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The Life and Times of Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Biran, Cuba in 1926, the son of a Galician immigrant and Cuban mother. In 1945, he began studying law in the University of Havana. He immediately became active in the volatile, fractious and even dangerous political culture at the university. In 1947, he joined the Partido Ortodoxo party of Eduardo Chibas. The Partido Ortodoxo publicly exposed corruption and demanded government social reform, it also aimed to instil a strong sense of national identity among Cubans, establish Cuban economic independence from the United States and dismantle the hold that the elite held over Cuban politics. In 1951, while running for President, Chibas killed himself during a live radio broadcast to illustrate how sorry he was that he was unable to keep his promise of revealing corruption within the government. During his time at university, Castro married Mirta Diaz Balart, a philosophy student from a wealthy Cuban family, thus Castro became exposed to the lifestyles of the Cuban elite. In 1950, Castro graduated with a law degree, he began practicing law in a small firm in Havana. In 1952, aged just 25 he ran for the Cuban parliament, but just before the election the government was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista, who established a dictatorship. As discontent grew over Batista’s rule, Castro abandoned his law practice and formed an underground organisation which plotted to overthrow Batista. On 26 July, 1953 they attacked Moncada barracks, it was a disaster with sixty of the one hundred and thirty five rebels killed. Castro was captured, tried and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
Castro was released after two years under a general amnesty, he departed Cuba for Mexico with the intention of reorganising and training his movement. He established the 26th of July movement, which was to concentrate on guerrilla tactics to take down the Batista regime. On 26 November, 1956, Castro with only 81 followers set sail for Cuba with the purpose of starting a rebellion. After landing, Castro’s forces were decimated, only 20 survived and they sought refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. From their encampment, they began recruiting, contacting resistance groups and waging a guerrilla campaign. Although heavily outnumbered, Castro’s forces scored a number of decisive victories against Batista’s armies eventually taking Havana on 31 December 1958. Batista fled Cuba, on 16 February 1959, Castro assumed the position of Prime Minister of Cuba. Immediately, tension developed with the United States, as Castro began expropriating property owned by US corporations.
Castro denied that he was a communist but in May 1959, he signed the First Agrarian Reform which limited landholdings to under 1,000 acres and forbade foreign land ownership. The USSR sent over one hundred Spanish speaking advisors to organise Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. In February 1960, Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from the USSR, the US owned refineries in Cuba refused to process the oil, Castro simply expropriated them, the US broke off diplomatic relations. Thus the mould was set, Cuba became closer to the USSR through a series of pacts and agreements and Cuba and the US became more and more estranged.
In June 1960, Eisenhower reduced Cuba’s sugar import quota by seven million tonnes, in response, Cuba nationalised some 850 million dollars of US property. Castro continued to nationalise industry, collectivise agriculture and expropriate property owned by Cubans and non-Cubans alike. While these policies were popular with the poor, they disenfranchised much of the middle and upper classes and alienated many former supporters of the revolution. Over one million Cubans later left the country, forming an anti-Castro lobby in Miami, which was supported financially by successive US administrations. On 17 April, 1961, approximately 1,400 members of a CIA trained Cuban exile force landed at the Bay of Pigs with the intention of deposing the government, the US denied any involvement. Cuban armed forces repelled them within three days. In a nationally broadcast speech on 2 December 1961, Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was adopting Communism. The US responded by imposing an embargo on Cuba and banning Americans from visiting there. The Soviet Premier, Khrushchev planned the idea of placing missiles in Cuba to act as a deterrent to a possible US invasion. The US got wind of the plan and implemented a quarantine around Cuba, stating that they would intercept any ships that breached it. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the US committed to not invading Cuba and removing missiles targeting the Soviet Union from Turkey and Italy. Both sides agreed and the missiles were removed but tensions between Cuba and the US were to remain very strained.
About the Author
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net http://www.visitscotlandtours.com
What was the perpose of the iron curtain?
Why did the USSR set it up??
They had just lost more than 20 million people in an attack from the west, and when the war ended, the Red Army had overrun all the countries along that border. They wanted to ensure that all of the countries along their western border were friendly to them to guard against future attacks. Those countries had pretty good reasons for not trusting the USSR, so the only way for the USSR to make sure they weren't a threat was to install their own puppet governments, which was easy for them to do because their army was in control of those countries.
La La Along
"The sound of airplanes flying overhead reminds me of the beginning of the song 'Back in the USSR,'" 24-year-old Floridian Matt Hires remarked during his set at the Casbah.
Thanks for visiting!
