 60 members taking the opportunity to flee to the mountains along with Castro.BOOK, The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present, Hunt, Michael, Oxford University Press, 2014, New York, 257, Among the dead was Abel SantamarÃa, Castro’s second-in-command, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack.{{harvp|Castro|2007|p=672}}Imprisonment and immigration
Numerous key Movement revolutionaries, including the Castro brothers, were captured shortly afterwards. In a highly political trial, Fidel spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.” Castro’s defense was based on nationalism, the representation and beneficial programs for the non-elite Cubans, and his patriotism and justice for the Cuban community.BOOK, The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present, Hunt, Michael, Oxford University Press, 2014, New York, 258, Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in the Presidio Modelo prison, located on Isla de Pinos, while Raúl was sentenced to 13 years.WEB,www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html, Chronicle of an Unforgettable Agony: Cuba’s Political Prisons, Contacto Magazine, September 1996, 10 July 2013,www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130128090116www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130128090116www2.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html, 28 January 2013, dmy-all, However, in 1955, under broad political pressure, the Batista government freed all political prisoners in Cuba, including the Moncada attackers. Fidel’s Jesuit childhood teachers succeeded in persuading Batista to include Fidel and Raúl in the release.{{harvp|Castro|2007|p=174}}Soon, the Castro brothers joined with other exiles in Mexico to prepare for the overthrow of Batista, receiving training from Alberto Bayo, a leader of Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. In June 1955, Fidel met the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who joined his cause. Raúl and Fidel’s chief advisor Ernesto aided the initiation of Batista’s amnesty. The revolutionaries named themselves the “26th of July Movement”, in reference to the date of their attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953.(File:Directorio Revolucionario Jose Antonio Echevaria, juan-pedro-carbo. University of Havana, Cuba.jpg|thumb|left|Student protests in Havana, 1956)Student demonstrations
By late 1955, student riots and demonstrations became more common, and unemployment became problematic as new graduates could not find jobs.BOOK, Cuban communism, 662, Horowitz, Irving Louis, Irving Louis Horowitz, Transaction Books, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1988, 978-0-88738-672-5,books.google.com/books?id=hx2_y7Vu-PUC&pg=PA463, BOOK, Thomas, Hugh, Cuba: the Pursuit of Freedom, 1971, Harper & Row, New York, 978-0-06-014259-9, 1173,archive.org/details/trent_0116404995262/page/1173, These protests were dealt with increasing repression. All young people were seen as possible revolutionaries.Samuel Shapiro (1963). Invisible Latin America. Ayer Publishing. {{ISBN|0-8369-2521-1}}. p. 77. Due to its continued opposition to the Cuban government and much protest activity taking place on its campus, the University of Havana was temporarily closed on 30 November 1956 (it did not reopen until 1959 under the first revolutionary government).Sterling, Carlos Márquez (1963). Historia de Cuba: Desde Colon hasta Castro. Miami, Florida.Attack on the Domingo Goicuria Barracks
While the Castro brothers and the other 26 July Movement guerrillas were training in Mexico and preparing for their amphibious deployment to Cuba, another revolutionary group followed the example of the Moncada Barracks assault. On 29 April 1956 at 12:50 pm during Sunday mass, an independent guerrilla group of around 100 rebels led by Reynol GarcÃa attacked the Domingo Goicuria army barracks in Matanzas province. The attack was repelled with ten rebels and three soldiers killed in the fighting, and one rebel summarily executed by the garrison commander, Pilar GarcÃa.WEB, Redacción, 2020-05-17, Pilar GarcÃa, un militar cubano con nombre de mujer y alma de asesino,www.cubacute.com/2020/05/17/pilar-garcia-un-militar-cubano-con-nombre-de-mujer-y-alma-de-asesino/, 2023-01-10, Cubacute, es, Florida International University historian Miguel A. Bretos was in the nearby cathedral when the firefight began. He writes, “That day, the Cuban Revolution began for me and Matanzas.“WEB, Uprising in Cuba Quickly Quelled, Ten Listed Dead, 30 April 1956,newspaperarchive.com/florence-morning-news-apr-30-1956-p-1/, Florence Morning News, 25 January 2019, WEB, Finally, Cuba’s Matanzas gets some respect,www.victoriaadvocate.com/361mag/entertainment/finally-cuba-s-matanzas-gets-some-respect/article_fdef70b4-b019-5864-b392-51ddccd5094e.html, ... the world knows about the Moncada attack in Oriente province that made Fidel Castro famous, but few have heard of the attack on the Goicuria Barracks in Matanzas on April 29, 1956. That event caught the young Bretos on a Sunday outing to mass at the cathedral with his Aunt Nena. He remembers the scene vividly: the staccato gun fire, the military fighter that roared by, the news that all the rebels had been killed, the photographs of the colonel in charge who smiled proudly over the corpses and of a prisoner being shot in cold blood, the latter image published in the Spanish edition of Life. ‘That day,’ Bretos writes, ‘the Cuban Revolution began for me and Matanzas.’, Victoria Advocate, 5 May 2010, 5 May 2010,Insurgency: 1956–1957
File:Revolution Map of progress.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of Cuba showing the location of the arrival of the rebels on the Granma in late 1956, the rebels’ stronghold in the Sierra Maestra, and Guevara and Cienfuegos’ route towards Havana via Las Villas ProvinceLas Villas ProvinceGranma landing“>Granma landing
The yacht Granma departed from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, on 25 November 1956, carrying the Castro brothers and 80 others including Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, even though the yacht was only designed to accommodate 12 people with a maximum of 25. On 2 December,WEB, Cuban Revolution: The Voyage of the Granma,latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcuba/p/09granma.htm, The yacht, designed for only 12 passengers and supposedly with a maximum capacity of 25, also had to carry fuel for a week as well as food and weapons for the soldiers., Latin American History, 24 December 2014,latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcuba/p/09granma.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20150405213137latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcuba/p/09granma.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20150405213137latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thehistoryofcuba/p/09granma.htm, 5 April 2015, live, dmy-all, it landed in Playa Las Coloradas, in the municipality of Niquero, arriving two days later than planned because the boat was heavily loaded, unlike during the practice sailing runs.{{harvp|Castro|2007|p=182}} This dashed any hopes for a coordinated attack with the llano wing of the Movement. After arriving and exiting the ship, the band of rebels began to make their way into the Sierra Maestra mountains, a range in southeastern Cuba. Three days after the trek began, Batista’s army attacked and killed most of the Granma participants – while the exact number is disputed, no more than twenty of the original eighty-two men survived the initial encounters with the Cuban army and escaped into the Sierra Maestra mountains.{{harvp|Thomas|1998}}The group of survivors included Fidel and Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. The dispersed survivors, alone or in small groups, wandered through the mountains, looking for each other. Eventually, the men would link up again – with the help of peasant sympathizers – and would form the core leadership of the guerrilla army. A number of female revolutionaries, including Celia Sánchez and Haydée SantamarÃa (the sister of Abel SantamarÃa), also assisted Fidel Castro’s operations in the mountains.WEB,laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2014, Opiniones: Haydee SantamarÃa, una mujer revolucionaria, La Ventana, 2 July 2004, 14 June 2013, es,laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2014," title="web.archive.org/web/20140517164246laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2014,">web.archive.org/web/20140517164246laventana.casa.cult.cu/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2014, 17 May 2014, dmy-all,Presidential palace attack
(File:Havana Presidential Palace attack, March 13, 1957.jpg|thumb|left|Havana Presidential Palace attack, 13 March 1957)On 13 March 1957, a separate group of revolutionaries – including the student opposition group Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo – stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana, attempting to assassinate Batista and overthrow the government. The attack ended in utter failure. The RD’s leader, student José Antonio EcheverrÃa, died in a shootout with Batista’s forces at the Havana radio station he had seized to spread the news of Batista’s anticipated death. The handful of survivors included Dr. Humberto Castello (who later became the Inspector General in the Escambray), Rolando Cubela and Faure Chomon (both later Comandantes of the 13 March Movement, centered in the Escambray Mountains of Las Villas Province).{{harvp|Faria|2002|pp=40–41}}The plan, as explained by Faure Chaumón Mediavilla, was to attack the Presidential Palace and occupy the radio station Radio Reloj at the Radiocentro CMQ Building in order to announce the death of Batista and call for a general strike. The Presidential Palace was to be captured by fifty men under the direction of Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo and Faure Chomón, with support from a group of 100 armed men occupying the tallest buildings in the surrounding area of the Presidential Palace (La Tabacalera, the Sevilla Hotel, the Palace of Fine Arts). However this secondary support operation was not carried out, as the men failed to arrive at the scene due to last-minute hesitation. Although the attackers reached the third floor of the palace, they did not locate or execute Batista.{{clear}}Humboldt 7 massacre
(File:El capitán Glery Hernández de la 6ta Estación de policÃa frente a la puerta destrozada del apartamento donde se habÃan refugiado los jóvenes del DR.jpg|thumb|Havana police at the entrance door of apartment 201, 20 April 1957)The Humboldt 7 massacre occurred on 20 April 1957 at apartment 201 of the Humboldt 7 residential building when the National Police led by Lt. Colonel Esteban Ventura Novo assassinated four participants who had survived the assault on the Presidential Palace and in the seizure of the Radio Reloj station at the Radiocentro CMQ Building.Juan Pedro Carbó was sought by police for the assassination of Col. Antonio Blanco Rico, Chief of Batista’s secret service.WEB,napoleon03.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/humboldt-7-y-el-hombre-que-delato-a-mi-padre/, Humboldt 7 y el hombre que delató a mi padre, 6 March 2011, 2019-08-12,web.archive.org/web/20190812125341/https://napoleon03.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/humboldt-7-y-el-hombre-que-delato-a-mi-padre/, 2019-08-12, live, Marcos RodrÃguez Alfonso (also known as “Marquitos“) began arguing with Fructuoso, Carbó and Machadito; Joe Westbrook had not yet arrived. Marquitos, who gave the airs to be a revolutionary, was strongly against the revolution and was thus resented by the others. On the morning of 20 April 1957, Marquitos met with Lt. Colonel Esteban Ventura and revealed the location of where the young revolutionaries were, Humboldt 7.WEB,medium.com/la-tiza/fructuoso-rodr%C3%ADguez-apuntes-para-la-biograf%C3%ADa-de-un-revolucionario-f00ec3604826, Fructuoso RodrÃguez. Apuntes para la biografÃa de un revolucionario, es, Rosario Alfonso, Parodi, Fructuoso RodrÃguez. Notes for the biography of a revolutionary, La Tizza, 1 June 2020, WEB,www.radiocubana.icrt.cu/la-opinion/245-habana-heroica/25213-humboldt-7-una-criminal-delacion, Humboldt 7, una criminal delación, 2021-03-13, 2 June 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210602214512/https://www.radiocubana.icrt.cu/la-opinion/245-habana-heroica/25213-humboldt-7-una-criminal-delacion, dead, After 5:00 pm on 20 April, a large contingent of police officers arrived and assaulted apartment 201, where the four men were staying. The men were not aware that the police were outside. The police rounded up and executed the rebels, who were unarmed.WEB,havanatimes.org/diaries/elio/the-martyrs-of-humboldt-7/, The Martyrs of Humboldt 7, 25 October 2016, 2018-10-28,web.archive.org/web/20190812141432/https://havanatimes.org/diaries/elio/the-martyrs-of-humboldt-7/, 2019-08-12, live, The incident was covered up until a post-revolution investigation in 1959. Marquitos was arrested and, after a double trial, was sentenced by the Supreme Court to the penalty of death by firing squad in March 1964.WEB,vimeo.com/187481091, Los Amagos de Saturno, vimeo.com,Frank PaÃs
Frank PaÃs was a revolutionary organizer who had built an extensive urban network, who had been tried and acquitted for his role in organizing an unsuccessful uprising in Santiago de Cuba in support of Castro’s landing. On 30 June 1957, Frank’s younger brother, Josué PaÃs, was killed by the Santiago police. During the latter part of July 1957, a wave of systematic police searches forced Frank PaÃs into hiding in Santiago de Cuba. On 30 July he was in a safe house with Raúl Pujol, despite warnings from other members of the Movement that it was not secure. The Santiago police under Colonel José Salas Cañizares surrounded the building. Frank and Raúl attempted to escape. However, an informant betrayed them as they tried to walk to a waiting getaway car. The police officers drove the two men to the Callejón del Muro (Rampart Lane) and shot them in the back of the head. In defiance of Batista’s regime, PaÃs was buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in the olive green uniform and red and black armband of 26 July Movement.In response to the death of PaÃs, the workers of Santiago declared a spontaneous general strike. This strike was the largest popular demonstration in the city up to that point. The mobilization of 30 July 1957 is considered one of the most decisive dates in both the Cuban Revolution and the fall of Batista’s dictatorship. This day has been instituted in Cuba as the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution. The Frank PaÃs Second Front, the guerrilla unit led by Raúl Castro in the Sierra Maestra was named for the fallen revolutionary. His childhood home at 226 San Bartolomé Street was turned into The Santiago Frank PaÃs GarcÃa House Museum and designated as a national monument. The international airport in HolguÃn, Cuba also bears his name.BOOK, Cushion, Steve, A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution How the Working Class Shaped the Guerillas’ Victory,books.google.com/books?id=hfIWCgAAQBAJ&q=november%2030, 2018, Monthly Review Press, 978-1583675816,Naval mutiny at Cienfuegos
On 6 September 1957 elements of the Cuban navy in the Cienfuegos Naval Base staged a rising against the Batista regime. Led by junior officers in sympathy with the 26th of July Movement, this was originally intended to coincide with the seizure of warships in Havana harbour. Reportedly individual officials within the U.S. Embassy were aware of the plot and had promised U.S. recognition if it were successful.BOOK, Hugh, Thomas, 640, Cuba, 2001, 0-330-48487-7, By 5:30am the base was in the hands of the mutineers. Most of the 150 naval personnel sleeping at the base joined with the twenty-eight original conspirators, while eighteen officers were arrested. About two hundred 26th of July Movement members and other rebel supporters entered the base from the town and were given weapons. Cienfuegos was in rebel hands for several hours.BOOK, Hugh, Thomas, 641, Cuba, 2001, 0-330-48487-7, By the afternoon Government motorised infantry had arrived from Santa Clara, supported by B-26 bombers. Armoured units followed from Havana. After street fighting throughout the afternoon and night the last of the rebels, holding out in the police headquarters, were overwhelmed. Approximately 70 mutineers and rebel supporters were executed and reprisals against civilians added to the estimated total death toll of 300 men.BOOK, Hugh, Thomas, 642, Cuba, 2001, 0-330-48487-7, The use of bombers and tanks recently provided under a US-Cuban arms agreement specifically for use in hemisphere defence, now raised tensions between the two governments.BOOK, Hugh, Thomas, 643, Cuba, 2001, 0-330-48487-7,Escalation and US involvement
The United States supplied Cuba with planes, ships, tanks, and other technology such as napalm, which was used against the rebels. This would eventually come to an end due to a later arms embargo in 1958.Ernesto “Che” Guevara (World Leaders Past & Present), by Douglas Kellner, 1989, Chelsea House Publishers, {{ISBN|1-55546-835-7}}, p. 45. On the other side, the Cuban rebels were supplied by Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito.{{sfn|Pirjevec|2018|p=338}}According to Tad Szulc, the United States began funding the 26th of July Movement around October or November 1957 and ending around middle 1958. “No less than $50,000” would be delivered to key leaders of the 26th of July Movement,WEB,www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-10-19-mn-6235-story.html, 1950s CIA Aid to Castro Reported, Los Angeles Times, 19 October 1986, 18 August 2019, the purpose being to instill sympathies to the United States amongst the rebels in case the movement succeeded.NEWS,www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000706570004-6.pdf,web.archive.org/web/20170123223511/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00965R000706570004-6.pdf, dead, 23 January 2017, CIA Helped Fund Castro In 50s, Author Contends, The Washington Post, 19 October 1986, 18 August 2019, File:William Alexander Morgan.jpg|thumb|left|Comandante William Alexander MorganWilliam Alexander MorganWhile Batista increased troop deployments to the Sierra Maestra region to crush the 26 July guerrillas, the Second National Front of the Escambray kept battalions of the Constitutional Army tied up in the Escambray Mountains region. The Second National Front was led by former Revolutionary Directorate member Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and the “Comandante Yanqui” William Alexander Morgan. Gutiérrez Menoyo formed and headed the guerrilla band after news had broken out about Castro’s landing in the Sierra Maestra, and José Antonio EcheverrÃa had stormed the Havana Radio station. Though Morgan was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army, his recreating features from Army basic training made a critical difference in the Second National Front troops’ battle readiness.{{citation|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/comandante/ |url-status=live |title=American Comandante| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020223911www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/comandante/ | archive-date= 20 October 2018|year=2015|work=American Experience |publisher=PBS}}Thereafter, the United States imposed an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its ambassador, weakening the government’s mandate further.BOOK, Cuba and the United States, Louis A. Pérez, Batista’s support among Cubans began to fade, with former supporters either joining the revolutionaries or distancing themselves from Batista. Once Batista started making drastic decisions concerning Cuba’s economy, he began to nationalize U.S. oil refineries and other U.S. properties.BOOK, The World Transformed 1945 to the Present, Hunt, Michael, Oxford University Press, 2014, New York, 260, Batista’s government often resorted to brutal methods to keep Cuba’s cities under control. However, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro, aided by Frank PaÃs, Ramos Latour, Huber Matos, and many others, staged successful attacks on small garrisons of Batista’s troops. Castro was joined by CIA connected Frank Sturgis who offered to train Castro’s troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner. Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from CIA weapons expert Samuel Cummings’ International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia. Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he taught Che Guevara and other 26 July Movement rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.In addition, poorly armed irregulars known as escopeteros harassed Batista’s forces in the forests and mountains of Oriente Province. The escopeteros also provided direct military support to Castro’s main forces by protecting supply lines and by sharing intelligence.BOOK, Don A., Dewitt, U.S. Marines at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 2011,books.google.com/books?id=f36zpcqLxQ4C&q=batista+escopeteros&pg=PA30, 31, iUniverse, 27 June 2015,web.archive.org/web/20151025092500/https://books.google.com/books?id=f36zpcqLxQ4C&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=batista+escopeteros&source=bl&ots=mkBKLPMHjc&sig=Q4XXGa4rO20ZxI1tUl904H4T6O4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=un26UenZA8W00QWQ-YHwCg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=batista%20escopeteros&f=false, 25 October 2015, live, dmy-all, 978-1462021246, Ultimately, the mountains came under Castro’s control.BOOK, Mallin, Jay, Covering Castro: Rise and Decline of Cuba’s Communist Dictator,books.google.com/books?id=7vZKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT19, 2018, Taylor & Francis, New York, 978-1-351-29418-8, 19, In addition to armed resistance, the rebels sought to use propaganda to their advantage. A pirate radio station called Radio Rebelde (“Rebel Radio“) was set up in February 1958, allowing Castro and his forces to broadcast their message nationwide within enemy territory.WEB,www.radiorebelde.cu/english/about-us/, About Us, Radio Rebelde, 11 March 2013,www.radiorebelde.cu/english/about-us/," title="web.archive.org/web/20130609203305www.radiorebelde.cu/english/about-us/,">web.archive.org/web/20130609203305www.radiorebelde.cu/english/about-us/, 9 June 2013, live, dmy-all, Castro’s affiliation with the New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews created a front page-worthy report on anti-communist propaganda.BOOK, The World Transformed 1945 to the Present, Hunt, Michael, Oxford University Press, 2014, 978-0199371020, New York, 267, The radio broadcasts were made possible by Carlos Franqui, a previous acquaintance of Castro who subsequently became a Cuban exile in Puerto Rico.WEB,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/7760752/Carlos-Franqui.html, Carlos Franqui, Daily Telegraph, 24 May 2010, 14 June 2013,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/7760752/Carlos-Franqui.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20121114072349www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/7760752/Carlos-Franqui.html,">web.archive.org/web/20121114072349www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/7760752/Carlos-Franqui.html, 14 November 2012, live, dmy-all, During this time, Castro’s forces remained quite small in numbers, sometimes fewer than 200 men, while the Cuban army and police force had a manpower of around 37,000.WEB,news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1697&dat=19590101&id=FsEaAAAAIBAJ&pg=5002,96492, Batista Says Manpower Edge Lacking, Park City Daily News, 1 January 1959, 14 June 2013,web.archive.org/web/20150912114613/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1697&dat=19590101&id=FsEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0EUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5002,96492, 12 September 2015, live, dmy-all, Even so, nearly every time the Cuban military fought against the revolutionaries, the army was forced to retreat. An arms embargo – imposed on the Cuban government by the United States on 14 March 1958 – contributed significantly to the weakness of Batista’s forces. The Cuban air force rapidly deteriorated: it could not repair its airplanes without importing parts from the United States.WEB,www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47, Air war over Cuba 1956–1959, ACIG.org, 30 November 2011, 14 June 2013,www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47," title="web.archive.org/web/20130318145436www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47,">web.archive.org/web/20130318145436www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=259&Itemid=47, 18 March 2013, live, dmy-all,Final offensives: 1958–1959
Operation Verano
Batista finally responded to Castro’s efforts with an attack on the mountains called Operation Verano (Summer), known to the rebels as la Ofensiva. The army sent some 12,000 soldiers, half of them untrained recruits, into the mountains. In a series of small skirmishes, Castro’s determined guerrillas defeated the Cuban army. In the Battle of La Plata, which lasted from 11 to 21 July 1958, Castro’s forces defeated a 500-man battalion, capturing 240 men while losing just three of their own.WEB,cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html, 1958: Battle of La Plata (El Jigüe), Cuba 1952–1959, 15 December 2009, 26 June 2013,cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20131029195517cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html,">web.archive.org/web/20131029195517cuba1952-1959.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/1958-battle-of-la-plata-el-jigue.html, 29 October 2013, live, dmy-all, However, the tide nearly turned on 29 July 1958, when Batista’s troops almost destroyed Castro’s small army of some 300 men at the Battle of Las Mercedes. With his forces pinned down by superior numbers, Castro asked for, and received, a temporary cease-fire on 1 August. Over the next seven days, while fruitless negotiations took place, Castro’s forces gradually escaped from the trap. By 8 August, Castro’s entire army had escaped back into the mountains, and Operation Verano had effectively ended in failure for the Batista government.Battle of Las Mercedes
The Battle of Las Mercedes (29 July–8 August 1958) was the last battle of Operation Verano.{{cn|date=February 2023}} The battle was a trap, designed by Cuban General Eulogio Cantillo to lure Fidel Castro’s guerrillas into a place where they could be surrounded and destroyed. The battle ended with a cease-fire which Castro proposed and which Cantillo accepted. During the cease-fire, Castro’s forces escaped back into the mountains. The battle, though technically a victory for the Cuban army, left the army dispirited and demoralized. Castro viewed the result as a victory and soon launched his own offensive.(File:Cuba Rev3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|Map showing key locations of the Cuban Revolution)Battalion 17 began its pull back on 29 July 1958. Castro sent a column of men under René Ramos Latour to ambush the retreating soldiers. They attacked the advance guard and killed some 30 soldiers but then came under attack from previously undetected Cuban forces. Latour called for help and Castro came to the battle scene with his own column of men. Castro’s column also came under fire from another group of Cuban soldiers that had secretly advanced up the road from the Estrada Palma Sugar Mill.As the battle heated up, General Cantillo called up more forces from nearby towns and some 1,500 troops started heading towards the fighting. However, this force was halted by a column under Che Guevara’s command. While some critics accuse Che for not coming to the aid of Latour, Major Bockman argues that Che’s move here was the correct thing to do. Indeed, he called Che’s tactical appreciation of the battle “brilliant”.By the end of July, Castro’s troops were fully engaged and in danger of being wiped out by the vastly superior numbers of the Cuban army. He had lost 70 men, including René Latour, and both he and the remains of Latour’s column were surrounded. The next day, Castro requested a cease-fire with General Cantillo, even offering to negotiate an end to the war. This offer was accepted by General Cantillo for reasons that remain unclear.Batista sent a personal representative to negotiate with Castro on 2 August. The negotiations yielded no result but during the next six nights, Castro’s troops managed to slip away unnoticed. On 8 August when the Cuban army resumed its attack, they found no one to fight.Castro’s remaining forces had escaped back into the mountains, and Operation Verano had effectively ended in failure for the Batista government.Battle of Yaguajay
File:Battle of Yaguajay Monument.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|Central part of the battle’s monument and plaza with the statue of Camilo CienfuegosCamilo CienfuegosIn December 1958, Fidel Castro ordered his revolutionary army to go on the offensive against Batista’s army. While Castro led one force against Guisa, Masó and other towns, another major offensive was directed at the capture of the city of Santa Clara, the capital of what was then Las Villas Province.Three columns were sent against Santa Clara under the command of Che Guevara, Jaime Vega, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Vega’s column was caught in an ambush and completely destroyed. Guevara’s column took up positions around Santa Clara (near Fomento). Cienfuegos’s column directly attacked a local army garrison at Yaguajay. Initially numbering just 60 men out of Castro’s hardened core of 230, Cienfuegos’s group had gained many recruits as it crossed the countryside towards Santa Clara, eventually reaching an estimated strength of 450 to 500 fighters.The garrison consisted of some 250 men under the command of a Cuban captain of Chinese ancestry, Alfredo Abon Lee.WEB,www.hero.cult.cu/monumento/yaguajaymultimedia.php, CapÃtulo V – La Batalla de Yaguajay,www.hero.cult.cu/monumento/yaguajaymultimedia.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20081006215916www.hero.cult.cu/monumento/yaguajaymultimedia.php,">web.archive.org/web/20081006215916www.hero.cult.cu/monumento/yaguajaymultimedia.php, 2008-10-06, , Museo Monumento Nacional Camilo CienfuegosWEB,www.radiocaribe.co.cu/secundaria/historia/103.htm, La Batalla de Yaguajay,www.radiocaribe.co.cu/Secundaria/Historia/103.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20100104204350www.radiocaribe.co.cu/Secundaria/Historia/103.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20100104204350www.radiocaribe.co.cu/Secundaria/Historia/103.htm, 2010-01-04, Radio Caribe en la Isla de la Juventud Cuba, The attack seems to have started around 19 December.Convinced that reinforcements would be sent from Santa Clara, Lee put up a determined defense of his post. The guerrillas repeatedly attempted to overpower Lee and his men, but failed each time. By 26 December Camilo Cienfuegos had become quite frustrated; it seemed that Lee could not be overpowered, nor could he be convinced to surrender. In desperation, Cienfuegos tried using a homemade tank against Lee’s position. The “tank” was actually a large tractor encased in iron plates with attached makeshift flamethrowers on top. It, too, proved unsuccessful.Finally, on 30 December Lee ran out of ammunition and was forced to surrender his force to the guerrillas.{{cn|date=February 2023}} The surrender of the garrison was a major blow to the defenders of the provincial capital of Santa Clara. The next day, the combined forces of Cienfuegos, Guevara, and local revolutionaries under William Alexander Morgan captured the city in a fight of vast confusion.Battle of Guisa
On the morning of 20 November 1958, a convoy of the Batista soldiers began its usual journey from Guisa. Shortly after leaving that town, located in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra, the rebels attacked the caravan.WEB,www.acn.cu/especiales-acn/52148-batalla-de-guisa-victoria-decisiva-para-el-triunfo-de-1959-fotos, Batalla de Guisa, victoria decisiva para el triunfo de 1959 (+Fotos), 1 June 2021, 17 August 2022,www.acn.cu/especiales-acn/52148-batalla-de-guisa-victoria-decisiva-para-el-triunfo-de-1959-fotos," title="web.archive.org/web/20220817192730www.acn.cu/especiales-acn/52148-batalla-de-guisa-victoria-decisiva-para-el-triunfo-de-1959-fotos,">web.archive.org/web/20220817192730www.acn.cu/especiales-acn/52148-batalla-de-guisa-victoria-decisiva-para-el-triunfo-de-1959-fotos, dead, Guisa was 12 kilometers from the Command Post of the Zone of Operations, located on the outskirts of the city of Bayamo. Nine days earlier, Fidel Castro had left the La Plata Command, beginning an unstoppable march east with his escort and a small group of combatants.{{efn|Sierra Maestra,Dic. 1, 582 y 45 p.m.Coronel GarcÃa Casares:I am writing these lines to inquire about a man of ours [Lieutenant Orlando Pupo] who was almost certainly taken prisoner by your forces. The event happened like this: after the Army units withdrew, I sent a vanguard to explore in the direction of the Furnace. Further back I set off on the same road where our vanguard was going. By chance said vanguard had taken another road and came to the road behind us. As I expected, I sent a man to catch up with her to tell her to stop before reaching the Furnace. The messenger left with the belief that it was going ahead and therefore would be completely unnoticed of the danger; He was also traveling on horseback, with the consequent noise of his footsteps. Once the error was discovered, everything possible was done to warn him of the situation, but he had already reached the danger zone. They waited several hours for him and he did not return. Today it has not appeared. A gunshot was also heard at night. I am sure that he was taken prisoner; I confess that even the fear that he would have been later killed. I’m worried about the shot that was heard. And I know that when it is a post that fires it is never limited to a single shot in these cases. I have been explicit in the narration of the incident so that you can have sufficient evidence. I hope I can count on your chivalry, to prevent that young man from being assassinated uselessly, if he was not killed last night. We all feel special affection for that partner and we are concerned about his fate. I propose that you return him to our lines, as I have done with hundreds of military personnel, including numerous officers. Military honor will win with that elemental gesture of reciprocity. “Politeness does not remove the brave.” Many painful events have occurred in this war because of some unscrupulous or honorable military personnel, and believe me that the Army needs men and gestures to compensate for those blemishes. It is because I have a high opinion of you that I decide to talk to you about this case, in the assurance that you will do what is within your power. If some formal inconvenience arises, it can be done in the form of an exchange, for one or more of the soldiers we took prisoner during the action of Guisa.Sincerely,Fidel Castro R.}}On 19 November, the rebels arrived in Santa Barbara. By that time, there were approximately 230 combatants. Fidel gathered his officers to organize the siege of Guisa, and ordered the placement of a mine on the Monjarás bridge, over the Cupeinicú river. That night the combatants made a camp in Hoyo de Pipa. In the early morning, they took the path that runs between the Heliografo hill and the Mateo Roblejo hill, where they occupied strategic positions. In the meeting on the 20th, the army lost a truck, a bus, and a jeep. Six were killed and 17 prisoners were taken, three of them wounded. At around 10:30 am, the military Command Post located in the Zone of Operations in Bayamo sent a reinforcement made up of Co. 32, plus a platoon from Co. L and another platoon from Co. 22. This force was unable to advance for the resistance of the rebels. Fidel ordered the mining of another bridge over a tributary of the Cupeinicú River. Hours later the army sent a platoon from Co. 82 and another platoon from Co. 93, supported by a T-17 tank.WEB,www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2007-11-30/la-batalla-de-guisa, La batalla de Guisa, 2021-06-02, {{efn|The following is an excerpt from a speech given on 1 December 1958 by Fidel Castro, broadcast on the Rebel Army’s radio station, which reported on the victory of the revolutionary forces in the battle of Guisa in the Sierra Maestra mountains, one of the turning points in the revolutionary war that spelled the doom of the Batista dictatorship. A month later the dictatorship collapsed and Rebel Army forces entered Havana:a rebel column intercepted the enemy in retreat along the Central Highway and caused it new casualties, obtaining more ammunition and arms.On the 28th, two rebel squads, led by the captured tank, advanced toward Guisa. At 2:30 a.m. on the 29th, the rebels took up positions, and the tank managed to place itself facing the Guisa army quarters. The enemy, entrenched in numerous buildings, gave intense fire. The tank’s cannon had already fired fifty shots when two bazooka shots from the enemy killed its engine, but the tank’s cannon continued firing until its ammunition was exhausted and the men inside lowered the cannon tube. Then occurred an act of unparalleled heroism: rebel Lieutenant Leopoldo Cintras FrÃas, who was operating the tank’s machine gun, removed it from the tank, and despite being wounded, crawled under intense crossfire and managed to carry away the heavy weapon.Meanwhile, that same day, four enemy battalions advanced from separate points: along the road from Bayamo to Guisa, along the road from Bayamo to Corojo, and along the one from Santa Rita to Guisa.All of the enemy forces from Bayamo, Manzanillo, Yara, Estrada Palma, and Baire were mobilized to smash us. The column that advanced along the road from Corojo was repulsed after two hours of combat. The advance of the battalions that came along the road from Bayamo to Guisa was halted, and they encamped two kilometers from Guisa; those that advanced along the road from Corralillo were also turned back.The battalions that encamped two kilometers from Guisa tried to advance during the entire day of the 30th; at 4:00 p.m., while our forces were fighting them, the Guisa garrison abandoned the town in hasty flight, leaving behind abundant arms and armaments. At 9:00 p.m., our vanguard entered the town of Guisa. Enemy supplies seized included a T-17 tank—captured, lost, and recaptured; 94 weapons (guns and machine guns, Springfield and Garand); 12 60-millimeter mortars; one 91-millimeter mortar; a bazooka; seven 30-caliber tripod machine guns; 50,000 bullets; 130 Garand grenades; 70 howitzers of 60- and 81-millimeter mortar; 20 bazooka rockets; 200 knapsacks, 160 uniforms, 14 transport trucks; food; and medicine.The army took two hundred losses counting casualties and wounded. We took eight compañeros who died heroically in action, and seven wounded.A squadron of women, the “Mariana Grajales”, fought valiantly during the ten days of action, resisting the aerial bombardment and the attack by the enemy artillery.Guisa, twelve kilometers from the military port of Bayamo, is now free Cuban territory.}}}}WEB,www.themilitant.com/2004/6815/681560.html, How Rebel Army took the town of Guisa, 2021-06-01,1958 Cuban general election
File:Andrés Rivero Aguero.jpg|thumb|left|Andrés Rivero AgüeroAndrés Rivero AgüeroGeneral elections were held in Cuba on 3 November 1958.WEB,ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00001565/00879, Todas las magistraturas de la Nación serán cubiertas mañana en 8,521 colegios electorales, Diario de la Marina, 2 November 1958, 1 June 2018, The three major presidential candidates were Carlos Márquez Sterling of the Partido del Pueblo Libre, Ramón Grau of the Partido Auténtico and Andrés Rivero Agüero of the Coalición Progresista Nacional. There was also a minor party candidate on the ballot, Alberto Salas Amaro for the Union Cubana party. Voter turnout was estimated at 50% of eligible voters.Manuel Marquez-Sterling (2009). Cuba 1952–1959: The True Story of Castro’s Rise to Power. Kleiopatria Digital Press Although Andrés Rivero Agüero won the presidential election with 70% of the vote, he was unable to take office due to the Cuban Revolution.Dieter Nohlen (2005). Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I. p. 217. {{ISBN|978-0-19-928357-6}}Rivero Agüero was due to be sworn in on 24 February 1959. In a conversation between him and the American ambassador Earl E. T. Smith on 15 November 1958, he called Castro a “sick man” and stated it would be impossible to reach a settlement with him. Rivero Agüero also said that he planned to restore constitutional government and would convene a Constitutional Assembly after taking office.WEB,history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d154, 154. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Ambassador in Cuba (Smith) and President-Elect Rivero Agüero, Havana, November 15, 1958, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State, 23 July 2020, This was the last competitive election in Cuba, the 1940 Constitution of Cuba, the Congress and the Senate of the Cuban Republic, were quickly dismantled shortly thereafter.The rebels had publicly called for an election boycott, issuing its Total War Manifesto on 12 March 1958, threatening to kill anyone that voted.{{cn|reason=Scribd is not a reliable source|date=May 2022}}Battle of Santa Clara and Batista’s flight
(File:Luis Korda 02.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos entering Havana after the rebel victory, 8 January 1959)On 31 December 1958, the Battle of Santa Clara took place in a scene of great confusion. The city of Santa Clara fell to the combined forces of Che Guevara, Cienfuegos, and Revolutionary Directorate (RD) rebels led by Comandantes Rolando Cubela, Juan (“El Mejicano“) Abrahantes, and William Alexander Morgan. News of these defeats caused Batista to panic. He fled Cuba by air for the Dominican Republic just hours later on 1 January 1959. Comandante William Alexander Morgan, leading RD rebel forces, continued fighting as Batista departed, and had captured the city of Cienfuegos by 2 January.{{harvp|Faria|2002|p=69}}Cuban General Eulogio Cantillo entered Havana’s Presidential Palace, proclaimed the Supreme Court judge Carlos Piedra as the new president, and began appointing new members to Batista’s old government.{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=212}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=137}}.Castro learned of Batista’s flight in the morning and immediately started negotiations to take over Santiago de Cuba. On 2 January, the military commander in the city, Colonel Rubido, ordered his soldiers not to fight, and Castro’s forces took over the city. The forces of Guevara and Cienfuegos entered Havana at about the same time. They had met no opposition on their journey from Santa Clara to Cuba’s capital. Castro himself arrived in Havana on 8 January after a long victory march. His initial choice of president, Manuel Urrutia Lleó, took office on 3 January.{{harvp|Thomas|1998|pp=691–693}}Aftermath
{{Further|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution}}Presidency of Manuel Urrutia Lleó
File:Manuel Urrutia Lleó, president of Cuba.jpg|thumb|left|Manuel Urrutia LleóManuel Urrutia Lleó (File:Manuel Urrutia2.jpg|thumb|right|alt=|Che Guevara with Manuel Urrutia in 1959, who was president at the beginning of the revolution, after being appointed by the rebels)Manuel Urrutia Lleó (8 December 1901 – 5 July 1981) was a liberal Cuban lawyer and politician. He campaigned against the Gerardo Machado government and the second presidency of Fulgencio Batista during the 1950s, before serving as president in the first revolutionary government of 1959. Urrutia resigned his position after seven months, owing to a series of disputes with revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and emigrated to the United States shortly afterward.The Cuban Revolution gained victory on 1 January 1959, and Urrutia returned from exile in Venezuela to take up residence in the presidential palace. His new revolutionary government consisted largely of Cuban political veterans and pro-business liberals including José Miró, who was appointed as prime minister.John Lee Anderson, Che Guevara : A revolutionary life. 376–405.Once in power, Urrutia swiftly began a program of closing all brothels, gambling outlets and the national lottery, arguing that these had long been a corrupting influence on the state. The measures drew immediate resistance from the large associated workforce. The disapproving Castro, then commander of Cuba’s new armed forces, intervened to request a stay of execution until alternative employment could be found.Robert E. Quirk. Fidel Castro. p. 229.Disagreements also arose in the new government concerning pay cuts, which were imposed on all public officials on Castro’s demand. The disputed cuts included a reduction of the $100,000 a year presidential salary Urrutia had inherited from Batista.Richard Gott. Cuba. A new history. p. 170. By February, following the surprise resignation of Miró, Castro had assumed the role of prime minister; this strengthened his power and rendered Urrutia increasingly a figurehead president. As Urrutia’s participation in the legislative process declined, other unresolved disputes between the two leaders continued to fester. His belief in the restoration of elections was rejected by Castro, who felt that they would usher in a return to the old discredited system of corrupt parties and fraudulent balloting that had marked the Batista era.The Political End of President Urrutia. Fidel Castro, by Robert E. Quirk 1993. Accessed 8 October 2006.Urrutia was then accused by the Avance newspaper of buying a luxury villa, which was portrayed as a frivolous betrayal of the revolution and led to an outcry from the general public. He denied the allegation issuing a writ against the newspaper in response. The story further increased tensions between the various factions in the government, though Urrutia asserted publicly that he had “absolutely no disagreements” with Fidel Castro. Urrutia attempted to distance the Cuban government (including Castro) from the growing influence of the communists within the administration, making a series of critical public comments against the latter group. Whilst Castro had not openly declared any affiliation with the Cuban communists, Urrutia had been a declared anti-communist since they had refused to support the insurrection against Batista,Hugh Thomas, Cuba. The pursuit for freedom. pp. 830–832 stating in an interview, “If the Cuban people had heeded those words, we would still have Batista with us ... and all those other war criminals who are now running away”.Relations with the United States
(File:Cuban rebel soldiers in the Habana Hilton foyer, January, 1959.jpg|thumb|left|Victorious rebels in the Havana Hilton, January 1959) File:CheyFidel.jpg|thumb|160px|Fidel Castro and Che GuevaraChe GuevaraThe Cuban Revolution was a crucial turning point in U.S.-Cuban relations. Although the United States government was initially willing to recognize Castro’s new government,Gleijeses, Piero (2002). Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976. University of North Carolina Press. p. 14. it soon came to fear that Communist insurgencies would spread through the nations of Latin America, as they had in Southeast Asia.WEB,www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135493605/ahead-of-bay-of-pigs-fears-of-communism, Ahead Of Bay Of Pigs, Fears Of Communism, NPR, 17 April 2011, 9 July 2013,www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135493605/ahead-of-bay-of-pigs-fears-of-communism," title="web.archive.org/web/20140220212237www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135493605/ahead-of-bay-of-pigs-fears-of-communism,">web.archive.org/web/20140220212237www.npr.org/2011/04/17/135493605/ahead-of-bay-of-pigs-fears-of-communism, 20 February 2014, live, dmy-all, Meanwhile, Castro’s government resented the Americans for providing aid to Batista’s government during the revolution. After the revolutionary government nationalized all U.S. property in Cuba in August 1960, the American Eisenhower administration froze all Cuban assets on American soil, severed diplomatic ties and tightened its embargo of Cuba.WEB,www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/07/20127147196482238.html, Cuba receives first US shipment in 50 years, Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera, 14 July 2012, 16 July 2012,www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/07/20127147196482238.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120716081825www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/07/20127147196482238.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120716081825www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/07/20127147196482238.html, 16 July 2012, live, dmy-all, BOOK, Gary B., Nash, Julie, Roy Jeffrey, John R., Howe, Peter J., Frederick, Allen F., Davis, Allan M., Winkler, Charlene, Mires, Carla, Gardina Pestana, The American People, Concise Edition: Creating a Nation and a Society, Combined Volume, 6th, 2007, New York, Longman, {{harvp|Faria|2002|p=105}} The Key West–Havana ferry shut down. In 1961, the U.S. government launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in which Brigade 2506 (a CIA-trained force of 1,500 soldiers, mostly Cuban exiles) landed on a mission to oust Castro; the attempt to overthrow Castro failed, with the invasion being repulsed by the Cuban military.How the Bay of Pigs invasion began – and failed – 60 years on, BBC News (23 April 2021). The U.S. embargo against Cuba is still in force as of 2020, although it underwent a partial loosening during the Obama administration, only to be strengthened in 2017 under Trump. The U.S. began efforts to normalize relations with Cuba in the mid-2010s,WEB,www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30516740, Obama hails ‘new chapter’ in US-Cuba ties, BBC News, 17 December 2014, 18 December 2014,www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30516740," title="web.archive.org/web/20141217231944www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30516740,">web.archive.org/web/20141217231944www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30516740, 17 December 2014, live, dmy-all, and formally reopened its embassy in Havana after over half a century in August 2015.WEB,www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33919484, US flag raised over reopened Cuba embassy in Havana, BBC News, 15 August 2015, 27 August 2015,www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33919484," title="web.archive.org/web/20150818133248www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33919484,">web.archive.org/web/20150818133248www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33919484, 18 August 2015, live, dmy-all, The Trump administration reversed much of the Cuban Thaw by severely restricting travel by US citizens to Cuba and tightening the US government’s embargo against the country.WEB,www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-administration-bans-educational-and-recreational-travel-to-cuba, Trump administration bans educational and recreational travel to Cuba, PBS, 4 June 2019, 6 July 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190604154808/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-administration-bans-educational-and-recreational-travel-to-cuba, 4 June 2019, live, dmy-all, WEB,www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48113549, Helms-Burton Act: US firms face lawsuits over seized Cuban land, BBC, 3 May 2019, 6 July 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190503193152/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48113549, 3 May 2019, live, dmy-all, {{quotation|I believe that there is no country in the world, including the African regions, including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I believe that we created, built and manufactured the Castro movement out of whole cloth and without realizing it. I believe that the accumulation of these mistakes has jeopardized all of Latin America. The great aim of the Alliance for Progress is to reverse this unfortunate policy. This is one of the most, if not the most, important problems in America foreign policy. I can assure you that I have understood the Cubans. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will go even further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries.|U.S. President John F. Kennedy, interview with Jean Daniel, 24 October 1963“Jean Daniel Bensaid: Biography” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112160030spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm |date=12 January 2018 }} . Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 3 December 2012.}}Relations with the Soviet Union
Following the American embargo, the Soviet Union became Cuba’s main ally. The Soviet Union did not initially want anything to do with Cuba or Latin America until the United States had taken an interest in dismantling Castro’s communist government.JOURNAL, Samson, Anna, A History of the Soviet-Cuban Alliance (1960–1991), 2008, Politeja, 10/2, 89–108, 24919326, 1733-6716, At first, many people in the Soviet Union did not know anything about Cuba, and those that did saw Castro as a “troublemaker” and the Cuba Revolution as “one big heresy”. There were three big reasons why the Soviet Union changed their attitudes and finally took interest in the island country. First was the success of the Cuban Revolution, to which Moscow responded with great interest as they understood that if a communist revolution was successful for Cuba, it could be successful elsewhere in Latin America. So from then on the Soviets began looking into foreign affairs in Latin America. Second, after learning about the United States’ aggressive plan to deploy another Guatemala scenario in Cuba, the Soviet opinion quickly changed feet. Third, Soviet leaders saw the Cuban Revolution as first and foremost an anti–North American revolution which of course whet their appetite as this was during the height of the cold war and the Soviet, US battle for global dominance was at its apex.BOOK, Spenser, Daniela, 2008-01-01, The Caribbean Crisis: Catalyst for Soviet Projection in Latin America, Gilbert M. Joseph, Daniela Spenser, In from the Cold: Latin America’s New Encounter with the Cold War, Duke University Press, en, 10.1215/9780822390664-003, 132405444, (File:1962 Cuba Missiles (30848755396).jpg|thumb|Map created by American intelligence showing Surface-to-Air Missile Activity in Cuba, 5 September 1962, a month before the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis)The Soviets’ attitude of optimism changed to one of concern for the safety of Cuba after it was excluded from the inter-American system at the conference held at Punta del Este in January 1962 by the Organization of American States. This coupled with the threat of a United States invasion of the island was really the turning point for Soviet Concern, the idea was that should Cuba be defeated by the United States it would mean defeat for the Soviet Union and for Marxism–Leninism. If Cuba were to fall, “other Latin American countries would reject us, claiming that for all our might the Soviet Union had not been able to do anything for Cuba except to make empty protests to the United Nations” wrote Khrushchev. The Soviet attitude towards Cuba changed to concern for the safety of the island nation because of increased US tensions and threats of invasion making the Soviet–Cuban relationship superficial insofar as it only cared about denying the US power in the region and maintaining Soviet supremacy. All of these events led to the two countries quickly developing close military and intelligence ties, which culminated in the stationing of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962, an act which triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.The aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis saw embarrassment for the Soviet Union,{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} and many countries including Soviet countries were quick to criticize Moscow’s handling of the situation. In a letter that Khrushchev writes to Castro in January of the following year (1963), after the end of conflict, he talks about wanting to discuss the issues in the two countries’ relations. He writes attacking voices from other countries, including socialist ones, blaming the USSR of being opportunistic and self-serving. He explained the decision to withdraw missiles from Cuba, stressing the possibility of advancing Communism through peaceful means. Khrushchev underlined the importance of guaranteeing against an American attack on Cuba and urged Havana to focus on economic, cultural, and technological development to become a shining beacon of socialism in Latin America. In closing he invites Fidel Castro to visit Moscow and discuss the preparations for such a trip.WEB, Khrushchev, Nikita, Letter from Khrushchev to Fidel Castro,digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114507.pdf?v=946daf276273115b399e1658086b5e3b, 19 March 2021, Wilson Center Digital Archive, The following two decades in the 1970s and 1980s were somewhat of an enigma in the sense that the 1970s and 1980s were filled with the most prosperity in Cuba’s history, yet the revolutionary government hit full stride in achieving its most organized form, and it adopted and enacted several brutal features of socialist regimes from the Eastern Bloc.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Despite this it seems to be a time of prosperity.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} In 1972 Cuba joined COMECON, officially joining their trade with the Soviet Union’s socialist trade bloc. That along with increased Soviet subsidies, better trade terms, and better, more practical domestic policy led to several years of prosperous growth. This period also sees Cuba strengthening its foreign policy with other communistic anti-US imperial countries like Nicaragua. This period is marked as the Sovietization of the 1970s and 1980s.WEB, Bustamante, Michael J., 2019-09-30, The Cuban Revolution,oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-643, 2021-03-19, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, en, 10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.643, 978-0-19-932917-5, Cuba maintained close links to the Soviets until the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. The end of Soviet economic aid and the loss of its trade partners in the Eastern Bloc led to an economic crisis and period of shortages known as the Special Period in Cuba.NEWS, 2008-07-24, Parrot diplomacy, The Economist,www.economist.com/the-americas/2008/07/24/parrot-diplomacy, 2021-03-19, 0013-0613, Current day relations with Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, ended in 2002 after the Russian Federation closed an intelligence base in Cuba over budgetary concerns. However, in the last decade, relations have increased in recent years after Russia faced international backlash from the West over the situation in Ukraine in 2014. In retaliation for NATO expansion towards the east, Russia has sought to create these same agreements in Latin America. Russia has specifically sought greater ties with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico. Currently, these countries maintain close economic ties with the United States. In 2012, Putin decided that Russia focus its military power in Cuba like it had in the past. Putin is quoted saying “Our goal is to expand Russia’s presence on the global arms and military equipment market. This means expanding the number of countries we sell to and expanding the range of goods and services we offer.“JOURNAL, Shuya, Mason, 2019, Russian Influence in Latin America: a Response to NATO, Journal of Strategic Security, 12, 2, 17–41, 10.5038/1944-0472.12.2.1727, 26696258, 199756261, 1944-0464, free,Global influence
Castro’s victory and post-revolutionary foreign policy had global repercussions as influenced by the expansion of the Soviet Union into Eastern Europe after the 1917 October Revolution. In line with his call for revolution in Latin America and beyond against imperial powers, laid out in his Declarations of Havana, Castro immediately sought to “export” his revolution to other countries in the Caribbean and beyond, sending weapons to Algerian rebels as early as 1960.WEB,www.historytoday.com/alfred-stepan/makers-twentieth-century-castro, Makers of the Twentieth Century: Castro, History Today, 1981, 9 July 2013,www.historytoday.com/alfred-stepan/makers-twentieth-century-castro," title="web.archive.org/web/20131111114833www.historytoday.com/alfred-stepan/makers-twentieth-century-castro,">web.archive.org/web/20131111114833www.historytoday.com/alfred-stepan/makers-twentieth-century-castro, 11 November 2013, live, dmy-all, In the following decades, Cuba became heavily involved in supporting Communist insurgencies and independence movements in many developing countries, sending military aid to insurgents in Ghana, Nicaragua, North Yemen, and Angola, among others. Castro’s intervention in the Angolan Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s was particularly significant, involving as many as 60,000 Cuban soldiers.“La Guerras Secretas de Fidel Castro” {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118152048www.cubamatinal.com/Noticia.cfm?NoticiaID=7964 |date=18 January 2012 }} (in Spanish). CubaMatinal.com. Retrieved 9 March 2013.Characteristics
Ideology
(File:Outdoor em Havana, Cuba.jpg|thumb|Propaganda poster in Havana, 2012)At the time of the revolution various sectors of society supported the revolutionary movement from communists to business leaders and the Catholic Church.WEB, Cuba receives first US shipment in 50 years, Cambridge University Press, 18 November 2019,assets.cambridge.org/97811076/98901/excerpt/9781107698901_excerpt2.pdf, The beliefs of Fidel Castro during the revolution have been the subject of much historical debate. Fidel Castro was openly ambiguous about his beliefs at the time. Some orthodox historians argue Castro was a communist from the beginning with a long-term plan; however, others have argued he had no strong ideological loyalties. Leslie Dewart has stated that there is no evidence to suggest Castro was ever a communist agent. Levine and Papasotiriou believe Castro believed in little outside of a distaste for American imperialism. As evidence for his lack of communist leanings they note his friendly relations with the United States shortly after the revolution and him not joining the Cuban Communist Party during the beginning of his land reforms.At the time of the revolution the 26th of July Movement involved people of various political persuasions, but most were in agreement and desired the reinstatement of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and supported the ideals of Jose Marti. Che Guevara commented to Jorge Masetti in an interview during the revolution that “Fidel isn’t a communist” also stating “politically you can define Fidel and his movement as ‘revolutionary nationalist’. Of course he is anti-American, in the sense that Americans are anti-revolutionaries”.BOOK, Brown, Jonathan, 2017, Cuba’s Revolutionary World,books.google.com/books?id=Js-5DgAAQBAJ&dq=cuban+revolution+putschist&pg=PT205, Harvard University Press, 978-0674978324,Women’s roles
File:Raúl, Vilma, Jorge Risquet y José Nivaldo Causse.jpg|thumb|Raúl Castro, Vilma EspÃn, Jorge RisquetJorge RisquetThe importance of women’s contributions to the Cuban Revolution is reflected in the very accomplishments that allowed the revolution to be successful, from the participation in the Moncada Barracks, to the Mariana Grajales all-women’s platoon that served as Fidel Castro’s personal security detail. Tete Puebla, second in command of the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon, has said:{{quotation|Women in Cuba have always been on the front line of the struggle. At Moncada we had Yeye (Haydée SantamarÃa) and Melba (Hernández). With the Granma (yacht) and November 30, we had Celia, Vilma, and many other compañeras. There were many women comrades who were tortured and murdered. From the beginning there were women in the Revolutionary Armed Forces. First they were simple soldiers, later sergeants. Those of us in the Mariana Grajales Platoon were the first officers. The ones who ended the war with officers’ ranks stayed in the armed forces.Puebla, Teté, and Mary-Alice Waters. Marianas in Combat: Teté Puebla & the Mariana Grajales Women’s Platoon in Cuba’s Revolutionary War, 1956–58. New York: Pathfinder, 2003.}}Before the Mariana Grajales Platoon was established, the revolutionary women of the Sierra Maestra were not organized for combat and primarily helped with cooking, mending clothes, and tending to the sick, frequently acting as couriers, as well as teaching guerrillas to read and write.Haydée SantamarÃa and Melba Hernández were the only women who participated in the attack on the Moncada Barracks, afterward acting alongside Natalia Revuelta, and Lidia Castro (Fidel Castro’s sister) to form alliances with anti-Batista organizations, as well as the assembly and distribution of “History Will Absolve Me”.Shayne, Julie D. The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba. Rutgers University Press, 2004. Celia Sánchez and Vilma Espin were leading strategists and highly skilled combatants who held essential roles throughout the revolution. Tete Puebla, founding member and second in command of the Mariana Grajales Platoon, said of Celia Sánchez, “When you speak of Celia, you’ve got to speak of Fidel, and vice versa. Celia’s ideas touched almost everything in the Sierra.”Related archival collections
There were many foreign presences in Cuba during this time. Esther Brinch was a Danish translator for the Danish government in 1960’s Cuba. Brinch’s work covered the Cuban Revolution and Cuban Missile Crisis.WEB,scrc.gmu.edu/finding_aids/brinch.html, Guide to the Esther Brinch Cuban Revolution documents, 1960-1967Esther Brinch Cuban Revolution documents, scrc.gmu.edu, 2020-04-09, A collection of Brinch’s archival materials is housed at the George Mason University Special Collections Research Center.See also
{{Div col}}- Bolivarian Revolution
- Communist revolution
- Communism
- Cuban thaw
- History of Cuba
- Latin American wars of independence
- Corruption in Cuba
- Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution
- Foreign relations of Cuba
Notes
{{notelist}}References
{{Reflist}}Bibliography
- BOOK, Brown, Gates, Tucker, Spencer C., Tucker, Spencer C., Encyclopedia of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: A New Era of Modern Warfare: A New Era of Modern Warfare,books.google.com/books?id=LXCjAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA127, 2013, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, 978-1-61069-280-9, Cuban Revolution,
- BOOK, Fidel Castro: My Life, Castro, Fidel, Penguin Books, Translated by Andrew Hurley, 2007, 978-0-14-102626-8, Fidel Castro, Ignacio Ramonet,
- BOOK, Cuba: Mito y Realidad: Testimonios de un Pueblo, Clark, Juan, Saeta Ediciones, 1992, 978-0-917049-16-3, Miami,
- BOOK, The Real Fidel Castro,archive.org/details/realfidelcastro00colt_0, registration, Coltman, Leycester, Arthur Leycester Scott Coltman, 2003, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 978-0-300-10760-9,
- BOOK, Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution, English, T. J., 2008, William Morrow, 978-0-06-114771-5, T. J. English,archive.org/details/havananocturneho00engl,
- BOOK, The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–62, Font, Fabián Escalante, 1995, Ocean Front, 1875284869,
- BOOK, Cuba in Revolution: Escape from a Lost Paradise, Faria, Miguel A. Jr, 2002, Hacienda Pub Inc, 0-9641077-3-2, Milledgeville, GA, Miguel A. Faria, Jr.,
- BOOK, Dagger in the heart: American policy failures in Cuba, Lazo, Mario, Twin Circle, 1968, New York,
- WEB,www.fiu.edu/~fcf/castro_year1/urrutia.dorticos.html, The Political End of President Urrutia – Fidel Castro, Robert E., Quirk, 1993, 8 October 2006,
- BOOK, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, Thomas, Hugh, Da Capo Press, 1998, 0-306-80827-7, New York, Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton,
- BOOK, Pirjevec, Jože, Jože Pirjevec, Tito. Die Biografie, Tito. The biography, 2018, Klaus Detlef Olof, Kunstmann, Munich, 978-3956142420,
Further reading
- Thomas M. Leonard (1999). Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Greenwood Press. {{ISBN|0-313-29979-X}}.
- Julio GarcÃa Luis (2008). Cuban Revolution Reader: A Documentary History of Key Moments in Fidel Castro’s Revolution. Ocean Press. {{ISBN|1-920888-89-6}}.
- Samuel Farber (2012). Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment. Haymarket Books. {{ISBN|978-1608461394}}.
- Joseph Hansen (1994). Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution: A Marxist Appreciation. Pathfinder Press. {{ISBN|0-87348-559-9}}.
- Julia E. Sweig (2004). Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground. Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-674-01612-2}}.
- Thomas C. Wright (2000). Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution. Praeger Paperback. {{ISBN|0-275-96706-9}}.
- Marifeli Perez-Stable (1998). The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-512749-8}}.
- Geraldine Lievesley (2004). The Cuban Revolution: Past, Present and Future Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|0-333-96853-0}}.
- Teo A. Babun (2005). The Cuban Revolution: Years of Promise. University Press of Florida. {{ISBN|0-8130-2860-4}}.
- Antonio Rafael de la Cova (2007). The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. University of South Carolina Press. {{ISBN|1-57003-672-1}}.
- Samuel Farber (2006). The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered. The University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|0-8078-5673-8}}.
- Jules R. Benjamin (1992). The United States and the Origins of the Cuban Revolution. Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-02536-3}}.
- Comite central del Partido comunista de Cuba: Comisión de orientación revolucionaria (1972). Rencontre symbolique entre deux processus historiques [i.e., de Cuba et de Chile]. La Habana, Cuba: Éditions politiques.
- David M. Watry (2014). Diplomacy at the Brink: Eisenhower, Churchill, and Eden in the Cold War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0807157183}}.
- Dolgoff, Sam The Cuban Revolution, a Critical Perspective The Cuban Revolution Table of Contents
External links
{{#invoke:Sister project links|main|d=yes}}- Fidel Castro. {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20090417033036www.thenation.com/doc/19571130/castro |date=17 April 2009 |title=“What Cuba’s Rebels Want” }}. The Nation via Internet Archive. 30 November 1957.
- “The Cuban Revolution (1952–1958)”. Latin American Studies Organization.
- Michael Voss. “Reliving Cuba’s Revolution”. BBC. 29 December 2008.
- “The History of Socialist Revolution in Cuba (1953–1959)”. World History Archives.
- Arthur Brice. “Memories of Boyhood in the Heat of the Cuban Revolution”. CNN. 2009.
- “1959–2009: Celebrating 50 years of the Cuban Revolution”. Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
- {{Internet Archive film clip|id=1959-01-05_Castro_Triumphs|description=“Castro Triumphs. Havana Crowds Hail Success Of Revolt, 1959/01/05 (1959)“}}.
- BOOK,www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11smxrz.113, j.ctv11smxrz.113, Silvio RodrÃguez Sings of the Special Period, RodrÃguez, Silvio, The Cuba Reader, 2019, 521–524, Duke University Press, 10.2307/j.ctv11smxrz.113, 9781478003649,
- BOOK,www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv11smxrz.59, j.ctv11smxrz.59, Sugar Mills and Soviets, Rionda, Salvador, The Cuba Reader, 2019, 259–260, Duke University Press, 10.2307/j.ctv11smxrz.59, 9781478003649,
- Shutterbulky. “Cuban Revolution – Completely Analytical Digest” shutterbulky web article: 22 July 2021.
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