History week Cuba/Castro

Fidel Castro

Castro was born in southeastern Cuba. His father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, an immigrant from Spain, was a fairly prosperous sugarcane farmer in a locality that had long been dominated by estates of the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. While married to his first wife, Ángel Castro began an affair with one of his servants, Lina Ruz González, whom he later also married. Together they had seven children; Fidel was one of them, and Raúl, who later became his brother's chief associate in Cuban affairs, was another. Fidel Castro attended Roman Catholic boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba and then the Catholic high school Belén in Havana, where he proved an outstanding athlete. In 1945 he entered the School of Law of the University of Havana, where organized violent gangs sought to advance a mixture of romantic goals, political aims, and personal careers. Castro's main activity at the university was politics, and in 1947 he joined an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow Gen. Rafael Trujillo. After his graduation in 1950, Castro began to practice law and became a member of the reformist Cuban People's Party (called Ortodoxos). He became their candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives from a Havana district in the elections scheduled for June 1952. In March of that year, however, the former Cuban president, Gen. Fulgencio Batista, overthrew the government of Pres. Carlos Prío Socarrás and canceled the elections. Castro began to organize a rebel force for the task in 1953. On July 26, 1953, he led about 160 men in a suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in hopes of sparking a popular uprising. Most of the men were killed, and Castro himself was arrested. After a trial in which he conducted an impassioned defense, he was sentenced by the government to 15 years' imprisonment. He and his brother Raúl were released in a political amnesty in 1955, and they went to Mexico to continue their campaign against the Batista regime. There Fidel Castro organized Cuban exiles into a revolutionary group called the 26th of July Movement. With the help of growing numbers of revolutionary volunteers throughout the island, Fidel Castro's forces won a string of victories over the Batista government's demoralized and poorly led armed forces. Castro's propaganda efforts proved particularly effective, and as internal political support waned and military defeats multiplied, Batista fled the country on January 1, 1959. In 1960 most economic ties between Cuba and the United States were severed, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with the island country in January 1961. In April of that year the U.S. government secretly equipped thousands of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro's government; their landing at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, however, was crushed by Castro's armed forces. Castro created a one-party government to exercise dictatorial control over all aspects of Cuba's political, economic, and cultural life. All political dissent and opposition were ruthlessly suppressed. Many members of the Cuban upper and middle classes felt betrayed by these measures and chose to immigrate to the United States. At the same time, Castro vastly expanded the country's social services, extending them to all classes of society on an equal basis. Educational and health services were made available to Cubans free of charge, and every citizen was guaranteed employment. The Cuban economy, however, failed to achieve significant growth or to reduce its dependence on the country's chief export, cane sugar.

Che Guevara

Guevara was the eldest of five children in a middle-class family of Spanish-Irish descent and leftist leanings. Although suffering from asthma, he excelled as an athlete and a scholar, completing his medical studies in 1953. He spent many of his holidays traveling in Latin America, and his observations of the great poverty of the masses contributed to his eventual conclusion that the only solution lay in violent revolution. He came to look upon Latin America not as a collection of separate nations but as a cultural and economic entity, the liberation of which would require an intercontinental strategy. He left Guatemala for Mexico, where he met the Cuban brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, political exiles 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 (including Guevara) 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. Guevara had initially come along as the force's doctor, but he had also trained in weapons use, and he became one of Castro's most-trusted aides. After Castro's victorious troops entered Havana on January 2, 1959, Guevara served for several months at La Cabaña prison, where he oversaw the executions of individuals deemed to be enemies of the revolution. Guevara became a Cuban citizen, as prominent in the newly established Marxist government as he had been in the revolutionary army, representing Cuba on many commercial missions. He also became well known in the West for his opposition to all forms of imperialism and neocolonialism and for his attacks on U.S. foreign policy. Guevara expounded a vision of a new socialist citizen who would work for the good of society rather than for personal profit, a notion he embodied through his own hard work.

Major Hubert Matos

uber Matos was a teacher at the Manzanillo Institute, and the owner of a small rice plantation. "He followed the ideas of Antonio Guiteras," wrote Carlos Franqui in Family Portrait with Fidel. "He was anti-imperialist and a believer in democracy." Matos became an active figure in the struggle against dictator Fulgencio Batista. In March 1958 he brought a planeload of weapons to Castro in the Sierra Maestra, and fought at his side until the final victory, rising to the rank of Major. "During the siege of Santiago," wrote Franqui, "it was he, with only about one hundred men, who kept Batista's army from entering and leaving the city." When the rebels took over Cuba's government on January 1 1959, Matos was put in charge of the military in Camagüey Province, and seemed to be an important player in the Cuban Revolution. In the early spring of 1959, many began to question why so many communists were being assigned to leading positions in the new government, bypassing members of Castro's own "26th of July Movement." Matos was one of them. In July, he made various anti-communist speeches in Camagüey, and began to share his suspicions that the Communists were about to hijack the Revolution. His suspicions were solidified when Raul Castro became minister of the armed forces on October 15. Years later Fidel Castro arrested Matos at his home on October 20. The other officers who resigned their posts at Matos' side were also arrested. The charge was treason. Camilo Cienfuegos was put in temporary charge of the military in Camagüey.

26th of july Movement

26th of July Movement, Spanish Movimiento 26 de Julio, revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba (1959). Its name commemorates an attack on the Santiago de Cuba army barracks on July 26, 1953. The movement began formally in 1955 when Castro went to Mexico to form a disciplined guerrilla force. The leaders of the movement remaining in Cuba to carry out sabotage and political activities were Frank País, Armando Hart, and Enrique Oltuski. At this time the movement espoused a reform program that included distribution of land to peasants, nationalization of public services, industrialization, honest elections, and mass education. In early 1957, with Castro back in Cuba fighting in the Sierra Maestra, "Civic Resistance" groups were organized in the cities, and numerous middle-class and professional persons gravitated toward Castro. In 1958 the movement joined in a "Junta of Unity" with most other groups opposing Batista. After Castro's victory, the 26th of July Movement was integrated into the Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas in 1961.

National Institore of Agrarian Reform

A new government agency, the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), was established to administer the law, and quickly became the most important governing body in the nation, with Guevara named Minister of Industries. Soon after Guevara trained these forces as a regular army, while the INRA also financed most of the highway construction in the country, built rural housing and even tourist resorts per Guevara's industrial plans. It also made it so that they did the second agrarian reform law.

Juan Almeida

Almeida was particularly known for one incident in which he responded to demands by Batista's officers that the rebels give themselves up by shouting, "Nobody here is going to surrender!"—a phrase that became an enduring slogan of the revolution. Almeida, who was the only black commander among the revolutionaries Juan Almeida, like Fidel Castro, came to the conclusion that revolution was the only way that the Cuban People's Party would gain power. In 1953, Castro, with an armed group of 123 men and women, attacked the Moncada Army Barracks. The plan to overthrow Batista ended in disaster and although only eight were killed in the fighting, another eighty were murdered by the army after they were captured. Almeida and Castro were both imprisoned but in 1955 Fulgencio Batista decided to release the men. Castro and his men went to live in Mexico where they began to plan another attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. After building up a stock of guns and ammunition, Almeida and eighty other rebels arrived in Cuba in 1956. This group became known as the July 26 Movement (the date that Castro had attacked the Moncada barracks). Their plan was to set up their base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between them. For the next few months Castro's guerrilla army raided isolated army garrisons and were gradually able to build-up their stock of weapons. Almeida became a General of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba and in 1966 became a member of the Central Committee and Political Bureau. In 1976 he was elected to the National Assembly of People's Power. He has also held the posts of head of the Directorate of Logistics of the General Staff of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. On 27th February, 1998, Almeida was granted the title, "Hero of the Republic of Cuba". For many years he was the third ranking member of the Council of State for Cuba, with the title of Vice-President. He also headed the National Association of Veterans and Combatants of the Revolution.

Batista 1952 Coup

As new elections approached in 1952, Batista saw an opportunity to return to government, running for the presidency, alongside the Auténticos and the Ortodoxos, the party to which Fidel Castro belonged. As election day approached, Batista was a distant third. Then, on March 10, 1952, he seized the government in a coup d'etat -- taking by force what Cuban voters were about to deny him. 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." Shortly after the coup, the United States government recognized his government. When asked by the U.S. government to analyze Batista's Cuba, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. said "The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the government's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical care, housing, for social justice and economic justice ... is an open invitation to revolution." Again in power, Batista did not continue the progressive social policies of his earlier term. He wanted recognition by the upper strata of Cuban society, which had never accepted him in their social circles. He also worked to increase his personal fortune.

Revolt of the Sergeants

Batista in September of 1933 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. On January 14 1934, Batista forced provisional president Ramón Grau San Martín to resign, and he appointed Carlos Mendieta to the presidency. Within five days, the U.S. recognized Cuba's new government.

Bay of Pigs

Bay of Pigs invasion, (April 17, 1961), abortive invasion of Cuba at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), or Playa Girón (Girón Beach) to Cubans, on the southwestern coast by some 1,500 Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro. The invasion was financed and directed by the U.S. government. Within six months of Castro's overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship in Cuba (January 1959), relations between Castro's government and the United States began to deteriorate. The new Cuban government confiscated private property (much of it owned by North American interests), sent agents to initiate revolutions in several Latin-American countries, and established diplomatic and economic ties with the soviet union. During the presidential campaign, Kennedy had accused Eisenhower of not doing enough about Castro. In fact, Eisenhower might have launched an invasion himself, had a proper excuse presented itself. Instead, he bequeathed an advanced plan to Kennedy, who was strongly inclined to pursue it. Others in the government were not convinced. The Cubans had presented evidence to the United Nations as early as October that the United States was hiring and training mercenaries. American involvement was not likely to remain much of a secret. Senator J. William Fulbright told Kennedy that this sort of hypocrisy was just the sort of thing of which the United States accused the Soviets. Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles advised Secretary of State Dean Rusk that the plan was wrong on both moral and legal grounds. Those in favor of the plan also included former Vice President Richard Nixon, John's brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. On April 12, 1961, Kennedy told a press conference that the United States unequivocally had no intention of intervening in Cuban affairs. Five days later, the invasion took place. Within the first few hours of the operation, it began to appear that the invasion would fail because it had not garnered the support from locals on which they were counting. Much to the CIA's surprise, locals firmly supported Castro and the Revolution. The failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion set the stage for further aggressions against Castro from his northern aggressor. President Kennedy made little effort to conceal his continued desire to see Castro deposed. Castro's insecurity about the future of his rule over Cuba led to the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles there, prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Literacy Crusade

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. As a result, the Cuban government of Fidel Castro at Che Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education" and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominantly illiterate guajiros (peasants) to read and write. The campaign was "a remarkable success." By its completion, 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%. During the turmoil of the first several years of the revolution, the flight of many skilled workers caused a "brain drain." This loss of human capital sparked a renovation of the Cuban education system to accommodate the instruction of new workers, who would take the place of those who had emigrated from the country. The Literacy Campaign was designed to force contact between sectors of society that would not usually interact. As Fidel Castro put it in 1961 while addressing literacy teachers, "You will teach, and you will learn." Volunteers from the city were often ignorant of the poor conditions of rural citizens until their experiences during this campaign. Besides literacy, the campaign aimed to create a collective identity of "unity, [an] attitude of combat, courage, intelligence, and a sense of history." Politicized educational materials were used to further these ideals. The effort was labeled a movement of "the people" and gave citizens a common goal, increasing solidarity.

Richard Bissell

Bissell was responsible for many things and helped to plan important events like the Bay of Pigs. n 1954 he was placed in charge of developing and operating the Lockheed U-2 'spy plane'. Bissell and Herbert Miller, another CIA officer, chose Area 51 in 1955 as the site for the test facility for the U-2, and Bissell supervised the test facility and its build up until he resigned from the CIA. The U-2 spy plane was a great success and within two years Bissell was able to say that 90% of all hard intelligence about the Soviet Union coming into the CIA was "funneled through the lens of the U-2's aerial cameras". This information convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower that Nikita Khrushchev was lying about the number of bombers and missiles being built by the Soviet Union. Eisenhower now knew that United States enjoyed a major advantage over the Soviet Union, and this knowledge gave him the confidence to warn against the US "military-industrial complex". (CIA pilot Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down on May 1, 1960. A week later President Eisenhower claimed that the CIA had carried out these spying missions without his authority.) In 1958 Allen Dulles appointed Bissell as the CIA's Deputy Director for Plans (DDP), replacing Frank Wisner (who had suffered a mental breakdown). Richard Helms stayed on as Bissell's deputy. The Directorate for Plans reportedly controlled over half the CIA's budget and was responsible for what became known as the CIA's Black Operations. (DDP oversaw plans to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, Patrice Lumumba, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, Ngo Dinh Diem, and others. Bissell's main target was Fidel Castro.) On April 10, 1961, Bissell had a meeting with Robert F. Kennedy. He told Kennedy that the new plan had a two out of three chance of success. Bissell added that even if the project failed the invasion force could join the guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains. Kennedy was convinced by this scheme and applied pressure on those like Chester Bowles, Theodore Sorenson and Arthur Schlesinger who were urging John F. Kennedy to abandon the project. On April 14, Kennedy asked Bissell how many Douglas B-26 Invaders were going to be used. He replied sixteen. Kennedy told him to use only eight. Bissell knew that the invasion could not succeed without adequate air cover. Yet he accepted this decision based on the idea that he would later change his mind "when the chips were down".

Naionalization Campaign of 1960

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. 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).

Communist Party of Cuba

Communist Party of Cuba, Spanish Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC), Cuban communist party organized by Fidel Castro and others in 1965 but historically dating from communist activity begun in Cuba in 1923. Under the constitution of 1976 it became the only party permitted to function in Cuba, and in the revised constitution of 1992 it was defined as the "organized vanguard of the Cuban nation." The Cuban Communist Party (Partido Comunista Cubano) was founded in 1925 by Moscow-trained members of the Third International (Comintern). For three decades it adhered to the Stalinist line but, nevertheless, opportunistically collaborated with the regime of Fulgencio Batista in the 1940s and early '50s, its members even being rewarded with posts in government and labour. From 1954 to 1959, however, the communists were a target of government suppression. Since its founding the PCC has been dominated by Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro. The PCC's leading institution is the Politburo, whose 25 members are drawn from the 150-member Central Committee selected by the party congress. The Politburo sets policy for the party and the state. At the 1997 party congress, Raúl was anointed by Fidel as his future successor to head the party and the country and to ensure that the Cuban Revolution "never can be corrupted by anybody [and]...never be destroyed by ourselves." In 2011 Raúl—who had succeeded Fidel as president of Cuba in 2008—became party leader. At its 1991 congress the PCC reaffirmed its single-party rule—at a time when communism was collapsing in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe—but it allowed limited foreign investment and economic reform (reaffirmed in 1997). In addition, the party congress officially removed a rule requiring party members to be atheist.

Committee for the Defense of the 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." CDR officials have the duty to monitor the activities of every person on their respective blocks. There is an individual file kept on each block resident, some of which reveal the internal dynamics of each household. Even after its 54-year existence, CDR activity remains contentious. However, a 2006 Amnesty International report noted CDR involvement in repeated human rights violations that included verbal as well as physical violence. Critics also contend that the CDRs are a repressive tool, giving the government a heads-up about dissident activities on the micro-local level, by tattling on the non-compliant.

Ramon Grau San Martin

Grau's father, a rich tobacco grower, wanted Ramón to continue in his footsteps, but Ramón himself wanted to be a doctor. He studied at the University of Havana and graduated in 1908 with a Doctor of Medicine degree, then expatriated to Europe in order to expand his medical knowledge. He returned to Cuba in 1921 and became a professor of physiology at the University of Havana. After the 1933 Cuban Revolution Grau initially became one of the five members of the Pentarchy of 1933 government (September 5, 1933-September 10, 1933). Thereafter, on September 9, 1933, members of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario met in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales and after intensive debate between various proposed candidates, it was agreed that Ramón Grau would be the next president. Grau was then President of what was famously called the government of One Hundred Days. Grau was instrumental in passing the 1940 Constitution of Cuba. For much of the Constitutional Convention, he served as the presiding officer (even after his coalition was pushed into the minority after the defection of one of the parties that formed it). He would eventually come to be replaced by Carlos Márquez Sterling. In 1944 Grau won the popular vote in the presidential election, defeating Carlos Saladrigas Zayas, Batista's handpicked successor, and served until 1948. Despite his initial popularity in 1933, accusations of corruption tainted his administration's image, and a sizable number of Cubans began to distrust him.

Camilo Cienfuegos

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.In 1957 he became one of the top leaders of the revolutionary forces, appointed to the rank of Comandante. In 1958, with the defeat of Operation Verano, Cienfuegos was put in command of one of three columns which headed west out of the mountains with the intention of capturing the provincial capital city of Santa Clara. Che Guevara was in command of another column and Jaime Vega was in command of the third. Vega's column was ambushed and defeated by Batista's forces.

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. Chibás is considered to have had influence on Fidel Castro's views but his name is not mentioned in today's Cuba because he was avowedly anti-communist. However, Fidel Castro wrote an essay praising him, published in the Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde on August 26, 2007. 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.

Raul Castro

He's the current head of state in Cuba. Raul is mostly well known as being the brother and fellow revolutionary to the famous Fidel Castro. Raúl Castro was a rebel commander during the 1950s. After his brother Fidel Castro took power, Raúl Castro 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. As children, the Castro brothers were expelled from the first school they attended. Like Fidel, Raúl later attended the Jesuit School of Colegio Dolores in Santiago and Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Havana. Raúl, as an undergraduate, studied social sciences. Whereas Fidel excelled as a student, Raúl turned in mostly mediocre performances. Raúl became a committed socialist and joined the Socialist Youth, an affiliate of the Soviet-oriented Cuban Communist Party, Partido Socialista Popular (PSP). The brothers participated actively in sometimes violent student actions. Raúl's abilities as a military leader during the revolution are hard to see clearly. Unlike Che Guevara or Cienfuegos, Raúl had no significant victories he could claim credit for on his own. He served as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and as the Second Secretary of its Politburo from the Party's formation in October 1965; also as the First Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, of the National Assembly of People's Power, and of the Council of Ministers when these were established in 1976.

Melba Hernandez

Hernandez joined fellow lawyer Fidel Castro in his crusade to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista, and she remained a trusted member of Castro's inner circle after he and his comrades toppled Batista on Jan. 1, 1959, becoming one of the first four members of his general staff. Hernández was one of three top Castro confidantes (Abel Santamaría and his sister Haydée were the others) who helped engineer the 26th of July Movement, the initial but unsuccessful insurgent action (July 26, 1953) to unseat Batista. Hernández secured more than 100 uniforms (and sewed official rank insignias on them) to serve as disguises for the advancing rebels, but the attack on the Moncada barracks was repulsed. Hernández and Haydée Santamaría, who also took an active role in the attack, were captured and sentenced to seven-month prison sentences, of which they each served five months. After her release Hernández helped publish History Will Absolve Me, Castro's pivotal revolutionary courtroom speech, and she pushed for his release from prison. After their triumph over Batista, Hernández was hailed as a heroine and was one of the founders of the reconstituted Communist Party of Cuba.

Partido Ortodoxo

It was founded in 1947 by Eduardo Chibás in response to perceived government corruption and lack of reform. Its primary aims were the establishment of a distinct national identity, economic independence and the implementation of social reforms.Castro joined the Partido Ortodoxo which wanted an end to government corruption and advocated reform in Cuba. Castro eventually had become a candidate for a seat in the Cuban parliament but Fulgencio Batista led a coup d'etat that overthrew the government and cancelled elections. Fidel grew furious, left the Partido Ortodoxo and began forming and underground group of supporters to overthrow Batista. It a Cuban left-wing populist political party. The Orthodox Party was a catch-all party, open to the all that wanted join to it. Like a populist party, there weren't internal factions or organizations, but only the support to the Eduardo Chibás' goals and ideals. It supported Direct democracy, Free market and respect of the private ownership, Progressivism, Anti-imperialism (mainly anti-Americanism) and nationalism, Agrarianism, Nationalization of companies, anti corruption, Corporatism and labor rights.

National Association of Small Farms

It's a cooperative federation dedicated to promoting the interests of small farmers in Cuba. Second Agrarian Reform Law of October 1963, introduced the State control over medium and large (over 67 hectares) agricultural estates. While medium and large farms accounting 11.4 million hectares of land were put under control of the newly created State-controlled National Land Reform Institute (INRA), small farmers, owning 7.2 million hectares of land, were organized in ANAP association. 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

Nikita Khrushchev

Khrushchev was the son of a coal miner; his grandfather had been a serf who served in the tsarist army. After a village education, Khrushchev went with his family to Yuzovka (later named Stalino, now Donetsk, Ukraine), a mining and industrial centre in the Donets Basin, where he began work as a pipe fitter at age 15. Because of his factory employment, he was not conscripted in the tsarist army during World War I. Even before the Russian Revolution of 1917, he had become active in workers' organizations, and in 1918—during the struggle between Reds, Whites, and Ukrainian nationalists for possession of Ukraine—he became a member of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik). In January 1919 Khrushchev joined the Red Army and served as a junior political commissar, ultimately in the campaigns against the Whites and invading Polish armies in 1920. Soon after he was demobilized, his wife, Galina, died during a famine. In 1922 Khrushchev secured admission to a new Soviet workers' school in Yuzovka, where he received a secondary education along with additional party instruction. During the early 1930s Khrushchev consolidated his hold on the Moscow party cadres. He supervised the completion of the Moscow subway, for which he received the Order of Lenin in 1935. After the liberation of Ukraine in 1944, Khrushchev reassumed control of Ukraine as first secretary of the Ukrainian party organization.After Stalin's death in March 1953 and the execution of the powerful state security chief, he assumed power. In foreign affairs, he widely asserted his doctrine of peaceful coexistence with the noncommunist world, which he had first enunciated in a public speech at the 20th Party Congress. In opposition to old communist writ, he stated that "war is not fatalistically inevitable." During Khrushchev's time in office, he had to steer constantly between, on the one hand, popular pressures toward a consumer-oriented society and agitation by intellectuals for greater freedom of expression and, on the other, the growing fear of the Soviet bureaucracy that reform would get out of hand. Khrushchev's desire to reduce conventional armaments in favour of nuclear missiles was bitterly resisted by the Soviet military. For the Soviet Union and indeed for the entire world communist movement, Nikita Khrushchev was the great catalyst of political and social change.

Gerardo Machado

Machado was considered the 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.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. 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. In 1927 he seized control of the Cuban political parties. He was reelected in 1928, despite heated opposition from students and professional men, and began to rule even more dictatorially. Disorder became widespread, and 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.

Fundamental Law of the Republic 2/1959

On February 7, 1959, the Fundamental Law of the Republic was passed based on the 1940 Constitution which was duly amended in view of the changes that have taken place in the country. Among the changes was giving the Council of Ministers the legislative power and constitutional authority. Cuba will reinstate the 1940 Constitution which is a very significant action. Castro became Prime Minister with a semi-powerful cabinet.

Agrarian Reform Law 5/1959

On January 27, 1959, Che Guevara made one of his most significant speeches where he talked about "the social ideas of the rebel army." During this speech, he declared that the main concern of the new Cuban government was "the social justice that land redistribution brings about." On May 17, 1959, the Agrarian Reform Law called for and crafted by Guevara went into effect, limiting the size of farms to 3,333 acres (13 km2) and real estate to 1,000 acres (4 km2). Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in 67 acres (271,139 m2) parcels or held as state-run communes. The law also stipulated that sugar plantations could not be owned by foreigners. 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.

Partido Autentico

Partido Authentic 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. In the 1939 Constitutional Assembly elections, the party was part of the victorious Opposition Front, and it emerged as the largest party in the Assembly. The 1940 Constitution of Cuba was heavily influenced by the nationalist and socialist ideas at the heart of the party's program.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.

Carlos Prio

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.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.

Movimiento Estudantia

Student Revolutionary Directorate, 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. In 1960 the Directorio was relaunched in opposition to Fidel Castro and moved its base to the United States, where it soon developed links with the Central Intelligence Agency. In August 1962 it carried out an attack on a beachfront Havana hotel. As of 1963 it was the largest anti-Castro student group in Miami; it also had a chapter in New Orleans, where it had contact with Lee Harvey Oswald in mid-1963. Immediately after the 22 November 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, it launched a campaign asserting that Lee Harvey Oswald had been acting on behalf of the Cuban government. The group lost its CIA support in December 1966.

Attack on Moncada Army Barracks

The Moncada Barracks, a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermon Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence.Attack on Moncada BarracksOn 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 group formed a sixteen-automobile caravan in order to give the appearance of being a delegation headed by a high-ranking officer sent from western Cuba. Their plan was that a first group of twenty men led by Abel Santamaría would take the civilian hospital at the rear of the barracks, a second group of five men led by Léster Rodríguez would take the Audiencia Building (Palacio de Justicia), and a third group of 90 men, led by Castro, would take the barracks, including the radio transmitter within it.The attack began poorly. The caravan of automobiles became separated by the time it arrived at the barracks, and the car carrying the guerillas' heavy weapons got lost.Fifteen soldiers and three policemen were killed and 23 soldiers and five policemen wounded during the attack. Nine rebels were killed in combat and eleven wounded, four of them by friendly fire. (Castro recollects that five were killed in the fighting, and fifty-six were "murdered" later by the Batista regime.) Eighteen rebels captured in the Civil Hospital were immediately executed in the Moncada small-arms target range within two hours after the attack.

1933 Revolution

The Revolution of 1933 lasted only a few months before it failed, victim of confused leadership and the inability to understand the reality of national politics as much as by the machinations of the United States government. President Gerardo Machado had been misgoverning the nation for years but the Great Depression of the 1930s created so much distress that he ceased to be able to rule. The revolution was a revolt against him and the economic depression. To do it, the students, professors, and young people involved an element of the military. In August, 1933 there was a general strike and the Cuban generals abandoned President Gerardo Machado. He fled to Nassau on August 12, 1993, with ABC terrorists shooting at his plane as it taxied on the runway! General Alberto Herrera Carlos, the next in line became president but resigned so that Dr. Manuel de Cspedes, favored by Welles, could become provisional president. He did not last long. The Revolution of 1933 saw to that. Batista, who was a mixture of Spanish, African, and Chinese, had worked his way up to sergeant through intelligence and the ability to read and write. He was a secretary for officers and used this position to study the loci of power within the army. The social distance between the officer corps and the enlisted me was vast and officers ignored the legitimate complaints of the common soldier. The officers, in a dispute with the government, had left the base. The enlisted men refused to disband. In effect, they had mutinied, spurred on by the young. This unlikely combination or alliance overthrew the government. On September 4th, Batista and five other sergeants arrested the army chief of staff at pistol point and took control. He and his men quickly removed almost every army officer and too control on Havana. In May, 1934 the US negotiated a treaty which did not include the Platt Amendment. In August, the two signed a reciprocity treaty. It specified little or no duty on US goods in exchange for Cuba getting 22% of the US sugar market and a .9 tariff on sugar. US investment had dropped to $500 million as US investors withdrew capital from abroad to salvage what they could of their US domestic enterprises but this was a temporary phenomenon. Cuban ownership of their major industry, sugar, increased from 2% in 1929 to 49% by 1949. US investment moved to other enterprises, particularly public utilities. The US government loaned money to the Cuban government, which it needed to survive..

3/1958 Arms Embargo

The United States — which supported Castro by imposing a 1958 arms embargo against Batista's government — immediately recognized the new regime, although it expressed some misgivings over the revolutionaries' execution of over 500 pro-Batista supporters and Castro's increasingly obvious communist tendencies. Castro visited the U.S. just three months after coming to power, touring Washington monuments and meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon, all while wearing his trademark olive green fatigues. It was a rare moment of alliance between the two countries, and one that would not be repeated. The armed conflict violated U.S. policy which had permitted the sale of weapons to Latin-American countries that were apart of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) as long as they were not used for hostile purposes.The arms embargo had more of an impact on Batista than the rebels. After the Castro socialist government came to power on January 1, 1959, Castro made overtures to the United States, but was rebuffed by the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, which by March began making plans to help overthrow him.

Fulgencio Batista

The son of impoverished farmers, Batista worked in a variety of jobs until he joined the army in 1921, starting as a stenographer. He rose to the rank of sergeant and developed a large personal following. In September 1933 he 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.Batista preferred to consolidate his control through patronage rather than terror. He cultivated the support of the army, the civil service, and organized labour. His return to power, through a bloodless military coup that deposed Pres. Carlos Prío Socarrás in March 1952, was widely welcomed. But he returned as a brutal dictator, controlling the university, the press, and the Congress, and he embezzled huge sums from the soaring economy. In 1954 and '58 the country held presidential elections that, though purportedly "free," were manipulated to make Batista the sole candidate. His regime was finally toppled by the rebel forces led by Fidel Castro, who launched their successful attack in the fall of 1958. Faced with the collapse of his regime and with the growing discontent of his supporters, Batista fled with his family to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959. Later he went into exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira and finally settled in Estoril, near Lisbon.

1958 Pastoral Letter

This had a lot to do between the relations of Cuba and Castro. Although Castro has refused religious cooperation, and thus the acceptance of the Catholic church initially, the Catholic Church was unable to do much, due to the fact the general weaknesses of the popes, but also largely in part due to the great popularity Castro enjoyed. Thus, it has thought it wise against taking too-aggressive of a position against Castro's revolutionary government. However, many pastoral letters have been written, one by the Pope Pius XII, which warned of the dangers of Communism and criticising the Revolutionary government.