Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution

rdf:langString Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution

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rdf:langString Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution

rdf:langString Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in 1961.

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rdf:langString the Cold War

rdf:langString "The greatest threat presented by Castro's Cuba is as an example to other Latin American states which are beset by poverty, corruption, feudalism, and plutocratic exploitation ... his influence in Latin America might be overwhelming and irresistible if, with Soviet help, he could establish in Cuba a Communist utopia."

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rdf:langString Bay of Pigs Invasion

rdf:langString Agrarian reforms in Cuba

rdf:langString Cuban exodus

rdf:langString Cuban literacy campaign

rdf:langString Escambray rebellion

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rdf:langString United States embargo against Cuba

rdf:langString The consolidation of the Cuban Revolution is a period in Cuban history typically defined as starting in the aftermath of the revolution in 1959 and ending in the first congress of the Communist Party of Cuba 1975, which signified the final political solidifaction of the Cuban revolutionaries' new government. The period encompasses early domestic reforms, human rights violations continuing under the new regime, growing international tensions, and politically climaxed with the failure of the 1970 sugar harvest. The political consolidation of Fidel Castro in the new Cuban government began in early 1959. It began with the appointment of communist officials to office and a wave of removals of other revolutionaries that criticized the appointment of communists. This trend came to a head with the Huber Matos affair and would continue that by mid-1960 little opposition remained to Castro within the government and few independent institutions existed in Cuba. In 1959, in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Castro would visit the United States to ask for aid and boast of land reform plans, which he believed the U.S. government would appreciate. Throughout 1960 tensions slowly escalated between Cuba and the United States due to the nationalizations of various American companies, retaliatory economic sanctions, and counterrevolutionary bombing raids. In January 1961, the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba, and the Soviet Union started to solidify relations with Cuba. The U.S. feared growing Soviet influence in Cuba and backed the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of April 1961. By December 1961, Castro for the first time openly expressed his communist sympathies. Castro's fears of another invasion and his new Soviet allies influenced his decision to put nuclear missiles in Cuba, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the aftermath of the crisis, the United States promised not to invade Cuba in the future; in compliance with this agreement, the U.S. withdrew all support from the Alzados, effectively crippling the resource-starved resistance. The counterrevolutionary conflict, known abroad as the Escambray rebellion, lasted until about 1965, and has since been branded as the "Struggle Against Bandits" by the Cuban government. During the first decade after the Cuban Revolution, various reforms in Cuban society tackled racial integration, women's equality, communications, healthcare, housing, and education. By the end of the 1960s, all Cuban children received at least some education, compared with fewer than half before 1959. Anti-discrimination legislation as well as general social reforms helped to improve the living standards of Afro-Cubans. After the issue of racial integration was considered resolved, the Cuban government passed legislation that counter-attacked past anti-discrimination legislation. This new law made it illegal to even mention discrimination or the topic of racial equality. The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing – that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world – is what I wish for all. — Fidel Castro Between 1959 and 1980, an estimated 500,000 Cubans left the island for the United States, for both political and economic reasons; 125,000 left in 1980 alone, when the Cuban government briefly permitted any Cubans who wished to leave to do so. By 2010, the Cuban American community numbered over 1.9 million, 67% of whom lived in the state of Florida.