Following Cuban confiscation of American petroleum refineries for refusing to process Soviet crude, the United States forbade all exports to Cuba with a temporary exception of certain foods and medicine on June 29, 1960. Restrictions on travel to Cuba by US citizens and residents followed on January 16, 1961, and the abolition of the Cuban …
An attempted army pronunciamiento (coup) of July 14, 1936, was frustrated when Spain’s left-wing republican government issued arms to the general population. The result was a three-year war in which the nationalist insurgents owed their eventual victory to direct intervention by Italy, logistical support by Germany, and a British blockade. The republican cause was clamorously …
A 144-page book, by French Marxist Régis Debray, subtitled lutte armée et lulte politique (“armed fight and political fight”) published in 1967, simultaneously in Paris and Havana, which elaborated Fidel Castro’s doctrine of the period, emphasizing guerrilla warfare. Not only are orthodox Communist theory and leadership – which insist on the guiding role of the party and …
RÉVOLUTION DANS LA RÉVOLUTION? (“Revolution in the revolution?”) Read More »
By the end of 1958 wholesale army desertions had made Fulgencio Batista’s position untenable. He resigned in the early hours of New Year’s Day and fled to the Dominican Republic. Within hours, the guerrillas from the Sierra Maestra, led by Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara, entered Havana, but their leader, Fidel Castro, chose to make …
A 1933 revolt headed by non-commissioned army officers, including Fulgencio Batista, which triggered the Revolution of 1933. Upset by proposals for pay reductions for the lower echelons of the army and restrictions on promotion, plus the desire to receive immunity for their crimes as participants in the terror of the Machadato, they arranged to meet members …
The Marxist demand economy system adopted after the Revolution of 1959 created numerous supply problems and productivity decreased. When the accumulated reserves of the old regime had been exhausted and stocks were not replaced, store shelves emptied. Years of scarcity followed the period of affluence. In April 1962, rationing was introduced: a shock, as this …
Originally published by Center for a Free Cuba To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rightsand political and economic freedoms On #NationalRumDay observing the links between Bacardi, Havana Club, and Cuban freedom August 16th is National Rum Day. It is not clear when it started, but I found references to it going back …
On #NationalRumDay observing the links between Bacardi, Havana Club, and Cuban freedom Read More »
After the April 1961 failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the poor impression John Kennedy made on Nikita Khrushchev at their June 1961 meeting in Vienna, the Soviet Union felt it could upgrade its economic and military involvement in Cuba without provoking a strong US reaction. By mid-1962, it had introduced nuclear-capacity bombers and nuclear …
Unsuccessful attempt in April 1961 to invade Cuba and overthrow the Fidel Castro regime (which refers to the event by the name of the main landing beach, Playa Girón). Already by the final months of the Eisenhower administration, the United States’ relations with Cuba had so deteriorated that the Central Intelligence Agency had begun training …
The nucleus of a Cuban exile force of 1,400 men, they Bay of Pigs invasion force, trained by the United States Central Intelligence Agency in Guatemala, which sailed from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, on April 14, 1961, to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro, begun three days later. The brigade was originally composed of six battalions of …
