RSS
On 26 July 1953, Fidel Castro with the support of over 100 militants and students attacked the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The assault was foiled and most of the rebels killed. Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, he was granted amnesty under popular pressure2 years later. He fled to Mexico City where he gathered other revolutionaries around him, including his brother Raúl and a radical Argentine doctor named Ernesto Guevara.
In December 1956, Castro and his 81 supporters sailed from Mexico to Cuba. The guerrillas settled in the Sierra Maestra Mountains near Santiago and slowly gained support among the peasants. An underground resistance was boiling in the cities as they were staging protests and supplying new recruits and arms to Castro's fighters.
In May 1958, Batista dispatched 10,000 soldiers to wipe out the guerrillas but the campaign failed miserably. Castro's troops fought back led by ‘Che' Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. Finally, batista's army collapsed and the dictator fled to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959 with $40 million. On the next day, Che and Camilo arrived in Havana. Fidel drove from Santiago to reach Havana on January 8 and named the Prime Minister of Cuba.
The new government brought in drastic reforms. They immediately nationalized all landholdings over 400 hectares. Some land was redistributed to landless peasants and the rest was turned into state farms where agricultural workers were given secure, paid employment for the first time. Racial discrimination was abolished, rents was slashed and salaries were increased. Thousands of volunteers spread across the countryside to teach peasants to read and write that became one of the most successful literacy campaigns of all time.
The USA was appalled by the nationalization of American-owned plantations and initiated a CIA-led plan to oust the Castro Government. Cuba responded to American attack by nationalizing all US-owned companies and establishing closer economic and political ties with the Soviet Union. USA began an economic blockade and cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January, 1961. The US got an opportunity to bring down the revolutionary government on 17 April 1961 by means of ‘Bay of Pigs' invasion by 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles. However, the invasion failed miserably.
In October 1961, the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis' brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Moscow had installed 40 nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. The US threatened war unless the missiles were removed. Finally, the Soviets backed down in exchange for a promise from President Kennedy not to invade.
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara set out to build a utopian socialist state. This included a complete reorganization of the economy and a ban on all forms of private enterprise. Despite Soviet aid, production dropped and a quarter-million Cubans left for the US. An ambitious effort to harvest 10 million tons of sugar in 1970 produced economic chaos and pushed Cuba further into the Soviet orbit.
In the 1970's, the dependence on Moscow increased as Cuba adopted the Soviet model of authoritarian central planning and bureaucratization. The system survived on Soviet subsidies that helped build an impressive social welfare system. The reality was grim with the economy was sputtering and frustration growing. Opportunities for economic advancement were limited and corruption was spreading bringing with it both cynicism and disillusionment.
In the mid-1980s, Fidel Castro tried to loosen the rigid Soviet model. With the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989, Cuba lost $5 billion worth of support almost overnight. In August 1990, President Castro announced a ‘special period' austerity program to confront the nation's worst-ever crisis. As Soviet oil imports dropped, Cuban industry and agriculture came to a halt.
The US used this opportunity to tighten its trade embargo. The 1992, Torricelli Act curtailed shipments of food and medical supplies from subsidiaries of American companies. Basic consumer goods like soap and clothing grew scarce. The country's limited resources were channeled into education and healthcare, both deemed crucial to the Government's survival.
The Government introduced a clutch of market reforms including legalization of the dollar and limited self-employment. In March 1996 Washington turned up the heat by passing the Helms-Burton Bill that set out to limit foreign investment in the country. Canada and the European Union challenged the American law.
By the later 1990s the situation in the country had stabilized. By then Cuba had more or less normal economic relations with most Latin American countries and had improved relations with the European Union, which began providing aid and loans to the island. Communist China also emerged as a new source of aid and support, even though Cuba had sided with the Soviets during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s.
On July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro delegated his duties as President of the Council of state, President of the Council of Ministers, First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and the post of commander in chief of the armed forces to his brother and First Vice President, Raúl Castro. On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro announced that he is resigning from his function as President of Cuba. On 24 February 2008, Raul Castro was elected as the new President of Cuba.
By: Shuchita Bist
GOWEALTHY.COM © 2008
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