Group+6+Cuban+Revolution

=A Power S **truggle ** = Why, and with what results did Castro replace Batista as ruler of Cuba?

Written by: Priscilla Apone, Group 6 Period 4

Introduction
===Castro replaces Batista as ruler of Cuba because, during the time that Castro rises to power Cuba is facing many problems including, but not limited to the following: The problem of the land, industrialization, unemployment, housing, education and health. All of these problems were faced by Cuba all at the same time and under the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Batista was the ruler of Cuba before Castro’s rise to power and it is because of his actions that Fidel Castro finds it necessary to join the Cuban revolution and fight tyrants such as Batista. But, before one can analyze Castro’s rise to prominence in Cuba it is imperative that Batista first be examined. In this essay Batista’s rule as well as Castro’s will be the subject and the effects of both of these men on the economy and society of Cuba will be under fierce scrutiny. The question “why, and with what results, did Castro replace Batista as ruler of Cuba” will be answered in this essay along with numerous examples to support every point made. ===

Batista came to power as a dictator of Cuba in 1952 although he had already been ruling Cuba for a time through his use of puppet presidents. Numerous presidents were used as a veil for Batista who was always pulling the strings when it came to Cuba’s economic, social and political decisions. These “puppets” would include // Carlos Mendieta // (1934-35), // José A. Barnet // (1935-36), // Miguel Mariano Gómez // (1936) and // Federuco Laredo Brú // (1936-40) (Sierra, Batista). During Batista’s official time as dictator of Cuba he caused Cuba to fall even farther into corruption than it had before. Batista’s main focus as president wasn’t the masses of Cuba, instead he was working for American businesses, he was working for his own appointees to the new Cuban government and for himself. During Batista’s reign he furthered Cuba’s dependence on its sugar monoculture and allowed fertile lands to lay stagnant because they were being owned by foreign interests who did nothing with them. Batista paid little attention to the Middle class and poor people. He let more and more people fall below the poverty line. The gap between the haves and have not’s widened under Batista due to widespread unemployment and a lack of opportunities for them. Also, civil liberties were disregarded by Batista whose formation of a secret police caused widespread violence in Cuba.
 * Analysis of Batista Regime (1952-1959) **

**Batista’s fatal impact on Cuba’s economy**
The six problems mentioned earlier were all produced and manufactured by Batista himself because of his ill planning, lack of concern for the masses and general leniency for corruption and violence. In order to combat rebellious behavior in Cuba and to stamp out all opposition to his rule Fulgencio Batista creates a secret police which terrorizes the people of Cuba and leads to the deaths of many prominent figures in Cuban society. An example of a figure who was murdered by Batista’s secret police would be Jose A. Echeverria, Echeverria was a prominent student leader who opposed Batista. After a radio broadcast on March 13, 1957 Batista’s secret police murdered Echeverria. The killings only strengthened the dislike that many Cubans already had towards Batista (Benjamin, 12).

Along with his secret police Batista decides to disband civil liberties and leave the masses to live without proper housing, sanitation and education. Nearly 200,000 Cubans, under Batista’s rule were living in huts and over 600,000 more were unemployed. Farmers were living in shacks where they could be evicted at any time and nearly half of every pay check of there’s go to already rich landholders. Children are dying all over Cuba, having contracted fatal diseases and being too poor to afford a doctor they die in the streets. Thousands of children go uneducated, not even being able to read their own constitution. Having to walk to school in rags without shoes which only leads widespread disease and death among Cuba’s youth. Parents aren’t able to provide for their families and the Cuban government does little to help.

The lack of industrialization in Cuba under Batista’s rule and his unwillingness to pull Cuba out of its dependence on sugar is another reason why Cuba’s economy is suffering. Cuba is unable to complete their goods, having to import things that they could easily make themselves. Castro says it best in his ‘History Will Absolve Me’ speech when he says “We export sugar to import candy” (Castro). How true this statement is, Cuba’s exports of raw materials do not help its economy, especially when sugar fields become stagnant and Cuba has less to offer. “Eighty five percent of the small farmers in Cuba pay rent and live under the constant threat of being evicted from the land they till” (Castro). All of these things compound together to form the Cuba that Fidel Castro grows up in.


 * Fidel Castro (1927-Present Day) **

Fidel Castro’s Early Life
==== Despite all of the problems facing Cuba under Batista’s rule Castro grew up far from a world of poverty and starvation. Fidel Castro Ruz was born the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer in northwestern Cuba (Keen and Haynes, 437). He went to a Jesuit high school and became known early on a talented sportsman. After high school Castro attended the University of Havana. At this school political opinions, controversy and violence were prevalent, it was nearly impossible to attend the University of Havana without being caught up in all the political fervor (Sebastian Balfour). Castro became a follower of Eddie Chibas and decided to follow his Ortodoxo Party from 1947-1652 (Keen and Haynes, 437). During his time as a student of Havana Castro joined a group of students travelling to the Dominican Republic in order to usher in a new wave in leadership while overthrowing the long standing dictator there, Rafael Trujillo (Keen and Haynes, 437). In this excerpt from __Castro__ by Sebastian Balfour, Balfour mentions Castro’s role in the ill fated over throw of Rafael Trujillo “‘the spectacle of an absolutely spontaneous popular revolution has to have exercised a great influence on me.’ He had witnessed at first hand the intense energies that could be released by a single event catalyzing the discontent of wide sections of the population” (Balfour, 31). Castro seems to have learned from the failed revolution of the people of the Dominican Republic by stating later on that they “failed to gain power because they were betrayed by false leaders” (Castro). Castro comes to believe form this experience that the only way to carry out a true revolution would be to go outside of the constitution and use force and violence if necessary. It is with this ideology that Castro plans how to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. ====

**Moncada Attack** The attack on the Moncada military barracks also known as the 26th July Movement was Castro’s first attempt at putting his idea of violent upheaval into effect. In this attack Castro and a band of a little more than one hundred men stormed the military barracks of Moncada. These men were ill equipped and this plan was poorly founded because half the men ended up on the wrong side of the island and the other half were driven away before even getting inside the military barracks. All fled into the woods and met each other with a great number of casualties on Castro’s side, nearly half of his followers had been killed. After this attempt all of Castro’s followers were captured as was he himself. During his time in jail awaiting trial he planned the speech he would inevitably give. Although this attack failed it gave many Cubans hope that there was still a chance for justice. It was because of Castro’s attempted raid that he gained many followers who were willing to give their lives for his cause of freedom and justice.

**“History Will Absolve Me”** Having been trained as an attorney Fidel Castro decided to represent himself at his trial. There was a good possibility that after his speech he would be sentenced to death so Castro put everything he had into his speech before Fulgencio Batista and the court which has come to be known as “History Will Absolve Me”. In this speech Castro outlines all of the problems with Cuba’s economy. Castro quotes often from his idol Jose Marti and provides the groundwork for an independent Cuban state that can work efficiently without being under the wing of such powerful world leaders as the United States and Spain. Castro ends his speech with the words “I know that prison will be hard, harder than it has been for anyone, filled with threats, with callous and cruel barbarity, but I do not fear it, just as I do not fear the fury of the fury of the despicable tyrant that tore out the lives of seventy of my brothers. Condemn me, it does not matter, history will absolve me” (Castro). In the end though Batista does not kill Castro, he doesn’t want the public to think of him as a martyr so he lets him and his followers go. He believes that his power is so absolute that letting go one man with revolutionary ideas in his head and a small following won’t do much harm. Little does Batista know that Castro goes straight from prison to Mexico in order to plan further attacks on Batista.

**The replacement of Batista by Fidel Castro** Batista’s reign of tyranny ends when he loses the support of the Middle class in Cuba. In 1957 strikes and violence become commonplace in Cuba; the masses no longer fear Batista, the threat of the military and his secret police. The cause of freedom and revolution becomes too important to put on the back burner. Civil war is on the brink of erupting and already violence is gripping the country. The United States turns its back on Cuba and refuses to send shipments of arms to Batista. In a desperate attempt to get rid of Fidel Castro and his guerilla regime in the Sierra Maestro Batista sends his military to look for Castro and his followers and dismantle them. This attack on Castro doesn’t work however because Castro and his men know the terrain far better than Batista’s military men do and therefore suffer tremendous losses at the hands of Fidel. In a last attempt to save face Batista rigs an election to make himself president but Castro’s revolutionaries are already so close at hand that it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Batista accepts his fate and leaves Cuba, fleeing, with a group of his closest followers to Miami on January 1, 1959.

10 Million Ton Sugar Harvest With Fidel Castro as the new Commander in Chief of Cuba widespread change takes place. Castro does not allow Batista’s corruption to continue but he is also not fully prepared to make executive decisions. Castro still plans badly, as he did during the 26th July Movement. An example of Castro’s bad planning would be the 10 million ton sugar harvest in which Castro hopes to generate a lot of revenue by returning to sugar production and trying to motivate the Cuban people to produce ten million tons of sugar. However, Cuba doesn’t reach this quota and instead falls behind by about two and a half million tons. This left a gaping hole in the morality of the Cuban people and also a depletion of Cuban resources. The environmental effects of this harvest can still be felt today. The richest lands for growing sugar are greatly depleted by the process of harvesting so much sugar. Castro’s inability to plan left chaos in its wake when Cuban sugar farmers tried to transport their harvested sugar, equipment was faulty and countless sugar mills were damaged in this arduous process (Keen and Haynes, 439-440).
 * Economic Changes within Cuba **

**United States-Cuban Relations Deteriorate (all inform****ation taken from** __**A History of Latin America**__ **by Keen and Haynes, 439-440)**  

etC Cuban government requests major United States pleum refineries process Soviet Crude oil

o  U.S. companies refuse and Cuba expropriates refineries o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">United States abolish Cuban sugar quota o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cuba expropriates refineries o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">October 1960: All United States exports to Cuba are banned o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CIA funnels money into exile groups for arms and sets up a training camp in Guatemala o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">January 3, 1961: Eisenhower administration severs diplomatic ties with Cuba o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">April 15, 1961: John F. Kennedy authorizes Bay of Pigs invasion o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Revolutionary army crushes Bay of Pigs invasion o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May, 1961: Fidel Castro pledges allegiance to socialism and the Soviet Union o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soviet Union sends arms to Cuba o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">U.S. claims weapons are offensive and a naval quarantine of Cuba is issued <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Soviet Union agrees to remove missiles from Cuba in exchange for the United States not invading Cuba and for them to remove their own missiles from Turkey

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">**Advantages and Disadvantages to Cuba’s Revolutionary Economics** <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Some of the advantages of the Cuban Revolution on the economy of Cuba would be that the war was short and didn’t cause too much destruction to human life and property. Cuba also had a superior transportation and communications system, this includes top notch railroads and primary roads. Another advantage that Cuba possessed was its large quantity of unused land and industrial capacity. This land and land potential helped to raise living standards and increase productivity. Due to the United States’ embargo on Cuban exports Cuba <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">had to look for developed states to help them with their newly independent country. They found this assistance in the Soviet Union (Keen and Haynes, 440). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Fidel Castro’s first goal was to redistribute income to both the rural and also the urban working class. Castro meets success with this goal due to the fact that wages are raised forty percent in the first three years under Fidel and purchasing power is raised twenty percent. Also, unemployment is wiped out. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> In addition to successes though, the new Castro regime also faced some fairly harsh problems. For instance, not many revolutionaries were experienced in economic affairs so mistakes were often made. Che Guevara’s hope to create a “new man” was unsuccessful because it would require the new regime to “create a New Man who, contrary to the economic man, would be unselfish, and who would give his maximum labor effort to the collective and receive from it the basics to satisfy his needs. The ideal human being would be the product of mass consciousness-raising through education, mobilization, unpaid voluntary labor, moral incentives, and the gradual expansion of state-provided free social services” (Mesa-Lago, 74). This new man model didn’t work out because humans don’t generally work for nothing and only give up their time for work when there is something in it for them. Along with this plan man doesn’t get anything except moral incentives, and that is simply not enough to stimulate someone to work. This only further proves the point that the majority of revolutionary leaders were not economists.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">**Successes of Cuban Revolution under Fidel Castro** <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite all of the mixed reviews Cuba has gotten concerning its economy some things have not been disputed, positive things, like Cuba’s success in the areas of employment, equitable distribution of income, <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">public health and education. Unemployment once consumed Cuba, the Cuba under the control of Fulgencio Batista was filled with unemployment, over 600,000 people were once unemployed. Now, however, laid off workers still receive sixty percent of their paycheck and aren’t left to fend for themselves in the streets or in poorly constructed huts in the slums. And, speaking of housing, under Fidel Castro rents are controlled and eighty percent of Cubans own their own homes. Another benefit in the world of housing was that agricultural workers on state farms and cooperatives get furnished houses and recreational facilities. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To combat all of the disease and death that was happening under Batista Castro offers his people universal health care and free education. With this new system illiteracy is vanquished, where twenty four people couldn’t read now only four stand there, schools are chock full of eager, healthy students ready to learn. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The question assigned was “why, and with what results did Castro replace Batista as ruler of Cuba” and this wiki have given several examples to answer this question. There is no doubt that Fidel Castro succeeding Fulgencio Batista was a monumental event in Cuban history but in this essay we are not just examining the prestige of Fidel Castro we are also analyzing his downfalls and also the downfalls of Batista and Cuba. The history of Cuba is ongoing and it will not end with Fidel Castro just as it did not end with Fulgencio Batista. Yes, Castro did become the new Cuban leader but that does not mean that Batista’s reign should be forgotten. This essay provides a balance between Castro’s work and how Batista’s work set the stage for Castro. We will see in the future what will happen to Cuba but for now it is in the hands of Fidel Castro, and what able hands those are. ** <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> **Cited Sources** <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Benjamin, Jules R., //The United States and Cuba: Hegemony and Dependent Development, 1880-1934//, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, 1977.
 * So the Revolution continues…

Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. __The Economy of Socialist Cuba__. New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.

Fidel, Castro. History Will Absolve Me Speech, 1953. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> LeoGrande, William. __Party Development in Revolutionary Cuba__.

Keen, Benjamin, and Haynes, Keith. __A History of Latin America__. New York:Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004