Chapter 2 Cuba - Castro

1958 Pastoral Letter

An official letter from a bishop to all the clergy or members of his or her diocese. The letter also acknowledges the implementation of a number of measures or reforms that have brought positive change to the country's economic, social and, to a certain degree, political spheres.

Fulgencio Batista

Batista was born in the town of Veguita, located in the municipality of Banes, Cuba, province of Holguín, in 1901, to Belisario Batista Palermo[16] and Carmela Zaldívar González, who had fought in the Cuban War of Independence. He was of Spanish, African and Chinese descent. Both Batista's parents are believed to have been of mixed race, and one may have had indigenous Caribbean blood. Batista was initially educated at a public school in Banes, and later attended night classes at an American Quaker school. He left home at age 14, after the death of his mother. Coming from a humble background, he earned a living as a laborer in the cane fields, docks, and railroads.He was a tailor, mechanic, charcoal vendor and fruit peddler. In 1921, he traveled to Havana and joined the army as a private in April that year. After learning shorthand and typing, Batista left the army in 1923, working briefly as a teacher of stenography before enlisting in the Guardia Rural (rural police). He transferred back to the army as a corporal, becoming secretary to a regimental colonel. In September 1933, he held the rank of sergeant stenographer and as such acted as the secretary of a group of non-commissioned officers who led a "sergeant's conspiracy" for better conditions and improved prospects of promotion. In 1933, Batista led an uprising called the Revolt of the Sergeants, as part of the coup that overthrew the government of Gerardo Machado.[25] Machado was succeeded by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada, who lacked a political coalition that could sustain him and was soon replaced. A short-lived five-member presidency, known as the Pentarchy of 1933, was established. It included a representative from each anti-Machado faction. Batista was not a member, but controlled Cuba's armed forces. Within days, the representative for the students and professors of the University of Havana, Ramón Grau San Martín, was made president—and Batista became the Army Chief of Staff, with the rank of colonel, effectively putting him in control of the presidency. The majority of the commissioned officer corps were forced to retire or, some speculate, were killed. 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, the first non-white Cuban in that office. Although Batista supported capitalism and admired the United States, he was endorsed by the old Communist Party of Cuba. In 1952, Batista again ran for president. In a three-way race, Roberto Agramonte of the Orthodox Party led in all the polls, followed by Carlos Hevia of the Authentic Party. Batista's United Action coalition was running a distant third. On March 10, 1952, three months before the elections, Batista, with army backing, staged a coup and seized power. He ousted outgoing President Carlos Prío Socarrás, canceled the elections, and took control of the government as "provisional president." After he fled to Portugal, Batista lived in Madeira, then later in Estoril, outside Lisbon. He was the Chairman of a Spanish life insurance company that invested in property and mortgages on the Andalusian Costa del Sol. He died of a heart attack on August 6, 1973, at Guadalmina, near Marbella, Spain, two days before, allegedly, a team of assassins from Castro's Cuba were to carry out a plan to assassinate him.

Juan Almeida

Born Feb. 17, 1927, Havana, Cuba and died Sept. 11, 2009, Havana. Almeida was born in Havana. He left school at the age of eleven and became a bricklayer. Studied law at the University of Havana in 1952, he became close friends with Fidel Castro and in March joined the anti-Batista movement. In 1953 he joined Fidel and his brother in the assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago. He was arrested and imprisoned with the Castro brothers. During the amnesty of May 15, 1955, he was released and transferred to Mexico. Almeida returned to Cuba with the Castro brothers, Che Guevara and 78 other revolutionaries on the Granma expedition and was one of just 12 who survived the initial landing. Almeida is often credited with shouting "Here, nobody surrenders!" to Guevara, which would become a slogan of the Cuban revolution. Also fought in Sierra Maestra mountain range. During the revolution, as a black man in a prominent position, he served as a symbol for Afro-Cubans of the rebellion's break with Cuba's discriminatory past. Was later named a member of the powerful Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. He also served as vice president of the Council of State and held a number of important military posts. In 1998 Castro gave Almeida the honorary title Hero of the Republic of Cuba. Almeida was largely inactive politically after suffering heart problems in 2003.

Fidel Castro

Born in Birán, Oriente as the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government, and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade, and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro formed an alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis—a defining incident of the Cold War—in 1962. Adopting a Marxist-Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua, and Grenada, and sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba into its "Special Period" and embraced environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s he forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide"—namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela—and signed Cuba up to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006 he transferred his responsibilities to Vice-President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008. Castro is a polarizing world figure. His supporters view him as a great leader of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary regime advanced economic and social justice while securing Cuba's independence from American imperialism. Critics view him as a dictator whose administration oversaw human-rights abuses, the exodus of a large number of Cubans, and the impoverishment of the country's economy. He was decorated with various international awards and significantly influenced various individuals and groups across the world.

National Institute Of Agrarian Reform

Che Guevara crafted the Agrarian Reform Law which went into effect on May 17, 1959. This limited the size of farms to 3,333 acres and real estate to 1,000 acres. Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in 67 acres parcels or held as state-run communes. A new government agency, the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), was established to administer this law, and quickly became the most important governing body in the nation, with Guevara named Minister of Industries

Ernesto Guevara

Che Guevara was born into a middle-class family on June 14, 1928, in Rosario, Argentina. He absorbed the left-leaning political views of his family and friends, and by his teens had become politically active, joining a group that opposed the government of Juan Perón. After graduating from high school with honors, Guevara studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires with the intent on providing care for the needy. He received his degree in 1953. However, as Guevara's interest in Marxism grew, he decided to abandon medicine, believing that only revolution could bring justice to the people of South America. In 1953 he traveled to Guatemala, where he witnessed the CIA-backed overthrow of its leftist government, which only served to deepen his convictions. By 1955, Guevara was married and living in Mexico, where he met Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who were preparing an attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. Guevara joined Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, which landed a force of 81 men in the Cuban province of Oriente late in November 1956. Immediately detected by Batista's army, they were almost wiped out. The few survivors, including the wounded Guevara, reached the Sierra Maestra, where they became the nucleus of a guerrilla army. The rebels slowly gained in strength, seizing weapons from Batista's forces and winning support and new recruits. Over the next few years, he would serve as a primary adviser to Castro and lead their growing guerrilla forces in attacks against the crumbling Batista regime. In January 1959 Fidel Castro took control of Cuba and placed Guevara in charge of La Cabaña prison, where it is estimated that perhaps hundreds of people were executed on Guevara's extrajudicial orders. He was later appointed president of the national bank and minister of industry, and did much to shift the country's trade relations from the United States to the Soviet Union. In the early 1960s, Guevara also acted as an ambassador for Cuba, traveling the world to establish relations with other countries, most notably the Soviet Union, and was a key player during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also authored a manual on guerrilla warfare, and in 1964 delivered a speech to the United Nations in which he condemned U.S. foreign policy and the apartheid in South Africa. By 1965, with the Cuban economy in shambles, Guevara left his post to export his revolutionary ideologies to other parts of the world. He traveled first to the Congo to train troops in guerrilla warfare in support of a revolution there, but left later that year when it failed. After returning briefly to Cuba, in 1966 Guevara departed for Bolivia with a small force of rebels to incite a revolution there. He was captured by the Bolivian army and killed in La Higuera on October 9, 1967.

Gerardo Machado

Gerardo Machado y Morales was a hero in the Cuban War of Independence (1895-98) who was later elected president by an overwhelming majority, only to become one of Cuba's most powerful dictators. He was born on Sept. 29, 1871 in Camajuaní, Cuba and died on March 29, 1939 in Miami Beach. He spent his childhood on his family's cattle farm and in his early 20s engaged in growing and selling tobacco. During Cuba's Ten Years' War against Spain (1868-1878), Machado's father joined the Cuban rebels and attained the rank of major. Leaving the army as a brigadier general after the war, he turned to farming and business but remained active in politics, heading the Liberal Party in 1920. His election to the presidency in 1924 was welcomed by most Cubans, especially the middle class, who thought a sensible businessman would restore order to Cuba's disrupted society. He was noted for stating that at the end of his term he would ask for the abrogation of the Platt Amendment. To counteract economic depression caused by declining sugar prices, Machado instituted a massive program of public works but was accused of enriching himself at public expense. Throughout his campaign leading to the 1924 general election, Machado stated numerous times that he did not aspire to be reelected, but only two years into his presidency he changed his mind. In 1927, Machado pushed a series of constitutional amendments in order to enable him to seek re-election, which he obtained in the 1928 presidential election. This was done despite of heated opposition from students and professional men, and Machado began to rule even more dictatorially. Disorder became widespread. In 1933 U.S. Ambassador Sumner Welles, under instructions from Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, tried to mediate between Machado and opposition forces, but a general strike was called, and even the army demanded Machado's ouster. He was forced into an exile (August 12) from which he never returned.

Melba Hernandez

Born in Cruces, Las Villas, Hernández was the only child of mulatto conservative parents who resided in a modern third-floor apartment on Jovellar Street in Vedado district of Havana. She graduated from the University of Havana School of Law in 1943. Hernández worked as a Customs attorney for the Carlos Prio government. She was one of the two women involved in the 1953 Moncada Barracks assault. Although she had been practicing law for a decade, during the Moncada trial she chose not to defend herself, as Fidel Castro did, and was instead represented by Jorge Paglieri Cardero. She was sentenced to 7 months in prison. She was later declared "Heroina del Moncada". In the early 1960s she was in charge of women's prisons in Cuba. Melba Hernandez was one of the women who participated in the 26th of July Movement. She helped the movement by obtaining 100 soldiers' uniform and stitching different ranks on them. The uniforms were used to attack the Moncada Barracks. The attack, led by Fidel Castro, failed and Fidel Castro, Melba Hernandez, Haydée Santamaria, and the remaining survivors of the attack were arrested. The Bautista government sentenced Fidel Castro to 15 years in prison since he was the leader of the attack, and Melba and Haydée were sentenced to 7 months in prison. Melba Hernandez took a role in the new government run by Fidel Castro. She became the head of the Cuban Committee in Solidarity with Vietnam in the 1960s to 1970s. She was the ambassador to Vietnam and Cambodia in the 1980s. She was the vice president of the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal of Our America, the secretary general of Organization in Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAL), director of the Communist Party's Center for Asian Studios, and deputy in Cuba's National Assembly between 1976 and 1986 and was re-elected in 1993.

Camilo Cienfuegos

Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (Spanish: 6 February 1932 - 28 October 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Havana. Along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro, he was a member of the 1956 Granma expedition, which launched Fidel Castro's armed insurgency against the government of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. He became one of Castro's top guerilla commanders, known as the "Hero of Yaguajay" after winning a key battle of the Cuban Revolution. He was appointed head of Cuba's armed forces shortly after the victory of Castro's rebel army in 1959. He was presumed dead when a small plane he was traveling in disappeared during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana later that year. Cienfuegos is revered in Cuba as a hero of the Revolution, with monuments, memorials, and an annual celebration in his honor.

Carlos Prio

Carlos Prío Socarrás was the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new elections were to be held. He was the first president of Cuba to be born in an independent Cuba and the last to gain his post through universal, contested elections. Prío became politically active while a law student at the University of Havana, spending two years in prison for his anti-government activities. He took part in the coup that deposed Gerardo Machado's dictatorship in 1933 and helped organize the Partido Revolucionario Cubano Auténtico. He went into exile in the United States when this party was outlawed, returned to Cuba in 1939, and was elected to the National Assembly. In 1940 he became leader of his party and was elected senator in that year and again in 1944. He served as prime minister from 1945 to 1947 and labour minister from 1947 to 1948. In the latter position he opposed the Communists, ending their control of the unions. Elected president in 1948, Prío continued the centrist policies of his predecessor, Ramón Grau, and pursued programs of agrarian reform and establishment of low-cost housing, a national bank, civil service, and labour courts. In spite of vigorous efforts to increase foreign trade and restore public order, Prío was unable to solve Cuba's economic problems. In the face of growing labour unrest, he did little to combat corruption and gang violence. In 1949 he tried to organize a bloc of Latin American countries committed to democratic government in order to combat internal and external antidemocratic elements. Prío was deposed by Fulgencio Batista in 1952 and went into exile in the United States until 1959, when he returned to Cuba to support Fidel Castro. He returned to Miami in 1961, becoming a spokesman for the Cuban community in exile. His death was apparently a suicide.

Nationalization Campaign Of 1960

Cuba began expropriating land and private property under the auspices of the Agrarian Reform Law of 17 May 1959. Farms of any size could be and were seized by the government, while land, businesses, and companies owned by upper- and middle-class Cubans were nationalized (notably, 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. The Castro government formally nationalized all foreign-owned property, particularly American holdings, in the nation on 6 August 1960.

Raul Castro

He is the son of a Galician immigrant father, Ángel Castro, and a Cuban-born mother.He is a Cuban politician, who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008 and the nation's highest ranking general. He was one of the most important figures in the party, serving as Minister of the Armed Forces for 49 years, from 1959 to 2008 making him the longest serving minister of the armed forces. He was officially made President by the National Assembly on 24 February 2008, after Fidel Castro, who was still ailing, announced he would not stand for President again on 19 February 2008. He became First Secretary of the Communist Party at its Sixth Congress. During the revolution he was one of only 12 fighters who managed to reach a safe haven in the Sierra Maestra mountains, forming the core of the nascent rebel army.

Nikita Khrushchev

He was a Cuban military leader, political dissident, activist and writer. He opposed the dictatorship of Batista from its inception in 1952 and fought alongside Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other members of the 26th of July Movement to overthrow it. After Castro came to power he began to criticize the communist shift in government. He was convicted of treason and sedition by the post-revolutionary government, and spent 20 years in prison (1959-1979). Became involved with the resistance movement following Batista's coup. Flew a five-ton air cargo with ammunition and weapons to Castro's rebels. He was appointed commander of the Army in the province Camaguey.

Ramon Grau San Martin

He was a Cuban physician and the President of Cuba (1933-1934, 1944-1948). He was the last president other than an interim president, Carlos Manuel Piedra, to be born during Spanish rule. He studied at the University of Havana wanting to be a doctor and graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree and went to Europe to persue that career. He then returned back to Cuba and became a professor of physiology at the University of Havana. In the 1920s he was involved with the student protests against then-President Gerardo Machado, and was jailed in 1931. Upon his release he was exiled from Cuba, temporarily migrating to the United States. He became one of the five members of the Pentarchy of 1933 government. He played a major role in the passing of the 1940 Constitution of Cuba. In 1944 he won the popular vote in the presidential election, defeating Carlos Saladrigas Zayas, Batista's handpicked successor, and served until 1948.

Eduardo Chibas

He was a Cuban politician who used radio to broadcast his political views to the public. He primarily denounced corruption and gangsterism rampant during the governments of Ramón Grau and Carlos Prío which preceded the Batista era. He believed corruption was the most important problem Cuba faced. In 1947 he formed the Ortodoxos party which had the goal of exposing government corruption and bringing about revolutionary change through constitutional means. Castro also joined as he considered Chibás as his mentor. Chibás lost the 1948 election for president, coming in third place. He was an extremely strong critic of that election's winner, Carlos Prío Socarrás. Chibás shot himself during his weekly radio show; however, he had forgotten that his allotted radio time was only 25 minutes

Batista 1952 Coup

In 1952, Batista once again ran for president. Election was between Batista, Roberto Agramonte of the Orthodox Party, and Carlos Hevia of the Authentic Party. Agramonte was first in the running, while Batista's United Action coalition was third. On March 10, 1952, Batista staged a coup and seized power. He ousted outgoing President Carlos Prío Socarrás, canceled the elections, and took control of the government as "provisional president." Shortly after the coup, the U.S. government recognized his government. Again in power, Batista did not continue the progressive social policies of his earlier term. He wanted recognition by the upper class of Cuban society and worked to increase his personal fortune.

Revolt Of The Sergeants

In September 1933 Batista organized the "sergeants' revolt"; it toppled the provisional regime of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, which had replaced the dictatorial regime of Gerardo Machado y Morales. In the process Batista became the most powerful man in Cuba and the country's de facto leader.

26th Of July Movement 7-26

Led by Fidel Castro, the movement (M267) was an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago Cuba. It was a total failure, most of the rebels were killed and the others were all captured. The movement was reorganized two years later after Castro was released from prison. The movement fought the Batista regime in rural and urban areas. Their object was to distribute land to peasants, nationalize public service, industries, have honest elections and large scale education reform. After the attack failed in 1956 they regrouped in Sierra Maestra. They gained the support of middle to upper class individuals who were unhappy with Batista's corrupt reign.

Major Hubert Matos

Matos was born in Yara, in Oriente Province. He became a school teacher in Manzanillo, while also owning a small rice plantation. He joined the Cuban nationalist party, Partido Ortodoxo. Following Batista's coup of 10 March 1952, Matos became involved with the resistance movement. He developed contacts with President José Figueres of Costa Rica who supported Cuban rebel aims and helped Matos obtain weapons and supplies. On 11 January 1959, Matos was appointed Commander of the Army in the province of Camagüey. In July 1959, Matos denounced the direction the revolution was taking by giving openly anti-communist speeches in Camagüey. This launched a months-long dispute between him and Castro, then Prime Minister of Cuba, When Castro replaced President Manuel Urrutia with the more radical Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, Matos tendered his resignation in a letter to Castro. On 19 October, he sent a second letter of resignation to Castro. Two days later, Castro sent fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos to arrest Matos. Matos says that he warned Cienfuegos that his life was in danger, that Castro resented Cienfuegos' his popularity and might even have hoped that Matos' supporters would kill him rather than allow him to take command from Matos. Cienfuegos relieved Matos of command and arrested Matos and his military adjutants. Cuban Communists later claimed Matos was helping plan a counter-revolution organized by the American Central Intelligence Agency and other Castro opponents, an operation that became the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The same day Matos was arrested. On 15 December, the court found Matos guilty of counter-revolutionary activity and sentenced him to twenty years in prison. He served the first six and a half years of his sentence at the Isla de la Juventud prison, where Castro had been imprisoned in 1953, and the remainder in Havana's La Cabaña Prison. Matos was reunited with his wife and children, who had left Cuba during the 1960s, in Costa Rica. They then moved to Miami where he lived until his death in February 2014. Matos, and his son Huber Rogelio Matos Araluce (Huber Matos Jr.), became active participants in the U.S.-based opposition to the Castro regime.

Movimiento Estudiantina

Moviemiento Estudantia was a Cuban student group which in opposition to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista from 1954 to 1957 played a role in the Cuban Revolution, which came to power in 1959.

Fundamental Law Of The 2/1959

On February 7, 1959, Fidel's government passed the Fundamental Law of the Republic, reinstating but modifying the Constitution of 1940, which General Batista had suspended in 1952. It primarily concentrated legislative power in the executive. Among the changes was giving the Council of Ministers the legislative power and constitutional authority. Less than a week later, Fidel became Prime Minister Cardona. The Fundamental Law is not, in the strict sense of the word, a constitution. It does, however, serve as the basis for governmental procedure in Cuba to this day. Fidel Castro's promise, made in the mid-1960's, to frame a new constitution, has yet to be fulfilled.

Attack On Moncada Army Barracks

On July 26, 1953, at 6:00AM, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led a group of approximately 120 rebels (with an additional 40 intending to take the barracks at Bayamo) in an attack on the second largest military garrison in Cuba, headquarters of the 400 (others say about 1,000) strong Antonio Maceo regiment, under the command of President Fulgencio Batista. The attack failed miserably, and all were captured or killed, including Fidel Castro and his brother Raul. The 26th of July movement would be named after this failed attack.

Richard Bissell

Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. (September 18, 1909 - February 7, 1994) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. was born in the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, and went to Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. Two of his fellow pupils at Groton were Joseph Alsop and Tracy Barnes. He studied history at Yale University, turning down membership in Skull and Bones, and graduating in 1932, then studied at the London School of Economics. He returned to Yale where he was granted a Ph.D. in economics in 1939. His brother, William, also attended Yale and became a member of Skull and Bones. Bissell worked closely with the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), which had helped to organize guerrilla fighting, sabotage and espionage during World War II. In July, 1947 Bissell was recruited by W. Averell Harriman to run a committee to lobby for an economic recovery plan for Europe. The following year he was appointed as an administrator of the Marshall Plan in Germany and eventually became head of the Economic Cooperation Administration. Played a key role in planning and executing the plan for the Bay of Pigs.

Committee For The Defense Of The Revolution

The CDR system was formed by Fidel Castro on September 28, 1960, following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the dictator Fulgencio Batista. The slogan of the CDR is, "¡En cada barrio, Revolución!" ("In every neighborhood, Revolution!"). Fidel Castro proclaimed it "a collective system of revolutionary vigilance," established "so that everybody knows who lives on every block, what they do on every block, what relations they have had with the tyranny, in what activities are they involved, and with whom they meet." It is still present in Cuba today.

Communist Party Of Cuba

The Communist Party of Cuba (Spanish: Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the political party that rules in Republic of Cuba, although others exist. It is a Communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state." The Communist Party is the only recognized political party in Cuba. Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed counter-revolutionary. Compared with other ruling Communist Parties, such as the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Communist Party of China and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism-Leninism and the traditional Soviet model. The Cuban party is more deeply committed to the concept of socialism than other ruling parties and has been more reluctant in engaging in market reforms though it has been forced to accept some market measures in its economy due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resultant loss of economic subsidies. The Communist Party of Cuba has favored supporting revolutions abroad and was active in assisting the ELN in Colombia, the FMLN in El Salvador, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Movement in Grenada. Their most significant international role was in Angola where the Cuban direction of a joint Angolan/Soviet/Cuban force that was involved in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. This led to the withdrawal of intervening forces and, in the following peace agreement, the independence of Namibia from South African rule.

Literacy Crusade

The Cuban Literacy Campaign (Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba) was a year-long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the Cuban Revolution. Began on January 1 and ended on December 22, 1961. Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60% and 76%, largely because of lack of education access in rural areas and a lack of instructors. The Cuban government of Fidel Castro called 1961 the "year of education" and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominantly illiterate peasantry to read and write. 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%.

National Association Of Small Farms

The National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) is a cooperative federation dedicated to promoting the interests of small farmers in Cuba. ANAP provides training, agricultural extension and other services to its members. Federation often negotiates with Cuban government on prices of agricultural production, credits, and other farmers' interests. It was formed in 1961 and its membership was limited to farmers whose land holdings were less than 67 hectares. The Cuban government supported ANAP by providing interest-free loans to its members. In 1977 ANAP supported the gradual transformation of the private sector. Individual farmers were endorsed to voluntarily join production co-operatives. By 1987 co-operative farms were accounting for 63% of private land holdings. Altogether 1,400 co-operative farms had 68,000 co-operative members.

Partido Autentico

The Partido Auténtico had its origins in the nationalist and anti-liberal Revolution of 1933. It was made up in February 1934 by many of the same individuals who had brought about the downfall of Gerardo Machado in the previous year to defend the changes caused by the Revolution of 1933. It was the most nationalistic of the major parties that existed between the 1933 and the 1959 Cuban Revolution. It had as its theme "Cuba para los cubanos" (Cuba for Cubans). Its electoral program contained socialist and corporatist elements. For instance, it supported numerous efforts to strengthen the power of the labor unions, some of the party's biggest supporters. Also, some of its members supported the management of the economy through tripartite commissions with businessmen, labor leaders and government bureaucrats as well as a second chamber (River Plate) with labor and business groups.

1933 Revolution

The Revolution was caused by Gerardo Machado's brutal and corrupt dictatorship. Many students formed protests against Machado's police brutality. The Great Depression also had an impact on the Cuban economy, which caused strikes and protesters by workers. These strikes gave even more support for the student protesters. The "Sergeant's Revolt" led by Fulgencio Batista in 1933 was the turning point of the revolution. They formed a pentarchy, but it dissolved on September 10, and Dr Ramón Grau San Martin became the revolutionary provisional president. He promised a "new Cuba," with a democratic government, an end to social inequities, higher wages, lower prices, and voting rights for women. U.S. was against changes, so supported Batista and struck down the social and economic reforms. Showed how Batista used "puppet presidents" and eventually led to his presidency in 1940..

Agrarian Reform Law 5/1959

The agrarian reform laws of Cuba sought to break up large landholdings and redistribute land to those peasants who worked it, to cooperatives, and the state. Laws relating to land reform were implemented in a series of laws passed between 1959 and 1963 after the Cuban Revolution. Che Guevara was named head of the INRA as minister of industries and oversaw the land reform policies.

3/1958 Arms Embargo

This is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba. This embargo was first imposed by the United States on sale of arms to Cuba during the Batista regime. In 1960 the US placed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation. In 1962 the embargo was extended to include almost all imports. Currently, the Cuban embargo is enforced mainly through six statutes. In 2000, Clinton authorized the sale of "humanitarian" U.S. products to Cuba.

Bay Of Pigs Invasion

Was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military (made up of Cuban exiles who traveled to the United States after Castro's take over), trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro.