Unit IV: Cuba's Castro Revolution (4/4)

Fidel Castro

No course on Latin America & the Caribbean would be complete without an extensive look at the most significant figure in the 20th Century history of the region, Fidel Castro. To that end, in addition to text, class notes, and discussion, we will watch a documentary on Fidel.

Corresponding text found on p232-245 in Brief History of the Caribbean.

After being pardoned by Batista, Castro is exiled to Mexico; plots return
Dec 1956 - Castro, Che Guevara, and about 80 men; Granma; land under fire and escape into mountains
July 26 Movement survives and grows in Sierra Maestra; by 1958, Movement (and Castro) seen as leaders in opposition to Batista

Castro & rebels in the Sierra Maestra

Early 1958 - Castro starts using radio for propaganda; promises to restore Constitutional order and develop domestic economy
March 1958 - US stops arms shipments to Batista
Summer 1958 - Cuban Army fails in attempts to drive out and defeat rebels; Movement begins counteroffensive through Cuba
Jan 1 1959 - Batista flees Havana; Che Guevara's forces take city; Castro begins triumphant caravan to Havana

Castro enters Havana triumphantly

New government established, but all power rested with Fidel
Begins process of expropriation of property of established elites
May 1959 - Agrarian Reform Act; US govt protests
Propaganda war and Castro's 'charismatic authority'; Use of the Plaza de la Revolucion

Castro addresses a massive audience

As Castro centralizes power, compatriots protest growing influence of communists and personal ambition
1960 - quick dissolution of Cuba-US relations; subsequent quick engagement of Cuba-Soviet relations
Oct 1960 - Eisenhower issues trade embargo of Cuba
Jan 1961 - US-Cuba diplomatic relations severed
Mass exodus of Cuban elite between 1959-1962

April 1961- Bay of Pigs

Operation Mongoose


Castro continues to consolidate power and purge threats
Creates Committee for the Defense of the Revolution
Castro's rhetorical mission is to create a 'new man' with a 'revolutionary conscience'
Catholics could not join Communist Party or attend university
Government took control of all news outlets
Government regulated morality
1961 - Massive literacy campaign
March 1962 - food rationing begins

October 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

Sino-Soviet dynamics in Cuban development (pragmatism v idealism)
Che Guevara headed Ministry of Industry; runs economy

Castro & Guevara lead the planning of the Cuban economy

Failures and other problems leads Castro to reverse direction from rapid industrialization to agriculture by 63

1965 - Guevara resigns govt positions; travels to assist Communist rebels in Congo
1966 - Guevara travels to Bolivia to plant Communist revolution; killed 1967

Che Guevara

The famous Che Guevara

By 1968, Castro had gotten rid of almost all private ownership in Cuba

Despite massive efforts to reform Cuban economic system, economy struggles dramatically