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US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista on 1 January 1959, after over five years of struggle.[1]
Contents
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1 Pre-1956 2 December 1956 to mid-1958 3 Mid-1958 to January 1959 4 Post-1959: After the revolution 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links
[edit] Pre-1956
Main article: Moncada Barracks The Cuban revolution began[2] when well armed rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the barracks in Bayamo on 26 July 1953.[3] The exact number of rebels killed is debatable; however, in his autobiography, Fidel Castro claims that five were killed in the fighting, and an additional fifty-six were killed later by the Batista regime.[4] Among the dead was Abel Santamara, second-in-command of the assault on the Moncada Barracks, who was imprisoned, tortured, and executed on the same day as the attack.[5] The survivors, among them Fidel Castro and his brother Ral Castro Ruz, were captured shortly afterwards. In a highly political trial, Fidel Castro spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words; "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me." Fidel Castro was sentenced to 15 years in the Presidio Modelo prison, located on Isla de Pinos; Ral was sentenced to 13 years. In 1955, under broad political pressure, the Batista regime freed all political prisoners in Cuba including the Moncada attackers. Batista was persuaded to include the Castro brothers in this release in part by Fidel's Jesuit childhood teachers.[6] The Castro brothers had joined with other exiles in Mexico to prepare a revolution to overthrow Batista, receiving training from Alberto Bayo, a leader of Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. During this period, Fidel met and joined forces with the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.[7]
other members of the 26th of July Movement. It arrived two days later than planned because the boat was heavily loaded, unlike during the practice sailing runs.[9] 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, but a small number escaped. While the exact number is in dispute, no more than twenty of the original eighty-two men survived the initial bloody encounters with the Cuban army and succeeded in fleeing into the Sierra Maestra mountains.[10] The group of survivors included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ral Castro, 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. Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria (the sister of Abel Santamaria) were among the female revolutionaries who assisted Fidel Castro in the mountains. On 13 March 1957, a separate group of revolutionaries the anticommunist Revolutionary Directorate (RD; Directorio Revolucionario), composed mostly of students stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana, attempting to assassinate Batista and decapitate the regime. The attack was suicidal. The RD's leader, student Jose Antonio Echeverria, died in a shootout with Batista's forces at the Havana radio station he had seized to spread the news of Batista's death. The handful of survivors included Dr. Humberto Castello (who later became the Inspector General in the Escambray), and Rolando Cubela and Faure Chomon (later Commandantes of the 13 March Movement, centered in the Escambray Mountains of Las Villas Province).[11] Thereafter, the United States imposed an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its ambassador, weakening the government's mandate further.[12] Batista's support was limited to communists, primarily the Popular Socialist Party, but even they began to withdraw their long-term support in mid-1958.[13] The regime resorted to often brutal methods to keep Cuba's cities under government control. However, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro, aided by Frank Pas, Ramos Latour, Huber Matos, and many others, staged successful attacks on small garrisons of Batista's troops. Che Guevara and Ral Castro helped Fidel to consolidate his political control in the mountains, often through execution of suspected Batista loyalists or other rivals of Castro's. In addition, poorly armed irregulars known as escopeteros harassed Batista's forces in the foothills and plains of Oriente Province. The escopeteros also provided direct military support to Castro's main forces by protecting supply lines and by sharing intelligence. Ultimately, the mountains came under Castro's control. In addition to armed resistance, the rebels sought to use propaganda to their advantage. A pirate radio station called Rebel Radio (Radio Rebelde) was set up in February 1958. Castro and his forces broadcast their message nationwide within enemy territory. The radio broadcasts were made possible by Carlos Franqui, a previous acquaintance of Castro who subsequently became a Cuban exile in Puerto Rico. During this time, Castro's forces remained quite small in numbers, sometimes less than 200 men, while the Cuban army and police force numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 in strength. Yet, 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. Batista finally responded to Castro's efforts with an attack on the mountains called Operation Verano, 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 July to 21 July 1958, Castro's forces defeated an entire battalion, capturing 240 men while losing just 3 of their own. 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.
city of Santa Clara fell to the combined forces of Che Guevara, Cienfuegos, 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 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.[15] 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 choice for president, Manuel Urrutia Lle, took office on the 3rd.[16]
that of the Beaton brothers. Shortly after taking power, Castro also created a Revolutionary militia to expand his power base among the former rebels and the supportive population. Castro also initiated Committees for the Defense of the Revolution or CDRs in late September 1960. Government informants became rampant within the population. CDRs were tasked with keeping "vigilance against counterrevolutionary activity." Local CDRs were also tasked with keeping a detailed record of each neighborhoods inhabitants' spending habits, level of contact with foreigners, work and education history, and any "suspicious" behavior.[21] One of the persecuted groups were homosexual men. [22] The Cuban dissident and exile Reinaldo Arenas wrote about such persecution in his autobiography, "Antes Que Anochezca", the basis for the film Before Night Falls. In February 1959, the Ministry for the Recovery of Misappropriated Assets (Ministerio de Recuperacin de Bienes Malversados) was created. Cuba began expropriating land and private property under the auspices of the Agrarian Reform Law of 17 May 1959. Cuban lawyer Mario Lazo writes that farms of any size could be and were seized by the government. Land, businesses, and companies owned by upper- and middle-class Cubans were also nationalized, including the plantations owned by Fidel Castro's family. By the end of 1960, the revolutionary government had nationalized more than $25 billion worth of private property owned by Cubans. [23] Cuba also nationalized all foreign-owned property, particularly American holdings, in the nation on 6 August 1960. The United States, in turn, responded by freezing all Cuban assets in the United States, severing diplomatic ties,[24] and tightening the embargo on Cuba, which is still in place as of 2011.[25] In response to the acts of the Eisenhower administration, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union for support.[26]
"The greatest threat presented by Castros Cuba is as an example to other Latin American states which are beset by poverty, corruption, feudalism, and plutocratic exploitation ... his influence in Latin America might be overwhelming and irresistible if, with Soviet help, he could establish in Cuba a Communist utopia." Walter Lippmann, Newsweek, 27 April 1964[27]
In July 1961, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO) was formed by the merger of Fidel Castros 26th of July Movement, the People's Socialist Party led by Blas Roca, and the Revolutionary Directorate of 13 March led by Faure Chomn.[28] On 26 March 1962, the IRO became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) which, in turn, became the Communist Party of Cuba on 3 October 1965, with Castro as First Secretary. Many attempts were made by the United States to overthrow Cuba's government in the wake of the revolution. One of the most notorious was the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. After the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the United States promised to never invade the island. A series of desperate but unsuccessful rebellions by former Batista supporters, known as the War Against the Bandits, continued until about 1965.
Communist revolution
[edit] References
1. ^ Audio: Cuba Marks 50 Years Since 'Triumphant Revolution' by Jason
p. 189.
14. ^ The Life & Times of Che Guevara by David Sandison, 1996, Paragon, ISBN
0-7525-1776-7 pg 41
15. ^ Faria, Cuba in Revolution, 2002, pp.69 16. ^ Thomas, Hugh, Cuba: The pursuit of freedom, pp. 6913 17. ^ Attack us at your Peril, Cocky Cuba Warns US, Henry Brandon, The
of-1959/Cuban-Revolution/12295509433704-2/
19. ^ Juan Clark Cuba: Mito y Realidad: Testimonio de un Pueblo (1992), Saeta
22. ^ Young, Allen (1982). Gays under the Cuban revolution. Grey Fox Press.
ISBN 0912516615.
23. ^ Lazo, Mario, American Policy Failures in Cuba Dagger in the Heart
(1970) Twin Circle Publishing Co., New York, pp. 198200, 204, Library of Congress Card Catalog Number:68-31632
24. ^ Nash, Gary B., Julie Roy Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F.
Davis, Allan M. Winkler, Charlene Mires, and Carla Gardina Pestana. The American People, Concise Edition Creating a Nation and a Society, Combined Volume (6th Edition). New York: Longman, 2007.
25. ^ Faria (2002), op.cit. p. 105. 26. ^ Nash, Gary B., Julie Roy Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F.
Davis, Allan M. Winkler, Charlene Mires, and Carla Gardina Pestana. The American People, Concise Edition Creating a Nation and a Society, Combined Volume (6th Edition). New York: Longman, 2007.
27. ^ "Cuba Once More", by Walter Lippmann, Newsweek magazine, 27 April
1964, pg 23
28. ^ "Kantor". Hacienda Pub. http://www.haciendapub.com/kantor1.html.
Castro and the Cuban Revolution, by Thomas M. Leonard, Greenwood Press, 1999, ISBN 0-313-29979-X Cuban Revolution Reader: A Documentary History of Key Moments in Fidel Castro's Revolution, by Julio Garca Luis, Ocean Press, 2008, ISBN 1-920888-89-6 Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution: A Marxist Appreciation, by Joseph Hansen, Pathfinder Press, 1994, ISBN 0-87348-559-9 Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution, by T. J. English, William Morrow, 2008, ISBN 0-06-114771-0 Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground, by Julia E. Sweig, Harvard University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-674-01612-2 Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution, by Thomas C. Wright, Praeger Paperback, 2000, ISBN 0-275-96706-9 The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy, by Marifeli Perez-Stable, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-512749-8 The Cuban Revolution: Past, Present and Future Perspectives, by Geraldine Lievesley, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 0-333-96853-0
The Cuban Revolution: Years of Promise, by Teo A. Babun, University Press of Florida, 2005, ISBN 0-8130-2860-4 The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution, by Antonio Rafael De LA Cova, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, ISBN 1-57003-672-1 The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered, by Samuel Farber, The University of North Carolina Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8078-5673-8 The United States and the Origins of the Cuban Revolution, by Jules R. Benjamin, Princeton University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-691-02536-3