January 2, 2019

On Jan. 1, 1959, 60 years ago yesterday, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana for the Dominican Republic, leaving control of Cuba to rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. Batista’s exit marked the end of the Cuban Revolution, which had started in 1953, and the beginning of the Communist Castro Era in the Caribbean island nation. 

Fidel Castro speaks before a Cuban flag in 1966. Castro led a rebel movement that took control of Cuba 60 years ago on Jan. 1, 1959. Credit: AP Photo

On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, tried to start a revolution against Batista by leading an attack on the Moncada army barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Fidel and his brother Raúl were captured and imprisoned. Many of their followers were either imprisoned or murdered.

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Cuba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Castro brothers were released from prison in 1955. They then traveled to Mexico, where they met the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In 1956, while in Mexico, the brothers organized the 26th of July Movement, named for the date of their first revolt. The revolutionary forces landed in Oriente Province in late 1956. Most of the rebels were imprisoned or killed. However, the brothers and about a dozen of their followers escaped to the nearby Sierra Maestra mountains.

In 1957, the rebel forces began to wage a guerrilla war against the Cuban government. The same year, university students stormed the presidential palace in an attempt to assassinate Batista. Government efforts to crush dissent increased the people’s support of the rebels. Continued poor economic conditions also led to growing support for the rebels, particularly among workers, peasants, students, and the middle class. By mid-1958, Batista’s government had lost the support of the United States and most Cubans.

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Cuban President Raúl Castro in Havana in 2016, the year after diplomatic relations were restored between the two nations. Credit: © Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

After the revolution, Fidel Castro became prime minister and later president of Cuba. Under Castro, U.S.-Cuba relations quickly became strained, and Cuba developed stronger ties with the Soviet Union. War between Cuba and the United States was narrowly averted during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Decades of hostility finally eased during the U.S. presidency of Barack Obama, and U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations were restored in 2015. Fidel Castro died in late 2016, and his brother Raúl, who had succeeded Fidel as president, stepped down in April 2018, ending 59 years of Castro rule in Cuba.

April 25, 2018

Last week, on April 19, 59 years of Castro rule ended in the Caribbean Island nation of Cuba. In January 1959, Communist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. Castro dominated Cuban life and politics until February 2008, when he handed power to his younger brother, Raúl. Raúl Castro continued his brother’s legacy, ruling Cuba until his planned retirement last week at age 86. Miguel Díaz-Canel, the 57-year old first vice president, became Cuba’s new president.

The Castro brothers controlled Cuba’s government for about 59 years. Fidel, right, ruled the nation from 1959 to 2008, when Raúl, left, succeeded him. Raúl stepped down as president in 2018. Credit: © Reuters/Landov

The end of Castro Cuba is significant historically, but it does not represent a significant change for the nation or its people. Díaz-Canel has promised to continue longstanding Castro policies as well as the nation’s one-party Communist system. Raúl Castro will continue as leader of Cuba’s Communist Party until 2021.

Miguel Díaz-Canel became president of Cuba in April 2018. Credit: Public Domain

The Castro era in Cuba began in 1953, when Fidel, a young lawyer, started a revolution against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The rebellion failed, however, and Fidel and Raúl were captured and imprisoned. The Castro brothers were released from prison in 1955, and they started another revolution in 1956. In 1957, the rebel forces gained momentum in Cuba as Batista’s power faltered. By mid-1958, Batista’s government had lost the support of most Cubans as well as the government of the nearby United States.

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Cuba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

On Jan. 1, 1959, Batista fled Cuba. Castro’s rebel forces then took control of the government and Fidel Castro became prime minister (and later president). Communist reforms and Castro’s dictatorial rule soured Cuba’s relations with the United States. A U.S. economic embargo on Cuba began in 1960, and diplomatic relations between the countries were severed in 1961. Tensions between Cuba and the United States then remained high for many years. No real attempts were made to reconcile the countries while Fidel Castro remained in power. After Raúl Castro became president in 2008, U.S. President Barack Obama encouraged friendlier ties with Cuba, and the two countries officially resumed diplomatic relations in 2015.

November 28, 2016

Early this morning, November 28, tens of thousands of Cubans began lining up ahead of a mass gathering in Havana’s Revolution Square to honor the life of former dictator and president, Fidel Castro. Castro, a guerrilla leader who led a Communist revolution in Cuba and ruled the island from 1959 to 2008, died on Friday, November 25, at the age of 90. Castro’s younger brother, Raúl, has ruled Cuba since 2008.

Cuban President Fidel Castro. Credit: © AP Photo

Castro was cremated on Saturday, November 26. An urn containing his ashes is on display in Havana, the capital, until late tomorrow night. From there, a cortege will carry Castro’s remains 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) to a final resting place in Santiago de Cuba, the city in eastern Cuba where Castro launched the revolution. Castro will be buried on Sunday, December 4, ending the government’s nine-day period of mourning.

After word of Castro’s death spread on Friday, music was quieted in the capital, and flags were lowered to half-staff. The government temporarily banned alcohol sales and suspended the professional baseball season. Commenting carefully on the controversial Castro, U.S. President Barack Obama said it was up to history to “record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.” Obama also reassured Cubans that they would always “have a friend and partner in the United States of America.” Conversely, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called Castro “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades.” Trump has pledged to “reverse” the efforts of the Obama administration to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.

Fidel Castro was born on Aug. 13, 1926, in Biran, near Mayari, Cuba. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Havana in 1950 and briefly practiced law in the capital. In 1952, he ran for election to the Cuban House of Representatives. But troops led by former president Fulgencio Batista halted the election and ended democracy in Cuba.

As a result of Batista’s actions, Castro tried to start a revolution against the Batista dictatorship. On July 26, 1953, Castro’s forces attacked the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Batista released him in 1955, however. Castro then formed the 26th of July Movement, a group of revolutionaries named after the date of his first revolt. He then went into exile in Mexico. Castro’s forces landed in Cuba in December 1956. Many rebels were killed, and Castro and other survivors fled to the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range in southeast Cuba. People from the surrounding countryside joined the rebellion. Batista fled from Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959, and Castro took control of the government.

Castro seized property owned by Americans and other foreigners as well as Cubans. In 1960, the Castro government took over United States oil refineries in Cuba. The United States then stopped buying Cuban sugar. Castro responded by taking over all United States businesses in Cuba.

Castro supported a number of revolutionary movements in South America, Central America, and Africa. The Castro government provided improved education and health facilities for many Cubans. But the economy often was troubled. In the early 1960′s, Cuba began depending heavily on the Soviet Union for economic support. This support ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved. Castro vowed that Cuba would remain a Communist country. However, in the early 1990′s, Cuba undertook limited reforms that loosened state control over parts of the country’s economy.

In the 2010′s, relations improved significantly between Cuba and the United States. The U.S. government under President Obama eased some economic and travel restrictions regarding Cuba. The Cuban government made it easier for Cubans to leave the country. It also released some prisoners considered political dissidents (people who disagree with the government). In 2015, Cuba and the United States reopened their foreign embassies in each other’s capitals, officially restoring diplomatic relations after more than 50 years. In 2016, Obama visited Cuba and met with President Raúl Castro. It was the first visit by a sitting U.S. president in almost 90 years.

September 22, 2015

Pope Francis stands with Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, in the Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, on September 20, 2015. Francis and Castro met in Cuba’s seat of government for a state meeting. Credit: © Tony Gentile, AP Photo

Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Monday, September 21, before more than 100,000 people in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín. Francis arrived in the Caribbean nation on Saturday, September 19, meeting with President Raúl Castro and his famous older brother, Fidel. Francis held Mass on Sunday in Havana’s Revolution Square, the scene of many blustery Castro speeches in the past. The Pope’s visit came at a time of political change between Cuba and the United States—change brought on largely by Francis himself. The Pope played an important intermediary role in the rapprochement (renewal of friendly relations) between the two countries earlier this year. For the first time since 1961, Cuba and the United States have open embassies in each other’s capital cities—Havana and Washington, D.C., respectively.

A native of Argentina, Francis and his words carry tremendous weight throughout largely Catholic Latin America. Huge crowds of people attended his spiritual sermons, but—to the disappointment of some anti-Castro dissidents—Francis was careful not to directly criticize the Cuban government. He did, however, get in a few veiled shots. Francis targeted the Communist—rather than “Christian”—ideals that have dominated Cuba since 1959.  “Service is never ideological,” he said, “for we do not serve ideas. We serve people.” He also offered an embrace to all “those who, for various reasons, I will not be able to meet,” a reference to political prisoners, exiles, and others unable to freely attend the papal gatherings. Today, Pope Francis leaves Cuba for the United States.

Other World Book articles and Behind the headlines

• Cuba In From the Cold-July 21, 2015
• The Cold War’s Last Front: The United States and Cuba (2000-a Special report)
• Cuba (1958-a Back in time article)
• Cuba (1959-a Back in time article)
• Cuba (1962-a Back in time article)

December 18, 2014

The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century, U.S. President Barack Obama announced yesterday in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The agreement to set aside more than 50 years of hostility and forge a new relationship between the United States and Cuba was negotiated during 18 months of secret talks fostered by Pope Francis and largely hosted by Canada.

Pope Francis (AP Photo)

On December 16, President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba spoke for more than 45 minutes by telephone. “We agreed to end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” stated President Obama. [The deal will] “begin a new a chapter among the nations of the Americas” [and move beyond] “rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.” The warming between the two countries came with the release of an American contractor, Alan P. Gross, who has held in a Cuban prison for five years. Cuba exchanged the contractor for three Cuban spies who had been in an American prison since 2001.

U.S. President Barack Obama (White House photo)

Raúl Castro, left, with his brother Fidel Castro. © Reuters/Landov

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961 after the government of Fidel Castro had seized various U.S.-owned assets in Cuba and nationalized them. The United States had placed an economic embargo on Cuba three months earlier. The embargo banned nearly all U.S. exports to the island nation. It has been in place for 53 years. Before the boycott, Cuba–which is only 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Key West, Florida–was a favorite destination of American tourists.

Additional World Book articles:

• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Cold War’s Last Front: The United States and Cuba
• Cuba 1960 (a Back in Time article)
• Cuba 1961 (a Back in Time article)
• Cuba 1962 (a Back in Time article)