Cuba

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1

Implementing the Revolution

Fidel Castro demanded that all opposition groups lay down their arms and consolidate power under his leadership. These groups complied since their objective had been to remove Batista; they had no plans to govern. Castro led a jubilant procession from eastern Cuba to Havana, and his bearded, youthful revolutionaries became uncontested national leaders.

When Castro entered Havana on January 9, 1959, he had support from the political left and the majority of the population. Most people agreed with Castro’s earlier promises to hold elections in one year, to recognize individual rights as stated in the 1940 constitution, and to guarantee political freedom. At first Castro did not assume a political office. He appointed moderate politicians to serve in the new government. However, Castro continued serving as head of the armed forces, and he remained the major force in determining the policies of the new government. Moderate politicians quickly became disenchanted with Castro’s policies and began leaving the government. Following the resignation of Prime Minister Miró Cardona in February 1959, Castro became prime minister.

His first order of business was purging Batista supporters from the government. The government created special tribunals, which quickly passed judgment on Batista associates. Sentences ranged from death before firing squads to prison terms lasting from 2 to 30 years. Officially the number of people executed was less than 700, though Castro’s opponents claim that many times that number died.

Castro’s second objective was to centralize control of the economy. In March 1959 the cabinet passed the Urban Reform Law, designed to reduce or eliminate the large profits made by wealthy individuals who had amassed extensive real estate holdings in the cities. Batista’s strongest supporters—those who had promoted violence to suppress anti-Batista dissent—lost their properties immediately. Large property owners lost some of their estates. The law restricted the profits of other landlords by reducing rents to a fraction of the pre-1959 levels. Other economic reforms were passed, and wage and price controls standardized wages and reduced the cost of living. Wealth was quickly redistributed. In May the Agrarian Reform Law limited private landholdings to 402 hectares (993 acres) per family. Limits were set at 1,350 hectares (3,336 acres) in the case of farms producing sugar, rice, and livestock. The government confiscated the largest estates, converting them into state cooperatives upon which individual workers could hold parcels of 26 hectares (65 acres).

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The government also implemented a number of social programs designed to improve living conditions for poor and working-class citizens. A major literacy program taught almost all Cubans to read and write, and the government built hospitals in rural areas where health care had never been available. The laboring classes benefited significantly from these changes and their support for the revolutionary government was unequivocal.

Liberals and moderates, however, harbored doubts that Castro would return Cuba to democracy. Between 1959 and 1962, more than 200,000 people, many wealthy property owners and middle-class professionals, left the island. The government viewed them as traitors and prohibited them from taking any transportable wealth with them.

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2

Break with the United States

The United States had a great deal to lose as a result of Castro’s reforms. At the end of 1958, U.S. businesses owned 75 percent of Cuba’s fertile land, 90 percent of its public services, and 40 percent of the sugar industry. Castro’s policy of seizing businesses and confiscating the property of the wealthy raised concerns in the United States about Communist influence. Castro had no record of Communist affiliation, and he had made a point of emphasizing that his revolution was not based on Communism. Nonetheless, U.S. officials were wary of his programs and decided that Castro had to be removed from power.

The U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), an intelligence-gathering organization under the command of the president of the United States, plotted two approaches to overturning Castro’s government: economic pressure and military intervention. The U.S. government tried economic pressure first. On July 3, 1960, the Congress of the United States decreased the Cuban sugar quota. This action reduced the amount of sugar that Cuba could legally import into the United States and caused a serious reduction in Cuba’s income from foreign trade. The United States cut the quota after Cuba seized installations belonging to U.S. oil companies that had refused to refine crude oil imported from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the world’s leading Communist nation. At the time, the USSR was involved in an ongoing struggle with the United States known as the Cold War. In retaliation, the Cuban government appropriated U.S. sugar property. On October 19 the U.S. Treasury Department declared a trade embargo, which stopped all commerce with Cuba except for food and medicine. On October 24 Castro struck back by nationalizing all U.S. holdings. The attempt to bring Castro to heel through economic pressure only widened the gap between the United States and Cuba. The two countries formally severed diplomatic relations in January 1961.

Next the United States tried military action. In March 1960 the CIA had begun training Cuban exiles for an invasion. The newly inaugurated U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, approved the invasion plans. The plans called for an air strike by anti-Castro Cuban pilots based in the United States. Following this attack, amphibious forces would land at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba and start a guerrilla campaign. Launched on April 17, 1961, the attack was a complete failure. Castro, who knew about the plan, scattered his air force to save it from destruction, and Cuba’s military overwhelmed the invading land forces within 48 hours.

The Bay of Pigs consolidated Castro’s power. Throngs of Cubans rejoiced in defeating the strongest military power in the world. Castro’s popularity soared at home and abroad. Those who had disagreed with Castro’s government kept silent, as approximately 100,000 people suspected of subversive activities were imprisoned or detained. In May 1961 the government canceled promised elections and declared the 1940 constitution outdated. Social and political associations were absorbed into official government organizations. On December 2 Castro announced that he was a Communist and would implement socialist policies in Cuba.

To deter further U.S. plans to invade or destabilize Cuba, Castro sought economic and military assistance from the USSR. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to secretly send missiles armed with nuclear weapons that were capable of hitting targets within the United States. In September 1962 U.S. spy planes identified the missile sites. On October 22 Kennedy announced a naval blockade of the island and informed Khrushchev that any Soviet ship crossing the blockade line risked starting a nuclear war. At the last minute, the two leaders resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis before it erupted in hostilities. Khrushchev recalled the ships and agreed to dismantle the missile sites. In return the United States agreed not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. missiles from sites in Turkey. Cuban leaders were left out of the negotiations, which infuriated Castro and briefly chilled relations between the USSR and Cuba.

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3

Building a New Economy

With most Cubans united behind his government, Castro completed the transformation of Cuba’s economy. The government centralized and coordinated all economic decisions. It provided every Cuban with work and set salaries that distributed wealth more equitably among workers. To inspire the population, revolutionary leader Che Guevara, a close associate of Castro, introduced the New Man Theory. This doctrine proposed that people would work not for their own material advancement, but to benefit the community. Castro and Guevara attempted to use the New Man Theory to motivate Cubans to work harder for the revolution. It did not prove successful. Although working-class and poor Cubans supported the goals of the revolution, many were not willing to work long hours without increased financial compensation.

In 1962 the economy collapsed due to poor government planning and a decline in trade with the United States resulting from the embargo. The amount of goods available, especially food and clothing, declined sharply. Inflation followed, since Cubans had money but little to buy. The government imposed price and wage freezes and rationed food, clothing, and gasoline. The black market offered scarce items at high prices.

Despite the shortages in goods during the 1960s, the government successfully redistributed wealth more equitably and provided a better quality of life for most Cubans. The government provided schools, medical clinics, retirement pensions, and public transportation. It also reduced rents and utility charges, lowering the cost of living. The poorest 40 percent of the population saw their per capita income rise, despite the faltering economy and the scarcity of many goods.

By the end of the 1960s, stabilizing the economy had become the government’s first priority. The reforms of the revolution and Castro’s ability to implement independent policies depended upon Cuba building an economy that could support extensive social reforms. To this end, Castro pledged that Cuba would produce 10 million tons of sugar in the 1970 harvest. As early as 1968, resources, both human and material, were being mobilized for sugar production. Cubans were pressured into “volunteering” their time to perform unpaid work in the sugar fields. Approximately 1.2 million workers from all sectors of the economy joined 100,000 members of the army and 300,000 sugar workers in the fields. In the end, the effort failed. On July 26, 1970, Castro informed the Cuban people that the nation had produced only 8.5 million tons. The consequences of the failure were harsh. All sectors of the economy declined sharply because labor and resources had been diverted to the harvest.

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4

Political and Economic Changes in the 1970s

The political ramifications of the harvest failure were just as sobering. The USSR agreed to provide financial assistance to Cuba, but it insisted that Castro create a Soviet-style bureaucracy that limited his personal influence on policy. The Communist Party assumed more authority and pushed for efficient economic practices. In 1972 Cuba became a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the trade association of Communist nations. By the mid-1980s, the USSR purchased 64 percent of Cuba’s exports and provided 62 percent of its imports.

Many experts predicted that the reforms demanded by the USSR would diminish Castro’s authority. Contrary to expectations, however, the new bureaucracy left Castro free to deal with political issues and international affairs. In 1976 Castro introduced a new constitution for Cuba, which allowed people a greater voice in choosing their leaders and approving legislation. Citizens elected representatives to local, provincial, and national assemblies. Representatives to the National Assembly selected a president, who had authority over the ministers who ran government departments. The assembly chose Castro as president.

The new constitution encouraged popular participation through large government-approved organizations. The Federation of Cuban Women, the Confederation of Cuban Workers, the Small Farmers’ National Organization, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution drew members from every occupational and social sector. These organizations were designed to allow the people to recommend policies to the central government. Conversely, the central government implemented policies by sending directives to citizens through these organizations. The government decided domestic issues regarding family law, education policies, and child care after taking into consideration dialogues among people and between people and the government.

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5

International Relations

Following the rupture of Cuban-U.S. relations in the early 1960s, the United States pressured Latin American countries to break ties with Cuba. At U.S. insistence, the Organization of American States (OAS), an organization that coordinates economic, social, and security issues among the nations of the Western Hemisphere, expelled Cuba. As a result, Cuba sought diplomatic relations with the Communist nations of Eastern Europe and developing countries in Africa.

Cuba also encouraged revolutionary movements in Latin America. In 1967 Che Guevara was captured and executed while trying to start an insurrection in the mountains of Bolivia. Cuba’s commitment to exporting revolution caused a serious disagreement with the USSR in the mid-1960s. The Cubans showed little patience with the world’s traditional Communist parties, which in the 1950s and early 1960s tried to win power through democratic methods, rather than by armed revolt. However, the rift between Cuba and the USSR narrowed significantly after the USSR showed its displeasure by reducing shipments of oil to Cuba and withdrawing its technical advisors.

In 1973 relations between the USSR and the United States improved, and Cuba benefited from a reduction in international tensions. The OAS voted to allow its members to determine their own relations with Cuba. Under U.S. president Gerald R. Ford secret meetings with Cuban authorities dealt with diplomatic and economic openings with Cuba. This changed abruptly in 1975 when Cuba sent military forces into the African nation of Angola, which had just won its independence from Portugal. Cuban troops aided leftist forces fighting for control of the newly independent nation. From 1975 to 1989 Cuba committed 250,000 troops to Angola before a peace settlement was eventually reached.

Under the administration of U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Cuba and the United States each established a diplomatic office in the other country. In 1977 Americans were allowed to visit Cuba as tourists. But attempts to improve Cuban/U.S. relations foundered on a buildup of Soviet technicians and advisers in Cuba and on Cuba’s commitment to the Sandinista rebels. The Sandinistas ousted Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in September 1979 following a bitter struggle known as the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Cuba’s prestige as an international leader peaked in 1979 when Castro became the head of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of nations that sought to remain neutral during the Cold War. Although Cuba was an ally of the USSR, members of the movement supported Castro’s leadership to demonstrate their disapproval of the 19-year-old U.S. embargo. Cuba also became the host country for international humanitarian meetings, such as the International Youth Conference in 1980.

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